Overcoming bifurcation instability in high-repetition-rate Ho:YLF regenerative amplifiers
Abstract
We demonstrate a Ho:YLF regenerative amplifier (RA) overcoming bifurcation instability and consequently achieving high extraction energies of 6.9 mJ at a repetition rate of 1 kHz with pulse-to-pulse fluctuations of 1.1%. Measurements of the output pulse energy, corroborated by numerical simulations, identify an operation point that allows high-energy pulse extraction at a minimum noise level. Complete suppression of the onset of bifurcation was achieved by gain saturation after each pumping cycle in the Ho:YLF crystal via lowering the repetition rate and cooling the crystal. Even for moderate cooling, a significant temperature dependence of the Ho:YLF RA performance was observed.
- Publication:
-
Optics Letters
- Pub Date:
- December 2015
- DOI:
- 10.1364/OL.40.005427
- arXiv:
- arXiv:1510.01910
- Bibcode:
- 2015OptL...40.5427K
- Keywords:
-
- Physics - Optics
- E-Print:
- doi:10.1364/OL.40.005427