Ti:sapphire Laser Amplifier Produces 5 W Average Power

Scientists from Quantronix Corp. and the City University of New York's Center for Advanced Technology have developed a femtosecond Ti:sapphire laser amplifier system that generates an average power output of 5 W. The Titan comprises a regenerative amplifier and a multipass amplifier pumped by the second harmonic output of Quantronix Q-switched Nd:YLF lasers. The system is seeded from 70-fs pulses at 800 nm from a self-mode-locked Ti:sapphire oscillator, producing 94-fs pulses at a repetition rate of 1 kHz and a pulse energy of 5.4 mJ. The amplified repetition rate is variable from 250 Hz to 3 kHz.