Abstract

A laser system capable of generating short picosecond pulses with energy >1 mJ has many applications in studying nonlinear and ultrafast phenomena. For neodymium (Nd) lasers, many approaches have been used for this purpose, including passively mode-locking Nd:glass lasers¹ and chirped pulse amplification in Nd:glass and Nd:YAG regenerative amplifiers.^2,3 Here we report direct amplification (without compression) of 8-ps pulses, generated from a cw actively mode-locked Nd:phosphate glass oscillator, to energies as high as 2 mJ by a flashlamp pumped Nd:phosphate glass regenerative amplifier.

© 1990 Optical Society of America