High-peak-power femtosecond Cr : forsterite laser system

We have developed a high-peak-power Cr:forsterite laser based on a regenera tive amplifier. The output energy was 0.4 mJ with a pulse duration of 77 fs at a 10 Hz repetition ratio, resulting in a peak power of 5.2 GW, which as far as we know is the highest power ever obtained from Cr:forsterite laser . To switch the regenerative amplifier rapidly, we developed a Pockels cell driver based on fast high-voltage transistor switches. We also investigate d the effects of excited-state absorption on the gain numerically and exper imentally. The way to optimize the regenerative amplifier is indicated by t he analytical results obtained using a model including absorption in the cr ystal and excited-state absorption.