TOWARD A TERAWATT-KILOHERTZ REPETITION-RATE LASER

We present the different problems related to the amplification of ultr ashort pulses at high repetition rate. Phase distortion, gain narrowin g and thermal effects are studied in detail. We demonstrate, for the f irst time, that thermal effects in ultrashort pulse amplifiers can be harnessed and positively exploited in the laser design resulting in th e production of diffraction limited beams. We demonstrate that peak po wers at the terawatt-level amplification at a kilohertz repetition rat e is readily conceivable.