MSU Technologies

Fast Laser Amplification System

Executive Summary

It is often desirable to provide amplification of peak intensity in ultrafast laser systems. It is known in the art to employ chirp pulse amplification for these lasers. Chirping overcomes concerns with intense ultrashort laser pulses inducing nonlinear optical processes in transparent media which would otherwise damage the amplification equipment. When chirp pulse amplification is used, the pulses are stretched by a factor greater than 1000 and therefore their intensity is significantly reduced. More over chirp pulse amplification requires an expensive set of optics. An ultrafast pulse laser application is needed that is less expensive and more efficient than traditional chirped devices without harmful nonlinear optical processes.

Description of Technology

Michigan State University has developed a fast laser amplification system. The technology employs a high peak intensity ultrafast laser beam pulse. A correlation phase function is introduced into the high peak intensity pulse spanning a spectrum of the pulse and amplifying the pulse substantially without pre-chirping and without damage to an amplifier. A spatial light modulator in the pulse shaper can introduce different phase functions based on computer software control. The laser pulses in this system do not use chirped pulse amplification, and no stretcher or compressor is necessary. The high peak intensity pulses will not damage the optics within the amplifier with harmful nonlinear optical processes. The use of the same pulse shaper before and after amplification enables identical deconstructing and reconstructing phase functions, improving accuracy.

Key Benefits