Tunable regenerative amplifier yields ultrafast pulses

Chromium-doped lithium strontium aluminum fluoride (Cr:LiSAF) is the gain medium in a new tunable, all-solid-state regenerative amplifier. The diode-pumped system has produced 1.6-µJ output energies from input pulses of approximately 125 pJ, a gain of roughly four orders of magnitude. Researchers in the Femtosecond Optics Grou¥at Imperial College (London, England) developed the system as a source for biomedical-imaging applications and believe it to be the first tunable solid-state regenerative amplifier demonstrated. Because the amplifier is diode-pumped, the system is less expensive and more compact and portable than ion-laser pumped systems.

Japan leads USA in optoelectronics