Open AccessCoherent pulse stacking amplification using low-finesse Gires-Tournois interferometers
Author(s) -
Tong Zhou,
John Ruppe,
Cheng Zhu,
I-Ning Hu,
J. Nees,
Almantas Galvanauskas
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
optics express
Language(s) - Uncategorized
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.394
H-Index - 271
ISSN - 1094-4087
DOI - 10.1364/oe.23.007442
Subject(s) - optics , finesse , resonator , ultrashort pulse , pulse (music) , physics , optical amplifier , bandwidth limited pulse , femtosecond , femtosecond pulse shaping , optoelectronics , materials science , laser , fabry–pérot interferometer , detector
We demonstrate a new technique of coherent pulse stacking (CPS) amplification to overcome limits on achievable pulse energies from optical amplifiers. CPS uses reflecting resonators without active cavity-dumpers to transform a sequence of phase- and amplitude-modulated optical pulses into a single output pulse. Experimental validation with a single reflecting resonator demonstrates a near-theoretical stacked peak-power enhancement factor of ~2.5 with 92% and 97.4% efficiency for amplified nanosecond and femtosecond pulses. We also show theoretically that large numbers of equal-amplitude pulses can be stacked using sequences of multiple reflecting resonators, thus providing a new path for generating very high-energy pulses from ultrashort pulse fiber amplifier systems.