Regenerative amplification of femtosecond laser pulses in Ti:sapphire at multikilohertz repetition rates

Abstract

We have generated and applied noncoherent x-ray radiation in an all-solid-state laser system operating at repetition rates up to 20 kHz. Based on a model that takes into account the strong thermal loading of the Ti:sapphire rod, a laser cavity with low sensitivity to thermal lensing was chosen. With a maximum pump power of 80 W, an output power as high as 27 W was obtained in gain-switched operation, and, with a seeding from a femtosecond oscillator, 60-fs, 0.8-mJ (8-W) pulses at 10 kHz and 0.32-mJ (6.5-W) pulses at 20 kHz were generated. High power femtosecond output was used to generate x-ray continuum radiation up to 5 keV from a liquid-gallium jet target.