All-solid-state femtosecond multi-kilohertz laser system based on a new cavity-dumped oscillator design

We have developed a compact Ti:sapphire laser system operating at variable repetition rates up to 40 kHz. Pulses of 13.2 fs from a cavity-dumped oscillator were amplified further by a seven-pass confocal amplifier, and after compression 23.8-fs pulses with a maximum pulse energy of 1.25 muJ at 10 kHz and more than 100 nJ at 25 kHz were generated. A new prismless cavity-dumping oscillator configuration was designed with the use of negatively chirped mirrors for dispersion compensation. Application of the developed laser system for nonlinear optical spectroscopy in condensed phase was demonstrated. (C) 2005 Optical Society of America.