High repetition rate femtosecond dye amplifier using a laser diode pumped neodymium:YAG laser

Abstract
A high repetition rate femtosecond dye amplifier is demonstrated using a laser diode pumped Q-switched Nd:YAG laser. Amplification of wavelength tunable 300 fs pulses from a synchronously mode-locked rhodamine dye laser is achieved with a saturated gain of 70 and a small gain of 200 at a repetition rate of 800 Hz. Maximum pulse energies of 40 nJ are obtained, and pulse compression to as short as 30 fs is demonstrated.