Narrow linewidth picosecond pulsed laser with mega-watt peak power at UV wavelength
We demonstrate a master oscillator power amplifier (MOPA) burst mode laser system to generate 66 ps/402.5 MHz pulses with mega-watt peak power at 355 nm. The seed laser is based on a direct electro-optic modulation of a fiber laser output. A very high extinction ratio (45 dB) has been achieved by using an adaptive bias control. The multi-stage Nd:YAG amplifier system allows a uniformly temporal shaping of macropulses with tunable pulse duration. The light output form the amplifier is converted to 355 nm and over 1 MW UV peak power is obtained when the laser is operating in a 5- s/10-Hz macropulse mode. The laser output has a transform limited spectrum bandwidth with a very narrow linewidth of individual laser mode. The immediate application of the laser system is the laser assisted hydrogen ion beam stripping for the Spallation Neutron Source (SNS).