High-average-power and high-beam-quality Innoslab picosecond laser amplifier

We demonstrated a laser-diode, end-pumped picosecond amplifier. With effective shaping of the seed laser, we achieved 73 W amplified laser output at the pump power of 255 W, and the optical–optical efficiency was about 28%. The beam propagation factors M2 measured at the output power of 60 W in the horizontal direction and the vertical direction were 1.5 and 1.4, respectively.