C. Herkommer, P. Krötz, R. Jung, S. Klingebiel, C. Wandt, R. Bessing, P. Walch, T. Produit, K. Michel, D. Bauer, R. Kienberger, and T. Metzger, “Ultrafast thin-disk multipass amplifier with 720 mJ operating at kilohertz repetition rate for applications in atmospheric research,” Optics Express 28, 30164 (2020) https://doi.org/10.1364/OE.404185

We present an ultrafast thin-disk based multipass amplifier operating at a wavelength of 1030 nm, designed for atmospheric research in the framework of the Laser Lightning Rod project. The CPA system delivers a pulse energy of 720 mJ and a pulse duration of 920 fs at a repetition rate of 1 kHz. The 240 mJ seed pulses generated by a regenerative amplifier are amplified to the final energy in a multipass amplifier via four industrial thin-disk laser heads. The beam quality factor remains ∼ 2.1 at the output. First results on horizontal long-range filament generation are presented.