Toward terawatt tabletop laser via chirped pulse amplification with Yb3+ doped crystal

Tabletop high-energy repetition-rate picosecond lasers can be utilized to drive secondary radiation sources such as infrared lasers, facilitating more convenient and efficient research into attosecond pulses and high-energy density physics. Compared to Nd³⁺, Yb³⁺ have advantages including a small quantum defect (~9%), a longer fluorescence lifetime, high saturation fluence, high thermal conductivity of matrix crystal, and a wide range of doping concentration. The LD-pumped Yb³⁺-doped repetition-rate lasers possess a unique combination of pulse duration and energy, which confer an intrinsic advantage in the field of high-energy picosecond lasers. In this paper, we proposed a hybrid Yb³⁺-doped crystal as the gain medium, employing a multi-pass amplification configuration to achieve sub-picosecond laser output with a peak power exceeding 1 TW in 2 m³. This scheme can provide a new technical route for tens of TW high-energy picosecond lasers.