
414 Femtosecond Pulse Amplification
Stretcher Amplifier Compressor
Figure 7.11 Block diagram of chirped pulse amplification.
linear, two essential conditions have to be met by the amplifier:
• the amplifier bandwidth exceeds that of the pulse to be amplified; and
• the amplifier is not saturated.
It is only if these two conditions are met that the original pulse duration can
be restored by the conjugated dispersion line. It is not unusual to operate an
amplifier in the wings of its gain profile, where the first condition is best met.
For instance, Ti:sapphire, with its peak amplification factor close to 800 nm,
is used as an amplifier for 1.06 µm, because of its ...