High-average power mode-locked Ti:sapphire laser with newly-invented intra-cavity cw-amplifier

We have demonstrated amplification of a femtosecond mode-locked pulse train by a newly invented intra-cavity cw-amplification scheme, and obtained 3.4-W average power from a femtosecond mode-locked Ti:sapphire laser. This scheme will be widely applicable for other femtosecond mode-locked solid-state lasers to scale the output power up to multi-watt level. Such average power scalability of femtosecond mode-locked solid state lasers will be of a great advantage compared to femtosecond fiber lasers.