Terawatt-level 2.4-µm pulses based on Cr:ZnS chirped pulse amplification

Chromium-doped chalcogenides, with broad emission bands near 2.4 μm and high emission cross-sections, make them very suitable for generating high-peak-power pulses in the mid-infrared range. In this Letter, we demonstrated a TW-level system with a repetition rate of 1 Hz by using Cr:ZnS as the gain medium. The seed pulse was amplified to over 200 mJ through two stages of amplification. To achieve the optimized amplified output, we used combined Cr:ZnS elements to absorb more pump energy and the ink-cladding technique to suppress the transverse parasitic oscillation inside the Cr:ZnS elements. After compression, we obtained a 147-mJ pulse with a duration of 127.6 fs, corresponding to a peak power output of 0.95 TW.