Abstract
A photonic crystal fiber-based chirped pulse amplification delivering 272 fs pulses of 66.4 µJ energy at a repetition rate of 500 kHz is presented, resulting in an average/peak power of 33.2 W/244 MW. A single grating is adopted for the pulse width stretching and compression, which leads to high-compactness and low cost of the system. The output beam is near-diffraction-limited (M(2) = 1.1 ± 0.05) with a power stability better than 0.5%. The cutting of alumina ceramic substrate and flexible printed circuit are demonstrated by using the laser system. The results indicate that the laser is competent for industrial applications.