Post-compression of the GW level femtosecond pulse in a solid-state multi-pass cell

We demonstrate the post-compression of the GW level femtosecond pulse in a solid-state multi-pass cell (MPC) by pre-chirp management method. When the laser pulse is positively pre-chirped, the 200 μJ 170 fs input pulse is compressed to 163 μJ 44 fs at the output, corresponding to a transmission efficiency of 81% and a pulse shortening factor of 3.86. When the laser pulse is negatively pre-chirped, the spectral evolution, as the pulse propagates in the MPC, is characterized, and eventually the pulse duration is compressed to 51 fs, corresponding to a pulse shortening factor of 3.3. After the driving laser is through the pre-chirp managed MPC device, the power stability and beam quality are almost preserved. The experimental results offer a viable path toward the post-compression of high-peak power laser pulses.