Generation of 10-W average-power, 40-TW peak-power, 24-fs pulses from a Ti:sapphire amplifier system

We developed a compact, three-stage, multipass Ti:sapphire laser amplifier system that generates >40-TW pulses, with 24-fs pulse duration, at a repetition rate of 10 Hz, and with an average power of 10 W. Output intensities in excess of $1\times {10}^{19} \mathrm{W} {\mathrm{cm}}^{-2}$ were produced. The technique of frequency-resolved optical gating was used to fully characterize the output pulses and to carefully compare theoretical models with experiment. High dynamic range frequency-resolved optical-gating measurements were performed, for the first time to our knowledge, to characterize the temporal wings of the output pulses.