Direct amplification of femtosecond optical vortices in a single-crystal fiber

Spatially twisted light with femtosecond temporal structure is of particular interest in strong-field physics and light–matter interactions.However,present femtosecond vortex sources exhibit limited power handling capabilities,and their amplification remains an ongoing challenge particularly for high-order orbital angular momentum(OAM)states due to several inherent technical difficulties.Here,we exploit a straightforward approach to directly amplify a femtosecond optical vortex(FOV,OAM=-8?)by using a two-stage single-crystal fiber(SCF)amplifier system without pulse stretching and compression in the time domain,delivering 23-W,163-fs pulses at a repetition rate of1 MHz.The spatial and temporal features are well-conserved during the amplification,as well as the high modal purity(>96%).The results indicate that the multi-stage SCF amplifier system is particularly suited for direct amplification of high-order FOVs.The generated high-power femtosecond OAM laser beams are expected to help reveal complex physical phenomena in light–matter interactions and pave the way for practical applications in attoscience,laser plasma acceleration,and high-dimension micromachining.