Transverse amplified spontaneous emission: The limiting factor for output energy of ultra-high power lasers

For the new generation of the ultra-high power lasers with tens of PW of output power, kJ-level energies have to be reached. Our modeling, applied to Ti:sapphire amplifiers, demonstrates for the first time, according our knowledge, that Transverse Amplified Spontaneous Emission (TASE) places an additional restriction on storing and extracting energy in larger gain apertures, even stronger than transverse parasitic generation (TPG). Nevertheless, we demonstrate that extracting during pumping (EDP) can significantly reduce parasitic losses due to both TASE and TPG.