Fiber based high repetition rate, high energy laser source applying chirped pulse amplification

We demonstrate the potential of a high-gain Yb-fiber amplifier system to provide ultrashort pulses with high energies. 100 μJ pulses generated at a repetition rate of 32 kHz exhibit nearly diffraction limited output (M²≈1.7) at a 1060 nm center wavelength. Using chirped pulse amplification, temporally streched laser pulses from a femtosecond oscillator could be compressed after amplification to subpicosecond pulse duration. The achievable intensities are high enough to create plasmas which can efficiently convert laser light to the extreme ultraviolet radiation. In a multimode Yb-doped fiber amplifier we obtained average powers of up to 22 W and single pulse energies up to 130 μJ.     

A 61-mJ, 1-kHz cryogenic Yb: YAG laser amplifier

We report a diode-pumped rod-type Yb:YAG laser amplifier operating at 1 kHz. Cryogenic cooling method was adopted to make the Yb:YAG crystal work with four-level behavior. A single-frequency fiber laser acts as the seed in an actively Q-switched Yb:YAG oscillator. The resonator delivers 5.75-mJ pulses at 1 kHz with a pulse duration of approximately 40 ns. The pulses were amplified to 61 mJ in a four-pass rod-type Yb:YAG amplifier with optical-to-optical efficiency of 24% in the main amplifier. The M² parameter of the output laser is <1.4.     

基于新型长周期光纤光栅的掺铒光纤放大器

报道了基于高频CO₂激光脉冲写入的新型长周期光纤光栅的低噪音掺铒光纤放大器,这种新型长周期光纤光栅是用大约几千Hz的高频CO₂激光脉冲对光纤玻璃热冲击作用而形成的.在铒纤中插入一个长周期光纤光栅,会明显减少掺铒光纤放大器的放大自发辐射(ASE)噪音.报道了两种低噪音掺铒光纤放大器,作为前置放大器和线路放大器,它们的ASE噪音指数分别从4.0 dB减少到3.5 dB和从4.8 dB减少到4.3 dB,并且在作为线放时,其小信号增益从30 dB提高到37 dB,降噪及提高增益效应十分显著.     

High-peak-power second-harmonic generation of single-stage Yb-doped fiber amplifiers

A high-peak-power and high-repetition-rate fiber laser architecture is successfully demonstrated using a single-stage fiber amplifier. Nonlinear optical effects in a fiber amplifier degrade the monochromaticity of amplified laser pulses. In general, it is difficult for a non-monochromatic laser pulse to realize high-order harmonic generation with bulk nonlinear optical crystals. To overcome this problem, a single-stage amplifier architecture and a gain fiber with a high cladding absorption coefficient are employed. Furthermore, single-stage amplification enables the use of a multi-longitudinal mode electro-optically (EO) Q-switched micro seed laser. This architecture can generate a peak power of 100 kW at 50 kHz and an average power of 10 W. A second-harmonic conversion efficiency of 51% is obtained using this architecture and a LiB₃O₅ (LBO) crystal.     

High-efficiency Q-switched erbium fiber laser using a Bragg grating-based modulator

In this work we analyze the behavior of an erbium-doped fiber laser which is based on a simple scheme. Excitation of the active medium is performed in the 980 nm pump band with a CW semiconductor laser source. Two fiber Bragg gratings acting as mirrors of the Fabry–Perot laser cavity were used. One of these gratings was mounted over a piezoelectric (PZT) element. By applying voltage pulses to the piezoelectric, the laser cavity was temporally modulated and Q-switched laser pulses up to 530 mW peak powers at 3 kHz were obtained. Typical laser emission of 2–3 μs temporal widths and 0.1 nm of optical bandwidth have been achieved when the system was operated at 18.5 kHz repetition rates. Different behaviors were observed depending on the pumping level of the active medium and on the amplitude and frequency of the signal applied on the PZT. Q-switched laser output, in the erbium spectral gain region, with high laser efficiency of energy conversion was generated. Pumping at 76 mW and operating the laser at 18.5 kHz, an efficiency of 26% was obtained.     

Generation of 11 fs pulses by using hollow-core gas-filled fibers at a 100 kHz repetition rate

Using self-phase modulation in a hollow-core fiber filled with xenon, we were able to produce 2.3 microJ laser pulses with a duration of 10.9 fs at a repetition rate of up to 100 kHz. We started with 45 fs, 4.4 microJ, 800 nm pulses generated by a Coherent RegA Ti:sapphire regenerative amplifier system, then spectrally broadened the 30 nm bandwidth to more than 100 nm. Dispersion compensation was achieved with two pairs of chirped mirrors. This is believed to be the first time this type of compression was achieved at a repetition rate as high as 100 kHz. This brings the advantages of few-cycle laser pulses to experiments that require high-repetition-rate, low-energy laser systems, for example, coincidence experiments.     

新型电光陶瓷调Q光纤激光器

报道了基于OptoCeramic(R)电光陶瓷材料的新型调Q光纤激光器.采用976 nm半导体激光器作为抽运源,电光陶瓷调制器作为Q开关,峰值吸收系数1200 Db/m的高掺杂镱纤作为增益介质构成环形腔激光器.增益光纤的高掺杂浓度使得激光器的腔长得到缩短,输出光脉冲的宽度得到压缩.通过调节电光元件的电压,控制材料的折射率,调节谐振腔的损耗,实现Q开关作用.实验中通过改变腔长、抽运功率和重复频率,研究了脉冲的输出特性.获得最窄脉宽104 ns,重复频率3～40 kHz连续可调的调Q脉冲输出.     

Experimental and Theoretical Study of the Generation and Non-Linear Conversion of Picosecond Bursts from an Amplified Ytterbium-Doped Fiber Laser System

Abstract

This article presents an experimental and theoretical study of the generation of picosecond bursts by a non-polarization-maintaining ytterbium-doped fiber master oscillator fiber amplifier system. The peak power and pulse energy of the burst are higher than 45 kW and 350 nJ at 700 kHz, respectively. The master oscillator fiber amplifier was used to generate 3 W of green and 200 mW of UV light with conversion efficiencies of 16% and 8%, respectively. The enhancement of conversion efficiency by the pulse burst compared with regular pulses was analyzed and attributed to dynamically saturated gain of the pump-power-limited fiber amplifier.     

Multistage Yb-doped fiber amplifier generating megawatt peak-power, subnanosecond pulses

A Q-switched microchip laser generating 1064 nm wavelength, subnanosecond pulses at a 13.4 kHz repetition rate was used to seed a dual-stage amplifier featuring a 40 microm core Yb-doped photonic-crystal fiber (PCF) as the power amplifier. From this source, we obtained diffraction-limited (M2 = 1.05), approximately 450 ps pulses of energy > 0.7 mJ, peak power in excess of 1.5 MW, and an average power of approximately 9.5 W. By further amplifying the PCF output in a multimode 140 microm core Yb-doped fiber, we generated a peak power in excess of 4.5 MW, the highest obtained in a fiber source to our knowledge.     

Ytterbium-doped fiber amplifier with tunable repetition rate and pulse duration

A pulsed master-oscillator power fiber amplifier (MOPFA) system based on Yb³⁺-doped large mode area (LMA) double-clad optical fiber was developed. The system generated pulses of changeable duration ranging from about 8.5 to 250.0 ns at the repetition rate of up to 500 kHz. The laser system emitted up to 22 W of average output power at the wavelength of 1064 nm.     

2μm波段全光纤保偏被动锁模掺铥光纤激光器

报道了2μm波段的全光纤保偏锁模掺铥光纤激光器,通过在法布里-珀罗(F-P)腔内加入半导体可饱和吸收镜做为被动锁模器件,采用主振-放大构型,获得了最高输出平均功率为1.08W,重复频率为10.24MHz,脉冲宽度为15.24ps,中心波长为2054.68nm,光谱宽度约为0.3nm的2μm线偏振激光脉冲输出,激光脉冲的消光比为24.17dB。     

100 W全光纤声光调Q光纤激光器实验研究

 报道了一台全光纤结构主振荡功率放大(MOPA)型掺镱脉冲光纤激光器,以光纤光栅为腔镜,光纤型声光调Q的光纤激光器为种子源,通过两级掺镱双包层光纤放大器实现功率放大。对声光调Q的光纤激光器输出特性进行了研究,比较了不同泵浦波长、不同重复频率对激光输出功率和脉冲宽度的影响,并实现了最短脉冲宽度25 ns、单脉冲能量45 μJ的脉冲激光输出。在重复频率50 kHz时,对脉冲宽度130 ns、平均功率0.6 W的种子光进行放大,得到了平均功率102.5 W、脉冲宽度约240 ns的激光输出。     

基于光纤环形腔光数据包循环复制的实验研究

通过实验研究了利用不同分光比耦合器构成的光纤环形腔实现光数据包循环复制的效果，并理论分析了影响复制效果的结构因素。耦合器分光比、光纤环形腔中的损耗和噪声对复制效果有不同的影响。光纤环形腔中光放大器、滤波器的加入，以及光脉冲直流基座的降低，可以明显改善输出的幅值和复制序列长度。但实验显示，接近等幅复制的光放大会引起光纤环形腔的自激。在这一情况下，在输出端增加饱和半导体光放大器（SOA）可提高复制信号的识别效果。     

Eye-safe, high-energy, single-mode all-fiber laser with widely tunable repetition rate

We present a novel high-energy, single-mode, all-fiber-based master-oscillator-power-amplifier （MOPA） laser system operating in the C-band with 3.3-ns pulses and a very widely tunable repetition rate, ranging from 30 kHz to 50 MHz. The laser with a maximum pulse energy of 25 μJ and a repetition rate of 30 kHz is obtained at a wavelength of 1548 nm by using a double-clad, single-mode, Er：Yb co-doped fiber power amolifier.     

Versatile Raman fiber laser for sodium laser guide star

Robust high‐power narrow‐linewidth lasers at 589 nm are required for sodium laser guide star adaptive optics in astronomy. A high‐power 589 nm laser based on Raman fiber amplifier is reported here, which works in both continuous‐wave and pulsed formats. In the continuous‐wave case, the laser produces more than 50 W output. In the pulsed case, the same laser produces square‐shaped pulses with tunable repetition rate (500 Hz to 10 kHz) and duration (1 ms to 30 μs). The peak power is as high as 84 W and remains constant during the tuning. The laser also emits an adjustable sideband at 1.71 GHz away from the main laser frequency for better sodium excitation. The versatility of the laser offers much flexibility in laser guide star application.     

220 μJ monolithic single-frequency Q-switched fiber laser at 2 μm by using highly Tm-doped germanate fibers

We report a unique all fiber-based single-frequency Q-switched laser in a monolithic master oscillator power amplifier configuration at ~1920 nm by using highly Tm-doped germanate fibers for the first time. The actively Q-switched fiber laser seed was achieved by using a piezo to press the fiber in the fiber Bragg grating cavity and modulate the fiber birefringence, enabling Q-switching with pulse width and repetition rate tunability. A single-mode polarization maintaining large core 25 μm highly Tm-doped germanate fiber was used in the power amplifier stage. For 80 ns pulses with 20 kHz repetition rate, we achieved 220 μJ pulse energy, which corresponds to a peak power of 2.75 kW with transform-limited linewidth.     

Picosecond laser system with 30-W average power via cavity dumping and amplifying

We present a picosecond laser system with high energy by technologies of cavity dumping and amplifying. Firstly, pulses with 10 ps and ～520 nJ were obtained by cavity-dumped mode-locked laser at 10 kHz repetition rate. Secondly those pulses were seeded into a side-pumped regenerative amplifier (RA). Then pulses output from the regenerative amplifier were amplified by two four-pass post amplifiers. From the laser system pulses with an average power of 30 W corresponding to 3 mJ pulse energy were achieved with the pulse-width of 25.4 ps at repetition rate of 10 kHz.     

窄线宽纳秒脉冲光纤拉曼放大器的理论模型和数值分析

窄线宽纳秒脉冲光纤拉曼放大器在非线性频率变换、遥感探测和量子信息等领域有广泛的应用前景.综合考虑受激拉曼散射(stimulated Raman scattering,SRS)、受激布里渊散射(stimulated Brillouin scattering,SBS)、自相位调制(self-phase modulation)和交叉相位调制(cross-phase modulation)等非线性效应,建立了窄线宽纳秒脉冲光纤拉曼放大器的非线性动力学模型.仿真分析了放大器中脉冲激光的时频演化特性,对比研究了抽运脉冲宽度、光纤长度和信号光功率等因素对放大器性能的影响.研究发现,上述因素会影响放大器的SRS阈值、SBS阈值、输出激光线宽、激光转换效率等.例如,当脉冲宽度为800 ns时,SBS随着抽运功率的增加而发生,限制了激光功率的提升;减短抽运脉宽可以抑制SBS,但是输出激光的线宽易于展宽到数百MHz以上;增加光纤长度可以获得更低的SRS阈值和更高的转换效率,但是SBS效应和光谱展宽程度也随之增强.系统搭建中需要平衡各非线性效应,选择合适的系统参数.研究内容可以为窄线宽纳秒脉冲光纤拉曼放大器的设计搭建提供参考.     

All-fiber laser seeded femtosecond Yb:KGW solid state regenerative amplifier

A high efficiency compact Yb:KGW regenerative amplifier using an all-fiber laser seed source was comprehensively studied. With thermal lensing effect compensated by the cavity design, the compressed pulses with energy of 1 m J at 1 k Hz and 0.4 m J at 10 k Hz in sub-400-fs pulse duration using chirped fiber Bragg grating(CFBG) stretcher were demonstrated.A modified Frantz–Nodvik equation was developed to emulate the dynamic behavior of the regenerative amplifier. The simulation results were in good agreement with the experiment. Numerical simulations and experimental results show that the scheme can be scalable to higher energy of multi-m J, sub-300 fs pulses.     

飞秒光脉冲光纤放大增益特性的实验研究

报道了掺Ｅｒ＾３＋光纤激光器输出１．５３１μｍ波长飞秒激光脉冲增益放大的实验研究结果,将自起振相加脉冲摹参Ｅｒ＾３＋光纤激光器输出的飞秒激光脉冲注入掺Ｅｒ＾３＋光纤放大器中进行放大,分别采用正向和逆向抽地这的方式,得到了最高放大倍数５５倍（１７．４ｄＢ）和６４倍（１８．１ｄＢ）的增益,对应的最大单脉冲能量（峰值功率）分别为０．３８４ｎＪ（７５２Ｗ）０．４５２ｎＪ（１２９５Ｗ）,脉冲重复率为２０．８