PERFORMANCE COMPARISON OF THE NEON-LIKE CHROMIUM SOFT X-RAY LASING DRIVEN BY A DOUBLE LASER PULSE WITH DIFFERENT DURATION

A comparison has been made of performance of the neon-like chromium soft X-ray lasing at 28.5 nm driven by a double 900 ps pulse at 6 TW/cm², with that driven by a double 200 ps pulse at similar irradiance. The double 200 ps pulse has been found to be much more efficient to drive X-ray lasing with higher intensity.     

A novel scheme of optical pulse width compression using a feedback optical phase modulator

This paper presents a scheme for the compression of optical pulse widths by using a feedback optical phase modulator. In the first part of the proposed circuit, the carrier and two fourth-order sidebands on either side of the carrier are amplified and phase shifted before getting combined by an optical power combiner to generate a picosecond optical pulse. The optical pulse generated by this part of the circuit has a calculated width of 3.5 ps. This optical pulse when passed through a feedback optical phase modulator produces a compressed optical pulse at the output. By making the drive frequency of the feedback optical phase modulator equal to 100 GHz, we found the output optical pulse to have a calculated width of 1.0 ps. PACS 42.65.Re; 42.79.Sz; 42.62.-b; 42.30.Lr; 42.55.Px; 42.60.Fc; 42.70.Mp     

Short-pulse UV laser ablation of solid and liquid metals: indium

2 to 2.5 mJ/cm² when a 0.5 ps pulse is used instead of a 15 ns laser pulse. Measurements on liquid indium show a different behavior. With 15 ns laser pulses the threshold fluence is lowered by a factor of ∼3 from 100 mJ/cm² for solid indium to 30 mJ/cm² for liquid indium. In contrast, measurements with 0.5 ps laser pulses do not show any change in the ablation threshold and are independent of the phase of the metal at 2.5 mJ/cm². This behavior could be explained by thermal diffusion and heat conduction during the laser pulse and demonstrates in an independent way the energy lost into the material when long laser pulses are applied. Time-of-flight measurements to investigate the underlying ablation mechanism show thermal behavior of the ablated indium atoms for both ps and ns ablation and can be fitted to Maxwell-Boltzmann distributions. Received: 2 December 1996/Accepted: 11 December 1996     

EUV and fast ion emission from cryogenic liquid jet target laser-generated plasma

A liquid jet of either nitrogen or argon of 20 μm diameter was exposed to intense laser fields with pulse durations between 70 fs and 250 ps, leading to intensities of 10¹⁶ W cm^-2 and 10¹³ W cm^-2, respectively. The emission of extreme UV light and soft X-rays shows the characteristic lines of hydrogen-like nitrogen and carbon-like argon. For nitrogen the emitted photon flux at 250 ps was about two orders of magnitude higher than for 70 fs pulses. A weak dependence on the laser polarization with respect to the liquid jet axis was found. The kinetic energy of the emitted ions easily exceeded 100 keV for nitrogen and 200 keV for argon for a pulse duration close to 2 ps. Received: 21 August 2000 / Revised version: 20 December 2000 / Published online: 22 March 2001     

Megagauss magnetic fields on laser irradiated spherical targets

Strong thermo-electric magnetic fields have been obserbed on non-uniformly illuminated microballoon targets at irradiances of 10¹³ to 10¹⁴ W cm^-2 using a 1.2 ns Nd glass laser heating pulse and a 50 ps Raman shifted second harmonic probe pulse. For uniformly irradiated spherical targets no large scale magnetic fields above 100 kG were observed.     

Structural transitions in silicon induced by a femtosecond laser pulse: The role of an electron-hole plasma and phonon-phonon anharmonicity

It is shown by the methods of time-resolved self-reflection and linear reflection that irradiation of a silicon target by a 100-fs laser pulse induces successive structural transitions of the target material to new crystal and liquid metal phases, which can occur during the laser pulse or 0.1–10³ ps after the pulse termination, depending on the excitation conditions. The thresholds of these structural transitions are determined, and “’soft” phonon modes involved in them are identified, which represent “hot” short-wavelength LA modes. The dynamics of the structural transitions in silicon in the time interval from 0.1 to 10³ ps is described using the model of instability of phonon modes caused by an electron-hole plasma and intra-and intermode phonon-phonon anharmonic interactions     

Tunable,sub-nanosecond KrF-Raman laser in the ultraviolet

A 0.5 cm^–1 bandwidth injection-locked KrF laser pumps a rare-gas Brillouin cell to produce a reflected pulse with a leading edge risetime of 1 ns, tunable from 248.1 to 248.7 nm. Consistent with Lamb theory of laser amplifiers, subsequent excimer amplification of this pulse produces an intense 500 ps spike on the pulse leading edge. Stimulated Raman scattering then separates the spike from the parent pulse, yielding a tunable short pulse at the first Stokes (S ₁) wavelength. Varying the Raman cell length results in a variable Raman threshold and an adjustable short pulse duration: 250 ps pulses at energies of 3–4 mJ at 268 nm with a 50 cm methane cell and 350 ps, 5 mJ pulses from a 100 cm cell are measured with a streak camera. First pass Raman conversion of the spike toS ₁ followed by second pass backward Raman amplification, where the parent 248 nm pulse serves as the pump beam for the reflectedS ₁ pulse, yields simultaneousS ₁ pulses of 20–25 mJ in the 800 ps range andS ₂ pulses of 550 ps at 5–6 mJ near 290 nm. This laser will avoid collision effects during laser excitation and enable quantitative, single pulse imaging of OH radicals in turbulent combustion because of its high pulse energy.     

Picosecond pulse contrast enhancement by use of polarization rotation in crystals with the second-order nonlinearity

We report on the implementation of intensity-dependent filter for picosecond pulse temporal cleaning based on an effect of pulse polarization rotation during the unbalanced phase matched second harmonic generation. The pulse contrast enhancement by more than two orders of magnitude and filter transmission of ∼25% has been demonstrated at pulse intensities of <1 GW/cm². A simple and reliable all-solid-state filter scheme was integrated in a two-stage picosecond Nd:YAG regenerative amplifier seeded with pJ-energy femtosecond pulses of the Yb:KGW oscillator, and allowed us to reduce the ASE intensity level down to 1.5×10⁻⁸ with reference to the intensity of main 100 ps and 100 μJ pulse.     

飞秒激光激发空气电离的阈值研究

报道在脉宽50fs—22ps,波长800nm脉冲激光作用下的空气电离阈值的研究结果.利用探测等离子体发光信号的方法,实验测量了激发空气电离所需的阈值激光强度.结果表明,当激光脉冲宽度从50fs增加到22ps时,阈值光强I_th从8.7×10¹⁴W/cm²下降到2.7×10¹³W/cm²;I_th经历了由迅速降低逐渐发展为缓慢降低的过程.在50fs—1p 关键词： 飞秒激光 阈值 多光子电离 碰撞电离     

飞秒激光激发空气电离的阈值研究

报道在脉宽50fs—22ps，波长800nm脉冲激光作用下的空气电离阈值的研究结果.利用探测等离子体发光信号的方法，实验测量了激发空气电离所需的阈值激光强度.结果表明，当激光脉冲宽度从50fs增加到22ps时，阈值光强I_th从8.7×10¹⁴W/cm²下降到2.7×10¹³W/cm²；I_th经历了由迅速降低逐渐发展为缓慢降低的过程.在50fs—1p     

Selective ablation of thin SiO<Subscript>2</Subscript> layers on silicon substrates by femto- and picosecond laser pulses

The selective ablation of thin (∼100 nm) SiO₂ layers from silicon wafers has been investigated by applying ultra-short laser pulses at a wavelength of 800 nm with pulse durations in the range from 50 to 2000 fs. We found a strong, monotonic decrease of the laser fluence needed for complete ablation of the dielectric layer with decreasing pulse duration. The threshold fluence for 100% ablation probability decreased from 750 mJ/cm² at 2 ps to 480 mJ/cm² at 50 fs. Significant corruption of the opened Si surface has been observed above ∼1200 mJ/cm², independent of pulse duration. By a detailed analysis of the experimental series the values for melting and breaking thresholds are obtained; the physical mechanisms responsible for the significant dependence on the laser pulse duration are discussed.     

Impact of dispersion on pulse dynamics in chirped-pulse fiber lasers

We report on a systematic study of an environmentally stable mode-locked Yb-doped fiber laser operating in the chirped-pulse regime. The linear cavity chirped-pulse fiber laser is constructed with a saturable absorber mirror as nonlinear mode-locking mechanism and a nonlinearity-free transmission-grating-based stretcher/compressor for dispersion management. Mode-locked operation and pulse dynamics from strong normal to strong anomalous total cavity dispersion in the range of +2.5 to ?1.6 ps² is experimentally studied. Strongly positively chirped pulses from 4.3?ps (0.01?ps²) to 39?ps (2.5?ps²) are obtained at normal net-cavity dispersion. In the anomalous dispersion regime, the laser generates average soliton feature negatively chirped pulses with autocorrelation pulse durations from 0.8?ps (?0.07 ps²) to 3.9?ps (?1.6 ps²). The lowered peak power due to the pulse stretching allows one to increase the double pulse threshold. Based on the numerical simulation, different regimes of mode locking are obtained by varying the intra-cavity dispersion, and the characteristics of average soliton, stretched-pulse, wave-breaking-free and chirped-pulse regimes are discussed.     

Parametric generation of shortened,narrow-band picosecond pulses using a Yag-pump laser

Using a single path parametric system pumped by a YAG laser, shortened pulses are produced at various frequencies. Starting with a duration of the pump pulse of 21 ps at 9400 cm^?1 we achieve a duration of 4 ps between 2700 cm^?1 and 6700 cm^?1, of 8 ps between 13 500 cm^?1 and 16 100 cm^?1, and of 8 ps between 27 000 cm^?1 and 32 000 cm^?1. Typical bandwidths are 10 cm^?1 in the infrared, 4 cm^?1 in the visible, and 5 cm^?1 in the ultraviolet.     

Femtosecond laser ablation of silver foil with single and double pulses

The average ablation depth per pulse of silver foil by 130 fs laser pulses has been measured in vacuum over a range of three orders of magnitude of pulse fluence up to 900 J cm⁻². In addition, double pulses with separations up to 3.4 ns have been used to probe time scales of relevance for femtosecond ablation. The double pulse ablation depth, when each pulse fluence is 0.7 J cm⁻², falls to that of a single pulse as the pulse separation is increased from 0 ps to 700 ps. This time scale decreases to only 4 ps as the fluence is increased to 11 J cm⁻². It then jumps to 500 ps across a transition fluence where the slope of the ablation depth versus logarithmic fluence characteristic changes abruptly to a higher value. In addition, for pulse separations near 1000 ps, the second pulse can cause re-deposition of ejecta from the first pulse resulting in a double pulse ablation depth only 40% that of the first pulse alone. This has important implications for the interpretation of double pulse femto-LIBS intensities. Our results suggest that the optical properties of nano or mesoparticles play a significant role in double pulse ablation with large pulse separations.     

Diode-pumped passively Q-switched and mode-locked Nd:GGG laser at 1.3 μm with V<Superscript>3+</Superscript>:YAG saturable absorber

Using V³⁺:YAG crystal as the saturable absorber, a diode-pumped passively Q-switched and mode-locked Nd:GGG laser operating at 1.3 μm is realized for the first time. The mode-locking modulation depth of nearly 100% has been achieved. The maximum output power and the single Q-switched pulse energy are 410 mW and 8.3 μJ. The mode-locked pulse inside the Q-switched pulse has a repetition rate of 349 MHz, and its average pulse width is estimated to be about 750 ps.     

激发态之间的电离与复合过程对类氖锗19.6nm X射线激光增益系数的影响

考察了激发态之间的电离与复合过程对等离子体状态的影响,并对其原因进行了细致的分析,分别考察了对1.0ns,100ps和5ps激光驱动的类氖锗19.6nm Ｘ射线激光增益系数的影响.研究表明,对于5ps激光驱动的瞬态机理X射线激光来讲,因增益区处在高密度区,所以,激发态之间的电离与复合过程对X射线激光将不可以忽略.对于1.0ns和100ps激光驱动的亚稳态机理X射线激光来讲,在电子密度小于等于5×10²⁰cm^－3的区域,忽略激发态之间的电离与复合使增益的时间半高全 关键词： X射线激光 矩阵分块法 类氖锗 双电子激发态     

Gbit/s rate bipolar pulse modulation of semiconductor injection lasers

Using a bipolar drive current pulse shape and very low threshold (9 mA) lasers, zero-background pseudorandom optical pulses were generated and detected at a rate of up to 4 Gbit/s without a pattern effect. The drive current pulse consists of a forward pulse followed by a reverse pulse, each of 70 ps duration and about 400 mA amplitude. No DC bias was applied, which is a necessary condition for pattern-effect-free modulation.     

一种用于荧光皮秒时间分辨光谱的测试系统

本文详细描述了一种由氩离子锁模激光器、样品池、分光系统及微微秒条纹相机构成的用于测试低强度荧光微微秒时间分辨光谱的系统。给出了典型样品的测试结果:时间分辨率为10ps,光谱范围为500Å—800Å。最后对测量结果进行了分析讨论。     

Micromagnetic investigation of the sub-nanosecond magnetic pulse driven domain wall motion in CoFeB nanowire

We report our micromagnetic simulations based on Landau-Lifshitz-Gilbert (LLG) equation for CoFeB nanowire which was exposed by sub-nanosecond magnetic pulse with varied pulse width between 100 and 1000 ps. It is found that the Walker Breakdown field (H_WB) shifted as the field pulse duration decreased and reached at the highest value in case of 100 ps pulse width, then decreased steeply with respect to the pulse width up to 400 ps. H_WB values are not significantly dependent for pulses longer than 500 ps. It is observed that, below the H_WB, the exchange energy is larger than the demagnetization energy in the wider nanowire. By energy density analysis, it is understood that the increase of H_WB values in the cases of narrower pulse width was to compensate the energy needed to move the DW.     

Picosecond gain dynamics of KrF

We describe the generation of excimer-laser pulses of <10 ps pulse width and up to 40 mJ pulse energy at 248.5 nm and their use in the measurement of ps gain dynamics in a KrF amplifier. Small-signal gain of >2×10⁴, saturation energy density of 2.0 mJ/cm², and gain recovery time of 4 ns were measured. In contrast to XeCl^* no short-gain rcovery time was found in KrF^* and the stored inversion could be fully depleted bya single ps pulse.