无展宽器的高重复率钛宝石啁啾飞秒脉冲再生放大器的研究

通过优化放大腔结构参数和采用高光束质量的泵浦激光,依靠放大器腔内各个元件的色散展宽种子脉冲, 用钛宝石作为增益介质, 在低泵浦能量下, 实现了高光束质量,高稳定的中等能量的高重复率飞秒脉冲再生放大. 将钛宝石晶体离焦放置,有效的避免了光学损伤. 在1.1 mJ的绿光泵浦下, 获得了2 ps, 120 μJ, 重复频率为1 KHz, 光谱带宽7.8 nm的放大脉冲, 用石英棱镜对压缩可得到130 fs的激光脉冲.     

Ti:sapphire Regenerative Amplifier at 1.056 μm

The design and performance of a Ti:sapphire regenerative amplifier operating at 1. 056 μm are described. A laser pulse with an initial pulsewidth of 100 fs is amplified to ≥1.5 mJ in the amplifier after firstly stretched to 850 ps. The amplified pulse can be re-compressed to ～300 fs with energy of ～1 mJ. Loss of the spectrum happens in the regenerative cavity since bandwidth of the coat of optics in the cavity is not enough adequate.     

高能量环形长腔再生放大啁啾脉冲激光的研究

介绍了一种新型的高能量环形长腔再生放大器, 通过对谐振腔的模式分布进行计算, 建立了腔长为12 m的环形腔再生放大器, 在150 mJ的抽运能量下, 得到了单脉冲能量为20 mJ的放大激光输出, 对应的转化效率为13.3%, 其输出激光的能量远远超过了常规的再生放大器输出激光的单脉冲量. 放大激光的输出光谱为30 nm, 可以支持<40 fs的傅里叶转换极限脉宽. 关键词： 环形腔 再生放大 高能量     

A compact Ti:sapphire femtosecond pulse amplifier without stretcher at high repetition rate

We report a simple approach to amplify Ti:sapphire femtosecond pulses to moderate energy levels by achirped regenerative amplifier. The seed pulses are broaden naturally because of the material dispersionof system components in regenerative cavity. The off-focusing Ti:sapphire crystal avoids effectively theoptical damage. It sustains amplification over a wavelength range from 775 nm to more than 810 nmwith a birefringent filter and an oscillation bandwidth of 7.7 nm, and produces 2.1 ps chirped outputpulse energy of 100μJ at 1.1-mJ pumping energy. This system shows good performances in stability andefficiency with the benefits of two thin-film polarizers and TEM00 mode pumping laser.     

An Ultra-Broadband Spatially Dispersed Regenerative Amplifier Free from Spatial Chirp

An ultra-broadband Ti：sapphire regenerative amplifier based on spatially dispersed amplification is demonstrated experimentally. Departing from previous reports, a new design of the cavity gets the amplified pulse free from spatial chirp. Utilizing this new regenerative amplifier, chirped pulses with bandwidth （FWHM） of about 80 nm are obtained, and the bandwidth is limited only by that of the incident seed pulses.     

Birefringent plate design for broadband spectral shaping in a Ti:sapphire regenerative amplifier

A method to design a birefringent plate (BP) for broadening spectrum in a regenerative amplifier is presented. Using this method, we design a quartz BP with thickness of 761μm inserted into a Ti:sapphire regenerative amplifier. The gain narrowing effect is reduced efficiently, and the experimental results agree with the calculation well. The bandwidth is broadened from 28 to 62 nm using the designed quartz BP and the pulses are compressed to ～ 23 fs.     

Broad-band regenerative laser amplification in ytterbium-doped calcium fluoride (Yb:CaF<Subscript>2</Subscript>)

An output pulse energy of 17.3 mJ has been achieved with a diode-pumped Yb:CaF₂ regenerative laser amplifier. The bandwidth of the output pulse spectrum was 7.3 nm, being seeded with femtosecond pulses stretched to 2.2 ns. In cw operation a tuning range of 80 nm has been observed. A maximum pulse energy of 44 mJ at a repetition rate of 1 Hz has been obtained in Q-switched mode. The laser damage threshold of a Yb:CaF₂ crystal has been determined at a wavelength of 1064 nm and a pulse duration of 10 ns. PACS 42.55.Ah; 42.55.Xi; 42.70.Hj     

Bandwidth expansion and pulse shape optimized for 10 PW laser design via spectral shaping

We demonstrated a scheme of bandwidth expansion and pulse shape optimized to afford 10 PW laser design via spectral shaping, which uses the existing Nd:glass amplifier chain of the SG PW laser. Compared to the amplified pulse with a gain-narrowing effect, the required parameters of injected pulse energy, spectral bandwidth, and shape are analyzed, together with their influence on the system B-integral, energy output capability, and temporal intensity contrast. A bandwidth expansion to 7 nm by using LiNbO₃ birefringent spectral shaping resulted in an output energy of 2 kJ in a proof-of-principle experiment. The results are consistent with the theoretical prediction which suggests that the amplifier chain of SG PW laser is capable of achieving 6 kJ at the bandwidth of 7 nm and the B-integral < π . This will support a 10 PW laser with a compressed pulse energy of 4.8 kJ (efficiency=80%) at 480 fs.     

腔内有双折射滤光片的激光实际线宽

在研制高效宽带增益激光非线性频率转化的实验中发现,由双折射滤光片透过率计算出的激光输出频谱宽度比激光器实际频谱宽度要大一个数量级左右.考虑到激光模式竞争和均匀增宽效应,理论上提出了一个精确计算激光器实际频谱线宽的模型.用该模型模拟的带不同厚度双折射滤光片的调Q运转钛宝石激光器的光谱宽度与实验结果一致,这为优化设计双折射滤光片及该类激光器提供了依据.     

Generation of 17-TW 23-fs Pulses with a Two-Stage Ti：Sapphire Amplifier at Repetition Rate 10 Hz

We have developed a two-stage Ti：sapphire amplifier system which can produce 17- TW/23-fs pulses at a repetition rate 10Hz. A birefringent plate is used in the regenerative amplifier to alleviate gain narrowing, while an all- reflective cylindrical-mirror-based pulse stretcher and an acousto-optic programmable dispersive filter （AOPDF） are used to compensate for the higher order dispersion of the system.     

Supercontinuum generation by combining clad-pumped Er/Yb co-doped fiber amplifier and highly nonlinear photonic crystal fiber

We present an experimental study on supercontinuum generation by combining a clad-pumped Er/Yb co-doped fiber amplifier (EYDFA) and a highly nonlinear photonic crystal fiber (HNL-PCF). By using the nonlinear polarization rotation technique, a stable femtosecond optical pulse seed signal with a central wavelength of 1556.36 nm and a spectral line width of ∼5.6 nm has been obtained. Then, this pulsed seed signal is amplified by the EYDFA, the amplified pulse, which, with the broaden spectrum, propagates in the HNL-PCF. The 20 dB bandwidth of ∼520 nm from 1230 to 1750 nm is obtained.     

Nd:glass diode-pumped regenerative amplifier,multimillijoule short-pulse chirped-pulse-amplifier laser

We have built a diode-pumped Nd:glass regenerative amplifier that is able to produce energies up to 20 mJ within a 470-fs pulse duration at a 1-Hz repetition rate. We obtained this amplifier by using specific intracavity components such as a phase mirror and a birefringent filter to generate a large spatial mode and a large spectral width.     

全固态kHz啁啾脉冲飞秒激光放大器

要建造大功率超强激光系统,必须将nJ量级的种子进行放大,以得到mJ量级以及更高能量的激光输出.为达到这个目的,必须使种子能量指数增加,再生腔放大器是实现这一目的的良好途径;同时,为了得到更稳定的激光输出,须采用高重复频率的泵浦源.为此,设计了一种kHz重复频率激光泵浦的再生放大器,使用15 mJ的527 nm的绿光泵浦,得到了约2.3 mJ的800 nm放大激光输出,同时,对其输出激光的光谱特性进行了测量,将带宽为40 nm的种子注入后,得到了光谱带宽约为30 nm激光输出.     

Spectral shaping filter for broadband amplifiers

We present the design and implementation of a high-damage threshold spectral shaping filter that can be used to counteract gain narrowing in broadband laser amplifier systems. In contrast to earlier approaches to this problem, the filter has a wide range of tunability in both reflectivity and center wavelength. The shape of the reflectivity curve enables the production of an apodized output spectrum with a clean transform limit. We demonstrate the use of this filter in both regenerative and multipass Ti:Sapphire amplifier systems, yielding super-Gaussian amplified spectra of 70-80 nm width.     

980-nm all-fiber mode-locked Yb-doped phosphate fiber oscillator based on semiconductor saturable absorber mirror and its amplifier

A 980-nm semiconductor saturable absorber mirror(SESAM) mode-locked Yb-doped phosphate fiber laser is demonstrated by using an all-fiber linear cavity configuration. Two different kinds of cavity lengths are introduced into the oscillator to obtain a robust and stable mode-locked seed source. When the cavity length is chosen to be 6 m, the oscillator generates an average output power of 3.5 m W and a pulse width of 76.27 ps with a repetition rate of 17.08 MHz. As the cavity length is optimized to short, 4.4-m W maximum output power and 61.15-ps pulse width are produced at a repetition rate of 20.96 MHz. The output spectrum is centered at 980 nm with a narrow spectral bandwidth of 0.13 nm. In the experiment, no undesired amplified spontaneous emission(ASE) nor harmful oscillation around 1030 nm is observed. Moreover,through a two-stage all-fiber-integrated amplifier, an output power of 740 m W is generated with a pulse width of 200 ps.     

A Self-Diffraction Temporal Filter for Contrast Enhancement in Femtosecond Ultra-High Intensity Laser

We demonstrated a nonlinear temporal filter based on the self-diffraction(SD) process. Temporal contrast enhancement, angular dispersion and spectrum broadening properties of the SD process are investigated in experiment and simulation. Driven by spectral phase well compensated laser pulses with bandwidth of 28 nm,the filter produced clean pulses with a temporal contrast higher than 1010 and excellent spatial profile, the spectrum of which was smoothed and broadened to 64 nm. After implementing this filter into a home-made30 TW Ti:sapphire amplifier, temporal contrast of the amplified pulses was enhanced to 1010 within the time scale of-400 ps.     

多个超短脉冲相干叠加构成窄带平顶长脉冲的研究

利用超短脉冲放大过程中的光谱增益窄化效应以及标准具的滤波作用,提出了基于再生放大器的多脉冲相干叠加方案，并对该方案在多脉冲叠加阶段的工作原理进行了分析；在小信号增益区内，对多个超短脉冲相干叠加进行了理论分析和数值计算，数值模拟的结果表明，影响形成窄带平顶长脉冲的基本关系为子脉冲宽度、再生放大器中的损耗及其与振荡器的长度失配量对构成脉冲时间波形影响很大，而对其频谱影响很小；叠加脉冲个数、标准具的通带宽度对构成脉冲波形和光谱均有影响. 关键词： 超短脉冲 多脉冲叠加器 窄带平顶长脉冲 数值计算     

Dependence of spectrum on pump-signal angle in BBO-I noncollinear optical-parametric chirped-pulse amplification

A BBO-I noncollinear optical-parametric chirped-pulse amplifier pumped by a Q-switched and frequency-doubled Nd:YAG laser has been demonstrated. At an optimal pump-signal angle, the temporally stretched chirped signal pulses with bandwidth of 36 nm (FWHM) were amplified without any distortion in spectrum. The gain bandwidth was very sensitive to the pump-signal angle. Variation of this angle by about 1.5 mrad may significantly reduce the amplified bandwidth and result in a significant distortion in the amplified spectrum. Received: 5 October 2000 / Revised version: 13 June 2001 / Published online: 19 September 2001     

High-energy, diode-pumped, picosecond Yb:YAG chirped-pulse regenerative amplifier for pumping optical parametric chirped-pulse amplification

A diode-pumped, cryogenic-cooled Yb:YAG regenerative amplifier utilizing gain-narrowing has been developed. A 1.2-ns chirped-seed pulse was simultaneously amplified and compressed in the regenerative amplifier, which generated a 35-ps pulse with ~8-mJ of energy without a pulse compressor. Second-harmonics of the amplified pulse was used to pump picosecond two-color optical parametric amplification.     

基于预啁啾控制的极宽带光参量放大

在以飞秒钛宝石放大系统的倍频光为抽运光和超连续白光为信号光的光参量放大中,针对抽运光的宽带特点,分析了一种新的极宽带相位匹配方法.结果表明,10nm的抽运光带宽可得到近400nm的相位匹配带宽,若抽运光带宽达到20nm,相位匹配带宽就能达到近600nm.零色散波长为800nm的光子晶体光纤产生的超连续谱经光纤传输后为二次啁啾,宽带抽运光经棱镜对展宽具有线性啁啾,满足了极宽带相位匹配方法所需要的光谱分布.理论计算了对输入脉冲进行预啁啾控制应选择的光纤长度和棱镜对在光路中的插入量,为实现极宽带光参量放大提供了 关键词： 啁啾 极宽带相位匹配 光参量放大 光子晶体光纤