Narrow-spectral-span spectral beam combining with a nonparallel double-grating structure

We propose a nonparallel double-grating structure in a spectral-beam combining technique, where two gratings are placed nonparallel satisfying the Littrow mount in the focal region of the convergent lens. The most attractive advantage of this approach is that it will compress the spectral span into half of its original spectrum, which means the number of combined elements can be doubled in the gain range of diode lasers. Experimental results demonstrate that the CW output power of the combined beam is 30.9 W with a spectral span of 7.0 nm, compared with its original spectrum span of 13.6 nm, and the spectral beam combining efficiency is 70.5%. In consideration that a single grating could have a high efficiency of 97% in a bandwidth of over ten nanometers, the efficiency loss of the grating pair should be less than 6%, which is acceptable for most applications, so this method of using double gratings should be highly interesting for practical applications when a nearly doubled number of diode lasers could be combined into one single laser compared with the previous single-grating methods.     

半导体激光光栅外腔光谱合束压窄光谱的理论研究

介绍了一种减少半导体激光器阵列光栅外腔光谱合束(SBC)整体光谱展宽的方法,通过加入一组变形棱镜对传统光谱合束结构进行了改善。变形棱镜的作用实现减小半导体激光线阵输出光斑宽度,减小入射到光栅上的入射角度进而减小整体的光谱线宽。采用发光单元宽度为100 m、周期为500 m、由19个发光单元组成的常规CM-Bar条进行光栅-外腔光谱合束技术的理论推导及软件模拟,得到了光谱线宽为3.2 nm。与通过增大柱透镜焦距来减小光谱线宽的方法相比,此方法的优势是保证了整体光谱合束的整体结构在500 mm以内,使得各个发光单元有足够反馈量,抑制光束间串扰,保证合束后的光束质量和效率。     

Frequency Doubling of a Laser Diode Using a Domain-Inverted LiTaO3Waveguide with a Monolithic Bragg Reflector

We report wavelength stabilization of a laser diode using a highly efficient distributed Bragg reflector (DBR) grating formed on a LiTaO₃ quasi-phase-matched second harmonic generation (QPM-SHG) device. Fabricating the second-order DBR on the LiTaO₃ waveguide, the reflectivity of 90% and FWHM wavelength bandwidth of 0.2 nm were obtained. By stabilizing the oscillation wavelength of the laser diode, 3.1 mW of blue light was generated in the QPM-SHG device with the monolithic grating.     

Achieving single-lobed far-field patterns of broad area laser diode with external cavity feedback

We demonstrate a technique for single transverse mode operation of high-power broad area laser diode (BAL). In the experiment, the HR mirror is used as an external cavity mirror and the grating is used as a wavelength selective component. By tiling the HR mirror and the grating, the number of transverse modes oscillating in the cavity can be limited and the spectral bandwidth of the laser diode can be reduced. A single-lobed near diffraction-limited laser beam with the beam divergence (FWHM) of 0.43°, the spectral line-width of 0.7 nm and the output power of 350 mW are obtained. With the feedback, the power density of the output laser beam is increased 6 times in comparison with the free running.     

Volume Bragg grating stabilized spectrally narrow Tm fiber laser

A Tm-doped large mode area (LMA) silica fiber laser has been locked to a stable wavelength of 2,053.9 nm using a volume Bragg grating (VBG). The measured spectral width of the laser output was <300 pm, limited by the spectrometer resolution. Although this laser had modest output (approximately 5W) and slope efficiency (41%), this new approach to spectrally limiting the output of LMA fiber lasers is inherently extendable to kilowatt powers, opening up several applications including high-power pulsed fiber lasers and spectral beam combining. Performance characteristics of the laser compared to one using a dielectric mirror as a high reflector are described, and the results imply low VBG losses.     

Multi-wavelength,high spatial brightness operation of a phase-locked stripe-array diode laser

Stable continuous wave multi-wavelength operation of a stripe-array diode laser with an externalcavity spectral beam combining geometry is presented. In this setup each emitter of the stripe-array is forced to operate at a different wavelength, which leads to a decoupling between the usually phase-locked emitters. With a reflective diffraction grating with a period of 300 lines per mm, 33 equidistant laser lines around a center wavelength of 978 nm were realized, spanning a spectral range of 26 nm. With this novel approach near-diffraction limited emission with a beam quality of M ² < 1.2 and an output power of 450 mW was achieved. This laser light source can be used for applications requiring low temporal but high spatial coherence.     

采用多波长光束组合改善二极管激光阵列的光束质量

 基于多波长光束组合技术，利用光栅的衍射和外腔的反馈，将二极管阵列的发光单元锁定在不同的波长上，相邻单元的出射光波长有微小的差异。从外腔耦合镜输出近似平行的光束，其光束质量等同于单个发光单元的光束质量,而组合光束亮度随着组合光束个数定标放大。实验中采用发光单元宽度为100 μm、填充因子为0.5、由49个单元构成的1 cm 阵列获得功率为2.39 W的输出光束，其光谱宽度为27 nm，远场光斑的直径为0.08 mm，对应的远场发散角为1.2 mrad，其光束质量因子约为28，与单个发光单元的光束质量相当。     

808 nm激光二极管阵列波长光束组合20 W输出

 基于多波长光束组合技术,利用光栅的衍射和外腔的反馈,将激光二极管阵列(LDA)发光单元锁定在不同的波长上,以近似平行光束沿光栅的-1级衍射方向组合输出,改善LDA输出光束质量。实验采用发光单元宽度为100 μm、周期为500 μm,由19个单元构成的1 cm普通商用LDA,在连续运行最大注入电流60.6 A时,自由运转输出功率49.8 W时,获得功率为20.1 W的组合光束稳定输出,其光谱宽度为15 nm,对应的远场发散角由约70 mrad变为1.66 mrad,改善后光束质量因子约为32,其值与单个发光单元的光束质量相当。     

双光栅实现半导体激光阵列波长组束

在波长光束组合基础上,用一个光栅和一个准直透镜代替传输透镜,可以有效地减小单个发光单元光束质量的退化,明显地克服相邻发光单元的反馈串扰,实现了较窄线宽的光谱组束输出。采用标准的半导体激光阵列,连续输出激光功率44.8 W,电光转换效率最高38.9%,光谱线宽为4.1nm。光束慢轴方向光束质量因子为11.7,快轴方向光束质量因子为1.37,快慢轴两个方向都接近单个发光单元光束质量。     

400 mW and 16.5% wavelength conversion efficiency at 488 nm using a diode laser and a PPLN crystal in single pass configuration

Continuous wave power of more than 400 mW at 488 nm has been generated by frequency doubling of 2.45 W at 976 nm obtained from a distributed Bragg reflector tapered diode laser. This results in a wavelength conversion efficiency of 16.5% and an electrical-to-optical efficiency of more than 4.5%. We used a 50 mm long periodically poled MgO:LiNbO₃ bulk crystal in single-pass configuration for the second harmonic generation. This is to the author’s knowledge the highest output power and the highest wavelength conversion efficiency at 488 nm generated by a monolithic semiconductor laser device in single pass configuration with a bulk crystal. A deviation from the quadratic dependency of the frequency doubling is explained by the decrease of the beam quality of the fundamental wave.     

Sinc切趾布拉格光栅谱合成特性

 谱合成是获得高功率激光输出的有效方法。反射布拉格光栅衍射旁瓣是影响谱合成效率的主要因素。建立了sinc切趾布拉格光栅谱合成理论模型,采用传输矩阵法,分析了光栅参数对切趾光栅衍射特性的影响,以及入射光束光谱宽度和发散角对谱合成效率的影响。计算结果表明：sinc切趾布拉格光栅可有效抑制衍射旁瓣的影响,其一级衍射旁瓣和二级衍射旁瓣的峰值分别由62%和36%下降为0.57%和0.12%。通过优化光栅参数,利用sinc切趾布拉格光栅可实现窄光谱间距、高谱合成效率的多光束谱合成。切趾后,在10 nm的带宽内,参与谱合成光束的数目由7束增加为25束。对于波长为1 064 nm和1 064.4 nm的两束光谱合成,当入射光束光谱宽度小于0.15 nm,且发散角小于0.8 mrad时,谱合成效率达90%以上。     

基于透射型体布拉格光栅的两通道2.5kW光谱组束输出

体光栅光谱组束是获得高功率激光输出的一种有效途径.在有限的可用带宽内,光谱通道间隔影响着组束光束数目以及最终的高功率组束输出.采用耦合波理论,建立了一个两通道高功率光谱组束模型.通过优化体光栅光谱通道间隔,可放宽对组束子束线宽和功率的限制,组束功率可大幅提升而光谱密度并无显著下降.基于此,实验上获得了2.5 kW组束输出,绝对效率超过85%,通道间隔5 nm,光谱密度为0.51kW/nm.组束功率1 kW时,组束输出能保持好的光束质量;组束功率1.5kW时光束质量恶化较明显,通过分析发现,组束光束质量的恶化主要受限于体光栅的色散及高功率下体光栅复杂的热畸变.     

Efficient, high-brightness wavelength-beam-combined commercial off-the-shelf diode stacks achieved by use of a wavelength-chirped volume Bragg grating

We report a method of scaling the spatial brightness from commercial off-the-shelf diode laser stacks through wavelength beam combining, by use of a linearly wavelength-chirped volume Bragg grating (VBG). Using a three-bar commercial stack of broad-area lasers and a VBG, we demonstrate 89.5 W cw of beam-combined output with a beam-combining efficiency of 75%. The output beam has a propagation factor M2 approximately 26 on the slow axis and M2 approximately 21 on the fast axis. This corresponds to a brightness of approximately 20 MW/cm2 sr. To our knowledge, this is the highest brightness broad-area diode laser system. We achieve 81% coupling efficiency into a 100 microm, 0.22 N.A. fiber.     

A High Efficiency Yb3+-doped Fiber Ring Cavity Laser with Narrow Line-widthRound-trip Dispersion Calculation for Martinez Pulse Stretcher

A novel Yb3+-doped fiber ring cavity laser pumped by a 977 nm laser diode is presented with its output laser wavelength of 1060 nm. Based on a fiber Bragg grating (FBG), the laser exhibits 0.20 nm line-width, 7.5 mW laser output power, 40 dB signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and 66% slope efficiency.This paper proposed a ray-tracing model for the Martinez stretcher, derived the calculation formulae for the stretcher of a grating-spherical mirror system and discussed the error for the total dispersion resulted from the spatial dispersion. The calculated results show that the error could be ignored for the beam returned to the stretcher for the second pass in the wavelength range of 750 nm and 850 nm.     

基于光谱合束技术的透射光栅模拟设计

半导体激光器光谱合束技术能够实现近衍射极限的高功率激光输出,已成为当前研究热点。衍射光栅的性能直接决定光谱合束的激光输出效果。模拟设计了一种针对940 nm波长、熔融石英材料的亚波长透射光栅。基于严格耦合波理论对光栅结构进行初步设计,运用Rsoft软件依次对光栅占空比、脊高和周期等参数进行优化确定,同时分析了各个参数对光栅衍射效率的影响。所设计的透射式光栅实现第-1级衍射级次的波分复用功能,衍射效率达到91.2%(TE模式),同时压缩其他衍射级次,使其衍射效率降到1.2%以下。同时在光栅入射角度59°±3°范围内保持90%以上的衍射效率,实现高功率激光输出的同时具有较高的误差容错率,易于调节,满足光谱合束技术的要求。     

Grating feedback in a 810 nm broad-area diode laser

Narrow linewidth, single spectral mode operation has been obtained in a high power, 810 nm broad-area diode laser in an extended cavity configuration with a grating as external reflector (grating feedback). For stable operation it was necessary to misalign the feedback slightly in the plane of the laser junction. Characteristics of the thus obtained laser system are a linewidth below 5 MHz, an output intensity of about 50% of the free running power, a large-scale tuning range of 15 nm and continuous scanning over 4 GHz. In the spatial domain, the laser remains multimode and astigmatic. To show the practical applicability of this system, saturated absorption of a krypton line is demonstrated.     

Lateral characteristics improvements of DBR laser diode with tapered Bragg grating

Broad area semiconductor laser (BAL) has poor lateral beam quality due to lateral mode competition, which limits its application as a high-power optical source. In this work, the distributed Bragg reflector laser diode with tapered grating (TDBR-LD) is studied. By changing the lateral width, the tapered grating increases the loss of high-order lateral modes, thus improving the lateral characteristics of the laser diode. The measuring results show that the TDBR-LD can achieve a single-lobe output under 0.9 A. In contrast to the straight distributed Bragg reflector laser diode (SDBR-LD), the lateral far field divergence of TDBR-LD is measured to be 5.23° at 1 A, representing a 17% decline. The linewidth of TDBR-LD is 0.4 nm at 0.2 A, which is reduced by nearly 43% in comparison with that of SDBR-LD. Meanwhile, both of the devices have a maximum output power value of approximate 470 mW.     

Spectral beam combining of a broad-stripe diode laser array in an external cavity

The outputs from an 11-element, linear diode laser array with broad stripes have been beam combined into a single beam with a beam quality of ~20x diffraction limited in the plane of the junction. This beam combining was achieved by use of a common external cavity containing a grating, which simultaneously forces each array element to operate at a different, but controlled, wavelength and forces the beams from all the elements to overlap and propagate in the same direction. The power in the combined beam was 50% of the output from the bare laser array.     

Hamming切趾技术提高体光栅光谱合成功率的研究

体光栅光谱合成技术是获得高功率激光输出的一种有效途径,体光栅衍射旁瓣是影响合成光束数目的主要因素。采用了Hamming切趾技术对体光栅旁瓣进行抑制,建立了Hamming切趾体光栅的折射率分布模型,分析了Hamming切趾体光栅的衍射特性,给出了Hamming切趾体光栅光谱合成效率公式,分析了切趾光栅对光谱合成效率的影响。计算结果表明:体光栅切趾后有效减小了体光栅对相邻合成光束的衍射损耗,切趾后,在20 nm的带宽内,谱合成光束的数目由13束增加为20束,谱合成效率达75.3%,光谱合成功率提高为切趾前的1.5倍。     

双波长二极管合束端面抽运掺镨氟化钇锂单纵模360nm紫外激光器

报道了一种双波长半导体激光二极管(LD)合束端面抽运掺镨氟化钇锂晶体(Pr~(3+):LiYF_4)全固态、单纵模360nm紫外激光器.该激光器采用V形折叠腔结构,利用反射式体布拉格光栅作为波长选择反射镜来压缩光谱线宽,与法布里-珀罗(F-P)标准具组合构成窄带滤波器进行单纵模的有效选取,通过Ⅰ类位相匹配切割的倍频晶体三硼酸锂对腔内720nm基频光进行倍频.在444nmLD输出功率为1200mW和469nmLD输出功率为1400mW时,合束抽运获得了功率为112mW的连续单纵模360nm紫外激光稳定输出,光-光转换效率为4.3%.测量结果表明,边摸抑制比大于60dB,4h功率均方根值稳定性优于0.5%,1h频率漂移小于220MHz,激光振幅噪声小于0.5%.