Nonlinear processes in UV optical materials at 248 nm

Nonlinear processes in UV optical materials were investigated by using 280-fs, 248-nm pulses. Nonlinear absorption in CaF₂ was confirmed to be a two-photon process by using the luminescence of self-trapped excitons, which was also used for the single shot pulse width measurement. The absorption bands due to F centers were identified in CaF₂, MgF₂, and LiF after several hundred shots at 100 GW/cm². Absorption at 248 nm was considerable especially in MgF₂ and LiF. Self-focusing and self-phase modulation were observed in CaF₂.     

Temporal evolution of the emission spectra of color center lasers

The mode spectrum of a homogeneously broadened laser is mainly influenced by mode competition effects. In this paper the temporal evolution of the emission spectra of color center lasers caused by mode competition is investigated. The results are compared with a theoretical estimation.Dedicated to Prof. Dr. Herbert Welling on the occasion of his 60th birthday     

Comparison of Nd:YAG Ceramic Laser Pumped at 885nm and 808nm

Laser performance of 1064 nm domestic Nd：YAG ceramic lasers for 885 nm direct pumping and 808 nm traditional pumping are compared. Higher slope efficiency of 34% and maximum output power of 16.5 W are obtained for the 885nm pump with a 6ram length 1 at.% Nd：YAG ceramic. The advantages for 885nm direct pumping are discussed in detail. This pumping scheme for highly doping a Nd：YAG ceramic laser is considered as an available way to generate high power and good beam quality simultaneously.     

Simulation of thin disk laser pumping process for temperature dependent Yb:YAG property

A novel model of Cw diode pumped Yb:YAG thin disk laser has been presented to simulate absorption pump power distribution by Monte-Carlo ray tracing. Comparing obtained results with the common distribution function indicate the offered model is quite trustful. So these findings help to evaluate temperature distribution due to the 3D finite element analyses (FEA) based on heat conduction equation. To improve our simulation the temperature dependent of crystal property such as the absorption coefficient, thermal conductivity, stimulated emission cross section and Boltzman population factors are considered by a numerical iterative approach.     

Dynamics of Efficiency Change by Temperature in Diode Pumped Nd：YAG Heat Capacity Laser

We investigate the influence of temperature on the efficiency of diode pumped Nd：YAG heat capacity laser is studied. It is shown that the efficiency of such a laser system is greatly reduced at higher temperature. This bad behaviour is mainly caused by the doped-ion redistribution among various Stark levels of the ground state, and by a thermal equilibrium between the upper laser level and the pump level. Meanwhile, the thermal excitations from the ground state to the lower laser level also play a role. We derive a model to describe those effects, with the considerations of emission spectrum of laser diodes, the subtle Stark structures and the linewidth of absorption and of simulated-emission.     

Feedback coupling loss in single mode fiber lasers

Based on the expansion of the fundamental mode LP₀₁ in single mode fiber in terms of Laguerre-Gaussian free space modes, the feedback coupling losses for two different types of cavity mirror, i.e., a curvature mirror and a combing mirror of a lens and a plane mirror, are numerically calculated for the first time. The results show that, for the curvature mirror, the lowest coupling loss is obtained when its curvature radius matches the wavefront curvature. In particular, if a plane mirror is used as the cavity mirror, it has to be placed close to the fiber end to obtain the low coupling loss. For the combing mirror, the lowest coupling loss can be obtained when the plane mirror is placed at the back focal plane of the lens, and the variation of the coupling loss is insensitive to the mirror positions for the lens with longer focal length. Finally, the plane mirror and the combing mirror of a lens and a plane mirror are suggested to be the cavity mirror in the practical construction of the high power fiber lasers.     

Modeling and optimizing of high-concentration erbium-doped fiber amplifiers with consideration of ion-clusters

Starting from the modeling of isolated ions and ion-clusters, a closed form rate and power evolution equations for high-concentration erbium-doped fiber amplifiers are constructed. Based on the equations, the effects of the fraction of ion-clusters in total ions and the number of ions per cluster on the performance of high-concentration erbium-doped fiber amplifiers are analyzed numerically. The results show that the presence of the ion-clusters deteriorates amplifier performance, such as the signal power, signal gain, the threshold pump power for zero gain, saturated signal gain, and the maximum gain efficiency, etc. The optimum fiber length or other parameters should be modified with the ion-clusters being taken into account for the amplifiers to achieve a better performance.     

Sub-nanosecond microchip laser with intracavity Raman conversion

Efficient sub-nanosecond pulse operation of microchip lasers with intracavity Raman conversion and pulse compression is presented for the first time. The microchip lasers were composed of Nd:LSB or Nd:YAG laser crystals, Cr⁴⁺:YAG saturable absorber, and Ba(NO₃)₂ Raman medium. The pulse duration obtained at the Stokes wavelength (1196 nm) was as short as 118 ps. Optical conversion efficiency of laser-diode pump power to the Stokes power of 8% was reached. Pulse energy and peak power of Stokes emission were 1.2 μJ and 5.4 kW, correspondingly. Numerical calculations are in good agreement with obtained experimental results. Received: 20 December 2002 / Revised version: 6 March 2003 / Published online: 5 May 2003 RID="*" ID="*"Corresponding author. Fax: +1-716/645-6945, E-mail: ankuzmin@acsu.buffalo.edu RID="**" ID="**"Present address: University at Buffalo, SUNY, The Institute for Lasers, Photonics, and Biophotonics, 458 NSC, Buffalo, NY 14 260-3000, USA     

Quasi-three-level Nd:YAG laser under diode pumping directly into the emitting level

We present theoretical and experimental investigations on ground-state direct pumping at 869 nm into the emitting level ⁴F_3/2 of end-pumped quasi-three-level Nd:YAG lasers operating at 946 nm. We have demonstrated, what we believe is for the first time, a Nd:YAG laser at 946 nm directly pumped by diodes and obtained 1.6 W of output power.     

LD-pumped 6 W cw Tm^3＋-Doped Silica Double-Cladding Fibre Laser

We report a thulium-doped silica fibre laser that generates a maximum cw output power of 6 W in a 2 μm wavelength range when cladding-pumped by a laser diode （LD） operating at approximately 791 nm at room temperature. The slope efficiency with respect to the launched pump power is 50% and 38.4%, with and without an output coupler mirror, respectively. The corresponding thresholds are 2.8 W and 4.8 W, respectively. The beam qualities Mx^2 and My^2 are 1.26 and 1.32, respectively. The experimental results are also analysed.     

Phase Noise of Optically Generated Microwave Using Sideband Injection Locking

Optically generated 20-GHz microwave carriers with phase noise lower than -75 dBc/Hz at 10 kHz offset and lower than -90 dBc/Hz at 100 kHz offset are obtained using single- and double-sideband injection locking. Within the locking range, the effect of sideband injection locking can be regarded as narrow-band amplification of the modulation sidebands. Increasing the current of slave laser will increase the power of beat signal and reduce the phase noise to a certain extent. Double-sideband injection locking can increase the power of the generated microwave carrier while keeping the phase noise at a low level. It is also revealed that partially destruction of coherence between the two beating lights in the course of sideband injection locking would impair the phase noise performance.     

Orthogonally Linearly Polarized Dual Frequency Nd：YAG Lasers with Tunable Frequency Difference and Its Application in Precision Angle Measurement

The orthogonally linearly polarized dual frequency Nd： YA G lasers with two quarter wave plates in laser resonator are proposed. The intra-cavity variable birefringence, which is caused by relative rotation of these two wave plates in laser inner cavity, results in the frequency difference of the dual frequency laser also changeable. The theory model based on the Jones matrix is presented, as well as experimental results. The potential application of this phenomenon in precision roll-angle measurement is also discussed.     

Sapphire-conductive end-cooling of high power cryogenic Yb:YAG lasers

We have demonstrated a high-power laser oscillator with end-cooling using a sapphire-sandwiched Yb:YAG disk at near liquid nitrogen temperature. An output power of 75 W with a near-diffraction-limited beam was obtained from a 0.6-mm thick activemedium. The slope efficiency and themaximum optical–optical efficiency were 80 and 70%, respectively, with respect to absorbed pump power.This revised version was published online in August 2005 with a corrected cover date.     

Chemically pumped O2(a-X) laser

A theoretical and experimental study was conducted aimed at achieving laser oscillation in the (a-X) electronic transition of oxygen molecules. Although this transition is highly forbidden by rigorous selection rules, it may nevertheless concede stimulated emission, if the population inversion is high enough. The idea is based on a recently developed apparatus, namely, a porous pipe type high-pressure chemical singlet oxygen generator. A numerical model which describes the characteristics of this generator was developed to estimate the population inversion and small-signal gain achievable in a laser cavity using this source. The calculations showed that the small-signal gain ought to be sufficient to achieve laser oscillation. Preliminary experiments were conducted, but lasing was not yet observed. It is shown that the scattering losses caused by water droplet aerosols are mainly responsible for preventing our system from laser oscillation.     

A Single Mode Fibre Laser by Applying Self-Injection Locking with a DFB Structure

We report a novel single-frequency fibre ring laser using self-injection locking with a distributed-feedback （DFB） fibre laser at 1550nm. The operating wavelength is controlled by a saturable absorber and a DFB fibre laser in the ring cavity, the saturable absorber acts as a narrow band-pass filter. In the primary experiment, the laser output exceeds 100mW with the linewidth less than 2kHz. The laser is stable, and no mode-hopping is observed within eight hours. Compared with other cavity designs using spatial hole-burning, our laser shows high controllability.     

Theoretical and experimental analysis of infrared dye-laser action in a traveling-wave pumping geometry

A rate-equation model for the laser action of infrared dyes is introduced. An extended four-level scheme is used to describe the photophysical processes in the dye molecules. The dye is excited by a single picosecond pulse in the traveling-wave geometry. The spectral and temporal properties of the picosecond dye-laser emission and the gain curve of the system are calculated. The numerical results are compared to experimental data. The theoretical model is in good quantitative agreement with the experiment.     

Laser and fluorescence properties of dye-doped sol-gel silica from 400 nm to 800 nm

Lasing and fluorescence properties of ten dyes covering the spectral range from 400 nm to 800 nm were studied in a silica matrix prepared by the sol-gel technique. The dye-doped sol-gel silica samples fluoresced strongly under laser excitation. Many of the samples were also induced to superradiate. In comparison to dyes in alcohol solvents, significant red-shifting was observed in the sol-gel silica fluorescence spectra. Plausible causes of the red-shift are discussed.     

Amplification and wave mixing of induced and spontaneous emission in semiconductor laser amplifiers

We theoretically describe and experimentally investigate the spatio-spectral wave mixing of induced and spontaneous emission in large-area InGaAs-semiconductor laser amplifiers. The dynamic light-matter-coupling is described by a spatially resolved theory based on Maxwell–Bloch–Langevin equations, taking into account many-body-carrier interactions, energy transfer between the carrier and phonon systems and, in particular, the spatio-temporal interplay of stimulated and amplified spontaneous emission and the noise caused by spontaneous emission. Our numerical model reveals the fundamental physical processes which are responsible for the spectral power distribution of the amplified laser light and predicts the emission properties of high-power semiconductor laser amplifiers, such as emission spectra and input power–output power characteristics. Received:30October2002/Revisedversion:21November2002 / Published online: 12 February 2003 RID="*" ID="*"Corresponding author. Fax: +49-711/6862-349, E-mail: Edeltraud.Gehrig@dlr.de RID="**" ID="**"Also at: Institute of Physics, Tampere University of Technology, P.O. Box 692, FIN-33101, Tampere, Finland RID="***" ID="***"Present address: Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG, Speyerer Strasse 6, 69115 Heidelberg, Germany RID="****" ID="****"Present address: Lightbit Corporation, 411 Clyde Avenue, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA     

A 7-W diode-pumped Nd:YVO4 cw laser at 1.34 μm

A Nd:YVO₄ laser, end-pumped by a fiber-coupled diode-laser array, generates 7.3 W of output power at 1342 nm, the highest so far reported for this host crystal. The slope efficiency is 40% and the output-beam divergence is close to the diffraction limit. An important point in attaining such results is the choice of crystals with low Nd concentration. Received: 16 July 2002 / Published online: 25 October 2002 RID="*" ID="*"Corresponding author. Fax: +39-050/844333, E-mail: dilieto@df.unipi.it RID="**" ID="**"Permanent address: Scuola Normale Superiore, Piazza dei Cavalieri 7, Pisa, Italy