Passive mode locking of Yb:KLuW using a single-walled carbon nanotube saturable absorber

Mode locking of an Yb-doped bulk laser in the 1 microm spectral range using a single-walled carbon nanotube saturable absorber (SWCNT-SA) is demonstrated for the first time, to our knowledge. Passive mode locking of an Yb:KLuW laser resulted in nearly transform-limited pulses as short as 115 fs at 1048 nm. In addition, the nonlinear response of the SWCNT-SA was measured, yielding a modulation depth of 0.25% and a relaxation time of 750 fs.     

Nd:YGG crystal laser at 1110 nm: a potential source for detecting carbon monoxide poisoning

We demonstrated a laser-diode pumped Nd-doped yttrium gallium garnet crystal laser at 1110 nm for the first time to our knowledge. By suppressing the oscillation at about 1.06 μm, continuous-wave output power of 2.1 W at 1110 nm was achieved. With a Cr:YAG as the saturable absorber, the passive Q-switching performance at this wavelength was obtained. The shortest pulse width and largest pulse energy were 31.5 ns and 22.7 μJ, respectively. Laser radiation at this wavelength is an important source for detecting carbon monoxide poisoning by simple frequency doubling with a nonlinear crystal.     

Nd:YAG Lasers Operating at 1064nm and 946nm by Direct Pumping and Thermally Boosted Pumping

We demonstrate a 1064nm Nd：YAG laser by directly pumping into the upper lasing level with a tunable Ti：sapphire laser. The valid wavelength is demonstrated at 868.3nm, 875.2nm, 883.8nm, and 885.5nm, respectively. To our knowledge, this is the first time that 1064nm Nd：YAG laser pumped by 875.2nm laser. In addition, laser wavelength at 946 nm is also generated by direct pumping together with traditional pumping.     

Switchable Brillouin frequency multiwavelength and pulsed fiber laser

Switchable single and double Brillouin multiwavelength and pulsed laser is successfully demonstrated. Brillouin spacing can be switched from single(0.08 nm) to double spacing(0.16 nm) or vice versa by swapping the ports of the coupler in the proposed configuration. The proposed configuration can also be used to produce pulsed laser by inserting a home-made carbon nanotubes saturable absorber into the laser cavity. The proposed system is very versatile and flexible as it can be used as a multiwavelength laser or pulsed laser to cater for different types of applications.     

Room temperature single-frequency output from a diode-pumped Tm,Ho:YAP laser

Single-frequency operation in the range of 2102.45-2102.54 nm and 2130.72-2130.82 nm is demonstrated from a Tm,Ho:YAP laser at room temperature. To our knowledge, this is the first time a room temperature single-frequency Tm,Ho:YAP laser of up to 72.6 mW at 2102.5 nm with Fabry-Perot etalons has been obtained. Regulating the elevation angle of the two etalons, 42.0 mW at 2130.8 nm was obtained. The single-longitudinal-mode laser can be used as a seed laser for coherent wind measurements and differential absorption lidar systems.     

High-power ultraviolet 278 nm laser from fourth-harmonic generation of a Nd:YAG laser in CsB3O5

We demonstrate a high-power UV 278 nm laser by fourth-harmonic generation (FHG) of a 1112 nm Nd:YAG laser in a nonlinear optical (NLO) crystal CsB3O5 (CBO) for the first time, to our best knowledge. A 30 W level diode-pumped Q-switched Nd:YAG laser at 1112 nm with beam quality factor M2=1.2 was used as the fundamental light source at a pulse width of 500 ns. With an LiB3O5 crystal, the 1112 nm laser was first frequency-doubled to 556 nm with an average output power of 13.5 W. It was then frequency doubled again in a CBO crystal to obtain the FHG output at 278 nm. The maximum average output power of the 278 nm laser is up to 1.5 W. The results demonstrated that CBO crystal is a promising NLO material for UV high-power lasers below 300 nm.     

Photorefractive properties of a nanocomposite based on a ferroelectric polymer

The photorefractive effect is demonstrated for the first time for the composite consisting of a ferroelectric material (polyvinylidenefluoride-trifluoroethylene) and single-walled carbon nanotubes that serve as nonlinear optical chromophores and, simultaneously, spectral sensitizers for the laser radiation with a wavelength of 1064 nm. It is demonstrated that the internal field in the ferroelectric material makes it possible to measure the photorefractive effect in the absence of the external field.     

All-fiber pulsed lasers passively mode locked by transferable vertically aligned carbon nanotube film

An all-fiber passive laser mode locking is realized with a vertically aligned single-walled carbon nanotube film that can be transferred onto an arbitrary substrate using only hot water. A D-shaped fiber is employed as the substrate for the evanescent field interaction of propagating light with the nanotubes. The scheme highlights the efficient interaction achieved by the nanotube alignment as well as the dramatically simplified device preparation process. The demonstrated pulsed laser output has 2.9 nm of spectral full width at half-maximum and a 20.8 MHz repetition rate.     

High-efficiency resonantly pumped room temperature Ho:YVO4 laser

An efficient 2 μm room temperature Ho:YVO(4) laser resonantly pumped by a 1.94 μm Tm:YAP laser is demonstrated, for the first time to our knowledge, in this Letter. Up to 8.58 W of laser output at 2053 nm is obtained with the optical-to-optical conversion efficiency as much as 41.2%. The output beam had quality of M² factor with Mx(2) of 3.58 and My(2) of 1.76 at 8 W output level. In addition, we also obtained 4.18 W laser output at 2066 nm and 7.04 W at 2040 nm from the Ho:YVO(4) laser with conversion efficiency of 27.8% and 33.8%, respectively.     

Energy scaling of a carbon nanotube saturable absorber mode-locked femtosecond bulk laser

We report successful energy scaling of a room-temperature femtosecond Cr⁴⁺: forsterite laser by using a single-walled carbon nanotube saturable absorber (SWCNT-SA). By incorporating a q-preserving multipass cavity, a repetition rate of 4.51?MHz was realized, and the oscillator produced 121?fs, 10?nJ pulses at 1247?nm, with an average output power of 46?mW. To the best of our knowledge, the peak power of 84?kW is the highest generated to date from a SWCNT-SA mode-locked oscillator. Furthermore, energy scaling of a femtosecond multipass-cavity laser, mode-locked using a SWCNT-SA, is demonstrated for the first time.     

Tandem-pumped 1120-nm actively Q-switched fiber laser

We report on a tandem-pumped actively Q-switched fiber laser system emitting at 1120 nm.Parasitic oscillation is challenging in Yb-doped Q-switched 1120-nm fiber laser,which is suppressed by pumping with a fiber laser at 1018 nm.At least four times improvement in output peak power is demonstrated in a single laser setup with 1018-nm fiber laser pumping instead of 976-nm laser diode pumping.This is,to the best of our knowledge,the first demonstration of a tandem-pumped Q-switched fiber laser.     

Single-frequency operation of diode-pumped Yb:KYW at 1003.4 nm and 501.7 nm by intracavity second harmonic generation

Thanks to its high emission cross section around 1000 nm, Yb:KYW is a good candidate for laser operation near 1000 nm as shown in our figure of merit. We demonstrated, for the first time to our knowledge, laser operation of Yb:KYW at 1003.4 nm. The single-frequency operation was achieved in a ring oscillator whereas the second harmonic generation in the blue was carried out with a KNbO₃ crystal put inside the cavity. More than 500 mW at 1003.4 nm and 35 mW at 501.7 nm were produced simultaneously. This visible wavelength corresponds to an iodine transition previously studied with argon ionized lasers for metrological applications. PACS 42.55.Xi; 42.72.Hj; 42.72.Bj     

Diode-pumped passively mode-locked Nd:Lu0.15Y0.85VO4 laser with a single-walled carbon nanotube saturable absorber

Diode-pumped passively mode-locked Nd:Lu_0.15Y_0.85VO₄ laser with a single-walled carbon nanotube saturable absorber was demonstrated for the first time, to our best knowledge. The laser generated 19-ps pulses with maximum output power of 902 mW for the incident pump power of 6.5 W at the central wavelength of 1064 nm, giving an optical conversion efficiency of 14%. The continuous wave mode-locking conditions of single-walled carbon nanotube saturable absorber were analyzed and discussed.     

4.5MW小型化全固态腔倒空飞秒掺钛蓝宝石激光器

研制了国内首台腔倒空克尔透镜自锁模掺钛蓝宝石激光器,该激光采用二极管抽运的全固态连续波532nm激光抽运.在5.4W的抽运功率下,获得了峰值功率大于4.5MW、脉宽小于18fs的稳定锁模脉冲,其重复频率可低至20kHz,所占尺寸约53.5cm×20.5cm.据知,此结果是迄今重复率最低、结构最紧凑的声光腔倒空飞秒激光器件 关键词： 掺钛蓝宝石 腔倒空 飞秒脉冲 克尔透镜锁模     

Single laser detection of CO and OH via laser-induced fluorescence

Two-photon laser-induced fluorescence detection of carbon monoxide with excitation in the Fourth Positive System near 280 nm is demonstrated in carbon monoxide/nitrogen mixtures at ambient conditions and in a methane/air Bunsen flame. Fully resolved rotational spectra are presented for the A–X (5,0) and (4,0) bands near 279 and 284 nm, respectively. Energy transfer from excited molecular nitrogen to carbon monoxide with subsequent fluorescence from carbon monoxide that was reported for low pressure conditions in the literature has also been observed at atmospheric conditions. It was further demonstrated that overlaps of some CO A–X (4,0) rotational lines with OH A–X (1,0) rotational lines allow simultaneous excitation of both species with a single laser. The fluorescence bands are completely separated, enabling detection without crosstalk. Detection limits are adequate to detect CO in nascent state in a flame and it is expected that for application in high-pressure, low-temperature combustion environments, where high quantities of CO are present, this approach can provide advantages compared to the excitation of CO at shorter wavelengths due to decreased laser beam attenuation.     

Single wall carbon nanotube absorber with polarization absorption grown by vertical evaporation method

We have demonstrated single wall carbon nanotube absorber fabricated by vertical evaporation method. The saturation intensity of the absorber is 600 μJ/cm² at 940 nm and 200 μJ/cm² at 1060 nm. The modulation depth of the absorber is as high as 4% at 940 and 1060 nm. Furthermore, we found the Modulated probe signal is related to the polarization of the pump laser in pump-probe experiment.     

Fabrication and characterization of double-wall carbon nanotube absorber for passive mode-locked Nd:GdVO<Subscript>4</Subscript> laser

Using the vertical evaporation technique we fabricated saturable absorbers by transferring the double-wall carbon nanotubes (DWCNT) onto a hydrophilic quartz substrate. The fast recovery time and the saturation intensity of the absorber were measured to be 228 fs and 130 μJ/cm², respectively, at 1060 nm. The modulation depth of the absorber was about 3.7%. Passive mode-locked Nd:GdVO₄ laser was demonstrated. The continuous wave mode-locked pulses pulse duration is 5.6 ps and the largest average output power is 1.2 W at the pump power of 9.5 W. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first demonstration of high power continuous wave mode locking laser with DWCNT absorber.     

Dual-wavelength Nd:YAG crystal laser at 1074 and 1112 nm

We reported an efficient laser-diode (LD) end-pumped CW dual-wavelength Nd:YAG crystal laser operating at 1074 and 1112 nm simultaneously, for the first time to our knowledge. The maximum output power was 3.15 W with an optical conversion efficiency of 23.6%. Considering the broad absorption of carbonylhemoglobin and hemoglobin located at about 538 and 555 nm, respectively, we proposed that this dual-wavelength laser is an important source for detecting carbon monoxide poisoning by simple frequency doubling.     

Efficient Nd:YVO_4 laser in-band pumped by wavelength-locked 913.9-nm laser diode and Q-switch operation

An efficient 1064-nm Nd:YVO_4laser in-band pumped by a wavelength-locked laser diode(LD) at 913.9 nm was demonstrated. The maximum continuous wave(CW) output power of 23.4 W at 1064 nm was realized with the incident pump power of 40 W, corresponding to a total optical-to-optical efficiency of 58.5%. This is to the best of our knowledge the highest total optical-to-optical efficiency and output power of Nd:YVO_4laser in-band pumped by a 913.9-nm laser diode.The Q-switched operation of this laser was also investigated. Through a contrast experiment of pumping at 808 nm, the experimental results showed that an Nd:YVO_4laser in-band pumped by a wavelength-locked LD at 913.9 nm had excellent pulse stability and beam quality for high repetition rate Q-switching operation.     

Highly efficient mode-locked Yb:Sc2O3 laser

Passive mode locking of the Yb:Sc2O3 laser is demonstrated. We investigate the laser performance with Ti:sapphire and diode-laser pumping. The laser is mode locked by use of a semiconductor saturable-absorber mirror and emits as much as 0.8 W of power in the picosecond range with a pump efficiency as high as 47%. With dispersion compensation, pulses as short as 230 fs for an average power of 0.54 W are obtained at 1044 nm. This is, to our knowledge, the first femtosecond oscillator based on an Yb-doped sesquioxide crystal.