高功率固体激光装置光学元件"缺陷"分布与光束近场质量的定量关系研究

基于光传输理论,获得了弱调制情况下光学元件"缺陷"分布功率谱密度 (power spectral density, PSD)与光束近场强度分布PSD之间的定量关系;通过数值模拟的方法,针对高功率固体激光装置的基本单元(线性介质、非线性介质以及空间滤波器)对获得的理论关系进行了具体的验证和讨论.研究结果表明,弱调制下,只存在振幅型或位相型"缺陷"分布时,光学元件"缺陷"分布PSD与光束近场强度分布PSD通过近场强度分布PSD的系统传输因子联系,传输因子与系统的构型和运行状态有关.研究结果为光学元件"缺陷"分布指标的获得提供了理论基础,对高功率固体激光装置负载能力的提升起到了一定的指导作用. 关键词： 缺陷分布 功率谱密度 光学元件 光束质量     

部分相干平顶光束在线性增益(损耗)介质中的光谱特性

根据Li提出的平顶光束模型和部分相干光理论，推导出部分相干平顶光束在线性增益(损耗)介质中传输的光谱分布解析表达式，定量研究了部分相干平顶光束在线性增益(损耗)介质中传输的光谱特性，分析了近场和远场轴上光谱的变化特点，以及介质的增益(损耗)特性、光源的中心频率、空间相干参数以及谱宽等因素对光谱变化的影响. 研究结果表明，部分相干平顶光束在线性增益(损耗)介质中传输时，光源的中心频率、光谱宽度、空间相干参数对相对谱移量影响较大，但对光谱分布随传输距离的总体变化趋势影响较小，而光谱分布随传输距离的总体变化趋势则主要由平顶光束的阶数所决定. 关键词： 部分相干平顶光束 光谱特性 谱移 线性增益(损耗)介质     

一种用于高斯光束整形的衍折射光学元件的研究

由衍射光学元件（ＤＯＥ）和折射透镜组成的衍折射光学元件，用于较大功率密度和光束半径的高斯光束的聚焦。运用ＧＳ算法，用外围的ＤＯＥ产生一个偏移的高斯光束分布，与中心的折射透镜会聚后的高斯光束相干叠加在一个很小的聚焦圆内，在聚焦圆内的光强分布不平整度小于５％。给出了一个圆域基模高斯光束的整形分布，计算误差小于３．５％。     

光学元件“缺陷”对助推放大级光束质量的影响

 光学元件“缺陷”制约着高功率固体激光装置负载能力的提升。从统计角度建立了振幅调制型“缺陷”模型,并针对神光Ⅲ原型装置助推放大级分析了“缺陷”分布的统计参量与光束近场质量的关系,得到了一般规律。结果表明,“缺陷”总密度的增加和幂指数的减小都使系统输出光强的中高频成分增加,光束近场质量变差;总密度的变化引起光强各中高频成分变化的幅度近似相等,频率间相对比重基本保持不变,幂指数的变化却会引起各频率间相对比重发生变化;一定范围内,“缺陷”尺寸越大对近场质量的影响越严重;对于助推段,需将元件的“缺陷”总密度控制在600 cm^-2以下,幂指数控制在2.5以上。研究结果可为降低元件的损伤风险以提高系统的运行负载提供参考。     

部分相干双曲余弦-高斯光束的传输特性和空间整形

 通过加入高斯项的空间相干度，引入部分相干双曲余弦-高斯（ChG）光束，推导出部分相干ChG光束通过近轴ABCD光学系统传输的解析表达式，并用以研究其传输特性和空间整形。结果表明，部分相干ChG光束的光强分布不能保持传输不变性，其光强分布不仅与传输距离和离心参数有关，而且还与空间相干参数有关。在传输距离固定时，适当改变部分相干ChG 光束的离心参数和空间相干参数，可实现光束的空间整形。光束质量因子随空间相干性的增大和离心参数的减小而减小。高斯-谢尔模型光束和完全相干ChG光束可作为部分相干ChG光束的特例处理。     

基于液晶空间光调制器的激光束整形

采用相位混合算法(PMA)与平滑修正法相结合的混合算法,对激光发出的高斯光束进行整形,得到了均方误差和顶部不均匀度均明显降低的等光强分布。利用液晶空间光调制器(LCSLM)的相位调制特性,实现了对高斯光束的光束整形,获得了光强均匀分布的圆光束和矩形光束输出。得到的输出光束顶部不均匀度和均方误差都低于5%,能量集中度在90%以上。表明此方法是一种实时、可控和高效的激光束整形方法。     

强激光对传输光学元件热效应的数值模拟研究

强激光通过反射镜、窗口等光学元件传输过程中，光学材料对激光会有微弱的吸收，由此引起光学元件的热畸变，影响传输效率和远场能量集中度。基于三维瞬态热传导方程和弹性应力-应变方程，研究了波长1.315μm非对称环形强激光束辐照下硅反射镜、白宝石窗口的温度、变形和应力的分布规律，特别研究了激光强度、激光输出时间、光束遮拦比、光强分布的空间梯度等对元件热效应的影响；还研究了波长3．8μm非对称空心矩形激光束辐照下氟玻璃窗口温度、变形和应力的分布规律。计算了变形对光束波前位相和光束质量的影响。     

激光束散角复合控制技术

为了降低部分相干光光学系统设计的复杂度及成本,增加部分相干光应用的便捷性,提出了一种液晶空间光调制器的激光相干度及束散角复合控制方法。首先介绍了对激光光束进行相干度和束散角复合控制的基本理论和方法;然后分别设置了相干度和束散角检测实验,检测了本方法所调制激光光束的相干度和束散角的准确性。实验结果表明,采用液晶空间光调制器生成相干度为0.9 mm、束散角为7.5 mrad,以及相干度为1.5 mm、束散角为3.8 mrad的部分相干光束,其相干度与理论值相比误差在5%以内,其相干度均方根误差分别为0.027386和0.031314,峰谷值分别为0.084658和0.089103;其束散角与理论值相比误差在5%以内,其束散角均方根误差分别为0.022478和0.023186,峰谷值分别为0.081201和0.092130。可见,该方法可以实现高精度的相干度及束散角复合控制。     

角锥棱镜激光谐振腔的基本特性

 分析了角锥棱镜对光束的相位变换作用，带二面角误差的角锥棱镜可等效于6块光楔的组合，其楔角的大小和方向由二面角误差决定。对在腔内往返传输的光线在镜面上的位置进行了分析，结果表明：3个二面角误差相同且不为零的角锥棱镜构成的谐振腔为约束非稳腔。用Fox-Li迭代法数值模拟得到了不同棱镜二面角误差情况下的谐振模式。模拟结果表明：圆形镜腔情况下基本振荡模式接近于TEM₀₃模的拉盖尔高斯光束；当3个二面角误差不相同时，模式中各个区域的强度分布不对称。采用3个二面角误差基本接近且绝对值较小的棱镜可以提高光束质量。     

变形镜部分驱动器断电失效对校正性能的影响

变形镜在长期工作的过程中,压电陶瓷驱动器因累积疲劳效应会导致其失效,从而导致校正性能的降低。从变形镜的影响函数出发,将失效驱动器的电压置零,采用有限元方法建立变形镜疲劳失效模型,重点分析畸变波前的形态分布、入射光束的类型和驱动器的排布方式等对校正能力的影响。实验结果表明,在部分驱动器失效的情况下,变形镜应当根据高斯型随机畸变波前的形态分布进行失效分析。从低频部分来看,在第1圈驱动器失效的情况下,变形镜对三种入射光束的校正效果几乎相同,当驱动器失效位置在其他圈数时,变形镜对高斯光束的校正效果最差;从高频部分来看,在不同位置驱动器失效的情况下,变形镜对平顶高斯光束的校正效果最佳。     

Propagation of partially coherent partially phase-locked laser array in turbulent atmosphere

The mechanism for beam quality degradation in recently developed phase locking of high power solid state lasers, which is caused mainly by partially coherent property of element beam and partially phase locking of the laser array, is analyzed in detail. Analytical expression for propagation of partially coherent partially phase-locked laser array in turbulent atmosphere is obtained based on extended Huygens-Fresnel principle. The effect of coherence width, phase error and intensity of turbulence on the beam quality in the target-plane is studied in detail. The tolerance on phase error for laser array with different coherence property is analyzed. It is concluded that the laser array with better coherence is more sensitive to turbulence, and phase control can improve beam quality in the receiving plane only in the case when the element beam has good beam quality and propagates in weak turbulence.     

Tolerance on tilt error for coherent combining of fiber lasers

Limited by the precision of optical machining and assembling, the optical axes of lasers in an array cannot be strictly parallel to each other, which will result in the beam quality degradation of the combined beam. The tolerance on tilt error for coherent combining of fiber lasers is studied in detail. The complex amplitude distribution in the far field for the Gaussian beam with tilt angle is obtained by a novel coordinate transform method. Effect of tilt error on coherent combining is modelled analytically. Beam propagation factor is used to evaluate the effect of coherent combining. Numerical results show that for ring-distributed fiber laser array with central wavelength A and geometry size D, if the root-mean-square （RMS） value of the tilt error is smaller than 0.72A/D, the energy encircled in the diffraction-limited bucket can be ensured to be more than 50% of the value when there is no tilt error. The results are helpful to the designing and manufacturing of fiber array for coherent combining.     

高能激光光束质量β因子的影响因素分析

采用二维线性调频z变换算法,分析了影响高能激光系统光束质量β因子测量准确性的因素。本文详细分析了采样点数(即衍射极限内的采样点数)和衍射光斑图像的能量损失率对光束质量β因子的影响。在衍射极限角直径2(λ/D)范围内不同采样点数的模拟结果表明:采样点数越高,光斑衍射图像的分辨率越高,进而光束质量β因子计算越准确。在一倍衍射极限角2.44(λ/D)范围内应最低不少于10个采样点,即可将β因子的测量误差控制在3%。同时,不同像差对光斑图像能量损失率的敏感程度不同,相同能量损失率下,高阶像差的β因子测量误差要高于低阶像差。特别是球差类的像差对能量损失最为敏感,约5%的能量损失就可带来15%~30%的β因子计算误差。     

Cavity-enhanced optical frequency doubler based on transmission-mode Hänsch–Couillaud locking

A variant of the Hänsch–Couillaud technique for locking the pump laser frequency to a cavity-enhanced optical frequency doubler is presented. In contrast to the original scheme in which the pump laser light reflected by the enhancement cavity is monitored, the error signal for locking is obtained by polarization analysis of the light transmitted by the cavity. The cavity serves as a spectral and spatial filter for the pump beam, making the transmission-mode locking method particularly useful if the beam quality is poor. Experimental validation of the method is demonstrated by generating more than 190 mW of stable 461 nm light from a cavity-enhanced frequency doubler that is pumped by a diode laser system.     

High power and high beam quality CW green beam generated by diode-side-pumped intracavity frequency doubled Nd:YAG laser

We report a stable high power and high beam quality diode-side-pumped CW green laser from intracavity frequency doubled Nd:YAG laser with LBO crystal. By using a advanced resonator, a large fundamental mode size in the laser crystal and a tight focus in the nonlinear crystal could be obtained simultaneously, which are favorable for high power and high beam quality CW green laser generation. The green laser delivered a maximum 532 nm output power of 40 W. The corresponding optical-to-optical conversion efficiency and electrical-to-optical conversion efficiency were 8.6% and 5.0%, respectively. Under 532 nm output power of 34 W, the beam quality factor was measured to be 1.6.     

傅里叶望远镜中激光频移误差对成像质量影响的分析

傅里叶望远镜成像技术,综合了激光主动成像技术、光学合成孔径技术和相位闭合技术是一种新的高分辨率成像探测技术。激光频移的效果是影响傅里叶望远镜成像质量的重要因素,特别是使用大功率、宽光束和宽调制带宽激光的系统。构建了不同的误差模型,推导了频移误差在系统中的传递函数,利用仿真实验分析其对系统成像的影响,得到了对应的误差影响分析。结果表明,频移精度和稳定度严重影响到系统的成像效果,部分情况下含有误差的反演图像与理论反演图像的施特雷尔值已降到0.2,因此合理的设计和选择声光频移器是改善系统成像的一个关键因素。     

基于多层介质膜光栅的谱合成系统光束特性分析

针对多层介质膜光栅在光束谱合成系统中的应用, 利用光线追迹方法, 建立了基于多层介质膜光栅的谱合成系统光传输模型. 多层介质膜光栅引入的相位调制包括浮雕表面上光程差与浮雕结构光程差两部分, 且受到光栅槽深、占空比和光束入射角等因素的影响. 利用衍射积分方法和光束非相干叠加原理, 计算模拟了基于多层介质膜光栅的谱合成系统的合成光束光强分布. 在此基础上, 利用强度二阶矩方法分析了合成光束的光束质量, 并讨论了多层介质膜光栅的槽深、占空比和制作误差等因素对合成光束特性的影响. 结果表明: 改变多层介质膜光栅的槽深和占空比以及中心光束入射角会影响合成光束能量, 但不会影响合成光束的光束质量, 合成光束的光束质量始终保持与单个子光束的光束质量相当; 多层介质膜光栅的制作误差对合成光束的光束质量和能量均存在明显影响.     

Comparative study on the propagation performance of coherently combined and incoherently combined beams

Taking phase error, turbulent atmosphere, jitter, vacancy factor and tilt error into consideration, we propose a general propagation formula for both coherent and incoherent combined beams with different kinds of aberrations. Comparative study on the propagation performance of coherent and incoherent combined beams is presented. Beam propagation factor (BPF) defined as laser output power in a specified far-field bucket divided by the total output power radiating from the effective near-field exit aperture of the laser beam is introduced as the beam quality factor to give a quantitative study. It is revealed that the coherent combined beam has great advantage when propagating in free-space compared with the incoherent combined beams. However, the coherent combined beam is more sensitive to the environmental aberrations, and the beam quality degrades faster with an increase in the aberrations’ intensity. Scintillation index as the high moments of the combined intensity field is also studied. It is revealed that both coherent and incoherent combined beams exhibit less scintillations compared with a single-aperture beam, and the incoherent combined beam demonstrates better scintillations reducing the performance. Our methodology offers an all-round performance evaluation on the two kinds of laser systems.     

A novel raster-scanning method to fabricate ultra-fine cross-gratings for the generation of electron beam moiré fringe patterns

The resolution of the electron beam moiré method depends on the line frequency of the grating. Recently, more and more effort has been devoted to increase the frequency, and a novel method for producing high-resolution electron beam gratings is presented in this work. Cross-gratings with a frequency up to 14,832 lines/mm (67 nm pitch) were successfully fabricated using a common scanning electron microscope without a dedicated pattern generation system. The quality of the grating was high enough to produce high-quality moiré fringe patterns. In this method, the ultra-fine cross-grating can be fabricated only through one-directional scanning on the resist, which can improve the grating quality and significantly reduces the fabrication time. The number of control parameters for grating fabrication could be reduced to two compared to the six parameters required by conventional methods, which facilitates the use of the electron beam moiré method. The frequency of the fabricated grating is linearly proportional to the exposure magnification. Thus, the frequency of the grating can be accurately predetermined, and the null field can be easily obtained in the electron beam moiré method. The quality of the fabricated gratings was illustrated by the obtained micrographs and moiré fringe patterns. The full-field local strain near an induced crack was studied to verify the application potential of this method.     

高功率激光器腔镜热变形对输出光束质量的影响

利用有限元分析法结合Fox-Li迭代法,考虑腔内本征模式与腔镜热形变的相互耦合作用,计算模拟了正支共焦非稳腔的本征模式分布,定量分析了高功率激光器腔镜热变形对输出光束质量的影响,重点讨论了腔镜热变形所引起的腔内本征模式相位特性的变化,并从波前功率谱密度、Zernike像差系数及光束质量值等角度对腔镜发生热形变前后的激光器输出光束的光束特性进行比较分析。研究结果表明:高功率激光器腔镜热形变对输出光束的光束质量会产生一定的影响,且随着激光输出功率的增大,镜面热形变引起的输出光束波前相位高频比例及Zernike高阶像差均会有所增大,波前畸变程度也明显变大,光束质量逐渐变差。