Phase-coherent frequency combs in the vacuum ultraviolet via high-harmonic generation inside a femtosecond enhancement cavity

We demonstrate the generation of phase-coherent frequency combs in the vacuum utraviolet spectral region. The output from a mode-locked laser is stabilized to a femtosecond enhancement cavity with a gas jet at the intracavity focus. The resulting high-peak power of the intracavity pulse enables efficient high-harmonic generation by utilizing the full repetition rate of the laser. Optical-heterodyne-based measurements reveal that the coherent frequency comb structure of the original laser is fully preserved in the high-harmonic generation process. These results open the door for precision frequency metrology at extreme ultraviolet wavelengths and permit the efficient generation of phase-coherent high-order harmonics using only a standard laser oscillator without active amplification of single pulses.     

Picosecond-pulse amplification with an external passive optical cavity

We experimentally demonstrate the amplification of picosecond pulses at high repetition rates through the coherent addition of successive pulses of a mode-locked pulse train in a high-finesse optical cavity equipped with cavity dumping. Amplification greater than 30 times is obtained at a repetition rate of 253 kHz, boosting the 5.3-nJ pulses from a commercial mode-locked picosecond Ti:sapphire laser to pulse energies of more than 150 nJ.     

Pulse energy modulation of the cw-mode-locked 1.32 μm Nd-YAG-laser by drive frequency detuning

The frequency of an acousto-optic mode-locker is detuned from the fundamental resonance frequency of the cavity resulting in undamped oscillations of the laser pulse energy. The envelope of the mode-locked pulse train consists of spikes 10 μs wide with a repetition time of 46 μs. The energy of the mode-locked pulses in a spike is increased by up to a factor of 50 compared to a cw-mode-locked pulse. The pulse width can be as short as 700 ps.     

High-energy long-pulse Nd:YAG picosecond laser

A long train of actively mode-locked pulses is obtained from a negative feedback controlled Nd:YAG laser. The 70s pulse train contains up to 0.1 J energy and the duration of the picosecond pulses is 120 ps. The laser is operated at a repetition rate of 20 Hz. ActiveQ-control of the cavity generates a short pulse train of duration 50 to 70 ns. An excellent peak-to-background intensity ratio of the correlation function for the picosecond pulses in the train of 5×10³ is reported.     

脉冲幅度均匀化的有理谐波锁模光纤激光器

提出并实现了一种脉冲幅度可均匀化的有理谐波锁模光纤激光器。该激光器采用主动有理谐波锁模机制,可获得重复频率为整数倍调制频率的锁模脉冲信号。通过在光纤激光器谐振腔中添加非线性光纤放大环镜,并利用其反射率对输入信号强度的开关特性,实现对锁模脉冲信号的整幅。在1 GHz的调制频率下,分别获得了4 GHz和5 GHz重复频率的锁模脉冲信号输出,并且在一定的980 nm抽运功率下,可通过调节电光调制器的直流偏置电压大小以及调制信号的调制深度,使得脉冲幅度具有较好的均匀性。     

Ultrahigh-resolution coherence spectroscopy by means of periodic excitation with picosecond pulses

The feasibility of ultrahigh-resolution coherence spectroscopy with a train of picosecond light pulses from a synchronously pumped mode-locked and cavity-dumped dye laser is demonstrated. Narrow resonances of periodic pulse excitation are observed whenever the pulse repetition rate of the laser of a higher harmonic coincides with the frequency splitting of coherently excited levels. The zero-field hyperfine splitting of the Na-ground state (1771.6 MHz) could be measured in the 2100th order of the excitation rate with a resonance halfwidth of 800 Hz.     

Diode-pumped passively Q-switched mode-locked Nd:LuVO4 laser with a semiconductor saturable absorber mirror

We present a compact passively Q-switched mode-locked Nd:LuVO₄ laser run in a Z-type folded cavity with semiconductor saturable absorber mirror (SESAM). The repetition rates of the passively Q-switched pulse envelope ranges from 22.99 to 141.18 kHz as the pump power increased from 2.372 to 8.960 W. The repetition rates of mode-locked laser pulses in the Q-switched pulse envelope has 111 MHz determined by the cavity length and the mode-locked pulse duration is evaluated to be 257 ps. An average output power of 823.5 mW is achieved at the pump power of 8.96 W, corresponding to an optical conversion efficiency of 9.2%.     

Dual-wavelength synchronously mode-locked Nd:CNGG laser

We have experimentally demonstrated a dual-wavelength synchronously mode-locked Nd:CNGG laser based on the semiconductor saturable absorber mirror technique. Mode locking was achieved simultaneously on two gain bands of the crystal that have a central wavelength separation of 2.4 nm. The fundamental mode-locked pulse train has a repetition rate of 88 MHz and pulse duration of 5 ps, with an average output power of approximately 90 mW. Autocorrelation measurements show that each of the synchronously mode-locked pulses consists of a train of quasi-periodic beat pulses with a 660 fs pulse width and a 0.63 THz repetition rate.     

Generation of 10-GHz ultra-short pulses with low time jitter in an actively mode-locked fiber laser

We have experimentally achieved the 8.3-ps ultra-short pulse at 10 GHz repetition rate with the time jitter as low as 590 fs in an actively mode-locked fiber ring laser. The ring-cavity laser is mode-locked by a semiconductor optical amplifier based on cross-gain modulation. The external CW source is modulated with radio frequency signal by an amplitude modulator as the external optical pulses and, then, injected into the fiber ring cavity to achieve active mode locking. Further investigating the laser output characteristics, it indicates that the linewidth of employed CW source affects properties of the generated ultra-short pulse, such as phase noise and time jitter. Ultra-short pulse at high repetition rate with low time jitter can be generated by the optimization of CW laser source.     

Regenerative mode locking via superposition of higher-order cavity modes in composite cavity fiber lasers

We demonstrate a new method of optical pulse generation in regeneratively mode-locked fiber ring lasers (RML-FRLs). The method is based on generating dominant longitudinal modes in the fiber ring cavity by means of a composite cavity structure and their intermode beating at the photodetector incorporated in the regenerative feedback loop. The beat signal is then used as a modulation signal to generate optical pulses in a regenerative mode-locking scheme, thereby eliminating the requirement for a high-Q rf bandpass filter in a conventional RML-FRL. Optical pulses with a repetition frequency of 3.6 GHz have been generated successfully with a supermode noise suppression of more than 48 dB and a low phase noise of -85 dBc/Hz at 10 kHz offset from the carrier frequency.     

Ultralow-jitter passive timing stabilization of a mode-locked Er-doped fiber laser by injection of an optical pulse train

The pulse timing of a mode-locked Er-doped fiber laser was stabilized to a reference pulse train from a Cr:forsterite mode-locked laser by all-optical passive synchronization scheme. The reference pulses were injected into a ring cavity of the fiber laser by using a 1.3-1.5 mum wavelength-division multiplexer. The spectral shift induced by cross-phase modulation between copropagating two-color pulses realizes self-synchronization due to intracavity group-delay dispersion. The rms integration of timing jitter between the fiber laser pulse and the reference pulse was 3.7 fs in a Fourier frequency range from 1 Hz to 100 kHz.     

Cavity-enhanced similariton Yb-fiber laser frequency comb: 3 x 10(14) W/cm2 peak intensity at 136 MHz

We report on a passive cavity-enhanced Yb-fiber laser frequency comb generating 230 MW of peak power (3 kW of average power) at a 136 MHz pulse repetition rate. The intracativy peak intensity of 3 x 10(14) W/cm2 for the 95 fs pulse is sufficient to ionize noble gases, such as Xe, Kr, or Ar. The laser system is based on a mode-locked Yb-fiber similariton oscillator in conjunction with a cladding-pumped chirped-pulse fiber amplifier. After recompression, 75 fs duration pulses at a 13.1 W average power are obtained. These pulses are then coherently added inside a passive ring cavity by controlling the fiber oscillator's pulse repetition rate and carrier-envelope offset frequency. This system is well suited for studying high-field phenomena at very high pulse repetition rates.     

全光纤主动锁模2 μm掺铥脉冲激光器

报道了全光纤结构主动锁模掺铥脉冲激光器,中心波长为1950 nm。利用电光相位调制器对光纤激光器进行腔内相位调制,获得了重复频率为11.884 MHz的主动锁模脉冲输出,脉宽为816 ps。改变泵浦功率、调制信号的频率和幅度,获得了重复频率为4~18 kHz的弛豫振荡调制稳定脉冲输出。锁模和弛豫振荡调制获得的输出脉冲能量波动低于7%。     

High-average-power, 1-MW peak-power self-mode-locked Ti:sapphire oscillator

We describe a novel self-mode-locked Ti:sapphire ring laser that produces 13-fs pulses with peak powers exceeding 1 MW, pulse energies of 13 nJ, and average mode-locked output powers of 1.5 W at a cavity repetition frequency of 110 MHz. A complete resonator analysis describing the optimum mode-locking configuration is presented, together with fringe-resolved autocorrelation and sonogram measurements of the output pulses.     

Direct generation of 81 nJ pulses and external compression to a subpicosecond regime with a 4.9 MHz chirped-pulse multipass-cavity Cr⁴⁺:forsterite oscillator

We report direct generation of 81 nJ chirped pulses from a room-temperature, Kerr lens mode-locked Cr??:forsterite oscillator operating at 1258 nm. To increase the pulse energy, the pulse repetition rate of the short x-type resonator was lowered from 143 to 4.9 MHz by the addition of a q-preserving multipass cavity, which provided an additional effective optical path length of 59.4 m. The duration of the chirped pulses was around 5.5 ps with a spectral width of 21 nm. The pulses were externally compressed to 607 fs by using a diffraction grating pair. To our knowledge, this is the highest reported pulse energy directly generated from a room-temperature mode-locked Cr??:forsterite laser.     

Experimental study of actively mode-locked semiconductor laser with grating external cavity

In this paper,complete mode-locking optical pulses have been obtained froman actively mode-locked GaAs/GaAlAs semiconductor laser with grating external cavity.Theshortest optical pulse is 7.3 ps measured by second harmonic generation(SHG)autocorrelator.The repetition rate is 995.12 MHz and the central wavelength is 798.4 nm.The effect ofmodulation frequency,modulation current,and bias current on the optical pulses width areinvestigated.     

Femtosecond Cr(4+):YAG laser with an L-fold cavity operating at a 1.2-GHz repetition rate

Pulses of 55-fs width and 1.2-GHz repetition rate at 1.52 mum are generated from an L-fold cavity Cr(4+):YAG laser by optimization of the lasing-beam mode inside the gain medium. The pulse width is comparable with that obtained from a standard Z-fold cavity. The pulses are characterized by a second-harmonic-generation frequency-resolved optical gating method. The pulse shape deviates from a sech(2) function because of its broad shoulders. With further miniaturization it should be possible to extend the Cr(4+):YAG mode-locked operation to multigigahertz rates.     

Single pulse extraction from a mode-locked pulse train using a dye-laser amplifier

A new method to generate high power, short light pulses with a moderate iteration frequency is described. The pulse train of the actively mode-locked Kr laser was sent into a dye-laser amplifier pumped by a N₂ laser. The trigger of the N₂ laser was generated by dividing the modulation frequency of the mode-locking into moderately low frequency (≈ 50 Hz). Only one pulse in the input train was largely amplified by one N₂ laser pulse and the intense short pulses were generated with ≈ 50 Hz iteration.     

66 W average power from a microjoule-class sub-100 fs fiber oscillator

Performance scaling of passively mode-locked ultrashort-pulse fiber oscillators in terms of average power, peak power, and pulse energy is demonstrated. A very-large-mode-area fiber laser in an all-positive group-velocity-dispersion ring cavity configuration with intracavity spectral filter, mode-locked by nonlinear polarization evolution, emits 66 W of average power at 76 MHz repetition rate, corresponding to 0.9 μJ pulse energy. The pulses are dechirped to 91 fs outside the cavity with an average power of 60 W remaining after the compressor. The generated pulse peak power is as high as 7 MW.     

Passive mode locking of a Nd:YVO4 laser with an extra-long optical resonator

We describe a mode-locked, diode-pumped Nd:YVO4 laser with a very long optical cavity operating at 1064 nm. High-modulation, InGaAs quantum-well, semiconductor saturable-absorber mirrors were used for passive mode locking, providing a stable train of 13-ps pulses. A novel zero-q-transformation multipass cell provided a variable-length optical cavity as much as 100 m long. The output beam had M2 < 1.1 at average powers of 4.1, 3.9, and 3.5 W at repetition rates of 4.1, 2.6, and 1.5 MHz, respectively. To the best of our knowledge the last of these is the lowest repetition rate ever generated directly from a mode-locked nonfiber solid-state laser without cavity dumping.