Diode-pumped 10-fs Cr3+:LiCAF laser

We demonstrate 10-fs pulses from a diode-pumped, soft-aperture Kerr lens mode-locked Cr3+:LiCAF laser with a spectral bandwidth of 150 nm and 40 mW of output power at a repetition rate of 110 MHz. For dispersion compensation, double-chirped mirrors and prisms are used. The pulses are characterized by use of spectral shearing interferometry.     

同步泵浦PML飞秒激光研究

采用CW锁模YAG倍频激光器同步泵浦PML飞秒染料激光器,产生了平均脉宽约55fs、功率为15mW的光脉冲。文章在理论和实验上还研究了同步泵浦飞秒激光脉冲产生技术。     

Generation of 20-fs pulses by a prismless Cr(4+):YAG laser

Ultrafast optical pulses shorter than 20 fs with 400-mW average power at a 110-MHz repetition rate have been generated by a Cr(4+):YAG laser with only double-chirped mirrors for dispersion compensation. The corresponding pulse spectrum has a peak intensity at 1450 nm and extends from 1310 to 1500 nm full width at half-maximum (FWHM). These pulses, which are believed to be the shortest generated to date from a Cr(4+):YAG laser, are only four optical cycles within the FWHM intensity width.     

Vacuum ultraviolet pulses of 11 fs from fifth-harmonic generation of a Ti:sapphire laser

We demonstrate that in a short Ar cell, generation of the fifth harmonic from 12 fs pulses at 810 nm directly results in ultrashort vacuum UV pulses at 162 nm. They have a spectral width of approximately 5 nm and a duration of 11+/-1 fs (1.4 times the transform limit), as measured by cross correlation with the fundamental pulses. Their energy (estimated to 4 nJ) turned out to be sufficient for use as a pump in time-resolved experiments.     

Artificial spectral filtering in dissipative soliton fiber lasers with invisible bandpass filters

We numerically study the artificial spectral-filtering effect in dissipative soliton fiber lasers without intracavity spectral filters. It is found that in dissipative soliton lasers with real saturable absorbers (SAs), the dynamic spectral filtering of the real SAs serves as an artificial spectral filter and contributes to the pulse shaping. While in the dissi- pative soliton lasers with artificial SAs, such as nonlinear polarization rotation, the spectral filtering introduced by the intracavity polarization-dependent components acts as an artificial spectral filter and shapes the pulses to obtain mode-locking. An investigation of the artificial spectral-filtering effect reveals the operating mechanisms of the dissipative soliton fiber lasers without visible bandpass filters.     

Sub-picosecond pulses at 100 W average power from a Yb:YLF chirped-pulse amplification system

We present a high-repetition-frequency, diode-pumped, and chirped-pulse amplification system operating at 106 W average output power with excellent beam quality (M(2)=1.3), based on cryogenically cooled Yb:YLF. 1 nJ seed pulses, derived from a mode-locked Ti:sapphire laser, are first amplified to 1 mJ pulse energy at 10 kHz repetition frequency in a regenerative amplifier. The second-stage, multipass amplifier increases the pulse energy to 10.6 mJ, resulting in a spectral width of 2.2 nm. The pulses are compressed to 865 fs in duration, which is 1.26 times the transform limit.     

Generation of tunable octave-spanning mid-infrared pulses by filamentation in gas media

The continued development of femtosecond mid-infrared (IR) sources with ultrabroad spectral width is critical for probing and controlling complex molecular structural dynamics on an ultrafast timescale. We report on a sub-20 fs, coherent mid-IR source with an octave-spanning spectral bandwidth (>2000 cm(-1)) tunable from 2-8 micrometers (37.5-150 THz), with energy >0.4 μJ/pulse at 1 kHz. The mid-IR pulses are generated by four-wave mixing during the filamentation of intense 800 nm and 400 nm pulses in various gas media. Spectral tunability is achieved by the choice of gas, pressure and input 800 nm pulse energy.     

High-power, passively mode-locked Nd:GdVO₄ laser using single-walled carbon nanotubes as saturable absorber

We use a new (to our knowledge) fabrication method of a single-walled carbon nanotube (SWCNT) absorber without polymer to sustain high-power illumination. Using a series of saturable absorbers (SAs) incorporating different amounts of SWCNTs, we demonstrate mode-locking for a Nd:GdVO? laser in the 1 μm spectral range. Continuous-wave mode-locking (CWML) pulses with a maximum output power of 3.6 W at 1063 nm and high noise extinction of 61 dB has been achieved to give the highest pulse peak power of 3.6 kW and pulse energy of 30 nJ under 15 W pumping. To our knowledge, this is the highest CWML output power with SWCNT-SAs reported. The measured nonlinear absorption of the SWCNT-SAs shows a modulation depth of ~3% with subpicosecond recovery time.     

Injection-seeded, gain-switched tunable Cr:ZnSe laser

We report a narrow-linewidth, tunable, gain-switched Cr:ZnSe laser operating between 2255 and 2455 nm. The spectral width of the laser was reduced from 125 nm to 0.3 nm by using injection seeding. Seeding was achieved with a second tunable CW Cr:ZnSe laser. The output wavelength was varied by tuning the wavelength of the seed laser. The seeded oscillator produced as high as 157 μJ pulses with 598 μJ incident pump pulse energy at a repetition rate of 1 kHz. The slope efficiency was determined to be 26%.     

High resolution FROG system for the characterization of ps laser pulses

We report on a frequency resolved optical gating (FROG) system which allows the reconstruction of amplitude and phase of picosecond pulses generated by mode-locked diode laser oscillators and amplifiers. The main challenge of developing such a FROG system is the required high spectral resolution. In the spectrometer a cylindrical grating with 1200 lines/mm and a radius of curvature of 3 m is used. A width of the illuminated area of 15 cm provides in a spectral resolution exceeding 2 GHz (1.4 pm) at 460 nm. The FROG system is, thus, well suited for analyzing ps-pulses with durations of up to 80 ps and a corresponding fourier-limited spectral width of 0.017 nm. PACS 42.55.Px; 42.65.Re; 42.60.Fc; 42.30.Rx     

Blue 489-nm picosecond pulses generated by intracavity frequency doubling in a passively mode-locked optically pumped semiconductor disk laser

We report the generation of blue 489-nm picosecond laser pulses by intracavity second-harmonic generation in a mode-locked optically pumped InGaAs vertical-external-cavity surface-emitting laser. Mode locking achieved by a semiconductor saturable absorber mirror generated 5.8-ps-long sech²-shaped pulses at an emission wavelength of 978 nm and a repetition rate of 1.88 GHz. Intracavity frequency doubling in a 5-mm-long lithium triborate crystal generated blue picosecond pulses with a spectral width of 0.15 nm and an average output power of up to 6 mW.     

钕玻璃啁啾脉冲放大器产生百焦耳亚皮秒脉冲

以钕玻璃为增益介质研制了高能啁啾脉冲激光放大器系统,实验演示输出啁啾脉冲能量在百焦耳量级时,光谱宽度保持在4—6 nm.最大能量168 J,相应谱宽5.5 nm,中心波长1054 nm.压缩脉冲宽度最短710 fs. 关键词： 啁啾脉冲放大 钕玻璃 高能拍瓦     

Enhancement and broadening of extreme-ultraviolet supercontinuum in a relative phase controlled two-color laser field

We experimentally demonstrate the generation of an extreme-ultraviolet (XUV) supercontinuum in argon with a two-color laser field consisting of an intense 7 fs pulse at 800 nm and a relatively weak 37 fs pulse at 400 nm. By controlling the relative time delay between the two laser pulses, we observe enhanced high-order harmonic generation as well as spectral broadening of the supercontinuum. A method to produce isolated attosecond pulses with variable width and intensity is proposed.     

Passive Q switching and self-frequency Raman conversion in a diode-pumped Yb:KGd(WO(4))(2) laser

We report on the laser performance of a diode-pumped Yb:KGd(WO(4))(2) laser that is passively Q switched with a Cr(4+):YAG saturable absorber. Raman conversion of fundamental laser emission in the laser crystal was demonstrated. Q-switched 3.4-mu;J pulses with a pulse width of 85 ns were obtained at the 1033-nm fundamental wavelength and 0.4-mu;J pulses with a pulse width of 20 ns were produced in a first Stokes at 1139 nm.     

Generation of 47 fs Pulses from an Er:Fiber Amplifier

We demonstrate a self-starting erbium fiber oscillator-amplifier system based on the nonlinear polarization rotation mode-locked mechanism. The direct output pulse from the amplifier is 47 fs with an average power of 1.22 W and a repetition rate of 50 MHz, corresponding to a pulse energy of 24 nJ. The full width at half-maximum of the spectrum of the output pulses is approximately 93 nm at a central wavelength of 1572 nm so that the transformlimited pulse duration is as short as 39 fs. Due to the imperfect dispersion compensation, we compress the pulses to 47 fs in this experiment.     

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.     

Generation of an isolated sub-100 attosecond pulse in the water-window spectral region

We propose a scheme to generate isolated attosecond pulses in the water-window spectral region. Based on the numerical solutions of the single active electron model, we investigate high-order harmonic generation in helium atoms driven by a multi-cycle two-colour optical field synthesized by an intense 2000 nm, 20 fs pulse and its frequency-doubled pulse. When the latter is slightly detuned and properly phase shifted with respect to the fundamental laser pulse, an ultra-broad extreme ultraviolet supercontinuum with a spectral width of 130~eV can be generated in the 270--400~eV spectral regions. A supercontinuum from 280--340~eV in the water window can be selected to yield an isolated 67 attosecond pulse without employing any phase compensation. This water window coherent x-ray pulse with less than 100 attosecond duration is a potential tool for studying the ultrafast electronic dynamics of biological samples in water.     

Generation of isolated attosecond pulses with a specific waveform two-color laser field

We theoretically propose a new method for generating intense isolated attosecond pulses during high-order harmonic generation (HHG) process by accurately controlling electron motion with a two-color laser field,which consists of an 800-nm,4-fs elliptically polarized laser field and a 1400-nm,～43-fs linearly polarized laser field.With this method,the supercontinua with a spectral width above 200 eV are obtained,which can support a ～15-as isolated pulse after phase compensation.Classical and quantum analyses explain the controlling effects well.In particular,when the pulse duration of the 800-nm laser field increases to 20-fs,sub-100-as isolated pulses can be obtained even without any phase compensation.     

Broadband, rapidly tunable Ti:sapphire-pumped BiB₃O₆ femtosecond optical parametric oscillator

We report a femtosecond optical parametric oscillator (OPO) based on the nonlinear material BiB?O? (BIBO) pumped directly by a Kerr lens mode-locked Ti:sapphire laser. Using a 1.5 mm long BIBO crystal cut at θ=11.4° for collinear type I (e→o+o) phase matching in the xz optical plane, femtosecond signal pulses across 1.4-1.6 μm, and idler pulses across 1.6-1.87 μm spectral range are generated, limited by the reflectivity bandwidth of the OPO mirrors. The high nonlinear gain and large spectral acceptance for type I interaction in the xz plane of BIBO permit rapid and continuous tuning across the entire range by simple fine adjustment of OPO cavity delay or through small changes in the pump wavelength, without varying any other parameters. Additionally, owing to the near-zero group velocity mismatch and dispersion, the OPO supports broad spectrum as wide as 33 nm, which results in self-compressed signal pulses. For 150 fs pump pulses, signal pulses with durations down to 106 fs with a time-bandwidth product of 0.48 are obtained without the need for intracavity dispersion compensation.     

Spectral broadening of femtosecond pulses in an nonlinear optical fiber amplifier

A promising method for the generation of a supercontinuum with a high spectral power density based on the spectral broadening of ultrashort pulses in a fiber amplifier is considered. The advantage of the method, as compared to the conventional way of the supercontinuum generation in a microstructure fiber, is a lower pulse spectral broadening rate, which allows one to achieve higher SC spectral power densities. The initial stage of the supercontinuum generation in an ytterbium fiber amplifier (a fiber core diameter of 7 μm) with side pumping from an array of laser diodes with a total power of 8 W at a wavelength of 976 nm is experimentally studied. Yb:KYW laser pulses with a duration of 250 fs, a central wavelength of 1046 nm, and an average power of 150 mW have been supplied to the input of the amplifier. In this case spectrally broadened radiation with an average spectral power density of higher than 65 mW/nm and a spectrum width of 50 nm has been obtained.