LD-end-pumped 60 pm linewidth Tm:YLF laser

Narrow linewidth continuous-wave Tm:YLF laser at room temperature with a Volume Bragg grating and double Fabry-Perot etalons by using the end-pumping configuration was presented. The Tm:YLF laser operates at 1907.3 nm with FWHM of approximately 60 pm. We achieved the maximum output power of 1.92 W when the incident pump power of 13.9 W, corresponding to the optical-to-optical conversion efficiency of 13.8% and slope efficiency of 16.4%.     

Fractional scanned carbon dioxide laser induces collagen remodelling in murine dermis

Resurfacing using a fractional CO₂ laser shows an important promise in the therapy on photoaged skin. The present study investigated that fractional CO₂ laser with a special sequential scanned manner induced the collagen remodelling in murine dermis. The results showed that laser resulted in the improvement of elasticity and histology in the murine dermis, meaning laser efficacy depends on both of the collagen formation and organization. We further investigated the relations between skin elasticity and type I, and type III collagen. These data demonstrated that laser could significantly lead to the collagen remodelling in murine dermis and induce neocollagenisis as a mode of resurfacing.     

Projective synchronization of two coupled excitable spiral waves

Interaction of two identical excitable spiral waves in a bilayer system is studied. We find that the two spiral waves can be completely synchronized if the coupling strength is sufficiently large. Prior to the complete synchronization, we find a new type of weak synchronization between the two coupled systems, i.e., the spiral wave of the driven system has the same geometric shape as the spiral wave of the driving system but with a much lower amplitude. This general behavior, called projective synchronization of two spiral waves, is similar to projective synchronization of two coupled nonlinear oscillators, which has been extensively studied before. The underlying mechanism is uncovered by the study of pulse collision in one-dimensional systems.     

Efficient continuous-wave 908 nm Nd:YLF laser emission under direct 880 nm pumping

The quasi-three-level 908-nm continuous-wave laser emission under direct diode laser pumping at 880 nm into emitting level ⁴ F _3/2 of Nd:YLF have been demonstrated. An end-pumped Nd:YLF crystal yielded 4.7 W of output power for 11.8 W of absorbed pump power. The slope efficiency with respect to the absorbed pump power was 43.3%. Comparative results obtained for the pump with diode laser at 808 nm, into the highly-absorbing ⁴ F _5/2 level, are given in order to prove the advantages of the 880-nm wavelength pumping.     

CW laser properties of Nd:GdYAG,Nd:LuYAG,and Nd:GdLuAG mixed crystals

Three mixed crystals, Nd:GdYAG, Nd:LuYAG, and Nd:GdLuAG, were grown by Czochralski method. We report the continuous-wave (CW) Nd:GdYAG, Nd:LuYAG, and Nd:GdLuAG laser operation under laser diode pumping. The maximum output powers are 4.11, 5.31, and 7.47 W, with slope efficiency of 73.0, 55.3, and 57.1%, respectively. With replacing Lu³⁺ or Y³⁺ ions with large Gd³⁺ ions, the pump efficiency increases.     

Diode pumped operation of 1 mm Tm,Ho:YAP microchip laser

A single-longitudinal-mode (SLM) operation of a c-cut 1 mm Tm(5%), Ho(0.3%):YAP micro-chip laser pumped by a fiber-coupled diode-laser was reported. Under cryogenic temperature, the output power of 216 mW was obtained under the incident power of 2230 mW, corresponding to the slope efficiency was 13.6%. As much as 133 mW output and slope efficiency of 4.9% was obtained under the pump power of 3000 mW at 291 K. In addition, a maximum SLM output power of 30 mW at wavelength of 2130.56 nm is demonstrated under 77 K.     

High slope efficiency and low threshold in a laser-diode-pumped passively Q-switched ion-implanted Nd:YVO<Subscript>4</Subscript> planar waveguide laser with GaAs saturable absorber

A passively Q-switched waveguide laser, to our knowledge, has been firstly demonstrated in Nd: YVO₄ crystal formed by 3 MeV Si⁺ ion implantation at a dose of 1 × 10¹⁵ ions/cm² at room temperature, in which GaAs was used as saturable absorber. The dependences of the average output power, pulse width, pulse repetition rate on absorbed pump power have been measured at different output plane mirror transmissions. At an absorbed pump power of 78.8 mW and output transmission of 20%, the shortest pulse width of 3.88 ns was obtained, corresponding to the peak power and single pulse energy of 212 W and 0.82 μJ, respectively. The threshold pump power was as low as 40 mW, and the slope efficiency was about 64.5% when the absorbed pump power was lower than 70 mW.     

Wavelength tunable high power laser using a double-clad Er:Yb doped fiber

We experimentally demonstrated a stable, wavelength-tunable fiber laser using a polarization-maintaining, double-clad Er:Yb doped fiber amplifier in the cavity. The output wavelength is tunable over the range from 1535 to 1567 nm using a fixed grating and the dichroic mirror placed on a rotational mount; under rotation of the dichroic mirror the tuning ratio of 50 nm/deg was found. We studied the wavelength tuning range dependence on the amplifier fiber length and achieved a maximal output power of 850 mW. This configuration can be Q-switched for high peak power and its narrow bandwidth is suitable for nonlinear optics applications, such as parametric teraherthz generator.     

Q-switched mode-locking femtosecond all-fiber laser based on Er3+/Yb3+ codoped phosphate fiber

A Q-switched mode-locking femtosecond all-fiber laser based on a 2 cm long homemade Er³⁺/Yb³⁺ codoped phosphate glass fiber has been reported. By using the nonlinear polarization evolution technique, a nearly 100% modulation depth of mode-locking pulse train is achieved. At a pump power of 410 mW, the energy of each Q-switched envelope, whose width is about 220 μs, is 10 μJ, while the duration of mode-locking pulse within the Q-switched envelope is 318-fs.     

All-optical NRZ-to-RZ format conversion with dual channel wavelength multicasting functions exploiting cross-phase modulation in a dispersion-flattened nonlinear photonic crystal fiber

All-optical single-to-dual channel format conversion from NRZ to RZ at 10 Gbit/s using cross phase modulation (XPM) in dispersion flattened highly nonlinear photonic crystal fiber (DF-HNL-PCF) is demonstrated. Format conversion with dual channels signal multicasting function is achieved by filtering simultaneously the blue- and red-chirped components of broadened optical spectrum induced by XPM between NRZ signal and clock light. Moreover, the wavelength tunability and dynamics characteristics of proposed format converter are also exploited experimentally by using NRZ signal light with different central wavelength and varying input power. Our results show that a wide wavelength operation range of 21.2 nm, extinction ratio (ER) and Q factor of over 10.9 dB and 6.1 are obtained. Furthermore, the influence of central wavelength offset of optical bandpass filter on converted RZ signal quality is investigated. The proposed scheme is simple, robust, and transparent to bit rate, which makes it very potential for application in future photonic networks.