Transient thermal effect of high power laser mirrors and its propagating characters of far-field

The analytical solutions of the two-dimensional transient thermal effect of high power laser mirrors are developed by using integrate transform technique. Zernike polynomials are introduced to describe aberrations of laser-induced thermal deformations. And, the corresponding expressions of the Strehl ratio and the intensity distribution are gained. Some far-field optical patterns from which we can directly see the divergence of intensity are given. The predicted results are in agreement with that of experiment.     

Output beam drift and deformation in high-power COIL

During the operation of a chemical oxygen iodine laser (COIL) with an unstable resonator of a large Fresnel number, as the output power increases, an instability of the output laser beam will appear, behaving mainly as far-field beam spot drift and deformation. In order to interpret this phenomenon, thermal expansion analysis on the scraper with finite element analysis method and a simulation of the output beam mode of this kind of laser by the method of Fast Fourier Transform were developed. From the experimental measurement and the calculation, we proposed that the presence of the nonuniform temperature distribution of scraper causes the front surface of the scraper to tilt and bulge due to thermal expansion. As the output power is increasing, all the mirror surfaces, especially the scraper's, will absorb more and more heat, causing thermal expansion of the mirror front surface to occur more seriously, thus resulting in the tilting and deformation of the far-field beam spot. The initial misalignment of the direction is also an important factor leading to the far-field beam spot drift and deformation.     

强激光反射镜热畸变对光束传输特性的影响

 通过等效净吸收功率密度方法获取了强激光反射镜热畸变的干涉图像，提出了热畸变反射镜在平面波照射下近场波面畸变与远场光斑的计算方法，探讨了强激光远场光斑测试的一种新思路。定量分析结果表明，对单晶硅镜，在净吸收功率210W，光照时间为6s时，最大热畸变达到0.76μm，由此造成的近场波面Zernike离焦系数为0.32μm，x方向和y方向彗差分别为0.13μm和0.22μm， x方向倾斜系数上升到0.12μm，光束质量因子达5.7。     

高功率激光器的光谱合束技术研究北大核心CSCD

为了获得高功率激光束,提出利用双色镜对典型波长2种不同类型(脉冲、连续)的高能激光进行合束,以实现高功率高能量激光输出。通过对双色镜的热效应和合束光斑远场激光参数进行仿真分析计算,热效应仿真结果表明,在单束激光10 kW、光斑直径15 mm条件下,双色镜面型热形变量均方根值为0.004λ(λ=632.8 nm),满足光学元件面型小于0.03λ精度要求。搭建了一套基于双色镜的光谱合束系统,并分别进行了高功率连续激光与高功率连续激光、高功率连续激光与高能量脉冲激光的合束试验,合束效率高于95%。试验结果表明,光谱合束可有效应用于高能激光领域。     

基于整形光路的低阶像差校正方法

为满足激光束对远处目标辐照强度的要求,减小热效应对输出光束性能的影响,提出了一种基于整形光路的高能激光低阶像差校正方法。该方法根据波前探测器测到的光束波前畸变,利用激光器整形光路固有的光学元件和调整机构,通过高精密电动平移台和快反镜的快速动作,动态调整各镜片的间距,实时校正激光束的低阶像差,使输出光束恢复至平行出射,从而显著减小激光束的热漂移和热畸变,有效避免了长时间出光时光束的持续发散,极大改善了输出光束性能。试验结果表明,该方法具有校正量大、控制方便、结构紧凑等优点,能够很好地改善激光器输出光束质量,显著提高激光束远场作用效果。     

空间插值在功率谱密度计算中的应用

为了提高光学元件波前中频PSD计算的精度和有效频谱宽度,提出了填补波前无效数据的双线性插值法和抑制欠采样噪声的六采样点插值法。模拟计算和实验结果表明:双线性插值法有效地保证了填充数据与真实数据的一致性,抑制了零填充方法引入的虚假中高频信息,使得填补后的PSD与原始PSD较好地吻合;六采样点插值法有效地分离了信号和欠采样噪声,使得有效PSD频谱上限从1/2 Nyquist频率提高到Nyquist频率。     

Study on the possibilities of controlling the laser output beam properties by an intracavity deformable mirror

The possibilities of controlling the laser beam properties by a deformable mirror introduced into the laser optical cavity were studied theoretically and experimentally. The experiments were performed under conditions of an industrial high power transverse flow cw CO₂ laser operating with a stable resonator of a folded configuration. A deformable bimorph mirror of a surface profile controlled by the voltage applied to the mirror electrodes is implemented to the laser system as a back cavity mirror or as a one of the inner folding mirrors. The near-and far-field characteristics of the laser beam versus the resonator configuration controlled by the changes of the focal length of the deformable mirror are discussed in the paper. The analysis reveals that the resonator with an inner deformable mirror is much more sensitive to the mirror curvature variations than the resonator in which the deformable mirror is used as a back cavity mirror. The presented results show that dynamic and controllable changes in the resonator properties result in the controlled modification and optimisation of the laser output power and spatial parameters of the laser radiation.     

虚共焦非稳腔腔镜倾斜对激光传输的影响

首先用几何光学方法分析了虚共焦非稳腔腔镜倾斜引起的准直光线偏离光轴,形成偏斜光线的角度灵敏度和偏斜距离灵敏度同非稳腔放大率ｍ和腔镜倾斜角β之间的关系,然后用Ｃ－６程序计算、分析了柱面条状虚共焦非稳腔单镜、双镜反向和同向倾斜三种情况下不同倾斜角对近场相位和远场强度的影响。数值结果表明,镜腔倾斜会使近场相位由均匀分布变成非均匀分布。从布导致远场光束质量变坏。     

Output beam analysis of high power COIL

As the output power of a chemical oxygen iodine laser (COIL) increases, the output laser beam instability appears as the far-field beam spot drift and deformation for the large Presnel number unstable resonator. In order to interpret this phenomenon, an output beam mode simulation code was developed with the fast Fourier transform method. The calculation results show that the presence of the nonuniform gain in COIL produces a skewed output intensity distribution, which causes the mirror tilt and bulge due to the thermal expansion. With the output power of COIL increases, the mirror surfaces, especially the back surface of the scraper mirror, absorb more and more heat, which causes the drift and deformation of far field beam spot seriously. The initial misalignment direction is an important factor for the far field beam spot drifting and deformation.     

Heating by Optical Absorption and Cooling of High Power Laser Mirrors

In high power laser system, laser mirror is the core and the most sensitive optical component, which influences the increase of laser power and the quality of laser. Absorption of light at mirrors causes wavefront distortions through the thermal deformations of substrates. The analytical solutions of the two-dimensional transient thermal theory of high power laser mirrors are developed, copious graphical results in our case are presented, and the predicted results are compared with those of the experiment.     

高能激光系统内光路热效应建模与仿真

高能激光系统内光路热效应是影响系统性能的重要因素,介绍了内光路中光学元件、介质气体热效应物理模型,分析了影响热效应的主要因素,并开展了热效应变化规律研究。针对光学元件,重点研究了元件吸收率、元件材料特性、光斑分布对反射镜、窗口镜、分光镜热像差的影响规律,指出吸收率主要影响热像差的大小,而元件基底材料特性和激光分布影响热像差时间和空间变化。针对介质气体,指出介质气体升温后重力引起的自然对流是影响气体热像差的主要物理因素,细致研究了热像差随时间的变化规律,介绍了降低封闭与开放式内光路介质气体热像差的措施与方法。介绍了激光仿真软件平台Easylaser多物理仿真模块,搭建了包含反射镜、窗口镜、分光镜和介质气体的内光路计算模型,通过光-热-力-控多物理耦合仿真,研究了反射镜与窗口镜、介质气体与窗口镜热像差补偿效应,给出了激光传输远场光斑特征,表明了Easylaser的多物理仿真模块具备对内光路热效应综合仿真分析能力。     

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.     

Observation of multi-path interference in broad-area semiconductor lasers with optical feedback

Multi-path interference effects induced by optical feedback in broad-area semiconductor lasers is experimentally studied. An external mirror and an internal laser cavity form a closed composite optical feedback loop. For a very small tilt of the external mirror for the exit facet along the stripe width of the active layer, the light emitted from the laser undergoes multi-path reflections in the composite cavity, and we therefore observe multi-path interference effects of the laser oscillations for a small mirror tilt. The laser output power always shows the fundamental mode of the single feedback loop together with an oscillation of a certain higher multi-path loop. The laser oscillation and the beam profile are strongly dependent on the tilt. We observed up to a nine-fold multi-path interference in the experiment.     

基于变形镜本征模式和远场测量的光束净化

利用波前传感器对光束进行净化的自适应光学系统是目前提高光束质量的常用技术,但在实际应用中,该技术需要波前传感器,系统复杂,体积庞大,同时需要较高性能信标源。为解决上述问题,提出了一种基于变形镜本征模式和远场光斑特征分析的无波前自适应光学系统,用于校正激光器输出的方形光束。将变形镜影响函数进行本征模式分解,并用远场光斑的均方半径作为评价函数,建立了畸变波前的模式系数与评价函数之间的关系,通过测量评价函数获得模式系数用于求解校正电压,实现波前共轭校正。仿真校正和实验验证结果表明,该方法可以有效实现静态像差校正,提高远场光斑的能量集中度。     

Laser diode beam shaping by optical interference

We recently proposed a novel beam shaping technique that employs Lloyd’s mirror interference. In this study, we apply this technique to three commercial laser diodes: laser diodes used for optical pumping of solid-state lasers, for laser beam printers, and for laser displays. The elliptical output beams from these laser diodes could be transformed into nearly circular beams by inserting a mirror-polished GaAs substrate below the active layer of each laser diode and adjusting its height. The experimentally observed far-field patterns were predicted fairly well by numerical calculations based on Huygens’ integral. We confirmed that our beam shaping technique is applicable to laser diodes with various wavelengths and vertical beam divergence angles. We also describe the monolithic configuration of the beam shaping system, which can be fabricated by dry etching.     

Fast and stable enhancement of the far-field peak power by use of an intracavity deformable mirror

We demonstrate that an intracavity deformable mirror (DM) is capable of compensating for the aberrations of a continuous-wave (CW) Nd:YAG solid-state laser and improving its far-field peak power fast and stably. The deformable mirror is controlled by a stochastic parallel gradient descend (SPGD) algorithm. Experimental results reveal that high-order-like transverse modes can be transformed into Gaussian-like modes quickly without any pinhole added in the laser cavity. At the same time, the far-field peak powers are also increased to different extents.     

非均匀激光辐照下硅镜热变形对光束传输特性的影响

 使用有限元法计算了硅镜在DF化学激光器非稳腔输出的中空非均匀激光辐照下镜面温升和反射面面形随时间变化的特性,使用65阶Zernike多项式对镜面面形进行了曲面拟合,使用光线追迹的方法计算了平行光束经不同数量硅镜反射后的光束波前分布PV值、Strehl比和Zernike像差系数随时间变化的特性。计算结果表明：在典型的DF激光器输出的中空方形光束辐照下,硅反射镜的热变形将使反射光束产生波前畸变,波前畸变中,y方向像散项占据主要地位,其次是离焦项;随着激光系统中反射镜面数量的增加,高阶像差系数将逐渐增大,且波前PV值与反射次数成线性关系。     

神光Ⅲ强激光光束远场诊断系统光学设计

介绍了神光Ⅲ光束远场诊断系统的基本组成,光学系统的工作原理,主要论述了光学系统的设计指标、设计思想、设计结果及其像质评价.研究表明:利用离轴非球面反射镜能很好地实现强激光光束的取样、缩束和衰减.通过切换弯月形离轴非球面透镜可分别实现对基频、三倍频激光光束的远场诊断.     

射频激励相移阵列谐振腔波导CO2激光器输出特性研究

为保持器件结构紧凑型的同时获得稳定的高功率、高光束质量激光输出,将相移光学阵列谐振腔技术用于射频激励扩散型冷却板条波导CO₂激光器．实验发现,该设计方案虽然波导结构为矩形宽波导,但是由于采用了具有相移阵列结构的全反射镜,获得的激光束输出空间分布具有阵列输出光束的基本特征．在波导截面为1mm×20mm、增益介质长度为20cm的波导结构条件下,获得了46W的激光功率输出和11.3%的电光转换效率．激光束输出的远场空间分布呈空间压缩的极锐单峰．由于该结构具有的选模特性,远场为单峰空间分布特 关键词：     

射频激励相移阵列谐振腔波导CO2 激光器输出特性研究

In this paper, an optical array resonator with phase-shifting end mirror has been combined with the RF-excited diffusively cooled slab waveguide CO₂ lasers to obtain a desirable output laser beam with single-peaked far-field intensity distribution, which is highly spatially suppressed with the merits of high brightness and good characteristics of propagation. In the experiments, a maximum output power of 46 W and highest conversion efficiency of 11.3% have been obtained from a 200-mm-gain-length device. The laser beam intensity distribution acquired has similar characteristics to the ouptut beam from laser arrays due to the periodical structure of the phase-shifting total reflector, and has an excellent stability due to the mode-selection capability of this type of resonator. In this paper, theoretical analysis is also given, based on which corresponding theoretical model is established, the practical feasibility is shown, and the laser beam output with characteristics of in-phase array mode is predicted. The systematical experimental investigation indicates the prominent influence of the parameters of the phase-shifting array end mirror on the property of the output beam. Furthermore, the manufacturing errors of the phase-shifted array resonator are analyzed and the analysis provides a theoretical guide to the design of this type of lasers.