A 61-mJ, 1-kHz cryogenic Yb: YAG laser amplifier

We report a diode-pumped rod-type Yb:YAG laser amplifier operating at 1 kHz. Cryogenic cooling method was adopted to make the Yb:YAG crystal work with four-level behavior. A single-frequency fiber laser acts as the seed in an actively Q-switched Yb:YAG oscillator. The resonator delivers 5.75-mJ pulses at 1 kHz with a pulse duration of approximately 40 ns. The pulses were amplified to 61 mJ in a four-pass rod-type Yb:YAG amplifier with optical-to-optical efficiency of 24% in the main amplifier. The M² parameter of the output laser is <1.4.     

Highly efficient cryogenically-cooled Yb:YAG laser

A MOPA laser system for high pulse energy and high average power has been developed by using a cryogenic Yb:YAG. In the regenerative amplifier with our original TRAM architecture, the high pulse energies of 6.5 and 1.5 mJ were obtained at the repetition rate of 200 Hz and 1 kHz, respectively. An optical efficiency was as high as η_o-o = 9.3% with an excellent beam quality of M ² < 1.1, which ensured that a cryogenic Yb:YAG TRAM had a high thermal strength. The following four pass power amplifier with a cryogenic Yb:YAG rod showed 140 mJ at 100 Hz. Both a high optical efficiency of η_o-o = 30% and a high slope efficiency of η_s = 44% showed that an efficient laser operation could be realized for a power amplification with both a high pulse energy and a high average power by using a cryogenic Yb:YAG.     

Highly efficient room-temperature Yb:YAG ceramic laser and regenerative amplifier

A room-temperature, diode-pumped, pulsed Yb:YAG ceramic free-running laser with a 78% slope efficiency has been demonstrated. It has been shown that fine tuning of the mode diameter to the diameter of the pumped volume with a ratio of the pump to the mode diameter of 0.6 is important for achieving maximum laser efficiency with a Gaussian-like beam profile. A regenerative Yb:YAG ceramic amplifier with a maximum output energy of 14.5 mJ and a super-Gaussian beam profile is demonstrated.     

低温Yb:YAG放大器增益与热畸变特性实验研究

为了研究低温条件下Yb:YAG放大器的增益和热特性,搭建了一套液氮冷却的低温放大器,开展了实验研究。测量了不同泵浦强度下的小信号增益以及低温和常温下的介质热致波前畸变。结果表明:低温条件下,可以用更少的泵浦能量得到高于常温的增益;常温下泵浦电流200A、脉冲宽度1200μs的小信号增益为1.59;低温下泵浦电流200A、脉冲宽度400μs的小信号增益为1.82,光光效率显著提高。自发辐射放大(ASE)问题在低温下更加显著,采用短脉冲泵浦有利于降低ASE的影响。低温的热管理效果较常温有显著提高,可以在更高的平均功率下运行。     

Hundred mJ, sub-picoseconds, high temporal contrast OPCPA/Yb:YAG ceramic thin disk hybrid laser system

The authors have demonstrated an optical parametric chirped-pulse amplification (OPCPA)/Yb:YAG ceramic thin disk hybrid laser system having hundred mJ level pulse energy sub-picosecond pulse duration with high temporal contrast. At an input chirped-pulse energy of 3.8?mJ from an OPCPA preamplifier an output energy of 130?mJ has been generated from multipass diode-pumped Yb:YAG ceramic thin disk amplifier. A recompressed pulse duration of 450?fs with a contrast level of less than 7.2×10^?9 at ?150?ps before the main pulse has been obtained. The contrast level is the highest value achieved in Yb:YAG chirped-pulse amplification (CPA) laser system at 100?mJ level.     

Efficient generation of 200 mJ nanosecond pulses at 100 Hz repetition rate from a cryogenic cooled Yb:YAG MOPA system

A diode-pumped Master Oscillator Power Amplifier (MOPA) laser system based on cryogenic cooled Yb:YAG has been designed, developed and its output performance characterised. The laser system consists of a fibre oscillator, an active mirror regenerative amplifier and a four pass main amplifier. 2.4 mJ, 10 ns, 100 Hz seed pulses from the fibre oscillator/regenerative amplifier arrangement were amplified up to pulse energies of over 200 mJ by using the four pass main amplifier arrangement. As a further study we have obtained an increased slope efficiency of 40% and an optical-to-optical efficiency of 30% using a pinhole vacuum spatial filter/image relay for laser mode control. With 1.8 mJ input seed pulses, output pulse energies of around 150 mJ were achieved.     

大面阵激光二极管阵列端面泵浦耦合技术

为了满足常温Yb:YAG激光放大器对泵浦功率密度的要求,设计了一种高缩束比的耦合系统。根据激光二极管（LD）的发光特性,将输出功率为80 kW的LD阵列进行拟球面排列,采用正交柱面透镜配合空心导光管进行泵浦耦合,耦合系统的面积缩束比高达86∶1。模拟计算表明,该耦合系统的耦合效率对导光管反射板的反射率依赖性较低,且脱离耦合系统后的泵浦光传输8.5 mm后,依然可以保持泵浦光场的轮廓,满足端面泵浦的常温Yb:YAG片状放大器对泵浦耦合系统的要求。     

Picosecond pulses from a cryogenically cooled, composite amplifier using Yb:YAG and Yb:GSAG

A cryogenic Yb amplifier using two laser materials, Gd3Sc2Al3O12 and Y3Al5O12 (YAG), has been used to obtain 70 W average power at 5 kHz pulse repetition frequency; the output was compressed to 1.6 ps, compared with an input compressible to 1.4 ps. The gain broadening obtained by combining two media enables shorter pulses than using Yb:YAG alone but retains the power-scaling advantages of cryogenic Yb:YAG.     

Generation of 287 W, 5.5 ps pulses at 78 MHz repetition rate from a cryogenically cooled Yb:YAG amplifier seeded by a fiber chirped-pulse amplification system

We generate linearly polarized, 287 W average-power, 5.5 ps pulses using a cryogenically cooled Yb:YAG amplifier at a repetition rate of 78 MHz. An optical-to-optical efficiency of 41% is obtained at 700 W pump power. A 6 W, 0.4 nm bandwidth picosecond seed source at 1029 nm wavelength is constructed using a chirped-pulse fiber amplification chain based on chirped volume Bragg gratings. The combination of a fiber amplifier system and a cryogenically cooled Yb:YAG amplifier results in good spatial beam quality at large average power. Low nonlinear phase accumulation as small as 5.1 x 10(-3) rad in the bulk Yb:YAG amplifier supports power scalability to a > 10 kW level without being affected by self-phase modulation. This amplification system is well suited for pumping high-power high-repetition-rate optical parametric chirped-pulse amplifiers.     

Laser-diode pumped heavy-doped Yb:YAG ceramic lasers

Laser performance of heavy-doped Yb:YAG ceramics was investigated using a two-pass pumping miniature laser configuration. Slope efficiency of 52% and optical-to-optical efficiency of 48% have been achieved for 1-mm-thick YAG ceramic doped with 20 at.% ytterbium ions. Laser spectra of Yb:YAG ceramic and single-crystal lasers were addressed under different intracavity laser intensities. Heavy-doped Yb:YAG ceramic is more suitable for a thin disk laser than a single-crystal with the same Yb(3+)-ion lasants.     

Yb离子抽运动力学及脉冲储能特性研究

从准三能级Yb离子的能级结构出发，建立了Yb离子的抽运和激光速率方程，结合解析和数值方法，研究了Yb激光介质的抽运动力学过程，包括抽运激发效率、最低抽运强度、激光能量提取效率等关键参数.比较了三类典型的Yb激光介质性能：Yb:S-FAP,Yb:YAG以及Yb:FP-glass.以放大自发辐射(ASE)为设计判据，重点研究了脉冲储能型Yb激光器的设计准则，包括增益介质的厚度与掺杂浓度.最后利用此模型给出了基于Yb:S-FAP以及Yb:YAG的100J级二极管抽运固体激光器(DPSSL)的总体设计参数.将对基于Yb激光介质的脉冲储能型DPSSL的设计提供有益的参考. 关键词： Yb离子 速率方程 抽运动力学 二极管抽运固体激光器     

Efficient femtosecond Yb:YAG laser pumped by a single-mode laser diode

Single-mode diodes enable a particularly simple, compact and effective pumping of solid-state laser devices for many specialized applications. We investigated a single-mode, 300-mW laser diode for pumping at 935 nm a Yb:YAG laser passively mode-locked by a semiconductor saturable absorber. Relatively short pulse generation (156 fs), tunable across 1033–1059 nm has been demonstrated. An optical-to-optical efficiency of about 28% has been obtained with 320 fs long pulses. Therefore, contrarily to what previously believed, compact diode-pumped ultrafast Yb:YAG oscillators can reliably and efficiently deliver pulses in the range of ≈ 100–200 fs with few tens of mW, which are very appealing for bio-diagnostics and amplifier seeding applications.     

Theoretical and experimental research on cryogenic Yb:YAG regenerative amplifier

Based on the theory of quasi-three-level rate equations modified by amplified spontaneous emission,the stored energy density and the small signal gain of the cryogenic Yb:YAG regenerative amplifier for a given geometry for pulsed pumping in three dimensions are theoretically studied using the Monte Carlo simulation.The present model provides a straightforward procedure to design the Yb:YAG parameters and the optical coupling system for optimization when running at cryogenic temperature.A fiber-coupled laser diode end-pumped cryogenic Yb:YAG regenerative amplifier running at 1 030 nm is demonstrated with a maximum output energy 10.2 mJ at a repetition rate of 10 Hz.A very good agreement between the experiments and the theoretical model is achieved.     

Yb:YAG Innoslab amplifier: efficient high repetition rate subpicosecond pumping system for optical parametric chirped pulse amplification

We report on a Yb:YAG Innoslab laser amplifier system for generation of subpicsecond high energy pump pulses for optical parametric chirped pulse amplification (OPCPA) at high repetition rates. Pulse energies of up to 20 mJ (at 12.5 kHz) and repetition rates of up to 100 kHz were attained with pulse durations of 830 fs and average power in excess of 200 W. We further investigate the possibility to use subpicosecond pulses to derive a stable continuum in a YAG crystal for OPCPA seeding.     

激光二极管端面抽运的棒状Yb：YAG激光器

分析了影响激光二极管抽运Yb：YAG激光器调Q效率的参量，推导了激光二极管端面脉冲抽运Yb：YAG晶体的速率方程，解出了双程抽运情况下的净抽运量子产率。利用数值计算方法，模拟了净抽运量子产率与晶体长度，抽运光脉冲宽度等关系，得出晶体长度的优化可以提高Yb：YAG激光器输出效率。计算了词Q Yb：YAG激光器的最大增益、最大储能，分析了放大自发辐射对于Yb：YAG能量存储的影响。同时给出了激光二极管端面抽运调Q Yb：YAG优化设计方法。这些分析和计算为实际器件的研制提供参考。     

Diode pumped active-mirror Yb:YAG ceramic lasers

Lasers from Yb:YAG ceramic at different temperature were reported in this paper. The Yb:YAG ceramic laser with active-mirror structure was end-pumped by a laser diode whose central wavelength was 940 nm. At 80 K, with doping concentration of 5 at % Yb:YAG ceramic slab, output energy of 0.68 J at 10 Hz repetition rate was obtained under the pump energy of 2.49 J, corresponding to a slope efficiency of 40% and a conversion efficiency of 27.3%, respectively.     

脉冲储能型重复频率Yb:YAG片状激光放大器ASE效应研究

探讨了脉冲储能型重复频率片状Yb:YAG激光放大器抽运过程中的自发辐射放大（ASE）效应和能量提取过程.在Yb³⁺离子抽运动力学的基础上,建立了抽运过程中的自发辐射放大模型,计算了Yb:YAG晶体中三维含时储能密度分布和全片可提取能量.讨论了不同介质尺寸、掺杂浓度及厚度、介质温度参数下,自发辐射放大对储能的影响.给出了较为优化的设计,将有助于基于Yb激光材料的大能量二极管抽运的固体激光器设计. 关键词： 脉冲储能 Yb:YAG激光放大器 自发辐射放大（ASE）     

Yb：YAG晶体中的荧光浓度猝灭现象

在Ｙｂ：ＹＡＧ晶体中发现浓度猝灭现象,对猝灭机制进行了分析研究,指出退火前晶体的荧光浓度猝灭现象主要由Ｙｂ＾２＋、色心和由此产生的晶格畸变所致高掺杂浓度时痕量稀土杂质离子的存在也将导致浓度猝灭,确定了Ｙｂ：ＹＡＧ晶体中Ｙｂ＾３＋的理想掺杂浓度。     

Enhanced performance of thin-disk lasers by pumping into the zero-phonon line

Pumping Yb:YAG or Yb:LuAG into the zero-phonon line at 969?nm instead of using the common pump wavelength of 940?nm reduces the heat generation by 32%. In addition to the 3% increase of the Stokes efficiency, this significantly reduces the diffraction losses caused by the thermally induced phase distortions leading to a remarkable increase of the overall efficiency especially of fundamental-mode thin-disk lasers. Using this pumping scheme in an Yb:LuAG thin-disk laser, we achieved 742?W of nearly diffraction limited (M²≈1.5) output power at an unprecedented high optical efficiency of 58.5%. For multimode operation (M²≈15) the maximum optical efficiency of an Yb:YAG thin-disk laser was increased to 72%.     

Optimization of Yb:YAG/Cr<Superscript>4+</Superscript>:YAG composite ceramics passively Q-switched microchip lasers

The laser characteristics of laser-diode end-pumped Yb:YAG/Cr⁴⁺:YAG composite ceramics microchip passively Q-switched lasers were studied by solving the coupled rate equations numerically taking into account the reabsorption of Yb:YAG ceramics at laser wavelength. Effects of the reflectivity of the output coupler, the concentrations and thickness of the saturable absorbers, and pump beam area on the laser performance were investigated analytically. The simulation results of the Yb:YAG/Cr⁴⁺:YAG composite ceramics passively Q-switched microchip lasers were in good agreement with the experimental data. Better laser performance (high peak power, short pulse width and good optical-to-optical efficiency) of the composite Yb:YAG/Cr⁴⁺:YAG ceramics passively Q-switched laser can be obtained by using a thin Cr⁴⁺:YAG ceramic with high concentration, suitable reflectivity of the output coupler and proper pump beam diameter under high pump power intensity according to our simulations.