A 20 W Cr, Tm, Ho: YAG laser

A 2.1 μm Cr³⁺, Tm³⁺, Ho³⁺ : YAG laser is operated with an output power of 20 W at 12 Hz. The laser output is successfully transmitted through a silica fibre. The laser system was designed based on the technology of an alexandrite laser oscillator.     

水冷10 Hz Yb:YAG激光放大器热管理

为了控制重频放大器的热致波前畸变,设计并加工了均匀冷却的背面水冷激活镜激光放大器,对放大器的热畸变特性开展了实验研究,实验发现在泵浦功率密度较高即重复频率达到10 Hz,平均功率密度达到200 W/cm2时,放大器的热畸变既影响远场分布又对近场产生显著的调制。近场的调制会给放大器带来较大的损伤风险。为了消除热畸变对近场的调制,首先对泵浦强度分布进行了匀化,然后对介质进行了边缘热平衡控制,消除了热畸变引起的近场调制。通过对上述因素的控制,采用水冷激活镜构型的四程放大器实现了在10 Hz频率下良好运行。在没有进行主动补偿的情况下,实现了远场焦斑优于5倍衍射极限的输出。     

Small-bore fluorocarbon polymer-coated silver hollow glass waveguides for Er:YAG laser light

Several types of fluorocarbon polymer (FCP)-coated silver hollow glass waveguides have been fabricated for Er:YAG laser delivery by using the improved wet chemical technique and dynamic coating procedure. The straight losses of 2 m long 700 μmØ and 540 μmØ waveguides are 0.4 and 1.0 dB, respectively. The transmission losses of these waveguides are below 1.5 dB even when the waveguides are bent to 180° with the bending radius of either 20 or 15 cm. The waveguides with the small diameters of 320 and 200 μm have also been developed for clinical treatment, which exhibit low enough transmission losses for Er:YAG laser light.     

Transmission of 1.6 J Er:YAG laser light by ZnS-coated silver hollow waveguides

A maximum energy of 1.6 J at 5 pps of Er:YAG laser light has been transmitted through a flexible ZnS-coated silver hollow waveguide which has an inner diameter of 800 μm and is 116 cm long. The straight waveguide loss is 0.6 dB m⁻¹ and no significant loss and mechanical changes have been found after an endurance test of 10000 pulse transmissions and bending 400 times with a bending radius of 30 cm.     

Robust hollow devices and waveguides for Er:YAG laser radiation

Fluorocarbon-polymer (FCP) coated silver hollow stainless steel (St) devices and waveguides have been developed for Er:YAG laser radiation. Full liquid phase techniques have been adopted to coat the silver and FCP layers inside the stainless steel hollow structure. Both straight and bent robust hollow devices have been fabricated as the output optical elements for the delivery system of medical Er:YAG lasers. A robust hollow waveguide with the length of about 1.6 m has also been realized as an actual delivery system.     

Diffraction losses of Nd:YAG and Yb:YAG laser crystals

Based on space-dependent rate equations, the lowest threshold input power for a diode end-pumped solid-state laser is obtained for the pump spot size w_p→0. However, as the pump beam waist is decreased, the thermally induced effects in the laser rod would be very high. Diffraction losses caused by radial and tangential variations of refractive index have been analyzed and compared for the Nd : YAG and the Yb : YAG at room temperature (300 K) and liquid-nitrogen temperature (77 K).     

重复频率Nd:YAG薄片激光器的时间特性

为了研究固体激光器弛豫振荡的时间特性,针对高功率大口径Nd:YAG薄片激光器,从工作物质的能级结构和离子跃迁过程出发,采用四能级速率方程模型,综合考虑泵浦速率、损耗因子、温度等因素对激光器起振延迟时间的影响,建立了速率方程组,推导出激光起振延迟时间的数学表达式,模拟分析了泵浦速率、损耗因子、温度对激光起振延迟时间的影响。为验证理论分析结果,在kW级重复频率运行V型腔Nd:YAG薄片激光器上开展了实验研究。在泵浦电流分别为34,40,50,70 A时测量了反应谐振腔内光子数和反转粒子数变化的弛豫振荡曲线。并测量了在泵浦电流为30~80 A情况下的激光器起振延迟时间。实验结果表明起振延迟时间随泵浦速率的增加而减少,与理论分析结果一致。     

边缘抽运复合Yb:YAG/YAG薄片激光器设计与功率扩展

设计了边缘抽运复合Yb:YAG/YAG薄片激光器.薄片激光器的显著优点是热梯度和激光传输方向相同，减小了横向的温度梯度，解决了高功率激光器冷却和高功率抽运的矛盾，避免了放大的自发辐射. 与高功率棒状和板条激光器相比，一维空间冷却理论和边缘抽运理论可以获得更高的功率输出，列举了两种高功率Yb:YAG/YAG薄片激光器设计实例. 关键词： 固体激光器 薄片激光 边缘抽运 功率扩展     

Reduction of beam divergence of a thermal lensing insensitive Nd:YAG laser

In a previous paper we proposed an active resonator designed especially for Nd:YAG lasers. The beam generated by this resonator had a flat-top beam profile and a divergence that was insensitive to the thermal lensing effect. The beam generated by this resonator was, however, too divergent to be focused into a fibre. With the help of numerical simulations, we have found a way to reduce this divergence, and to render the far-field of the laser beam fine enough to be coupled into a fibre with 600 μm core and NA = 0.2.     

A mode-locked dye laser pumped by a xenon ion laser

Passive mode-locking of a rhodamine 6G dye laser has been achieved, using a pulsed xenon ion laser as a pumping source. A pulse width of 5 ps and a peak power of 4 kW have been obtained. Thermal problems were encountered, which adversely affected the operation of the dye laser. Work is in progress to improve these results.     

Dependence of the refractive power of Nd:YAG rods on the intracavity intensity

The refractive power of two flashlamp-pumped Nd:YAG rods was measured as being dependent on the output coupling of the resonator. With laser oscillation, the refractive power or thermal heat is decreased by up to 15% and a minimum occurs at a specific output coupling. The experimental results could be explained by a theoretical model assuming a non-radiative transition from the upper laser level to the ground state. The lifetime of this non-radiative transition decreases with increasing pumping power per pulse and, for pumping power higher than 100 kW, saturation at a value of 0.63 times the fluorescence lifetime occurs. The results indicate that the non-radiative process is caused by energy migration to flashlamp-induced transient quenching centres.     

High repetition rate laser pulses amplified by Nd/Cr:YAG ceramic amplifier under CW arc-lamp-light pumping

Laser pulses with high repetitive rate generated from a Q-switch microchip Nd:YAG oscillator were amplified by Active mirror composed of Nd/Cr:YAG ceramic pumped by CW arc-lamp. The laser pulses were amplified, and saturation of averaged output laser power was observed. Repetitive ratio of injected laser pulses was changed from 20 to 100 kHz. Averaged output laser power and gain were measured, and gain coefficient and power-extraction efficiency were evaluated. Output laser power was calculated and compared to experimentally measured one, and the calculated results are consistent with the experimental ones. For amplification of laser pulses with high repetitive ratio, this laser material can realize very high laser gain with low pumping power density and high optical-optical conversion efficiency under CW-lamp-light pumping.     

Two-pass amplification of CW laser by Nd/Cr:YAG ceramic Active mirror under lamp light pumping

The concept of an Active mirror with transparent Nd/Cr:YAG ceramics is proposed. A new ceramic material pumped by an arc-metal-halide lamp has been experimentally implemented. CW-laser light generated in a 1064 nm Nd:YAG micro-tip oscillator was amplified by an Active mirror made of Nd/Cr:YAG ceramic and pumped by CW arc-lamp light. The saturation power density of the Nd/Cr:YAG ceramic was lower than that of Nd:YAG because the stimulated-cross-section and lifetime were effectively enhanced by the sensitization of Cr ions. The maximum output laser power while keeping spatial beam quality was up to 3 W with an input lamp power of 9 W; the resulting optical-optical conversion efficiency of 33% was close to the theoretical prediction of nearly 50%.     

Experimental study of high-power pulse side-pumped Nd:YAG laser

The paper reports on the characterization of a compact and simple side-pumped 0.538 J×100 Hz pulse Nd:YAG laser. A side-pumping configuration with 100 laser diode bars is used in the laser head. We also experimentally studied the laser performance of the diode-pumped Nd:YAG laser head in the free running and Q-switched operation under different repetition rates.     

Efficient 1645-nm Er:YAG laser

We report a resonantly fiber-laser-pumped Er:YAG laser operating at the eye-safe wavelength of 1645 nm, exhibiting 43% optical efficiency and 54% incident slope efficiency and emitting 7-W average power when repetitively Q switched at 10 kHz. To our knowledge, this is the best performance (conversion efficiency and average power) obtained from a bulk solid-state Q-switched erbium laser. At a 1.1-kHz pulse repetition frequency the laser produces 3.4-mJ pulses with a corresponding peak power of 162 kW. Frequency doubling to produce 822.5-nm, 4.7-kW pulses at 10 kHz was performed to demonstrate the laser's utility.     

Design and performance of a composite Tm:YAG laser pumped by VBG-stabilized narrow-band laser diode

A 2-μm composite Tm:YAG laser pumped with a narrow-band laser diode was presented. The temperature distribution and thermal lens in the Tm:YAG were numerically simulated by a finite element method and the results were used to design the special cavity, in order to achieve a high efficiency and stable output. With a 25-W incident pump power, we obtained a maximum output power of 11 W at 2018.5 nm, corresponding to a slope efficiency of 51.3% and an optical-to-optical efficiency of 44.5%, respectively. The beam quality was measured to be M_x~2= 1.8 and M_y~2= 1.6.     

High-energy Q-switched operation of a fiber-laser-pumped Er:YAG laser

A high-energy Q-switched Er:YAG laser in-band pumped by an Er,Yb co-doped fiber laser is reported. A simple two-mirror multi-mode resonator incorporating an electro-optic Q-switch and a multi-Brewster-plate polarizer was employed, together with a simple compensation scheme to reduce the depolarization loss due to thermally induced stress birefringence in the Er:YAG crystal at high pump powers. The laser yielded Q-switched pulses at 1617 nm with 30.5-mJ pulse energy and <20-ns pulse duration (FWHM) at 20-Hz repetition rate, corresponding to a peak power of >1.5 MW for 55 W of pump power at 1532 nm. The prospects for further improvement in Q-switched performance are discussed.     

High speed drilling by YAG laser

A high-quality laser beam has been obtained using a telescope inserted into a laser cavity. Based on this cavity structure, a high speed laser drilling machine, which produces ruby bearings using a single pulse, has been built. The drilling speed is 16 pieces s^-1 and the yield is 98.8% with a drilling diameter of 0.04–0.05 ± 0.005 mm, and bearing depth of 0.26–0.40 mm.     

Power limits in cylindrical gyromonotrons using TEon1 modes

Upper and lower limits to the output power of highly efficient gyrotron oscillators operating with TE_on1 modes, due to lower and upper limits on the cavity Q, are given.     

高功率激光二极管阵列端面抽运放大器新型耦合方式研究

就高功率激光二极管阵列端面抽运大口径放大器提出一种新的耦合方式：激光二极管阵列拟球面排布,其后紧接一个导管进行耦合传输. 用三维光线追迹法对这种耦合方式的特性进行模拟分析. 结果表明,该耦合方式能实现高的抽运耦合效率和高的能量沉积效率,在面积缩束比为30的条件下,该耦合方式的耦合效率和能量沉积效率最高可分别达96.7%,93.7%;当激光二极管面阵单元发光区域不小于导管输出端口径时,该耦合方式能实现抽运场均匀平顶分布;另外,采用该耦合方式,激光二极管阵列排列方式灵活,非对称排布时也可实现两维对称性好、均匀平顶分布的抽运耦合场输出. 建立了激光二极管阵列端面耦合实验系统,实现了85.4%的耦合效率和均匀的抽运耦合场输出. 关键词： 激光二极管阵列抽运固体激光器 端面抽运 均匀抽运