Gain dynamics of XeF and subpicosecond pulse generation at 351 nm

Subpicosecond pulse amplification at the 351 nm line of XeF is reported. The study of the gain dynamics of XeF with subpicosecond (subnanosecond) pulses resulted in 0.2 mJ/cm² (0.8 mJ/cm²) for the saturation energy density and 0.18 cm^–1 (0.21 cm^–1) for the small-signal-gain coefficient. In XeF a gain recovery of 78±4% with a 79±18 ps time constant is found.     

Optical parametric chirped pulse amplification based on photonic crystal fibre

A compact two-stage optical parametric chirped pulse amplifier based on photonic crystal fibre is demonstrated.A 1064-nm soliton pulse is obtained in a home-made photonic crystal fibre (PCF) with femtosecond pulse pumping and then amplified to 2 mJ in an Nd:YAG regenerative amplifier.After the amplified pulses pass through the LBO crystal,the 532-nm double-frequency light with an energy of 0.8 mJ and a duration of over 100 ps at 10-Hz repetition rate is generated as a pump source in the following two-stage optical parametric amplification (OPA).The 850-nm chirped signal light gain from the stretcher is 1.5×10 4 in the first-stage OPA while it is 120 in the second-stage OPA.The total signal gain of optical parametric chirped pulse amplification (OPCPA) can reach 1.8×10 6.     

Large temporal window contrast measurement using optical parametric amplification and low-sensitivity detectors

To address few-shot pulse contrast measurement, we present a correlator coupling the high gain of an optical parametric amplification scheme with large pulse tilt. This combination enables a low sensitivity charge coupled device (CCD) to observe features in the pulse intensity within a 50 ps single-shot window with inter-window dynamic range >10⁷ and <0.5 mJ input energy. We also consider use of optical densities to boost the CCD dynamic range within a single temporal window.     

Short-pulse UV laser ablation of solid and liquid metals: indium

2 to 2.5 mJ/cm² when a 0.5 ps pulse is used instead of a 15 ns laser pulse. Measurements on liquid indium show a different behavior. With 15 ns laser pulses the threshold fluence is lowered by a factor of ∼3 from 100 mJ/cm² for solid indium to 30 mJ/cm² for liquid indium. In contrast, measurements with 0.5 ps laser pulses do not show any change in the ablation threshold and are independent of the phase of the metal at 2.5 mJ/cm². This behavior could be explained by thermal diffusion and heat conduction during the laser pulse and demonstrates in an independent way the energy lost into the material when long laser pulses are applied. Time-of-flight measurements to investigate the underlying ablation mechanism show thermal behavior of the ablated indium atoms for both ps and ns ablation and can be fitted to Maxwell-Boltzmann distributions. Received: 2 December 1996/Accepted: 11 December 1996     

Passively mode-locked Nd: YAG and ruby lasers with high brightness per unit active volume

Passively mode-locked Nd: YAG (at room temperature) and ruby (at ≈100 K) lasers with unstable confocal resonators are described. They generated ultrashort pulses with a single pulse energy up to 50 mJ (Nd: YAG) and 50–100 mJ (ruby) and duration ≈40 ps. The active volume was only 5–10 cm³. A beam divergence ≈3 x 10^-4 rad close to the diffraction limit and high brightness of radiation ≈10¹⁷ W cm^-2 srad^-1 were obtained.     

Tunable,sub-nanosecond KrF-Raman laser in the ultraviolet

A 0.5 cm^–1 bandwidth injection-locked KrF laser pumps a rare-gas Brillouin cell to produce a reflected pulse with a leading edge risetime of 1 ns, tunable from 248.1 to 248.7 nm. Consistent with Lamb theory of laser amplifiers, subsequent excimer amplification of this pulse produces an intense 500 ps spike on the pulse leading edge. Stimulated Raman scattering then separates the spike from the parent pulse, yielding a tunable short pulse at the first Stokes (S ₁) wavelength. Varying the Raman cell length results in a variable Raman threshold and an adjustable short pulse duration: 250 ps pulses at energies of 3–4 mJ at 268 nm with a 50 cm methane cell and 350 ps, 5 mJ pulses from a 100 cm cell are measured with a streak camera. First pass Raman conversion of the spike toS ₁ followed by second pass backward Raman amplification, where the parent 248 nm pulse serves as the pump beam for the reflectedS ₁ pulse, yields simultaneousS ₁ pulses of 20–25 mJ in the 800 ps range andS ₂ pulses of 550 ps at 5–6 mJ near 290 nm. This laser will avoid collision effects during laser excitation and enable quantitative, single pulse imaging of OH radicals in turbulent combustion because of its high pulse energy.     

水中受激布里渊散射微弱Stokes信号光的高增益放大

采用脉冲宽度为7.2 ns的种子光注入式倍频Nd:YAG脉冲激光器,以CS₂为放大介质,实验并理论研究了水中受激布里渊散射微弱Stokes光的信号增益随延迟时间、放大器池长、抽运光能量的变化规律. 结果表明,当抽运光脉冲相对信号光脉冲延迟进入放大器,且延迟时间为脉冲宽度的一半,抽运光能量略低于介质受激布里渊散射阈值,选择合适的放大器池长可获得最佳的信号增益. 适当选择抽运光能量,亦可实现微弱信号光的线性放大. 实验中采用独立双池放大系统,当水中Stokes信号光的能量为1 pJ时,信 关键词： 布里渊放大器 信号增益 延迟时间 抽运光能量     

Investigation of Cr:YAG passive mode-locking in a pulsed Nd:YAG laser

Passive mode-locking of a pulsed Nd:YAG laser using a Cr⁴⁺:YAG saturable absorber was realized for the first time in a nearly critical stable resonator containing an antiresonant ring structure. The output energy and pulse duration are 13.5 mJ and 180 ps, respectively. The recovery time and saturable intensity for excited-state absorption of Cr⁴⁺:YAG under the action of strong laser pulses were calculated from rate equations.     

A compact subnanosecond high power Nd:YAG laser system

In this paper, a high power Nd:YAG laser system is described, which consists of an actively-passively mode-locked Nd:YAG laser oscillator with variable subnanosecond pulsewidths (200 ps to 1 ns), a Pockels-cell shutter and a coaxial four-pass Nd:YAG amplifier. With the oscillator operating in the colliding pulse regime, and a BDN dye film as the saturable absorber, and an acousto-optic modulator as the active modelocker, we have achieved a shot-to-shot stability of the pulse-train amplitude < ±4%. For a 0.1 mJ, 200 ps laser pulse, we obtained four-pass amplification of 7 × 10² with a pump energy of 106 J.     

Generation, measurement and optimization of a variable duration, short pulse, mode-locked cavity-dumped Nd:YAG laser

Spectral and temporal measurements undertaken on a single picosecond laser pulse from a flash lamp pumped, cavity dumped, active/passive mode-locked Nd:YAG laser are presented in this paper. Optimization of several parameters of the resonator cavity produced a single pulse with 0.7 mJ energy and 10² contrast. The pulse duration was variable from 24 to 120 ps by using intra-cavity etalons of different thicknesses. The pulse width and spectrum of the pulse were simultaneously measured using a second harmonic autocorrelator and a spectrometer. The time bandwidth product was 0.445, which is close to theoretical limit for a bandwidth limited pulse.     

Multi-photon-pumped stimulated emission from ZnO nanowires: A time-resolved study

In this work, we study temporal evolution of multi-photon-pumped stimulated emission from ZnO nanowires. In addition to second harmonic generation, ultraviolet stimulated emission is observed in ZnO nanowires under femtosecond pulse excitation at 800 nm. Sharp emission peaks appear when excitation flux reaches a threshold of 80 mJ/cm², which can be interpreted as lasing action in self-formed nanowire microcavities. Temporal evolution of the emission captured by Kerr shutter technique shows strong excitation-power dependence. The dynamic trace of stimulated emission exhibits a fast decay with a lifetime about 4.5 ps at intermediate excitation (∼100 mJ/cm²) and a lifetime about 2 ps at high excitation (>160 mJ/cm²). The difference in the lifetime can be attributed to different gain mechanisms related to excitonic interaction and electron-hole plasma, respectively.     

Output and picosecond amplification characteristics of an efficient and high-power discharge excimer laser

Improvements in output pulse energy and efficiency of a conventional capacitor-transfer-type discharge excimer laser with automatic preionization have been achieved by extending the discharge volume and resulting moderate pumping of the active medium. The discharge laser produces a pulse energy of more than 1 J for XeCl, KrF, and ArF lasers in square beams of about 2×2 cm², and the maximum overall efficiency observed is 2.9% for XeCl, 3.2% for KrF and 1.8% for ArF. The laser device has been involved in a picosecond ( 32 ps) XeCl laser amplification system, and was operated as an amplifier at a repetitive frequency of 10 Hz. Saturation fluence for XeCl laser was measured to be 1.4 mJ/cm², and the picosecond pulse energy of 40 mJ was extracted from the amplifier.On leave from Ebara Corp., 6-6-7, Ginza, Chuo-ku, Tokyo 104, JapanOn leave from Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, LTD., 4-6-22, Kan-on shinmachi, Nishi-ku, Hiroshima 733, Japan     

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.     

High-repetition-rate grazing-incidence pumped x-ray laser operating at 18.9 nm

We have demonstrated a 10 Hz Ni-like Mo x-ray laser operating at 18.9 nm with 150 mJ total pump energy by employing a novel pumping scheme. The grazing-incidence scheme is described, where a picosecond pulse is incident at a grazing angle to a Mo plasma column produced by a slab target irradiated by a 200 ps laser pulse. This scheme uses refraction of the short pulse at a predetermined electron density to increase absorption to pump a specific gain region. The higher coupling efficiency inherent to this scheme allows a reduction in the pump energy where 70 mJ long pulse energy and 80 mJ short pulse energy are sufficient to produce lasing at a 10 Hz repetition rate. Under these conditions and by optimizing the delay between the pulses, we achieve strong amplification and close to saturation for 4 mm long targets.     

Selective ablation of thin SiO<Subscript>2</Subscript> layers on silicon substrates by femto- and picosecond laser pulses

The selective ablation of thin (∼100 nm) SiO₂ layers from silicon wafers has been investigated by applying ultra-short laser pulses at a wavelength of 800 nm with pulse durations in the range from 50 to 2000 fs. We found a strong, monotonic decrease of the laser fluence needed for complete ablation of the dielectric layer with decreasing pulse duration. The threshold fluence for 100% ablation probability decreased from 750 mJ/cm² at 2 ps to 480 mJ/cm² at 50 fs. Significant corruption of the opened Si surface has been observed above ∼1200 mJ/cm², independent of pulse duration. By a detailed analysis of the experimental series the values for melting and breaking thresholds are obtained; the physical mechanisms responsible for the significant dependence on the laser pulse duration are discussed.     

Effect of pulse width and fluence of femtosecond laser on the size of nanobump array

Conical nanobump arrays were generated on gold thin film processed by interfering femtosecond laser. The transition of the height and diameter as functions of fluence and pulse width was investigated. When the fluence was 87 mJ/cm², the height and diameter were not so different at 350 fs or shorter pulse width. They decreased at longer pulse width, and no bump could be generated over 1.6 ps. The results suggest the decrease of size is due to the diffusion of electron to not-excited region, and due to heat conduction to not heated region or substrate, or change of absorbance of laser. At long pulse width of 2.4 ps and relatively higher fluence of 190 mJ/cm², nanobump had liquid-like structure as a stop motion of a water drop.     

Demonstration of Mo Soft X-Ray Lasers with a Grazing Incidence Pumping Scheme in the XL-II Facility

A Ni-like Mo soft x-ray laser （SXRLs） operating at 18.9nm has been demonstrated by employing a grazing incidence pumping scheme with 120m^3 in the 200ps pre-pulse and 140mJ in the 200fs main pulse. The SXRL gain is estimated to be 1.5-3cm^-1 when a grazing incidence angle of 14° is applied. Numerical simulations are also performed to investigate the dynamics of the ion distribution. It is found that a high intensity at 2.4× 10^14 W/cm^2 of the 200fs main pulse could heat the pre-plasma rapidly to an appropriate temperature for population inversion, and could compensate for the shortage of the total pump energy to a certain extent.     

LD end pumped, actively mode locked and passively Q-switched Nd:YAP laser at 1341 nm

An end pumped Nd:YAP laser at 1341 nm is actively mode locked and passively Q-switched. Pumping was done with a pulsed high power laser diode with maximum power 425 W. V³⁺:YAG with 61% initial transmission served as saturable absorber, and an acousto-optic modulator is used for active mode locking. The output pulse train with 69 ns duration has a total energy of 3.2 mJ with ±4% shot-to-shot fluctuation. The peak output energy of a single mode locked pulse is 0.25 mJ. The pulse duration of a single mode locked pulse is less than 800 ps. The output laser beam is nearly diffraction limited with 1.6 mm diameter, and beam propagation factor M² about 1.3.     

High-peak-power,high-repetition-rate LD end-pumped Nd:YVO<Subscript>4</Subscript> burst mode laser

A compact high-peak-power, high-repetition-rate burst mode laser is achieved by an acousto-optical Q-switched Nd:YVO₄ 1064 nm laser directly pumped at 878.6 nm. Pulse trains with 10–100 pulses are obtained using acousto-optical Q-switch at repetition rates of 10–100 kHz under a pulsed pumping with a 1 ms duration. At the maximum pump energy of 108.5 mJ, the pulse energy of 10 kHz burst mode laser reaches 44 mJ corresponding to a single pulse energy of 4.4 mJ and an optical-to-optical efficiency of 40.5 %.The maximum peak power of ~468.1 kW at 10 kHz is obtained with a pulse width of 9.4 ns. The beam quality factor is measured to be M ² ~1.5 and the pulse jitter is estimated to be less than 1 % in both amplitude and time region.     

Enhancement of temporal contrast of high-power femtosecond laser pulses using two saturable absorbers in the picosecond regime

We characterized the transmission properties of a color-glass-filter (RG850) saturable absorber (SA) in a wide range of pulse durations (from 25 fs to 5 ps). The transmission properties were strongly related to the energy fluence, pulse duration, and chirp parameter. On the basis of these properties, the input pulse duration, chirp parameter, and energy fluence were optimized to maintain the width of the transmitted laser spectrum as much as possible with minimal energy loss. We demonstrated that, by transmitting a positively chirped 2.8-ps laser pulse to two identical SAs at an energy fluence of 15 mJ/cm², the temporal contrast ratio of the main pulse to the amplified spontaneous emission was enhanced by 4 orders of magnitude without any significant energy loss or strong spectral narrowing in a 10-Hz, 100-TW femtosecond laser system.