Two-frequency amplification in a semiconductor tapered amplifier for cold atom experiments

Simultaneous two-frequency amplification is highly desirable in cold atom experiments. The nonlinear response would appear in the two-frequency amplification with a semiconductor tapered amplifier(TA) and has a direct influence on the experimental result. We investigated in detail the effects of frequency difference, total power, and power ratio of two seeding lasers on the output components based on a simplified theoretical model. The simulation results showed that the multiple sideband generation in the amplifier due to self-phase and amplitude modulation could be suppressed and the TA tended to linearly amplify the power ratio between two-frequency components, when the two seeding lasers had a large frequency difference. This was verified experimentally in the output power ratio measurement via a calibrated Fabry-Perot interferometer method with a good linearity and an uncertainty of 1%. We also discussed the consequences of power ratio responses in the amplification in light of cold atom experiments, especially in the ac Stark shift related phase error of Raman-type atom interferometers(AIs). It was shown that the fluctuation of intensity ratio of Raman beams may induce significant systematic errors for an AI gyroscope.     

High-power multiple-frequency narrow-linewidth laser source based on a semiconductor tapered amplifier

The output of two grating-stabilized external-cavity diode lasers was injected into a semiconductor tapered amplif ier in a master oscillator-power amplif ier (MOPA) configuration. At a wavelength of 671 nm this configuration produced 210 mW of power in a diffraction-limited mode with two frequency components of narrow linewidth. The frequency difference delta was varied from 20 MHz to 12 GHz, while the power ratio of the two components was freely adjustable. For delta < 2 GHz additional frequency sidebands appear in the output of the MOPA. This configuration is a f lexible and simple high-power cw laser source for light with multiple narrow-linewidth frequency components.     

Weak laser pulse signal amplification based on a fiber Brillouin amplifier

We propose a high-gain and frequency-selective amplifier for a weak optical signal based on stimulated Brillouin scattering in a single mode fiber. To be able to satisfy the needs of high gain and high signal-to-noise ratio laser pulse amplification, different fiber lengths and core diameters are used to fulfill this experiment. In the experiment, a 430 nW(peak power) pulsed signal is amplified by 70 dB with a signal-to-noise ratio of 14 dB. The small size, high gain, low cost, and low noise of the fiber Brillouin amplifier make it a promising weak signal amplification method for practical applications such as lidar.     

All-fiber laser seeded femtosecond Yb:KGW solid state regenerative amplifier

A high efficiency compact Yb:KGW regenerative amplifier using an all-fiber laser seed source was comprehensively studied. With thermal lensing effect compensated by the cavity design, the compressed pulses with energy of 1 m J at 1 k Hz and 0.4 m J at 10 k Hz in sub-400-fs pulse duration using chirped fiber Bragg grating(CFBG) stretcher were demonstrated.A modified Frantz–Nodvik equation was developed to emulate the dynamic behavior of the regenerative amplifier. The simulation results were in good agreement with the experiment. Numerical simulations and experimental results show that the scheme can be scalable to higher energy of multi-m J, sub-300 fs pulses.     

Noncollinear optical parametric amplification in lithium triborate seeded by a cw Ti:sapphire laser

Experimental investigations of a type-I noncollinear phase-matched optical parametric amplification based on lithium triborate, which was pumped by a 5-ns second-harmonic pulses from a Q-switched Nd:YAG, seeded by a cw Ti:sapphire laser at 800 nm, was presented. The experiments generated 2-ns signal output pulses at 800 nm, the maximum signal output pulse energy reached 19 μJ, the corresponding parametric gain was 44 dB. Furthermore, the experiments demonstrate that the 65 nm-FWHM parametric fluorescence gain spectrum could also be observed. A quantitative account of the ultrabroadband parametric fluorescence gain spectrum was given with our theory. The experimental measurements are in agreement with theoretical calculations.     

Characterization of a high-power tapered semiconductor amplifier system

We have characterized a semiconductor amplifier laser system which provides up to 200 mW output after a single-mode optical fiber at 780 nm wavelength. The system is based on a tapered semiconductor gain element, which amplifies the output of a narrow-linewidth diode laser. Gain and saturation are discussed as a function of operating temperature and injection current. The spectral properties of the amplifier are investigated with a grating spectrometer. Amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) causes a spectral background with a width of 4 nm FWHM. The ASE background was suppressed to below our detection limit by a proper choice of operating current and temperature and by sending the light through a single-mode optical fiber. The final ASE spectral density was less than 0.1 nW/MHz, i.e. less than 0.2% of the optical power. Related to an optical transition linewidth of Γ/2π=6 MHz for rubidium, this gives a background suppression of better than -82 dB. An indication of the beam quality is provided by the fiber coupling efficiency of up to 59%. The application of the amplifier system as a laser source for atom-optical experiments is discussed. Received: 8 May 2000 / Revised version: 21 September 2000 / Published online: 7 February 2001     

A CW seeded femtosecond optical parametric amplifier

1 Introduction Optical parametric amplification (OPA) based on femtosecond Ti:sapphire regen-erative amplifiers has been widely adopted in wavelength extension of ultrashort opticalpulses[1]. While BBO-based femtosecond optical parametric amplifiers have alreadycommercialized, the tuning range of such an 800 nm-pumped OPA is typically between1.15 μm and 2.6 μm due to the limited transparent range of BBO. From application’spoint of view, ultrashort pulses near 1 μm and between 3 and 4 …     

Diode-pumped Cr:LiCAF fs regenerative amplifier system seeded by an Er-doped mode-locked fiber laser

A fs regenerative amplifier based on Cr:LiCAF is demonstrated for the first time. With direct diode pumping, 8 μJ of pulse energy are obtained directly from the amplifier. When seeded by an Er-doped fiber laser, the amplified seed pulses are compressed down to 252 fs, limited by residual net third-order dispersion of the compression gratings and intracavity elements. Pulse broadening due to second- and third-order dispersion is theoretically investigated and compared to experimental results. Dispersion generated by the geometrical cavity arrangement is measured experimentally. Received: 19 November 2001 / Revised version: 28 January 2002 / Published online: 14 March 2002     

Blue laser emission by intracavity second harmonic generation in Nd:ASL pumped by a tapered amplifier laser diode stabilized by a volume Bragg grating

We present the diode pumping of a Nd:ASL (Sr_1-xLa_x-yNd_yMg_xAl_12-xO₁₉) crystal for second harmonic generation at 453 nm. We have developed a high-brightness pump source based on a tapered amplifier in an extended cavity with a volume Bragg grating for wavelength stabilization. A pump brightness of 110 MW cm^-2 sr^-1 is obtained with a linewidth lower than 80 pm at 798 nm. This laser source is used to pump a Nd:ASL crystal to obtain 300 mW at 906 nm and 53 mW at 453 nm by intracavity doubling with a LBO crystal. PACS  42.55.Xi; 42.55.Px; 42.65.Ky     

External-cavity, actively mode-locked grating-coupled surface-emitting laser and amplification characteristics of a grating-coupled semiconductor optical amplifier

An external-cavity, actively mode-locked grating-coupled surface-emitting semiconductor laser (GCSEL) is demonstrated for the first time to the authors' knowledge. The mode-locked oscillator generates a train of optical pulses at a 297-MHz pulse-repetition frequency. The optical pulse from the oscillator has a width of 22.6 ps and a spectral bandwidth of 0.07 nm at 975.9 nm, giving a time-bandwidth product of 0.50. In addition, amplification characteristics of a grating-coupled semiconductor optical amplifier are studied with a continuous-wave external-cavity GCSEL.     

SLD seeded all fiber cascaded nanosecond pulsed amplifier

A Super-luminescent Diode (SLD) seeded all fiber cascaded pulsed laser system is reported. The signal line width is 8 nm confined by spectrum filers between stages, much wider than Laser Diode (LD) seeded laser. The wide spectrum of the seed source gives a good opportunity to get higher stimulated brillouin scattering threshold than LD seeded laser. The system emits up to 50 W pulses at a wavelength of 1064 nm and a repetition rate of 20 kHz with peak power 250 kW and beam quality M2 < 1.8. No SBS or SRS are observed and its output power is limited only by available pump power.     

PbS quantum dot fiber amplifier based on a tapered SMF fiber

A PbS quantum dot coated (QD-coated) tapered fiber amplifier with a broad bandwidth is theoretically demonstrated. The QD layer is coated on the surface of a tapered fiber and is excited by the evanescent wave of a pump. An optical gain of 10.5 dB, with a 160-nm broad bandwidth of at 1530-nm center wavelength, is achieved. The gain efficiency is over 4 dB/cm. This QD-tapered fiber amplifier has a concentration control of the QDs, a lower insertion loss, and shows good suppression of amplified spontaneous emission (ASE), while its structure is also quite simple. Therefore, the proposed fiber amplifier has great potential in fiber-optic communication systems.     

High-order-harmonic generation and superradiance in a seeded free-electron laser

Higher order harmonic generation in a free-electron laser amplifier operating in the superradiant regime [R. H. Dicke, Phys. Rev. 93, 99 (1954).] has been observed. Superradiance has been induced by seeding a single-pass amplifier with the second harmonic of a Ti:sapphire laser, generated in a β-Barium borate crystal, at seed intensities comparable to the free-electron laser saturation intensity. Pulse energy and spectral distributions of the harmonics up to the 11th order have been measured and compared with simulations.     

High power tunable picosecond green laser pulse generation by frequency doubling of an Yb-doped fiber power amplifier seeded by a gain switch laser diode

A compact tunable high power picosecond green laser pulse source based on frequency doubling of an Yb-doped fiber amplifier seeded by a gain switch laser diode has been developed. The fiber amplifier generates the picosecond infrared pulses with average power of 10.3 W, repetition rate of 1 MHz, pulse duration of 150 ps, and tunable range of 20 nm around 1064 nm. For underwater use, the tunable output infrared pulses are frequency doubled into picosecond green laser pulses, which can be tuned from 527 to 537 nm with average power of more than 1.1 W, corresponding to an overall conversion efficiency of 10.7% by a BBO nonlinear crystal. This kind of laser source will have potential application for underwater optical communication.     

Mode locking in a free-electron laser amplifier

A technique is proposed to generate attosecond pulse trains of radiation from a free-electron laser amplifier. The optics-free technique synthesizes a comb of longitudinal modes by applying a series of spatiotemporal shifts between the copropagating radiation and electron bunch in the free-electron laser. The modes may be phase locked by modulating the electron beam energy at the mode spacing frequency. Three-dimensional simulations demonstrate the generation of a train of 400 as pulses at gigawatt power levels evenly spaced by 2.5 fs at a wavelength of 124 angstroms. In the x-ray at wavelength 1.5 angstroms, trains of 23 as pulses evenly spaced by 150 as and of peak power up to 6 GW are predicted.     

High-power pulsed-current-mode operation of an overdriven tapered amplifier

We experimentally investigate the performance of a commercial tapered amplifier diode operating in a pulsed-current mode with a peak current that is significantly higher than the specified maximum continuous current. For a tapered amplifier rated at 500 mW of continuous power, we demonstrate 2.6 W of peak optical output power with 15 mW of injection light for 200 micros, 7 A current pulses. Different failure mechanisms for the tapered amplifier, including thermal and optical damage, are identified under these conditions.     

High power Yb-fiber laser amplifier based on nonlinear chirped-pulse amplification at a repetition rate of 1 MHz

We report a high power fiber amplifier based on nonlinear chirped-pulse amplification(NCPA). To manage the nonlinearity,pulse shaping is introduced by self-phase modulation in the fiber stretcher with the help of spectral filtering. The third-order dispersion is compensated for by the nonlinear phase shift in the NCPA. With optimization, the system can output 382 fs pulse duration with 20 W average power at 1 MHz repetition rate. The long-term average power fluctuation is measured to be0.5% in 24 h, and the beam quality factor(M~2) is 1.25.     

Sensitivity of a neodymium-glass laser amplifier

The results of an experimental study of the sensitivity of a neodymium-glass laser amplifier are presented. The sensitivity of a traveling wave laser amplifier is shown to be close to the theoretical limit, being 1.7 · 10^–6 W for a pass band of 6 · 10¹² cps.     

Near-noiseless amplification of light by a phase-sensitive fibre amplifier

We report near-noiseless (noise figure of 0.4 dB, which is an improvement over the theoretical limit of 1.2 dB for a conventional laser amplifier with the same gain of 1.7 dB) optical amplification of laser light in a phase-sensitive fibre amplifier.