Performance of a CW pumped Nd:YVO4 amplifier with kHz pulses

Until recently, simple and reliable high repetition-rate laser sources with nanosecond pulses much shorter than from conventional A-O Q-switch lasers were not available. However over the past 2 years we have developed such lasers based on proprietary fast E-O switching technology, which allows designs delivering 1 ns pulses and subnanosecond jitter for good synchronisation. The technology provides pulses with multi-kW peak power and repetition-rates to >100 kHz.Most recently, the performance of these short pulse lasers has been developed further by implementing oscillator/amplifier (master oscillator and power amplifier, MOPA) technology which increases the output to >1 W average power. Here we report on a simple model that has been used to predict the performance of the CW pumped Nd:YVO₄ amplifier used in the MOPA laser. The model is based on the well-known expressions for the saturated gain applying to laser pulses, but more usually applied to pulse-excited amplifiers. The model is shown to allow a good interpretation of the amplifier behaviour for kHz pulses and to be a useful tool for predicting the performance of the MOPA laser.     

Flashlamp-pumped Nd:KGW laser in MOPA configuration: comparative study of several rods

The laser performance of the Nd:KGW crystal has been studied in a master oscillator and power amplifier configuration (MOPA). Several crystals from two different producers were investigated for the oscillator and the amplifier. A maximum single-pass gain of 25 was observed in free-running and Q-switched mode. We obtained a maximum output amplified energy of 400 mJ at 30 Hz (with a pulse duration of 10 to 30 ns) with a divergence less than 3 mrad. We also studied the limitations of this configuration due to the very high gain of the Nd:KGW crystal. Received: 21 September 1998 / Revised version: 10 January 1999 / Published online: 19 May 1999     

Simultaneous narrow linewidth and broadband operation in the master oscillator power amplifier of a self-seeded Ti:sapphire laser

A narrow linewidth pulse and a broadband pulse were simultaneously operated in the master oscillator power amplifier (MOPA) of a self-seeded Ti:sapphire laser, and their intensity ratio was varied by increasing the incident pump energy. The broadband pulse from the independent free-running oscillation was preferentially amplified in the MOPA chain and replaced the narrow linewidth pulse. This explanation was confirmed by comparing the behavior with that of a bandpass filter inserted at the exit of the oscillator. The behaviors were well simulated by numerical calculations. From the results, a method to produce both narrow linewidth and broadband pulses was proposed with their ratio depending on the pump energy.     

Temporal dynamics of high repetition rate pulsed single longitudinal mode dye laser

Theoretical and experimental studies of temporal dynamics of grazing incidence grating (GIG) cavity, single-mode dye laser pumped by high repetition rate copper vapour laser (CVL) are presented. Spectral chirp of the dye laser as they evolve in the cavity due to transient phase dynamics of the amplifier gain medium is studied. Effect of grating efficiency, focal spot size, pump power and other cavity parameters on the temporal behaviour of narrow band dye laser such as build-up time, pulse shape and pulse width is studied using the four level dye laser rate equation and photon evolution equation. These results are compared with experimental observations of GIG single-mode dye laser cavity. The effect of pulse stretching of CVL pump pulse on the temporal dynamics of the dye laser is studied.     

A MOPA with double-end pumped configuration using total internal reflection

We presented a Nd:YAG master oscillator power amplifier (MOPA) with the compact LD double-end pumped configuration. To acquire the homogenous absorption distribution, a composite short Nd:YAG rod has been employed as the amplification medium and the rod side was well polished to cause total internal reflection (TIR) at the internal wall of the rod. Because the axes of pump LDs and the seed laser occupy the same position, it is relatively easy to obtain both the satisfied mode-matching efficiency and the high absorption efficiency by using two stacked-LD modules. A seed laser, with the input energy of 15 mJ and the pulse width of 46 ns, was amplified through the MOPA structure with the one-pass gain of about 1.2. We have not found any parasitic oscillations from both ends of the amplifier rod until the total pump LD power reached 420 W. The proposed scheme is thought to be useful in a multiple-pass MOPA system for high-average-power applications.     

Generation of synchronized signal and pump pulses for an optical parametric chirped pulse amplification based multi-terawatt Nd:glass laser system

Synchronized signal (650 ps) and pump (1.3 ns) pulses were generated using 4-pass geometry in a grating pair based pulse stretcher unit. The pump pulse has been further amplified in a high gain regenerative amplifier. This amplified pulse was used as the pump in an optical parametric chirped pulse amplification based Nd:glass laser system. As the chirped signal pulse and the pump pulse originated from the same oscillator, the time jitter between the pump pulse and the signal pulse can be <50 ps.     

High-beam-quality, 5.1 J, 108 Hz diode-pumped Nd:YAG rod oscillator-amplifier laser system

A high efficiency, high beam quality diode-pumped Nd:YAG master oscillator power-amplifier (MOPA) laser with six amplifier stages is demonstrated. The oscillator with two-rod birefringence compensation was designed as a thermally determined near hemispherical resonator, which presents a pulse energy of 223 mJ with a beam quality value of M² = 1.29 at a repetition rate of 108 Hz. The MOPA system delivers a pulse energy of 5.1 J with a pulse width of 230 μs, a M² factor of 3.6 and an optical-to-optical efficiency of 38.5%. To the best of our knowledge, this is the highest pulse energy for a diode-pumped Nd:YAG rod laser operation with a high beam quality and a pulse width of hundreds of microseconds at a repetition rate of over 100 Hz.     

Design of the Seed Source for High Power KrF Excimer Laser System

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天光一号MOPA光学角多路系统的研制

 光学角多路系统是主振功放(MOPA)装置的重要组成部分。它不仅连接着主振荡器、预放大器及主放大器三个KrF激光系统，而且起着压缩激光脉宽的作用。光学角多路能使主振激光脉冲在能量上得到足够的放大，并使泵浦预放、主放激光腔的电子束能量及其脉宽得到充分的利用。介绍了天光一号装置上MOPA光学角多路系统的结构,并结合多年来运行的实践，提出了若干优化措施。     

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.     

Diode-pumped 250-W zigzag slab Nd:YAG oscillator amplifier system

A laser-diode-pumped zigzag slab Nd:YAG master oscillator power amplifier (MOPA) system featuring high pulse energy and high average power was developed for pumping of an ultrashort-pulse laser system. The MOPA system consists of an oscillator, a preamplifier, two postamplifiers, and image-relay telescopes. The postamplifiers have an angle-multiplexed ring-type double-pass configuration. A pulse energy of 1.26 J and an average power of 251 W were obtained at a repetition rate of 200 Hz. The frequency-doubled power when a LiB(3)O(5) crystal was used was 105 W at a repetition rate of 170 Hz. The intensity profiles of the fundamental and the second harmonic are nearly top-hat shaped and are suitable for pumping.     

120 W high repetition rate Nd:YVO<Subscript>4</Subscript> MOPA laser with a Nd:YAG cavity-dumped seed laser

A master oscillator power amplifier (MOPA) system in which the output from an end-pumped Nd:YAG oscillator cavity dumped at 500 kHz is scaled up by a four-stage Nd:YVO₄ amplifier is reported. Decrease in extraction efficiency of the amplifier chain with crystals different from that in the oscillator was analyzed. With the 5.4 W seed output, 118 W of power was extracted from the amplifier chain at the pump power of 345 W, with an extraction efficiency of 34.2% and an overall optical–optical efficiency of 30.9% for the MOPA system. The beam quality factors were measured as M _x ²=1.45 and M _y ²=1.59 in two orthogonal directions, respectively.     

Large aperture tapered fiber phase conjugate mirror in MOPA laser systems with high repetition rate and high pulse energy

A large aperture tapered fused silica fiber phase conjugate mirror with a maximum 50.7% stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) reflectivity is presented, which is operated with 400 Hz pulse repetition rate and 36.5 mJ input pulse energy. To the best of our knowledge, it is the first time that over 50% SBS reflectivity is achieved by using solid-state phase conjugate mirror under such high pulse repetition rate and high pulse energy. With much higher pulse repetition rate of 500 and 1000 Hz, the maximum SBS reflectivity is 41.2% and 33.3%, respectively. A single-longitudinal-mode Nd:YAG laser is experimentally studied with master oscillator power amplifier (MOPA) scheme using such a tapered fiber as a phase conjugate mirror. A 101 mJ pulse energy is achieved at 400 Hz repetition rate, with a pulse width of 6 ns and a M² factor of less than 2. The corresponding peak power reaches 16.8 MW.     

High-energy Ho:LLF MOPA laser system using a top-hat pump profile for the amplifier stage

Numerical simulations show the advantage of using a top-hat intensity profile pumping the amplifier stage in an Ho:LuLiF₄ (Ho:LLF) master oscillator power amplifier (MOPA) configuration over a Gaussian pump profile: higher pulse energies could be generated simultaneously with reduced peak fluence in Q-switched operation. In the experimental implementation, the top-hat beam was realized with a coherent beam transformation of the non-absorbed pump beam transmitted by the oscillator to pump the amplifier stage. The Ho:LLF MOPA produced 103.6 mJ at a repetition rate of 100 Hz with a pulse duration of 30 ns at a wavelength of 2053 nm, which corresponds to an optical-to-optical efficiency of 12.9 %. The beam quality was nearly diffraction limited (M ² = 1.03).     

Injection-Seeded 500 Hz Repetition Rate High Peak Power Single-Frequency Nd:YAG Laser for Mid-Infrared Generation

We develop an injection-seeded single-frequency neodymium-doped yttrium aluminum garnet (Nd:YAG) laser with 500 Hz repetition rate and high peak power. The laser construction is designed as seed injection and master oscillator power amplifier (MOPA) including single-frequency master oscillator, extra-cavity frequency doubling crystal, and round-trip power amplifier. The master oscillator can emit 1,064 nm laser of 8.4 mJ with 6.8 ns pulse width at the pump energy equal to 23 mJ. A green laser energy of 1.1 mJ is obtained by setting the proper temperature of the LBO crystal. The pulse energy of 1,064 nm laser decreases to 6.5 mJ after passing through the LBO crystal and rises to 25.3 mJ after a round-trip power amplifier corresponding to the extraction efficiency of 29%. The final output pulse width is 6.5 ns, representing a peak power of 3.9 MW. The 1,064 nm laser beam quality factor M² of the master oscillator and the amplified one are 1.3 and 1.5, respectively. The laser will be used to generate mid-infrared where the 532 nm laser with narrow pulse width is to pump sheet optical parametric oscillator (OPO) and the 1,064 nm laser with high peak power to pump the OPO.     

High-efficiency nanosecond optical parametric oscillator with the stable ring configuration

High stability nanosecond OPO operation at 1.57 μm was realized based on the type II non-critically phase-matched (NCPM) KTP crystal by utilizing a single frequency Nd:YAG master oscillator power amplifier (MOPA) laser as pump source. Energy conversion efficiency of 18.1% was demonstrated with single-pass ring cavity which was approximately two times more than that of critical ring cavity. The highest slope efficiency of 37.76% and maximum signal pulse energy of 3.1 mJ were attained with the output reflectivity of R = 50% at the pulse repetition frequency of 100 Hz. Experimental results reveal that the nanosecond OPO with ring stable configuration is a promising design to meet the need of IPDA’s transmitter.     

An experimental study and theoretical analysis of the mode characteristics of a narrow line-width,pulsed dye laser oscillator at different pump powers

This paper presents an experimental study and theoretical analysis on the effect of pump power on the divergence, pointing, line-width and wavelength stability of a narrow line-width, high repetition rate dye laser oscillator. The dye laser oscillator, based on the hybrid multiple-prism grazing-incidence grating cavity, was pumped by copper vapor laser (CVL). The dye laser mode characteristics were studied at CVL average pump powers of 2, 4 and 8 W. The single pulse dye laser divergence/pointing stability was studied by far-field intensity distributions. The line-width and wavelength stability were studied using a high resolution wave-meter. The experimental results were theoretically analyzed in terms of dye laser mode structure drift induced by beam pointing instability, beam divergence and thermally induced optical path length fluctuation. A comprehensive theoretical treatment on pointing stability of dye laser beam and its influence in the dye laser wavelength stability is presented. The theoretical and experimental trends were found to be in good agreement.     

Single mode MOPA structured all-fiber Yb pulse fiber amplifier at low repetition

We describe a mopa structured all-fiber 15 μm fiber amplifier cascade. A single-mode diode laser generating 1064 nm wavelength, several nanosecond pulses at 100 Hz repetition was adopted to seed a corepumping amplifier featuring a 6 μm core Yb-doped fiber. Multi-stage pulse-pumping technology was applied to eliminate ASE as much as possible and ease the heat load of the system that leads to the freedom of temperature control of the laser diode. The master oscillator-power amplifier (MOPA) generated 1064 nm, 18 ns pulse-width, 100 Hz repetition of 220 μJ single pulse energy, peak power >12 kW with single transverse output. The pulse energy of 220 μJ is the largest to date in the all-fiber MOPA amplifier with core diameter around 15 μm to our knowledge.     

90.4-W all-fiber single-frequency polarization-maintained 1083-nm MOPA laser employing ring-cavity single-frequency seed oscillator

A high-power all-fiber single-frequency polarization-maintained（PM）laser operating at 1 083 nm is demonstrated using a master oscillator power amplifier（MOPA）structure.The seed source of this MOPA laser system is an in-house-built ring-cavity fiber oscillator.Four-stage amplification configuration is employed, in which the maximal output power of the main amplifier is 90.4 W,corresponding to a conversion efficiency of 72.5%.The polarization extinction ratio of the output light is 13 dB.The amplified spontaneous emission is suppressed by a factor of over 25 dB,and no stimulated Brillouin scattering effect is observed when a large-mode-area and high absorption coefficient PM gain fiber is employed.     

输出平均功率大于2W的高功率、包层抽运、超短脉冲铒镱共掺光纤激光器

采用主振荡功率放大的方式，研制成功集宽带波长连续可调谐、带宽内输出功率谱均衡、高重复频率和高功率性能于一体的超短脉冲包层抽运铒镱共掺光纤激光器.将优化主振荡器和功率放大器的腔结构与掺铒光纤的饱和增益特性结合起来，实现了1535nm—1570nm(35nm带宽)的输出功率均衡的波长连续可调谐激光输出，在带宽内激光功率的最大波动仅为0.5dBm；带宽内平均输出功率大于2W、脉冲重复频率大于10GHz、脉冲宽度小于30ps.该激光器具有综合性能指标先进、结构简单、全光纤化、使用方便等优点. 关键词： 光纤激光器 包层抽运 短脉冲 高重复频率