A laser system for the spectroscopy of highly charged bismuth ions

We present and characterize a laser system for the spectroscopy on highly charged ²⁰⁹Bi⁸²⁺ ions at a wavelength of 243.87?nm. For absolute frequency stabilization, the laser system is locked to a near-infra-red laser stabilized to a rubidium transition line using a transfer cavity based locking scheme. Tuning of the output frequency with high precision is achieved via a tunable rf offset lock. A?sample-and-hold technique gives an extended tuning range of several THz in the UV. This scheme is universally applicable to the stabilization of laser systems at wavelengths not directly accessible to atomic or molecular resonances. We determine the frequency accuracy of the laser system using Doppler-free absorption spectroscopy of Te₂ vapor at 488?nm. Scaled to the target wavelength of 244 nm, we achieve a frequency uncertainty of σ _{244 nm}=6.14?MHz (one standard deviation) over six days of operation.     

Color center laser pumped with a DCM dye laser

A CW, DCM dye laser has been used to pump a RbCl:Li crystal in a color center laser. The DCM dye laser was pumped by the 488 nm and 514.5 nm lines of an argon ion laser. When used in a broad band configuration the dye laser had a power output in the TEM₀₀ mode in excess of 600 mW at a wavelength of 655 nm. An output power in excess of 10 mW at 2.73 μm was possible from the RbCl:Li crystal in a Burleigh FCL for an input power of 600 mW at 655 nm. This method of pumping for the RbCl:Li alleviates the need for both argon ion and krypton ion laser pumps for the Burleigh FCL. All three crystals can be pumped to the specification power levels with a single argon ion laser.     

Diode-pumped Nd:YVO<Subscript>4</Subscript>/Nd:YLF laser at 488 nm

We present a laser architecture to obtain continuous-wave blue radiation at 488 nm. A 808 nm diode-pumped the Nd:YVO₄ crystal emitting at 914 nm. A part of the pump power was then absorbed by the Nd:YVO₄ crystal. The remaining was used to pump the Nd:YLiF₄ (Nd:YLF) crystal emitting at 1047 nm. Intracavity sum-frequency mixing at 914 and 1047 nm was then realized in a BiB₃O₆ (BiBO) crystal to reach the blue radiation. We obtained a continuous-wave output power of 339 mW at 488 nm with a pump laser diode emitting 18.3 W at 808 nm.     

Diode-pumped Nd:YVO<Subscript>4</Subscript>-Nd:YLF blue laser at 488 nm by intracavity sum-frequency-mixing

We report a laser architecture to obtain continuous-wave blue radiation at 488 nm. A 808 nm diodepumped the Nd:YVO₄ crystal emitting at 914 nm. A part of the pump power was then absorbed by the Nd:YVO₄ crystal. The remaining was used to pump the Nd:YLF crystal emitting at 1047 nm. Intracavity sum-frequency mixing at 914 and 1047 nm was then realized in a LBO crystal to reach the blue radiation. We obtained a continuous-wave output power of 514 mW at 488 nm with a pump laser diode emitting 19.6 W at 808 nm.     

Photonic crystal nanocavity laser in an optically very thick slab

A photonic crystal (PhC) nanocavity formed in an optically very thick slab can support reasonably high-Q modes for lasing. Experimentally, we demonstrate room-temperature pulsed lasing operation from the PhC dipole mode emitting at 1324 nm, which is fabricated in an InGaAsP slab with thickness (T) of 606 nm. Numerical simulation reveals that when T≥800 nm, over 90% of the laser output power couples to the PhC slab modes, suggesting a new route toward an efficient in-plane laser for photonic integrated circuits.     

Development of copper bromide laser master oscillator power amplifier system

Development of master oscillator power amplifier (MOPA) system of copper bromide laser (CBL) operating at 110 W average power is reported. The spectral distribution of power at green (510.6 nm) and yellow (578.2 nm) components in the output of a copper bromide laser is studied as a function of operating parameters. The electrical input power was varied from 2.6 to 4.3 kW, the pulse repetition frequency (PRF) was changed from 16 to 19 kHz, and the pressure of the buffer gas (neon) was kept fixed at 20 mbar. When the electrical input power was increased to 4.3 kW from 2.6 kW, the tube-wall temperature also increased to 488°C from 426°C but the ratio of the green to yellow power decreased to 1.53 from 3.73. The ratio of green to yellow power decreased to 1.53 from 1.63 when the PRF of the laser was increased to 19 kHz from 16 kHz. These observations are explained in terms of electron temperature, energy levels of transitions, and voltage and current waveforms across the laser head.     

83 W yellow-green laser at 556 nm from frequency-doubling of a Q-Switched Nd:YAG laser at 1112 nm in LBO

We demonstrate a high power 556 nm yellow-green laser by intracavity frequency doubled of the diode-pumped 1112 nm Nd:YAG laser in a symmetrical L-shaped flat-flat cavity. The coatings of the resonator mirrors were carefully designed to achieve efficient operation of fundamental wavelength of the laser at 1112 nm. By using a type-II phase matching LBO nonlinear crystal as the frequency-doubler, the maximum output power of the 556 nm laser was measured to be as high as 83 W with a pulse repetition frequency (PRF) of 10 kHz under incident pump power of 1150 W, corresponding to an optical-to-optical conversion efficiency of about 7.2%. The fluctuation of output power was less than 2% over 30 min.     

Quasi-monolithic ring resonator for efficient frequency doubling of an external cavity diode laser

A quasi-monolithic second-harmonic-generation ring resonator assembled with miniaturized components is presented. The ring contains a 10-mm-long bulk periodically poled lithium niobate crystal for second-harmonic generation, four plane mirrors and two gradient-index lenses. All parts are mounted on a glass substrate with an overall size of 19.5 mm×8.5 mm×4 mm. As pump source a broad-area laser diode operated in an external resonator with Littrow arrangement is utilized. This external cavity diode laser provides near diffraction limited, narrow-bandwidth emission with an optical output power of 450 mW at a wavelength of 976 nm. Locking of the diode laser emission to the resonance frequency of the ring cavity was achieved by an optical self-injection locking technique. With this setup more than 126 mW of diffraction-limited blue light at 488 nm could be generated. The opto–optical conversion efficiency was 28% and a wall plug efficiency better than 5.5% could be achieved.     

Output power improvement in an Yb-doped fiber laser with an additional unpumped Yb-doped fiber

Master oscillator power amplifier (MOPA) technology has been widely used in high-power or ultrashort-pulse fiber laser systems because the shape of the laser pulse can be easily adjusted. Usually, the first amplification stage of a 1064 nm fiber laser uses the core-pumped Yb-doped fiber amplifier (YDFA); however, the gain or output power is limited owing to the strong amplifier spontaneous emission (ASE) in the 1030 nm band. This paper presents the improved output power in an YDFA by inserting an additional unpumped Yb-doped fiber, which absorbs the lost backward ASE emitted from the pump end. We achieved an output power increase of more than 10% in a low-power signal, and the increase in output power decreased as the signal power increased. Moreover, the insertion of an additional unpumped Yb-doped fiber restricted the unwanted 1030 nm lasing in a low-power signal.     

Continuous-wave intracavity frequency-doubled Nd:Yag-KTiOPO<Subscript>4</Subscript> red laser

Efficient and compact red laser output at 669 nm is generated by intracavity frequency doubling of a continuous-wave (CW) diode-pumped Nd:YAG laser at 1338 nm. With 16.9 W of diode pump power and the frequency-doubling crystal KTiOPO₄ (KTP), a maximum output power of 582 mW in the red spectral range at 669 nm has been achieved, corresponding to an optical-to-optical conversion efficiency of 3.4%; the output power stability over 4 h is better than 3.6%. To the best of our knowledge, this is first work on intracavity frequency doubling of a diode pumped Nd:YAG laser at 669 nm.     

High-power ultraviolet 278 nm laser from fourth-harmonic generation of a Nd:YAG laser in CsB3O5

We demonstrate a high-power UV 278 nm laser by fourth-harmonic generation (FHG) of a 1112 nm Nd:YAG laser in a nonlinear optical (NLO) crystal CsB3O5 (CBO) for the first time, to our best knowledge. A 30 W level diode-pumped Q-switched Nd:YAG laser at 1112 nm with beam quality factor M2=1.2 was used as the fundamental light source at a pulse width of 500 ns. With an LiB3O5 crystal, the 1112 nm laser was first frequency-doubled to 556 nm with an average output power of 13.5 W. It was then frequency doubled again in a CBO crystal to obtain the FHG output at 278 nm. The maximum average output power of the 278 nm laser is up to 1.5 W. The results demonstrated that CBO crystal is a promising NLO material for UV high-power lasers below 300 nm.     

555 nm laser sources based on intracavity frequency doubling of Nd:YGG laser

We report for the first time a yellow-green laser at 555 nm generation by intracavity frequency doubling of a continuous wave (CW) laser operation of a 1110 nm Nd-doped yttrium gallium garnet (Nd:YGG) laser under in-band diode pumping at 808 nm. An LBO crystal, cut for critical type I phase matching is used for second harmonic generation of the laser. At an incident pump power of 18.5 W, as high as 2.31 W of CW output power at 555 nm is achieved. The optical-to-optical conversion efficiency is up to 12.4%, and the fluctuation of the yellow-green output power was better than 2.8% in the given 4 h.     

2277-W continuous-wave diode-pumped heat capacity laser

A high power continuous-wave (CW) diode-pumped Nd:YAG laser operated in heat capacity mode is demonstrated by use of two identical highly efficient diode-pumped laser heads placed in a plane-plane resonator. The laser heads are uniformly pumped with a five-fold symmetrical side-pumping configuration,and each head is able to output maximum output power of 2200 W at 808 nm. Under a total pump power of 4290 W, the output power of the laser at 1064 nm is up to 2277 W, corresponding to an optical-to-optical efficiency of 53.1%.     

Continuous-wave and Q-switched performance of an Yb:YAG/YAG composite thin disk ceramic laser pumped with 970-nm laser diode

Using front face-pumped compact active mirror laser （CAMIL） structure, we have demonstrated an Yb：YAG/YAG composite ceramic disk laser with pumping wavelength at 970 nm. The laser has been operated in both continuous-wave （CW） and Q-switching modes. Under CW operation, laser output power of 1.05 W with 2% transmission output coupler was achieved at the wavelength of 1031 nm. Q- switched laser output was gotten by using an acousto-optic Q-switch. The repetition rate ranged from 1 to 30 kHz and the pulse width varied from 166 to 700 ns.     

Laser diode and pumped Cr:Yag passively Q-switched yellow-green laser at 543 nm

Efficient and compact yellow green pulsed laser output at 543 nm is generated by frequency doubling of a passively Q-switched end diode-pumped Nd:YVO₄ laser at 1086 nm under the condition of sup-pressing the higher gain transition near 1064 nm. With 15 W of diode pump power and the frequency doubling crystal LBO, as high as 1.58 W output power at 543 nm is achieved. The optical to optical conversion efficiency from the corresponding Q-switched fundamental output to the yellow green output is 49%. The peak power of the Q-switched yellow green pulse laser is up to 30 kW with 5 ns pulse duration. The output power stability over 8 hours is better than 2.56% at the maximum output power. To the best of our knowledge, this is the highest watt-level laser at 543 nm generated by frequency doubling of a passively Q-switched end diode pumped Nd:YVO₄ laser at 1086 nm.     

Blue-lines pumped Kerr-lens mode-locked Cr:LiSGaF laser

We report a blue-lines pumped femtosecond Kerr-lens mode-locked Cr:LiSGaF laser based on a tight-focusing geometry. With a combination of 488, 476 and 458 nm lines as a pump source, 58 fs pulses centered at 845 nm were generated. The average output power is 30 mW, and time–band product is 0.331, assuming a sec h² pulse shape. Neither acousto-modulator nor physical aperture or slit were used in this cavity.     

400 mW and 16.5% wavelength conversion efficiency at 488 nm using a diode laser and a PPLN crystal in single pass configuration

Continuous wave power of more than 400 mW at 488 nm has been generated by frequency doubling of 2.45 W at 976 nm obtained from a distributed Bragg reflector tapered diode laser. This results in a wavelength conversion efficiency of 16.5% and an electrical-to-optical efficiency of more than 4.5%. We used a 50 mm long periodically poled MgO:LiNbO₃ bulk crystal in single-pass configuration for the second harmonic generation. This is to the author’s knowledge the highest output power and the highest wavelength conversion efficiency at 488 nm generated by a monolithic semiconductor laser device in single pass configuration with a bulk crystal. A deviation from the quadratic dependency of the frequency doubling is explained by the decrease of the beam quality of the fundamental wave.     

660 nm intracavity frequency doubled red laser suppressing 1338 nm fundamental light by an etalon

An intracavity etalon is used to suppress the vibration of the light at 1338 nm to get a stable laser output. An acousto-optic Q-switched red laser output is obtained by intracavity frequency-doubling a Nd:YAG laser operating at 1319 nm with a type II KTP crystal. At the pump power of 300 W, an average out-put power of 6.5 W at 660 nm is measured at single-end, and the peak power is 65 kW. The stability has been kept less than ±1% in five hours.     

High-power cladding-pumped Tm-doped silica fiber laser with wavelength tuning from 1860 to 2090 nm

A high-power double-clad Tm-doped silica fiber laser, pumped by two beam-shaped and polarization-coupled diode bars at 787 nm, was wavelength tuned by use of an external cavity containing a diffraction grating. The Tm fiber laser produced a maximum output power of 7 W at 1940 nm for 40 W of incident diode power and was tuned over a wavelength range of 230 nm from 1860 to 2090 nm, with >5-W output power over the range 1870-2040 nm. The prospects for further improvement in performance and extension of the tuning range are discussed.     

Nonlinear Hanle effect in the active discharge of an argon laser

 We present experimental evidence of the NonLinear Hanle Effect (NLHE) on the 488 nm transition in an active discharge of an argon laser. Experimental data are used to estimate the homogeneous linewidth of the upper level of the transition. The role of the NLHE in the laser power enhancement is also discussed. Received: 22 February 1996 / Revised version: 17 June 1996