Generation of regular femtosecond pulses in AlGaInP semiconductor laser

It is shown experimentally that stable ~ 200 fs regular pulses and optical frequency comb spectrum containing ~ 70 discrete frequencies can be achieved using semiconductor injection laser working in the conditions of superfluorescence under dc pumping current, which is lower than the threshold of laser action.     

Ultrafast temperature relaxation evolution in Au film under femtosecond laser pulses irradiation

Ultrafast temperature relaxation processes in Au film including two temperature relaxation and thermal diffusion relaxation with femtosecond laser pulse excitation were investigated numerically by Finite Element Method (FEM). With the temperature dependent thermal parameters, the full 2D temperature field evolution in picosecond and nanosecond domains were obtained. It is proposed that the heat transfer depth can be alternatively localized or enhanced by the distinct temperature relaxation mechanisms. Moreover, the effect of laser parameters and Au film thickness and surface reflectivity on the two temperature relaxation time were analysed.     

Spectral and temporal characteristics of metallic nanoparticles produced by femtosecond laser pulses

We study the time of flight optical emission from titanium and tungsten nanosized particles, generated through femtosecond laser-matter interaction in vacuum, in the wavelength spectral range from 300 to 900 nm. Typical spectra consist of broadband structureless signals similar to black body emission from a macroscopic object. Nanoparticles temperature, deduced from their emission spectra, decreases drastically as a function of their time of arrival at a given distance from the target. This behaviour is seen to be independent of individual particle velocities.     

Large negative refractive index modification induced by irradiation of femtosecond laser inside optical glasses

We report on the refractive index modification (Δn) and its cross sectional profile of the created lines inside the different types of optical glasses, containing BaO, TiO₂, or La₂O₃ as a metal oxide. The lines were fabricated by scanning a stage and focusing the femtosecond laser pulses, 800 nm wavelength, a 250 kHz repetition rate and 200 fs pulse duration, from the Ti:sapphire regenerative amplifier system. The Δn measurements were performed with the qualitative phase microscopy technique. As a result, it was found that the Δn and its sign are different depending on glass types. For example, in the glasses containing TiO₂, the Δn became smaller in the modified region and some of them showed relatively large decrease of the Δn, Δn < −0.01, with about 10 μm width. Such a glass material could be useful for the compact optics and optical devices.     

Micromachining of circular ring microstructure by femtosecond laser pulses

In this paper, integration of interference phenomenon into femtosecond laser micromachining was reported as the femtosecond laser pulses were reshaped spatially to perform ablation. The generation of circular interference pattern was demonstrated by overlapping infrared femtosecond laser pulses. The interference pattern was subsequently focused on a copper substrate to ablate microstructures of concentric circular rings. The present technique is expected to open up new applications in the areas of rapid fabrication of micro-Fresnel lenses, hybrid microlenses and lens arrays.     

Periodic surface nanostructures on polycrystalline ZnO induced by femtosecond laser pulses

Periodic surface nanostructures induced by femtosecond laser pulses on polycrystalline ZnO are presented. By translating the sample line-by-line under appropriate irradiation conditions, grating-like nanostructures with an average period of 160 nm are fabricated. The dependence of surface morphologies on the processing parameters, such as laser fluence, pulse number and laser polarization, are studied by scanning electronic microscope (SEM). In addition, photoluminescence (PL) analysis at room-temperature indicates that the PL intensity of the irradiated area increases significantly compared with the un-irradiated area. Using femtosecond laser pulses irradiation to fabricate periodic surface nanostructures on polycrystalline ZnO is efficient, simple and low cost, which shows great potential applications in ZnO-based optoelectronic devices.     

Talbot effect under illumination of double femtosecond laser pulses

The Talbot effect under illumination of double femtosecond laser pulses has been reported. Spectrums of double femtosecond laser pulses with phase differences are quite different from that of one single femtosecond laser pulse. Therefore, the Talbot images of the double femtosecond laser pulses with phase differences are different from that of one single femtosecond laser pulse. Specifically, for the phase difference corresponding to π, the Talbot image shows the largest difference from that of one single pulse. Experimental results are in good agreement with the theoretical analysis. The behaviors of Talbot images under double femtosecond laser pulses illumination cannot be obtained under one femtosecond laser pulse, monochromatic or polychromatic light illumination. Therefore, it is a new interesting optical phenomenon for the Talbot effect which should have potential applications.     

Geometric-optical reconstruction of a wavefront experimental realization with femtosecond laser pulses

The mechanism of wavefront reconstruction by geometric-optical reflection of reconstruction radiation from surfaces with constant phase differences between the object and reference waves has been investigated. The main difference between this mechanism and a holographic one is the absence of diffraction of the reconstructing radiation by the periodic structure and as a consequence the achromatism of the reconstruction process. Incoherent continuous radiation and ultrashort laser pulses were used in the experiments. The effect of achromatic reconstruction has been obtained after recording the interference of counterpropagating 30–40 fs pulses from an Al₂O₃:Ti³⁺ laser in bulk media.     

Spectral modulation of ultra-broadband femtosecond laser pulses based on surface plasmon resonance

The surface plasmon resonance (SPR) for spectral modulation of the femtosecond laser pulses with 110 nm ultra-broad bandwidth is demonstrated on the basis of the development of ultrashort pulse laser sources which supports good spatial resolution and high peak intensity. Employing the femtosecond surface plasmon polariton pulses launched by a Kretschmann configuration, whose reflectivity curve has the characteristic of the ultra-broad bandwidth, we observe a frequency-dependent loss with greater attenuation at the peak of the spectrum profile than in the wings, which is very useful for adequate spectral modulation. The SPR for the spectral modulation is investigated in theoretical and experimental aspects. The arbitrary spectral modulation of the femtosecond laser pulses can be fulfilled by controlling and optimizing the SPR of the gold film. The experimental result agrees well with the calculation.     

Self-assembled volume vortex grating induced by femtosecond laser pulses in glass

We presented a microfabrication process for optical volume vortex grating inside glass by femtosecond laser pulses. The self-trapped filament of femtosecond laser pulses can induce hundreds μm-long region refractive-index changes in glass. We realized the restructured optical vortex beams using a collimated He–Ne laser beam. The maximum first-order diffraction efficiency was about 19.6%. The volume vortex grating structure fabricated in glass is polarization dependent.     

Multipulse irradiation of silicon by femtosecond laser pulses: Variation of surface morphology

The multipulse interaction of ultraviolet femtosecond laser pulses with silicon and generation of surface structures in a large area spot (?1 mm²) has been studied. The evolution of multiscale structures at the constant fluence strongly depends on the number of pulses, N. For N < 200, the “carpet-like” pattern of nano-, and micro-spikes is generated by the bubble explosion in a thin surface foam layer. The accumulation of bubbles and their explosion due to repetition of laser pulses cause damped membrane-like oscillations of the silicon surface. For 200 ≤ N, bifurcation of surface morphology takes place: (i) the surface tension waves of the wavelength ∼200 μm appear in the peripheral region of the spot. Generated by the surface thermal gradient in the liquid foam layer, they spread from the hot centerline towards the periphery of the spot. The change of their wavelength with propagation distance indicates onset of the Eckhaus instability caused by the phase modulation in multipulse interaction. (ii) Deep caverns appear in a highly superheated silicon layer in the central region of the spot due to the fast gas-liquid phase separation and the fragmentation process.     

Recrystallization of germanium surfaces by femtosecond laser pulses

The damage morphology of germanium surfaces using femtosecond laser pulses of various fluences and number of pulses is reported. The single pulse damage threshold in the present experiment was 9.7±4.0×10⁻¹³ W/cm². The experimental threshold value was compared with theory, considering the damage threshold as the melting threshold. The cooling rate calculated on the basis of present results is 2.4×10^15°C/s. Recrystallization was the common feature of the damage morphology. For fluences greater than the single pulse damage-threshold micropits and spherical grains of micron size were formed in the damaged surface. Ablation (surface removal) was also observed at higher fluences (at two or three times of damage threshold value). The damage morphology, induced by multiple pulses, was unaffected for linear and circular polarization.     

基于小波变换和数据融合技术的弱小目标检测

鉴于弱小目标检测所固有的难点及常用的单一分辨率下的检测方法还不能准确稳定地检测出目标，提出了一种弱小目标检测新方法。考虑到实际应用中的复杂背景和大量干扰噪声，运用数据融合技术，先对图像进行小波多分辨率分解，然后将不同分辨率下的子图进行最优加权平均融合来检测弱小目标。用实地拍摄的空中弱小目标红外和可见光图像分别进行实验验证，实验图像取256×256像素点阵大小，其中目标占10×10像素左右。结果表明该方法能够准确稳定地检测弱小目标，为后续的跟踪作了很好的铺垫。     

双飞秒激光脉冲诱导击穿光谱增强特性研究

在大气环境中,以钴为样品,通过单脉冲飞秒激光诱导击穿光谱及共轴双飞秒脉冲激光诱导击穿光谱的对比实验,研究了双脉冲激光诱导击穿光谱的谱线增强机制,测量了双脉冲激光诱导击穿光谱随脉冲时间间隔的变化趋势。结果表明,在最优化的脉冲时间间隔条件下,双脉冲激光诱导等离子体光谱获得明显增强。进一步,通过线性Boltzmann法得出了电子温度随脉冲时间间隔的演化,发现了谱线增强因子和电子温度随脉冲时间间隔呈现出相同的演化趋势,并经历两个明显的变化过程,得出了谱线信号强度的增强依赖于电子温度升高的结论。     

Writing low-loss waveguides in borosilicate (BK7) glass with a low-repetition-rate femtosecond laser

Borosilicate glass (BK7) is a widely-used material in integrated optics devices and in the optical communications industry. We report on laser-written waveguiding in BK7 glass using a low-repetition-rate (1 kHz) laser producing 40 fs pulses of 800 nm light. A 500 μm slit is used to write structures 100 μm below the glass surface. These waveguides show strong guidance at 635 nm, with an index contrast of 3 × 10^− 4 and a propagation loss of ~ 0.5 dB/cm. We measured the change in refractive index for a range of writing conditions as quantified in terms of energy dose; there is an energy dose window (> 0.6 μJ μm^− 3 and < 1.5 μJ μm^− 3) within which the written structures show guidance.     

Alcohol-assisted photoetching of silicon carbide with a femtosecond laser

Femtosecond lasers have proved to be effective tools for micromachining silicon carbide material. In the drilling process, however, when the debris around the hole was not removed efficiently, the depth of hole would not increase further. In this paper, alcohol-assisted photoetching of 6H silicon carbide was investigated using a femtosecond laser. Machining in the presence of alcohol was beneficial to the debris ejection from the hole. The alcohol flow and volatilization was also helpful to further carry away the ablation debris and reduce the ablated material redeposition. The experiment showed that photoetching assisted by alcohol produced cleaner ablation effect and deeper hole than in ambient air. Moreover, alcohol assistance would not produce additional thermal damage around the hole. Vias were formed in a 250 μm thick wafer with alcohol-assisted photoetching technique using a femtosecond laser, which demonstrated the potential for this processing technique.     

3D features of modified photostructurable glass-ceramic with infrared femtosecond laser pulses

The exclusive ability of laser radiation to be focused inside transparent materials makes lasers a unique tool to process inner parts of them unreachable with other techniques. Hence, laser direct-write can be used to create 3D structures inside bulk materials. Infrared femtosecond lasers are especially indicated for this purpose because a multiphoton process is usually required for absorption and high resolution can be attained. This work studies the modifications produced by 450 fs laser pulses at 1027 nm wavelength focused inside a photostructurable glass-ceramic (Foturan^®) at different depths. Irradiated samples were submitted to standard thermal treatment and subsequent soaking in HF solution to form the buried microchannels and thus unveil the modified material. The voxel dimensions of modified material depend on the laser pulse energy and the depth at which the laser is focused. Spherical aberration and self-focusing phenomena are required to explain the observed results.     

Deep subsurface optical waveguides produced by direct writing with femtosecond laser pulses in fused silica and phosphate glass

In the present work, we have analyzed the use of elliptical beam shaping along with low numerical aperture focusing optics in order to produce circular cross-section waveguides in different materials at large processing depths by direct femtosecond laser writing (100 fs, 800 nm, 1 kHz). A variable slit located before the focusing optics allows to generate a nearly elliptical beam shape and also to reduce the effective numerical aperture of the beam along the shat axis of the ellipse. The focusing optics allows to focus the beam deep inside the sample, which is translated at a constant speed transversely to the writing beam direction. The influence of several experimental parameters (energy per pulse, slit width, processing depth) on the properties of the produced waveguides has been analyzed. The influence of the intrinsic properties of the material (refractive index, composition) has been analyzed by comparing results obtained in fused silica and Er:Yb co-doped phosphate glass. The results obtained show that this approach leads to the successful production of deep subsurface (up to 7 mm) waveguides with circular cross-sections. Preliminary results using chirped pulses in the phosphate glass suggest that temporal pulse shaping can be used as an additional parameter to optimize the guided mode symmetry.     

Intense THz-radiation from semiconductors under magnetic field irradiated with femtosecond laser pulses

The THz-radiation power from InAs reaches sub-mW level in a 1.7-T magnetic field irradiated with femtosecond laser pulses of 1.5-W average power. The THz-radiation power is related almost quadratically both to the magnetic field and to the excitation laser power. Furthermore, the THz-radiation spectrum is found to be controlled by the excitation pulsewidth, chirp direction of the excitation pulse, and the magnetic field.     

Investigation on femtosecond laser irradiation energy in inducing hydrophobic polymer surfaces

This study investigates the use of ultrashort femtosecond laser pulses to induce hydrophobic properties on PMMA surfaces. The modification of surface wetting property exhibits a strong dependence on the amount of energy deposited on the PMMA surface. A simple equation has been deduced from the laser parameters to express the energy deposition. It was revealed that water contact angle (WCA) of more than 120°, with a maximum of around 125°, could be achieved when the total energy deposited per unit area on the PMMA surface ranged from 600 J/cm² to 900 J/cm² at an energy deposition rate of around 50 J/cm²/s. Beyond this range, WCA reduced with increasing amount of energy deposition. Furthermore, with higher energy deposition rate or higher laser fluence, total energy required to induce hydrophobic surfaces was reduced. Under different energy deposition, the quantity of polar groups or non-polar groups induced was responsible for the changes in WCA and thus the different surface hydrophobicity.