光纤激光器光参量啁啾脉冲放大现象

实验研究了采用信号光在一块非线性晶体内被同一束泵浦光放大两次的结构来实现光参量啁啾脉冲放大过程中对参量荧光的控制,实验得到了2×106的双通总增益,输出总能量为2 mJ,信号光能量晃动小于3％ rms,此时参量荧光仅占输出总能量的1％.采用这种放大结构,提高了短信号光与长泵浦光在时域上的匹配和转换效率,抑制了参量荧光,并提高了放大信号光的能量稳定性.     

Development of a high-contrast,high-peak power,Ti:Sapphire/OPCPA laser system

We report on a high-contrast, high-peak power laser system, which combines both conventional laser amplification and optical parametric chirped pulse amplification (OPCPA) techniques. By employing an OPCPA system after a regenerative amplifier, we have enhanced the prepulse contrast by six orders of magnitude. A prepulse contrast of better than 4.4 × 10^?11 has been measured with a high-energy broadband pulse of 24 mJ at a 10 Hz repetition rate from the OPCPA system. With a subsequent four-pass Ti:sapphire amplifier, we have achieved an amplified energy of 279 mJ and an ultrashort recompressed amplified pulse duration of 23.5 fs. We also discuss the basic design aspects and present our preliminary experimental investigations for higher energy operation to a multijoule.     

Compact high gain double-pass optical parametric chirped pulse amplifier

A novel double-pass noncollinear optical parametric chirped pulse amplifier based on an Yb³⁺-doped passively mode-locked fiber laser has been demonstrated in this paper. The signal was double-pass amplified in a single nonlinear crystal by a long pump pulse, and the signal and pump pulses of each pass were completely phase matched in the plane of the maximum effective nonlinearity. Net saturated gain of 2×10⁶ was achieved and the superfluorescence was suppressed by increasing the overlap time between the signal and pump pulses.     

Highly efficient optical parametric chirped-pulse amplification based on BiB3O6 and β-BaB2O4 crystals at low pump intensity

We report a very high signal gain of 1.13 × 10⁷ at a low pump intensity of 260 MW/cm² in a two-stage optical parametric chirped-pulse amplifier (OPCPA), which is used as a pre-amplifier for a short-pulse front-end Nd: glass high-energy laser system. A signal energy of 0.17 nJ was amplified to 2 mJ with a central wavelength of 1053 nm and a repetition rate of 10 Hz using the OPCPA with a 15 mm-long BBO crystal at optical parametric amplifier (OPA) stage 1 and a 12 mm-long BiBO crystal at OPA stage 2.     

High energy and long pulse generation with high-birefringence photonic crystal fibre and laser-diode pumped regenerative amplifier

We report on the generation of a high energy and long pulse for pumping optical parametric chirped-pulse amplification (OPCPA) by a high-birefringence photonic crystal fibre (HB-PCF) and a laser-diode-pumped regenerative chirped pulse amplifier. Using the femtosecond pump pulse centred at 815~nm, a 1064~nm soliton pulse is produced in the HB-PCF. After injecting it into an Nd:YAG regenerative amplifier with the glass etalons, a narrow-band amplified pulse with an energy of $\sim $4~mJ and a duration of 235 ps is achieved at a repetition rate of 10~Hz, which is suitable for being used as a pump source in the 800~nm OPCPA system.     

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.     

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     

Stacking chirped pulse optical parametric amplification

Stacking chirped pulse optical parametric amplification based on a home-built Yb³⁺-doped mode-locked fiber laser and an all-fiber pulse stacker has been demonstrated. Energic 11 mJ shaped pulses with pulse duration of 2.3 ns and a net total gain of higher than 1.1 × 10⁷ at fluctuation less than 2% rms are achieved by optical parametric amplification pumped by a Q-switched Nd:YAG frequency-doubled laser, which provides a simple and efficient amplification scheme for temporally shaped pulses by stacking chirped pulse.     

基于Ti∶sapphire振荡源的光参量啁啾脉冲放大器

以钛宝石飞秒振荡源作为种子源,在二级放大器中,采用种子光被同一束抽运光在有效非线性系数最大的平面内放大两次的双通光参量放大结构,实现高增益光参量啁啾脉冲放大.实验得到了3×107的总增益,信号光输出能量为3 mJ,能量晃动小于3%rms,此时参量荧光仅占输出总能量的1%.实验结果表明,采用这种放大系统,提高了信号光与抽运光在时域上的匹配,有效地抑制了参量放大过程中参量荧光的产生,同时提高了系统的稳定性.     

Broadband femtosecond OPCPA system driven by the single-shot narrow-band iodine photodissociation laser SOFIA

A two-stage optical parametric amplifier driven by a frequency-tripled beam from the high-energy iodine laser system SOFIA was built. This single-shot Optical Parametric Chirped Pulse-Amplification facility (OPCPA) and the system synchronizing the pump and signal pulses are described in detail. The chirped seed pulse of a Ti:sapphire oscillator running at the central wavelength of 800?nm is amplified in the two-stage (LBO and KDP) optical parametric amplifier over 10⁸ times. The amplified spectral bandwidth of 68?nm corresponds to the pulse duration of 14?fs when a transform-limited pulse is assumed. This implies a compressed pulse of TW power. Systematic gain measurements reveal a good match with the theoretical predictions. Signal and idler beam fluence profiles are presented. The suitability of the iodine photo-dissociation laser as a pump source for the OPCPA technique is thus proved for the first time experimentally. A distinctive feature of the iodine laser is its very narrow gain bandwidth (<0.1?cm^?1) and, therefore, the conventional chirped-pulse amplification technique does not lead to pulse durations at the femtosecond level.     

Picosecond optical parametric amplification of stimulated Raman as high peak-power source and ultra-sensitive preamplifier

We report the characteristics of the amplified stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) pulses generated in liquid benzene by a picosecond (ps) β-barium borate (BBO) optical parametric amplifier (OPA). When the OPA system was used as an energy amplifier for SRS pulses, with a pump energy of 2.4 mJ at 355 nm for the OPA, the maximum output energy of the amplified SRS was about 0.73 mJ for the signal and 0.18 mJ for the idler, the energy conversion efficiency was 30.4% from the pump beam to the amplified third order Stokes component at 635.1 nm. The total efficiency would be as high as 37.9% if the output of the idler is also included. The corresponding spectral line width of the amplified Raman pulse was 11.8 cm⁻¹ with a pulse width of 10.9 ps and a peak power of 67 MW. The OPA system was also used as an amplifier for very weak Raman signal, the slope gain factor of this amplifier was found to be as high as 4.1 × 10⁷ and the energy detection limit was as low as 14.8 aJ per pulse, or 48 photons at 635.1 nm, in particular. Such a detection limit corresponds to approximately 0.5 photons per pulse if the time-gate of the OPA is reduced to 150 fs and it is about the same as or even better than a recently report on the 0.75 photons detection limit for a 150-fs OPA of coherent signal at 800 nm.     

堆积脉冲光参量啁啾脉冲放大器

以自启动被动锁模掺镱光纤堆积脉冲激光器为种子源,采用非共线相位匹配的方法,进行了光参量啁啾脉冲放大器的实验研究,得到了两级放大总增益为1.1×107,单脉冲能量为11 mJ,能量稳定性小于2％ rms,8 nm的放大谱宽.实验结果表明,采用这种结构的光参量啁啾脉冲放大器,放大增益高,系统稳定、结构紧凑、便于调节,同时通过调节种子源中的堆积器,可以得到不同宽度的放大信号脉冲.     

Multi-millijoule, nonlinear preamplifier for high intensity femtosecond Yb:YAG chirped-pulse amplification lasers at 1030 nm

We report the highest energy broadband laser pulses at a center wavelength of 1030 nm based on optical parametric chirped-pulse amplification (OPCPA). We have demonstrated amplification of 1030 nm femtosecond laser pulses from a broadband Yb oscillator to over 6.5 mJ with a total gain of greater than 10⁷ achieved in a single pass through only 56 mm of gain material at a 10 Hz repetition rate. The amplified spectral bandwidth of 10.8 nm affords recompression to a 230 fs pulse duration following amplification. As an alternative to the regenerative amplifier (RA) this system is one of the more promising candidates for realizing compact, high intensity, direct diode-pumped, high repetition rate femtosecond Yb:YAG chirped-pulse amplification (CPA) in laser systems.     

Analysis of ultra-broadband high-energy optical parametric chirped pulse amplifier based on YCOB crystal

A new type of optical parametric chirped pulse amplifier is designed and analyzed for the amplification of pulse centered at 808 nm.A novel crystal,yttrium calcium oxyborate YCa4O(BO3)3(YCOB),is utilized in the power amplification stage of optical parametric amplification(OPA).Noncollinear phase matching parameters in the xoz principle plane of YCOB,compared with those in BBO and DKDP,are analyzed by numerical simulation.The results show that YCOB rather than DKDP can be used in the power amplification stage of OPA to realize the amplification of chirped pulse to several joules with a gain bandwidth exceeding 100 nm.This can be used to gain a high intensity pulse of ～10 fs after the compressor.     

Multiterawatt laser system based on optical parametric chirped pulse amplification

A compact multiterawatt laser system based on optical parametric chirped pulse amplification is demonstrated. Chirped pulses are amplified from 20 pJ to 900 mJ by two lithium triborate optical parametric preamplifiers and a final KDP optical parametric power amplifier with a pump energy of 5 J at 532 nm from Nd:YAG-Nd:glass hybrid amplifiers. After compression, we obtained a final output of 570-mJ-155-fs pulses with a peak power of 3.67 TW, which is the highest output power from an optical parametric chirped pulse amplification laser, to the best of our knowledge.     

Multimillijoule chirped parametric amplification of few-cycle pulses

The concept of optical parametric chirped-pulse amplification is applied to attain pulses with energies up to 8 mJ and a bandwidth of more than 100 THz. Stretched broadband seed pulses from a Ti:sapphire oscillator are amplified in a multistage noncollinear type I phase-matched beta-barium borate parametric amplifier by use of an independent picosecond laser with lock-to-clock repetition rate synchronization. Partial compression of amplified pulses is demonstrated down to a 10-fs duration with a down-chirped pulse stretcher and a nearly lossless compressor comprising bulk material and positive-dispersion chirped mirrors.     

Amplification of fluorescence using collinear picosecond optical parametric amplification at degeneracy

We demonstrate the output characteristic of broadband parametric amplification of incoherent light pulses in a 355-nm pumped degenerate picosecond optical parametric amplification with either saturated or unsaturated amplification.The optical parametric amplifier is seeded by the fluorescence generated in a solution of pyridine-1 dye in ethanol.With the saturated amplification,we can obtain high energy incoherent light pulses,whose full width at half maximum bandwidth varies from 16 nm to 53 nm for the different phase matching angles near degeneracy.Moreover,the unsaturated bandwidth of the amplified pulses fits well to the calculated result at degeneracy.Selecting s-polarized fluorescence with a Glan-Taylor prism,the maximum bandwidth of the amplified fluorescence is found to be 59 nm for a purely s-polarized seed.The maximum output energy is 0.67 mJ for the optical parametric amplifier.By using an optical filter and compressor,the generated high energy incoherent light has great potential as the incoherent pump,signal or idler wave of a parametric down-conversion process,so that a wave with a high degree of coherence can be generated from an incoherent pump light.     

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.     

双泵浦光子晶体光纤参量放大研究

利用光子晶体光纤在不同零色散波长附近具有不同色散的特性,研究了在零色散波长为780 nm和1550 nm附近的双泵浦光子晶体光纤参量放大过程.在780 nm附近,讨论了零色散波长变化对双泵浦光子晶体光纤参量放大的影响.数值模拟结果表明:当零色散波长发生微小的变化时,信号增益谱带宽会发生很大的变化.当两泵浦光之间的波长差值减小时,零色散波长的变化对参量放大的影响在很大程度上可以得到抑制,但是增益带宽会有一定的减小.依据这一原理,在1550 nm附近设计光子晶体光纤中的色散平坦光纤参量放大,在5 m长的光子晶体光纤中,当峰值功率为10 W时,得到了增益为65 dB,带宽达到420 nm且极为平坦的增益谱.     

稳定高质量光参量啁啾脉冲放大系统优化设计

要实现光参量啁啾脉冲放大(OPCPA)系统稳定、高质量输出,需要同时对光参量放大和泵浦光倍频这两个非线性过程进行优化设计。在光参量放大系统优化设计中,建立了描述光参量放大过程的多种简化物理模型;通过模拟泵浦光和信号光口径匹配关系,分析了放大信号光空间两维对称性并提出了优化方法;建立了非线性晶体最佳长度确定及调谐方法,以实现信号光输出高稳定性。在泵浦光倍频系统优化设计过程中,提出应用位相失配法实现稳定倍频输出,研究表明这种方法不仅能实现倍频光能量起伏抖动远远小于基频光能量的起伏抖动,而且能减小泵浦光近场调制度和时间波形调制,极大地改善输出倍频光光束质量,进而提高OPCPA系统输出信号光质量。