High energy and high stability Cr:YAG passively Q-switched laser with convex-ARR unstable resonator

A convex-ARR (Anti-resonant Ring) unstable resonator was introduced in a Cr⁴⁺:YAG passively Q-switched Nd:YAG pulsed laser. There are two novel features in this cavity, one is the unstable resonator increasing output energy and improving laser mode; the other is the ARR structure efficiently enhancing the laser stability. A high energy and high stability Q-switched pulse with a single pulse energy of 85.6 mJ, a pulse width of 38 ns and an energy stability of 99.6% was obtained. The experimental results were analyzed well by using the mechanism of transient grating and the properties of the unstable resonator.     

Low energy ion beams by laser interaction

We developed an ion accelerator with a double accelerating gap system supplied by two power generators of different polarity. The ions were generated by laser ion source technique. The laser plasma induced by an excimer KrF laser, freely expanded before the action of accelerating fields. After the first gap action, the ions were again accelerated by a second gap. The total acceleration can imprint a maximum ion energy up to 160 keV per charge state. We analysed the extracted charge from a Cu target as a function of the accelerating voltage at laser energy of 9, 11 and 17 mJ deposited on a spot of 0.005 cm². The peak of current density was 3.9 and 5.3 mA for the lower and medium laser energy at 60 kV. At the highest laser energy, the maximum output current was 11.7 mA with an accelerating voltage of 50 kV. The maximum ion dose was estimated to be 10¹² ions/cm². Under the condition of 60 kV accelerating voltage and 5.3 mA output current the normalized emittance of the beam measured by pepper pot method was 0.22 π mm mrad.     

Effects of laser energy density on impulse coupling coefficient of laser ablation of water for propulsion

Time-resolved force sensing and intensified charge-coupled device (ICCD) imaging techniques were applied to the study of the effects of laser energy density on impulse coupling coefficient of laser ablation of water for propulsion. A Transversely Excited at Atmospheric pressure (TEA) CO₂ laser operated at 10.6 μm, 30 J pulse energy was used to ablate water contained in a quadrate quartz container. Net imparted impulse and coupling coefficients were derived from the force sensor data and relevant results were presented for various laser energy densities. ICCD imaging was used in conjunction with the dynamic force techniques to examine the dependencies on laser energy density. Results showed that the impulse coupling coefficient could reach a maximum value when laser energy density was about 10⁵ J/m², and it would increase before laser energy got to this point and would decrease after this point, and ICCD imaging supplied important phenomenon to explain this variation, which were water ablation before laser energy density got to 10⁵ J/m² and laser-induced air-breakdown with water as an induction when laser energy density was higher than 10⁵ J/m².     

Optothermal effects of laser modes in laser materials processing

All laser materials processing involves two fundamental phenomena: the conversion of optical energy into thermal energy, and the generation of thermal stresses in the laserprocessed materials. The distributions of the thermal energy and stresses in the substrate depend on the laser mode used for materials processing. A proper understanding of the temperature and stress distributions is essential for producing high-quality products using the laser technology. The solution of the complete thermoelastic problem is very complex and requires numerical methods. This paper presents simple analytic expressions for the temperature and thermal stress distributions in the substrate processed with TEM₀₀ and TEM _inf01 ^sup* mode laser beams. The temperature is found to be maximum at the point that encounters the maximum laser intensity. The thermal stress distributions are found to be different owing to the differences in the laser modes used for this study.     

激光柱形腔靶的X射线温度和X射线转换效率

本文根据实验和数值模拟给出的信息,解析研究激光加热柱形腔靶(简称“腔靶”)X射线温度与激光转换的X射线能之间的定标规律,推断了1989年在神光激光器上做的系列腔靶实验,对于每束激光能量为300—500J,脉冲宽度为0.7—1.0ns,波长λ为1.06μm的高斯型激光源,双束靶的X射线转换效率约为(50—55)%,X射线温度为(1.5—1.7)×10⁶K。 关键词：     

Energy efficiency in the multi-stage laser separation of13C by an elimination method

Energy efficiency has been discussed in the multi-stage laser separation of¹³C in the ir laser photolysis of CF₃I. The comparison has been made between the two methods, i.e., the photolysis of¹³C molecules (ordinary method) and the photolysis of¹²C molecules (elimination method). The former recycles the photolyzed product after the regeneration of feed molecules, while the latter recycles the residue after the elimination of the photolyzed product. The analysis of the energy consumption using theoretical models has shown that the elimination method consumes more energy, but the difference is far less than expected; the overall energy consumption may reach the same level at a lower pressure according to our estimation which includes the factors of the quantum efficiency for the dissociation, the energy difference between the laser lines and the material loss for the regeneration. It may imply that the elimination method is more favored in a practical application because it is free from the regeneration procedure.     

Tuning characteristics of a high pressure CO2 laser pumped CH3F Raman laser

Conclusion We described a CH₃F Raman laser pumped by a two stage 20 atmospheres CO₂ laser. The emission spectrum of the CH₃F laser at 11 Torr extends from 23 cm^–1 to 45 cm^–1 when the CO₂ laser is scanned over the 9R emission branch at a fixed pump power of 180 mJ. The emission spectrum shows a strong structure with large parts where the FIR energy decreases to zero. This fact makes the use of such a laser for spectroscopic scanning experiments in the FIR difficult. The laser is, however, very suited for working at fixed but adjustable FIR frequencies. The pulse energy in the maxima of the emission characteristics at a pump energy of 180 mJ exceeds 300 J, which corresponds a photon conversion coefficient of more than 6%.     

Laser induced collisional energy transfer in Sr—Li system

A four-state model considering the relative velocity distribution function for calculating the cross section of laserinduced collisional energy transfer in a Sr-Li system is presented and profiles of laser-induced collision cross section are obtained.The resulting spectra obtained from different intermediate states are strongly asymmetrical in an opposite asymmetry.Both of the two intermediate states have contributions to the final state,and none of the intermediate states should be neglected.The peak of the laser-induced collisional energy transfer(LICET) profile shifts toward the red and the FWHM becomes narrower obviously with laser field intensity increasing.A cross section of 1.2 × 10-12 cm 2 at a laser field intensity of 2.17 × 10 7 V/m is obtained,which indicates that this collision process can be an effective way to transfer energy selectively from a storage state to a target state.The existence of saturation for cross section with the increase of the laser intensity shows that the high-intensity redistribution of transition probabilities is an important feature of this process,which is not accounted for in a two-state treatment.     

Photo-emission studies from Zn cathodes under plasma phase

In this paper, we report investigations of the electron emission from pure Zn cathodes irradiated by UV laser pulses of 23 ns (full-width at half-maximum) at a wavelength of 248 nm (5 eV). The metal cathodes were tested in a vacuum photodiode chamber at 10^?5 Pa. They were irradiated at normal incidence and the anode–cathode distance was set at 3 mm. The maximum applied accelerating voltage was 18 kV, limited by the electrical breakdown of the photodiode gap. Under the above experimental conditions, a maximum applied electric field of 6 MV/m resulted. In the saturation regime, the measured quantum efficiency value increased with the accelerating voltage due to the plasma formation. The highest output current was achieved with 14 mJ laser energy, 18 kV accelerating voltage and its value was 12 A, corresponding to a global quantum efficiency (GQE) approximately of 1×10^?4. The temporal quantum efficiency was 1.0×10^?4 at the laser pulse onset time and 1.4×10^?4 at the pulse tail. We calculated the target temperature at the maximum laser energy. Its value allowed us to obtain output pulses of the same laser temporal profile. Tests performed with a lower laser photon energy (4.02 eV) demonstrated a GQE of two orders of magnitude lower.     

Fast electron energy deposition in aluminium foils: Resistive vs. drag heating

The high current electron beam losses have been studied experimentally with 0.7 J, 40 fs, 6 10¹⁹ Wcm^-2 laser pulses interacting with Al foils of thicknesses 10-200 μm. The fast electron beam characteristics and the foil temperature were measured by recording the intensity of the electromagnetic emission from the foils rear side at two different wavelengths in the optical domain, ≈407 nm (the second harmonic of the laser light) and ≈500 nm. The experimentally observed fast electron distribution contains two components: one relativistic tail made of very energetic (T _h ^tail ≈ 10 MeV) and highly collimated (7° ± 3°) electrons, carrying a small amount of energy (less than 1% of the laser energy), and another, the bulk of the accelerated electrons, containing lower-energy (T _h ^bulk=500 ± 100 keV) more divergent electrons (35 ± 5°), which transports about 35% of the laser energy. The relativistic component manifests itself by the coherent 2ω₀ emission due to the modulation of the electron density in the interaction zone. The bulk component induces a strong target heating producing measurable yields of thermal emission from the foils rear side. Our data and modeling demonstrate two mechanisms of fast electron energy deposition: resistive heating due to the neutralizing return current and collisions of fast electrons with plasma electrons. The resistive mechanism is more important at shallow target depths, representing an heating rate of 100 eV per Joule of laser energy at 15 μm. Beyond that depth, because of the beam divergence, the incident current goes under 10¹² Acm^-2 and the collisional heating becomes more important than the resistive heating. The heating rate is of only 1.5 eV per Joule at 50 μm depth.     

Investigation of different surface morphologies formed on AISI 304 stainless steel via millisecond Nd:YAG pulsed laser oxidation

Different surface morphologies on AISI 304 stainless steel have been obtained after millisecond Nd:YAG pulsed laser oxidation. The effects of laser processing parameters, especially pulse width and laser energy density on the surface morphologies of the stainless steel were emphatically investigated. The results showed that surface morphologies were significantly changed with increasing laser pulse widths and laser energy densities. When the pulse width was 0.2–1.0 ms and laser energy density was 4.30×10⁶–7.00×10⁶ J/m², the surface was obviously damaged and the morphologies varied gradually from craters to ripple structures. However, when the pulse width was longer than 1 ms and the laser energy density was increased from 1.90×10⁷ to 3.16×10⁷ J/m², the sizes of craters got smaller until disappeared and the surface became flatter and smoother. Nevertheless, the smooth surface was not obtained under overhigh laser energy densities. In addition, the schematic relationship was used to describe the formation process and mechanism of different surface morphologies.     

Energy transfer and thermalization in LiYF4:Tm, Ho

Energy transfer processes are very important in solid-state laser systems because they can cause an enhancement of the luminescence emission resulting in a reduction of the laser threshold. In this work, a detailed investigation to understand the basic processes of energy transfer between Tm and Ho ions in LiYF₄, a solid-state laser crystal, was made. Data includes absorption, luminescence excitation and response to pulsed excitation. Dynamics of the energy transfer was analyzed by considering the kinetic evolution of the emissions of both ions. It was found that the energy transfer process between the ³ F ₄ spectral manifold of Tm and the ⁵ I ₇ spectral manifold of Ho results in thermal equilibration of these two manifolds. Received: 20 May 1999 / Revised version: 20 August 1999 / Published online: 27 January 2000     

Investigations of Yb-doped optical fiber using selective laser excitation

The method of tunable site-selective laser excitation was used for a study of the spectral and fluorescence characteristics of Yb³⁺ optical centers in laser optical fiber. Decay curves and positions of fluorescence spectra maxima at different wavelengths of selective laser excitation and positions of excitation spectra maxima at different fluorescence selective registration provide new information on lifetimes and Stark energy distribution among inhomogeneously broadened Yb³⁺ lines. The obtained Stark splitting energy distribution diagram demonstrates the tuneability of Yb³⁺ laser oscillation wavelength under tunable excitation of a pump laser.     

Enhancement of temporal contrast of high-power femtosecond laser pulses using two saturable absorbers in the picosecond regime

We characterized the transmission properties of a color-glass-filter (RG850) saturable absorber (SA) in a wide range of pulse durations (from 25 fs to 5 ps). The transmission properties were strongly related to the energy fluence, pulse duration, and chirp parameter. On the basis of these properties, the input pulse duration, chirp parameter, and energy fluence were optimized to maintain the width of the transmitted laser spectrum as much as possible with minimal energy loss. We demonstrated that, by transmitting a positively chirped 2.8-ps laser pulse to two identical SAs at an energy fluence of 15 mJ/cm², the temporal contrast ratio of the main pulse to the amplified spontaneous emission was enhanced by 4 orders of magnitude without any significant energy loss or strong spectral narrowing in a 10-Hz, 100-TW femtosecond laser system.     

Energy of a shock wave generated in different metals under irradiation by a high-power laser pulse

The energies of a shock wave generated in different metals under irradiation by a high-power laser beam were determined experimentally. The experiments were performed with the use of targets prepared from a number of metals, such as aluminum, copper, silver and lead (which belong to different periods of the periodic table) under irradiation by pulses of the first and third harmonics of the PALS iodine laser at a radiation intensity of approximately 10¹⁴ W/cm². It was found that, for heavy metals, like for light solid materials, the fraction of laser radiation energy converted into the energy of a shock wave under irradiation by a laser pulse of the third harmonic considerably (by a factor of 2–3) exceeds the fraction of laser radiation energy converted under irradiation by a laser pulse of the first harmonic. The influence of radiation processes on the efficiency of conversion of the laser energy into the energy of the shock wave was analyzed.     

Motion and acceleration of electrons in high-intensity laser standing waves

The motion and the energy of electrons driven by the ponderomotive force in linearly polarized high-intensity laser standing wave fields are considered. The results show that there exists a threshold laser intensity, above which the motion of electrons incident parallel to the electric field of the laser standing waves undergoes a transition from regulation to chaos. We propose that the huge energy exchange between the electrons and the strong laser standing waves is triggered by inelastic scattering, which is related to the chaos patterns. It is shown that an electron's energy gain of tens of MeV can be realized for a laser intensity of 10²⁰ W/cm².     

Generation of a fast-ion beam upon the interaction of a multiterawatt picosecond laser pulse with a solid target

The parameters of fast particles generated upon the interaction of 10¹⁹ W/cm² laser pulses with solid targets are studied. The spatial and energy parameters of fast ions are investigated. It is found that approximately 1–3% of the laser energy is transformed to the energy of mega-and submegaelectronvolt ions at laser pulse intensities ≥10¹⁸ W/cm². It is shown experimentally that an ion beam is directed perpendicular to the target surface. The analytic and numerical simulations agree with experimental results and predict the propagation of fast electrons in the mirror direction with respect to the incident laser beam and of ions perpendicular to the target. The theoretical calculations are compared with the experimental output and spectra of fast electrons and ions.     

乙醚团簇在纳秒激光场中的多价电离及其电子能量分布的研究

用5ns,1064nm的脉冲Nd:YAG激光,研究了乙醚团簇与纳秒激光的相互作用.在10¹¹ W/cm²量级光强下,观察到价电子完全剥离的O⁶⁺,C⁴⁺,且这些高价离子的强度比值基本不随激光能量而变化.用阻滞电压方法测量了电离过程中溢出电子能量分布,在最大激光能量4.0×10¹¹ W/cm²,溢出电子的平均能量为56eV,最大能量为102eV.实验结果支持了高价离子产生的“多 关键词： 高价离子 电子能量 纳秒激光 乙醚团簇     

Excited-state laser spectroscopy of the impurities in III–V and II–VI semiconductors

At temperatures where the shallow donors become occupied, weak impurity lines appear on sweeping the field with laser wavelenghts where photon energy is insufficient to cause transitions from the ground state ti any of the excited states if the impurities. With all the materials investigated, the two most prominent of these lines, which are attributed to transitions between excited states, lie on the same two curves on a dimensionless diagram of excitation energy against cyclotron energy. One of these lines is identified as arising from the 2p⁻ to 2s transition. The other probably also originates from the 2p⁻ state. The photon energy for the 311μ laser line is just sufficient to cause transitions from the 1s to 2p⁻ state in n-GaAs. Because of this almost exact coincidence, fine structure due to the central cell corrections for individual impurities is particularly well resolved in magnetic field.     

Generation of monoenergetic ultrashort electron pulses from a fs laser plasma

Ultrashort high-energy electron beams are generated by focusing fs Ti:sapphire laser pulses on a thin metal tape at normal incidence. At laser intensities above 10¹⁶ W/cm² , the fs laser plasma ejects copious amounts of electrons in a direction parallel to the target surface. These electrons are directly detected by means of a backside illuminated X-ray CCD, and their energy spectrum is determined with an electrostatic analyzer. The electrons were observed for two laser polarization directions, parallel and perpendicular to the observation direction. At the maximum applied intensity of 2×10¹⁷ W/cm², the energy distribution peaks at around 35 keV with a hot tail detectable up to about 300 keV. The number of electrons per shot at 35 keV is about 5×10⁸ per sterad per keV. Quasi-monoenergetic electron pulses with a relative energy spread of 1% were produced by using a 50-m slit in the beam path after the analyzer. This approach offers great potential for time-resolved studies of plasma, liquid, and surface structures with atomic-scale spatial resolution. PACS 41.75.Fr; 52.38.Kd; 52.70.Nc