Modified porous silica antireflective coatings with laser damage resistance for Ti:sapphire

Porous SiO2 antireflective (AR) coatings are prepared from the colloidal silica solution modified with methyltriethoxysilane (MTES) based on the sol-gel route. The viscosity of modified silica suspensions changes but their stability keeps when MTES is introduced. The refractive indices of modified coatings vary little after bake treatment from 100 to 150 ℃. The modified silica coatings on Ti:sapphire crystal,owning good homogeneity, display prominent antireflective effect within the laser output waveband (750-850 nm) of Ti:sapphire lasers, with average transmission above 98.6%, and own laser induced damage thresholds (LIDTs) of more than 2.2 J/cm2 at 800 nm with the pulse duration of 300 ps.     

Wavelength swept Ti:sapphire laser

In this study, we demonstrate, for the first time to our knowledge, electronic wavelength sweeping of a continuous wave Ti:sapphire laser using an acousto-optic tunable filter (AOTF). The dependence of the laser output on the sweeping frequency and on the spectral tuning range was investigated. The lasing up to maximum scan rate 11 kHz for 10 nm tuning range and 5 W pump power was achieved. We detected and quantified asymmetry in the output for opposite scan directions. We theoretically characterized the maximum sweeping frequency for swept lasers with AOTFs and confirmed calculated results by measurements.     

High power all-solid-state quasi-continuous-wave tunable Ti: sapphire laser system

This paper reports a high power, all-solid-state, quasi-continuous-wave tunable Ti:sapphire laser system pumped by laser diode (LD) pumped frequency-doubled Nd:YAG laser. The maximum tuned output power of 4.2 W (797 nm) and tuned average power of 3.7 W were achieved when fixing the Ti:sapphire broadband output power at 5.0 W and applying 750-850 nm broadband coated mirror.     

An all-solid-state high power quasi-continuous-wave tunable dual-wavelength Ti：sapphire laser system using birefringence filter

This paper describes a tunable dual-wavelength Ti:sapphire laser system with quasi-continuous-wave and high-power outputs. In the design of the laser, it adopts a frequency-doubled Nd:YAG laser as the pumping source, and the birefringence filter as the tuning element. Tunable dual-wavelength outputs with one wavelength range from 700~nm to 756.5~nm, another from 830~nm to 900mn have been demonstrated. With a pump power of 23~W at 532~nm, a repetition rate of 7~kHz and a pulse width of 47.6~ns, an output power of 5.1~W at 744.8~nm and 860.9~nm with a pulse width of 13.2~ns and a line width of 3~nm has been obtained, it indicates an optical-to-optical conversion efficiency of 22.2{\%}.     

Sub-10-fs, terawatt-scale Ti:sapphire laser system

A three-stage, 1-kHz amplifier system delivering pulses shorter than 10 fs with a peak power in excess of 0.3 TW is reported. Passive and active spectral intensity and phase control allows the preservation of a bandwidth of 120 nm (FWHM) to as high as multimillijoule energy levels and temporal compression of the broadband pulses close to their Fourier limit. The system is scalable to peak powers well beyond 1 TW and holds promise for substantially advancing the state of the art of coherent laboratory soft-x-ray sources.     

1 kHz-0.1 TW高效率钛宝石激光放大器

介绍了一种高重复频率掺钛蓝宝石飞秒激光多通高效率放大系统.在抽运功率为23 W，入射功率为660 mW时，获得7.2 W的放大输出，放大效率达30%.经压缩器压缩后，获得单脉冲能量4.5 mJ,脉冲宽度为 38 fs，重复频率为1 kHz，峰值功率大于0.1 TW的超短超强激光脉冲. 关键词： 飞秒脉冲 高重复频率 啁啾脉冲放大     

All-solid-state quasi-continuous-wave high power dispersion cavity tunable Ti:sapphire laser

An all-solid-state quasi-continuous-wave dispersion cavity tunable Ti:sapphire laser pumped by a laser diode pumped frequency-doubled Nd:YAG laser is reported. Using a dense flint glass prism as the dispersion element, a tuning range from 730 to 880 nm with the linewidth of 3 nm and the pulse width of 17.2ns was obtained. The maximum output power of this laser system was 5.6 W at 786.3 nm corresponding to an optical-to-optical conversion efficiency of 25.5% under the pump power of 22 W.     

125-TW Ti:sapphire/Nd:glass laser system

We have demonstrated a Ti:sapphire/Nd:glass laser system that produces up to 51 J of energy in 395-fs pulses (125TW). Focusing at f/3 to a 2.5-times diffraction-limited spot results in a peak irradiance greater than 10(20) W/cm(2) . Our 40-cm-diameter gold diffraction gratings have a damage threshold of 0.42 J/cm(2) for 320-fs pulses.     

Ti:sapphire laser pumped high average power laser crystal Nd:GGG with high efficiency output

High-quality neodymium doped GGG laser crystals have been grown by Czochralski (Cz) method. Results of Nd:GGG thin chip laser operating at 1.064 μm pumped by Ti:sapphire laser operating at 808 nm were reported. The slop efficiency was as high as 20%.     

Performance of gain-switched all-solid-state quasi-continuous-wave tunable Ti:sapphire laser system

We have made a gain-switched all-solid-state quasi-continuous-wave （QCW） tunable Ti：sapphire laser system, which is pumped by a 532 nm intracavity frequency-doubled Nd：YAG laser. Based on the theory of gain-switching and the study on the influencing factors of the output pulse width, an effective method for obtaining high power and narrow pulse width output is proposed. Through deliberately designing the pump source and the resonator of the Ti：sapphire laser, when the repetition rate is 6 kHz and the length of the cavity is 220 mm, at an incident pump power of 22 W, the tunable Ti：sapphire laser from 700 to 950nm can be achieved. It has a maximum average output power of 5.6W at 800nm and the pulse width of 13.2 ns, giving an optical conversion efficiency of 25.5% from the 532 mn pump laser to the Ti：sapphire laser.     

TW级钛宝石飞秒激光放大装置中的同步控制

讨论了TW级飞秒激光放大装置中的同步时序系统原理,介绍了自行设计并建造的3套频率成分各异的TW级钛宝石飞秒激光放大装置,其中“极光Ⅱ” 和“Titan”为两级放大系统,前者预放大与主放大重复频率均为10 Hz,后者采用1 kHz的预放大和10 Hz的主放大,“极光Ⅲ”为多级放大系统,预放大重复频率为10 Hz,主放大分别为1 Hz和15 min输出一发。针对各个放大装置的不同特点和对同步精度的具体要求,自行设计并建造了不同的同步时序控制系统,实现了各个激光放大系统的有效运转,同步精度达到200 ps。     

TW级钛宝石飞秒激光放大装置中的同步控制

讨论了TW级飞秒激光放大装置中的同步时序系统原理,介绍了自行设计并建造的3套频率成分各异的TW级钛宝石飞秒激光放大装置,其中极光Ⅱ和Titan为两级放大系统,前者预放大与主放大重复频率均为10 Hz,后者采用1 kHz的预放大和10 Hz的主放大,极光Ⅲ为多级放大系统,预放大重复频率为10 Hz,主放大分别为1 Hz和15 min输出一发。针对各个放大装置的不同特点和对同步精度的具体要求,自行设计并建造了不同的同步时序控制系统,实现了各个激光放大系统的有效运转,同步精度达到200 ps。     

20TW超短脉冲激光装置的研制

 介绍了基于啁啾脉冲放大技术的20TW全钛宝石超短脉冲激光装置的研制。该装置的主放大器采用全像传递的空间四程放大构型，可以保持良好的近场分布和提高能量转换效率。主放大器的钛宝石晶体为30mm×15mm，6台调Q倍频的YAG激光器泵浦。压缩后脉宽50fs，能量1J，峰值功率可达20TW，聚焦功率大于3×10¹⁸W/cm²。     

Compact 120 TW Ti:sapphire laser system with a high gain final amplifier

A 120 TW/36 fs laser system based on Ti:sapphire chirped-pulse amplification (CPA) has been successfully established in our lab. The final four pass Ti:sapphire amplifier pumped by an energetic single-shot Nd:YAG—Nd:glass laser was designed and optimized. With 24 J/8 ns pump energy at 532 nm, 300 mJ/220 ps chirped pulse was amplified to 5.98 J in this amplifier, and a total saturated gain of 20 was achieved. The focused intensity of compressed beam could reach to 10²⁰ W/cm² with the M² of 2.0.     

Self-starting Ti:sapphire holographic laser oscillator

We demonstrate, for the first time to our knowledge, operation of a holographic laser oscillator that uses laser-pumped Ti:sapphire (Ti(3+) : Al(2)O(3)) as the gain medium. The device is self-starting and self-adaptive by virtue of spontaneous gain-grating formation. We present experimental results of the system that include gain-switched pulses of 25-60-ns duration in a TEM(00) mode and as much as 11 mJ of output energy from a plane output coupler and 47 mJ from an intracavity polarizer port.     

SILEX-I: 300-TW Ti:sapphire laser

Based on chirped pulse amplification technology, we have built a Ti:sapphire laser system, called SILEX-I (superintense laser for experiments on extremes), at CAEP, which consists of three stages with 5-, 30-, and 300-TW outputs, respectively. The first and the second stages work at 10 Hz, while the third works at single shot. Pulse durations of 30 fs have been obtained by installing an acousto-optic programmable dispersive filter (AOPDF) to compensate for the spectral gain narrowing in the regen. By taking a number of advanced measures for spatial beam control, such as spatial beam shaping, relay-imaged propagation, precise alignment of compressor gratings, and OAP, near-diffraction limited focal spots (FWHM) have been obtained. Focused intensities are calculated at (1–3) × 10²⁰ W/cm² with an f/2.2 OAP.SILEX-I has shown an excellent stability and reliability in operations for applications since its completion and will soon be able to operate at 500 TW.     

Seven-terawatt Ti:sapphire laser system operating at 50 Hz with high beam quality for laser Compton femtosecond X-ray generation

We present a 7-TW Ti:sapphire laser system operating at 50 Hz for laser Compton femtosecond X-ray generation. This laser system delivers 8.4 W of average output power at a repetition rate of 50 Hz with a pulse width of 24 fs. It demonstrates successful management using a dynamically stable resonator in the regenerative amplifier and compensation for thermal lensing by a convex mirror in a ring-type four-pass power amplifier. We also present the results of closed-loop corrections for distorted wavefronts of amplified and compressed laser pulses, using an adaptive optical system consisting of a Shack–Hartmann-type wavefront sensor and a deformable mirror. This closed-loop correction results in dramatic improvements, reducing wavefront distortions below 0.05 λ rms. Received: 31 October 2002 / Revised version: 3 March 2003 / Published online: 5 May 2003 RID="*" ID="*"Corresponding author. Fax: +81-298/61-3349, E-mail: ito@festa.or.jp     

All-solid-state high-peak-power Ti:sapphire laser system above 5-kHz repetition rate

We have developed an all-solid-state Ti:sapphire laser system, which produces 22-fs, 0.2-TW pulses at 5-kHz repetition rate. An average power of 22.2 W is the highest ever obtained in ultrashort laser sources. The serious thermal lensing due to high power pumping in a small area of Ti:sapphire crystal is controlled successfully by a stable quasi-cavity with two concave mirrors. The attempt to increase the repetition rate to 10 kHz is also described.     

Tunable ultraviolet intracavity tripled Ti:sapphire laser

We present what we believe to be the first intracavity tripled Ti:sapphire laser. This source is tunable in the 275-285-nm range and will be useful for applications in the detection of important atmospheric species such as OH and NO radicals. Single-frequency operation and high optical yield (>50%) are obtained in this system after it has been injected by a laser diode.     

闪光灯泵浦钛宝石可调谐激光器

为了提高灯泵钛宝石激光器的输出能量和效率，对灯泵钛宝石激光器进行了大量的试验研究工作。对国产氙灯进行了快速放电和寿命试验；测得了在不同放电电流密度情况下的氙灯发光光谱分布；试验采用双灯串接泵浦，双棱镜色散光学谐振腔，平平腔型，调谐范围为７５０～９５０ｎｍ，在中心波长８００ｎｍ处得到激光输出能量为８９３ｍＪ，电光转换效率为０．８９％。该激光器的阈值约为１５Ｊ。