Parametric excitation of acoustohelicon waves in a piezoelectric semiconductor

The parametric excitation of acoustohelicon waves has been studied in a piezoelectric semiconductor in the presence of a strong high frequency oscillatory electric field. The threshold electric field amplitude and the growth rate of the unstable mode have been obtained analytically and for n-InSb at 77 K the unstable mode is found to be propagating with a growth rate ～10³ s^?1 when the crystal is irradiated with a 10.6 μm CO₂ laser.     

Nonlocal theory of stimulated Raman backscattering in a strongly magnetized plasma

A nonlocal theory of stimulated Raman backscattering (BSRS) parametric instability of a large amplitude electromagnetic (EM) mode in a strongly magnetized plasma e.g., one encountered in a plasma filled backward wave oscillator, is reported. The EM mode is unstable to parametric instability in a magnetized plasma and decays into a Trivelpiece-Gould (TG) mode and a sideband EM mode. The growth rate of instability (Γ) scales proportional to three-fourth power of plasma density. For a typical BWO the growth rate is ∼10⁸ s^-1     

Single mode CO2-laser pulses of high power

Single longitudinal mode CO₂-laser pulses of 200 MW power have been produced by seeding an unstable resonator cavity with single mode radiation from a hybrid low pressure — high pressure CO₂ laser system. The results indicate that a ratio of dominant over residual mode intensities of better than 10⁵ were achieved.     

Parametric instability in a two-hole species semiconductor-plasma

The parametric excitation of a low frequency wave has been investigated analytically in a two-hole species semiconductor-plasma in the region of kl ? 1 using the hydrodynamic model of the plasmas in the presence of a high frequency oscillatory electric field (E₀ cos ω₀t applied along the X-axis) and a d.c. magnetic field B₀ normal to the electric field (along the Z-axis), the low frequency wave propagating in the X–Z plane making a very small angle θ with the X-axis. The system supports a purely growing unstable mode. The variation of the growth rate of the unstable mode has been studied over a wide range of system parameters for the specific case of an intrinsic GaAs crystal at 300 K. The oscillatory electric field can be obtained by irradiating the crystal with a 119μm H₂O laser.     

Gravitational Instability of a Thermally Conducting Plasma in an Oblique Magnetic Field

The combined influence of the effects of Hall currents, magnetic resistivity and viscosity have been studied on the gravitational instability of a thermally conducting homogeneous unbounded plasma in an oblique magnetic field. The solution has been obtained through the normal mode technique and the dispersion relation has been derived. It is shown that the Jeans' criterion for gravitational instability remains unchanged. Solving numerically the dispersion relation, the dependence of the growth rate of the gravitational unstable mode on the considered physical effects has been obtained for an astrophysical situation. For conditions prevailing in the magnetized collapsing clouds, the numerical calculations for the plot of growth rate against wave number has been obtained for several values of the parameters characterizing Hall currents magnetic resistivity viscosity thermal conductivity. It is found that magnetic resistivity and thermal conductivity have destabilizing influence while viscosity has stabilizing influence on the instability of the plasma of disturbance m(ϱ) = 9 × 10⁻³ kg.     

Research of laser evaporation of fast-moving target

Evaporation of a stainless steel target moving with high speed (～50 m/s) under action of laser radiation was investigated theoretically and experimentally. In our experiments we used an electroionization CO₂—laser, which generated pulses with duration up to 1 ms and energy up to 100 J. We carried out the microscopic research of laser beam trace on the target surface and investigated the dynamics of the laser plume luminescence. For theoretical research we used 3D numerical model, which took into account: heating, melting and evaporation of target by laser beam, and, thermal effect of oxidation reaction. The results of calculations can explain the experimental data quite good. In particular, it is possible to explain occurrence of interrupted trace on the target at 12–24 kW laser power, that corresponds to intensity in the focal spot of ～10⁷ W/cm². This power is a threshold of unstable mode of laser evaporation. The unstable mode is caused by lack of oxygen, which was pushed away with metal vapor. The lack of oxygen leads to shutting down the oxidation reaction on target surface. The reaction resumes when the vapors fly away and oxygen riches the surface. As the result pulsed mode of evaporation takes place. This phenomenon was observed as pulse mode of laser plume luminescence and was obtained by calculations.     

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.     

Diode-Pumped Passively Q-switched Single-Frequency Nd:YAG Lasers

Laser-diode pumped passively Q-switched single-frequency Nd:YAG laser has been demonstrated with a Cr⁴⁺:YAG crystal as the saturable absorber. When pumped with a fiber-coupled CW laser diode, the laser produces pulses of 1.4-20.9 ns duration, with a repetition rate of 1.9-52.0 kHz. The highest peak power of 17.6 kW was obtained at an incident pump power of 1.8 W. The use of a Cr⁴⁺:YAG saturable absorber enables the laser to operate not only in a single-frequency mode but also linearly polarized. The mode selection mechanism is discussed.     

Thomson Scattering Applied to a Noisy Radiative Plasma

Thomson scattering with a 1.5 ms long pulse mode 20 J ruby laser has been applied to a radiative argon plasma with electron densities n_e from 2.5 10¹⁹ m^?3 to 1.5 10²⁰ m^?3 and an electron temperature T_e of about 3 eV. Photon counting techniques have been used. The accuracy of n_e and T_e to be reached is about 5% after 10 shots. The signal to noise ratio S/N has been optimized by the use of optical filters and a special purpose grating. The effects of these elements on S/N have been calculated. The entrance angle, transmission and quantum efficiency have also been optimized. A comparison between 5 possible laser systems, including a normal mode and a Q-switched mode ruby laser, has been carried out.     

Mode selection in an unstable-resonator TEA CO2 laser by injection from a waveguide laser

The effect of injecting radiation from a cw waveguide CO₂ laser into a TEA laser through a hole in one mirror of its unstable resonator has been studied experimentally. High-power single longitudinal mode operation of the TEA laser is achieved over a wide but finite range of injection frequencies, the frequency of the single-mode pulse being that of the TEA laser cavity mode lying closest to the injected frequency. Although a simple theoretical model shows good qualitative agreement with observations it underestimates the range of injection frequencies which result in single-mode pulses unless a fast chirping of the cavity mode frequency is postulated.     

Effect of a variable magnetic field on the instability of a stratified rotating fluid layer in porous medium

The instability of a stratified rotating fluid layer through porous medium in the presence of an inhomogeneous magnetic field is investigated. For exponentially varying density and magnetic field variations, an eigenvalue solution has been obtained. The dispersion relation is obtained and discussed for both the stable and unstable stratifications separately. It is found, for non-porous medium, that for the stable mode of disturbance, the system is always stable, and for the unstable mode of disturbance, it is stabilized only under a certain condition for the Alfvèn velocity, rotation and the stratification parameter. In the latter case, both rotation and magnetic field are found to have a stabilizing effect on the growth rate. In the presence of porous medium, it is found, for real growth rate n, that the inhomogeneous magnetic field has always a stabilizing effect on the considered system. It is found also, for complex growth rate n, that the system is stable for the stable stratification case, while it is stable or unstable for the unstable case under a certain wavenumbers range depending on the Alfvèn velocity and the stratification parameter. The presence of the magnetic field is found to stabilize a certain wavenumbers band, whereas the system was unstable for all wavenumbers in the absence of the magnetic field. Also, the presence of porous medium is found to hide the stabilizing effect played by rotation on the considered system for non-porous medium, i.e., rotation does not have any significant effect on the stability criterion in this case.     

Studies of a TEA CO2 laser with a cylindrical mirror unstable resonator

We describe the results of a study of a TEA CO₂ laser using a strip cylindrical unstable resonator which produces an output beam with suitable characteristics for producing a high quality line focus. Using this technique an irradiance of ?10⁹W cm^-2 over a 5 cm long line focus has been achieved.     

High brightness operation of a XeCl laser with negative branch unstable resonators

Confocal and non-confocal negative branch unstable resonators with an intracavity spatial filter have been applied to a high-gain short-pulse UV preionized XeCl laser. The near- and far-field radiation characteristics have been investigated in both configurations. Laser beams of larger brightness have been obtained with non-confocal schemes. A maximum beam brightness of 1.3×10¹⁴ Wcm^–2Sr^–1 has been achieved.     

Single longitudinal and transverse mode operation of a hybrid unstable resonator TE CO2 laser

Single-mode operation of an atmospheric-pressure TE CO₂ laser is reported. Single longitudinal mode emission has been achieved by incorporating a low-pressure, transversely excited gain section in the same laser cavity as the atmospheric-pressure section. The effects of different resonator configurations on the system modal behaviour have been investigated and it is shown that unstable resonators are particularly suitable for controlling the transverse mode structure with a complete coverage of the excited medium. With an unstable resonator configuration, formed by a metallic convex mirror and a plane diffraction grating, single longitudinal and single transverse mode output pulses with energy up to 2 J have been produced on more than 40 lines of both the 9.4 m and 10.4 m bands. This technique can easily be scaled to larger aperture devices at higher extracted energies.     

A tunable narrow-line-width multi-wavelength Er-doped fiber laser based on a high birefringence fiber ring mirror and an auto-tracking filter

A novel multi-wavelength erbium-doped fiber laser operating in C-band is proposed and successfully demonstrated. The wavelength interval between the wavelengths is about 0.22 nm. The 3 dB bandwidth of the laser is about 0.012 nm, and the output power reaches 4.8 mW. By using a high birefringence fiber ring mirror (HiBi-FLM) and a tunable FBG, the laser realizes switchable and tunable characteristic. The mode hopping can be effectively prevented. Moreover, this laser can improve wavelength stability significantly by taking advantage of an un-pumped Er³⁺-doped fiber at the standing-wave section. The laser can operate in stable narrow-line-width with single-, dual-wavelength, and unstable triple-wavelength output at room temperature.     

26 mJ Total Output from a Gain-Switched Single-Mode Er3+-Doped Zblan Fiber Laser Operating at 2.8 $$ \mu $$m

We demonstrate a laser-diode-pumped gain-switched Er³⁺-doped ZrF₄-BaF₂-LaF₃-AlF₃-NaF (ZBLAN) fiber laser operating in a single transverse mode at 2.8 \( \mu \)m. The laser pulses produced offer high-pulse energies, with repetition rates ranging from 50 Hz to 10 kHz and a slope efficiency of approximately 14.3% with respect to the launched pump power. The average power at the 50 Hz repetition rate is 1.33 W, giving a maximum total output pulse energy of 26.6 mJ per pump pulse. The fiber laser operates in a single mode, with beam quality factor M² less than 1.2.     

High average power and short pulse duration continuous wave mode-locked Nd:GdVO<Subscript>4</Subscript> laser with a semiconductor absorber mirror

Passive mode locking of a solid-state Nd:GdVO₄ laser is demonstrated. The laser is mode locked by use of a semiconductor absorber mirror (SAM). A low Nd³⁺ doped Nd:GdVO₄ crystal is used to mitigate the thermal lens effect of the laser crystal at a high pump power. The maximum average output power is up to 6.5 W, and the pulse duration is as short as 6.2 ps. The optic-to-optic conversion efficiency is 32.5% and the repetition rate is about 110 MHz.     

Continuous tuning of a single laser mode over 5 cm-1 in a high-pressure N2O/CO2 transfer laser

Continuous tuning of a single laser mode in an optically pumped high-pressure N₂O/CO₂ transfer laser over 5 cm^-1 near 10.5 μm has been achieved. A spectrum of ethylene gas taken with this source indicates a resolution of 0.014 cm^-1.     

LD端面泵浦Cr4:YAG被动调Q激光器输出特性研究

对激光二极管端面泵浦Cr⁴⁺:YAG被动调QNd:YAG激光器输出特性进行了实验研究.实验研究发现,激光器输出功率及脉冲重复频率随谐振腔长度增大而增大.为解释这一实验现象,测量了泵浦光斑在激光晶体内尺寸,同时计算了激光晶体及Cr⁴⁺:YAG晶体内的基模激光光斑半径随谐振腔长度变化.分析结果表明:激光晶体内泵浦光斑尺寸远小于激光晶体内基模光斑半径,腔模间交叠效率较低;当腔长增加时,激光晶体内的基模激光光斑减小,腔模间交叠效率增加,从而导致输出功率及脉冲重复频率随腔长增加而增加;另外,Cr⁴⁺:YAG晶体内光斑半径也随谐振腔长度减小,引起Cr⁴⁺:YAG晶体漂白时间缩短,导致脉冲重复频率随腔长增加而增加.     

Analysis of bit error rate and power penalty for a birefringent wavelength division multiplexer

The power penalty and bit error rate degradation encountered when using wavelength division multiplexing devices is analyzed. Analysis is applied to the birefringent wavelength division multiplexer (BWDM) with a sinusoidal transfer function.¹ The degradation in bit error rate is attributed to laser mode partition noise and crosstalk noise.