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.     

光参量啁啾脉冲放大增益特性研究

 通过对非线性三波耦合方程组进行数值求解，研究了光参量放大的增益特性及饱和放大特性。给出了泵浦光、信号光参数对参量增益的影响及其与晶体饱和长度的关系。且OPA具有传统CPA系统所不具有的优点，将有可能取代传统的CPA系统而作为超短超强激光系统的新型前端。     

用于产生亚12fs脉冲的脉冲波前匹配的超宽带光学参量啁啾脉冲放大器

研究和建议了一种用于产生亚12fs脉冲的基于脉冲波前匹配的LBO超宽带光学参量啁啾脉冲放大器。实验结果表明LBO超宽带光学参量啁啾脉冲放大器可以输出大于60nm(FWHM)的增益光谱带宽，为了利用这种放大器产生转换限制的脉冲输出，给出了一种将超宽带光学参量啁啾脉冲放大器与脉冲波前匹配相结合的方法，这种方法等价于信号光脉冲波前无斜置的放大，克服了超宽带参量啁啾脉冲放大器中由于信号光的脉冲波前斜置而导致很难获得最短压缩脉冲输出的缺陷，从而允许产生转换限制的亚12fs脉冲。     

非单色光抽运的光参量啁啾脉冲放大的带宽及增益特性研究

采用傅里叶变换的方法将脉冲光分解成不同的频率成分,建立了非单色光抽运的光参量放大耦合方程组的数值求解模型.研究了非单色抽运光对光参量啁啾脉冲放大的小信号增益、大信号增益以及增益带宽的影响.非单色抽运光降低参量放大的增益水平,但同时可提高增益带宽,且抽运光谱宽越宽,对增益带宽的提高作用越大.还进一步从相位失配和参量带宽的角度分析了非单色抽运光使参量放大的增益降低、带宽增大的原因. 关键词： 光参量啁啾脉冲放大 非单色光 增益带宽 飞秒激光     

Broadband, high gain two-stage optical parametric chirped pulse amplifier using BBO crystals for a femtosecond high-power Ti:sapphire laser system

We design a two-stage non-collinear optical parametric chirped pulse amplifier using BBO crystals for a high-power Ti:sapphire laser system, and numerically analyze the output characteristics of the OPCPA system. We find optimal phase-matching conditions and calculate the parametric gains as a function of pump intensity and interaction length. By constructing a two-stage OPCPA system using two BBO crystals, we obtain 12 mJ output energy corresponding to a high gain of 10⁷, a pulse duration of 37 fs, and a contrast ratio of 5×10⁻⁸.     

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.     

基于“神光-Ⅱ”装置的飞秒拍瓦级光学参量啁啾脉冲放大的特性分析与系统设计

用计算机仿真分析了光学参量啁啾脉冲放大（OPCPA）的特性及其影响因素（如相位失配、高阶非线性效应等）-就脉冲放大机理、时间同步、光谱漂移、增益窄化等相似问题与现有的啁啾脉冲放大技术做了比较与讨论-基于“神光-Ⅱ”装置，设计了飞秒拍瓦级OPCPA系统，以期望实现快点火- 关键词： 超短超强激光 啁啾脉冲放大 光学参量啁啾脉冲放大 数值模拟     

Frequency up-conversion imaging with 60-dB gain using picosecond optical parametric amplifier

A weak infrared （IR） image amplifier with more than 60-dB optical gain and is developed from a picosecond （PS） 355-nm pumped gated optical parametric frequency up-conversion amplifier （OPA） in a/% BaB204 （BBO） crystal. The IR image at 1064 nm is amplified and up-converted into the visible region at 532 nm by parametric amplification and up-conversion. With the optimized optical gain, the lowest detectable energy of the image can be as low as 1.8 femto-Joule per pulse, which is three orders of magnitude lower than the detection limit of a charge-coupled device （CCD） camera. The transversal resolution of the OPA imaging is investigated, and the approaches for higher detection sensitivity and higher transversal resolution are proposed.     

Signal wavelength dependence of gain saturation in a fiber optical parametric amplifier

Signal gain-saturation characteristics in a fiber optical parametric amplifier are described. Experiments and calculations for the high-gain-saturation region are presented in which the direction of optical power transfer, which is from the pump to the signal and the idler in the unsaturated region, becomes reversed at high-signal-input powers. It is shown that the signal gain soon saturates for signal wavelengths far from the pump. This wavelength dependence is explained by the power-dependent phase mismatch and its behavior in the high-signal-input region.     

Multi-wavelength fiber ring laser based on a chirped moire fiber grating and a semiconductor optical amplifier

A simple and cost-effective multi-wavelength fiber ring laser based on a chirped Moire fiber grating （CMFG） and a semiconductor optical amplifier （SOA） is proposed. Stable triple-wavelength lasing oscillations at room temperature are experimentally demonstrated. The measured optical signal-to-noise ratio （SNR） reaches the highest value of 50 dB and the power fluctuation of each wavelength is less than 0.2 dB within a 1-h period. To serve as a wavelength selective element, the CMFG possesses excellent comb-like filtering characteristics including stable wavelength interval and ultra-narrow passband, and its fabrication method is easy and flexible. The lasing oscillation shows a narrower bandwidth than SOA-based multi-wavelength fiber lasers utilizing some other kinds of wavelength selective components. Methods to optimize the laser performance are also discussed.     

Application of unfolding technique to dispersion calculating of reflective grating dispersion delay lines in the chirped pulses amplifier

Dispersion delay lines (such as the compressor and the stretcher) consisting of reflective optical elements (mirrors and reflection diffraction gratings), are now widely used in chirped-pulse amplification technique. It is shown that for their calculations the unfolding technique can be applied. According to this technique, the dispersion of the compressor and the stretcher can be characterized by the "zero-distant pulse fronts" in their spatial chirps.     

Optimized design of two-pump fiber optical parametric amplifier and its noise characteristics

In the paper, based on the pump depleted model of two-pump fiber optical parametric amplifier (FOPA), the simulations are done to indicate the effect of amplifier parameters on gain characteristics, such as the input signal power, the wavelength separation between the two pumps, the fiber length, the nonlinear coefficient and the fourth-order dispersion of fiber. By optimizing the amplifier parameters, when FOPA attains low gain-saturation, the FOPA has a higher gain, a broader flat gain bandwidth and a lower noise figure. However, with the enhancement of gain-saturation the parametric gain decreases, the flat gain bandwidth becomes narrow and the noise figure also increases.     

Yb:YAG Innoslab amplifier: efficient high repetition rate subpicosecond pumping system for optical parametric chirped pulse amplification

We report on a Yb:YAG Innoslab laser amplifier system for generation of subpicsecond high energy pump pulses for optical parametric chirped pulse amplification (OPCPA) at high repetition rates. Pulse energies of up to 20 mJ (at 12.5 kHz) and repetition rates of up to 100 kHz were attained with pulse durations of 830 fs and average power in excess of 200 W. We further investigate the possibility to use subpicosecond pulses to derive a stable continuum in a YAG crystal for OPCPA seeding.     

High repetition rate picosecond LiNbO_3 THz parametric amplifier and parametric gain

A high repetition rate, picosecond terahertz(THz) parametric amplifier with a LiNbO_3(LN) crystal has been demonstrated in this work. At a 10 k Hz repetition rate, a peak power of 200 W and an average power of 12 μW have been obtained over a wide range of around 2 THz; at a 100 k Hz repetition rate, a maximum peak power of 18 W and an average power of 10.8 μW have been obtained. The parametric gain of the LN crystal was also investigated, and a modified Schwarz–Maier model was introduced to interpret the experimental results.     

All chirped fiber grating based true-time delay for phased-array antenna beam forming

We have demonstrated a continuous phased-array antenna beam former based on a variable photonics true-timedelay unit consisting of four chirped gratings. The system is suitable for the phased-array antenna beam forming at frequencies up to 20 GHz.This revised version was published online in August 2005 with a corrected cover date.     

Pulse compression and gain enhancement in a degenerate optical parametric amplifier based on aperiodically poled crystals

We describe theoretically a method of obtaining pulse compression and simultaneously improving amplification in a degenerate optical parametric amplifier by use of quasi-phase-matched engineered crystals. The scheme combines the possibility of increasing the signal spectral bandwidth that is offered by a degenerate parametric amplifier with the ability of engineered aperiodically poled crystals to compensate for group-velocity mismatch.     

Two dimensional silicon waveguide chirped grating couplers for vertical optical fibers

Shallow etched two dimensional gratings for coupling light between silicon-on-insulator nanophotonic waveguides and vertical optical fibers were designed and experimentally characterized. We show that the large second order back reflection could be suppressed effectively by applying a linear chirp in the grating period for two dimensional grating couplers. The total coupling efficiency from an optical fiber to two orthogonal silicon waveguides is independent of the input polarization. An almost linear relationship between the average effective index of the grating region and the fill factor for 1D grating is obtained and verified. We also show that the average effective index for the two dimensional grating is similar to the one dimensional grating with the same fill factor in the light propagation direction, when the fill factor of the etched holes was larger than 0.5.     

Phase-sensitive multimodal optical parametric amplifier for beam angle amplification

The single-mode phase-sensitive parametric amplifier has been proposed as an approximation to an ideal quantum phase amplifier. We demonstrate numerically that a real, multimode parametric amplifier operated in the spatial domain, and realized by the use of three-wave mixing in nonlinear media, behaves similar to a single-mode quantum phase amplifier, but exhibits smaller phase gain. Constraints for operation in this regime are found to be consistent with small departures of phase from the ideal deamplification condition.     

Hybrid flat gain C-band optical amplifier with Zr-based erbium-doped fiber and semiconductor optical amplifier

An efficient gain-flattened C-band optical amplifier is demonstrated using a hybrid configuration with a Zirconia-based Erbium-doped fibre (Zr-EDF) and a semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA). The amplifier utilizes a two-stage structure with a midway isolator to improve flat gain characteristic and reduce noise figure. At input signal power of −30 dBm, a flat gain of 28 dB is obtained from wavelength region of 1530 to 1560 nm with gain variation of less than 4 dB. The noise figure is maintained below 11 dB at the flat-gain region. This amplifier has the potential to be used in the high channel count dense wavelength division multiplexing system due to its simplicity and compact design.     

Generation of accurately synchronized pump source for optical parametric chirped pulse amplification

We demonstrate the generation of ultra-short pulses at 1064 nm by continuous-wave seeded non-collinear optical parametric amplification in a -barium borate crystal pumped by the second harmonics of a femtosecond Ti:sapphire laser. After two stages of seeded parametric amplifiers, the generated pulses at 1064 nm were accurately synchronized with the fundamental pump pulses, which could be used as seeding pulses for further amplification and then frequency doubling to produce an accurately synchronized pump source for optical parametric amplification of chirped pulses from the same Ti:sapphire laser. PACS 42.65.Re; 42.65.-k; 52.35.Mw