用于钛宝石激光器自启动锁模的半导体可饱和吸收镜

报道国内首次制作的宽带低损耗半导体可饱和吸收镜（SESAM）。该反射镜已经成功用于钛宝石飞秒脉冲激光器的自启动锁模运转。     

Contrastive study of two SESAMs for passive mode-locking in Nd:YVO4 laser with low pump power

Two semiconductor saturable absorber mirrors (SESAMs), of which one is coated with 50% reflection film on the top and the other is not, were contrastively studied in passively mode-locked solid-state lasers which were pumped by low output power laser diode (LD). Experiments have shown that reducing the modulation depth of SESAM by coating partial reflection film, whose reflectivity is higher than that between SESAM and air interface, is an effective method to get continuous wave (CW) mode-locking instead of Q-switched power LD, in which no water-cooling system was used, could obtain CW mode-locking by the 50% reflector coated SESAM with average output power of ～ 20 mW.     

Dielectric coatings for optimized low-loss saturable absorbers for high-power ultrafast laser

With the development of high power ultrafast laser passively mode-locked by a semiconductor saturable absorber mirror （SESAM）, the damage threshold and degeneration mechanism of the SESAM become more and more important. One way to reduce the maximum electric field inside the active part of the SESAM is the use of a dielectric coating on the top of the semiconductor structure. With Presnel formula, optical transfer matrix, and optical thin film theory, the electric field distribution and reflectance spectrum can be simulated. We introduce the design principles of SESAM including the dependence of reflectance spectrum on dielectric function of absorber, and investigate the dependences of the electric field distribution, modulation depth, reflectance spectrum, and the relative value of incident light power at the top quantum well of SESAM on the number of SiO2/Ta2O5 layers.     

半导体可饱和吸收镜实现固体激光器皮秒锁模的机理研究

对半导体可饱和吸收镜(SESAM)实现固体激光器皮秒锁模的机理进行了研究。通过对染料锁模介质和SESAM的结构对比,对SESAM皮秒锁模机理提出了一个新的解释。其在锁模激光器中充当锁模器件时,不仅仅是一个吸收体,同时也是一个增益介质。当腔内增益和损耗保持平衡时实现稳定的连续锁模。     

含负克尔效应半导体可饱和吸收镜的五镜腔飞秒钛宝石激光器的理论分析

基于半导体可饱和吸收镜(SESAM)的负克尔效应，对含SESAM的五镜腔进行了理论计算和分析.结果表明，由于SESAM的负克尔效应，与没有SESAM的相比，锁模激光器的稳区在上稳区的内边缘有明显扩展，这使得激光器锁模启动的工作点更加靠近直流运转时的稳区边缘，从而获得更大的非线性因子.这说明SESAM的可饱和吸收机理具有锁模自启动效应外，其负克尔效应也有助于锁模的自启动. 关键词： 半导体可饱和吸收镜 负克尔效应 五镜腔     

Self-starting mode-locked femtosecond forsterite laser with a semiconductor saturable-absorber mirror

We report on a self-starting mode-locked femtosecond Cr:forsterite laser pumped by a diode-pumped Nd:YVO(4) laser. The mode locking is initiated by a semiconductor saturable-absorber mirror (SESAM). We also present the measured group delay of the forsterite crystal and the SESAM.     

Periodic adjustment of the position of a laser beam spot on a semiconductor saturable absorber mirror in a passively mode-locked solid-state laser

A laser diode end-pumped passively mode-locked Nd:YVO₄ solid-state laser with a semiconductor saturable absorber mirror (SESAM), in which the intracavity laser beam spot on the SESAM can be adjusted periodically, is investigated. Inserting a rectangular prism (RP) into the laser cavity is a promising approach towards the goal of periodically moving the position of the focus spot of the intracavity pulse on the SESAM surface to avoid the long-time irradiation of the laser beam on the same position, thereby solving a series of problems caused by damage to the SESAM and greatly prolonging its usage life. The adjustment of the rectangular prism in the laser cavity does not break the stable continuous wave (CW) mode-locked condition. The laser generates a stable picosecond pulse sequence at 1064 nm with an output power of 3.6 W and a pulse width of 14 ps. The instabilities of the output power and the pulse width are 1.77% and 4.5%, respectively.     

Fluoride semiconductor saturable-absorber mirror for ultrashort pulse generation

We demonstrate what is to our knowledge the first ultrabroadband monolithically grown AlGaAs/CaF(2) semiconductor saturable-absorber mirror (SESAM) that covers nearly the entire gain spectrum of a Ti:sapphire laser. A large high-reflectivity bandwidth of more than 300 nm is provided by a device consisting of only six material layers. This fluoride SESAM had a modulation depth of 2.2%, a fast recovery time constant of less than 150 fs, and a slow recovery time constant of 1.2 ps. Using this SESAM inside a Ti:sapphire laser produced self-starting sub-10-femtosecond pulses.     

用腔内半导体可饱和吸收镜钛宝石激光器中自锁模状态的实验研究

用可饱和吸收体镜(SESAM)的掺钛蓝宝石激光器能够稳定运转在三种不同的锁模状态,即可饱和吸收体被动锁模、孤子锁模加被动锁模和KLM锁模.分析了三种自锁模的机理和SESAM的作用.对SESAM实现KLM锁模的自启动机制进行了实验观察和讨论.从该激光器的KLM锁模状态,获得了小于18飞秒的锁模脉冲序列. 关键词： 半导体可饱和吸收镜 自锁模 钛宝石激光器     

高性能Ag/AgI红外空芯光纤的研究

采用液相化学镀膜法研制了内面镀有银膜和碘化银膜(Ag/AgI)的高性能空芯红外光纤.分析了绿色导航光和红外激光同时低损耗传输的光纤结构参量.长度1 m、内直径0.7 mm的Ag/AgI空芯光纤不仅在红外有低损耗传输特性,而且首次在波长530 nm处获得了7 dB/m的低传输损耗特性.满足可见光作为导航光的同轴传输要求.通过分析和改进实验工艺参量,有效降低Ag和AgI薄膜的表面粗糙度.给出了高性能Ag/AgI空芯光纤的介质镀膜的具体工艺参量.     

半导体可饱和吸收镜启动克尔透镜锁模机理的实验研究

对采用腔内新型宽带半导体可饱和吸收镜(SESAM)掺钛蓝宝石激光器中的启动克尔透镜锁摸(KLM)的机理进行了实验研究.讨论了SESAM在阻挡恢复过程中,启动锁模时间与其他因素的关系.获得了SESAM启动KLM过程较为完整的物理图像,并对其机理进行了分析和讨论.     

Subpicosecond pulse generation from a 1.56 μm mode-locked VECSEL

Near-transform-limited subpicosecond pulses at 1.56 μm were generated from an optically pumped InP-based vertical-external-cavity surface-emitting laser (VECSEL) passively mode-locked at 2 GHz repetition rate with a fast InGaAsNSb/GaAs semiconductor saturable absorber mirror (SESAM). The SESAM microcavity resonance was adjusted via a selective etching of phase layers specifically designed to control the magnitude of both the modulation depth and the intracavity group delay dispersion of the SESAM. Using the same VECSEL chip, we observed that the mode-locked pulse duration could be reduced from several picoseconds to less than 1 ps with a detuned resonant SESAM.     

In situ characterization of semiconductor saturable absorber mirrors in an operating Yb:KGW mode-locked laser

We report in situ characterization of a semiconductor saturable absorber mirror (SESAM) in an operating Yb:KGW mode-locked laser. The technique may be described as a pump-probe experiment in which the intracavity beam acts as a pump beam while the output of the same laser is used as a test beam for the SESAM reflectivity. At zero delay, the probe pulse overlaps in time with the subsequent intracavity pulse. The method is an alternative to standard pump-probe measurements in situations where the intracavity parameters such as energy fluence onto the SESAM, pulse length, and center wavelength cannot be achieved simultaneously with available lasers.     

A diode-pumped, self-starting, all-solid-state self-mode-locked Cr:LiSGAF laser

In this paper, a self-starting, diode-pumped self-mode-locked Cr:LiSGAF laser, which produced a stable pulse train of 45 fs duration with about 20 mW-average power at the repeated rate of 90 MHz, was presented. Self-mode-locked operation can be obtained whether there is the semiconductor saturable absorber mirror (SESAM) in the Cr:LiSGAF laser cavity or not, and with the SESAM in the cavity, the self-mode-locked operation could self-start. The shortest pulses, as short as 38 fs, which were not very stable, were obtain with the SESAM in the cavity.     

Passively Q-Switched Nd：KLuW Laser with Semiconductor Saturable Absorber

We demonstrate a passively Q-switched Nd：KLu W laser with a semiconductor sat urable absorber mirror （SESAM） at wavelength 1070 nm. At a pump power of 1.3 W, the pulse width is measured to be about 17ns with repetition rate of lOkHz and with the average output power of 260roW. To our knowledge, this is the first demonstration of Nd：KLuW used for passively Q-switched laser with an SESAM.     

Modeling of femtosecond laser damage threshold on the two-layer metal films

The heating processes of the single-layer gold thin film and the two-layer film assembly of gold padded with other metal (silver, copper and nickel) irradiated by femtosecond laser pulse are studied by the two-temperature model. It is found that the substrate metal can change energy transport, which is corresponding to the temperature changing process, and the thermal equilibrium time. Compared with the single-layer gold film at the same laser fluence, the two-layer film structure can change the damage threshold of the gold surface. Our results indicate that we can maximize the damage threshold of the gold film surface by altering the thickness ratio of the gold layer and the substrate layer in the two-layer film assembly.     

Plasmon resonance modulated photoluminescence and Raman spectroscopy of diindenoperylene organic semiconductor thin film

In a comparison between a bare diindenoperylene (DIP) film and a DIP film spin-coated with a layer of gold nanoparticles, we have investigated the influence of plasmon resonances in the gold particles on spectroscopic properties of the molecular film. Under off-resonant excitation with a laser at 633 nm, the bare DIP film showed only weak photoluminescence (PL) and Raman signals, but after spin-coating gold nanoparticles on such a DIP film, we found an enhancement of both the PL and Raman signals by a factor of about 3, whereas no enhancement could be observed when the same sample was excited with laser light of 488 nm. This difference reveals that at 633 nm, plasmon resonances in the gold nanoparticles are excited, leading in turn to an enhancement of PL and Raman signals of the weakly absorbing DIP film via coupling between plasmons in the gold particles and exciton-polaritons in the molecular film. For the laser at 488 nm, due to a much larger absorption coefficient of DIP, excitons in the molecular film are directly excited, out-weighing the influence of an off-resonant coupling to the plasmon resonances in the gold particles occurring at much lower energy.     

Simulation of thermionic emission optimization in femtosecond laser irradiation metal film by two-layer structure

The thermionic emission of the single-layer gold thin film and the two-layer film was assembled by gold padded with other metals (Ag, Cu, and Ni) and irradiated by the femtosecond laser pulse. Additionally, the emission was simulated by a two-temperature model combined with the Richardson–Dushman equation. It was found that the two-layer metal structure can change the electron temperature of the gold surface and control the thermionic emission compared with the single-layer gold film. With the same laser fluence, the two-layer film structure may shorten the duration of thermionic emission, and the duration of the thermionic emission can be further optimized by changing the proportion of thin film thickness with gold layer in the two-layer structure. The result can be especially beneficial in the context of ultrafast electron emission induced by femtosecond laser.     

半导体可饱和吸收镜被动锁模侧面抽运Nd:YAG激光器研究

利用半导体可饱和吸收镜(SESAM)锁模技术实现的超快脉冲激光器具有结构简单紧凑、脉冲序列稳定等优势,在许多领域有着重要用途,自问世以来受到国内外的广泛关注.分析了SESAM被动锁模侧面抽运固体激光器的具体要求,进行了不同条件下的SESAM被动锁模侧面抽运Nd:YAG激光器实验.获得了最高平均功率9.5 W,脉冲重复频率71 MHz,单脉冲能量约141 nJ的皮秒激光脉冲.对SESAM被动锁模侧面抽运Nd:YAG激光器进行了实验和理论分析,对实现高功率连续超短脉冲激光器进行了探讨.     

Channel plasmon-polariton guiding by subwavelength metal grooves

We report on realization of channel plasmon-polariton (CPP) propagation along a subwavelength metal groove. Using imaging with a near-field microscope and end-fire coupling with a tapered fiber connected to a tunable laser at telecommunication wavelengths (1425-1620 nm), we demonstrate low-loss (propagation length approximately 100 microm) and well-confined (mode width approximately 1.1 microm) CPP guiding along a triangular 0.6 microm-wide and 1 microm-deep groove in gold. We develop a simple model based on the effective-index method that accounts for the main features of CPP guiding and provides a clear physical picture of this phenomenon.