Flat-top laser beam generated by coherent beam combining of Gaussian lasers

We present a fiat-top laser beam generation scheme using coherent beam combining of hexagonally arranged Gaussian lasers. To produce a beam with a flat-top profile, we optimize the amplitude and phase of each unit laser using the least-square method. Simulation results show that with 13 unit lasers, a beam with the flatness of less than 1% in the optimizing region can be achieved. The main lobe contains over 95% of the total power. The scheme requires no external beam shaping element and has the potential to be designed for high-power applications.     

全光纤激光阵列主动相位控制技术研究进展

全光纤激光阵列主动相位控制利用全光纤网络实现阵列激光的活塞相位内部探测与控制,具有结构紧凑、无需外部反馈光学器件和易于扩展等优点,是大阵元规模光纤激光相干合成重要发展方向之一。采用全光纤相位探测结构,介绍了全光纤激光阵列主动相位控制技术的系统原理和利用光纤耦合器实现相位锁定的过程,总结了全光纤激光阵列主动相位控制关键技术,通过优化算法实现全光纤激光阵列主动相位控制验证实验。探讨了在全光纤结构主动相位控制中π相位模糊问题及解决方法,给出了利用双波长探测实现消除π相位模糊问题的仿真结果。最后梳理了全光纤激光阵列主动相位控制研究现状,并从路数扩展、功率提升和应用等方面进行了展望。     

Spectrum of coherent transition radiation generated by a modulated electron beam

The spectrum of coherent transition radiation has been recorded with the use of a Martin–Puplett interferometer. It has been shown that the spectrum includes monochromatic lines that are caused by the modulation of an electron beam with the frequency of an accelerating radio-frequency field ν_RF and correspond to resonances at ν _k = kν_RF k ≤ 10. To determine the length of an electron bunch from the measurement of the spectrum from a single bunch, it is necessary to use a spectrometer with the resolution Δν_sp > ν_RF.     

Research on the phase-locking and beam characteristics of a new axisymmetric-fold-combination CO2 laser

A new type of axisymmetric-fold-combination CO₂ laser, which is constituted by several axisymmetric four-mirror cavities, is studied theoretically in this paper. The mutual energy coupling occurring within the communal discharge region of the unstable resonator to inject seed signals into each sub-resonator is demonstrated by theoretical deduction. The numerical results have proved that phase-locking could be achieved in this cavity, and the beams with phase-locking have both a higher intensity and a smaller light spot than the ones without phase-locking.     

Pulse-to-pulse coherent beat note generated by a passively Q-switched two-frequency laser

We demonstrate experimentally the pulse-to-pulse coherence of the beat note produced by a dual-polarization passively Q-switched Nd:YAG laser subjected to a frequency-shifted, polarization-rotated, optical feedback. The reinjection of one laser eigenstate into the other eigenstate ensures the phase-locking of the beat note against an external acoustic reference wave at the onset of each pulse, circumventing the intrinsic memory loss of the optical phase between successive pulses. It opens the possibility to generate optically a coherent pulsed beat note in the radio-frequency range with a subhertz linewidth, i.e., over thousands of pulses. An application to lidar radar is discussed.     

超强圆偏振激光直接加速产生超高能量电子束

研究表明, 峰值强度为10²²–10²⁵ W/cm²量级的圆偏振激光脉冲的有质动力场可以直接加速并产生GeV–TeV的单能电子束, 其中被加速电子的能量与激光脉冲的峰值强度成线性定标关系. 为了获得更高能量的电子束, 通过对一维解析模型的分析得到: 如果电子束在激光传播的方向上具一个初始能量E₀, 那么这种线性的定标关系可以被打破, 被加速电子束最终的能量可以被放大E₀倍. 这是由于具有一定初始能量的电子束不容易被激光脉冲抛在后面, 进而获得更高的加速距离. 二维粒子模拟结果显示: 当电子束的初始能量E₀为MeV量级时这个方法是有效的, 而当E₀过大时这个方法失效. 这是因为当电子的加速距离远大于激光脉冲的瑞利长度时, 激光强度的衰减使得电子束的加速错过了最佳加速场.     

On the nature of coherent phonons generated by ultrashort laser pulses in single-crystal antimony

Reflectivity oscillations generated by A_1g coherent phonons in an antimony single crystal have been studied by a method involving pumping and probing by femtosecond laser pulses, which was complemented by spectral filtration of the signal. An analysis of the spectrally resolved signal showed that not only the integrated intensity but also the spectrum of the probe pulse are functions of the delay time between the pumping and probing and oscillate between the Stokes and anti-Stokes components at the optical-phonon frequency. A comparison of the integrated lattice excitation relaxation dynamics with the spectrally resolved lattice excitation relaxation dynamics revealed new facets in the nature and generation mechanism of coherent phonons.     

偏振态对激光相干合成的影响

为了研究光束相干合成中偏振态的特性,取理想矩形光束进行模拟分析。通过改变偏振态的退偏率、偏振态夹角、参与合成的子束数目等,观察光场在远场叠加的合成效果。讨论了这些因素对远场合成效果的光强分布、峰值功率密度、光束质量因子等的影响。模拟结果显示:当退偏率小于10%、偏振态夹角小于18时,合成后光束质量因子小于1.1。     

偏振态对激光相干合成的影响

为了研究光束相干合成中偏振态的特性,取理想矩形光束进行模拟分析。通过改变偏振态的退偏率、偏振态夹角、参与合成的子束数目等,观察光场在远场叠加的合成效果。讨论了这些因素对远场合成效果的光强分布、峰值功率密度、光束质量因子等的影响。模拟结果显示：当退偏率小于10%、偏振态夹角小于18时,合成后光束质量因子小于1.1。     

Coherent beam combination of adaptive fiber laser array with tilt-tip and phase-locking control

We present an experimental study on tilt-tip(TT) and phase-locking(PL) control in a coherent beam combination(CBC) system of adaptive fiber laser array.The TT control is performed using the adaptive fiber-optics collimator(AFOC),and the PL control is realized by the phase modulator(PM).Cascaded and simultaneous controls of TT and PL using stochastic parallel gradient descent(SPGD) algorithm are investigated in this paper.Two-fiber-laser-,four-fiber-laser-,and six-fiber-laser-arrays are employed to study the TT and PL control.In the cascaded control system,only one high-speed CMOS camera is used to collect beam data and a computer is used as the controller.In a simultaneous control system one high-speed CMOS camera and one photonic detector(PD) are employed,and a computer and a control circuit based on field programmable gate array(FPGA) are used as the controllers.Experimental results reveal that both cascaded and simultaneous controls of TT using AFOC and PL using PM in fiber laser array are feasible and effective.Cascaded control is more effective in static control situation and simultaneous control can be applied to the dynamic control system directly.The control signals of simultaneous PL and TT disturb each other obviously and TT and PL control may compete with each other,so the control effect is limited.     

Speckle-metric-optimization-based adaptive optics for laser beam projection and coherent beam combining

Maximization of a projected laser beam's power density at a remotely located extended object (speckle target) can be achieved by using an adaptive optics (AO) technique based on sensing and optimization of the target-return speckle field's statistical characteristics, referred to here as speckle metrics (SM). SM AO was demonstrated in a target-in-the-loop coherent beam combining experiment using a bistatic laser beam projection system composed of a coherent fiber-array transmitter and a power-in-the-bucket receiver. SM sensing utilized a 50 MHz rate dithering of the projected beam that provided a stair-mode approximation of the outgoing combined beam's wavefront tip and tilt with subaperture piston phases. Fiber-integrated phase shifters were used for both the dithering and SM optimization with stochastic parallel gradient descent control.     

矩形栅慢波系统的高频特性分析

对于矩形栅这一经典的慢波结构，采用场匹配法来分析其慢波特性，进而得到其耦合阻抗。其中对槽区内的场处理，保留其高次项，表示为一无限本征驻波之和的形式。然后通过数值实例具体分析了矩形栅的两种典型结构:浅槽栅和深槽栅。当增大槽深后，色散增强，系统通带变窄，同时耦合阻抗有明显增大，工作点移向前向波区，适合用在放大器的慢波结构上。     

低引导磁场下环形强流电子束产生实验研究

针对基于SOS脉冲功率源S-5N的输出特点,利用PIC数值模拟软件,为S-5N设计了能够工作在低引导磁场条件下的无箔二极管系统,并在S-5N脉冲功率源上进行了低引导磁场环形强流电子束产生的实验研究。在引导磁场为0.5 T条件下,无箔二极管电流输出波形近似为梯形波,脉冲上升沿约9 ns,平顶部分约26 ns,二极管电压420 kV,电流2.7 kA,束斑平均半径约16 mm,具有良好的均匀性。     

相干合成子光束一致性检测研究

分析了激光相干合成装置及其光路调整要求,提出利用剪切干涉检测合成光路中子光束一致性的方法。分析剪切干涉原理,建立了剪切板干涉物理模型,以相干合成中两路矩形光束拼接组束为例,数值模拟并研究了子光束的整体倾斜、离焦所对应的剪切干涉条纹,得到了条纹图像与子光束光轴误差、离焦误差之间的对应关系,用于相干合成光路中子光束光轴和发散角误差的判断。光轴倾斜大于5 rad时,可以直接观察互干涉和自干涉条纹变化,发散角在大于10 rad时,干涉条纹变化明显。此外,剪切干涉的自干涉条纹平移可用来检测子光束间的活塞误差,可作为光束拼接相干合成中闭环相位检测和控制的手段。     

相干合成子光束一致性检测研究

分析了激光相干合成装置及其光路调整要求,提出利用剪切干涉检测合成光路中子光束一致性的方法。分析剪切干涉原理,建立了剪切板干涉物理模型,以相干合成中两路矩形光束拼接组束为例,数值模拟并研究了子光束的整体倾斜、离焦所对应的剪切干涉条纹,得到了条纹图像与子光束光轴误差、离焦误差之间的对应关系,用于相干合成光路中子光束光轴和发散角误差的判断。光轴倾斜大于5μrad时,可以直接观察互干涉和自干涉条纹变化,发散角在大于10μrad时,干涉条纹变化明显。此外,剪切干涉的自干涉条纹平移可用来检测子光束间的活塞误差,可作为光束拼接相干合成中闭环相位检测和控制的手段。     

Formation of optical vortices using coherent laser beam arrays

We present a proposal to generate an optical vortex beam by using the coherent-superposition of multi-beams in a radially symmetric configuration. In terms of the generalized Huygens-Fresnel diffraction integral, we have derived the general propagation expression for the coherent radial arrays of laser beams. Using the derived formulae, we have analyzed the effects of the beamlet number N, the separation distance ρ of the beamlets and the topological charge m on the intensity and phase distributions of the resultant beams. Our simulation results show that optical vortices could be efficiently generated due to the coherent-superposition effect of all beamlets, during the propagation process of the coherent radial array of laser beams with the initial well-organized phase distributions through the free space. In the focusing system, the resultant beam near the focusing plane has the strong rotational effect with the phase helicity.     

Filamentation of an annular laser beam in a short wavelength laser produced plasma

We report on the first observations of periodic structures caused by the filamentation instability. These structures were observed on 0.35 μm laser irradiated planar target experiments. Comparison of these observations with self-focusing theory indicates that even though thermal filamentation may initiate the instability, ponderomotive force effects eventually dominate the actual filamentation process.     

非稳腔输出环状激光束的传输特性

本文从菲涅耳衍射积分公式出发研究了激光器非稳腔输出环状光束在空间的传输规律.由轴上光强的极值点位置给出了划分非稳腔传输空间的近场、中场和远场区域公式.理论计算结果表明,非稳腔输出端环状光束在中场区域激光能量逐渐向轴心方向转移,而在远场变为爱里型圆盘状光束的过程.在非稳腔脉冲TEA CO_2激光器上测得的实验结果与理论计算结果很好地符合.     

Effect of annular obstruction on tight focusing of partially coherent radially polarized Vortex beam

Based on vectorial Debye theory, the effect of annular apodization of tightly focused partially coherent radially polarized vortex beams in the focal field of high NA lens is studied. The intensity distribution in the focal region is illustrated by numerical calculations. It is found that the focal depth of the generated focal segment strongly dependent on the source coherence length for unobstructed case and the presence of annular aperture reduces the variation of focal depth with source coherence length.     

Spatial beam profiles of femtosecond X-ray pulses generated by laser Compton scattering from a low-emittance electron beam

Polarization-dependent spatial beam profiles of femtosecond X-ray pulses generated by a laser Compton scheme were measured. The X-ray pulses were generated by the interaction at an angle of 90° between 100-fs laser light and a 3-ps, 3π-mm mrad electron beam. The polarization of the laser light was linear in two different directions, either parallel or perpendicular to the electron beam axis. The measured profiles showed good agreement with theoretical results. Received: 5 July 2002 / Revised version: 17 October 2002 / Published online: 5 February 2003 RID="*" ID="*"Corresponding author. Fax: +81-424/684477, E-mail: msf_yorozu@shi.co.jp