Highly efficient optically pumped cesium vapor laser

We have demonstrated an optically pumped continuous wave Cs vapor laser with an input power to output power slope efficiency of 81%. The laser power was 0.35 W for an input power of 0.57 W, yielding an overall optical efficiency of 63%.     

Study of the saturation effect and output power of optically pumped FIR laser

In this paper, the density matrix equation of a six-level system has been solved, in case of the FIR wave signals in the system were not small enough to be neglected. The output power density of the laser system has been calculated by means of the iteration method. The saturation effect of the system has been revenled by the numerical calculation. Several sets of curves of laser output power vs, the length of laser with defferent pumping detuning and the optimum operating pressure under certain condition have been obtained. These calculated values were in good agresment with the data provided in the literatures.     

Theoretical study of multi-mode optically pumped NH3 FIR laser

The two or multi-mode optically pumped NH₃ FIR laser had been studied theoretically. The NH₃ molecular gas was assumed to be a three-level system and obeyed the time-dependent behavior of the density matrix equations. Considering the situation of playing the two or multi-mode optical pumping and the FIR laser field were same polarized. The gain coefficient and the output FIR power of the system could be calculated by using the iteration method.It had been predicted that the two or multiple longitudinal mode optically pumped NH₃ FIR laser could have a greater output power or higher lasing efficiency than single mode pumped FIR laser under suitable selected operating parameters of laser.Supported by The Education Foundation of PRC.     

High peak power Nd:YAG laser pumped by 600-W diode laser stack

The Q-switched laser with triangle slab made of Nd:YAG crystal side pumped by 600-W quasi-cw diode laser stack has been designed. The multimode (M²≈2.6) output energy of about 42 mJ was demonstrated in free running mode for110-mJ pump energy. In Q-switch experiments, the KDDP Pockels cell was placed between the slab and rear mirror in plane-plane cavity with output coupler of 84% transmission. The energy of 8 mJ in 2.1-ns pulse duration was obtained for near TEM₀₀ output beam. For passive Q-switching by means of Cr:YAG crystal of 12.6% unsaturated transmission, the energy of 5.1 mJ in 2.5-ns pulse duration was obtained for output beam close to TEM₀₀ mode.     

The optimum pumping power for optically pumped FIR lasers

The relations between the output power of optically pumped FIR laser and the pumping power were studied theoretically by solving the density matrix equation of four-level system by means of the matrix signal flow graph method. The output power density of FIR laser was calculated by iteration method. A set of curves of output FIR power density against pumping power has been obtained. It has found that every of each curve has a maximum point of which the position is different for different pumping detuning. According the these results we predicted that there would exist an optimum pumping power density for an optically pumped FIR laser with certain pumping detuning. This theoretical results would help us to design the optically pumped FIR lasers.     

CW mode locked Nd:YVO4 laser pumped by 20-W laser diode bar

The efficient cw mode locking (cw-ML) regime was demonstrated in Nd:YVO₄ laser by means of saturable absorber mirror (SAM). The 0.3-at.% Nd³⁺ doped 10-mm-long YVO₄ crystal end pumped by 20-W diode module with a beam shaper was applied as a gain medium located in the close vicinity to the rear flat mirror of the first arm of Z-type resonator of 316 cm total length with two curved mirrors of 100-cm curvature radii. The SAM of 2%-saturable absorptance and saturation fluence of 50 μJ/cm² was mounted at the opposite end of a resonator. The developed “dynamically stable” cavity design mitigates detrimental role of thermal aberration in gain medium, enforcing clean perfect mode locking even for the highest pump densities. The cw-ML pulses with 47.5 MHz repetition rate and pulse durations in the range of 15–20 ps were observed for a wide range of pump powers and output coupler losses. In the best case, for 32% of output coupler transmission, up to 6.2 W of average power with near 35% slope efficiency was achieved. The thresholds for Q-switched ML, cw-ML regimes were 2.67 W and 6.13 W of pump power, respectively. For the maximum pump power of 20 W we obtained 133 nJ of pulse energy with 16-ps pulse duration, resulting in a peak power higher than 8 kW. The threshold energy density at SAM giving the QML regime was estimated to be about 30 μJ/cm², threshold of cw-ML regime was 220 μJ/cm².     

Theoretical study of miniature optically pumped cavity NH3 Far-infrared laser

Miniature optically pumped cavity NH3 Far-infrared laser was studied theoretically, with the length of the FIRL cavity as short as 1.5cm, the dependences of FIRL output power and laser lineshape on operating gas pressure and output coupling condition, and on the effect of laser line saturation broadening were calculated.Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China.     

The energy exchange and the optimum length of the sample tube of opfirl

The energy exchange between the pumping laser and FIR signal in the optically pumped FIR laser (OPFIRL) system was studied. The iteration method has been used to calculate the power density of the pumping and FIR signals at any point along the optical axis of the sample tube. It was found that the power density of the FIR signal did not always increase along the length of the laser tube. There was a maximum FIR power density at the appropriate point in the sample tube. If the distance of maximum power point from the entrance of the OPFIRL tube was taken as the length of sample tube Z_opt, the maximum FIR laser output should be obtained. This was the optimum length of OPFIRL tube. The value of Z_opt was closely related to the parameter of OPFIRL such as the pumping power density, the pumping detuning and the frequency of the FIR laser. The energy-exchange and the maximum output of the fir laser were calculated under the ideal condition.     

Analysis on thermal characteristics of annular beam pumped vertical-external-cavity surface-emitting lasers by finite element method

The annular beam as a pump light of VECSELs is presented for the first time in this study. The thermal characteristics of VECSELs were calculated and simulated by finite element method, and the influence of the annular beam's annulus radius, the annulus width, and the pumping power to the VECSELs’ thermal characteristics was analyzed in detail. The results indicated that the annular beam can improve the VECSELs’ thermal characteristics efficiently, and provide a favorable term to generate laser in the central part of the annular. The theoretical results provided theoretical reference and experimental study for the design of high-power optically pumped VECSELs.     

半导体泵浦铷蒸气激光器出光实验

针对中心波长780 nm的商用连续波半导体激光器,使用斩波器将连续激光变为脉冲输出形式,用2400 line/mm的平面全息光栅搭建Littrow外腔将线宽压窄至0.2 nm以下。采用透镜组对线宽压窄后的半导体激光进行光束整形,半导体激光经线宽压窄和光束整形后,经透镜聚焦进长约8 mm的铷蒸气泡进行半导体泵浦碱金属激光实验。首次出光得到17.5 mW的基模线偏振铷激光;在最新的改进实验中,半导体泵浦铷激光输出功率已达到2.8 W。     

Intracavity optical parametric oscillator pumped by passively Q-switched Nd:YLF laser

We report on a passively Q-switched end pumped Nd:YLF laser including a noncritically phase-matched KTP singly resonant intracavity optical parametric oscillator (IOPO-KTP). For the Q-switching operation we have used Cr:YAG saturable absorber. The optimized passively Q-switched Nd:YLF laser without IOPO generated linearly polarized pulses of 11.5 ns and 1.07 mJ at 1047 nm. The conversion efficiency of the optimized Q-switched pulse energy at 1047 nm to 1547 nm of a signal approached about 47%. For optimizing both Nd:YLF laser and IOPO we have numerically solved a theoretical model. We have achieved 1.6-ns duration pulses at 1547 nm with energy of 0.5 mJ and peak power of above 300 kW. The beam quality was excellent (M² ≈1).     

Propagation parameters of the beam extracted from a diode pumped Nd:YAG ceramic slab laser with a hybrid stable–unstable resonator

We analyze the propagation properties of the beam extracted from a diode pumped ceramic Nd:YAG slab laser adopting a hybrid stable–unstable resonator. Such a resonator produces a beam characterized by an Hermite–Gauss mixture-like distribution in one transverse direction and a hard-edge diffracted distribution on the other transverse direction. The beam propagation parameters M_x² and M_y² are measured for different values of the diodes driving current. We obtain a beam parameter product smaller than 3 mm mrad in both transverse directions and in the whole range of powers, up to an extraction of 220 W in a QCW regime.     

Revision on the calculation of optically pumped FIR laser spectrum with Doppler broadening and pressure broadening effects

By means of iteration method and also taking into account Doppler broadening and pressure braodening effect of IR pumping laser, the output power density of optically pumped NH₃ molecules FIR laser is calculated by solving density matrix equations of three-level system. The results of theoretical calculation shows that, in comparison with the FIR laser under the assumption of ideal monochromatic IR pumping, the output power density of FIR laser in the case of Doppler broadening and pressure broadening IR pumping decreases much more. Meanwhile, via the revision of Doppler broadening and pressure broadening effect, the theoretical value of optimum operating gas pressure reduces, which is in better agreement with the experimental value. Further study shows that the revision of Doppler broadening effect is more fit for the conventional FIR laser with a 2m sample tuble and the revision of pressure broadening effect is much more suitable for the miniature FIR laser with a short sample tube of 5 to 20cm in length.Supported by the National Natural Sciences Foundation of P.R.China and the NSF of Guangdong Province.     

LD抽运全固态蓝光激光器的研究进展

简述了LD抽运全固态蓝光激光器的发展历史和现状。从蓝光产生方式、倍频晶体、腔型结构三方面进行了讨论。论述了LD抽运全固态蓝光激光器所面临的镀膜技术、散热和“蓝光噪声”三大问题。指出了LD抽运全固态蓝光激光器的发展方向。     

Spike Phenomenon in Raman Spectrum of Optically Pumped Ear-Infrared Laser

Based on the theory of semi-classical density matrix, spike phenomenon of multi-longitudinal-mode CO2-9R(30) optically pumped miniature NH₃ molecules far-infrared cavity laser was theoretically studied and the reason of forming spike phenomenon was approved as two aspects: one was the competitive effect caused by the process of AC Stack splitting two photons, which made that the output optical spectral intensity of one AC Stark splitting peak was stronger than that of the other AC Stark splitting peak; the other was the longitudinal-mode spectral characteristics of laser resonant cavity.     

Diffusion and vibrational bottleneck in optically pumped submillimetre lasers

By observing the time dependence of the onset of the submm laser power in the millisecond time scale, just after the switching on of the pump laser, the vibrational bottleneck due to diffusion and vibrational relaxation has been clearly exhibited in CH₃F, D₂CO and HCOOH submm lasers. Experimental results are compared with those deduced from a simplified rate equation model. Both show a diffusion limited regime and a collisional regime.     

二极管泵浦高能激光研究进展和展望

高能激光广泛应用于材料加工、科学研究、空间碎片清除、军事应用等领域。二极管泵浦高能激光具有结构紧凑,系统简单、全电驱无限弹仓的特点,近年来,各类二极管泵浦高能激光围绕着同时实现高功率、高效率、高光束质量这一总目标发展迅速。详细综述了国内外高平均功率块状固体激光、高功率可见光波段激光、高峰值功率激光、高功率光纤激光、碱金属蒸气激光等二极管泵浦高能激光的研究进展,并对其发展趋势进行了展望。     

Optically pumped laser action in dideuteroacetylene

Optically pumped laser action has been observed in dideuteroacetylene. A total of fifteen output wavelengths in the 17.4 to 20.5 μm region are produced, pumped by seven CO₂ laser lines. The laser shows a number of unusual features, in particular pumping on hot bands and formally forbidden transitions and operation at high pressure (65 torr). Output energies were ～ 2 mJ from an unoptimised system. The temperature and pressure dependence of the output energy has been measured for typical lines. The time dependence of the output pulse varies markedly between the various output lines and suggests that one transition is Raman in origin.     

Blue laser light generation by intracavity frequency doubling of Cesium vapor laser

Blue laser light with a wavelength 447 nm was generated by intracavity frequency doubling of a Cs laser in PPKTP crystal. A continuous wave power of 600 mW was obtained at an optical-to-optical efficiency of 4%. In the pulsed operation, when thermal effects were reduced, the efficiency obtained was 14% and the peak blue power was 2.1 W.     

Optically pumped CW CF3BR FIR laser. New emission lines and tentative assignments

Eight new CW FIR lines from the CF₃Br molecules pumped by a¹²C¹⁶O₂ laser are reported. Tentative assignments have allowed to assign eight among the ten lines reported.