Fast wavelength-tunable ultra-violet laser source for confocal Fura-2AM imaging

We report a novel wavelength-flexible laser source for three-dimensional ultra-violet imaging. Based on supercontinuum generation in photonic crystal fiber, the resultant broadband laser source extended from λ = 331 nm into the visible region of the spectrum. Using an electronically-controlled filter wheel and filter set with a response time of approximately 50 ms, rapid wavelength selection was performed. The described scheme is capable of exciting the current range of ultra-violet-excited fluorophores and the simple and rapid wavelength control also provides a new approach for fast ratiometric imaging of Fura-2AM, facilitating an easy method of performing quantitative intracellular calcium concentration measurements.     

Subnanosecond pulses from a single-cavity dye laser

The selection of aromatic hydrocarbons as laser dyes can be facilitated by having all spectroscopic data available for the dye under consideration. From polarization studies of transient absorptions the direction of the transition moments may be obtained, which gives an indication which substituent has to be used to shift certain absorption or emission bands. The use of all available data is demonstrated for anthracene being the “parent” dye. Excimer laser action from pyrene crystals can be excluded using similar considerations due to excited singlet-state absorption losses.     

Subnanosecond pulses from a single-cavity dye laser

A simple nitrogen pumped dye laser is described which, sequentially in time, generates two pulses, one due to superradiance and the other to laser action. The duration of both the pulses can be changed continuously on a nanosecond time scale, down to a few tenths of a nanosecond for the superradiant pulse. Pulses as short as 0.4 nsec have been obtained for the superradiant beam. Work supported by Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche.     

外腔半导体激光器随机数熵源的腔长分析

利用光反馈半导体激光器产生的混沌激光作为随机数熵源,详细研究了混沌源外腔长度对500Mbit/s随机数特性的影响.研究表明:在单路混沌源情况下,外腔反馈引起的谐振会使产生的随机序列具有弱周期性,且当外腔反馈时间与采样时间的比值为整数时,产生序列的随机性最差,仅能通过NIST统计测试2,3项;在两路混沌源情况下,当混沌源的外腔长不相等且不成比例时,通过两路异或处理可消除由外腔反馈引起的弱周期性,产生的随机序列能够通过NIST的全部统计测试项.     

Theory of two-section laser amplifiers

A new theory of two-section amplifiers has been developed in order to account explicitly for dispersive effects arising from the carrier dependence of the refractive index. It has been found that non-linear and bistable effects in two-section devices, which are conventionally attributed to saturable absorption, contain a stong component of dispersive non-linearity. The implication is that the advantages claimed for two-section amplifiers over single-section devices may not be as great as had hitherto been thought.     

All optical Flip-Flop based on a nonlinear DFB semiconductor laser: Theoretical study

A new design of an all optical Flip-Flop is proposed. It consists of a nonlinear distributed feedback (DFB) laser. The wave guiding layer of the DFB laser consists of linear grating section followed by a nonlinear one, and both sections are separated by a phase shift section. In the OFF-state, the real part of the refractive index in the wave guiding layer forms a Bragg grating. In the ON-state, it forms a Bragg grating with a phase shift section. Optical gain is achieved by current injection in the semiconductor active layer. Nonlinearity in the nonlinear layers of the semiconductor grating was achieved by direct absorption at the edge of the absorption band (Urbach tail). Numerical simulation shows that the device switches in a nanosecond time scale.     

A proposed semiconductor laser pump-probe source

A model is presented which determines the output from a semiconductor laser as a function of the direct current (d.c.) and radio frequency (r.f.) current applied to the laser. It is shown that by adjusting these two components the output optical pulse from a laser can be shifted in time without change to the pulse shape or height. Experimental results are presented which support the model. It is suggested how these results can be used to produce a semiconductor pump-probe source, which is essential for the development of optical probing.     

Phase-shifting interferometric profilometry with a wavelength-tunable diode source

A phase-shifting interferometer with a tunable external-cavity laser diode has been constructed for forming three-dimensional (3-D) phase profiles. The interference phase is shifted equally in four steps by varying the source wavelength. Profilometry is achieved by measuring the phase shifts that are extracted by the Carré algorithm. The linear regression of the distance measurement from 40 μm to 13mm has been experimentally demonstrated by phase-shifting interferometry. A laser-diode interferometer has been applied to 3-D profile measurement for a step-mirror object at a deep depth.     

Bright spatially coherent wavelength-tunable deep-UV laser source using an Ar-filled photonic crystal fiber

We report on the spectral broadening of ~1 μJ 30 fs pulses propagating in an Ar-filled hollow-core photonic crystal fiber. In contrast with supercontinuum generation in a solid-core photonic crystal fiber, the absence of Raman and unique pressure-controlled dispersion results in efficient emission of dispersive waves in the deep-UV region. The UV light emerges in the single-lobed fundamental mode and is tunable from 200 to 320 nm by varying the pulse energy and gas pressure. The setup is extremely simple, involving <1 m of a gas-filled photonic crystal fiber, and the UV signal is stable and bright, with experimental IR to deep-UV conversion efficiencies as high as 8%. The source is of immediate interest in applications demanding high spatial coherence, such as laser lithography or confocal microscopy.     

Microwave transport systems that use semiconductor laser as radio-frequency amplifier

This investigation experimentally demonstrates the effectiveness of microwave transport systems in which a semiconductor laser is used as a radio-frequency (RF) amplifier. This scheme improves the sensitivity of the receiver in a microwave transport system by using a semiconductor laser to amplify the RF signal. The experimental results indicate that the developed architecture has great potential for use in long-distance microwave transport systems. Finally, an optical link monitoring system in the proposed architecture is experimentally demonstrated.     

High-power multiple-frequency narrow-linewidth laser source based on a semiconductor tapered amplifier

The output of two grating-stabilized external-cavity diode lasers was injected into a semiconductor tapered amplif ier in a master oscillator-power amplif ier (MOPA) configuration. At a wavelength of 671 nm this configuration produced 210 mW of power in a diffraction-limited mode with two frequency components of narrow linewidth. The frequency difference delta was varied from 20 MHz to 12 GHz, while the power ratio of the two components was freely adjustable. For delta < 2 GHz additional frequency sidebands appear in the output of the MOPA. This configuration is a f lexible and simple high-power cw laser source for light with multiple narrow-linewidth frequency components.     

高功率半导体激光泵浦源研究进展

高功率半导体激光器是固体激光器和光纤激光器的主要泵浦源。激光泵浦源性能的大幅提升直接促进了固体激光器、光纤激光器等激光器的发展。主要介绍了8xx nm和9xx nm系列半导体激光泵浦源的最新研究进展,8xx nm单管输出功率已达18.8 W@95 µm,巴条输出功率已达1.8 kW（QCW）,9xx nm单管输出功率已达35 W@100 µm,巴条输出功率已达1.98 kW（QCW）。谱宽<1 nm的窄谱宽半导体激光器输出功率可达14 W。展望了未来半导体激光器泵浦源的发展趋势。     

Performance of a wavelength-tunable erbium-doped fiber laser using a Sagnac interferometer

We experimentally demonstrate a wavelength-tunable erbium-doped fiber laser that is composed of a ring cavity and a single-mode fiber Sagnac interferometer in a new and simple arrangement. We find that the fiber laser output wavelength is tunable by adjusting the filter effect of the Sagnac fiber loop through a fiber polarization controller set there. The quasi-single-wavelength continuously tunable laser outputs could be achieved within some wavelength range. The multi-wavelength laser outputs could also be observed under some appropriate settings of the polarization controller. A theoretical demonstration of the wavelength tunability about the transmission-type Sagnac loop filter has also been achieved using the Jones calculus theory.     

Generation of optimized wavelength-tunable optical pulse from an uncooled gain-switched Fabry–Perot semiconductor laser using optical amplifier as external light injection

We present a novel system design that can generate the optimized wavelength-tunable optical pulse streams from an uncooled gain-switched Fabry–Perot semiconductor laser using an optical amplifier as external light source. The timing jitter of gain-switched laser has been reduced from about 3 ps to 600 fs and the pulse width has been optimized by using our system. The stability of the system was also experimentally investigated. Our results show that an uncooled gain-switched FP laser system can feasibly produce the stable optical pulse trains with pulse width of 18 ps at the repetition frequency of 5 GHz during 7 h continuous working. We respectively proved the system feasibility under 1 GHz, 2.5 GHz and 5 GHz operation.     

Tunable frequency-controlled laser source in the near ultraviolet based on doubling of a semiconductor diode laser

Continuously tunable ultraviolet laser radiation at 397 nm was generated by doubling the output of a semiconductor diode laser. The fundamental radiation was provided by a 150 mW AlGaAs laser diode injected by a low-power AlGaAs laser diode which was frequency stabilized by optical feedback using a new scheme of a miniature external cavity. Second-harmonic generation was produced in a lithium-triborate crystal placed in a compact enhancement cavity. The fundamental radiation was used for sub-Doppler spectroscopy of the Ar I 4s ³ P ⁰ ₀–4p ¹ P ₁ transition at 795 nm; the second-harmonic radiation was used for spectroscopy of the Ca II 4² S _1/2–4² P _1/2 transition at 397 nm.     

Continuous wavelength-tunable optical short-pulse generation by use of two Fabry-Perot laser diodes in a mutual injection-seeding scheme

A simple system for producing continuous and widely wavelength-tunable optical short pulses in a mutual injection-seeding scheme is presented. The system exhibits a good side-mode suppression ratio of greater than 32.7 dB over a large wavelength tuning range of 33.8 nm. The system is easy to operate and convenient for continuous wavelength tuning.     

Random Bragg-grating-based wavelength-tunable random fiber laser with a full-open cavity

A full-open-cavity wavelength-tunable random fiber laser(WT-RFL) with compact structure and hundreds of picometers tuning range is proposed and demonstrated. A π fiber Bragg grating(FBG) is used in the WT-RFL as a filter to select lasing wavelengths. The two random Bragg grating arrays(RBGAs) and a section of high gain erbium-doped fiber result in a low lasing threshold and high stability. A numerical model to analyze the tunable characteristics is developed. The results show that the laser threshold is 22 m W, and the maximum peak-power fluctuation is 0.55 d B. To the best of our knowledge, it is the first time that a compact and full-open-cavity WT-RFL with two RBGAs and a π-FBG is proposed.     

Theoretical investigation into spectral characteristics of a semiconductor laser with dual-FBG external cavity

A new theoretical model of the dual-FBG external cavity based on the couple-mode theory has been proposed for controlling the output spectral characteristics of the semiconductor laser with dual-FBG external cavity. The output spectral characteristics have been studied through the analyses of the external cavity length, the FBG length and the fiber length between the two FBGs. The results reveal that the side mode suppression ratio (SMSR), the full wave at half maximum (FWHM), the longitudinal mode interval (LMI) and the stability of the central wavelength are mainly determined by the effective external transmissivity, the fiber length between the two FBGs and the external cavity length, respectively. Furthermore, the rising/falling tendencies of the SMSR and the FWHM are exactly opposite. There exist the maximum of the SMSR and the minimum of the FWHM in a semiconductor laser with dual-FBG external cavity. The increase of the fiber length between the two FBGs results in the exponential decrease of the LMI. The increase of the external cavity length leads to the better stability of the central wavelength.