Tunable, high-repetition-rate, femtosecond pulse generation in the ultraviolet

We report efficient generation of tunable femtosecond pulses in the ultraviolet (UV) by intracavity doubling of a visible femtosecond optical parametric oscillator (OPO). The OPO, based on a 400 microm BiB3O6 crystal and pumped at 415 nm in the blue, can provide visible femtosecond signal pulses across 500-710 nm. Using a 500 microm crystal of beta-BaB2O4 internal to the OPO cavity, efficient frequency doubling of the signal pulses into the UV is achieved, providing tunable femtosecond pulses across 250-355 nm with up to 225 mW of average power at 76 MHz. Cross-correlation measurements result in UV pulses with durations down to 132 fs for 180 fs blue pump pulses.     

差频产生中红外飞秒激光脉冲的研究进展

中红外飞秒激光脉冲在科研、民用及军事等方面都有重要的应用,文章回顾了产生中红外飞秒激光脉冲的几种方法,结合差频法产生中红外飞秒脉冲的优点,详细介绍了差频产生中红外飞秒激光脉冲的研究进展,最后进行了总结和展望.     

差频产生中红外飞秒激光脉冲的研究进展

中红外飞秒激光脉冲在科研、民用及军事等方面都有重要的应用,文章回顾了产生中红外飞秒激光脉冲的几种方法,结合差频法产生中红外飞秒脉冲的优点,详细介绍了差频产生中红外飞秒激光脉冲的研究进展,最后进行了总结和展望.     

Determination of the mid-IR femtosecond surface-damage threshold of germanium

To assess the potential uses of germanium as a nonlinear material in the mid IR we have measured the surface-damage threshold of germanium optical windows using femtosecond pulses at a wavelength of 3.9 μm. By working with a wavelength corresponding to a photon energy of less than half the band-gap energy, free-carrier generation due to one- and two-photon absorption was eliminated. The laser pulses had an energy of 5.5 μJ, a duration of 255 fs, and were focused to a waist size of approximately 100 μm. The multi-shot damage threshold of the germanium windows was estimated to be approximately 94 GW/cm². The data should be of immediate benefit to industrial laser researchers and applications engineers working in the mid-IR region.     

High-average-power femtosecond pulse generation in the blue using BiB3O6

Efficient generation of tunable femtosecond pulses in the blue is reported in the nonlinear crystal BiB3O6. By use of fundamental pulses from a mode-locked Ti:sapphire laser at 76 MHz, single-pass second-harmonic average powers of as much as 830 mW have been generated at 50% conversion efficiency, and a tunable range of 375-435 nm in the blue is demonstrated. Temporal measurements using cross correlation of the fundamental and second-harmonic pulses in a 100-microm-thick beta-BaB2O4 crystal result in blue pulse durations of 220 fs for 130-fs fundamental pulses. Direct experimental comparison with beta-BaB2O4 confirms the superior performance BiB3O6 for second-harmonic generation of femtosecond pulses.     

Continuum generation of the third-harmonic pulse generated by an intense femtosecond IR laser pulse in air

The continuum generation by intense femtosecond IR laser pulses focused in air including the effect of third-harmonic generation is investigated. We have used a theoretical model that includes the full spatio-temporal dynamics of both the fundamental and the third-harmonic pulses. Results of our numerical calculations show that a two-color filamentation effect occurs, in which the third-harmonic conversion efficiency remains almost constant over the whole filament length. It is found that this effect is rather independent of the wavelength of the input beam and the focal geometry. During the filamentation process the third-harmonic pulse itself generates a broad continuum, which can even overlap with the continuum of the fundamental pulse for the longer pump wavelengths. In consequence, the continuum generation generated by intense IR laser pulses is further extended into the UV. PACS 42.65.Jx; 42.65.Ky; 52.35.Mw     

飞秒脉冲在硅波导中产生超连续谱的研究

利用非线性薛定谔方程对飞秒脉冲在硅波导中的传输以及超连续谱的产生进行了研究,计算和分析了色散参量及非线性损耗在超连续谱的产生过程中的影响.结果表明,孤子分裂是飞秒脉冲在硅波导中产生超连续谱的主要机理.飞秒脉冲中心波长与波导零色散点的相对位置对超连续谱的产生有极大影响.当中心波长位于近零色散点的反常色散区时,孤子分裂现象最明显,谱宽远大于在零色散波长及正常色散处入射时的情况,并且达到稳定展宽所需波导长度最短.其次,高阶色散的大小也会影响光谱展宽,三阶色散绝对值较小时,能够获得较大的展宽.另外,由于双光子吸收效应带来大量损耗,限制了谱宽,并且随着初始脉冲功率的逐渐增大,展宽出现饱和现象. 关键词： 超连续谱 孤子分裂 色散 硅波导     

Improvement of the fiber raman soliton laser for femtosecond optical pulse generation

Femtosecond optical pulses generated from a synchronously pumped fiber Raman soliton laser (FRASL) have been shown to have large excess noise and high background light (i.e., the pedestal) levels. In this paper, to improve the FRASL, the operation characteristics of the FRASL are investigated both theoretically and experimentally. It is shown that real femtosecond soliton oscillation in the FRASL can be obtained only when the soliton self-frequency shift (SSFS) effect in the fibers is suppressed and proper choices of both the Stokes oscillation wavelength and the pump power level are required for the SSFS suppression in the FRASL. By using a tunable all-fiber Raman ring laser, optical pulses as short as 400 fs with a low white AM noise level of -120 dBc / Hz have been generated from the compact FRASL with SSFS suppression. Based on the theoretical analyses, we propose to use an intracavity saturable absorber to prevent the generation of high-level Stokes background light in the FRASL, and the feasibility of this method is shown by numerical simulations.     

飞秒光脉冲在光子晶体光纤中的非线性传输和超连续谱产生

采用分步傅里叶方法数值模拟了飞秒光脉冲在光子晶体光纤中非线性传输和超连续谱的产生. 计算和分析了高阶色散和非线性效应对超连续谱形状和带宽的影响. 结果表明在光子晶体光纤中产生了孤子自频移现象. 同时也发现脉冲内拉曼散射和自相位调制的联合作用导致了超连续谱中精细结构的出现. 另外，还发现高阶色散和初始光脉冲的峰值功率对超连续谱的带宽和平滑也有直接影响. 关键词： 光子晶体光纤 孤子自频移 超连续谱     

Wavelength-tunable multicolored femtosecond laser pulse generation in a fused silica glass plate

We obtained an array of multicolored femtosecond laser pulses with as many as 17 different colors that are spatially isolated. The mechanism of generation was proved to be cascaded four-wave mixing and with the following procedure. The output beam from a femtosecond laser was split into two. One of the two beams was pulse-compressed with a hollow core fiber and the intensity of the other was reduced. The two beams were synchronized and combined with a small crossing angle in a plate of fused silica glass plate. The wavelengths of the sidebands are continuously tunable from near-ultraviolet to near-infrared. The pulse duration, spatial mode, spectrum, and energy stability of the sidebands were studied. As many as fifteen spectral up-shifted pulses and two spectral downshifted pulses were obtained with spectral bandwidths broader than 1.8 octaves. Properties such as pulse energy as high as 1 μmJ, 45 fs pulse duration, smaller than 1.1 times of the diffraction limit Gaussian spatial profile, and better than 2% RMS power stability of the generated sidebands make it can be used in various experiments. The characterization showed that the sidebands have sufficiently good qualities to enable application to for various multicolor femtosecond laser experiments, for example, a multicolor pump-probe experiment.     

Flexible generation of femtosecond cylindrical vector beams(Invited Paper)

Femtosecond(fs)cylindrical vector beams(CVBs)have found use in many applications in recent years.However,the existing rigid generation methods seriously limit its development.Here,we propose a flexible method for generating fs-CVBs with arbitrary polarization order by employing half wave plates and vortex retarders.The polarization state,autocorrelation width,pulse width,and spectrum features of the input and generated CVB pulses are measured and compared.The results verify that the generated CVBs remain in the fs regime with no appreciable temporal distortion,and the energy conversion efficiency can reach as high as 96.5%,even for a third-order beam.As a flexible way to generate fs-CVBs,this method will have great significance for many applications.     

Adaptive femtosecond pulse shaping to control supercontinuum generation in a microstructure fiber

Efficient confinement of laser radiation in the core of a photonic crystal fiber increases the nonlinear processes resulting in supercontinuum generation. The technique of adaptive pulse shaping using an evolutionary algorithm provides a method to gain control over such highly nonlinear processes. Adaptive pulse shaping of the driving laser radiation passing through the photonic crystal fiber is employed to modify the shape and composition of the output supercontinuum. Amplitude and phase shaping are used to optimize the broadband emission between 500 and 700 nm, as well as a soliton centered at 935 nm. The intensities of the emission and of the soliton driven by a shaped laser pulse increase in comparison to an unshaped pulse by factors of 4 and 3, respectively. The spectral width in the range of 500-600 nm is increased by approximately 40%. In addition, the suppression of self-steepening effects in supercontinuum spectra is demonstrated.     

High repetition rate femtosecond WDM pulse generation using direct space-to-time pulse shapers and arrayed waveguide gratings

For the application of high repetition rate wavelength division multiplexed (WDM) pulse train generation from a femtosecond modelocked fiber laser, the direct space-to-time pulse shaper and a properly designed arrayed waveguide grating (AWG) are equivalent. The analogy between the bulk optics and integrated configuration is explored for this application. The critical design parameters of the AWG are the free spectral range and the pathlength difference between adjacent guides in the array.     

Synthesis of periodic femtosecond pulse trains in the ultraviolet by phase-locked Raman sideband generation

We demonstrate a new technique for femtosecond-pulse generation that employs ultrafast modulation of a laser field phase by impulsively excited molecular rotational or vibrational motion with subsequent temporal compression. An ultrashort pump pulse at 800 nm performs impulsive excitation of a molecular gas in a hollow waveguide, and a weak delayed probe pulse at 400 nm is scattered on the temporal oscillations of its dielectric index. The resultant sinusoidal phase modulation of the probe pulse permits probe pulse temporal compression by use of both positively and negatively dispersive elements. The potential of this new method is demonstrated by the generation of a periodic train of 5.8-fs pulses at 400 nm with positive group-delay dispersion compensation.     

Femtosecond pulse shaping directly in the mid-IR using acousto-optic modulation

Pulse shaping directly in the mid-IR is accomplished by using a germanium acousto-optic modulator (Ge AOM) capable of programmable phase and amplitude modulation for IR light between 2 and 18 microm. Shaped waveforms centered at 4.9 microm are demonstrated in both the frequency and the time domains. With a 50% throughput efficiency, the Ge AOM can generate much more intense pulses with higher resolution than can indirect shaping methods. Furthermore, the phase stability of the shaped pulse proved sufficient for cross correlation with unshaped mid-IR pulses. Thus, phase- and amplitude-tailored pulses can now be readily incorporated into phase-sensitive experiments, such as heterodyned 2D IR spectroscopy.     

双折射光子晶体光纤中超连续谱产生的实验研究

研究了30 fs激光在双折射光子晶体光纤中传输时,泵浦光功率和偏振态对超连续谱产生的影响。实验结果表明:随着泵浦光功率增加,光谱宽度显著增加,出现红移的光孤子和蓝移的色散波;当泵浦光的偏振态分别平行于光子晶体光纤长轴和短轴时,二者都有红移的光孤子和蓝移的色散波,但前者色散波波长更短;当泵浦光偏振态介于长轴与短轴之间,可能在色散波之外出现了交叉相位波,产生的超连续谱最强,且其近场光斑最大且最亮。     

High-harmonic generation of mid-IR pulses in simple liquids

j as expected. The analysis of the frequency dependence indicates the strong influence of vibrational resonances, which were found here for the first time. Near the fundamental resonance the jth harmonic generation has to be described as a (j+3) wave mixing experiment due to the necessary inclusion of the population of the corresponding vibrational state. Received: 2 April 1997/Revised version: 18 June 1997     

Efficient second harmonic generation by a femtosecond pulse far from phase matching

Highly efficient second harmonic generation by a femtosecond pulse under the condition of group matching in the absence of phase matching was obtained. Second-order dispersion and cubic nonlinearity of the propagation medium were considered. The cubic nonlinearity is necessarily required for the generation to be efficient. The results obtained open up a fundamental opportunity for the efficient cascade generation of optical harmonics to be realized.     

Engineerable femtosecond pulse shaping by second-harmonic generation with Fourier synthetic quasi-phase-matching gratings

We describe a pulse-shaping technique that uses second-harmonic generation with Fourier synthetic quasi-phase-matching gratings. We demonstrate both amplitude and phase tailoring by generating a picosecond squarelike pulse as well as trains of femtosecond pulses with a terahertz-range repetition rate from either a compressed or a chirped pump pulse.     

High-power all-normal-dispersion femtosecond pulse generation from a Yb-doped large-mode-area microstructure fiber laser

We report on an all-normal-dispersion mode-locked fiber laser based on a large-mode-area Yb-doped microstructure fiber and using a high nonlinear modulation depth semiconductor saturable absorber mirror. The laser delivers 3.3 W of average output power with positively chirped 5.5 ps pulses at a center wavelength of 1033 nm. The pulse repetition rate is 46.4 MHz, which results in an energy per pulse of 71 nJ. These pulses are extracavity dechirped down to 516 fs by using bulk gratings. The average power of the dechirped pulses is 2.3 W, which corresponds to a peak power of more than 96 kW.