High peak power 16 μm InP-related quantum cascade laser

In this paper ～16 μm-emitting multimode InP-related quantum cascade lasers are presented with the maximum operating temperature 373 K, peak and average optical power equal to 720 mW and 4.8 mW at 303 K, respectively, and the characteristic temperature (T₀) 272 K. Two types of the lasers were fabricated and characterized: the lasers with a SiO₂ layer left untouched in the area of the metal-free window on top of the ridge, and the lasers with the SiO₂ layer removed from the metal-free window area. Dual-wavelength operation was obtained, at λ ～ 15.6 μm (641 cm^?1) and at λ ～ 16.6 μm (602 cm^?1) for lasers with SiO₂ removed, while within the emission spectrum of the lasers with SiO₂ left untouched only the former lasing peak was present. The parameters of these devices like threshold current, optical power and emission wavelength are compared. Lasers without the SiO₂ layer showed ～15% lower threshold current than these ones with the SiO₂ layer. The optical powers for lasers without SiO₂ layer were almost twice higher than for the lasers with the SiO₂ layer on the top of the ridge.     

Practical application of pulsed “eye-safe” microchip laser to laser rangefinders

The paper describes practical application of pulsed microchip laser generating at 1535-nm wavelength to a laser rangefinder. The complete prototype of a laser rangefinder was built and investigated in real environmental conditions. The measured performance of the device is discussed. To build the prototype of a laser rangefinder at a reasonable price and shape a number of basic considerations had to be done. These include the mechanical and optical design of a microchip laser and the opto-mechanical construction of the rangefinder.     

High power and narrow lateral far-field divergence 1.5-μm eye-safe pulsed laser diodes with flared waveguide

Pulsed laser diodes with flared waveguides operating int he 1.5-m eye-safe wavelength band are fabricated for the first time. High-power (9.6-W) operation with narrow lateral far-field divergence (4°) has been obtained. These devices will be applicable for free-space optical measurement systems as eye-safe light sources.     

Fused fiber components for “eye-safe” spectral region around 2 \upmu m

Thulium-doped fiber lasers operating at wavelengths around 2  $\upmu $ m are rapidly developing a new class of coherent light sources with a high slope efficiency reaching 70 %. The 2- $\upmu $ m radiation sources have many advantages over the 1- $\upmu $ m sources, e.g., better eye-safety, relaxed non-linear limits and often more efficient material processing. Particularly important application of 2- $\upmu $ m fiber lasers is in a highly-efficient generation of wideband mid-infrared radiation through third order nonlinear effects in soft-glass fibers. In this paper we report on the development of passive components intended for fiber laser operation around 2  $\upmu $ m, namely fiber couplers and wavelength division multiplexers for combination of 1.6- and 2- $\upmu $ m radiation. Three commercially available fibers were used for the preparation of these components. The measured characteristics of the components are compared and the limitations are discussed, particularly the two-mode operation and high bend loss. Specific fiber designs are proposed in order to optimize the performance of the wavelength division multiplexer.     

Fast and stable enhancement of the far-field peak power by use of an intracavity deformable mirror

We demonstrate that an intracavity deformable mirror (DM) is capable of compensating for the aberrations of a continuous-wave (CW) Nd:YAG solid-state laser and improving its far-field peak power fast and stably. The deformable mirror is controlled by a stochastic parallel gradient descend (SPGD) algorithm. Experimental results reveal that high-order-like transverse modes can be transformed into Gaussian-like modes quickly without any pinhole added in the laser cavity. At the same time, the far-field peak powers are also increased to different extents.     

18-μJ energy, 160-kHz repetition rate, 250-MW peak power mid-IR OPCPA

Progresses on the development of a high repetition rate mid-IR laser source suitable for the next generation of high-field physics experiments are reported. The presented optical parametric chirped pulse amplification (OPCPA) source currently delivers carrier-envelope phase (CEP)-stable 67-fs duration optical pulses with up to 18-μJ output energy at 160-kHz repetition rate. The focusability of the output beam (M2 ～2) enables peak intensities exceeding 10 14 W/cm2 and the record output energy stability-below 1% power fluctuation over 4.5 h makes this source a key enabler for the strong field physics community.     

High peak power 1.0 μm and tri-wavelength 1.3 μm Nd:ScYSiO_5 crystal lasers

With a Nd:ScYSiO_5 crystal, a high peak power electro-optically Q-switched 1.0 μm laser and tri-wavelength laser operations at the 1.3 μm band are both investigated. With a rubidium titanyle phosphate(RTP) electro-optical switcher and a polarization beam splitter, a high signal-to-noise ratio 1.0 μm laser is obtained, generating a shortest pulse width of 30 ns, a highest pulse energy of 0.765 mJ, and a maximum peak power of 25.5 kW,respectively. The laser mode at the highest laser energy level is the TEM200 mode with the Mvalue in the X and Y directions to be M_x~2= 1.52 and M_y~2= 1.54. A tri-wavelength Nd:ScYSiO_5 crystal laser at 1.3 μm is also investigated. A maximum tri-wavelength output power is 1.03 W under the absorbed pump power of7 W, corresponding to a slope efficiency of 14.8%. The properties of the output wavelength are fully studied under different absorbed pump power.     

InGaAs diode laser system generating pulses of 580 fs duration and 366 W peak power

This paper reports the generation of fs light pulses by a passively mode-locked InGaAs master oscillator power amplifier (MOPA) system. The laser system generates chirped pulses with 6.2 ps duration, a center wavelength of 922 nm and 4 GHz repetition rate. Pulse compression by an external grating compressor reduces the pulse duration to 580 fs. The average power of the compressed pulses of 851 mW corresponds to a peak power of 366 W.     

Highly efficient,kW peak power, 1.55 µm all-fiber MOPA system with a diffraction-limited laser output beam

We report a high-efficiency, single-mode, all-fiber pulsed laser system built in a master oscillator power amplifier format, operating in the eye-safe (λ ~1,549 nm) spectral range, providing over 1.5 W of average output power with up to 51 dB of total signal gain. It comprises the flexibility of smooth pulse duration control from single ns to 260 ns with independently tunable repetition rate ranging from 40 kHz to 1 MHz. Pulses as short as 4 ns with up to 20 μJ energy and corresponding peak power of 5 kW are demonstrated. The laser system delivered a nearly diffraction-limited beam with M ² ~1.     

Megawatt peak power, 1 kHz, 266 nm sub nanosecond laser source based on single-crystal fiber amplifier

We report the realization of a UV source based on the fourth harmonic generation with LBO/BBO of a Nd:YAG passively Q-switched oscillator amplified in a single-crystal fiber. With careful optimization of the nonlinear components and parameters, we obtain 530 mW average power at 266 nm with pulses of 540 ps at the repetition rate of 1 kHz, which represents a 22.7 % total conversion efficiency from IR to UV and nearly 1 MW peak power. The beam quality M ² is measured to be below 2.     

High peak power laser-diode-pumped passively Q=switched Nd:YVO_4/Cr~(4+):YAG laser

In this paper, we report a high peak power passively Q-switched laser-diode-end-pumped Nd:YVO_4/Cr~(4+):YAG laser polarized along the C axis, generating 4.23-W average power and 18-kW peak power (144-μJ pulse power) with 8.0-ns time duration (29.4-kHz repetition rate) at 1064 nm while the pump power is 21.2 W.     

Using the “Sura” facility antenna for increasing the effective ionosonde power

We developed and tested a new method for increasing the effective ionosonde power by 20–40 dB, which uses the transceiving antenna of the “Sura” facility. Three sections of this antenna were employed as the receiving antenna of the ionosonde in the test experiments of July 2007. Fine features indiscernible in normal ionosonde mode are distinctly seen in the ionograms. Different variants of connection of the “Sura” antenna sections to the receiver and transmitter of the ionosonde are considered and the possibility of simultaneous operation of the “Sura” high-power transmitter and the ionosonde is analyzed. Translated from Izvestiya Vysshikh Uchebnykh Zavedenii, Radiofizika, Vol. 51, No. 10, pp. 830–836, October 2008.     

Quantum simulation for peak broadening in atom lithography

A grating structure with period of half of the laser wavelength generated by focusing Cr atoms with nearly resonant laser standing wave atom lens was simulated using a quantum-mechanical model.The influence of thermal atomic source on atom focusing,including the statistical distribution of the longitudinal veloc- ity and the beam divergence,was discussed.The background and full-width at half-maximum (FWHM) of atomic density peaks with v_z in Maxwell distribution and v_(x0) in Gaussian distribution increase sig- nificantly compared with ideal atoms.Collimating atoms with laser cooling is necessary to decrease the peak broadening.     

High-speed optical digital transmitter/receiver module operating at 1.3 μm wavelength

Taking benefit of optical fibers' wide bandwidth and low attenuation, research and development were conducted in order to apply fiber optics to public telecommunications' networks mainly for long-distance and large-capacity transmissions. However, application of fiber has rapidly spread toward cornrnunication networks having relatively short transmission distances (within several kilometers) such as local area networks (LAN) and computer networks. Thus, requirements for the fiber optic transmitters and receivers used as electro-optic transducers, such as small-size, low-price, high-reliability and low-supply voltage operations, become stricter than those of the public telecommunication network.     

Does power ultrasound affect hydrocarbon Ionomers?

The effect of low-frequency high-power ultrasound on hydrocarbon-based ionomers, cation exchange sulfonated phenylated polyphenylene (sPPB-H⁺) and anion exchange hexamethyl-p-terphenyl poly(benzimidazolium) (HMT-PMBI), was studied. Ionomer solutions were subjected to ultrasonication at fixed ultrasonic frequencies (f = 26 and 42 kHz) and acoustic power (P_acous = 2.1 – 10.6 W) in a laboratory-grade ultrasonication bath, and a probe ultrasonicator; both commonly employed in catalyst ink preparation in research laboratory scale. Power ultrasound reduced the polymer solution viscosity of both hydrocarbon-based ionomers. The molecular weight of sPPB-H⁺ decreased with irradiation time. Changes in viscosity and molecular weight were exacerbated when ultrasonicated in an ice bath; but reduced when the solutions contained carbon black, as typically used in Pt/C-based catalyst inks. Spectroscopic analyses revealed no measurable changes in polymer structure upon ultrasonication, except for very high doses, where evidence for free-radical induced degradation was observed. Ionomers subjected to ultrasound were used to prepare catalyst layers and membrane electrode assemblies (MEA)s. Despite the changes in the ionomer described above, no significant differences in electrochemical performance were found between MEAs prepared with ionomers pre-subjected to ultrasound and those that were not, suggesting that fuel cell performance is tolerant to ionomers subjected to ultrasound.     

A cost-effective 100-Gb/s transmitter with low-speed optoelectronic devices and high spectral efficiency

A 100-Gb/s high-speed optical transmitter is proposed and experimentally demonstrated.Based on frequency-quadrupling technique,two sub-channels with a fixed 50-GHz spacing are obtained from one laser source.Using return-to-zero differential quadrature phase-shift keying (RZ-DQPSK) modulation format and polarization multiplexing (PolMux),only low-speed electronic devices of 12.5 GHz are needed for the 100-Gb/s transmitter.This eliminates the need of ultrahigh-speed optoelectronic devices and thus greatly reduces the cost.The experimental results show that this transmitter can achieve good perfor- mance in dispersion tolerance of a 25-km single mode fiber (SMF).     

Optical power equalization using Fabry-Perot semiconductor optical amplifier

A novel scheme of optical power equalization based on Fabry-Perot semiconductor optical amplifier (FP-SOA) is proposed. Because of the gain characteristic of FP-SOA, real-time controlling mechanism according to input optical power is aborted in the scheme. The simulations show that 10-dB pulse peak power variation can be clamped in less than 1 dB. The influences of injecting current, pulse periods, and pulse width are discussed.     

Lüke and power residue sequence diffusers

Conventional Schroeder diffusers have been successfully used for many years. However, their frequency range is limited by the flat plate effect that occurs when all the wells radiate in phase. This occurs at harmonics of p times the design frequency f(0), where p is the small prime that is used to generate the structure. A typical diffuser, using p=7 and f(0)=500 Hz, has an upper frequency limit of only 3.5 kHz. Achieving a first flat plate frequency above 20 kHz requires a prime equal to at least 41 and results in diffusers that are too big to be practical in most applications. This paper suggests an alternative approach using number theoretic sequences that, although short in length, are based on large integers. Two new sequences, Type-II Luke and power residue, have this desired characteristic. They are investigated using both simple models and the more exact boundary element method. The results show the flat plate effect is moved to much higher frequencies as expected. For Luke sequences at certain frequencies, redirection rather than dispersion is achieved. Modulation techniques can be used to mitigate these problems. Power residue sequences perform the best, providing good diffusion and a flat plate frequency outside the audible range.     

Beam divergence effects on high power optical parametric oscillation

The beam divergence effects of the input pump laser on a high power nanosecond optical parametric oscillator （OPO） have been numerically simulated. The OPO conversion efficiency is affected due to the angular deviation of real laser beams from ideal phase matching conditions. Our theoretical model is based on the decomposition of the Gaussian beam and assumes each component has a single deviation angle and thus a particular wave vector mismatch. We take into account the variable intensity profile in the spatial and temporal domains of the Gaussian beam, the pump depletion effects for large-signal processes as well as the oscillatory effects of the three waves. Two nonlinear crystals β-BaB2O4 （BBO） and LiB305 （LBO） have been investigated in detail. The results indicate that the degree of beam divergence strongly influences the maximum pump intensity, optimum crystal length and OPO conversion efficiency. The impact of beam divergence is much more severe in the case of critical phase-matching for BBO than in the case of non-critical phase-matching for LBO. The results provide a way to choose the optimum parameters for a high power ns OPO such as the nonlinear material, the crystal length and the pump intensity, etc. Good agreement is obtained with our experimental results.