基于Ti∶sapphire振荡源的光参量啁啾脉冲放大器

以钛宝石飞秒振荡源作为种子源,在二级放大器中,采用种子光被同一束抽运光在有效非线性系数最大的平面内放大两次的双通光参量放大结构,实现高增益光参量啁啾脉冲放大.实验得到了3×107的总增益,信号光输出能量为3 mJ,能量晃动小于3%rms,此时参量荧光仅占输出总能量的1%.实验结果表明,采用这种放大系统,提高了信号光与抽运光在时域上的匹配,有效地抑制了参量放大过程中参量荧光的产生,同时提高了系统的稳定性.     

Quantum correlations of pulses of optical parametric oscillator synchronously pumped above threshold

The quantum analysis of radiation from a degenerate optical parametric oscillator synchronously pumped above its oscillation threshold is presented. It is shown that pulses of signal and pump fields at the output of the oscillator have the following properties: quantum fluctuations of the fields are independent in each individual pulse, but correlated in pulses of the pulse train with a temporal step multiple of the pulse period. The number of essentially correlated pulses is on the order of the oscillator cavity finesse. Cross-correlations between the pump and signal pulses are established above the oscillation threshold. These correlations lead to a significant quantum effect in the integral characteristics of the fields. A theoretical analysis revealed that the spectrum of field fluctuations measured using a balanced homodyne detection technique of phase quadratures of the fields with a pulsed local oscillator reveals quantum noise suppression in the vicinity of frequencies that are multiples of the pulse repetition rate.     

双级受激布里渊散射相位共轭镜压缩YAG振荡器调Q脉宽

采用双级布里渊散射相位共轭镜，能提高相位共轭保真度稳定性，将散射光反馈进入ＹＡＧ振荡器腔内，由偏振棱镜耦合输出的散射激光，具有短脉冲，可调谐，优质光的特点，报道了脉冲压缩机机理及影响压缩脉冲宽度的因素，获得了２．５ｎｓ，９ｍＪ的散射激光输出。     

Low-repetition-rate,all-polarization-maintaining Yb-doped fiber laser mode-locked by a semiconductor saturable absorber

A low-repetition-rate, all-polarization-maintaining(PM)-fiber sub-nanosecond oscillator is presented, which is simple and low-cost, composed of standard components. The ring cavity is elongated by 114-m-long standard PM fiber, and passively mode-locked by a fiber pigtailed semiconductor saturable absorber. Linearly polarized pulses with 1.66 MHz repetition rate and 22 dB polarization extinction ratio are generated at a wavelength of 1030 nm, which is determined by an intracavity filter. In addition, to demonstrate that the oscillator is a good seed for high energy pulse generation, an all-fiber master oscillator power amplifier is built and amplified pulses with energy about 2 μJ are obtained.     

Spectral characteristics of PM-597 and DCM mixture in a commercial laser

We reported the performance of binary mixture—dyes PM-597 and DCM, in a 10-Hz, Nd:YAG-pumped dye-laser system. The mixture-dyes demonstrated broader and more efficient tuning curves compared with those of Rhodamine 590 and DCM. The mixture dyes provide peak conversion efficiencies of 36% at 618 nm. Also by adding SHG, the mixture dyes provide high and stable laser intensity near 308 nm, which used for degenerate four wave mixing (DFWM) studies of OH in combustion diagnostics. This enhanced efficiency should improve the signal-to-noise ratio in multi-spices DFWM measurements with the continuous tuning dye laser.     

Timing jitter in a kilohertz regenerative amplifier of a femtosecond-pulse Ti:Al(2)O(3) laser

We measure the timing error of femtosecond pulses amplified by a Ti:sapphire regenerative amplifier at a 1-kHz repetition rate by use of a modified cross-correlation technique. Linearly frequency-chirped amplified pulses are frequency mixed with transform-limited oscillator pulses. A shift in the sum frequency corresponds to the timing error of each amplified pulse relative to the oscillator pulses. The timing error was measured every 6 ms with approximately 1-fs resolution over a measurable range of 400 fs.     

Observation of twin-beam-type quantum correlation in optical fiber

We report generation of pulsed twin beams of light through optical parametric amplification in a fiber Sagnac loop. By pumping the Sagnac loop with picosecond pulses at a wavelength near the zero-dispersion wavelength of the fiber, we achieve phase-matched nondegenerate four-wave mixing with gain. For a gain of 2.2, the intensity noises of the amplified signal and the generated idler (conjugate) pulses are found to be correlated by 5.0 dB, and the subtracted noise drops below the shot-noise limit by 1.1 dB (2.6 dB when corrected for losses). We have investigated the gain dependence of the quantum-noise reduction as well as of the intensity noises of the amplified signal and idler pulses. As the gain increases, we observe the onset of excess noise on the idler pulses.     

Mid-infrared pulses generated from the mixing output of an amplified, dual-wavelength Ti:sapphire system

We demonstrate the generation of femtosecond mid-infrared pulses by direct difference-frequency mixing in a AgGaS(2) crystal of two intense pulses from a dual-wavelength oscillator that have been simultaneously amplified in a single regenerative amplifier. A pulse energy of as much as 1.6 muJ was achieved at wavelengths of 9-11 mum.     

Degenerate four-wave mixing experiments in Methyl green dye-doped gelatin film

Degenerate four-wave mixing (DFWM) was performed in Methyl green dye-doped gelatin films using continuous-wave laser radiation () generated by a He-Ne laser of total power 35 mW. Various parameters which influence the phase-conjugate (PC) signal during the DFWM process were studied. The PC signal contributions from induced holographic transmission and reflection gratings were measured. We observed a maximum PC beam reflectivity of 0.13% in these dye-doped gelatin films.     

Saturable absorption in poly(indenofluorene): a picket-fence polymer

Poly(indenofluorene) shows a strong degenerate four-wave mixing (DFWM) response when it is excited with 100-fs pulses at 800 nm. The DFWM signal scales with the 1.5 power of the input intensity, which we interpret as being due to absorption saturation phenomena. The saturation was studied by open-aperture Z scan in dilute solutions of poly(indenofluorene) in chloroform. The changes in the absorption coefficient alpha are described by the formula alpha = alpha(0)/[1 + (I/I(sat))(1/2)], where I(sat) is the saturation intensity, which is found to be of the order of 100>MW/cm(2).     

Generation of synchronized signal and pump pulses for an optical parametric chirped pulse amplification based multi-terawatt Nd:glass laser system

Synchronized signal (650 ps) and pump (1.3 ns) pulses were generated using 4-pass geometry in a grating pair based pulse stretcher unit. The pump pulse has been further amplified in a high gain regenerative amplifier. This amplified pulse was used as the pump in an optical parametric chirped pulse amplification based Nd:glass laser system. As the chirped signal pulse and the pump pulse originated from the same oscillator, the time jitter between the pump pulse and the signal pulse can be <50 ps.     

Ultrafast time-resolved coherent degenerate four-wave-mixing spectroscopy for investigating molecular dynamics in different states

In this paper, ultrafast time-resolved coherent degenerate four-wave-mixing (DFWM) spectroscopy is performed to investigate molecular dynamics in the gaseous phase. Laser pulses lasting for 40 fs are used to create and monitor different vibrational eigenstates of iodine at room temperature (corresponding to a low saturation pressure of about 35 Pa). Using an internal time delay in the DFWM process resonant with the transition between the ground X-state and the excited B-state, the vibrational states of both the electronically excited and the ground states are detected as oscillations in the DFWM transient signal. The dynamics of either the electronically excited or ground state of iodine molecules obtained are consistent with the previous high temperature studies on the femtosecond time-resolved DWFM spectroscopy.     

Megahertz optical parametric amplifier pumped by a femtosecond oscillator

We demonstrate, for the first time to our knowledge, an optical parametric amplifier directly pumped by a femtosecond oscillator. Wavelength-tunable pulses in the ranges 0.65-0.85 microm (signal) and 1.4-2.5 microm (idler) are generated at a repetition frequency of 1 MHz. For pumping the beta-barium borate crystal we use a microjoule Yb:KY(WO4)2 femtosecond oscillator with cavity dumping. Pulses with 30 nJ of energy and a duration of 16 fs are achieved from a supercontinuum seed generated in a sapphire plate.     

Chirped pulse amplification in single mode Tm:fiber using a chirped Bragg grating

We report femtosecond pulse generation and chirped pulse amplification in Tm:fiber. A mode-locked oscillator operating in the soliton regime produced 800 fs pulses with 5 nm spectral bandwidth, at 40 pJ pulse energy. This oscillator seeded a pre-amplifier that utilizes a Raman soliton self-frequency shift to produce wavelength tunable pulses with 3 nJ energy, reduced pulse duration of 150 fs, and increased bandwidth of 30 nm. For further amplification, the pulses were stretched up to 160 ps using a chirped Bragg grating (CBG). Stretched pulses were amplified to 85 nJ after compression in single-mode Tm:fiber and recompressed with the CBG as short as 400 fs. Compressed pulses were coupled into a highly nonlinear tellurite fiber to investigate the potential of this ultrashort pulse 2-μm fiber source as a pump for mid-IR supercontinuum generation.     

Highly sensitive single-beam heterodyne coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering

Single-beam coherent anti-Stokes Raman-scattering (CARS) microspectroscopy achieves a complete CARS scheme with a femtosecond laser. Here, we introduce heterodyne detection in a simple experimental extension: the optical fields driving the CARS process and the local oscillator used for heterodyning are derived from a single beam of ultrashort laser pulses by pulse shaping. The heterodyne signal is amplified by more than 3 orders of magnitude and is linearly dependent on the concentration of Raman scatterers. This dramatically increases the sensitivity of chemically selective detection at microscopic resolution while maintaining the simplicity of the single-beam setup.     

The effect of an external mirror on the characteristics of an N2 laser-pumped distributed feedback dye laser

The effect of an external mirror on the DFB dye-laser parameters was investigated experimentally. When a 100% mirror was used, the output energy quadrupled, the divergence decreased to the diffraction limit. Besides the study of the improvement of laser parameters, the temporal behaviour of the amplified spontaneous emission and the DFB dye-laser action were simultaneously investigated.     

Single pulse extraction from a mode-locked pulse train using a dye-laser amplifier

A new method to generate high power, short light pulses with a moderate iteration frequency is described. The pulse train of the actively mode-locked Kr laser was sent into a dye-laser amplifier pumped by a N₂ laser. The trigger of the N₂ laser was generated by dividing the modulation frequency of the mode-locking into moderately low frequency (≈ 50 Hz). Only one pulse in the input train was largely amplified by one N₂ laser pulse and the intense short pulses were generated with ≈ 50 Hz iteration.     

High-efficiency parametric oscillation and spectral control in the red spectral region with periodically poled KTiOPO(4)

Narrow-linewidth optical pulses at wavelengths near 630 nm with 2.2-mJ energy were generated with 61% efficiency in a periodically poled KTiOPO(4) parametric oscillator pumped by a frequency-doubled Q -switched Nd:YAG laser. The tuning range was extended to 30 nm by a noncollinear elliptical pumping geometry. We demonstrate that by angular dispersion a noncollinear optical parametric oscillator can be used to control the spectral and spatial characteristics of the output signal beam.     

Experimental investigation of the effect of collisions and temperature on degenerate four-wave mixing

An experimental investigation (including a comparison with a simple theoretical model) of the effect of buffer-gas composition, pressure and temperature on resonant Degenerate Four-Wave Mixing (DFWM) has been performed. The DFWM signal from NO in a quartz cell was measured and the effect of quenching as well as elastic (phase-changing) collisions was studied by varying the total and partial pressures of N₂ and CO₂ as buffer gases. It was found that the DFWM signal first slowly increased with buffer-gas pressure (up to 10 mbar) and then rapidly decreased. It was furthermore found that the DFWM signal was considerably less sensitive to quenching collisions as compared to Laser-Induced Fluorescence (LIF) (for laser intensities approximately equal to half the DFWM saturation intensity of the transition). On the other hand, while LIF is virtually insensitive to elastic collisions, DFWM displays a larger sensitivity to elastic collisions than to quenching collisions. The DFWM saturation intensity was found to increase with buffer-gas pressure (although slower than expected). When varying the temperature of the gas composition, it was found that the DFWM signal decreased markedly with increasing temperature. This decrease is too fast to be explained solely by a change in the population of the molecular state probed by the laser.     

光子晶体光纤飞秒激光非线性放大系统的耦合动力学过程研究

构建了掺镱大模场面积单偏振光子晶体光纤飞秒激光非线性放大系统. 讨论了腔内净色散量和抽运功率对振荡级输出参数的影响和振荡级参数对放大级输出参数的影响. 在本实验条件下, 当腔内净色散量取较大负色散时, 振荡级直接输出的脉冲更宽, 且携带更少的啁啾. 当振荡级抽运4.53 W时, 选择最接近变换极限的脉冲作为种子脉冲, 放大级在60 W抽运时输出压缩后无基底的短脉冲, 宽度为45.7 fs, 平均功率28 W. 振荡级抽运功率增加到5.08 W, 放大级抽运70 W时, 获得最高输出功率34.5 W, 对应脉宽53.5 fs.