Diode-pumped passively mode-locked lasers with high average power

We discuss challenges arising from the quest for high average powers from passively mode-locked diode-pumped lasers. The recently obtained detailed understanding of Q-switching instabilities in passively mode-locked lasers turns out to be a crucial element on the way towards higher powers. We give an overview on results achieved with Nd:YAG (10.7 W, 16 ps and 27 W, 19 ps), Yb:YAG (8.1 W, 2.2 ps and 16 W, 0.7 ps) and Nd:glass (1.4 W, 275 fs).     

Prism reflectors for high power lasers

A new type of laser reflector is described in which the laser beam is split by frustrated total internal reflection and the components combined again. It has the properties of high reflectivity, high damage resistance, wide bandwidth and variable reflectivity. The design of two particular reflectors is discussed and their performance evaluated. One of these reflectors has the property of lateral inversion of the reflected beam, which is found to aid transverse mode selection in a ruby laser. As an application of the reflectors, a damage free, single transverse mode, mode-locked ruby laser is described.     

New parameter correlations for deep penetration welding with high energy focused beams

As a result of the unification of two models previously described by the author, a three-dimensional treatment of the workpiece temperature distribution, which takes into consideration the solid to liquid phase change of the processed material, is presented for deep penetration welding (d.p.w.) with high energy focused beans.The new model improves the accuracy of weld geometry prediction by better correlating the shape, width and depth of the cross-section of the resolidified weld with beam characteristics, material thermophysical properties, workpiece velocity and preheating temperature.     

Workpiece temperature distribution for deep penetration welding with high energy focused beams

A solution for the two-dimensional temperature field in a workpiece at welding by laser or electron beams, which takes into consideration the solid-to-liquid phase change of the material, is presented. This leads to more precise process parameter correlations.     

Construction and operation of high power gas lasers

In the present paper some typical gas laser construction and their performances will be described. Aspects of transition selective systems and high pressure operation will be treated.     

Spectroscopic comparison of aluminium welding plasmas produced by high power CO and CO2 lasers

Welding tests on the aluminium alloy AlMgSi1 (6082) by the use of a high power CO laser with good beam quality show higher penetration depths and better weld seam quality compared with the results obtained with a commercial industrial CO₂ laser. Spectroscopy of the laser-induced welding plasma shows a strong decrease of the intensities of Al(II) lines and no appearance of Al(III) lines in CO laser aluminium welding compared with CO₂ laser welding at the same process parameters. This is a consequence of the shorter 5 to 5.6 μm wavelength of the CO laser leading to reduced beam-plasma interaction.     

Study on the periodic oscillation of plasma/vapour induced during high power fibre laser penetration welding

High power fibre lasers have recently received much attention because of their inherent advantages such as high output power, high beam quality, compact size, and flexible fibre delivery. Studies on the mechanism behind fibre laser welding systems may further promote their practical application. In this paper, high speed video observations were used to study the characteristics of the plasma/vapour induced during the bead-on-plate welding of ZL114 using a high power CW fibre laser. We also analysed the cause of the periodic oscillation of the plasma/vapour. The results revealed that plasma/vapour induced from high power lasers oscillate periodically at 450–600 μs cycles above the weld pool surface. The use of a shielding gas has little effect on the oscillation cycle. The plasma/vapour absorption is not the main reason for the periodical oscillation of plasma/vapour induced during fibre laser welding. The periodic oscillation of the plasma/vapour can be attributed to the oscillation of the keyhole.     

The preheating temperature parameter for deep penetration welding with high energy focused beams

The effects of workpiece preheating at steady state deep penetration welding with high energy focused beams upon weld cross-section width and depth are investigated theoretically.Parameter correlations, with special attention focused on the preheating of the workpiece are presented as analytic expressions and visualized in a nomograph. Preheating leads to weld width and depth increase. The theoretical correlations are in qualitative agreement with experimental results reported in the literature.     

Realization of high performance LDA-systems using optical amplifiers, high power semiconductor lasers and optical fiber lasers

Advanced novel techniques for sophisticated LDA applications are presented in this paper. By applying laser sources with high output powers like MOPA-lasers (master oscillator power amplifier), fiber lasers and booster fiber amplifiers to increase the laser power in the measuring volume and by amplifying the scattered light power with optical fiber preamplifiers to increase the sensitivity of the receiving units, the signal-to-noise-ratio of laser Doppler signals is drastically improved and the overall performance of a laser Doppler anemometer is significantly enhanced.     

Chaotic and periodic emission of high power solid state lasers

Nonlinear, dynamical systems even with a few degrees of freedom may show chaotic or periodic behaviour, depending on the parameters of the system. Recently it was demonstrated, both experimentally and theoretically, that the temporal emission of a laser can become chaotic, if several longitudinal modes oscillate [Brunner and Paul (1983), and Abraham et al. (1982)]. The chaotic emission is caused by the nonlinear interaction of the modes and the longitudinal gain structure [Komtomtseva et al. (1982)]. In this paper it is pointed out that the transverse mode structure and the radial gain profile produced by the transversal modes, may give rise to temporal instabilities of the laser emission. If the relevant parameters of the laser oscillator — Fresnel number, resonator losses, pump rate — exceed certain critical values, the output intensity becomes unstable. The damped relaxation oscillation changes into undamped periodic oscillation or, with increasing values of the above parameters, into chaotic emission. The theory, using the nonlinear Kirchhoff-Fresnel integral equation and the rate equation approach, is confirmed by experimental results.     

Large aperture multi-pass amplifiers for high peak power lasers

We demonstrate theoretically and experimentally the optimal conditions whereby amplification using the Extraction During Pumping (EDP) technique can deliver up to four times more energy than a conventional amplifier. The existence of an optimal combination of incident pump fluence and pump area is shown. This allows kJ level energy extraction with existing technology.     

掺镱双包层高功率光纤激光器热效应的理论研究

针对高功率掺镱双包层光纤激光器（DCFL）的热效应,由热传导方程并借助速率方程模型导出温度分布的解析解,研究了泵浦方式和泵浦吸收系数对DCFL腔内温度的影响。结果表明：温度沿径向的变化与轴向相比可以忽略;采用传统端面泵浦会导致DCFL局部温度过高,实际中应使用两端对称泵浦方式;而减小泵浦吸收系数虽可改善温度特性但会降低系统的输出功率。进一步分析得出,综合采用分段泵浦方式和不均匀泵浦吸收系数可实现温度分布和输出功率的最佳匹配。     

掺镱双包层高功率光纤激光器热效应的理论研究

 针对高功率掺镱双包层光纤激光器（DCFL）的热效应,由热传导方程并借助速率方程模型导出温度分布的解析解,研究了泵浦方式和泵浦吸收系数对DCFL腔内温度的影响。结果表明：温度沿径向的变化与轴向相比可以忽略;采用传统端面泵浦会导致DCFL局部温度过高,实际中应使用两端对称泵浦方式;而减小泵浦吸收系数虽可改善温度特性但会降低系统的输出功率。进一步分析得出,综合采用分段泵浦方式和不均匀泵浦吸收系数可实现温度分布和输出功率的最佳匹配。     

Stable high optical power in quantum well lasers with profiled reflection and tapered structures

A comprehensive model is presented to study quantum well tapered lasers and quantum well stripe lasers with profiled reflectivity output facets and to obtain lateral stability in high power semiconductor laser. Simulation of semiconductor lasers is performed by numerically solving space-dependent coupled partial differential equations for the complex optical forward and backward waves, carrier density distribution and temperature distribution. The coupled equations are solved by finite difference beam propagation method. The effect of nonlinear parameters like Kerr and linewidth enhancement factors, and precise dependence of linewidth enhancement factor and gain factor on the carrier density and temperature are considered in this paper. We use modal reflector in stripe lasers to confine the lateral mode to the stripe centre and provide the stable operation. We also use unpumped window to reduce the facet temperature and improve the catastrophic optical mirror damage level of tapered lasers.     

Dissimilar autogenous full penetration welding of superalloy K418 and 42CrMo steel by a high power CW Nd:YAG laser

Experiments of autogenous laser full penetration welding between dissimilar cast Ni-based superalloy K418 and alloy steel 42CrMo flat plates with 3.5 mm thickness were conducted using a 3 kW continuous wave (CW) Nd:YAG laser. The influences of laser welding velocity, flow rate of side-blow shielding gas, defocusing distance were investigated. Microstructure of the welded seam was characterized by optical microscopy (OM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) and energy dispersive spectrometer (EDS). Mechanical properties of the welded seam were evaluated by microhardness and tensile strength testing. Results show that high quality full penetration laser-welded joint can be obtained by optimizing the welding velocity, flow rate of shielding gas and defocusing distance. The laser-welded seam have non-equilibrium solidified microstructures consisting of γ-FeCr_0.29Ni_0.16C_0.06 austenite solid solution dendrites as the dominant and very small amount of super-fine dispersed Ni₃Al γ′ phase and Laves particles as well as MC needle-like carbides distributed in the interdendritic regions. Although the microhardness of the laser-welded seam was lower than that of the base metal, the strength of the joint was equal to that of the base metal and the fracture mechanism showed fine ductility.     

12 W高功率高可靠性915 nm半导体激光器设计与制作

本文设计并制作了一种高效率、高可靠性的915 nm半导体激光器。半导体激光器是光纤激光器的关键部件,为了最大限度地提高器件的电光转换效率,在设计上采用双非对称大光腔波导结构,同时对量子阱结构、波导结构、掺杂以及器件结构进行了系统优化。器件模拟表明,在25℃环境温度下,器件的最高电光转换效率达到67%。采用金属有机气相沉积(MOCVD)法进行材料生长,随后制备了发光区域宽度为95μm、腔长为4.8 mm的激光芯片。测试表明,封装后器件的效率以及其它参数指标达到国际先进水平,在室温下阈值电流为1 A,斜率效率为1.18 W/A,最高电光转换效率达66.5%,输出功率12 W时,电光转换效率达到64.3%,测试结果与器件理论模拟高度吻合。经过约6 000 h的寿命加速测试,器件功率没有出现衰减,表明制作的高功率915 nm激光芯片具有很高的可靠性。     

高功率固体激光驱动器的优化设计

扼要介绍了高功率固体激光系统物理设计中的一些基本概念 ,并阐述了系统优化设计的主要方法。针对神光 原型装置的物理设计 ,提出了其能流分布设计优化的判据和设计的限制条件 ,给出了原型装置主放大级的初步优化设计结果。     

High power,high efficiency optically pumped NH3 lasers

A simple and efficient NH₃ laser was tuned over more than 70 vibrational band transitions between 10.08 and 14.14 m. The active medium was a dilute mixture of ammonia in argon and was optically pumped by the 9R(30) transition of a pulsed TEA-CO₂ laser. Output energies greater than 1 J per pulse were observed on several of the strongest lines. In a non-selective cavity an energy conversion efficiency of greater than 35% was obtained with a maximum output energy of 4.6J. Optically pumped NH₃ is shown to be a flexible and efficient system for the downconversion of CO₂ radiation.     

Beam quality considerations of high power Nd:YAG lasers

High power Nd:YAG lasers with fiber optic beam delivery have introduced new capabilities for material processing applications. Here, we present the stable resonator design for high power Nd:YAG lasers to optimize beam quality for fiber optic transmission. Dependence of beam parameters on position and dioptric power of thermal lens has been investigated and optimized to achieve efficient fiber optic beam delivery. With the optimum resonator configuration, an efficient fiber optic beam delivery over the entire operating range of input power has been achieved. The results of stable resonator design with good beam quality and output power have been presented.