Short-pulse high-intensity excimer lasers — A powerful tool for the generation of coherent VUV and XUV radiation

Different approaches for the generation of coherent VUV and XUV radiation with a 400 fs KrF excimer-laser system are studied. In nonlinear optical experiments it is shown that four-wave difference-frequency mixing in Xe, using a near two-photon resonance with the KrF laser radiation, is well suited for the generation of tunable VUV radiation in the range 130–200 nm. Conversion efficiencies of 2% and output energies up to 260 J have been demonstrated. Further prospects to achieve J energies are discussed. Using this VUV source and the KrF laser, powerful XUV radiation can be generated by different low-order frequency mixing processes. In first experiments on this subject, direct frequency tripling of the KrF laser pulse has resulted in 14 J XUV radiation at 83 nm.For the realization of soft-X-ray lasers, specific advantages of short-pulse KrF drivers are discussed. Novel scenarios based on a hybrid KrF/Ti: sapphire laser system and multiphoton resonant excitation are considered.Prof. F. P. Schäfer on the occasion of his 65th birthday.     

Tunable sub-100 femtosecond dye-laser pulses generated with a nanosecond pulsed pumping

Subpicosecond pulses at a fixed wavelength produced with a low-Q cavity dye laser pumped by a single, nanosecond laser (Q-switched Nd:YAG) are converted into tunable high-power sub-100 femtosecond pulses by generation, spectral selection, amplification and compression of a supercontinuum. The tunable, chirped, high-energy pulses obtained are compressed with a prism pair. Energies up to 50 J in sub-100 fs pulses were obtained in the 540 to 650 nm range using 40 mJ of the Nd: YAG-laser pumping pulses at 532 nm. The whole sub-100 fs system including the low-Q dye laser uses only one Nd:YAG laser as a pump source.     

Tunable picosecond infrared pulses generated by stimulated electronic Raman scattering of a mode-locked Ti:Sapphire laser in potassium vapor

A down-conversion to the mid-infrared region by using Stimulated Electronic Raman Scattering (SERS) in potassium vapor is described. The pump radiation is a frequency-doubled regeneratively amplified Ti:Sapphire laser with a pulse duration of 2 ps, pulse energy of 0.2 mJ, and repetition rate of 10 Hz. With the pumping frequency tuned around the potassium 4s-5p transition, nearly transform-limited infrared radiation tunable between 2.2 and 3.4 m has been generated with a peak infrared energy of 12 µJ, corresponding to a quantum efficiency of 17%, and with a pulse duration of 2 ps. The present tuning range could be extended by extending the tuning range of the pump laser. In comparison, intense infrared radiation of 90 µJ energy but with a very narrow tunability around 2.9 m has also been generated by SERS in barium vapor.     

Tunable,sub-nanosecond KrF-Raman laser in the ultraviolet

A 0.5 cm^–1 bandwidth injection-locked KrF laser pumps a rare-gas Brillouin cell to produce a reflected pulse with a leading edge risetime of 1 ns, tunable from 248.1 to 248.7 nm. Consistent with Lamb theory of laser amplifiers, subsequent excimer amplification of this pulse produces an intense 500 ps spike on the pulse leading edge. Stimulated Raman scattering then separates the spike from the parent pulse, yielding a tunable short pulse at the first Stokes (S ₁) wavelength. Varying the Raman cell length results in a variable Raman threshold and an adjustable short pulse duration: 250 ps pulses at energies of 3–4 mJ at 268 nm with a 50 cm methane cell and 350 ps, 5 mJ pulses from a 100 cm cell are measured with a streak camera. First pass Raman conversion of the spike toS ₁ followed by second pass backward Raman amplification, where the parent 248 nm pulse serves as the pump beam for the reflectedS ₁ pulse, yields simultaneousS ₁ pulses of 20–25 mJ in the 800 ps range andS ₂ pulses of 550 ps at 5–6 mJ near 290 nm. This laser will avoid collision effects during laser excitation and enable quantitative, single pulse imaging of OH radicals in turbulent combustion because of its high pulse energy.     

Collinear and non-collinear sum-frequency mixing inβ-BBO for a tunable 195–198 nm all-solid-state laser system

We attained tunable UV laser radiation between 195 and 198 nm by sum-frequency mixing two synchronized flashlamp-pumped solid-state Q-switch lasers, a Nd:YAG laser frequency quadrupled to 266 nm and a tunable (730–770 nm) alexandrite laser. UV pulse energies of 0.12 mJ with repetition rates of 10 Hz were attained in collinear, as well as non-collinear sum-frequency interaction in a-Barium Borate (BBO) crystal with a conversion efficiency of 2.5%. Theoretical models for the non-collinear phase-matching interaction were investigated at UV wavelengths below 200 nm.     

Generation of 100 μJ pulses at 82.8 nm by frequency tripling of sub-picosecond KrF laser radiation

. Investigations of the efficient generation of powerful coherent radiation at 82.8 nm by frequency tripling of short-pulse KrF laser radiation are presented. Argon gas is selected as nonlinear medium due to the resonantly enhanced 3rd-order susceptibility χ⁽³⁾(-3ω,ω,ω,ω). Pulse energies of 100 μJ at 82.8 nm have been measured for a pump pulse energy of 14 mJ. An upscaling to more than 500 μJ is expected with available more powerful pump lasers. Features of this XUV source and possible applications are discussed. Received: 26 July 2002 / Published online: 15 November 2002 RID="*" ID="*"Corresponding author. Fax: +49-511/7622211, E-mail: reinhardt@iqo.uni-hannover.de     

Efficient generation of tunable VUV laser radiation below 205 nm by SFM in BBO

Design and performance characteristics of a tunable dye laser system for sum frequency mixing (SFM) in a BBO crystal are presented. The system is composed of two tunable pulsed dye lasers pumped synchronously by the second harmonic of a commercial Nd:YAG laser. The radiation produced by the first dye laser is frequency doubled by second-harmonic generation (SHG) in KDP and subsequently mixed by SFM in BBO with the light of the second dye laser. The interest was focussed on generation of tunable laser radiation below 205 nm with high output power and long-time wavelength stability. High conversion efficiencies enable output energies of 100 J (20 kW) at 196 nm using only moderate Nd:YAG pump energies of 67 mJ. Altogether, a laser system with very good specifications for analytical application in the near VUV spectral region is reported.     

High-harmonic generation and plasma radiation from water microdroplets

This work studied the emission of XUV radiation from water microdroplets under excitation with either a single or a pair of intense femtosecond laser pulses (Ti:Sa, 80 fs, 10¹⁴ W/cm² , 800 nm, 1 kHz). When varying the delay between the two pulses a transition from pure incoherent plasma emission to coherent high-harmonic generation was observed. Under optimized conditions high-harmonic radiation up to the 27th order was obtained. PACS 33.80.-b; 39.10.+j; 42.65.ky; 52.50.Jm     

Soliton Raman fibre-ring oscillators

Results are presented on the operation and optimization of soliton Raman fibre-ring lasers using a c.w. mode-locked Nd-YAG laser at 1.32m as the source of 100 ps pump pulses. Various lengths of standard single-mode silica fibre were used, and tunable pulses as short as 100 fs generated.On leave from Departamento de Fisica, Universidade Federal de Alagoas, Maceio, 57000-AL, Brazil     

Electron Transfer in the Reaction Center of the Photosynthetic Bacterium Rb. sphaeroides R-26 Measured by Transient Absorption in the Blue Spectral Range

Electron transfer in the reaction center of the purple photosynthetic bacterium Rb. sphaeroides R-26 has been studied at room temperature by transient absorption spectroscopy with a time resolution of 120 fs. Measurements of absorption changes were performed in the range from 400 nm up to 680 nm, after excitation with a laser pulse of 80 fs duration within the absorption band of the bacteriochlorophyll at 800 nm. The excited state of the primary donor, characterized by the absorbance changes extending over the whole spectral range investigated, appeared within 120 fs and gave rise to the bleaching of the Q_x absorption band of bacteriochlorophyll at 600 nm, increased further by electron transfer to bacteriopheophytin in 3 ps. Photoreduction of the bacteriopheophytin acceptor detected at 546 nm and 670 nm proceeded with the same time constant. Multiphase absorbance changes were relatively the largest in the blue spectral range between 415 nm and 450 nm. Apart from the immediate absorbance increase due to excitation of the primary donor, another fast increasing phase was detected characterized by a wavelength dependent time constant—from 5.5 ps at 415 nm to 1.9 ps at 450 nm. Both the photooxidised primary donor and photoreduced bacteriopheophytin contributed to the amplitude of this phase. The electron transfer from the reduced bacteriopheophytin to a quinone acceptor was observed as a decrease in the intensity of the transient absorption bands at about 422 nm and at 670 nm, with disappearance of the bleaching at 546 nm and increase of the bleaching at 600 nm, all in 200 ps.     

Narrow-band seeding of an optical parametric amplifier in the femtosecond regime

Nearly transform limited femtosecond pulses tunable between 2.56 and 3.16 m have been generated by optical parametric amplification. The single stage parametric amplifier is pumped by a tunable high power femtosecond Ti:sapphire laser system at 1 kHz repetition rate and seeded by quasi-continuous wave (cw) radiation from the Q-switched Nd:YLF laser used to pump the regenerative amplifier. The 100 fs idler pulses are shorter than the pump pulses. The mechanism of the achieved pulse compression is discussed and experimental results are compared with numerical simulations.     

Generation of femtosecond vacuum-ultraviolet pulses

High power femtosecond pulses in the Vacuum Ultra Violet (VUV) have been generated through the nonlinear interaction of femtosecond KrF pulses with xenon and argon gas. Under near resonant two photon excitation of xenon by a femtosecond KrF laser, parametric four wave mixing processes lead to VUV pulses at 147 and 108 nm with pulse energies in the 10 µJ range. Tuning is demonstrated by mixing the KrF pulse with a 500 fs dye laser pulse at 497 nm, resulting in 165 nm emission. In argon, a three photon resonance leads to third harmonic generation at 83 nm and micro joule level pulses near 127 nm generated by a six wave mixing process. Since the spectra of the VUV pulses show an ionization-induced blue shift with increasing KrF laser intensity, the VUV pulses can be shown to have temporal duration less than the pulse width (450 fs) of the KrF laser. Blue shifting of the third harmonic of the KrF laser in argon is dominated by a reduction in the neutral gas density rather than by an increase in the electron density.     

A powerful diode-pumped laser source for micro-machining with ps pulses in the infrared, the visible and the ultraviolet

We report a ps diode-pumped Nd:YVO₄ laser system for micro-machining applications. The system consists of a passively mode-locked oscillator followed by a regenerative amplifier. It provides laser pulses at 1064 nm with a pulse duration of 10.2 ps, a repetition rate of 20 kHz and an average output power of 10.8 W. This average power corresponds to a pulse energy of 0.54 mJ. Second-harmonic generation in LBO and fourth-harmonic generation in BBO provide visible (532-nm) and ultraviolet (266-nm) radiation with pulse energies of 270 J and 75 J, respectively. Amplification in a diode-pumped single-pass Nd:YVO₄ amplifier increases the pulse energy of the fundamental 1064-nm laser pulses to 1 mJ. PACS 42.55.Xi; 42.60.Da; 42.65.Ky; 42.65.Re     

Output and picosecond amplification characteristics of an efficient and high-power discharge excimer laser

Improvements in output pulse energy and efficiency of a conventional capacitor-transfer-type discharge excimer laser with automatic preionization have been achieved by extending the discharge volume and resulting moderate pumping of the active medium. The discharge laser produces a pulse energy of more than 1 J for XeCl, KrF, and ArF lasers in square beams of about 2×2 cm², and the maximum overall efficiency observed is 2.9% for XeCl, 3.2% for KrF and 1.8% for ArF. The laser device has been involved in a picosecond ( 32 ps) XeCl laser amplification system, and was operated as an amplifier at a repetitive frequency of 10 Hz. Saturation fluence for XeCl laser was measured to be 1.4 mJ/cm², and the picosecond pulse energy of 40 mJ was extracted from the amplifier.On leave from Ebara Corp., 6-6-7, Ginza, Chuo-ku, Tokyo 104, JapanOn leave from Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, LTD., 4-6-22, Kan-on shinmachi, Nishi-ku, Hiroshima 733, Japan     

Generation of picosecond laser radiation at λ=87.8 nm with 1 kHz repetition rate

Coherent radiation at 87.78 nm is generated by four-wave mixing in argon gas. Radiation of a mode-locked Nd:YLF laser at =1053 nm is regeneratively amplified at 1 kHz repetition rate. After frequency quadrupling in consecutive LBO and BBO crystals, the UV radiation at 263.35 nm is focused in Ar in front of a hollow capillary. Effects of gas density on the XUV intensity are discussed.     

Sub-picosecond UV-laser ablation of Ni films

Laser ablation of thin Ni films on fused silica by 0.5 ps KrF-excimer-laser pulses at 248 nm is reported. The onset of material removal from different film thicknesses (0.1, 0.3, 0.6 and 1.0 m) was measured in a laser ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometer by the amount of Ni atoms vs laser fluence. Significant amounts of metal atoms are already evaporated at laser fluences around 20 mJ/cm², a threshold up to 100 times smaller compared to the one for 14 ns pulses. In contrast to ns laser pulses, the ablation threshold for 0.5 ps pulses is independent of the film thickness. These results reflect the importance of thermal diffusion in laser ablation of strongly absorbing and thermally good conducting materials and prove that for ablation with short pulses, energy loss to the bulk is minimized.     

Tunable picosecond pulse generation from the passively mode-locked coumarin 6 dye laser

Using the saturable absorber 2-(p-Dimethylaminostyryl)-benzothiazolylethyl iodide, coumarin 6 has been passively mode-locked for the first time to give fully modulated trains of pulses of 4 ps duration and with peak powers of 3 MW tunable over the spectral range 526–547 nm.     

Generation of tunable octave-spanning mid-infrared pulses by filamentation in gas media

The continued development of femtosecond mid-infrared (IR) sources with ultrabroad spectral width is critical for probing and controlling complex molecular structural dynamics on an ultrafast timescale. We report on a sub-20 fs, coherent mid-IR source with an octave-spanning spectral bandwidth (>2000 cm(-1)) tunable from 2-8 micrometers (37.5-150 THz), with energy >0.4 μJ/pulse at 1 kHz. The mid-IR pulses are generated by four-wave mixing during the filamentation of intense 800 nm and 400 nm pulses in various gas media. Spectral tunability is achieved by the choice of gas, pressure and input 800 nm pulse energy.     

电子束泵浦KrF激光器进行超短脉冲的单束放大实验研究

电子束泵浦KrF激光器口径大、泵浦率高 ,可直接用于进行超短脉冲激光的放大。用天光一号电子束泵浦KrF激光器进行超短脉冲激光放大 ,将超短脉冲激光放大到 2～ 3J、1.2 ps,激光功率达到 2TW。测量了石英窗镜中的非线性吸收系数和超短脉冲激光脉宽的变化     

电子束泵浦KrF激光器进行超短脉冲的单束放大实验研究

 电子束泵浦KrF激光器口径大、泵浦率高，可直接用于进行超短脉冲激光的放大。用天光一号电子束泵浦KrF激光器进行超短脉冲激光放大，将超短脉冲激光放大到2~3J、1.2ps, 激光功率达到2TW。测量了石英窗镜中的非线性吸收系数和超短脉冲激光脉宽的变化。