Low-power 100-ps microchip laser amplified by a two-stage Nd:YVO4 amplifier module

We report the amplification of a low-power 4-mW microchip Nd:YVO₄ laser at 1064?nm, passively Q-switched with a semiconductor saturable absorber mirror (SESAM). An end-pumped two-stage amplifier module with small-signal gain of 56?dB has been designed to boost the power, generating 6?W at 550?kHz with 100-ps pulses and M ²?=?1.2. Second-harmonic generation in critically phase-matched LBO yielded 3?W at 532?nm, with pulse stability comparable to that of the fundamental frequency.     

高功率激光片状放大器中自发辐射放大研究

采用理论模拟和实验研究相结合的方法,研究了高功率激光片状放大器中的自发辐射放大(ASE)效应。建立了一套较完整的包含空间和时间的3维ASE模型,分析了不同电压、不同储能分布和不同泵浦时刻、不同增益长度积条件下ASE效应对放大器储能效率和小信号增益系数的影响。对4×2×3组合式放大器的计算结果表明：随着泵浦电压升高,ASE效应明显加强;23kV泵浦电压下,ASE效应造成的平均储能下降210%,小信号增益系数损耗为16.62%,增益不均匀性为7.44%;增益长度积可以作为判断ASE效应的依据,其值越大,ASE效应越强。     

高功率激光片状放大器中自发辐射放大研究

 采用理论模拟和实验研究相结合的方法，研究了高功率激光片状放大器中的自发辐射放大(ASE)效应。建立了一套较完整的包含空间和时间的3维ASE模型，分析了不同电压、不同储能分布和不同泵浦时刻、不同增益长度积条件下ASE效应对放大器储能效率和小信号增益系数的影响。对4×2×3组合式放大器的计算结果表明：随着泵浦电压升高，ASE效应明显加强；23kV泵浦电压下，ASE效应造成的平均储能下降210%，小信号增益系数损耗为16.62%，增益不均匀性为7.44%；增益长度积可以作为判断ASE效应的依据，其值越大，ASE效应越强。     

Development of a nanosecond oscillator–four pass amplifier XeCl laser system

This paper describes the development of a nanosecond oscillator–four pass amplifier XeCl laser system. A two times increase of the pulse peak power of the free running amplifier module has been experimentally demonstrated. The comparison with numerical results issued from a code describing the amplification of the oscillator beam in the active amplifier medium suggests further experimental improvements to optimize the energy extraction from the amplifier.     

Optimization toward a high-average-brightness soft-x-ray laser pumped at grazing incidence

We report the near-field imaging characterization of a 10 Hz Ni-like 18.9 nm molybdenum soft-x-ray laser pumped in a grazing incidence pumping (GRIP) geometry with a table-top laser driver. We investigate the effect of varying the GRIP angle on the spatial behavior of the soft-x-ray laser source. After multiparameter optimization, we were able to find conditions to generate routinely a high-repetition-rate soft-x-ray laser with an energy level of up to 3 microJ/pulse and to 6x10(17) photons/s/mm2/mrad2/(0.1% bandwidth) average brightness and 1x10(28) photons/s/mm2/mrad2/(0.1% bandwidth) peak brightness.     

Nanosecond dye laser with a high-efficiency holographic grating for grazing incidence

By using a holographic grating specifically optimized for grazing incidence, it is possible to use an FP etalon in a dye laser resonator with grazing incidence. A spectral width of 4 pm with a power output of 31 kW is generated in stable operation. The influence of the mode of output coupling on the line/background ratio and the power output for grazing incidence have been investigated.     

High-repetition-rate 300-ps pulsed ultraviolet source with a passively Q-switched microchip laser and a multipass amplifier

We demonstrate a new kind of picosecond laser source in the UV at a high repetition rate of -45 kHz , using only passive, compact, and simple elements. This system is based on a microchip laser and a very efficient multipass amplifier, both pumped with recently developed high-brightness laser diodes. The system has been optimized to deliver, at a high repetition rate, subnanosecond pulses at the wavelength 355 nm with an energy per pulse of close to 1 muJ (38-mW average power). This source is to our knowledge the first totally passive 300-ps UV laser source at this high repetition rate.     

Generation and measurement of >108 intensity contrast ratio in a relativistic kHz chirped-pulse amplified laser

We report on the generation and measurement of a > 10⁸ contrast ratio between main pulse and amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) from a relativistic kHz chirped-pulse amplified laser. We have enhanced the ASE contrast ratio as much as > 400 times by employing a pulse cleaner composed of a μJ preamplifier and a saturable absorber. A third-order cross-correlator with a dynamic range of > 10⁹ and a scanning range of up to 4 ns has been developed for the contrast measurement. Detailed analysis of the cross-correlation trace shows that the random noise of spectral phase generates 20-ps pedestal structure starting from 10⁻⁶ level of the main pulse.     

Narrow-wavelength-spread spectral combining laser with a reflector for a double pass with a single grating

We proposed a novel wavelength-spread compression technique for spectral beam combining of a diode laser array. A reflector, which is parallel to the grating, is introduced to achieve a double pass with a single grating.This facilitated the reduction of the wavelength spread by half and doubled the number of combined elements in the gain range of the diode laser. We achieved a power of 26.1 W under continuous wave operation using a19 element single bar with a wavelength spread of 6.3 nm, which is nearly half of the original wavelength spread of 14.2 nm, demonstrating the double-compressed spectrum capability of this structure. The spectral beam combining efficiency was 63.7%. The grating efficiency and reflector reflectance were both over 95%; hence, the efficiency loss of the double-pass grating with a reflector is acceptable. In contrast to double-grating methods,the proposed method introduces a reflector that efficiently uses the single grating and shows significant potential for a more efficient spectral beam combining of diode laser arrays.     

A narrowband grazing incidence pulsed dye laser improved by using an active multiregion

A novel and simple laser cavity is proposed in which the active medium is separated spatially into three regions in a single dye cell. This configuration permits to improve laser performance in spectral linewidth, purity and energy conversion. Using only one 5 cm-grazing incidence grating as a selective element, a tunable narrow band dye laser has been constructed having a simple-mode spectrum of about 750 MHz depending on dye concentration (5 x 10^-4 M-10^-3 M). Continuous scanning of a 1.3 GHz (FWHM) line over the entire lasing region of the dye is obtained with an efficiency of 6%. The advantages of using an active multiregion are discussed in relevance to possible applications.     

On the stability of the output characteristics of a grazing incidence grating dye laser transversely pumped by a copper vapor laser

The output characteristics of a high repetition rate pulsed dye laser has both short-term fluctuations and long-term drift. In high power high repetition rate lasers flow induced variations dominate over those due to other factors. In this paper it is shown by dye laser measurements that bandwidth fluctuations can be traced to the effective changes of the resonator dispersion due to fluctuations in the penetration depth of the pump beam in the dye medium. Short-term wavelength fluctuations can be traced to instantaneous deflection of the dye laser axis by the refractive index changes due to absorption of the pump beam. The fluctuations in both the bandwidth and the wavelength decreases with increasing flow rates within a laminar region. A copper vapor laser operating at 5.6 kHz repetition rate pumped the Rhodamine 6G dye laser used. The wavelength fluctuation of ±0.0035, 0.0030, 0.0004 nm and the bandwidth fluctuation of ±710, 132, 45 MHz over approx. 60 minutes were observed at 1.2, 3.7, 5.5 lpm flow rates respectively.     

On high-frequency scattering by a strip at nearly grazing incidence

The problem of diffraction by an absolutely soft segment is considered in the high-frequency approximation. The asymptotic field decomposition is obtained, which makes it possible to trace the transition from classical asymptotics valid for grazing incidence to geometrical optics asymptotics, which describes scattering at a finite (not small) angle.     

High repetition rate laser pulses amplified by Nd/Cr:YAG ceramic amplifier under CW arc-lamp-light pumping

Laser pulses with high repetitive rate generated from a Q-switch microchip Nd:YAG oscillator were amplified by Active mirror composed of Nd/Cr:YAG ceramic pumped by CW arc-lamp. The laser pulses were amplified, and saturation of averaged output laser power was observed. Repetitive ratio of injected laser pulses was changed from 20 to 100 kHz. Averaged output laser power and gain were measured, and gain coefficient and power-extraction efficiency were evaluated. Output laser power was calculated and compared to experimentally measured one, and the calculated results are consistent with the experimental ones. For amplification of laser pulses with high repetitive ratio, this laser material can realize very high laser gain with low pumping power density and high optical-optical conversion efficiency under CW-lamp-light pumping.     

150-ps pulse Raman generator pumped by a 1-kHz sub-nanosecond passively Q-switched laser system

Raman conversion with a single Ba(NO₃)₂ crystal (barium nitrate) either in single- and double-pass travelling-wave setups has been investigated. A Master-Oscillator-Power-Amplifier (MOPA) system, based on a passively Q-switched (PQS) laser generating 500-ps pulses and delivering a total energy of 350 μJ at 1 kHz, was used as pump source for the Raman generator. The two-passes setup yielded 116-μJ, 150-ps Fourier- and diffraction-limited pulses at 1198 nm for ≈3× the Raman threshold with no additional Stokes lines, and conversion efficiency of 35%. Such results are interesting not only for direct applications of the wavelength-shifted laser source, but also for further pulse-compression and supercontinuum generation in fibers. Indeed, self-phase modulation up to 0.82 nm has been demonstrated (pulse compression down to 5 ps) as well as 120-nm supercontinuum.     

1.57 times diffraction-limit high-energy laser based on a Nd:YAG slab amplifier and an adaptive optics system

In this Letter, a 116-actuator deformable mirror(DM) was used to correct the wavefront distortion in a 10.7 J,10 Hz neodymium-doped yttrium aluminum garnet(Nd:YAG) slab amplifier. By applying a pump-light homogenizer to transform the 3 × 1 near-field beam array into an integrated beam, the beam quality was greatly improved from 5.54 times diffraction limit(TDL) to 1.57 TDL after being corrected by the DM. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first investigation on beam quality control of an arrayed near-field beam in high-energy diode-pumped solid-state lasers.     

Gain saturation in a laser amplifier driven by a CW oscillator

A model is given for a cw oscillator driving an amplifier whose upper excited level is pumped instantaneously, continuously, or both. Although simple, this model includes the nonlinear effect of gain saturation. Closed-form solutions for the intensity are obtained for all times including an initial transient period. When initial pumping occurs, first derivatives are discontinuous across a characteristic emanating from the origin. Examples are presented that illustrate the dominant effect of gain saturation.     

13C-separation by a continuous discharge CO2 laser q-switched at 10 kHz

Compared to atmospheric pressure pulsed CO₂ (TEA) lasers, continuous-discharge CO₂ lasers can deliver photons at much lower costs. By a Q-switched version of such a laser we demonstrated by multiphoton dissociation of CHClF₂ the production of 1 g of C₂F₄ enriched to 50% ¹³C. This is a larger quantity of high enrichment than has been produced so far using TEA lasers. The process is already automated to a large extent. Scaling up seems feasible. These results have been achieved, although the process turned out to be much more nonlinear for our pulses (length 200 ns) than for TEA laser pulses. This difference is attributed to intensity effects, caused by direct multiphoton transitions in the excitation ladder. To avoid that selectivity breaks down, the gas has to be exchanged more than once per pulse. The required speed is much less, if ~250 mbar of Ar are added to the working gas.     

Subnanosecond amplified spontaneous emission pulses by a nitrogen pumped dye laser

Pulses of 100 ps duration and peak power up to 100 kW are obtained with a dye laser pumped by an atmospheric pressure nitrogen laser of 0.5 ns duration. The shortening of the dye laser pulses is attributed to amplified spontaneous emission.