Maximizing TEM00 solar laser power by a light guide assembly-elliptical cavity

For maximizing TEM₀₀ solar laser power, a modified light guide assembly-elliptical cavity pumping approach is proposed. By observing refractive and total internal reflection principles, highly concentrated solar radiations from a primary parabolic mirror are firstly collected by a near-hexagonal input face and then transmitted, at low propagation angles, to a near-rectangular output end of the modified assembly. A sharp elliptical pump cavity with an intervening optics is utilized to further couple and concentrate the radiations from the assembly to a thin Nd:YAG rod. Optimum pumping parameters are found through ZEMAX? non-sequential ray-tracing and LASCAD? laser cavity analysis. Compared with the output performances of the parallel-packed light guide assembly-elliptical-cylindrical cavity, 45% increase in TEM₀₀, 10% in multimode solar laser powers are attained by the proposed approach. Experimental results on both the enhanced transmission efficiency of the assembly and the improved focusing capacity of the elliptical cavity with are finally provided.     

Side-pumped continuous-wave Cr:Nd:YAG ceramic solar laser

To clarify the advantages of Cr:Nd:YAG ceramics rods in solar-pumped lasers, a fused silica light guide with rectangular cross-section is coupled to a compound V-shaped cavity within which a 7 mm diameter 0.1 at.% Cr:1.0 at.% Nd:YAG ceramic rod is uniformly pumped. The highly concentrated solar radiation at the focal spot of a 2 m diameter stationary parabolic mirror is transformed into a uniform pump radiation by the light guide. Efficient pump light absorption is achieved by pumping uniformly the ceramic rod within the V-shaped cavity. Optimum pumping parameters and solar laser output powers are found through ZEMAX^© non-sequential ray-tracing and LASCAD^© laser cavity analysis codes. 33.6 W continuous-wave laser power is measured, corresponding to 1.32 times enhancement over our previous results with a 4 mm diameter Nd:YAG single-crystal rod. High slope efficiency of 2.6 % is also registered. The solar laser output performances of both the ceramic and the single-crystal rods are finally compared, revealing the relative advantage of the Cr:Nd:YAG rod in conversion efficiency. Low scattering coefficient of 0.0018 cm^?1 is deduced for the ceramic rod. Heat load is considered as a key factor affecting the ceramic laser output performance.     

Directly diode-pumped millijoule subpicosecond Yb:glass regenerative amplifier

An Yb:glass regenerative amplifier directly side pumped by four 20-W diodes is demonstrated. By use of a novel pumping scheme and introduction of cylindrical optics into the cavity, a free-running average output power as great as 4 W with a TEM(00) -like mode was achieved from the bare cavity, with a 0.56 pump duty cycle. When the regenerative amplifier injected, 1-mJ 200-fs FWHM pulses were obtained following compression by use of 2-ms pump pulses and up to a 150-Hz repetition rate.     

太阳光抽运激光器抽运系统优化

太阳光抽运激光器中,抽运系统提供的太阳抽运光与激活晶体之间的耦合决定了激光输出的总体效率。使用Tracepro软件,建立了菲涅耳透镜、锥形抽运腔二级抽运系统模型,并对该系统进行优化。通过分析菲涅耳透镜焦斑能量沿轴线的分布,得到了锥形腔入射窗口的口径和窗口距菲涅耳透镜的距离。通过改变锥形抽运腔的腔长和锥度,分析晶体棒轴向抽运功率密度分布,得到了锥形腔的最佳结构,并对镜面反射腔和陶瓷腔进行了详细的介绍。     

太阳光泵浦激光器侧面泵浦效率的提高

太阳光泵浦激光器直接利用太阳光作为泵浦源,实现了太阳光能量到激光能量的直接转化。设计了分腔水冷型金属锥形泵浦腔,以直径8mm,长115mm的Nd:YAG晶体棒作为激光工作物质,用有效面积1.03m2菲涅尔透镜会聚太阳光,实验获得了23.7 W的稳定激光输出,斜效率为7.87%。通过对比实验,改进后的分腔水冷型太阳光泵浦激光器较原有锥形腔激光器有55.92%的激光输出功率提升。分别从侧面泵浦光在冷却水中的吸收损耗以及其耦合效率等方面对新型腔体结构进行了分析,证实了分腔水冷型腔体结构对侧面泵浦效率的提高,并提出了陶瓷漫反射材质的分腔水冷型激光腔的设计。     

Pulsed alkali pump light sources for Nd:YAG lasers

Pulsed arc discharges in alkali metal vapours are investigated for use as pump light sources for Nd:YAG lasers. Alkali lamps have a very high radiation efficiency and emit strong lines near the laser pump bands. These absorption bands are fitted by the emission spectrum of sodium and potassium lamps by changing the vapour pressure and input power. The spectral radiation distributions of the lamps are measured by a spectrograph with a gated OMA system. Ray tracing calculations for a laser cavity are used to evaluate the efficiency of the alkali radiation emission for Nd:YAG pumping. The results show that the excitation efficiency of the alkali lamps is twice as high as that of usually used rare gas lamps. For sodium resonance lines the side-on spectral radiance is calculated by a radiation transport model to estimate the pressure and the temperature profile. The results indicate that the alkali vapour lamps could be used as pump light sources with high efficiencies and low heat loading of the laser cavity.     

Improvement in solar-pumped Nd:YAG laser beam brightness

Solar-pumped solid-state lasers are promising for renewable extreme-temperature material processing. Here we report a large improvement in solar laser beam brightness by pumping a thin Nd:YAG single crystal rod. A fused silica light guide of 14 mm×22 mm rectangular cross-section is used to both transmit and homogenize the concentrated solar radiation from the focal zone of a 2.88 m² parabolic mirror to the entrance aperture of a modified 2D-CPC flooded pump cavity, within which a 4 mm diameter rod is efficiently pumped. 2.2% slope efficiency is reached. Laser beam brightness figure of merit B is three times higher than that of the most recent solar-pumped Nd:YAG laser by a Fresnel lens. The introduction of the rectangular cross-section light guide has also ensured a much more stable laser emission than previous pumping schemes.     

ZnGeP2 parametric oscillator pumped by a linewidth-narrowed parametric 2 microm source

A tandem optical parametric oscillator (OPO) is used to convert radiation from 1.064 microm to the mid-infrared. Spectral bandwidth narrowing close to 80 times compared with a conventional cavity was achieved by using a bulk Bragg grating as an outcoupler in a near-degenerate periodically poled KTiOPO(4) OPO. The narrowed 2,008 nm radiation was subsequently used for pumping the ZnGeP(2) OPO, which was tunable between 3.3 and 5.2 microm. Pulse energies of 170 microJ and pump depletion close to 70% were obtained in the ZnGeP(2) OPO. To our knowledge this is the first time the output from a near-degenerate type I PPKTP OPO has been used for ZnGeP(2) OPO pumping.     

Comparison of different side-pumping configurations for high power laser diode pumped solid-state laser

Ray-tracing method is used to simulate the distribution of absorption in crystal rod for different side-pumping configuration. The distribution of pumping power and absorption efficiency is compared, and the numerical results are presented. The results show that the more uniform pumping and the higher absorption coefficient are obtained with a diffuse cavity. And the method of the slow axis of laser diode stack perpendicular to the axis of lasing gives the higher central pumping density.     

Thermo-optical tuning of whispering gallery modes in Er:Yb co-doped phosphate glass microspheres

We demonstrate an all-optical, thermally assisted technique for broad-range tuning of whispering gallery modes in microsphere resonators fabricated from an Er:Yb co-doped phosphate glass (IOG-2). The microspheres are pumped at 978 nm and the heat generated by absorption of the pump expands the cavity, thereby altering the cavity size and refractive index. We demonstrate a significant nonlinear tuning range of greater than 700 GHz of both C- and L-band cavity emissions via pumping through a tapered optical fibre. Finally, we show that large linear tuning up to ∼488 GHz is achievable if the microsphere is alternatively heated by coupling laser light into its support stem.     

Sub-Poissonian radiation of a one-atom two-level laser with incoherent pumping

The quantum statistical properties of the radiation of a one-atom two-level laser with incoherent pumping are analyzed. Solution of the Liouville equation for the density operator in the basis of Fock states shows that stationary radiation from a single-mode laser with incoherent pumping can be in a squeezed (sub-Poissonian) stationary state if the rate of spontaneous decay is lower than the rate of cavity losses and the pump rate. Inside the cavity the Fano factor reaches F=0.85 (15% squeezing). Multiple squeezing (F=0.19) is possible in the transient lasing regime. Significant squeezing obtains at the cavity output; the spectral Fano factor at zero frequency is 0.36 under optimal conditions. Zh. éksp. Teor. Fiz. 115, 1210–1220 (April 1999)     

A 658-W VCSEL-pumped rod laser module with 52.6% optical efficiency

A high-efficiency and high-power vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) side-pumped rod Nd:YAG laser with temperature adaptability are demonstrated. The VCSEL side-pumped laser module is designed and optimized. Five VCSEL arrays are symmetrically located around the laser rod and a large size diffused reflection chamber is designed to ensure a uniform pump distribution. Furthermore, the absorbed pump power distribution of the rod is simulated to verify the uniformity of the pump absorption. Finally, a proof-of-principle experiment is performed in short linear cavity laser with single laser module. A continuous-wave output power of 658 W at 1064 nm is obtained, the corresponding optical-to-optical efficiency is 52.6%, and the power variations are ±0.7% over 400 s and ±3.1% over the temperature range from 16 ℃ to 26 ℃. To the best of our knowledge, this is the highest output power and the highest optical-to-optical efficiency ever reported for VCSEL pumped solid-state lasers. By inserting a telescopic module into the cavity and optimizing the TEM₀₀ mode volume, the average beam quality is measured to be M²=1.34 under an output power of 102 W. The experimental results reveal that such a high power rod laser module with temperature stability is appropriate or field applications.     

Near-Field Diffractive Optical Pumping of a Laser Medium

A Nd:YAG rod active element placed inside a resonator was pumped by the second harmonic radiation (the wavelength =0.532 m) of a Q-switched Nd:YAG laser diffracted at a circular aperture. Various distributions of pumping intensity in the Fresnel (near-field) region along the direction of the pump beam diffraction were produced. Inversion profiles with maxima or minima at the resonator axis were formed in the active element, depending on its distance from the circular aperture. Gain-switched operation of the Nd:YAG rod laser at =1.064 m is reported at the fundamental mode and also at the TEM₀₁, TEM_01* and other higher-order modes for different positions of the active element in the near-field region. Applications of such diffractive optical pumping for the concentration of the pumping radiation into the active media and for laser beam profling are discussed. © 2004 The Optical Society of Japan     

Coherent population trapping with a train of pulses via a continuum and its application to the suppression of excited-state absorption

We discuss the coherent population trapping (CPT) effect induced in a three-level Λ-type system by a train of short pulses. Specifically, we consider a modified Λ system with the upper level replaced by a continuum of states. We show that CPT with a train of pulses can be applied to the suppression of excited-state absorption of pump radiation in crystalline laser materials. The utility of the technique for pumping a promising yellow-orange solid-state medium Ti:YAlO₃ and overcoming excited-state pump absorption is analyzed.     

Numerical analysis of a dual-pass pumping laser with weak absorption

A model for a laser with dual-pass pumping is established, and an equation expressing the mode matching for this structure is presented. Through the numerical analysis of this equation, under the conditions of weak-absorption and effective absorption efficiency, the optimum radius of the pump beam waist as well as the optimum location is fitted to simple formulas, considering the quality of the pump beam, absorption coefficient, and beam waist of the cavity mode.Using these formulas, the laser with dual-pass pumping could be optimized to obtain a high slope efficiency. To test the utility of this model, an Nd:YVO_4 laser with dual-pass pumping and weak-absorption was built and optimized according to the results of the calculation. A good agreement between the results of the calculations and the experiment verified the model and the numerical analysis.     

加长棒脉冲钕玻璃激光器异常实验现象理论研究

以激光原理为基础, 以大量精确的实验数据为依据;考虑被忽略的自发辐射的影响, 对加长到抽运腔外的钕玻璃棒, 未受到抽运, 反而产生光放大异常实验现象的机理进行了理论研究.理论研究结果与实验结果基本相符.     

468-W CW operation of a diode-pumped Nd:YAG rod laser with high beam quality and highly efficient concentrator of pump light

A novel design of an efficient, highly reliable, and good beam quality diode-pumped solid-state laser for precise material processing application is presented. Effort has been done to obtain a highly uniform pumping intensity in the active area, which simultaneously reduces the effects of thermal gradient. In this design a novel lens duct configuration which send the light into the center of the rod is used. By this way a uniform power distribution and a maximum absorption of pump power is resulted. Adopting this design, the maximum laser power of 468 W with optical to optical efficiency of 33% in CW mode and M² factor of less than 15 is obtained. Numerical analysis also indicates the superiority of the design to other methods such as direct and diffusive pumping techniques.     

All-solid-state high-power conduction-cooled Nd:YLF rod laser

A high-average-power conduction-cooled diode-pumped Nd:YLF rod laser has been developed. A new conduction-cooled side-pumping scheme with a solid prismatic pump-light confinement cavity was employed. A transparent, high-thermal-conductivity MgF>(2) prism was used as a highly efficient pump cavity as well as a low-thermal-resistance heat spreader. The pumping efficiency and thermal resistance of the cavity were 85% and 0.20 degrees C degrees W, respectively. When this scheme was combined with heat pipes for heat removal, a maximum average output power of 72 W was demonstrated, with an optical slope efficiency as high as 49%.     

Laser performance of <Emphasis Type="Italic">N</Emphasis><Subscript><Emphasis Type="Bold">g</Emphasis></Subscript>-cut flash-lamp pumped Nd:KGW at high repetition rates

A comparative study of the flash-lamp pumped laser performance of standard b-grown Nd:KGW and Nd:KGW grown for propagation along the optical axis N_g is presented. The results show that, in comparison with b-grown crystal, the N_g-grown Nd:KGW is very promising for use at high repetition flash-lamp pumping rates. With the same laser cavity configuration, the N_g-grown Nd:KGW can operate at an average flash-lamp input power of at least 1.4 kW, while the b-cut one ceases lasing at average flash-lamp input power of ∼0.5 kW. The reason for this is that the thermal lens induced in the N_g-oriented Nd:KGW rod under pump radiation is relatively weak, nearly spherical and positive, whereas the b-grown Nd:KGW rod acts as a quite weak positive lens for radiation with radial polarization, and as a much stronger negative lens for tangentially polarized radiation. PACS 42.60.Jf; 42.70.Hj     

High conversion efficiency solar laser pumping by a light-guide/2D-CPC cavity

A simple and efficient light-guide/2D-CPC solar pumping approach is proposed. A fused silica light-guide assembly is used to transmit 6 kW concentrated solar power from the focal spot of a large parabolic mirror to the entrance aperture of a 2D-CPC pump cavity, where a long and thin Nd:YAG rod is efficiently pumped. Numerical calculations are made for different light-guides, 2D-CPC cavities and laser rods. The laser output power is investigated through finite element analysis. With 4 mm diameter rod, the maximum calculated laser power of 75.8 W is obtained, corresponding to the conversion efficiency of more than 11 W/m². The tracking error dependent laser power losses are lower than 4%. A small scale prototype was constructed and tested, reaching 8.1 W/m² conversion efficiency.