Highly efficient, low-cost femtosecond Cr3+ :LiCAF laser pumped by single-mode diodes

We describe efficient continuous-wave (cw) and cw mode-locked operations of a Cr3+ :LiCAF laser, pumped by inexpensive single spatial mode laser diodes. Up to 280 mW of cw output power was obtained with 570 mW of absorbed pump power, with a corresponding slope efficiency of 54%. Continuous tuning between 765 and 865 nm was demonstrated using a fused silica prism. A semiconductor saturable absorber mirror was used to initiate and sustain stable, self-starting, mode-locked operation. In cw mode locking, the laser produced 72 fs (FWHM) duration pulses, and 1.4 nJ pulse energy, at an average output power of 178 mW. Electrical to optical conversion efficiencies of 7.8% in mode-locked operation and 12.2% in cw operation were demonstrated.     

光纤中基于交叉相位调制的超短光脉冲串的产生

提出一种在单模光纤正常色散区由连续波产生超短光脉冲串的新方法，即让连续波和一个波长位于光纤正常色散区的调制脉冲串在光纤中同时传输，交叉相位调制效应和群速度色散效应的相互作用能使连续波演化成一串超短光脉冲，其脉冲宽度比调制脉冲串中的脉宽要小得多，本文还通过计算机模拟，对这一方法进行了全面的考察和分析。结果表明，该方法不仅实用，而且可取得较好的效果。     

Diode-pumped, high-average-power femtosecond Cr3+ :LiCAF laser

We demonstrate a high-average-power continuous wave (cw) and cw mode-locked Cr3+ :LiCAF laser pumped by broad-area laser diodes. In cw lasing experiments, up to 580 mW of output was obtained with 4.35 W of incident pump. A semiconductor saturable absorber mirror was used to initiate stable, self-starting, mode locking. In the cw mode-locked regime, the Cr3+ :LiCAF laser produced nearly transform-limited, 67 fs long pulses near 800 nm with an average output power of 300 mW. The pulse repetition rate was 120 MHz, with a pulse energy of 2.5 nJ.     

Single-molecule detection using continuous wave excitation of two-photon fluorescence

Two-photon fluorescence (TPF) is one of the most important discoveries for biological imaging. Although a cw laser is known to excite TPF, its application in TPF imaging has been very limited due to the perceived low efficiency of excitation. Here we directly excited fluorophores with an IR cw laser used for optical trapping and achieved single-molecule fluorescence sensitivity: discrete stepwise photobleaching of enhanced green fluorescent proteins was observed. The single-molecule fluorescence intensity analysis and on-time distribution strongly indicate that a cw laser can generate TPF detectable at the single-molecule level, and thus opens the door to single-molecule TPF imaging using cw lasers.     

Comparison of pulsed and continuous operation of the Cu II laser

The peak output power of Cu II laser emission in the uv at 260 nm and in the ir at 780 nm was measured for different operating conditions in the pulsed and the cw mode. In contrast to the ir laser output the laser power in the uv is higher in the cw mode than in the quasi cw mode. This property depends on contaminations of the discharge gas.     

Experimental investigation of the effect of pump incoherence on nonlinear pump spectral broadening and continuous-wave supercontinuum generation

The development of high-power cw fiber lasers has triggered a great interest in the phenomena of nonlinear pump spectral broadening and cw supercontinuum generation. These effects have very convenient applications in Raman amplification, optical fiber metrology, and fiber sensing. In particular, it was recently shown that pump incoherence has a strong impact in these processes. We study experimentally the effect of pump incoherence in nonlinear pump spectral broadening and cw supercontinuum generation in optical fibers. We show that under certain experimental conditions an optimum degree of pump incoherence yields the best performance in the broadening process. We qualitatively explain these results, and we point out that these results may have important implications in cw supercontinuum optimization.     

A continuous wave SrMoO4 Raman laser

We demonstrate a cw, laser diode-pumped Nd:GdVO4/SrMoO4 crystalline Raman laser. First Stokes laser output at 1173.5?nm of 2.18?W was achieved with a diode-to-first Stokes efficiency of 8.7%. With intracavity frequency doubling in LiB3O5, 3.1?W of cw yellow emission at 586.8?nm was obtained with a 12.4% diode-to-yellow efficiency. The experimental results show that SrMoO4 is an excellent stimulated Raman scattering gain material for high-power cw near-IR Stokes and yellow lasers.     

Generation of 5-W deep-UV continuous-wave radiation at 266 nm by an external cavity with a CsLiB6O10 crystal

A Brewster-cut CsLiB6O10 crystal is employed as an external resonant frequency doubler to generate cw deep-UV radiation at 266 nm. We have generated 5.0 W of usable cw output power, which is 6.1 W in the crystal, for an incident green power of 9.6 W, corresponding to an internal conversion efficiency of 61.8%. The power obtained is, to our knowledge, three times higher than previously reported for cw 266-nm generation.     

Self-switching of optical pulses in dispersion-imbalanced nonlinear loop mirrors

We report a novel nonlinear filter that transmits and shortens incident pulses while rejecting cw background as well as resonant continuum. A relative extinction of 22dB is reported for the cw background.     

Theory and experiment of CW dye laser injection locking and its application to second harmonic generation

High-power single-mode operation of a cw ring dye laser has been obtained by injection of cw single-mode radiation. The intracavity power of this system was used to generate tunable single-mode uv radiation by frequency doubling in a temperature phase-matched ADA crystal: up to 45 W intracavity fundamental power and up to 70 mW extracted uv power have been observed. A theoretical treatment of the injection locked cw ring dye laser system is given for the stationary state. Expressions for the intracavity intensities as a function of the small-signal gain and the saturation intensity are derived.     

42%-efficient single-pass cw second-harmonic generation in periodically poled lithium niobate

We present a full-wafer fabrication process for periodically poled lithium niobate with a 6.5-mum domain period. Samples that were 53 mm long and 0.5 mm thick were obtained with this process for single-pass cw 1064-nm Nd:YAG second-harmonic generation. These samples exhibited 78% of the ideal nonlinear coefficient, had a measured conversion efficiency of 8.5% /W in the low-power limit, and produced 2.7 W of cw 532-nm output with 6.5 W of cw input, which corresponds to 42% power conversion efficiency.     

Stable operation of a cw optical parametric oscillator near the signal-idler degeneracy

The frequency stability of a cw optical parametric oscillator (cw OPO) near the signal-idler degeneracy has been studied. The strong tendency of a near-degenerate OPO to mode hop has been suppressed by using a bulk Bragg grating as a spectral filter in the OPO cavity. An experimental demonstration of stable parametric oscillation in a single longitudinal mode of the OPO cavity is reported, together with the capability of tuning the signal-idler difference frequency from 1 to 4 THz. The OPO has potential use in cw terahertz generation.     

光纤零色散波长的精确测量

提出了一种测量单模光纤零色散波长的新方法,即让可调谐的连续波（波长λｓ）和波长λｐ位于光纤正常色散区的泵浦脉冲串在光纤中共同传输,交叉相位调制与群速度色散的相互作用可使得连续波的强度得到调制。对连续波λｓ进行调谐,若连续波被调制成亮脉冲,则表明λｓ位于光纤负色散区;若连续波被调制成暗脉冲,则表明λｓ位于光纤正色散区;若连续波的强度不能被调制,则表明λｓ位于光纤的零色散波长λ０附近。利用这一方法对长度为０．９８ｋｍ的色散位移光纤的零色散波长进行了测量,测量精度可达０．５ｎｍ。     

Frequency-modulation-mode-locked optical parametric oscillator

We demonstrate a novel technique for the generation of mode-locked pulses from a continuous-wave (cw) optical parametric oscillator (OPO). The technique is based on the deployment of a phase modulator in combination with an antiresonant ring interferometer internal to a cw OPO, simultaneously providing spectral broadening and phase-to-amplitude feedback modulation. The scheme is implemented in a doubly-resonant cw OPO based on MgO:sPPLT, configured in a standing-wave cavity and pumped at 532 nm. With the phase modulator activated and the cavity length synchronized, a stable train of 800 ps pulses is generated at a repetition rate of 160 MHz. Using single-pass second harmonic generation (SHG) of the OPO output, we observe a four times enhancement in SHG compared with cw operation, confirming the real achievement of energy concentration as a result of mode-locked operation.     

掺铒光纤光栅的开关动力学特征研究

研究在连续光入射下掺饵光纤光栅的开关动力学特征，发展其开关过程有类似于相变的特征。数值结果表明，主动光纤光栅在连续光条件下更适合于脉冲串产生。     

New efficient laser dye for pulsed and CW operation in the UV

A new laser dye for pulsed and cw operation has been synthesized which can be tuned from 362 nm up to 412 nm. For pulsed excitation with a XeCl excimer laser an energy conversion of 18.5% has been measured at the tuning maximum of the dye; this is the highest efficiency for any known dye in the UV. For cw operation a low laser threshold and a goof efficiency have been observed. The range of tuned cw dye lasers is extended by 30 nm to shorter wavelengths. The dye shows high photochemical stability even at high pump laser power.     

Diode-pumped continuous-wave and femtosecond laser operations of a heterocomposite crystal Yb3+: SrY4(SiO4)3O parallel Y2Al5O12

We report cw and femtosecond laser operations under diode pumping of a diffusion-bonding heterocomposite Yb-doped crystal: Yb3+:SrY4(SiO4)3O parallel Y2Al5O12(YAG paralell SYS:Yb). To show the advantages of this heterocomposite crystal over classical Yb:SYS crystal, we first investigate the high-power cw regime. A cw power of 4.3 W is demonstrated. The femtosecond regime is also investigated, and 1-W-average-power, 130-fs pulses at 1070 nm are produced, which represents, to our knowledge, the first demonstration of an Yb-doped heterocomposite mode-locked laser.     

Sustained kilowatt lasing in a free-electron laser with same-cell energy recovery

Jefferson Laboratory's kW-level infrared free-electron laser utilizes a superconducting accelerator that recovers about 75% of the electron-beam power. In achieving first lasing, the accelerator operated "straight ahead" to deliver 38-MeV, 1.1-mA cw current for lasing near 5 &mgr;m. The waste beam was sent directly to a dump while producing stable operation at up to 311 W. Utilizing the recirculation loop to send the electron beam back to the linac for energy recovery, the machine has now recovered cw average currents up to 5 mA, and has lased cw with up to 1720 W output at 3.1 &mgr;m.     

Recent progress in the development of type II interband cascade lasers

Type-II interband cascade lasers combine the advantage of an interband optical transition with interband tunneling to enable the cascading of type-II quantum well active regions as is done in type-I quantum cascade laser. The relatively high radiative efficiency resulting from interband optical transitions translates into very low-threshold current densities, and when combined with the high quantum efficiency of cascade lasers, this diode laser design has the potential to operate under cw conditions at room temperature with high output power. Experimental results have already demonstrated some of this potential including high differential external quantum efficiency (>600%), high peak output power (6 W/facet at 80 K), high cw power conversion efficiency (>17% at 80 K), and operation at 300 K under pulsed conditions. Recent work aimed at reducing device thermal resistance and increasing cw operating temperature is reviewed including the demonstration of significant reductions in thermal resistance (averaging 25 K/W or 40% for 1-mm-long devices), 80 K cw operation at 3.4 μm with high-power conversion efficiency (23%) and high differential external quantum efficiency (532%), and cw operation up to 214 K.     

Second-Order Correlation Function of the Photon Emission from a Single Quantum Dot

The photon correlation of photon emission from a single quantum dot with cw excitation and pulsed excitation is investigated in details. To calculate the second-order correlation function for optical pumping, we deduce rate equations with a simplified two-level model under cw excitation and present the master equation approach in the interaction picture to the study of evolution of a three-level system under pulsed excitation. In addition, we report photon correlation measurements on a single self-assembled In0.5Ga0.5As quantum dot, which show strong antibunching behaviour under both the conditions of cw and pulsed excitations. The calculated results are in agreement with the experimental measurements.