Fluoride semiconductor saturable-absorber mirror for ultrashort pulse generation

We demonstrate what is to our knowledge the first ultrabroadband monolithically grown AlGaAs/CaF(2) semiconductor saturable-absorber mirror (SESAM) that covers nearly the entire gain spectrum of a Ti:sapphire laser. A large high-reflectivity bandwidth of more than 300 nm is provided by a device consisting of only six material layers. This fluoride SESAM had a modulation depth of 2.2%, a fast recovery time constant of less than 150 fs, and a slow recovery time constant of 1.2 ps. Using this SESAM inside a Ti:sapphire laser produced self-starting sub-10-femtosecond pulses.     

High-dispersive mirror for pulse stretcher in femtosecond fiber laser amplification system

We present a high-dispersive multilayer mirror for pulse stretching in a femtosecond fiber laser amplification system. The designed mirror contains 54 layers with a total physical thickness of 7.3 μm, which can provide a positive group delay dispersion (GDD) of 600 fs² and a high reflectance over 99.9% from 1010 to 1070 nm. The samples were prepared by dual ion beam sputtering. The measured transmittance matches well with the theoretical result. The GDD characteristics of samples were tested by home-made white light interferometer. The measured GDD is higher than the design results, an average GDD of +722 fs² from 1010 nm to 1070 nm. The mirrors were employed in a Yb-doped large-mode-area photonic crystal fiber amplification system. An input pulse compressed by the gratings with autocorrelation function of 83 fs is obtained with a stretched FWHM of 1.29 ps after 28 bounces between the dispersive mirrors. The results show that the multilayer dispersive mirror could be an effective and promising technique for pulse stretching in femtosecond amplification systems.     

Yb(3+)-ring-doped fiber for high-energy pulse amplification

We report what is to our knowledge the first demonstration of pulse amplification in a cw-pumped fiber in which the doped gain medium has a ring shape surrounding a single-mode core. For a given pump power, ring doping reduces the gain and hence the power lost to amplified spontaneous emission. Thereby, a significantly larger amount of energy can be stored in the amplifier. Using an Yb(3+)-doped fiber pumped by 540 mW of power at 1000 nm, we measured 69 microJ of extracted pulse energy at 1047 nm, the highest value reported to date from a single-mode Yb(3+)-doped fiber. We predict that a fiber cladding pumped by a diode bar can produce pulse energies in excess of 1 mJ.     

紫外超短脉冲激光放大过程中脉宽压缩的方案设计

采用放电泵浦KrF准分子激光放大器放大波长为248.4 nm的紫外超短脉冲激光。对于能量为0.7 mJ、脉宽为550 fs的输入脉冲,在光束直径保持10 mm不变的条件下,能量放大到15 mJ,脉宽展宽到1 200 fs。为了压缩输出脉冲宽度,分析了群速度色散和自相位调制效应对脉宽展宽的影响。利用棱镜对,采用4种不同的实验方案对脉冲引入负的线性频率啁啾,以补偿KrF准分子激光放大器CaF2窗镜中的群速度色散和自相位调制对脉冲引入的正的线性频率啁啾。结果表明：在放大器之前放置棱镜对的方式可以在保持输出脉冲能量为15 mJ的同时,在棱镜对间距为110 cm的条件下,将输出脉冲宽度压缩到370 fs,输出波长为248.4 nm、带宽为0.4 nm。     

紫外超短脉冲激光放大过程中脉宽压缩的方案设计

采用放电泵浦KrF准分子激光放大器放大波长为248.4nm的紫外超短脉冲激光。对于能量为0.7mJ、脉宽为550fs的输入脉冲,在光束直径保持10mm不变的条件下,能量放大到15mJ,脉宽展宽到1200fs。为了压缩输出脉冲宽度,分析了群速度色散和自相位调制效应对脉宽展宽的影响。利用棱镜对,采用4种不同的实验方案对脉冲引入负的线性频率啁啾,以补偿KrF准分子激光放大器CaF2窗镜中的群速度色散和自相位调制对脉冲引入的正的线性频率啁啾。结果表明:在放大器之前放置棱镜对的方式可以在保持输出脉冲能量为15mJ的同时,在棱镜对间距为110cm的条件下,将输出脉冲宽度压缩到370fs,输出波长为248.4nm、带宽为0.4nm。     

超短脉冲展宽压缩系统的三维模型分析

在超短脉冲的展宽压缩系统的实验过程中,需要入射到展宽器中的光束倾斜一定角度.研究了在三维下光束倾斜入射到展宽压缩系统的情况,通过光束追迹法建立了展宽压缩系统的三维数学模型,给出了光束的水平倾斜角对展宽压缩系统的光程、群延时(GD)、群延时色散(GDD)等的影响,给出了展宽压缩系统的不同参数的相互补偿关系.通过计算,在引...     

Large amplitude noise reduction in ultrashort pulse trains using a power-symmetric nonlinear optical loop mirror

We analyse numerically the capabilities of a power-symmetric nonlinear optical loop mirror (NOLM) in the ultrashort pulse regime for high-quality amplitude regeneration of an optical signal. The device, which operates through nonlinear polarisation rotation, includes twisted, anomalous-dispersion fibre and a quarter-wave retarder. For particular adjustments of the retarder orientation, and a circularly polarised input beam, the output energy characteristic flattens near the switching energy, a property that can be used to eliminate large amplitude fluctuations in an optical signal. The group velocity mismatch between polarisation components introduced by twist is mitigated by the interplay between anomalous dispersion and the nonlinear Kerr effect, although strong twist should be avoided as it still introduces substantial pulse distortion. Contrary to other designs, where a plateau characteristic requires a large power imbalance between the counter-propagating beams, both pulses in the present scheme can be simultaneously close to fundamental solitons, which allows a substantial widening of the plateau for particular pulse parameters. Good quality, nearly transform-limited pulses are obtained in this case at the NOLM output. The device is applicable for the regeneration of ultrafast data streams in which the signal-to-noise ratio is severely deteriorated.     

Modeling and optimizing of low-repetition-rate high-energy pulse amplification in high-concentration erbium-doped fiber amplifiers

Starting from the modeling of isolated ions and ion-pairs, a closed form rate and power evolution equations for pulse amplification in high-concentration erbium-doped fiber amplifiers (EDFAs) are constructed. According to the equations, the effects of ion-pairs on the performance of a high-concentration EDFA in steady state including upper-state population, ASE powers without input signal are analyzed numerically. Furthermore, the effects of ion-pairs on the dynamic characteristics of low-repetition-rate pulse amplification in the EDFA including the storied energy, output pulse energy and evolution of pulse waveform distortion are systematically studied by using the finite-difference method. The results show that the presence of the ion-pairs deteriorates amplifier performance, such as the upper-state population, ASE power, storied energy, output pulse energy, and saturated gain, etc. For the high-concentration EDFA, the optimum fiber length should be modified to achieve a better performance. The relations between the evolution of pulse waveform distortion or output pulse energy and the input pulse peak power are also discussed. The results can provide important guide for the design and optimization of the low-repetition-rate pulse amplification in high-concentration EDFAs.     

半导体可饱和吸收镜作为被动锁模吸收体实现超短脉冲可见激光发展状况

介绍了当前国际上流行的一种用于固体激光器被动锁模以获得皮秒和飞秒宽度脉冲的新型半导体吸收体 半导体可饱和吸收镜的基本原理和制作方法。描述了利用半导体可饱和吸收镜和倍频晶体获得可见光超短脉冲激光方面的研究现状,指出半导体可饱和吸收镜的使用将会加速超短脉冲三基色激光器的研制进程。     

Divided-pulse amplification of ultrashort pulses

We propose and demonstrate a new approach, to the best of our knowledge, for avoiding nonlinear effects in the amplification of ultrashort optical pulses. The initial pulse is divided longitudinally into a sequence of lower-energy pulses that are otherwise identical to the original, except for the polarization. The low-intensity pulses are amplified and then recombined to create a final intense pulse. This divided-pulse amplification complements techniques based on dispersion management.     

Quasiperiodic Raman technique for ultrashort pulse generation

We report the experimental demonstration of a new Raman technique that produces 200 sidebands, ranging in wavelength from 3 microm to 195 nm. By studying multiphoton ionization of nitric oxide (NO) molecules, we show mutual phase coherence among 15 visible sidebands covering 0.63 octaves of bandwidth.     

Intense ultrashort pulse generation in a two-photon pumped generator-amplifier system

Intense ultrashort light pulses are generated i) by two-photon induced amplified spontaneous emission in a dye generator cell and ii) by two-photon induced seeding pulse amplification of a picosecond light continuum. The generated signals are amplified in a twophoton pumped dye amplifier. A passively mode-locked Nd: glass laser is used as pump source. Ligh pulses in the spectral region between 565 and 630 nm are generated in the dyes rohodamine B, rhodamine 6G, and PYC.     

All-optical pulse shaping for ultrawideband doublet pulses using nonlinear optical loop mirror with optical parametric amplification

We propose and experimentally demonstrate an alternative photonic scheme for the generation of ultrawideband (UWB) doublet pulses, which is based on an optical fiber-based nonlinear optical loop mirror (NOLM) incorporating the optical parametric amplification (OPA) effect. The proposed scheme uses both cross-phase modulation and OPA within an optical fiber-based NOLM to produce an ideal transfer function for the shaping of input soliton pulses into doublet pulses. Using the proposed scheme, a successful conversion of input soliton pulses into doublet pulses is readily demonstrated. The system performance of UWB doublet pulses is also assessed by propagating the 1.25?Gbit/s doublet pulses over a fiber link. Error-free UWB doublet signal transmission is demonstrated.     

Trends in ultrashort and ultrahigh power laser pulses based on optical parametric chirped pulse amplification

Since the proof-of-principle demonstration of optical parametric amplification to efficiently amplify chirped laser pulses in 1992,optical parametric chirped pulse amplification(OPCPA)became the most promising method for the amplification of broadband optical pulses.In the meantime,we are witnessing an exciting progress in the development of powerful and ultrashort pulse laser systems that employ chirped pulse parametric amplifiers.The output power and pulse duration of these systems have ranged from a few gigawatts to hundreds of terawatts with a potential of tens of petawatts power level.Meanwhile,the output pulse duration based on optical parametric amplification has entered the range of fewoptical-cycle field.In this paper,we overview the basic principles,trends in development,and current state of the ultrashort and laser systems based on OPCPA,respectively.     

Adaptive pulse compression for transform-limited 15-fs high-energy pulse generation

We demonstrate the use of a deformable-mirror pulse shaper, combined with an evolutionary optimization algorithm, to correct high-order residual phase aberrations in a 1-mJ, 1-kHz, 15-fs laser amplifier. Frequency-resolved optical gating measurements reveal that the output pulse duration of 15.2 fs is within our measurement error of the theoretical transform limit. This technique significantly reduces the pulse duration and the temporal prepulse energy of the pulse while increasing the peak intensity by 26%. It is demonstrated, for what is believed to be the first time, that the problem of pedestals in laser amplifiers can be addressed by spectral-domain correction.     

Sensitive ultrashort pulse chirp measurement

The chirp of an ultrashort laser pulse can be extracted with high accuracy from a modified spectrum auto-interferometric correlation waveform by using a new time domain algorithm that allows signal averaging. We display results revealing high sensitivity to chirp even with signal-to-noise levels approaching unity. Correction algorithms have been developed to accommodate signal distortion arising from bandwidth limitations, interferometer misalignment, and nonquadratic detector response.     

Dynamics of ultrashort pulse focusing

The method for studying the transformation of an ultrashort pulse of a spherical wave in the vicinity of the focus was developed. It was shown that the impulse response of the circular aperture contains two components: the transmitted one “cut” by the aperture from the incident wave and the toroidal edge one. Simple algebraic relations describing the propagation process were derived and corresponding software was developed. An example of a change in the pulse shape with Gaussian envelope is given. It was shown that pulses propagating with velocity ν > c, one of which overtakes the primary wave, are formed on the system axis.     

Quartic-phase-limited grism-based ultrashort pulse shaper

By replacing the dispersive element in a zero-dispersion pulse shaper with a grism, we have constructed a quartic-phase-limited pulse shaper. We demonstrate compensation of 4500 fs2 without the use of a dynamic element in the pulse shaping line, which is approximately the amount of dispersion induced by a typical multiphoton microscope. We also demonstrate that detuning the pulse shaper to compensate for quadratic phase induces negligible spatial chirp, thereby maintaining a high-quality focal spot for a microscopy setup.     

高功率全光纤啁啾脉冲放大激光系统

采用基于非线性偏振旋转原理的光纤被动锁模激光器作为主振荡器。输出信号脉冲的重复频率为30 MHz,脉冲半高全宽为265 fs。信号脉冲通过全光纤啁啾脉冲激光放大系统展宽至100 ps后,经过1级芯径10 m的光纤预放大器和1级芯径50 m的光纤功率放大器将脉冲平均功率放大至10 W,斜率效率41.5%。输出脉冲经光栅压缩器将脉宽压缩至594 fs。     

Compact spectral shearing interferometer for ultrashort pulse characterization

A simple, compact, and robust implementation of spectral shearing interferometry using a single nonlinear crystal for both ancilla generation and upconversion is demonstrated. The device is capable of accurate characterization of femtosecond laser pulses over the 740-900 nm range with a KDP crystal.