溴化亚铜激光泵浦的可调谐微微秒染料激光

本文首次报道了利用脉宽为25ns重复率为10kHz的溴化亚铜激光泵浦混有饱和吸收体DODCI的超短腔染料激光,产生出30ps光脉冲.在理论上对混入DODCI的超短腔染料激光脉冲压缩效应作了分析计算,计算结果与实验基本一致.在实验上又通过一个放大-色散系统实现对此染料激光脉冲的同步放大和调谐,并达到傅里叶变换极限.     

Theory of the synchronously pumped picosecond dye laser

The circulation of a synchronously mode locked dye laser pulse in a linear cavity configuration containing a dye cell as an active medium and a bandwidth-limiting element is treated. The condition that the pulse shape reproduces after each cavity round-trip provides a nonlinear integro-differential equation for the steady-state pulse shape. For the solution of this equation an approximate method, not limited to small pulse energies, is given and the pulse duration, intensity, energy, asymmetry of the pulse shape, stable regions and other interesting parameters are discussed.     

A self-quenching picosecond distributed feedback dye laser pumped by a picosecond laser pulse

A tunable single short pulse laser system with a transform–limited bandwidth pumped by a picosecond Nd:YAG laser (ca. 120 ps pulse width) is demonstrated. With this configuration, the relaxation oscillations coming from a distributed feedback dye laser cavity are completely removed. Because the pumping pulsewidth is shorter than the lifetime of dye molecule on the upper laser state, the gain of the laser medium is depleted by the first pulse. The laser wavelength could be precisely tuned with the transform-limited bandwidth (for example, a linewidth of 0.02 nm). After amplification, we obtain a single short laser pulse energy up to 500 μJ at the pulsewidth of 8.2 ps.     

Amplified spontaneous emission from nitrogen laser pumped dye lasers

The nitrogen laser pumped dye laser output has been studied with emphasis on the behaviour of amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) with respect to the tuning wavelength, pump energy, dyes and their concentration and solvents. Spectral spread of ASE is narrower than fluorescence and its maximum is shifted towards the red side. However, lasing occurs beyond the ASE region. ASE is small at high gain wavelength and increases at the edges of the gain curve. Laser energy is highest at the ASE peak with minimum ASE present in the output. ASE is reduced with increased laser energy in the energy transfer dye lasers.     

Superradiant guided modes in flashlamp pumped capillary dye lasers

Superradiant self-guiding emission from capillary dye lasers is reported. Capillary cells with very small inner diameter (50–200 μm) and standard large bore (2–6 mm) flashlamps have been used. The heat released by the pumping pulse to the active medium (Rhodamine 6G in ethanol) produces a lens-like distribution of the refractive index, which in turn gives rise to low-loss guided propagation in the cell. Near-field and far-field patterns turn out to be almost uniform at low dye concentration and become markedly ring-shaped at high dye concentration, denoting the presence of ‘whispering gallery’ modes. A theoretical analysis of the mode propagation in lens-like active media is carried out, and the field intensity distribution of Gaussian modes are evaluated for some cases of interest. The mode selection mechanism which determines the excitation of the modes is discussed.     

Dual picosecond dye lasers synchronously pumped by a mode locked cw yag laser

The performance of a novel dual dye laser system synchronously pumped by the frequency doubled output of a mode-locked CW-YAG laser is evaluated in relation to pulsewidth, pulse substructure, pulse spectral width and timing jitter. The behavior of the system is adequately described by a theoretical model which includes the time dependent gain and losses due to frequency bandwidth, cavity length mismatch and output coupler. The jitter is significantly reduced from that obtained with CW gas laser pumping as a result of the shorter pump pulse (50 ns instead of ≈100 ps). A routine operating condition uses 2-plate birefringen filters, 0.8 W pump power at 532 nm, to yield two 2.0 ps pulses having a cross correlation width of 3.8 ps, and 30 mW average power from each laser.     

Fiber laser pumped burst-mode operated picosecond mid-infrared laser

We demonstrate a compact periodically poled MgO-doped lithium niobate(MgO:PPLN)-based optical parametric oscillator(OPO) quasi-synchronously pumped by a fiber laser system with burst-mode operation.The pump source is a peak-power-selectable pulse-multiplied picosecond Yb fiber laser.The chirped pulses from a figure of eight-cavity modelocked fiber laser seed are narrowed to a duration of less than 50 ps using an FBG reflector and a circulator.The narrowed pulses are directed to pass through a pulse multiplier and to form pulse bunches,each of which is composed of 13 subpulses.The obtained pulse bunches are amplified by two-stage fiber pre-amplifiers:one-stage is core-pumped and the other is cladding-pumped.A fiberized acousto-optic modulator is inserted to control the pulse repetition rate(PRR) of the pulse bunches before they are power-amplified in the final amplifier stage with a large mode area(LMA) PM Yb-doped fiber.The maximum average powers from the final amplifier are 85 W,60 W,and 45 W,respectively,corresponding to the PRR of2.72 MHz,1.36 MHz,and 0.68 MHz.The amplified pulses are directed to pump an MgO:PPLN-based optical parametric oscillator(OPO).A maximum peak power at 3.45 μm is obtained approximately to be 8.4 kW.Detailed performance characteristics are presented.     

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.     

The transient regime of synchronously pumped picosecond dye lasers

Using a four-level model of the active medium, ultrashort pulse generation in the synchronously-pumped dye laser is investigated theoretically. Particular attention is paid to the transient regime in which the pump pulse train is relatively short. On the basis of these calculations a stable generator of tunable bandwidth-limited picosecond pulses was optimized.     

Theoretical investigation of amplified spontaneous emission with picosecond light pulses in dye solutions

The amplified spontaneous emission in dye solutions excited with intense picosecond light pulses is studied theoretically. A multi-level model is applied to take into account the effects of the various dye parameters such as ground-state absorption, stimulated emission, excited-state absorption, reabsorption and relaxations from populated excited levels. The influence of the pump laser duration and intensity and of the dye concentration and sample length is investigated. Optimum situations are derived for the generation of intense picosecond light pulses at new frequencies by amplified spontaneous emission. On the other hand, conditions are found where amplification of spontaneous emission may be neglected. The analysis allows the determination of unknown dye parameters by comparing the calculations with the experiment.     

Pulse structure studies and absolute cavity length determination for a synchronously pumped picosecond dye laser

Second harmonic cross correlation functions of a pulse with its near neighbor have been studied in a synchronously pumped cw dye laser. Measurements were made both as a function of dye laser cavity length mismatch and the number of cavity round trips separating the correlated pulses. The pulse envelope is found to have a characteristic interpulse frequency determined by the pump laser, whereas the pulse substructure has a characteristic frequency determined by the dye laser cavity length. The cross correlation measurements allow experimental determination of the dye laser length corresponding to exact synchrony. In contrast to theoretical predictions the length of exact synchrony corresponds to optimum pulse shape and duration. Our results are discussed in terms of a simple model which leads to pulse duration estimates as much as twice those obtained by conventional analysis of autocorrelation traces.     

Amplification of picosecond dye laser pulses

Small signal and saturated gains of picosecond pulses in Rhodamine dye amplifiers have been measured. A 17 cm amplifier produces a maximum small signal gain of ≈20, and with three amplifiers in series, peak pulse powers of > 3 GW are obtained. Mode-locking of Rhodamine 6G in the spectral range 575–600 nm is improved by employing DQOCI as saturable absorber.     

Two independently tunable distributed feedback dye lasers pumped by a single picosecond Nd : YAG laser

A laser system which consists of two independently tunable Distributed Feedback Dye Lasers (DFDL) pumped by 35 ps pulses at the second and third harmonics of a Nd : YAG laser is presented. The DFDLs employ a new grating-prism configuration for producing the gain grating in the laser dye solution. Thus easy switching of the pump wavelength is possible. Details of construction and characteristics of operation are reported. Examples of continuous computer controlled tuning from 400 to 750 nm are shown. The pulse durations, which are of the order of 12 ps, are discussed by comparison with experimental and theoretical data from the literature.Prof. F.P. Schäfer on the occasion of his 65th birthday.     

Transform-limited behavior from the synchronously pumped cw dye laser

We report for the first time transform limited behavior from the picosecond synchronously pumped cw dye laser. This is accomplished by the use of an inexpensive, low-loss intra-cavity etalon. The Fourier relationship between pulse frequency width and time duration is shown to be obeyed quantitatively at three different wavelengths. The pulse profile changes as a function of wavelength and does not follow an analytical functionality at any wavelength studied. For each wavelength, the optical cavity length producing transform limited pulses is shown to be the same.     

Simple picosecond dye laser system pumped by a frequency doubled,optically compressed Q-switched mode-locked Nd:YAG laser

Using the frequency doubled output of the 3 ps pulses from a temporally compressed cw Q-switched and mode-locked Nd:YAG laser, a simple synchronously pumped dye laser was constructed to give frequency tunable operation with short pulses in the 5–10 ps range and peak powers of ～ 15 kW. A circularly scanning streak camera operating in stroboscopic mode was also used to examine pulse formation in the dye laser.     

Properties of two-photon absorption-induced cavity lasing of an organic dye HEASPI pumped by picosecond infrared laser beam

The first operation of cavity lasing of a two-photon absorption (TPA) organic dye, trans-4-[p-(N-ethyl-N-hydroxyethylamino) styryl]-N-methylpyridinium iodide (HEASPI), by using picosecond infrared laser as pump source is reported in this paper. Temporal profile of cavity lasing shows obvious oscillations, and magnification of the feedback light can be obtained. By using the difference of re-absorption coefficient at different conditions, we explained the blue shift for cavity lasing and superradiance compared with TPA-induced fluorescence. The lifetime of TPA-induced fluorescence is measured to be 134 ps.     

Experimental and theoretical investigation of tunable picosecond pulse generation in longitudinally pumped dye laser generators and amplifiers

Picosecond pulse generation in longitudinally pumped dye laser generators and amplifiers is studied experimentally and theoretically. Frequency-tunable pulses between 720 and 940 nm are generated with a picosecond ruby laser pump source. The amplification of spontaneous emission and of seeding pulses in the generator and amplifier cells is investigated. Stimulated emission cross-sections and excited-state absorption cross-sections are determined by computer simulations. The coherence properties of the generated radiation are analysed. Resonance Raman contributions are resolved.