Absolute frequency spectroscopy of CO2 lines at around 2.09 μm by combined use of an Er:fiber comb and a Ho:YLF amplifier

The low-frequency tail of an octave-spanning supercontinuum (SC) generated by an Er:fiber comb is enhanced by a multipass Ho:YLF amplifier and used in a sum-frequency-generation scheme to obtain absolute referencing of a single-mode Tm-Ho:YAG laser tunable around 2.09 μm. By tuning the comb repetition frequency, the probing laser is scanned across the absorption lines of a CO(2) gas sample and highly accurate absorption profiles are measured. This approach can be readily scaled to any wavelength above ~2 μm.     

Passive mode locking of an in-band-pumped Ho:YLiF4 laser at 2.06 μm

We demonstrate the passive mode-locking operation of an in-band-pumped Ho:YLiF(4) laser at 2.06 μm using a semiconductor saturable absorber mirror based on InGaAsSb quantum wells. A transform-limited pulse train with minimum duration of 1.1 ps and average power of 0.58 W has been obtained at a repetition frequency of 122 MHz. A maximum output power of 1.7 W has been generated with a corresponding pulse duration of 1.9 ps.     

Tm：Ho：YLF Amplifiers at 2.049 μm with a Tm：Ho：GdVO4 Oscillator

We report cw diode-pumped cryogenic Tm:Ho:YLF amplifiers at 2.049μm with a Tm:Ho:GdVO4 oscillator. Not only the single- and double-pass, but also the single- and double-end pump amplifiers with a 10-mm-length medium are compared. A measured maximum small-gain coetfficient of 1.3 cm^-1 is achieved for the double-pass and double-end pump amplifier. The maximum extracted power of 8.5 W, the gain of 3.2 and extracted etfficiency of 32% have been obtained with an input signal power of 3.9 W. The difference of the hosts in the oscillator and amplifier has little influence on the characteristic of the amplifier output. Additionally, the extracted etfficiency of the quasi-continuous-wave amplifier with a repetition rate of 10kHz is the same as the cw one.     

Generation of 400 μW at 17.5 μm using a two-color Yb fiber chirped pulse amplifier

We have demonstrated the generation of 400 μW of power at ~18 μm by difference-frequency mixing the 1038 and 1105 nm from a two-color, chirped pulse amplification Yb fiber system. A two-color seed is selected from a continuum source and amplified to 300 mW of total power in a two-stage Yb fiber amplifier.     

Compact fibre-laser-pumped Ho:YLF oscillator–amplifier system

We developed a compact Ho:YLF oscillator–amplifier system in a novel setup to utilise the unpolarised pump power from a fibre laser efficiently, and produced 21.3 mJ at 1 kHz, with an M ² better than 1.1. The amplified energies agreed well with the predicted values from a two dimensional rotational symmetric amplifier model that we developed. The model considers upconversion losses and ground-state depletion, as well as the spatial distribution of the pump beam.     

Diode-pumped single frequency Tm,Ho:YLF laser at room temperature

Solid-state lasers operating in 2-μm waveband are the subject of much interest[1-8], as this is an eye-safe wave- band that offers the possibility of atmospheric propa- gation for applications such as range-finding, coherent laser radar, and atmospheric sensing. Coherent detec- tion techniques require a single frequency laser source. Izawa et al. carried out the experiments on the lasing performance of Tm,Ho:YLF microchip laser with an ex- ternal etalon, and achieved an output power of 27 m…     

Frequency stabilization of a single-frequency volume Bragg grating-based short-cavity Tm:Ho:YLF laser to a CO2 line at 2.06?μm

This study presents a 2.06???m single-frequency tunable volume Bragg grating (VBG)-based short-cavity Tm:Ho:YLF laser. A mode-hop-free tuning range of 10?GHz at a few hundred mW output power was achieved. The first-derivative spectrum of the CO₂ 20013??00001 R(4) absorption line with a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of 1,000/Hz^1/2 was obtained using frequency modulation and fluorescence detection. The laser frequency can be stabilized to the CO₂ line with a stability of 3?×?10^?9.     

Tunable CW Tm,Ho:YLF laser at 2μm

A tunable continuous wave (CW) low temperature operating Tm (6 at.-%),Ho (0.6 at.-%):YLF laser pumped by fiber-coupled diode laser is reported. The maximum output power is 4.16 W at 2073 nm by use of 30% output coupling, the slope efficiency is 33%. A tuning range from 2049 to 2081 nm is achieved with a birefringent filter (BF). The factors that contribute to the output power and tuning range are discussed.     

Fiber-based optical frequency comb at 3.3 μm for broadband spectroscopy of hydrocarbons [Invited]

A 125 MHz fiber-based frequency comb source in the mid-infrared wavelength region is presented. The source is based on difference frequency generation from a polarization-maintaining Er-doped fiber pump laser and covers a spectrum between2900 cm~(-1) and 3400 cm~(-1) with a simultaneous bandwidth of 170 cm~(-1) and an average output power up to 70 m W. The source is equipped with actuators and active feedback loops, ensuring long-term stability of the repetition rate, output power, and spectral envelope. An absorption spectrum of ethane and methane was measured using a Fourier transform spectrometer to verify the applicability of the mid-infrared comb to multispecies detection. The robustness and good long-and short-term stability of the source make it suitable for optical frequency comb spectroscopy of hydrocarbons.     

Diode-pumped room temperature single longitudinal mode lasing of Tm,Ho:YLF microchip laser at 2050.5 μm

Room-temperature operation of a single longitudinal-mode c-cut Tm(6%), Ho(0.4%):YLF microchip laser is reported. An incident pump power of 713 mW is used to generate the maximum single-frequency output power of 17 mW at 2050.5 nm, which corresponds to the slope efficiency of 10%.     

Absolute frequency measurement of a water-stabilized diode laser at 1.384?��m by means of a fiber frequency comb

We report on the absolute frequency measurement of an extended-cavity diode laser stabilized against a Doppler-free vibration?Crotation transition of the H₂ ¹⁸O isotopologue near 1.384???m. Absolute determination is performed by comparing the water-stabilized laser frequency with respect to a GPS-disciplined Rb microwave standard by means of a self-referenced fiber-based optical frequency comb. The line center frequency of the 2_2,1??2_2,0 transition of the H₂ ¹⁸O ??₁+??₃ combination band is found to be 216?519?045?955(13)?kHz.     

High-efficiency continuous-wave diode-pumped Tm:Ho:LuAG laser at 2.1 μm

Continuous Wave (CW) laser action has been observed from a Ho:Tm:LuAG rod at 2.1 m pumped by a diode laser at 785 nm in the temperature range of 77–200 K. The maximum power observed was 1.38 W at an incident power of 4 W at a crystal temperature of 77 K. The optical-to-optical conversion efficiency was observed to be 35.6% at a threshold power of 0.2 W with a 95% output coupling mirror.     

Dependence of Er:Yb-codoped 1.5 μm amplifier on wavelength-tuned auxiliary seed signal at 1 μm wavelength

We report on experiments performed with a cladding-pumped single-mode Er:Yb-codoped single-frequency fiber amplifier simultaneously seeded by a distributed-feedback diode at 1556 nm and a tunable external-cavity diode laser emitting at a wavelength of about 1 μm wavelength. The influence of the output wavelength of the external-cavity laser on amplification and reabsorption behavior of the Yb emission as well as the amplifier performance at a wavelength of 1556 nm is examined experimentally.     

Graphene oxide for diode-pumped Tm:YLF passively Q-switched laser at 2 μm

A diode-pumped Tm:YLF passively Q-switched laser at 2 μm was first demonstrated by using graphene oxide(GO) as a saturable absorber(SA).In this letter,continuous-wave(CW) laser and pulse laser performances were studied meticulously and systematically.It reasonably showed the dependence of the pulse duration,pulse energy,and pulse repetition rate on the absorbed power.A maximum repetition rate of 38.33 kHz and a single pulse energy of 9.89 μJ were obtained.     

Picosecond optical switching of a 1.5 μm active birefringent optical fiber loop filter using 1.3 μm control optical pulses and a 1.3 μm semiconductor optical amplifier

Less than 100ps, polarization-independent switching operation of an active birefringent optical fiber loop filter using 1.3 μm control optical pulses as well as a 1.3 μm semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) has been demonstrated. In the proposed SOA-based active birefringent filter operating at 1.55 μm wavelength, 1.3 μm SOA is employed to control the polarization-mode dispersion in the loop part. By injecting 1.3 μm ps gain-switched optical control pulses into the SOA, 1.5 μm input signals can be switched from the transmission port to the reflection port with less than 100 ps rise time.     

Photon-number-resolving detection at 1.04 μm via coincidence frequency upconversion

We demonstrate photon-number-resolving detection based on coincidence frequency upconversion. Pumped by synchronized pulses, the photon signal of the coherent state at 1.04 μm was upconverted into visible replicas with preserved photon number distribution. The upconverted photons were then registered by a silicon multipixel photon counter. The photon-number-resolving performance was improved by reducing the background counts with a synchronous pump as the coincidence gate and reducing the intrinsic parametric fluorescence influence with long-wavelength pumping. A total detection efficiency of 3.7% was achieved with a quite low noise probability per pulse of 0.0002.     

A cw room-temperature Ho,Tm:YLF laser pumped at 1.682 μm

We present the results obtained with a Ho,Tm:YLF crystal grown at a new crystal growth facility in Pisa. The optical quality of the sample has been tested by studying its performance as the active medium of a laser operating at 2.06 μm. We employed three different pump laser sources: a Ti:sapphire, a diode (both tuned at 793 nm) and, for the first time, a continuous-wave Co:MgF₂ laser, tuned at 1.682 μm. At room temperature the best slope efficiency was 30 % in the case of “red” pumping, and 59 % in the case of “infrared” excitation. The typical lasing threshold is about 100 mW. Received: 14 March 2001 / Revised version: 15 June 2001 / Published online: 19 September 2001     

3.6-W cryogenic Tm,Ho:YLF laser pumped by fiber-coupled diodes module

In this paper, we report a high power cryogenic cooling Tm(6 at.-%),Ho(0.5 at.-%):YLF laser end-pumped by a 19-fiber-coupled-diodes module with the central wavelength of 792 nm at 20°. The highest continuous-wave power of 3.6 W at 2.051 μm is attained under pumping power of 13.6 W, corresponding to optical-optical conversion efficiency of 26%, and the slope efficiency is larger than 30%. The threshold power is only about 0.16 W because of the long lifetime, large effective emission cross section, and low re-absorption in Tm,Ho:YLF crystal.     

10-mJ optically synchronized CEP-stable chirped parametric amplifier at 1.5 μm

We demonstrate the generation of 10-mJ 1.5-μm few-cycle pulses from a 4-stage OPCPA system. The system is based on a fusion of femtosecond DPSS Yb technology and a picosecond Nd:YAG pump laser. In a first preliminary filamentation experiment in argon at 5 atm, we observe significant spectral broadening of the recompressed multi-mJ 1.5-μm pulses. The filamentation output spectrum supports the generation of 8 fs pulses equivalent to sub-to-cycle pulses at 1.5 μm. We foresee that our terawatt-peak-power sub-to-cycle pulse source will open the door to exciting new experiments in attosecond high-field science in the near future.

     

Measurements of CO2 in a multipass cell and in a hollow-core photonic bandgap fiber at 2 μm

Recently, hollow-core photonic bandgap fibers (HC-PBFs) for use in the 2 μm wavelength region have become available. We have employed tunable diode laser absorption spectroscopy (TDLAS) to quantify CO₂ in nitrogen, injected into a HC-PBF. Our spectrometer contains both an HC-PBF-based absorption cell and an astigmatic Herriott multipass gas cell. The Herriott cell was used for comparison with the HC-PBF cell. The HC-PBF cell’s sensitivity and limit of detection were calculated to be 3.5×10^?4 cm^?1?Hz^?1/2 and 59 ppm?m, respectively. To substantiate the spectrometer performance, a measurement was done in the Herriott cell probing a reference gas mixture with nominal 400 μmol/mol CO₂ in N₂. The spectrometric results were in good agreement with the reference value. The relative standard uncertainty of the spectrometric result was found to be at the ±2 % level.