Wavefront evolution of the signal beam in Ti:sapphire chirped pulse amplifier

We studied the evolution of wavefront aberration(WFA) of a signal beam during amplification in a Ti:sapphire chirped pulse amplification(CPA) system. The results verified that the WFA of the amplified laser beam has little relation with the change of the pump beam energies. Transverse parasitic lasing that might occur in CPA hardly affects the wavefront of the signal beam. Thermal effects were also considered in this study, and the results show that the thermal effect cumulated in multiple amplification processes also has no obvious influence on the wavefront of the signal beam for a single-shot frequency. The results presented in this paper confirmed experimentally that the amplification in a Ti:sapphire CPA system has little impact on the WFA of the signal beam and it is very helpful for wavefront correction of single-shot PW and multi-PW laser systems based on Ti:sapphire.     

高功率二极管端泵浦板条模块波前畸变实验研究

二极管激光器阵列端泵浦Nd:YAG板条具有热效应低、波前畸变小的特点,温度场和应力场的不均匀是引起板条增益介质波前畸变的主要原因。对端泵浦传导冷却Nd:YAG板条增益模块的泵浦和冷却均匀性进行了优化设计,获得了板条激光增益模块静态波前畸变最大偏差（PV）值为0.22 m。该模块用于双通放大器实验装置中,测试了板条增益模块有无注入功率条件下的波前畸变,测得无注入功率波前畸变PV值为3.49 m,能量提取后波前畸变PV值为3.41 m。在注入功率3120 W时,获得输出激光功率4660 W,光束质量为3.88倍衍射极限,该模块光光效率为27%。     

Gaussian- versus flat-top-pumping of a mid-IR ZGP RISTRA OPO

The influence of the pump intensity profile on the performance of a mid-IR ZGP RISTRA OPO at 6.45???m is studied for a flat-top pump profile and compared to a Gaussian pump distribution at the same pump peak fluence of 0.81?J/cm². Due to a coherent beam transformation a flat-top pump beam with a plane wavefront and excellent beam quality of M ²??1.25 is generated. The output of up to 5?mJ pulse idler energy (0.5?W average idler power) is identical in both cases, showing that flat-top pumping allows a reduction of the OPO crystal volume by 55?% while still maintaining a good output beam quality of M ²<2.7 for the idler and M ²<2.5 for the signal. The experimental results are compared to the SNLO RISTRA model and the limitations of the model are discussed.     

抽运光波前畸变对拍瓦激光器前端OPA光束质量的影响

数值模拟了拍瓦激光器前端非共线光参变放大(OPA)过程中存在波前畸变的抽运光对信号光光束质量的影响.结果表明,当抽运光光束波前存在严重畸变时,衍射效应和走离效应通过不同的物理机制导致了信号光光束质量的急剧下降.在导致信号光光束质量下降的过程中,走离效应在OPA未饱和放大时起着主导作用,当OPA工作在过饱和状态时,过饱和导致的信号光近场空间分布中心凹陷成为光束质量下降的主要因素.     

Harmonically pump a femtosecond optical parametric oscillator to 1.13 GHz by a femtosecond 515 nm laser

We demonstrate a harmonically pumped femtosecond optical parametric oscillator(OPO)laser using a frequency-doubled mode-locked Yb:KGW laser at a repetition rate of 75.5 MHz as the pump laser.Based on a bismuth borate nonlinear crystal,repetition rates up to 1.13 GHz are realized,which is 15 times that of the pump laser.The signal wavelength is tunable from 700 nm to 887 nm.The maximum power of the signal is 207 m W at the central wavelength of 750 nm and the shortest pulse duration is 117 fs at 780 nm.The beam quality(M^2 factor)in the horizontal and vertical directions of the output beam are 1.077 and 1.141,respectively.     

Phase conjugated wavefronts by stimulated brillouin and Raman scattering

Experimental investigations were made of wavefront reproduction (WFR) by backward stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) and backward stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) in CS₂ with a linearly polarized ruby pump beam. The experimental studies were carried out as a function of the optical waveguide diameter and photographic records comparing the pump beam with the backscattered SBS and SRS beams are presented. In all of the cases studied there was a high degree of replication between the SBS and pump beams; however, a deterioration in the quality of the replicated SRS beam was observed, and it increased as the cross-sectional area of the waveguide increased.     

Optical phase conjugation by resonant degenerate four-wave mixing in liquid phase medium

In this paper, frequency-doubled Nd:YAG laser's phase conjugation has been investigated experimentally using resonant degenerate four-wave mixing (DFWM). The iodine solution was used as resonant medium. In this way, the energy of the DFWM phase conjugation beam arrived at 43μJ/pulse while the total pump beam's energy reached 8mJ/pulse. The relation between the pulse energy of the DFWM phase conjugation beam and that of the pump beam was investigated. We also measured the optical field distributions of pump beam and DFWM phase conjugation beam, from which it can be noticed that the DFWM phase conjugation can improve the laser beam quality. At the same time, we observed the influence of the pump beam's disturbance on the DFWM signal.     

1.5 J high-beam-quality Nd:LuAG ceramic active mirror laser amplifier

A 1.5 J Nd:LuAG ceramic active mirror laser amplifier with a high beam quality is demonstrated in which a 0.8%(atomic fraction)Nd-doped Nd:LuAG ceramic disk with a diameter of 64 mm and a thickness of 5.5 mm is used as a laser gain medium.A maximum single-pass small-signal gain of 2.59 is measured when the pump energy is 11.5 J,with an injected seed energy of 0.4 J;a maximum output energy of 1.5 J is obtained at the repetition rate of 10 Hz.A far-field beam spot 1.25 times the diffraction limit(DL)is achieved by using a stimulated Brillouin scattering phase conjugation mirror(SBS-PCM)for wavefront correction.     

Simple Nd:YAG laser generates vector and vortex beam

We report a simple Nd:YAG laser that emits radially polarized beam with helical wavefront. The laser cavity consists of a piece of laser crystal and a plane output coupler, and there is no additional polarization component inside it. The pump light is converted into annular profile through de-focal coupling into a multi-mode fiber. For the continuous-wave(CW) operation, the laser emits radially polarized vortex beam, and it is observed that the helical wavefront of the laser beam is switched from right handedness to left handedness when the output coupler is tilted slightly. For the Q-switched operation under the insertion of a Cr4t:YAG saturable absorber inside the cavity, we obtain radially polarized outputs with left-handedness helical wavefront. By tilting the laser crystal slightly, the laser output switches to azimuthal polarization at pump power larger than 4.5 W and left-handedness helical wavefront of laser beam is preserved.     

High-frequency phase recovery of distorted wavefront and analysis on phase correction effect

By constructing a distorted wavefront with random phase screen, the correction process of distorted wavefront has been simulated, and the correction effect of deformable mirror has been simulated and analyzed with the method of high-pass filtering. The variations of correction effect and high-frequency phase distortion have been quantitatively analyzed. The results show that the beam quality of the corrected beam degrades obviously with the increase of high-frequency phase. In addition, a new method has been presented to recover the high-frequency phase of distorted wavefront according to the given intensity distribution and low-frequency phase in near field and the intensity distribution in far field. It shows that the method is very effective to recover the high-frequency phase of distorted wavefront.     

曲率波前传感器探测高斯光束时的信号误差

曲率波前传感器已被用于天文自适应光学和光学度量等领域。在这些领域使用时都假设入射波前光强均匀,但这种假设与曲率传感技术的基本原理不一致。利用傅里叶光学理论,给出了光强不均匀情况下曲率波前传感器的曲率信号解析式,并利用光强均匀和不均匀情况下的信号表达式对探测高斯光束时的信号误差进行了数值分析。结果表明：曲率波前传感器探测高斯光束时存在一定误差,相位分布为4阶Zernike多项式时,误差最大,且阶数越高,误差越小;分区平均曲率信号误差较小,一般在10％以下。     

Nd:YAG薄片激光器热致波前畸变

 理论分析了激光二极管端面泵浦薄片Nd:YAG 激光器的激光介质热效应对波前相位分布的影响，给出了薄片激光器波前热畸变的计算公式。数值模拟了理想均匀泵浦及4阶超高斯泵浦下的波前分布，分析了介质厚度和泵浦均匀性与波前畸变量的关系。研究表明，介质越薄，激光泵浦光均匀性越好，泵浦功率密度越小，激光波前畸变越小；与介质厚度、泵浦功率密度相比，泵浦光光强分布对波前的影响更为显著。     

Dynamic wavefront-conjugating mirror based on CdF2 crystals with bistable in centers

The wavefront reversal upon degenerate four-wave interaction in a CdF₂ crystal with bistable In centers is experimentally investigated using a pulsed ruby laser as a pump source. The reflectance and operating speed of the wavefront-conjugating mirror are measured and the quality of the reflected wave, as well as of the compensation of model phase distortions, is estimated. An operating speed of about 15 ns is obtained for such a mirror with a reflectance of up to 2% at room temperature. Compensation of model large-scale distortions yields a gain in the beam divergence of 20 and a quality of compensation of 1.05.     

用于超快束匀滑的动态波前调控新方案

提出了利用光克尔效应实现激光束波前动态调控,进而实现焦斑超快束匀滑(ps量级)的方案,其原理是利用抽运光动态改变光克尔介质的折射率分布,以对透射主激光束附加时空耦合的动态波前,进而使激光束在靶面的焦斑散斑产生更加快速、多样的变化,最终实现焦斑的超快束匀滑.当抽运光时间波形为高斯脉冲序列,且以小角度倾斜入射至光克尔介质时,由于抽运光和光克尔介质对主激光附加随时间横向移动的周期性球面相位,且球面相位的幅值随时间不断变化,因而可以同步实现激光束焦面散斑的横向和径向超快速扫动,从而更为有效地改善靶面辐照均匀性.     

Dependency of injection seeding and spectral purity of a single resonant KTP optical parametric oscillator on the phase matching condition

For spectroscopic and remote sensing applications injection seeded optical parametric oscillators (OPOs) are well established. In this paper we study the dependencies of signal resonant injection seeding of an OPO on its resonator length, phase matching angle and pump power in detail. The quality of the seeding process is assessed by stabilising the seed laser on a molecular absorption line of water vapour and using a water vapour absorption cell as a narrow bandwidth filter for the injection seeded radiation. A reduction of the acceptance of injection seeding is observed with increasing pump power. For small phase mismatch injection seeding with a spectral purity of 99.7% was observed at 13-fold OPO threshold. A signal pulse energy of 38 mJ with 50% pump depletion was achieved with a beam parameter M² of about 6. PACS 42.65.Yj; 42.79.Nv; 42.79.Qx     

相位共轭谐振腔改善激光器波前像差特性研究

在高功率激光器中采用相位共轭谐振腔技术可以补偿动态波前像差,在校正畸变的输出光束方面有极其重要的应用。分析了相位共轭腔的模式结构特性及稳定性,在实际高功率激光器中采用相位共轭谐振腔,使得激光系统的光束质量得到了极大改善。通过实验数据分析,提出在激光器系统中描述光束质量只用PV值和RMS值来量度是不足的,并利用结合光束环围能量分布图像和平均离焦系数来评价系统光束质量。实验结果表明,采用相位共轭谐振腔使得焦平面环围能量更为集中,同时平均离焦系数更接近零,结合上述方法评价系统光束质量更具实际意义。     

光束束宽对自散焦介质中诱导光束聚焦的影响

影响自散焦介质中诱导光束聚焦过程的方程参量和初始条件共有5个，即两光束波长比(方程参量)、抽运光和信号光的初始振幅、两光束初始束宽比和两光束中心初始间距。通过数值计算讨论了初始束宽比在不同初始光束间距和波长比情况下对信号光聚焦过程的影响，得到了信号光聚焦效果的最佳初始参量条件。从而实现了对影响自散焦介质中诱导光束聚焦过程5个参量的完整详细研究。     

Temporal investigation of phase conjugation,with enhancement,in magnesium tetraphenyl porphyrin (MgTPP)

Phase conjugate reflection from magnesium tetraphenyl porphyrin (MgTPP, toluene) is reported. The time dependence of the phase conjugate signal was investigated for conditions of optically delayed counter-propagating pump wavefront, and enhancement (～300%) of the reflection was observed for optical delays of ～0.7 ns. Similar experiments were performed with DODCI (3,3′-diethyloxadicarbocyanine iodide) and comparison of the results is discussed.     

Feedback method of the noise suppression in wave-mixing amplifiers based on non-linear materials with photorefractive response in a reflection grating configuration

In the photorefractive wave-mixing system, fluctuation in the signal beam intensity of the photorefractive output with a reflection grating has been analyzed by employing pump feedback method. In this method, fluctuations of the photorefractive wave-mixing process not only induce the intensity fluctuation of the mixing waves but also induce phase fluctuation of the mixing waves. Thus, the phase of the pump and signal beams at the output surface fluctuates in time around a mean value. Using such a positive feedback method of a pump beams, the relative fluctuation in the photorefractive output signal beam intensity with respect to its mean intensity can be minimized significantly without reducing its mean intensity. The factors that control the fluctuation in the signal beam intensity, such as the phase fluctuation of the output pump beam, absorption strength of the material and the feedback reflectivity of the cavity mirrors, on the relative fluctuation of the output signal intensity in the photorefractive wave-mixing systems have been studied in detail. It has been found that the fluctuation of the output signal intensity relative to its mean intensity in the photorefractive wave-mixing system can be suppressed to larger extent by taking lower value of feedback reflectivity of the cavity mirrors which could exist at a higher value of absorption strength of the photorefractive materials.     

封闭管道中热耦合效应对激光传输的影响

建立了封闭竖直管道热耦合效应物理模型,采用流固耦合方法,数值模拟了封闭管道中介质气体、光学玻璃之间的热相互作用造成流场分布的变化,研究了热耦合作用对近场波前相差和远场光束质量的影响。数值模拟结果表明,光束质量可以由封闭管道内介质气体温度分布来决定,气体在管道内流动改变温度分布,使得相差分布不断变化,造成远场光束质量的振荡起伏;光学镜与介质气体热相互作用对流场分布有较大影响,尤其是竖直管道底部的光学镜对激光束远场光束质量影响明显。热耦合效应放大了光束质量的变化:当介质模型中光束质量变差,热耦合模型中热耦合效应使光束质量变得更差;当介质模型中光束质量变好,耦合模型中的热耦合作用使光束质量变得更好,即光束质量随着流场分布的变化而振荡。