Reaching the nonlinear regime of Raman amplification of ultrashort laser pulses

The intensity of a subpicosecond laser pulse was amplified by a factor of up to 1000 using the Raman backscatter interaction in a 2 mm long gas jet plasma. The process of Raman amplification reached the nonlinear regime, with the intensity of the amplified pulse exceeding that of the pump pulse by more than an order of magnitude. Features unique to the nonlinear regime such as gain saturation, bandwidth broadening, and pulse shortening were observed. Simulation and theory are in qualitative agreement with the measurements.     

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.     

Superradiant linear Raman amplification in plasma using a chirped pump pulse

A theoretical and numerical investigation of small-signal Raman backscattering from a chirped pump pulse in plasma shows that an ultrashort probe pulse will grow superradiantly, i.e., with an amplitude that scales with the propagation length while contracting self-similarly. These features are commonly associated with the nonlinear stages of Raman amplification in the pump depletion and Compton regimes. We show that the superradiant scaling results in very broad-bandwidth amplification due to gain distributed in frequency as well as spatially. Since different frequencies excite the plasma at different positions, wave breaking is avoided, and prepulses and pedestals are substantially suppressed. Linear chirped pulse amplification in plasma could provide a very broad-bandwidth alternative to solid state laser amplifiers, potentially usable for optical pulses a few cycles in duration.     

水中受激布里渊散射微弱Stokes信号光的高增益放大

采用脉冲宽度为7.2 ns的种子光注入式倍频Nd:YAG脉冲激光器,以CS₂为放大介质,实验并理论研究了水中受激布里渊散射微弱Stokes光的信号增益随延迟时间、放大器池长、抽运光能量的变化规律. 结果表明,当抽运光脉冲相对信号光脉冲延迟进入放大器,且延迟时间为脉冲宽度的一半,抽运光能量略低于介质受激布里渊散射阈值,选择合适的放大器池长可获得最佳的信号增益. 适当选择抽运光能量,亦可实现微弱信号光的线性放大. 实验中采用独立双池放大系统,当水中Stokes信号光的能量为1 pJ时,信 关键词： 布里渊放大器 信号增益 延迟时间 抽运光能量     

Generation of synchronized signal and pump pulses for an optical parametric chirped pulse amplification based multi-terawatt Nd:glass laser system

Synchronized signal (650 ps) and pump (1.3 ns) pulses were generated using 4-pass geometry in a grating pair based pulse stretcher unit. The pump pulse has been further amplified in a high gain regenerative amplifier. This amplified pulse was used as the pump in an optical parametric chirped pulse amplification based Nd:glass laser system. As the chirped signal pulse and the pump pulse originated from the same oscillator, the time jitter between the pump pulse and the signal pulse can be <50 ps.     

Amplification of short laser pulses by Raman backscattering in capillary plasmas

Short laser pulses can be significantly amplified in the process of Raman backscattering in plasma inside an oversized dielectric capillary. A dielectric capillary allows obtaining high intensities of the output radiation by sustaining efficient amplification at large distances compared to the diffraction length. The efficiency of the interaction between the pump wave and the amplified pulse is shown not to be critically sensitive to the transverse structure of the wave fields. For a quasi-single-mode initial seed pulse and a low pump intensity, the amplified pulse tends to preserve its transverse structure due to nonlinear competition of the capillary eigen-modes. At a high power of the pump wave, multimode amplification always takes place but the growth of the front peak of the pulse still follows the one-dimensional model. The Raman backscattering instability of the pump wave resulting in the noise amplification can be suppressed in detuned interaction by chirping the pump wave or arranging an inhomogeneous plasma density profile along the trace of amplification. The efficiency of the desired pulse amplification does not significantly depend on detuning in the case of a smooth detuning profile. Density inhomogeneities are shown to exert less influence on the amplification within a capillary than in the one-dimensional problem. Parameters of a future experiment on the Raman amplification of a short laser pulse inside a capillary are proposed.     

Parametric amplification of chirped optical pulses under pump depletion

We present simple analytical solutions of coupled wave equations describing chirped pulse parametric amplification under pump depletion. The evolution of the duration and spectrum of amplified pulses in OPA pumped by Gaussian and supergaussian pulses has been investigated both numerically and analytically. Also, the dependence of the energy conversion efficiency from pump to signal was determined for a range of parameter values, and an optimum ratio of signal and pump pulse durations was evaluated.     

Parametric amplification in a microstructure fiber

We report an observation of parametric amplification with a gain greater than 30 dB in a 1.7-m microstructure fiber. It is found that there exists a peak pump power P_s. For peak pump powers less than P_s, the amplified twin (signal: longer wavelength, and idler: shorter wavelength) pulses are highly correlated, and the bandwidth of the amplified signal pulse broadens monotonically with pump power. For peak pump powers exceeding P_s, the correlation between the amplified twin pulses drops when the pump power increases, the bandwidth of the amplified signal pulse becomes narrower when the pump power increases, and the central wavelength of the amplified signal (idler) pulse shifts towards longer (shorter) wavelength, respectively, due to phase matching. PACS 42.65.Yj     

Investigation on competition between the input signal and noise in a Brillouin amplifier

We theoretically and experimentally investigate the competition mechanism between the input signal and noise in a Brillouin amplifier, and the influence of the delay time of the pump pulse relative to the signal pulse on this competition. Results show that as the input signal intensity increases, the amplified Brillouin scattering (ABS) noise gradually weakens, while the signal amplification predominates. When the ratio of the input signal to the pump intensity is greater than 10⁻⁴, the ABS noise will be almost completely suppressed. The delay time should be controlled as the pump pulse half-width to achieve high signal-noise-ratio and high amplification.     

Improvement of contrast ratio in saturated OPCPA system by using pump pulse shaping and time delay control

We theoretically investigated the temporal profile of a background pedestal in a single-stage optical parametric chirped pulse amplification (OPCPA) system, and showed that the amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) prepulse in the saturation regime degrades the contrast ratio. To improve the contrast ratio in a saturated OPCPA system, a method using pump pulse shaping and the time delay control between pump and seed pulses was utilized. Through numerical simulations, the effect of the rising time and the time delay of a pump pulse on the background pedestal was subsequently investigated in terms of the contrast ratio. From the simulation results, it was determined that an optimal rising time and the time delay of the pump pulse are critical for obtaining a high-contrast broadband laser pulse from a saturated OPCPA system.     

Raman amplification and optical short pulse generation in a waveguide with periodic gain

In this paper a new configuration of amplification is proposed for Raman amplification. In this new configuration a spatial periodic Raman gain is used to amplify a CW Raman seed that generates a short optical pulse taking into account the SPM, XPM, walk-off and pulse depletion. The amplification process is accomplished by using an intense pump pulse where its energy is transferred through SRS effect. A CW weak seed is used to represent the signal to be amplified and for pump is used a Gaussian pulse. We discuss the advantages to this configuration. First, this scheme means that the Raman-gain coefficient assumes a periodic characteristic and like a modulation process, it gives possibility to control the energy transfer from the pump to Raman seed. Second, the efficient use of the parameters of the periodic Raman coefficient function, like amplitude and frequency of the modulation, can result in a more efficient control of the signal amplification. This new configuration provides some very interesting features in the Raman amplification process when compared to the standard procedure. A complete discussion of this configuration is presented.     

光参量啁啾脉冲放大中时间同步抖动对增益稳定性的影响

 在考虑了光参量啁啾脉冲放大中的脉冲波形、相位失配和时间同步抖动情况下,给出了计算光参量啁啾脉冲放大增益特性更为完善的三波耦合理论模型。并在1 ns的时间同步抖动情况下,对比分析了光参量放大在小信号放大及饱和放大时的增益稳定性。光参量放大的时间同步抖动对增益影响非常大,使放大信号光脉冲的增益光谱发生了明显的偏移,波形不对称和整个增益降低;并且信号光光谱越宽,光参量放大间的时间同步抖动对其增益影响越严重;但随着参量放大增益饱和的出现和加深,信号光和抽运光之间的同步时间抖动对放大信号光的输出强度影响减弱,即在饱和放大处可以获得更稳定的放大信号光输出。     

光参量啁啾脉冲放大增益特性研究

 通过对非线性三波耦合方程组进行数值求解，研究了光参量放大的增益特性及饱和放大特性。给出了泵浦光、信号光参数对参量增益的影响及其与晶体饱和长度的关系。且OPA具有传统CPA系统所不具有的优点，将有可能取代传统的CPA系统而作为超短超强激光系统的新型前端。     

High power pulse amplification of ytterbium-doped double-clad fiber amplifier

By solving a set of time-dependent equations, the characteristics of the ytterbium-doped double-clad fiber amplifier are presented. Besides the steady state in the fiber of the upper-state population, pump power and amplified spontaneous emission without the input signal, the dynamic characteristics of the high power Gaussian pulse amplification like the evolution of pulse waveform distortion, upper-state population distribution and stored energy and pulse energy of the amplifier under the forward and backward pump,are simulated. The relations between the output pulse energy of the amplifier and the different input pulse peak power or pump power are also discussed. The models and results can provide important guide for the design and optimization of the high power pulse amplification.     

Phase matched scanning optical parametric chirped pulse amplification based on pump beam deflection

Combined with the optical beam deflection, a novel approach of phase matched broadband scanning optical parametric chirped pulse amplification(OPCPA) was proposed. For this scheme, there was no superfluous operations to the chirped signal pulse which propagated in a changeless direction straightforward, but the pump beam were deflected in space with time by passing through a KTN crystal, which was applied with varied driving voltage. The theories of phase matching of each chirped signal frequency based on pump beam deflection was analyzed detailedly. And the type-I amplification of chirped signal with 800 nm central wavelength and 20 nm bandwidth pumped by 532 nm in BBO crystal was simulated as a case in point. The simulation results showed that the spectral distribution of chirped signal pulse was almost the same as the initial form, i.e., there was nearly no narrowing on the amplified spectrum by using of the scanning OPCPA based on pump beam deflection. In addition, the simulations demonstrated that it was worth minimizing the voltage deviation applied to KTN crystal as much as possible for the sake of better waveform, larger bandwidth and higher conversion efficiency of amplified signal pulse in the proposed scanning OPCPA.     

Opto-Mechanical Effects in Superradiant Light Scattering by Bose-Einstein Condensate in an Optical Cavity

We investigate the effects of a movable mirror (cantilever) of an optical cavity on the superradiant light scattering from a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) in an optical lattice. We show that the mirror motion has a dynamic dispersive effect on the cavity-pump detuning. Varying the intensity of the pump beam, one can switch between the pure superradiant regime and the Bragg scattering regime. The mechanical frequency of the mirror strongly influences the time interval between two Bragg peaks. We find that when the system is in the resolved side band regime for mirror cooling, the superradiant scattering is enhanced due to coherent energy transfer from the mechanical mirror mode to the cavity field mode.     

饱和放大情形下光纤参量放大器的增益和带宽特性研究

利用龙格库塔法数值求解非线性耦合方程,研究了单抽运光纤参量放大器在增益饱和区的增益谱特性.通过比较考虑抽运光损耗与忽略抽运光损耗增益谱的差别,分析了抽运光损耗对增益谱的影响.此外,给出了在饱和放大区,信号光的增益谱与光纤长度、输入信号光功率、抽运光波长与零色散波长偏离之间的关系.发现在饱和放大区,增益的整体水平有所下降,增益谱的可用带宽相对于小信号放大有所减少,增益谱在可用带宽范围内出现了旁瓣.这些结果将对工作在饱和放大区的单抽运光参量放大器的设计提供有益的帮助.     

Opto-Mechanical Effects in Superradiant Light Scattering by Bose-Einstein Condensate in an Optical Cavity

We investigate the effects of a movable mirror (cantilever) of an optical cavity on the superradiant light scattering from a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) in an optical lattice. We show that the mirror motion has a dynamic dispersive effect on the cavity-pump detuning. Varying the intensity of the pump beam, one can switch between the pure superradiant regime and the Bragg scattering regime. The mechanical frequency of the mirror strongly influences the time interval between two Bragg peaks. We find that when the system is in the resolved side band regime for mirror cooling, the superradiant scattering is enhanced due to coherent energy transfer from the mechanical mirror mode to the cavity field mode.     

Efficient Raman amplification of low divergent radiation in barium nitrate crystal

One stage first Stokes amplification by a factor of 1600 was demonstrated in a barium nitrate Raman amplifier. The amplified pulse energy was up to 63 mJ at pump energy of 208 mJ. M² factor of Stokes signal radiation was 1.5 while for amplified radiation 2.2. PACS 42.65.Dr     

Ultrashort far-infrared superradiant emissions optically pumped by truncated hybrid 10 μm CO2 laster pulses

We investigate the generation of superradiant far-infrared 496 m CH₃F pulses and produce for the first time smooth and reproducible 373 m CH₃CN superradiant pulses by pumping with pulses from a hybrid 10 m CO₂ laser truncated within 10 ps by a plasma shutter of new design. Superradiance is confirmed by measurement of the pressure dependence of the intensity, the width and the delay versus the pump pulse. We observe pulse durations considerably under the limit of the inverse linewidth of the transition. Thus, we demonstrate for the first time that rapid truncation of the pump pulse is essential for reducing pulse duration of superradiant far-infrared emissions.