Sub-20 fs visible pulses with 750 nJ energy from a 100 kHz noncollinear optical parametric amplifier

We demonstrate the operation of a 100 kHz noncollinear optical parametric amplifier that is pumped by just a few microjoules of 800 nm pulses with 50 fs duration. The device delivers sub-20 fs pulses tunable from 460 nm to beyond 1 microm and pulse energies up to 750 nJ when it is pumped with 7 microJ of energy. The design of the single-stage amplifier has been carefully optimized, and the design considerations are discussed.     

Sub-100 femtosecond pulses from a SESAM modelocked thin disk laser

We present the first passively modelocked thin disk laser (TDL) with sub-100-fs pulse duration using the broadband sesquioxide gain material Yb:LuScO₃ and an optimized SEmiconductor Saturable Absorber Mirror (SESAM). In this proof-of-principle experiment, we obtained 5.1 W of average power at a repetition rate of 77.5 MHz and a pulse duration of 96 fs. We carefully explored and optimized the different parameters on the soliton pulse formation process for the generation of short pulses. In particular, SESAMs combining fast recovery time, high modulation depth and low nonsaturable losses proved crucial to achieve this result even though they are expected to only play a minor role in soliton modelocking. To our knowledge, these are the shortest pulses ever obtained with a modelocked TDL, reaching for the first time the sub-100-fs milestone. This result opens the door to sub-100-fs oscillators with substantially higher power levels in the near future.     

Sub-2 fs pulses generated by self-channeling in the deep ultraviolet

The generation of sub-2 fs light pulses in the UV is numerically demonstrated, using frequency conversion in filamentation regime. Few-cycle pulses emitted at 266 nm keep their temporal shape over several tens of centimeters. Self-compression results from the interplay between Kerr self-focusing and a low-density plasma, which continuously defocuses the pulse over extended propagation ranges.     

用腔倒空Nd：YAG激光器对fs超短脉冲的同步放大

实现了用腔倒空Nd:YGA激光器对fs超短脉冲放大器的同步泵浦。由碰撞锁模环形染料激光器产生的80fs脉冲经二级染料放大后,实现放大倍数6.2×10~4,输出超短脉冲峰值功率～2×10~7W。     

Extending optical fs metrology to XUV attosecond pulses

We report on the progress towards a 2nd-order autocorrelation measurement of a coherent superposition of the 7th to the 15th harmonic of the fundamental frequency of the Ti : Sapphire laser. The two-photon ionization of He atoms was investigated and found to be an appropriate non-linear detector. In addition, the technique of volume autocorrelation based on a split mirror wavefront divider was analysed and shown to exhibit adequate degree of modulation. Moreover, the approach presented opens up the path to XUV-pump XUV-probe type of temporal studies of ultrafast processes with a sub-fs temporal resolution. PACS 42.60.By; 42.65.Re; 42.65.Ky     

Compression of high-energy laser pulses below 5 fs

High-energy 20-fs pulses generated by a Ti:sapphire laser system were spectrally broadened to more than 250 nm by self-phase modulation in a hollow fiber filled with noble gases and subsequently compressed in a broadband high-throughput dispersive system. Pulses as short as 4.5 fs with energy up to 20-microJ were obtained with krypton, while pulses as short as 5 fs with energy up to 70 microJ were obtained with argon. These pulses are, to our knowledge, the shortest generated to date at multigigawatt peak powers.     

Sub-200 fs microjoule pulses from a monolithic linear fiber CPA system

An all-fiber-integrated linear chirped-pulse amplifier system generating microjoule pulse energies is reported. It is seeded by an all-fiber dissipative-soliton laser and incorporates a newly developed fiber stretcher, whose dispersive properties match that of the grating compressor. Pulse durations of 189 fs with energies of 2.2 μJ were achieved after compression. The average power was 9.8 W at the repetition rate of 4.5 MHz.     

Hollow-fiber compression of visible, 200 fs laser pulses to 40 fs pulse duration

We demonstrate the use of a very simple, compact, and versatile method, based on the hollow-fiber compression technique, to shorten the temporal length of visible laser pulses of 100-300 fs to pulse durations shorter than approximately 50 fs. In particular, 200 fs, frequency-doubled, Nd:glass laser pulses (527 nm) were spectrally broadened to final bandwidths as large as 25 nm by nonlinear propagation through an Ar-filled hollow fiber. A compact, dispersive, prism-pair compressor was then used to produce as short as 40 fs, 150 microJ pulses. A very satisfactory agreement between numerical simulations and measurements is found.     

Compact laser source for high-power white-light and widely tunable sub 65 fs laser pulses

We demonstrate an Yb:KGW femtosecond solitary mode-locked laser oscillator, which is used as a pump source for tapered fibers to generate white-light laser pulses with an average output power of up to 2.5 W and a spectral bandwidth of over 1000 nm. By spectrally filtering these pulses and subsequent compression of the filtered pulses with a prism sequence, we are able to generate ultrashort laser pulses with durations between 26 and 65 fs that are tunable from 600 to 1450 nm and with tens to several hundreds of milliwatts of average power.     

Ultrafast nonlinear optical properties of dye-doped PMMA discs irradiated by 40 fs laser pulses

The two-photon absorption (TPA) characteristics of PMMA discs doped with three different dyes were studied using an fs-pulsed Ti-Sapphire laser as the pump source, and employing the open-aperture Z-scan technique. TPA cross-sections obtained for PMMA doped with the dyes PM597, DCM and rhodamine 6G–rhodamine B (co-doped) were found to be equal to 24.7, 33.3 and 32.3 GM, respectively (1 GM=10^?50 cm⁴ s phot^?1 mol^?1). Furthermore, two-photon fluorescence was measured for the samples containing DCM and rhodamine 6G–rhodamine B (co-doped). Compared to the one-photon fluorescence spectrum, the peaks in the two-photon fluorescence spectrum were red shifted and the extent of red shift increased with increasing doping concentration. We have also observed that the red shift in the two-photon fluorescence peak of the samples in the solid form is much larger than that in the solution state. This phenomenon could be explained by a twisted intra-molecular charge transfer model.     

光孤子脉冲在光纤放大器中的传播

本文建立了包括增益色散,受激喇曼散射,双光子吸收效应的理论模型,讨论了光孤子脉冲在光纤放大器中的传播.数值计算结果表明:在反常色散范围内,光孤子的放大是不稳定的.增益色散导致光脉冲对称分裂,而受激喇曼散射则导致不对称的分裂.在增益色散和受激喇曼散射的共同作用下可获得新的时域和频域特征.有限带宽的放大能抑制受激喇曼散射引起的自频移.本文对有啁啾的光孤子脉冲的放大也进行了分析.     

Diode-pumped mode-locked Yb:YCOB laser generating 35 fs pulses

Direct sub-50-fs pulse generation is demonstrated with a mode-locked Yb:YCa4O(BO3)3 laser. With external compression, pulses as short as 35 fs are generated at 1055 nm. The oscillator operating at a repetition rate of 95 MHz is pumped by a two-section distributed Bragg reflector tapered diode laser and mode locked by a semiconductor saturable absorber mirror. The onset of self-Raman-conversion for pulse spectral bandwidths exceeding 40 nm (FWHM) is observed.     

Bound soliton pulses in passively mode-locked fiber laser

A passively mode-locked soliton fiber ring laser was successfully demonstrated, and bound soliton pulses with an FWHM pulsewidth of 326 fs and fixed separation of 938 fs were first observed. The number of bound soliton pairs in the cavity can be controlled under lower pump power. The transmission effects were investigated by injecting bound soliton pulses into a single mode fiber.     

Generation of fs laser pulses from a ps pulse-pumped optical parametric amplifier with a beat-wave seed signal

We describe a method of ultrashort-pulse and ultrafast-pulse-train generation through optical parametric amplification of a laser beat wave. Numerical simulation shows that 250-fs laser pulses at 1.55 μm are generated from a beat-wave seeded optical parametric amplifier pumped by a 30-ps laser at 1064 nm. The pulse compression is attributable to sideband generation and parametric amplification under group velocity mismatch. Our experimental result confirms efficient generation of comb-like sidebands for the mixing waves from such an optical parametric amplifier.     

YAG激光同步泵浦染料激光器产生38fs光脉冲

研究表明,不用碰撞脉冲锁模技术,而由一台简单的线型腔染料激光器,就可成功地产生短达38飞秒的光脉冲。这种激光器用六镜折叠腔,其中有Rh6G和DOPCI两个喷流和一个棱镜对色散补偿器,用连续锁模Nd:YAG激光器的倍频输出同步泵浦。染料激光脉冲的平均功率为20mW,脉冲重复频率近100MHz。     

Bit-error-rate analysis for a 100-Gbit/s nonlinear optical loop mirror demultiplexer employing soliton control and signal pulses

On the basis of a previously derived mathematical model, the power penalty associated with a nonlinear optical loop mirror (NOLM) demultiplexer was calculated, with timing jitter noise, bit-to-bit cross talk, and channel cross talk taken into consideration. Simulation results show that a 3-dBm improvement in the receiver sensitivity at a bit error rate of 10(-9) can be achieved by choice of the appropriate walk-off time between the control and the signal pulses within the NOLM demultiplexer.     

Generation of monoenergetic ultrashort electron pulses from a fs laser plasma

Ultrashort high-energy electron beams are generated by focusing fs Ti:sapphire laser pulses on a thin metal tape at normal incidence. At laser intensities above 10¹⁶ W/cm² , the fs laser plasma ejects copious amounts of electrons in a direction parallel to the target surface. These electrons are directly detected by means of a backside illuminated X-ray CCD, and their energy spectrum is determined with an electrostatic analyzer. The electrons were observed for two laser polarization directions, parallel and perpendicular to the observation direction. At the maximum applied intensity of 2×10¹⁷ W/cm², the energy distribution peaks at around 35 keV with a hot tail detectable up to about 300 keV. The number of electrons per shot at 35 keV is about 5×10⁸ per sterad per keV. Quasi-monoenergetic electron pulses with a relative energy spread of 1% were produced by using a 50-m slit in the beam path after the analyzer. This approach offers great potential for time-resolved studies of plasma, liquid, and surface structures with atomic-scale spatial resolution. PACS 41.75.Fr; 52.38.Kd; 52.70.Nc     

Generation of 320 fs pulses with a distributed feedback dye laser

A new achromatic distributed feedback dye laser (DFDL) arrangement is described. The experimental conditions for subpicosecond pulse generation with the new device were investigated. For the first time, stable generation of subpicosecond pulses (350 fs) at 616 nm was achieved with a DFDL. The simultaneous spectral and autocorrelation measurements showed that the amplified DFDL pulses are nearly transform limited, having a pulse form close to the sech² shape.     

Generation of picosecond optical pulses from single heterostructure GaAs diode laser and their emission characteristics

Emission characteristics of a single heterostructure GaAs diode laser are reported using a simple driver circuit. It provides a single picosecond time duration optical pulse, a pulse train or a broad optical pulse depending on the amplitude and time duration of the electrical pump pulse. Results show that relaxation oscillation frequency depends on the amplitude of pumping current pulse as well as on some inherent property of diode laser, which seems to be the level of impurity in lasing medium. Variation of relaxation oscillation frequency with amplitude of current pulse shows only the qualitative agreement with the reported theoretical predictions.