Mechanism of pulse shaping in femtosecond lasers based on the high-order soliton

The mechanism of pulse shaping in Kerr-lens mode-locking Ti : sapphire lasers is investigated. Considering the balanced interaction between self-phase modulation, introduced by Kerr effect in Ti : sapphire, and group-velocity dispersion provided by prism-pair, pulse-splitting reflected in the intensity autocorrelation trace and pulse-compression display that the pulses outputting from different positions in laser cavity have different durations. We have concluded that the solitonlike pulse shaping that results from the competition between intracavity self-phase modulation within the Ti : S and negative group-velocity dispersion play dominant role in pulse evolution in Kerr-lens mode-locking lasers.     

Generation of 50-fs, 5-nJ pulses at 1.03 micrometre from a wave-breaking-free fiber laser

We report the generation of 6-nJ chirped pulses from a mode-locked Yb fiber laser at 1.03 micrometre. A linear anomalous-dispersion segment suppresses wave-breaking effects of solitonlike pulse shaping at high energies. The dechirped pulse duration is 50 fs, and the energy is 5 nJ. This laser produces twice the pulse energy and average power, and approximately five times the peak power, of the previous best mode-locked fiber laser. It is to our knowledge the first fiber laser that directly offers performance similar to that of solid-state lasers such as Ti:sapphire.     

Widely tunable pulse durations from a passively mode-locked thin-disk Yb:YAG laser

We demonstrate a passively mode-locked thin-disk Yb:YAG laser that generates solitonlike pulses with durations that are continuously tunable in a very wide range from 3.3 to 89 ps or from 0.83 to 1.57 ps. The average powers are typically ~12 W . Previously [Opt. Lett. 25, 859 (2000)], only pulse durations in a narrow range near 0.7 ps could be obtained from such lasers because of the effect of spatial hole burning. We achieved this much wider range by constructing a laser cavity with two different angles of incidence on the thin disk, which greatly reduces the effect of spatial hole burning.     

氧化石墨烯被动锁模掺镱光纤激光器多脉冲现象的实验研究

利用氧化石墨烯作为可饱和吸收体,在被动锁模全正常色散掺镱光纤激光器中研究了多脉冲的现象,在同一抽运功率不同偏振态下,实验获得了矩形脉冲谐波锁模、耗散孤子谐波锁模、准谐波锁模,脉冲峰值周期性调制,脉冲簇、脉冲束、混沌多重脉冲的多脉冲现象,插入激光腔内的2nm窄带滤波器具有限制增益带宽、对脉冲塑形、诱导多脉冲产生的作用,调节偏振控制器相当于改变腔内增益,是实现不同类型多脉冲现象的主要原因,本实验研究有利于加深对多脉冲动力学行为在正常色散区域氧化石墨烯锁模掺镱光纤激光器中的理解。     

C. 超短激光光源

本文对超短激光脉冲的产生、压缩技术的最新发展做了详细评述。     

Gas-induced solitons

The self-guiding of femtosecond laser pulses in air is investigated. For powers close to the threshold for self-focusing, we show that the balance between the nonlinear focusing of the beam and its defocusing by multiphoton sources produces a new kind of solitonlike structure. Over considerably long distances, the radial profile of the pulse relaxes to a steady-state shape, whereas its temporal profile shrinks along propagation. The influence of the normal group-velocity dispersion is finally discussed.     

All-normal-dispersion femtosecond fiber laser with pulse energy above 20 nJ

We report a study of the scaling and limits to pulse energy in an all-normal-dispersion femtosecond fiber laser. Theoretical calculations show that operation at large normal cavity dispersion is possible in the presence of large nonlinear phase shifts, owing to strong pulse shaping by spectral filtering of the chirped pulse in the laser. Stable pulses are possible with energies of tens of nanojoules. Experimental results from Yb-doped fiber lasers agree with the trends of numerical simulations. Stable and self-starting pulses are generated with energies above 20 nJ, and these can be dechirped to <200 fs duration. Femtosecond pulses with peak powers near 100 kW are thus available from this simple and practical design.     

Lasers in analysis: Potential and prospects for the development of ultrashort pulsed lasers

The main achievements in the analytical application of lasers, their potential applications, and prospects for further development of this field were described. The role of laser generation conditions and modes, especially of pulse duration, on laser applicability in analysis was discussed. The propagation of powerful ultrashort laser pulses (USPs) in transparent samples and the positive role of chirping and filamentation were considered. New methods of laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy based on ultrashort pulses, chirping, and filamentation were discussed.     

Spectral line‐by‐line shaping for optical and microwave arbitrary waveform generations

Spectral line‐by‐line shaping is a key enabler towards optical arbitrary waveform generation, which promises broad impact both in optical science and technology. In this paper, generation of optical and microwave arbitrary waveforms using the spectral line‐by‐line shaping technique is reviewed. Compared to conventional pulse shaping, significant new physics arises in the line‐by‐line regime, where the shaped pulse fields generated from one laser pulse now overlap with those generated from adjacent pulses. This leads to coherent interference effects related to the properties of optical frequency combs which serve as the source in these experiments. We explore such effects in a series of experiments using several different high‐repetition‐rate optical combs, including harmonically mode‐locked lasers and continuous‐wave lasers that are externally phase modulated either with or without the help of an optical cavity. As an application of line‐by‐line pulse shaping, we describe generation of microwave electrical arbitrary waveforms that can be reprogrammed at rates approaching 10 GHz.     

短脉冲强激光在稀薄等离子体中传播时的电磁类孤立子

 采用二维粒子模拟方法，研究了短脉冲强激光在稀薄等离子体中传播时电磁类孤立子的产生和时空演化过程。通过分析电磁场与等离子体波的非线性能量交换和激光场的频率谱结构等，给出了电磁类孤立子形成的基本物理图像，讨论了等离子体参数对电磁类孤立子形成的影响。模拟结果表明：类孤立子的形成是由于局部电磁波振荡频率减小至等离子体频率引起的，初始等离子体密度越高越容易形成空间局域结构。     

Nonlinear propagation of ultrasound in superfluid3He

After introducing the physics of sound propagation in normal and superfluid³He, nonlinear phenomena are discussed. These bear close resemblance to optical effects, including saturation of the absorption, amplitude dependence of the group velocity, pulse break-up, and pulse compression. Preliminary evidence indicates that above an input power threshold the sound pulses propagate in a solitonlike fashion. A naive sine-Gordon model does not explain the observations.     

光纤激光器直接输出的高功率贝塞尔超短脉冲

构建了一种能够直接输出高功率贝塞尔超短脉冲的光纤激光放大器. 该方案基于在光纤端面特殊设计和制备的微型负轴锥镜, 针对常规超短脉冲光纤激光放大系统所设计, 不需要引入其他分立整形器件, 避免了目前基于轴锥透镜产生贝塞尔光束的通用方法所带来的额外烦琐准直工作, 极大简化了产生贝塞尔光束的方法. 其中的微型负轴锥镜由聚焦粒子束刻蚀法在一段掺镱大模场光子晶体光纤的端面制备, 它和光纤激光系统中的固有准直透镜构成了集成化的光束整形器件. 基于数值模拟结果成功搭建的系统与理论设计一致, 直接输出了在米量级具有高度准直无衍射特性的啁啾皮秒贝塞尔超短脉冲波包, 平均功率高达10.1 W, 对应脉冲能量178 nJ, 经过光栅对压缩后脉冲宽度可达140 fs. 关键词： 衍射 超短脉冲产生 光纤器件 光纤激光器     

Nanosecond pulse propagation in a high power iodine laser amplifier

Pulse propagation in a photochemical iodine laser amplifier is investigated both experimentally and by solving the Maxwell-Schrödinger equations by computer. Pulse shortening and pulse reshaping are observed in agreement with theory. For pulse durations approaching the dephasing time, it is found that a further decrease in duration by gain saturation is hard to obtain and requires high power levels or high initial inversion. The numerical analysis includes reservoir effects due to tightly coupled hyperfine levels in the iodine groundstate and phase modulation (chirping) of the input pulse. Comparison of the iodine parameters with those of Nd and CO₂ lasers shows that for nanosecond pulses pulse shortening occurs more readily in the latter two systems in agreement with experiments.     

Bandpass filters based on pi-shifted long-period fiber gratings for actively mode-locked erbium fiber lasers

We have fabricated bandpass filters based on pi-shifted long-period gratings for application in actively mode-locked erbium fiber lasers. Introducing the pi-phase shift in the middle of the grating opens a bandpass within the core-cladding mode resonance peaks. With a 22-nm bandwidth filter inserted in an actively mode-locked erbium fiber sigma laser, solitonlike pulses are generated, with a power-dependent duration of approximately 3-5 ps , at a 3-GHz repetition rate. These all-fiber filters have the advantages of low insertion loss (<0.5 dB) and a wide bandwidth (10-20 nm), and they do not require that a circulator be inserted into the laser cavity.     

Shaping of few-cycle laser pulses via a subwavelength structure

We theoretically investigate the propagation of few-cycle laser pulses in resonant two-level dense media with a sub- wavelength structure, which is described by the full Maxwell-Bloch equations without the frame of slowly varying envelope and rotating wave approximations. The input pulses can be shaped into shorter ones with a single or less than one optical cycle. The effect of the parameters of the subwavelength structure and laser pulses is studied. Our study shows that the media with a subwavelength structure can significantly shape the few-cycle pulses into a subcycle pulse, even for the case of chirp pulses as input fields. This suggests that such subwavelength structures have potential application in the shaping of few-cycle laser pulses.     

薄膜靶整形强激光脉冲的理论分析和数值模拟

超强超短脉冲激光广泛应用于粒子加速以及新型X射线辐射源产生。较长的激光脉冲上升前沿直接影响激光应用效果。等离子体薄膜靶作为新型光学介质开关,可以有效降低超强激光脉冲前沿上升时间,优化激光等离子体相互作用参数。采用一维理论分析和粒子模拟方法研究了等离子体薄膜靶实现超强激光脉冲整形的机制。研究结果表明,薄膜靶通过对激光脉冲的非线性调制,可有效实现脉宽缩短和脉冲陡化;对比单层靶调制结果,选择参数优化的双层靶,可进一步优化脉冲整形效果,获得更短脉宽和更高振幅的激光脉冲;对于峰值振幅高于薄膜靶击穿阈值的超强激光,脉冲上升前沿可得到明显陡化,薄膜靶的击穿是产生这种脉冲整形效果的直接原因。     

Spectrally Adjustable Picosecond Dye Laser Pulses Generated with Nanosecond Nitrogen Lasers

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The control of pulse profiles with tunable temporal coherence

A new class of partially coherent pulse sources with Multi-Gaussian Schell-model (MGSM) correlations is proposed. The expression for the intensity distribution for the MGSM pulses generated by such sources on propagation through the dispersive media is derived. It is demonstrated that the pulse intensity profile, in particular, the width of the flat center of pulse intensity profile and the peak intensity, can be controlled by adjusting the source temporal coherence. The obtained results have potential applications in pulse shaping for communication and media sensing or pulsed laser material processing.     

Chirped femtosecond solitonlike laser pulse form with self-frequency shift

Ultrashort laser pulse propagation in a generalized nonconservative system is considered. Slopes appearing in the form of the third-order time derivative for narrow pulse widths, nonlinear dispersion, and self-frequency shift arising from stimulated Raman scattering are taken into account. An exact analytical solitonlike solution is presented for a femtosecond solitary laser pulse. The stability of the latter has been shown numerically by applying perturbations in amplitude and chirp, as well as adding white noise. The results indicate stability in a broad parameter range. In addition, we have also found that the solution acts as an attractor when starting with a quite arbitrary Gaussian pulse as an initial condition.     

非线性延迟响应对啁啾类孤波的影响

以描述超短光脉冲在光纤中传输的高阶非线性Ginzburg-Landau方程为模型,给出了包含三阶色散,自陡效应以及非线性延迟响应等效应的锁模激光器系统的啁啾类孤波解,并采用分步傅立叶方法对该解析解的稳定性进行了详细的分析。结果表明:在一定的系统参数条件下,即使存在一些微弱的扰动,这类啁啾类孤波解依然可以稳定地存在并传输较长的距离。如果初始输入脉冲为任意的高斯脉冲,在经过一段传输距离的演化后,啁啾类孤波解形成并可以稳定传输。