Programmable focal spot shaping of amplified femtosecond laser pulses

We describe the programmable spatial beam shaping of 100-kHz, 4-microJ amplified femtosecond pulses in a focal plane by wave-front modulation. Phase distributions are determined by a numerical iterative procedure. A nonpixelated optically addressed liquid-crystal light valve is used as a programmable wave-front tailoring device. Top-hat, doughnut, square, and triangle shapes of 20-microm size are obtained in a focal plane. Their suitability for femtosecond laser machining is demonstrated.     

High-speed horizontal-path atmospheric turbulence correction with a large-actuator-number microelectromechanical system spatial light modulator in an interferometric phase-conjugation engine

Results of atmospheric propagation for a high-speed, large-actuator-number adaptive optics system are presented. The system uses a microelectromechanical system- (MEMS-) based spatial light modulator correction device with 1024 actuators. Tests over a 1.35-km path achieved correction speeds in excess of 800 Hz and Strehl ratios close to 0.5. The wave-front sensor was based on a quadrature interferometer that directly measures phase. This technique does not require global wave-front reconstruction, making it relatively insensitive to scintillation and phase residues. The results demonstrate the potential of large-actuator-number MEMS-based spatial light modulators to replace conventional deformable mirrors.     

用于人眼视网膜成像照明的激光消散斑技术研究

以近红外激光(808 nm)作为人眼波前像差探测的信号光和视网膜成像的照明光,液晶空间光调制器(LCOS)作为波前校正器,用哈特曼波前探测器探测人眼像差,构建了人眼像差自适应校正的视网膜成像系统.利用模拟眼分析了激光散斑对相机成像的影响和对哈特曼波前探测器进行像差探测的影响,同时验证了利用旋转散射体的方法消除激光散斑的可行性和有效性;用活体人眼进行了激光消散斑前后照明视网膜进行成像的对比实验,并进一步利用自适应光学技术实现了对人眼像差的动态校正和视网膜细胞的连续成像.校正后,系统波前像差的均方根值小于0.1λ.实验表明激光消散斑后可以同时作为人眼像差探测的信号光和视网膜成像的照明光,从而可以进行连续自适应校正和成像.     

Wave-front sensing with time-of-flight phase diversity

We present a new way to sense atmospheric wave-front phase distortion. Short collimated pulses of laser light at ~350nm are projected from a small auxilliary telescope. Rayleigh scattering from each pulse is recorded over a wide range of height through the main telescope aperture in a continuous sequence of fast video frames by a detector conjugate to mid-height. Phase diversity is thus naturally introduced as the pulses approach and pass through focus. We show that an iterative algorithm can extract the phase structure from the recorded images and do so with a much higher signal-to-noise ratio than is possible with existing techniques. If the requirements for real-time data recording and reduction can be met, the new method will address the need for tomographic wave-front sensing at planned 30-m-class telescopes.     

Validity of wave-front reconstruction and propagation of ultrabroadband pulses measured with a Hartmann-Shack sensor

Wave-front reconstruction for ultrabroadband laser pulses is verified by use of a Hartmann-Shack sensor. We estimate the accuracy of numerical wave-front propagation by comparing numerical with experimental results and verify that wave fronts of ultrabroadband laser pulses from a hollow fiber can be propagated correctly by a single polychromatic wave-front measurement to a place where detection is not practicable, e.g., inside a vacuum chamber or laser focus.     

Second-harmonic generation and wave-front correction of a terawatt laser system

By combining second-harmonic generation and wave-front correction of a hybrid Ti:sapphire-Nd:glass terawatt laser chain, we were able to generate a focused intensity above 10(19) W/cm(2), with an estimated 10(9):1 intensity contrast ratio. The frequency of the laser is doubled by use of a type I KDP crystal, and wave-front correction is achieved with a deformable mirror coupled to a wave-front sensor.     

Performance of a phase-conjugate engine implementing a finite-bit phase correction

The achievable Strehl ratio when a finite-bit correction to an aberrated wave front is implemented is examined. The phase-conjugate engine used to measure the aberrated wave front consists of a quadrature interferometric wave-front sensor, a liquid-crystal spatial light modulator, and computer hardware-software to calculate and apply the correction. A finite-bit approximation to the conjugate phase is calculated and applied to the spatial light modulator to remove the aberrations from the optical beam. The experimentally determined Strehl ratio of the corrected beam is compared with analytical expressions for the expected Strehl ratio and shown to be in good agreement with those predictions.     

纯相位液晶空间光调制器拟合泽尼克像差性能分析

纯相位液晶空间光调制器作为波前校正器构成的高分辨率、低能耗、价格低廉、易于控制的自适应光学系统受到越来越多的关注.作为一种新型波前校正器件,它对波前像差的校正能力是反映其在自适应光学系统中应用的一个重要的指标,因此有必要仔细地研究它对各种像差的校正能力,以确定其可能的应用范围.波前校正器对各阶泽尼克像差的拟合效果有效地反映了该器件对不同像差的校正能力.利用256×256像素的纯相位液晶空间光调制器(LC-SLM)产生不同系数的前36项泽尼克像差分析LC-SLM对不同像差的校正能力.讨论了填充因子、离散像素 关键词： 液晶空间光调制器 相位调制 自适应光学 泽尼克多项式     

Optimization of high-order harmonic generation by adaptive control of a sub-10-fs pulse wave front

We present a method for the optimization of high-order harmonic generation based on wave-front correction of the driving laser beam. The technique exploits wave-front adaptive control by means of a deformable mirror, governed by an optimization procedure.     

Closed-loop aberration correction by use of a modal Zernike wave-front sensor

We describe the practical implementation of a closed-loop adaptive-optics system incorporating a novel modal wave-front sensor. The sensor consists of a static binary-phase computer-generated holographic element, which generates a pattern of spots in a detector plane. Intensity differences between symmetric pairs of these spots give a direct measure of the Zernike mode amplitudes that are present in the input wave front. We use a ferroelectric liquid-crystal spatial light modulator in conjunction with a 4-f system and a spatial filter as a wave-front correction element. We present results showing a rapid increase in Strehl ratio and focal spot quality as the system corrects for deliberately introduced aberrations.     

Wave-front correction of high-intensity fs laser beams by using closed-loop adaptive optics system

We developed an adaptive optics system to correct the wave-front distortion of an intense fs laser beam from our multi-TW laser system, Jiguang II. In this paper, the instruments of the adaptive optical system are described and the experimental results of the closed-loop wave-front correction are presented. A distorted laser wave-front of 20 wavelengths of P-V values was corrected to 0.15 wavelength of P-V values. The beam quality of the laser system varies from 3.5 diffraction limit to 1.5 diffraction limit.     

Electron density characterization by use of a broadband x-ray-compatible wave-front sensor

The use of a Hartmann wave-front sensor to accurately measure the line-integrated electron density gradients formed in laser-produced and z-pinch plasma experiments is examined. This wave-front sensor may be used with a soft-x-ray laser as well as with incoherent line emission at multikilovolt x-ray energies. This diagnostic is significantly easier to use than interferometery and moiré deflectometry, both of which have been demonstrated with soft-x-ray lasers. This scheme is experimentally demonstrated in the visible region by use of a Shack-Hartmann wave-front sensor and a liquid-crystal spatial light modulator to simulate a phase profile that could occur when an x-ray probe passes through a plasma. The merits of using a Hartmann sensor include a wide dynamic range, broadband or low-coherence-length light capability, high x-ray efficiency, two-dimensional gradient determination, multiplexing capability, and experimental simplicity. Hartmann sensors could also be utilized for wavelength testing of extreme-ultraviolet lithography components and x-ray phase imaging of biological specimens.     

Adaptive phase distortion correction in strong speckle-modulation conditions

We introduce beam-quality metrics for adaptive wave-front control that permit estimation of the degree of laser beam energy concentration on a remotely located extended object based upon the backscattered wave intensity distribution at the receiver. A 37-control-channel adaptive optics system with phase correction of the output wave capable of operating in the presence of speckle-field-induced strong intensity modulation is presented. System operation is based on optimization of the speckle-field-based metric by the stochastic parallel gradient descent technique. Results demonstrate that adaptive wave-front correction using speckle-field-based beam-quality metrics can significantly improve laser beam concentration on extended objects.     

Speckle structure of a light field scattered by human eye retina

The speckle structure of a light field resulting from laser radiation scattering by human eye retina is analyzed. The presence of a speckle structure in the radiation scattered by an eye substantially impedes wave-front measurements in the study of aberrations. Two methods for suppressing such a structure based on the spatial and spectral averaging of the realizations of the speckle field are considered. The results of the theoretical calculation and numerical simulation are in agreement with the experimental data.     

Ultrashort-pulse wave-front autocorrelation

Combined spatially resolved collinear autocorrelation and Shack-Hartmann wave-front sensing of femtosecond laser pulses is demonstrated for the first time to our knowledge. The beam is divided into multiple nondiffracting subbeams by thin-film micro-optical arrays. With hybrid refractive-reflective silica/silver microaxicons, wave-front autocorrelation is performed in oblique-angle reflection. Simultaneous two-dimensional detection of local temporal structure and wave-front tilt of propagating few-cycle wave packets is demonstrated.     

A simple monitoring system for single subpicosecond laser pulses using an SH spatial autocorrelation method and a CCD image sensor

A simple noncollinear SHG autocorrelator for monitoring the time behavior of single subpicosecond laser pulses is described. A new CCD image-line sensor with high sensitivity in the UV range is used to measure the second-harmonic (SH) spatial distribution which gives information on the duration of the fundamental light pulses. An input energy of only 10 μJ is enough to obtain the SH spatial beam patterns in this highly sensitive autocorrelation system.     

Adaptive wave-front correction by means of all-optical feedback interferometry

A novel adaptive wave-front correction system based on an all-optical feedback interferometer is described. In this system the two-dimensional output fringe intensity from a Mach-Zehnder interferometer with large radial shear is optically fed back to an optically addressed phase-only liquid-crystal spatial light modulator. Consequently, without a separate aberration-free reference wave, the modulator phase approximates the conjugate of the interferometer phase that is directly related to the phase of the input aberrated wave front, so this system is applicable in adaptive optics. We successfully achieved real-time correction of aberrated wave fronts: A diffraction pattern that was seriously distorted because of aberrations was transformed into a diffraction-limited spot immediately after the feedback loop was closed.     

开环双脉冲液晶自适应光学视网膜成像系统

为了获得高分辨率视网膜图像,利用液晶空间光调制器作为波前校正器建立了一套开环液晶自适应光学视网膜成像系统。与闭环模式相比,采用开环模式后,系统的能量利用率提高了1倍。系统采用双脉冲照明方式,以减少人眼曝光量,保护人眼安全。在照明光学系统中加入了大小视场切换装置使成像视场由之前的0.8°增至1.7°。同时优化了系统的时序控制流程,对人眼像差连续校正的同时快速调节成像相机的前后位置至最佳像面。对于开环模式对动态人眼像差的校正精度进行了测量,实验测得,经开环校正后,残差波面的均方根值约为0.09λ;相应的斯特雷尔(Strehl)比高于0.70,系统分辨率接近光学衍射极限的分辨率。对两名志愿者进行了实验,获得了清晰的眼底视网膜细胞图像。     

Repetition rate increase and diffraction-limited focal spots for a nonthermal-equilibrium 100-TW Nd:glass laser chain by use of adaptive optics

Dynamic wave-front correction is applied before each shot on a 100-TW, 30-J/300-fs high-power laser facility by use of an adaptive-optics system. This system allows us to increase the repetition rate of high-energy lasers while maintaining excellent and constant beam focusability with a Strehl ratio of >0.75 despite the amplifiers' not being in thermal equilibrium. The best results in terms of the highest Strehl ratio and intensities are obtained when locking the system on wave-front sensing after pulse recompression.     

Simulated human eye retina adaptive optics imaging system based on a liquid crystal on silicon device

In order to obtain a clear image of the retina of model eye, an adaptive optics system used to correct the wave-front error is introduced in this paper. The spatial light modulator that we use here is a liquid crystal on a silicon device instead of a conversional deformable mirror. A paper with carbon granule is used to simulate the retina of human eye. The pupil size of the model eye is adjustable (3--7mm). A Shack-Hartman wave-front sensor is used to detect the wave-front aberration. With this construction, a value of peak-to-valley is achieved to be 0.086Λ, where Λ is wavelength. The modulation transfer functions before and after corrections are compared. And the resolution of this system after correction (69lp/m) is very close to the diffraction limit resolution. The carbon granule on the white paper which has a size of 4.7μm is seen clearly. The size of the retina cell is between 4 and 10μm. So this system has an ability to image the human eye's retina.