铌酸锂晶体中飞秒激光脉冲线性电光效应及其色散补偿

针对铌酸锂晶体中飞秒激光脉冲线性电光效应, 研究了光学相位共轭 对群速度色散 以及一阶和二阶折射率色散的补偿方案. 结果发现, 在任意初始输入脉宽条件下, 这些色散基本上都能得到补偿, 输出脉冲波形基本上和输入脉冲相同. 在此方案中, 若同时在色散补偿铌酸锂晶体上对输出脉冲进行电光相位调制, 则在一定外加电场作用下, 输出脉冲的脉宽将进一步被压缩, 初始输入脉宽越小, 压缩程度越大.     

铌酸锂晶体中飞秒激光脉冲线性电光效应及其色散补偿

针对铌酸锂晶体中飞秒激光脉冲线性电光效应, 研究了光学相位共轭 对群速度色散 以及一阶和二阶折射率色散的补偿方案. 结果发现, 在任意初始输入脉宽条件下, 这些色散基本上都能得到补偿, 输出脉冲波形基本上和输入脉冲相同. 在此方案中, 若同时在色散补偿铌酸锂晶体上对输出脉冲进行电光相位调制, 则在一定外加电场作用下, 输出脉冲的脉宽将进一步被压缩, 初始输入脉宽越小, 压缩程度越大.     

Ultrashort Gaussian pulse-width expansion and shape deformation induced by group velocity dispersion

Pulse-width expansion and pulse-shape deformation of an ultrashort Gaussian pulse induced by both low and high order group velocity dispersion were theoretically analyzed in terms of energy conservation and coupled equations for three wave radiations. As an example, the optical parametric interaction processes in a negative uniaxial crystal of CsLiB₆O₁₀ with 50 fs of ultrashort Gaussian pulse were simulated. The results indicate that the degree of the pulse expansion induced by low and high order group velocity dispersion is determined by both the wavelength of the incident wave and the crystal length. A pulse could be expanded to 1.41 times its initial value as a crystal length equals the dispersion length and further heavily expanded with decreasing wave-length and increasing crystal length. The pulse expansion induced by high order group velocity dispersion using an incident wavelength of 213 nm is 1.6 times that when using 532 nm in a 50 fs pulse width without chirp modulation, and the symmetry deformation and the frequency pushing phenomena of the ultrashort pulse shape are also found. The text was submitted by the authors in English.     

Optimizing input and output chirps up to the third-order for sub-nanojoule,ultra-short pulse compression in small core area PCF

Compression of sub-nanojoule laser pulses using a commercially available photonic crystal fiber (PCF) with zero dispersion wavelength of 860 nm is discussed. A twofold pulse compression starting from 24 fs transform limited seed pulses around 800 nm is experimentally demonstrated as a verification of our simulations. Theory shows that by the optimization of input and output chirp parameters up to the third order, high quality, 5.7 fs pulses can be generated from a cost efficient experimental setup. Further calculations show that 1 ps pulses with central wavelength of 800 nm can be compressed down to 50 fs in the normal dispersion regime of the fiber with proper dispersion compensation. Calculations also show that dispersion flattened fibers can improve both the quality and the duration of compressed pulses. PACS 42.65.Re     

紫外超短脉冲激光放大过程中脉宽压缩的方案设计

采用放电泵浦KrF准分子激光放大器放大波长为248.4nm的紫外超短脉冲激光。对于能量为0.7mJ、脉宽为550fs的输入脉冲,在光束直径保持10mm不变的条件下,能量放大到15mJ,脉宽展宽到1200fs。为了压缩输出脉冲宽度,分析了群速度色散和自相位调制效应对脉宽展宽的影响。利用棱镜对,采用4种不同的实验方案对脉冲引入负的线性频率啁啾,以补偿KrF准分子激光放大器CaF2窗镜中的群速度色散和自相位调制对脉冲引入的正的线性频率啁啾。结果表明:在放大器之前放置棱镜对的方式可以在保持输出脉冲能量为15mJ的同时,在棱镜对间距为110cm的条件下,将输出脉冲宽度压缩到370fs,输出波长为248.4nm、带宽为0.4nm。     

Generation of high-energy pulses from an all-normal-dispersion figure-8 fiber laser

We propose and study numerically an all-normal-dispersion Ytterbium-doped figure-eight fiber laser scheme for generation of high-energy pulses. The monotonous pulse stretching that takes place in the fiber under the combined actions of normal dispersion and nonlinear Kerr effect is compensated by the amplitude modulation effect of a bandpass filter inserted in the ring section of the laser. The Nonlinear Optical Loop Mirror (NOLM) also contributes to shorten the pulses. An output coupler with a large output coupling ratio is inserted at the amplifier output in order to extract the maximal energy from the laser. A short segment of Ytterbium-doped fiber compensates for the losses. Stable single-pulse operation is predicted over a wide range of values of the laser parameters. If the laser parameters (ring and NOLM length, dispersion, filter bandwidth, output coupling ratio) are optimized, pulses with several tens of nanojoules energy are readily obtained, with picosecond duration and a large positive chirp which is linear near the peak. If small-signal gain is large enough, the use of very large output coupling ratios opens the way to pulse energies close to 100 nJ and, after dechirping outside the laser, to durations of ˜50 fs and peak powers of 1 MW.     

Femtosecond Transform-Limited Pulse Generation by Compensating for the Linear Chirp of SPM Spectra in Dispersion Shifted Fibers

A simple technique of pulse compression, based on the linear chirp compensation of self-phase modulation (SPM) spectra in dispersion shifted fibers, is demonstrated. The optimization procedure is carried out, for a short span of a single-mode fiber, using a parabolic law, which describes the behavior of the squared output pulse width versus the pump peak power in the case of Gaussian pulses. The experimental results give a minimum pulse duration of 233 fs, which is in good agreement with the model. Shorter and coherent pulses, down to 90 fs, have been obtained by inserting an interference filter at the optical output.     

Degenerate parametric frequency conversion of phase-modulated femtosecond laser pulses in crystals with a regular and chirped domain structure

A systematic theoretical analysis of the degenerate parametric frequency conversion in a LiNbO₃ crystal with a regular domain structure and a linearly varying domain thickness (chirped crystal) is presented for the pulses of a titanium-sapphire laser with a wavelength of 0.8 μm and durations of 100 and 50 fs in the presence and in the absence of phase modulation. The results are obtained with regard to the difference in the group velocities of interacting pulses and the group velocity dispersion. For an effective frequency conversion of the phase-modulated (PM) pump pulse, it is expedient to employ chirped crystals in which the domain thickness decreases from the entrance to the exit of the crystal. The pump energy is effectively converted into subharmonic energy when the pump carrier frequency decreases with time. It is demonstrated that the efficiency of the energy conversion to a subharmonic of 80% can be realized for PM pumping with a pulse duration of 100 fs in the chirped LiNbO₃ crystal. The efficiency of the parametric frequency conversion depends on the pump intensity as well as on the phase modulation of the pulse and the chirp of the crystal. Note that a variation in one of these parameters causes variations in the remaining parameters needed for the maximum efficiency of the parametric frequency conversion.     

Wavelength tunable,high energy femtosecond laser pulses directly generated from large-mode-area photonic crystal fiber

Wavelength tunable high energy ultrashort laser pulses are generated from a large-mode-area photonic crystal fiber in anomalous dispersion (AD) regime. A simplified laser cavity design with one fine polished facet of the fiber as a cavity mirror is used. The intra-cavity dispersion compensation is achieved by a grating pair, the spatial dispersed light from which also have optical spectrum filtering effects combined with the limited aperture of the fiber core. The laser system is able to generate ultrashort pulses ranging from 494 fs (with 56 nJ pulse energy) to 1.24 ps (with 49 nJ pulse energy) at 55 MHz repetition rate. The filtering mechanism benefits the generation of high energy pulses with narrowing pulse duration in AD regime. An undulation in frequency and time domain is also observed with the increase of the pump power. Furthermore, this laser system is directly used as seed for supercontinuum generation.     

Soliton formation in hollow-core photonic bandgap fibers

The formation of solitons upon compression of linearly chirped pulses in hollow-core photonic bandgap fibers is investigated numerically. The dependence of soliton duration on the chirp and power of the input pulse and on the dispersion slope of the fiber is investigated, and the validity of an approximate scaling relation is tested. It is concluded that compression of input pulses of several ps duration and sub-MW peak power can lead to a formation of solitons with ∼100 fs duration and multi-megawatt peak powers. The dispersion slope of realistic hollow-core fibers appears to be the main obstacle for forming still shorter solitons.     

Theoretical analysis of noncollinear phase-matched optical parametric generation in BBO crystal

In this article we propose a theoretical treatment of noncollinear phase-matched femtosecond parametric interaction process pumped by ultrashort optical pulses, and investigated the pulse characteristics of OPG in BBO crystal. The results show that the major factors, which affect the optical parametric conversion coefficient and durations of the pulses, are the group velocity mismatch and the phase mismatch among the three ultra-short pulses. In addition, the material dispersion can cause the durations of the pulses to increase when pump pulse is below 20 fs, and its influence becomes more obvious at low pump intensity.     

16 fs, 350 nJ pulses at 5 MHz repetition rate delivered by chirped pulse compression in fibers

We demonstrate a simple approach for broadening and compression of intense pulses at megahertz repetition rates by self-phase modulation in nonlinear photonic crystal fibers. In order to avoid damage by self-focusing, we positively chirp the input pulses, which allows coupling of significantly more energy into the fiber, while maintaining the same spectral bandwidth and compression as compared to the Fourier-limited case at lower energy. Using a commercial long-cavity Ti:sapphire oscillator with 55 fs, 400 nJ pulses at 5 MHz, we generate 16 fs, 350 nJ pulses, which is a factor of 4 more energy than possible with unchirped input pulses. Self-phase-modulated spectra supporting 11 fs duration are also shown with 350 nJ pulse energy. Excellent stability is recorded over at least 1 h.     

Difference-Frequency Generation Among Ultrashort Optical Pulses in Quasi-Phase-Matching Waveguides

A theoretical model of ultrashort pulse difference-frequency generation (DFG) is presented and developed with quasi-phase matching (QPM) gratings in the undepleted-pump, unamplified-signal approximation. An analytic solution to a case of ultrashort pulse pumped DFG process, including group-velocity mismatching effects and input pulses with frequency chirp and time delay, is obtained. The influences of group-velocity mismatching effects and input signal pulse parameters on the conversion efficiency and output converted pulse characteristics are analyzed and discussed. The results indicate that the conversion efficiency is increased due to the enhancement of pump and signal interaction. The output pulse is inevitable compressed under pulsed pumping and can be compensated by introducing the initial frequency chirp and time delay.     

Sub-picosecond pulse generation using hybrid silicon and GaInP waveguides

In this paper, a method for generating ultra-short optical pulses in the sub-picosecond regime is presented and numerically demonstrated using a nonlinear nanoporous silicon waveguide followed by a Mach-Zehnder interferometer configuration based on the GaInP photonic crystal waveguide. Research results show that an optimal output pulse with sub-picosecond time duration can be achieved from  ~16.65-ps input pulses by selecting suitable system parameters such as initial intensity and waveguide length which will significantly influence the optical properties of the output pulse, including its time domain waveform, frequency spectrum, and phase chirp. The time duration of the corresponding autocorrelation trace can also reach as little as  ~1.0-ps at the end of the device.     

高阶群速度色散引起的高斯超短脉冲宽度的展宽和形变

基于动量守恒和光参变过程中的三波耦合波方程,和负单轴非线性光学晶体CsLiB6O10的色散方程,研究了在光参变效应中超短激光脉冲由于群速度色散引起的展宽和形变。数值模拟显示,在超短脉冲波形为双曲正割形和无啁啾调制时,高阶群速度色散引起的超短脉冲为50fs时,晶体长度为10mm,紫外光213nm作为基波入射时的脉冲展宽是波长为532nm绿光在同等条件下的1.6倍。脉冲展宽程度与入射波长和晶体长度有关,波长越短和晶体长度越长则脉冲展宽和波形变化越严重,高阶色散引起的超短高斯脉冲展宽,将破坏其波形对称性并引起旁瓣现象。     

Parametrically amplified ultrashort pulses from a shaped photonic crystal fiber supercontinuum

By seeding a noncollinear optical parametric amplifier with a photonic crystal fiber supercontinuum, temporally well-defined amplified output pulses have been generated with durations down to 13 fs. The phase of the supercontinuum seed has been characterized by the ZAP-SPIDER technique and can be tailored with a femtosecond pulse shaper. Thus, a very flexible source for arbitrarily shaped, amplified ultrashort laser pulses has been realized.     

Generation of tunable 7-fs ultraviolet pulses: achromatic phase matching and chirp management

Ultraviolet pulses with a duration of 7 fs are efficiently generated by frequency doubling the output of a noncollinear optical parametric amplifier. The ultraviolet pulses are tunable between 275 to 335 nm. The acceptance bandwidth of the doubling crystal is increased by a factor of 80 through high-order achromatic phase matching. The chirp of the visible pulses and the dispersion introduced along the beam path are compensated partially before and partially after the doubling crystal. For the design of the dispersion management, we investigate the second harmonic generation of pulses with mixed orders of chirp and explicitly discuss the transfer of the spectral phase in frequency doubling. A simple analytic theory is derived that correctly describes frequently observed spectral narrowing effects. We find that chirped SHG avoids spectral narrowing and allows for precompression of dispersion encountered in the ultraviolet beam path. We apply chirped SHG to generate 18.7 fs ultraviolet pulses in an extremely simple setup. PACS 42.65.Re; 42.65.Ky; 42.65.Yj     

Polarization-dependent two-color dispersion wave generation and evolution in polarization-maintaining photonic crystal fiber

We investigate the effect of the polarization state of the input pulses on the visible emissions in the anomalous dispersion region of polarization-maintaining photonic crystal fiber (PM-PCF), by using ～100 fs pump pulses whose central wavelength (1064 nm) is close to the second zero dispersion wavelength (1100 nm) of the fiber, where the soliton fission mechanisms play an important role. The experimental results show that the phase-matching two-color dispersive wave emission, one at 582 nm and the other at 600 nm, is polarization-dependent and frequency shift results from the different dispersion characteristics along the two orthogonal principal axes of PM-PCF. Furthermore, it is observed for the first time that the variation of the linear input polarization angles in 45° region almost has no influence on the output spectral profiles, and the break variation of the output spectrum exists when the angle between the polarization of the linear incident pulse and the fast-axis or the slow-axis of PM-PCF is 45°, which are attributed to the coupling between the two polarization modes in high birefringent PM-PCF.     

全啁啾镜色散补偿的亚8 fs钛宝石激光器

报道了一种基于全啁啾镜腔内色散补偿的、可长期稳定运行的亚8 fs钛宝石激光器.在4 W绿光抽运下, 可获得300 mW、86 MHz脉冲输出.腔内用于色散补偿的两对啁啾镜是国内自主设计自行镀膜的, 其对色散的精确控制可以在腔内不加尖劈对的情况下获得半宽超过150 nm超宽带输出.利用腔外色散补偿, 脉冲宽度被压缩至7.9 fs, 这是目前采用国产啁啾镜获得的最短脉宽, 也是无尖劈对谐振腔获得的最短脉宽.同时, 利用电路系统提供实时反馈调节, 可保证钛宝石激光器长期稳定运行, 24 h内功率抖动约0.6%.     

Nonlinear spectral cleaning effect in cross-polarized wave generation

The underlying mechanism of the spectral cleaning effect of the cross-polarized wave(XPW) generation process was theoretically investigated. This study shows that the spectral noise of an input spectrum can be removed in the XPW generation process and that the spectral cleaning effect depends on the characteristics of the input pulses, such as the chirp and Fourier-transform-limited duration of the initial pulse, and the modulation amplitude and frequency of the spectral noise. Though these factors codetermine the output spectrum of the XPW generation process, the spectral cleaning effect is mainly affected by the initial pulse chirp. The smoothing of the spectrum in the XPW generation process leads to a significant enhancement of the coherent contrast.