Observed factorization of excess quantum noise that is due to both polarization and spatial mode nonorthogonality

When the eigenmodes of a laser cavity are nonorthogonal, the quantum-limited linewidth of the laser is larger by an excess-noise factor than the standard Schawlow-Townes expression. Mode nonorthogonality can exist in the spatial domain, as in unstable-cavity resonators, but also in the polarization domain when the two polarization eigenmodes are nonorthogonal. We show experimentally that these two contributions are independent of each other, i.e., that the excess-noise factor factorizes as a product of the spatial and polarization excess-noise factors.     

圆形高斯镜平凹腔腔镜倾斜时光场模式分析

运用边界元素法把圆形高斯镜平凹腔的自再现模的衍射积分方程转化为有限阶矩阵方程。计算了谐振腔在理想情况和高斯反射率平面输出镜倾斜情况下基模的场强分布、相位分布和本征值。研究表明,腔镜倾斜使激光场模式分布沿发生倾斜的方向向镜边缘偏移,而且在腔镜倾斜较严重时模式分布发生畸变,不再是对称的拉盖尔-高斯基模分布。基模本征值随倾斜角增大而变小,光束远场分布变差。减小高斯分布反射率的膜斑半径,则能减弱因倾斜引起的模式畸变。     

干涉光谱仪动镜倾斜误差容限分析

本文从调制度和相位误差角度,系统分析了双光束干涉光谱仪中,当光束孔径为圆形和矩形时,动镜运动过程中发生倾斜的影响,讨论了动镜倾斜容限以及减小动镜倾斜误差的方法.     

Resonant excess quantum noise in focused-gain lasers

We demonstrate that the transverse eigenmodes in a waveguide that combines a parabolic index guide with a Gaussian gain guide can be highly nonorthogonal. The excess-noise factor K that arises from this nonorthogonality exhibits resonant features with maximum values that can easily reach K approximately 400 . This simple model applies directly to stable-cavity microchip lasers with focused gain.     

基于猫眼腔镜损耗调节的激光横模演示系统

提出一种基于猫眼腔镜损耗调节的新型激光横模演示系统。采用半外腔He-Ne激光器,利用由分立的可进行五维微调的凸透镜和凹面镜组成的猫眼逆向器构成损耗可调激光谐振腔,通过调节猫眼逆向器改变激光谐振腔的损耗比，实现改变激光横模状态的作用。利用CCD进行图像采集，计算机实现图像存储，从而得到20多种结构清晰的高阶横模花样图片。     

Astigmatism in tapered slot antennas

A series of scale model measurements of transverse electromagnetic mode tapered slot antennas are presented. They show that the beam launched by this type of antenna is astigmatic. It is shown how an off-axis spherical mirror can be used to correct this astigmatism to allow efficient coupling to quasi-optical systems. A millimetre wave antenna and mirror combination is described and, with the aid of solid state noise diodes, the coupling of the launched beam to a quasi-optical spectrometer is shown to be in good agreement with that predicted by the scale model measurements.     

Excess thermal-noise in the electrical breakdown of random resistor networks

We discuss a new type of excess noise strongly sensitive to non-homogeneous Joule heating of random resistor network and associated with local sources of thermal noise. The evolution of the network towards an electrical breakdown of conductor-insulator type is then studied by using a biased percolation model and it is analysed in terms of an excess-noise temperature. Monte Carlo simulation results show a significant increase of the excess-noise temperature over the average temperature of the network. Remarkably the excess-noise temperature scales with the resistance with an exponent of about 3. The predictivity of the model can be tested on thin film resistors where the determination of the excess noise temperature should provide a valuable indicator of the defectiveness of the film. Received 13 April 1999 and Received in final form 7 May 1999     

Noise conversion from pump to the passively mode-locked fiber lasers at 1.5 μm

We characterize the noise conversion from the pump relative intensity noise (RIN) to the RIN and phase noise of passively mode-locked lasers at 1.5 μm. Two mode locking mechanisms, nonlinear polarization rotation (NPR) and semiconductor saturable absorber mirror (SESAM), are compared for noise conversion for the first time. It is found that the RIN and the phase noise of both types of lasers are dominated by the noise converted from the pump RIN and thus, can be predicted with the measured pump RIN and noise conversion ratios. The SESAM laser is found to show an excess noise conversion from the laser RIN to the laser phase noise due to the slow saturable absorber effect.     

新型傅里叶变换光谱仪反射镜倾斜容限分析及实验

采用微机电系统微镜阵列和倾斜反射镜替代传统傅里叶变换光谱仪的动镜系统,提出一种基于微机电系统微镜阵列的新型傅里叶变换光谱仪.介绍了该光谱仪的工作原理,分析了倾斜反射镜倾斜角度的容限范围,并搭建了实验系统,进行了实验验证.理论推导表明:在近红外区域,反射镜倾角理论最大值为0.52°,光谱分辨率达到8 nm;在可见光区域,反射镜倾角理论最大值0.183°,光谱分辨率达到3 nm.选取可见光源488 nm激光器进行的实验验证结果表明:在倾角容限范围之内,光谱能准确还原;反之,光谱严重失真.最终,采用复色光源进一步实验验证了理论分析的正确性.     

Optical resonators with inhomogeneous mirrors

It is shown that the possibility of changing a laser light beam intensity distribution exists when the output mirror transmittance depends on the transverse plane coordinates. Methods of manufacture of inhomogeneously transmitting laser mirrors with constant phase of the reflected beam over the whole surface are described. Two examples of application of such systems are considered: one for obtaining a laser beam with constant intensity distribution in the transverse plane, the other for single-segment energy extraction from high-order transverse modes. The total laser output power is shown to be almost the same as for use of a homogeneous output mirror.     

Thermal noises and noise compensation in high-reflection multilayer coating

Thermal fluctuations of different origin in the substrate and in the coating of optical mirrors produce phase noise in the reflected wave. This noise determines the ultimate stabilization capability of high-Q cavities used as a reference system. In particular this noise is significant in interferometric laser gravitational wave antennas. It is shown that simple alteration of a mirror multilayer coating may provide suppression of phase noise produced by thermorefractive, thermoelastic, photothermal and thermoradiation induced fluctuations in the coating.     

Output beam drift and deformation in high-power COIL

During the operation of a chemical oxygen iodine laser (COIL) with an unstable resonator of a large Fresnel number, as the output power increases, an instability of the output laser beam will appear, behaving mainly as far-field beam spot drift and deformation. In order to interpret this phenomenon, thermal expansion analysis on the scraper with finite element analysis method and a simulation of the output beam mode of this kind of laser by the method of Fast Fourier Transform were developed. From the experimental measurement and the calculation, we proposed that the presence of the nonuniform temperature distribution of scraper causes the front surface of the scraper to tilt and bulge due to thermal expansion. As the output power is increasing, all the mirror surfaces, especially the scraper's, will absorb more and more heat, causing thermal expansion of the mirror front surface to occur more seriously, thus resulting in the tilting and deformation of the far-field beam spot. The initial misalignment of the direction is also an important factor leading to the far-field beam spot drift and deformation.     

猫眼激光谐振腔横模选择特性研究

将猫眼逆向器作为激光谐振腔的一个腔镜组成猫眼谐振腔。介绍了猫眼逆向器的结构,阐述了猫眼逆向器中凸透镜和凹面镜的间距改变时猫眼曲率半径的相应变化,并通过有效地控制该间距来选择激光横模,从而保证基横模输出。在激光谐振腔衍射积分方程的基础上,运用牛顿柯特斯数学方法,对不同参量下的猫眼激光谐振腔的横模状况进行分析,得出了各阶横模对应的特征值和功率损耗,计算出保证基横模输出的参量,并与实验对比,得到了一致的结论,为激光器的横模选择和控制提供了一种简便易行的新方法。     

Study on the possibilities of controlling the laser output beam properties by an intracavity deformable mirror

The possibilities of controlling the laser beam properties by a deformable mirror introduced into the laser optical cavity were studied theoretically and experimentally. The experiments were performed under conditions of an industrial high power transverse flow cw CO₂ laser operating with a stable resonator of a folded configuration. A deformable bimorph mirror of a surface profile controlled by the voltage applied to the mirror electrodes is implemented to the laser system as a back cavity mirror or as a one of the inner folding mirrors. The near-and far-field characteristics of the laser beam versus the resonator configuration controlled by the changes of the focal length of the deformable mirror are discussed in the paper. The analysis reveals that the resonator with an inner deformable mirror is much more sensitive to the mirror curvature variations than the resonator in which the deformable mirror is used as a back cavity mirror. The presented results show that dynamic and controllable changes in the resonator properties result in the controlled modification and optimisation of the laser output power and spatial parameters of the laser radiation.     

Hybrid output mirror for optically pumped far infrared lasers

A hybrid metallic mesh multilayer dielectric coating mirror has been developed for use as an output mirror for optically pumped far infrared lasers. The metallic mesh provides a high reflectance in the far infrared while the multilayer dielectric coating is chosen to provide a maximum reflectivity at the pump wavelength (10 μm). This hybrid mirror has increased the output power of a CH₃F waveguide laser at 496 μm by a factor of 350 over that obtained with a hole coupling mirror. In addition, this mirror results in a far infrared output beam which has a minimum angular divergence limited only by the particular oscillating transverse waveguide mode (the EH₁₁ mode for this experiment).     

A Noise Temperature Analysis of the Electrical Degradation of Thin Nanostructured Films

Thermal noise measurements at proper biasing conditions are shown to represent a powerful tool for the characterization of the homogeneity of thin nanostructured films and their adhesion to the substrate. By modeling a thin-film as a two-dimensional random resistor network, we introduce a new type of excess-noise arising from local sources of Nyquist noise due to the presence of defective regions. The dishomogeneous Joule heating of the film is responsible for a thermal and electrical instability which is efficiently described by using a biased percolation model. The results of our simulations show that the Nyquist excess-noise temperature should provide a sensitive and non-destructive indicator of the packing density and of the quality of heat contact to the substrate of nanostructured films with grain size in the range 10–500 nm.     

Laser excess noise and interferometric effects in frequency-modulated diode-laser spectrometers

Tunable Diode-Laser Absorption Spectroscopy (TDLAS) is increasingly being used to measure trace-gas concentrations down to low part-per-billion levels (1 ppbv = 10^–9 volume mixing ratio). Semiconductor lead-salt diode lasers give access to the mid-infrared spectral region and the application of high-Frequency Modulation (FM) schemes can further improve the sensitivity and detection speed of modern instrumentation. Several factors influence or even limit spectrometer performance. The central elements in such spectrometers are lead-salt diode lasers. Experimental data will be presented, which demonstrate that high-frequency excess-noise contributions above several MHz can be attributed to mode hopping and mode partition noise during multimode laser operation. Additionally it will be discussed how a FM-TDLAS spectrometer can be interpreted as an optimized Michelson interferometer for absolute distance measurements and, therefore, is extremely sensitive towards drift effects. The higher the modulation frequency, the higher is the drift sensitivity of the spectrometer due to interferometric effects. These drift effects are a second factor affecting ultrasensitive measurements. While wideband-laser noise characteristics call for high modulation frequencies, the aforementioned interferometric effects in the spectrometer require low modulation frequencies.     

Folded diffractive laser resonators with user-defined fundamental mode

The adjustment effort required for the alignment of laser resonators with arbitrarily shaped end mirrors can be significantly reduced by folding the resonator path half-way between the two end mirrors and by slightly tilting the resonator axis. Thus the resulting resonator consists only of one diffractive mirror and a plane mirror, and the separate alignment of both diffractive end mirrors with respect to each other can be avoided. This principle is demonstrated by a Nd:YAG laser with super-Gaussian output beam. Furthermore, it is shown theoretically that the influence of phase quantization effects on the beam quality can be strongly reduced as a consequence of the tilted resonator axis.     

A Flash-Lamp-Pumped Nd:YAG Laser with Dual-Telescopic Optics Configuration

A flash-lamp-pumped Nd:YAG laser that contains two laser rods and dual-telescopic elements is investigated theoretically and experimentally. The two intracavity telescopes of the resonator are appropriately chosen and adjusted to achieve a large-volume TEM₀₀ mode inside the laser rods, and to minimize the variational effects of the thermal lens in the rods. The drift of the optimal operating point of the resonator caused by variation in the pump energy is compensated by adjusting defocusing of the two telescopes over a broad pump energy range. It is experimentally shown that our resonator geometry with appropriate parameters obtained the output energy of 560 mJ with 100 #x03BC;s duration and slope efficiency of 3.5#x0025;, at a pump energy of 16J, even though the misalignment tilting angle of the end mirror reached #x00B1;5mrad. The bi-focusing effect caused by the thermally-induced stress birefringence was compensated by a 90#x00B0; quartz rotator. Output energy was increased by 18#x0025; at the pump energy of 16J. The misalignment tilting angle of the end mirror with intracavity telescope was 4 times larger than that without intracavity telescope.     

Quantum noise in the mirror–field system: A field theoretic approach

We revisit the quantum noise problem in the mirror–field system by a field-theoretic approach. Here a perfectly reflecting mirror is illuminated by a single-mode coherent state of the massless scalar field. The associated radiation pressure is described by a surface integral of the stress-tensor of the field. The read-out field is measured by a monopole detector, from which the effective distance between the detector and mirror can be obtained. In the slow-motion limit of the mirror, this field-theoretic approach allows to identify various sources of quantum noise that all in all leads to uncertainty of the read-out measurement. In addition to well-known sources from shot noise and radiation pressure fluctuations, a new source of noise is found from field fluctuations modified by the mirror’s displacement. Correlation between different sources of noise can be established in the read-out measurement as the consequence of interference between the incident field and the field reflected off the mirror. In the case of negative correlation, we found that the uncertainty can be lowered than the value predicted by the standard quantum limit. Since the particle-number approach is often used in quantum optics, we compared results obtained by both approaches and examine its validity. We also derive a Langevin equation that describes the stochastic dynamics of the mirror. The underlying fluctuation–dissipation relation is briefly mentioned. Finally we discuss the backreaction induced by the radiation pressure. It will alter the mean displacement of the mirror, but we argue this backreaction can be ignored for a slowly moving mirror.