10 kHz 40 W Ti:sapphire regenerative ring amplifier

A cryogenically cooled Ti:sapphire regenerative ring amplifier was developed as a laser for generating a laser-produced plasma light source. With a 10 kHz 180 W pump laser, the amplifier output is 40 W before compression and 26 W after compression. We believe it to be the current highest average-power output from a single stage Ti:sapphire amplifier. The effective focal length of the thermal lens is measured to be 2.2 m at 100 K for 180 W of pump power. With a 1 m focal length lens placed in the resonator, the effect of a thermal lens on the resonator mode is suppressed. High conversion efficiency is achieved for the whole pumping power range without any additional measures for thermal compensation.     

Experimental study on injection-locked Ti:sapphire lasers

An injection-locked Ti:sapphire laser is developed,with injection locking achieved using the Pound-DreverHall technique.By measuring the dependence of output power on the pump power with various Ti:sapphire laser parameters,we experimentally studied the influences of the ring cavity length,the focal length of the pump-laser mode-matching lens,and the output-coupler transmission on the threshold and slope efficiency.The dependence of the output power on the master laser power is also investigated.The present study provides a guideline for developing a Ti:sapphire laser with high slope efficiency and low threshold.     

平顶光端面抽运DPL中热效应对输出功率的影响

用平顶光束描述由多根光纤紧密排列耦合并经透镜整形后的抽运光分布，给出了平顶光束的光强分布，对晶体热效应引起的热致衍射损耗随抽运功率和抽运光束半径的变化规律进行了数值计算，讨论了晶体热效应引起的热致衍射损耗对基横模高斯光束输出功率的影响，并实验验证了基横模高斯光束输出功率随抽运功率的变化规律．结果表明：热致衍射损耗使基横模高斯光束输出功率明显降低．随着抽运光束半径的增大，热致衍射损耗减小，对基横模高斯光束输出功率的影响就减小；抽运功率越大，热致衍射损耗越大，对基横模高斯光束输出功率的影响就越大．     

Pulsed pump: Thermal effects in solid state lasers under super-Gaussian pulses

Solid state laser (SSL) powers can be realistically scaled when pumped by a real, efficient and multimode pulse. In this work, a fourth-order super-Gaussian pulse was assumed as a pump for SSL’s and a complete analytical expression for the thermal phase shift is given. Moreover, the focal length of thermal lens in paraxial ray approximation regime was studied. The results when applied to a Ti: sapphire crystal show an appreciable correction for abberation compared to a top-hat pulse.     

大口径掺钛蓝宝石晶体放大的实验研究

 分析了口径为80 mm的钛宝石晶体内的增益特性,对大口径钛宝石晶体中的泵浦光能量密度和泵浦光口径进行了优化设计。对于80 mm×17 mm的晶体,最佳工作光束口径为55 mm,泵浦能量为50 J;对于80 mm×30 mm的晶体,最佳工作光束口径为60 mm,泵浦能量为90 J,且其横向小信号增益远小于80 mm×17 mm晶体的。对影响大口径钛宝石晶体放大的横向放大自发辐射（ASE）和寄生振荡采用折射率匹配的包边技术进行了抑制。实验表明,该方法把允许横向增益从13提高到了2 100。实验系统为100 J绿光台面泵浦激光器,100 TW主放大器采用四程空间构型放大光路。80 mm×17 mm钛宝石晶体c轴水平放置,泵浦光和主激光均为水平偏振。当以泵浦光能量为49 J对主放大器进行双端泵浦,注入信号光能量为1.2 J,光束口径60 mm时,获得了14.2 J的放大光输出和286 TW的最高峰值功率。     

Ti:sapphire planar waveguide laser grown by pulsed laser deposition

We document the lasing performance of a waveguiding layer of Ti:sapphire, of ~12-mum thickness, grown by pulsed laser deposition from a 0.12-wt.% Ti(2)O(3) Ti:sapphire single-crystal target onto an undoped z-cut sapphire substrate. Lasing around 800 nm is observed when the waveguide layer is pumped by an argon-ion laser running on all-blue-green lines, with an absorbed power threshold of 0.56 W, with high-reflectivity (R>98%) mirrors. With a 5% pump duty cycle and a T=35% output coupler, a slope efficiency of 26% with respect to absorbed power is obtained, giving quasi-cw output powers in excess of 350 mW.     

Performance of gain-switched all-solid-state quasi-continuous-wave tunable Ti:sapphire laser system

We have made a gain-switched all-solid-state quasi-continuous-wave （QCW） tunable Ti：sapphire laser system, which is pumped by a 532 nm intracavity frequency-doubled Nd：YAG laser. Based on the theory of gain-switching and the study on the influencing factors of the output pulse width, an effective method for obtaining high power and narrow pulse width output is proposed. Through deliberately designing the pump source and the resonator of the Ti：sapphire laser, when the repetition rate is 6 kHz and the length of the cavity is 220 mm, at an incident pump power of 22 W, the tunable Ti：sapphire laser from 700 to 950nm can be achieved. It has a maximum average output power of 5.6W at 800nm and the pulse width of 13.2 ns, giving an optical conversion efficiency of 25.5% from the 532 mn pump laser to the Ti：sapphire laser.     

Wavefront evolution of the signal beam in Ti:sapphire chirped pulse amplifier

We studied the evolution of wavefront aberration(WFA) of a signal beam during amplification in a Ti:sapphire chirped pulse amplification(CPA) system. The results verified that the WFA of the amplified laser beam has little relation with the change of the pump beam energies. Transverse parasitic lasing that might occur in CPA hardly affects the wavefront of the signal beam. Thermal effects were also considered in this study, and the results show that the thermal effect cumulated in multiple amplification processes also has no obvious influence on the wavefront of the signal beam for a single-shot frequency. The results presented in this paper confirmed experimentally that the amplification in a Ti:sapphire CPA system has little impact on the WFA of the signal beam and it is very helpful for wavefront correction of single-shot PW and multi-PW laser systems based on Ti:sapphire.     

Regenerative amplification of femtosecond laser pulses in Ti:sapphire at multikilohertz repetition rates

We have generated and applied noncoherent x-ray radiation in an all-solid-state laser system operating at repetition rates up to 20 kHz. Based on a model that takes into account the strong thermal loading of the Ti:sapphire rod, a laser cavity with low sensitivity to thermal lensing was chosen. With a maximum pump power of 80 W, an output power as high as 27 W was obtained in gain-switched operation, and, with a seeding from a femtosecond oscillator, 60-fs, 0.8-mJ (8-W) pulses at 10 kHz and 0.32-mJ (6.5-W) pulses at 20 kHz were generated. High power femtosecond output was used to generate x-ray continuum radiation up to 5 keV from a liquid-gallium jet target.     

High-contrast, high-intensity laser pulse generation using a nonlinear preamplifier in a Ti:sapphire laser system

We report a high-contrast, high-intensity Ti:sapphire chirped-pulse amplification system that incorporates a nonlinear preamplifier based on optical parametric chirped-pulse amplification (OPCPA). By cooling the Ti:sapphire crystal in the final amplifier down to 77 K, the chirped-pulses are amplified to 2.9 J at a 10 Hz repetition rate without a thermal lensing effect. Pulse compression down to 19 fs duration obtained after amplification indicates a peak power of 80 TW. With the OPCPA, the temporal contrast is significantly improved to better than 7x10(-9) in a few picoseconds interval prior to the main laser pulse.     

Measurement of thermal lensing in a power amplifier of a terawatt Ti:sapphire laser

We have measured detailed thermal lensing in a power amplifier of a terawatt Ti:sapphire laser operating at 50 Hz. The thermal lensing in the amplifier was evaluated by measuring the optical path difference (OPD) using a Shack–Hartmann-type wavefront sensor. It was found that the radial dependence of the OPD was almost quadratic in the pumping region, despite inhomogeneous pumping. Therefore, a simple spherical lens or convex mirror effectively compensates for the thermal lens in our amplifier. We found that the thermal lens profile was temporally stable, and did not degrade the pointing stability of the amplified laser pulses. We also found that the time constant of the thermal distortion in our power amplifier was approximately 0.5 s. Received: 3 September 2001 / Revised version: 23 January 2002 / Published online: 14 March 2002     

Model of pulsed Nd:GSAG laser at 942?nm considering rate equations with cavity structure

The laser resonator structure and beam diameter change with the pump power due to the thermal lens effect. This influences the output power. With increasing pump power, the output power sharply decreases when the cavity becomes unstable. In order to describe this situation, rate equations considering the cavity structure and the thermal lens effect are presented; numerical methods are used to solve them. This modeling can be used in repetitively pulsed laser systems when the thermal lens depends on the average pump power, while the peak value of the output power and pump power are considered by the rate equations. Experiments are performed with 50 Hz LD diode pumped Nd:GSAG laser crystal operating at the quasi-three-level laser transition with 942 nm wavelength. Fitting the calculated results to experimental data allows to determine the cavity loss. PACS  42.55.Xi; 42.60.Da     

采用飞秒光纤激光同步泵浦的自启动锁模钛宝石激光研究

针对常规连续激光泵浦钛宝石激光振荡器不能自启动锁模的缺点,采用倍频飞秒光纤激光同步泵浦,通过调节振荡器腔长与泵浦腔长匹配,实现了飞秒钛宝石激光的自启动锁模。实验中采用3.4 W的倍频掺镱光纤激光同步泵浦钛宝石激光振荡器,获得了平均功率大于130 mW、重复频率75 MHz、光谱宽度大于47 nm、脉冲宽度17 fs的锁模脉冲输出,不仅能够稳定可靠地实现自启动锁模,解决了常规钛宝石激光振荡器锁模启动的困难,而且还具有同步输出1040,800,520 nm三束飞秒激光的特点,为进一步开展飞秒激光相干合成以及光参量放大等研究提供了优势基础。     

连续钛宝石激光器最佳输出透射率的测量

在连续钛宝石激光器中，在一定泵浦功率下通过直接测量腔内熔融石英片在不同入射角时的反射耦合输出，得到了激光器的最佳输出透射率。在两个不同的输出透射率条件下，测量激光器的泵浦阈值，经计算求得了不同泵浦功率下激光器最佳输出透射率的理论值。对浓度不同的钛宝石棒均作了测量和计算，测量值与理论值基本符合。     

360-W average power operation with a single-stage diode-pumped Nd:YAG amplifier at a 1-kHz repetition rate

We report a high-average-power laser-diode-pumped Nd:YAG master oscillator power amplifier system that has a minimum number of elements in the single multipass zigzag-slab amplifier stage and is used to pump a high-peak-power and high-average-power Ti:sapphire laser system. This phase-conjugated system produces an average power of 362 W at 1 kHz in a 30-ns pulse with an optical-to-optical conversion efficiency of 14%. With an external KTP doubler this system generates 132 W of green average output power at 1 kHz with a conversion efficiency of 60% when pumped at a power level of 222 W. To the best of our knowledge these results represent the highest average output power at both infrared and green wavelengths achieved in a single amplifier stage.     

Spatial chirp in Ti:sapphire multipass amplifier

The spatial chirp generated in the Ti:sapphire multipass amplifier is numerically investigated based on the onedimensional(1D) and two-dimensional(2D) Frantz–Nodvik equations. The simulation indicates that the spatial chirp is induced by the spatially inhomogeneous gain, and it can be almost eliminated by utilization of proper beam profiles and spot sizes of the signal and pump pulses, for example, the pump pulse has a top-hatted beam profile and the signal pulse has a super-Gaussian beam profile with a relatively larger spot size. In this way, a clear understanding of spatial chirp mechanisms in the Ti:sapphire multipass amplifier is proposed, therefore we can effectively almost eliminate the spatial chirp and improve the beam quality of a high-power Ti:sapphire chirped pulse amplifier system.     

高效连续波钛宝石激光器的优化设计及实验研究

运用ABCD律及自再现条件对钛宝石线性腔的折叠角进行了优化,从而大大提高了钛宝石晶体中光束束腰的耦合效率同时实验上对连续钛宝石激光器进行了研究,采用20mm长的钛宝石晶体和10%输出耦合镜,并运用优化后的折叠角,最终用全线氩离子激光器泵浦的连续波钛宝石激光器的斜率效率高达34.2%,在泵浦功率为7.7W下,连续钛宝石激光器输出功率达1.89W.     

Ti^3＋离子浓度对掺钛蓝宝石激光器输出特性的影响

首次从理论上研究了掺钛蓝宝石晶体中Ｔｉ＾３＋离子浓度对脉冲式激光泵浦的掺钛蓝宝石激光器的输出特性的影响，并用五种不同Ｔｉ＾３＋离子浓度的掺钛蓝宝石晶体进行了实验研究，实验结果与理论符合得较好。     

Gain dynamics of two-wavelength Ti:sapphire femtosecond laser

We report the theory and experiments of a two-wavelength bi-tuning femtosecond Ti:sapphire laser. The cross-mode-locked gain competition is described with numerical solution and operation of the laser is accomplished in which two trains of femtosecond pulses cross in the Ti:sapphire rod. For this reason, a cross-bearings technique is used. The laser resonator is a six-mirror bi-cavity, and two beams of pump lights cross in Ti:sapphire crystal. Two trains of sub-30 fs cross-mode-locked pulses have been generated with independent tunable wavelength when the pump power of the argon laser is approximately 5 W. As the design of the bi-cavity is fine, not only strong gain competition is overcome, but also stable output characteristics are performed. Received: 21 July 1998 / Revised version: 5 January 1999 / Published online: 30 July 1999     

Influences of pump beam distribution on thermal lensing spherical aberration in an LD end-pumped Nd:YAG laser

A numerical investigation is made on the thermal lensing and spherical aberration effect in an LD end-pumped Nd:YAG laser. Based on the finite element method (FEM), the laser rod temperature distribution is calculated and the focal length of the thermal lens is deduced, the influences of pump beam on the thermal lensing spherical aberration are mainly studied. The results show the thermal lens which focal length varied with the radial coordinate r is not an ideal lens. Given the heat dissipation boundary conditions, the radial dependent focal length will be shortened when the pump power raised or the waist radius of the pump beam reduced, meanwhile the radial differences of the focal length will decrease when the pump power increased. For a Super-Gaussian profile pump beam, the higher the exponent number, the more similar to flat top the pump beam is, and the less the radial differences of the focal length are.