Thermal effects in phase-conjugation in saturable absorbers with picosecond pulses

Phase conjugation reflection with efficiencies of 400% for microsecond pulses and ～50% for picosecond pulses has been obtained in saturable absorber dye solutions. The effect of different solvents on the generation of the thermal phase grating involved was investigated.     

Measurement of the background energy content of Nd-glass picosecond pulses with saturable absorbers

The background energy content of a mode-locked Nd-glass laser is determined with photodetectors and saturable absorbers. By comparing the signal height of a fast detector with the readout of an integrating energy meter the noise energy E_u2 outside the rise-time of the fast detector is measured. The background energy E_u1 within the rise-time is analysed by transmission measurements through two subsequent absorber cells. The obtained mean background to pulse energy (and intensity) ratios of ( and indicate a high degree of mode-locking.     

Shortening of excimer laser pulses with saturable absorbers

Shortening by a factor of more than five of XeCl laser pulses by a single pass saturable absorber is recorded. The pulse shortening is attributed to the combined action of both nonlinear absorption and stimulated emission from the dye solution.     

Generation and applications of passively mode-locked picosecond light pulses

A model concerning the generation of picosecond light pulses in solid state lasers is compared with existing experimental observations. The quality of selected single pulses and their favourable properties for investigations with ultrashort light pulses are discussed. Extensive physical applications of picosecond light pulses are reviewed. Emphasis is given to quantitative investigations of non-linear optics and of ultrafast relaxation processes in condensed matter.     

Analysis of saturable absorbers,interacting with gaussian pulses

Mode-locked lasers, Q-switch systems and discrimination amplifiers make use of saturable absorbers. The interaction of those absorbers with light pulses is well known, either for very long or very short pulses, but not, if the pulse width is comparable with the absorber life time, which occurs very often in experiments. Moreover, the spatial structure of the pulse is mostly not considered. In this paper, we investigate in detail the interaction of gaussian pulses (spatial and temporal) with the two-level-absorber. Energy transmission, pulse shortening and pulse asymmetry are calculated as functions of pulse width and small signal transmission of the absorber.     

Enhancement of temporal contrast of high-power femtosecond laser pulses using two saturable absorbers in the picosecond regime

We characterized the transmission properties of a color-glass-filter (RG850) saturable absorber (SA) in a wide range of pulse durations (from 25 fs to 5 ps). The transmission properties were strongly related to the energy fluence, pulse duration, and chirp parameter. On the basis of these properties, the input pulse duration, chirp parameter, and energy fluence were optimized to maintain the width of the transmitted laser spectrum as much as possible with minimal energy loss. We demonstrated that, by transmitting a positively chirped 2.8-ps laser pulse to two identical SAs at an energy fluence of 15 mJ/cm², the temporal contrast ratio of the main pulse to the amplified spontaneous emission was enhanced by 4 orders of magnitude without any significant energy loss or strong spectral narrowing in a 10-Hz, 100-TW femtosecond laser system.     

Generation of chirp-free picosecond pulses

The frequency spectrum of moderately chirped laser pulses depends upon the portion of the beam which is accepted by the spectrometer. Observation of the development of the chirp in a mode-locked pulse train allows to determine the small incipient chirp of early pulses. A product, bandwidth times pulse duration, of 0.47 ± 0.03 is consistently observed for single pulses switched from a passively mode-locked Nd-glass system.     

Generation of subpicosecond electrical pulses by optical rectification

We describe the generation of subpicosecond electrical pulses by optical rectification of ultrashort optical pulses. The electrical pulses are generated by the second-order nonlinear response of a LiTaO(3) crystal bonded to a coplanar transmission line. A bipolar temporal waveform with a width of 875 fs was measured after a propagation distance of 175mum . This pulse width was limited by the response time of the photoconductive sampler. We observed both broadening and amplitude reduction in the temporal waveform owing to propagation.     

Generation,stabilization, and amplification of subpicosecond pulses

A sync-pumped cw dye laser system has been used to produce subpicosecond pulses. Pulses as short as 0.7 ps, assuming a single-sided exponential pulse shape, were observed. A set of experiments was performed to investigate the origin and effects of noise in the sync-pumped system. A digital and an analog feedback loop have been designed to optimize the pulse width. The noise has been lowered by 10 dB for frequencies up to 10 kHz; long-term drift is also controlled by this method. A four-stage dye laser amplifier, pumped by a Nd:YAG laser which operates at a 10-Hz repetition rate, is synchronized electronically to the dye-laser picosecond pulses. A gain of 3×10⁶ has been achieved.This work was supported by the Joint Services Electronics Program     

Lasers with two-photon saturable absorbers

We study the mean field properties of a solid-state monomode laser containing a saturable absorber which can undergo only two-photon transitions. Even when the cavity is tuned to the atomic line center there are two classes of stationary solutions, one of which is tuned to the microscopic frequency whereas the other one is always detuned. Furthermore optical bistability arises either between two tuned states or between a tuned and a detuned state.     

Generation of frequency shifted picosecond pulses with low temporal jitter

Transient stimulated Raman scattering is used for the generation of a frequency shifted picosecond light pulse; part of this Raman shifted pulse is subsequently coherently scattered at a material excitation of a second Raman cell. Starting with the second harmonic pulse (t_p = 4 ps) of a mode-locked Nd : glass laser system, both the stimulated and the coherently produced pulses have durations of 2.3 ps at different wavelengths. By the appropriate choice of the Raman medium pulses between 13 000 and 21 000 cm^-1 can be generated. The coherent generation process minimizes the temporal jitter between the two pulses and allows to obtain a high time resolution of better than 0.3 ps in excite and probe experiments.     

Generation of narrowband subpicosecond mid-infrared pulses via difference frequency mixing of chirped near-infrared pulses

The widely used setup for the generation of femtosecond infrared (IR) pulses based on parametric amplifiers (OPAs) and difference frequency mixing (DFM) is extended to produce tunable narrowband mid-IR pulses. The insertion of pairs of silicon prisms after the OPA induces adjustable chirp, which leads to the generation of narrowband pulses in the DFM stage. Rapid tunability of the mid-IR wavelength via a computer-controllable actuator can be achieved in a range of approximately 200 cm(-1) at a bandwidth of the IR-pulses between approximately 15 and approximately 50 cm(-1) and pulse energies up to 0.4 microJ. The narrowband mid-IR pulses are well suited for 2D IR spectroscopy.     

Generation of rayleigh waves by picosecond laser pulses

In this paper we present the fundamental mechanism which we hold responsible for generation of high frequency Rayleigh waves by picosecond laser pulses on a single crystal surface of Silicon. These Rayleigh waves have been recorded as ripples frozen out on the surface of the crystal upon irradiation with a focused cw mode-locked laser.     

Controllable propagation of light pulses in Er-doped fibers with saturable absorption

We report controllable (slow or fast) propagation of low-intensity probe-light pulses through erbium-doped fiber periodically saturated by the synchronized master-pulse sequence. These two pulse sequences could have significantly different carrier wavelengths within the fundamental absorption spectrum 1470-1570 nm of Er(+3) ions. The effect of fractional delay or advancement grew with the fiber optical absorption at the probe wavelength and could be significantly stronger than that at the saturating wavelength. The probe-pulse advancement was observed in the case when the saturating and probe waves were modulated approximately in antiphase. The observed effects are explained in the framework of a simple model of a periodically saturated homogeneously broadened absorption line.     

Modulation of a saturable absorber Q-switched laser by a train of picosecond pulses

In this experiment, the transmission of the saturable absorber of a mode-locked laser is modulated optically by a train of ultra-short pulses emitted by another laser, with some power reflected inside the cavity to initiate the emission. The laser threshold is only attained during the opening time of the modulator, and stimulated emission is prevented at any other time. Once pulses are formed, the photon density is sufficiently high for auto-modulating the dye.Q-switching of the laser is only realised if the difference between the time of a round-trip in the cavity and the period of modulation is less than ±17 psec. The emission is a series of pulses of 5.2 nsec period lasting for 60 nsec. The total energy in all pulses is 60 mJ for a neodymium doped glass rod of 8 mm diameter.We describe a method for measuring the noise of the series of pulses using a saturated photo-cell. We find a ratio of 100 between the energy of one pulse and the energy emitted between two pulses.     

Generation and measurement of frequency-tunable picosecond pulses from dye lasers

Experimental techniques for the generation of frequency-tunable picosecond pulses from passively mode-locked dye lasers are reviewed. Direct photoelectric measurements of pulse durations with a streak-camera of time resolution <3 ps are described. Recent studies of the build-up of pulse shortening and of saturable absorber photochemistry are discussed and related to the mode-locking processes in dye lasers.