Second-harmonic optimization of computer-generated hologram

A method of optimizing a computer-generated hologram based on parallel second harmonic generation is proposed for holographic femtosecond laser processing. The method, which we call second harmonic optimization, incorporates the width and spatial profile of the pulse into the hologram design. With this method, we demonstrated parallel laser processing with high quality. Because of the enhanced processing accuracy, smaller structures were processed with a smaller energy than in our previous work. In parallel laser processing with 18 beams on a glass surface, the minimum average diameter of the processed structures was 271 nm when the mean fluence of the beams was 0.88 J/cm(2).     

Multiple-beam interference patterns in optical fiber generated with ultrafast pulses and a phase mask

We compare the cladding patterns present in grating structures fabricated with an ultrafast laser and a phase mask with a cw beam interference model. We find that the observed patterns agree well with the model results for picosecond pulses; however, for femtosecond pulses, we show that the full bandwidth and the pulsed nature of the sources must be considered because the pattern can be affected by group-velocity walk-off. An interesting consequence of order walk-off is the possibility of pure two-beam interference generation with a phase mask in the femtosecond pulse regime.     

Plasmon–polariton assisted formation of nanotip arrays on surfaces of bulk aluminum upon femtosecond laser irradiation

Two new methods for the formation of nanotip arrays under the action of single or double femtosecond laser pulses on a surface of bulk aluminum are presented. It is shown that a key role in the formation of nanotips is played by the excitation of surface electromagnetic waves and their mutual interference, and by their interference with the exciting electromagnetic field of the laser pulse.     

Compact and self-aligned all-optical image correlator based on third-harmonic generation

We demonstrate a compact optical correlator using a diffractive optical element (DOE) beam splitter for 2D optical image processing. Image frequency conversion and correlation are demonstrated using third-harmonic generation (THG) in an organic film with a 1550 nm femtosecond laser. Spatial and temporal alignment of the femtosecond pulses are obtained by imaging the DOE onto the organic film.     

Femtosecond pulse laser-induced self-organized nanogratings on the surface of a ZnSe crystal

Periodic nanostructures are observed on the surface of ZnSe after irradiation by a focused beam of a femtosecond Ti:sapphire laser, which are aligned perpendicular to the laser polarization direction. The period of self-organized grating structures is about 160 nm. The phenomenon is interpreted in terms of interference between the incident light field and the surface scattered wave of 800-nm laser pulses. With the laser polarization parallel to the moving direction we produce long-range Bragg-like gratings by slowly moving the crystal under a fixed laser focus. The nanograting orientation is adjusted by laser polarization and the accumulation effect. PACS 81.16.Rf; 78.67.-n; 33.80.Rv; 82.53.Mj; 81.16.-c     

135 W average-power femtosecond pulses at 520 nm from a frequency-doubled fiber laser system

We present a high-average-power femtosecond laser system at 520 nm central wavelength. The laser system delivers sub-500 fs pulses with 135 W average power at a pulse repetition rate of 5.25 MHz. Excellent beam quality is provided by high power fiber amplifiers and maintained during frequency doubling, resulting in a beam quality factor of M2<1.2. To our knowledge, the system presented here is the highest average power green laser source generating femtosecond pulses with diffraction-limited beam quality.     

PMP泡沫的飞秒激光烧蚀及切割方法

对密度为90 mg/cm3的PMP泡沫材料的飞秒激光烧蚀结果进行了分析,推导出该材料在脉宽50 fs、波长800 nm、重复频率为1000 Hz的飞秒激光作用下的蚀除阈值为0.91 J/cm2（100个激光脉冲）,获得了烧蚀直径分别随激光功率、脉冲数及聚焦物镜数值孔径的变化规律。相同飞秒激光加工系统下,对比了铜箔上获得的烧蚀形状,确定了PMP泡沫材料本身的多孔洞及其分布不均匀是造成烧蚀区域的形状不规则的重要因素。PMP泡沫在较高能量或是较长时间的飞秒激光作用下,烧蚀区域发生碳化的原因是由热作用引发的。提出了一种基于激光束耦合的飞秒激光切割厚度大于1 mm的薄膜-泡沫材料的方法,并获得了切割厚度大于1.5 mm、切割侧壁与光束光轴夹角小于5、切割面整洁的薄片。     

超连续谱干涉方法测量古依相移

利用两束超连续光干涉得到的信号,测量了透镜焦点附近飞秒激光脉冲的古依(Gouy)相移。根据得到的光谱干涉信号,利用傅里叶变换得到相对相位值。激光光束在聚焦透镜后的束腰半径可以由成像方法测得。根据测量得到的激光光束束腰半径,用非线性拟合的方法得到了古依相移曲线,拟合曲线与实验结果符合得非常好。给出了古依相位在焦点前后1 mm区域内的移动量。     

Direct fabrication of periodic patterns with hierarchical sub-wavelength structures on poly(3,4-ethylene dioxythiophene)-poly(styrene sulfonate) thin films using femtosecond laser interference patterning

A simple optical interference method for the fabrication of simply periodic and periodic with a substructure on poly(3,4-ethylene dioxythiophene)-poly(styrene sulfonate) using femtosecond laser interference patterns is demonstrated. The femtosecond laser pulse was split by a diffractive beam splitter and overlapped with two lenses. Homogeneous periodic arrays could be fabricated even using a single laser pulse. In addition, multipulse irradiation resulted in reproducible sub-wavelength ripples oriented perpendicularly to the laser polarization with spatial period from 170 to 220 nm (around one-fourth of the laser wavelength). In addition, the observed size of the spatial period was not affected by the number of incident laser pulses or accumulated energy density. Using high energy pulses it was possible to completely remove the PEDOT:PSS layer without inducing damage to the underneath substrate.     

飞秒激光湿法刻蚀微纳制造

飞秒激光微加工作为一种新型微纳制造技术,在复杂三维构型制作方面具有其独特的优势,但激光加工效率问题严重制约了飞秒激光微加工技术走向实际工程应用,提出一种飞秒激光湿法刻蚀微纳制造方法,以提高飞秒激光微加工的效率为突破口,通过调控激光与物质相互作用获得材料的目标靶向改性,进而结合化学湿法刻蚀实现硬质材料上的高效和高精度三维微加工,采用这一方法制作出的微透镜尺寸为80 m,球冠高6.7 m,表面粗糙度小于10 nm。利用这种方法,实现了不同结构与特性的高质量微透镜阵列的超精密制备,在石英内部也实现了螺旋微通道的复杂三维结构,螺旋通道直径为20 m,长径比超过100。     

Fabrication of large-area hole arrays using high-efficiency two-grating interference system and femtosecond laser ablation

We present a novel method to fabricate hole arrays by forming a four-beam interference pattern with two gratings. In this method a femtosecond laser beam is split into four and collected to interfere using two cascaded diffractive gratings. One benefit of this grating pair is that it is achromatic, because of the geometry of the grating pair, and therefore it is suitable for femtosecond ablation. Grating pairs were designed and fabricated for a standard Ti:sapphire femtosecond laser, with 800-nm central wavelength, so that the interference pattern generates holes with less than 1-μm diameter. Holes with this size diffract with a colorful visual appearance in the visible wavelength range and therefore these structures are suitable for security, authentication and decorative marking. We show that this method is suitable for fast ablation of hole arrays in both silicon and steel.     

用体全息术对皮秒光脉冲进行二维测量

本文提供一种测量两束相干的ps光脉冲的空间二维时间振幅相关函数的新方法.在此方法中,光脉冲是被记录在一种光致折变的体积全息介质中,而所记录的信息可以通过直接量度在介质中所形成的光栅的空间分布而读出.这种方法可的可行性已为实验证实,它是通过3.5ps倍频锁模Nd:YAG激光测量光致折变晶体LiNbO₃来实现的。     

Tailored terahertz pulses from a laser-modulated electron beam

We present a new method to generate steady and tunable, coherent, broadband terahertz radiation from a relativistic electron beam modulated by a femtosecond laser. We have demonstrated this in the electron storage ring at the Advanced Light Source. Interaction of an electron beam with a femtosecond laser pulse copropagating through a wiggler modulates the electron energies within a short slice of the electron bunch with about the same duration of the laser pulse. The bunch develops a longitudinal density perturbation due to the dispersion of electron trajectories, and the resulting hole emits short pulses of temporally and spatially coherent terahertz pulses synchronized to the laser. We present measurements of the intensity and spectra of these pulses. This technique allows tremendous flexibility in shaping the terahertz pulse by appropriate modulation of the laser pulse.     

Effect of beam diameter on the propagation of intense femtosecond laser pulses

This paper describes the effects observed during the propagation of intense femtosecond laser pulses in air following the modification of the laser beam diameter with a pair of convex–concave lenses placed/mounted in a telescopic configuration. We observed that by reducing the diameter of the beam the detected back-scattered nitrogen fluorescence from the filaments becomes more stable on a shot-to-shot basis while, for a larger beam size, greater fluctuations are observed that are not correlated to shot-to-shot fluctuations in the laser pulse energy. This result leads to a new method to control the fluorescence signal which can be very important in remote-sensing applications. PACS 42.65.Jx; 42.68.Ay; 42.68.Wt     

Direct observation of the temperature field during ablation of materials by multiple femtosecond laser pulses

We report a direct observation of the temperature field on a steel specimen during ablation by multiple femtosecond laser pulses using an infrared thermography technique. From the experimental results and simulation study of the temperature field, we quantified the deposited thermal power into the specimen during the ablation process. We found that more than two thirds of the incident laser power was deposited in the steel specimen when ablated by multiple femtosecond laser pulses. This result provides further understanding of the heating effect in materials processing by ultrashort laser pulses.     

Generating optical vortex with computer-generated hologram fabricated inside glass by femtosecond laser pulses

We introduce a novel method to generate the optical vortex with computer-generated hologram (CGH) fabricated inside glass by femtosecond laser pulses. The CGH was directly written inside glass by femtosecond laser pulses induced microexplosion without any pre- or post-treatment of the material. We also realized the restructured optical vortex beams of both the transmission and reflection pattern with high fidelity using a collimated He-Ne laser beam. The total diffractive efficiency of both the transmission and reflection pattern is about 4.79%.     

Influence of substrate cooling on femtosecond laser machined hole depth and diameter

Substrate temperature was observed to affect the machined hole depth and diameter during Ti:sapphire femtosecond laser machining of a copper substrate. We studied the blind holes drilled on copper specimens by multiple femtosecond laser (fs) pulses under two temperature conditions, namely the liquid nitrogen temperature (∼77 K) and the atmospheric temperature (∼298 K). Compared to the atmospheric temperature condition, we found that the diameters of the holes are smaller and the depths of the holes are deeper under the liquid nitrogen temperature condition. We attribute the reduction in diameter to the faster heat dissipation of the cooler substrate. We calculated multiple beam reflections in a channel and attribute the increased depth of the cooler substrate to the enhanced multiple laser beam reflections inside the laser drilled hole. PACS 79.20.Ds; 81.05; 42.62.Cf; 06.60.Jn; 81.20. Wk     

Micromachining of circular ring microstructure by femtosecond laser pulses

In this paper, integration of interference phenomenon into femtosecond laser micromachining was reported as the femtosecond laser pulses were reshaped spatially to perform ablation. The generation of circular interference pattern was demonstrated by overlapping infrared femtosecond laser pulses. The interference pattern was subsequently focused on a copper substrate to ablate microstructures of concentric circular rings. The present technique is expected to open up new applications in the areas of rapid fabrication of micro-Fresnel lenses, hybrid microlenses and lens arrays.     

Self-assembled volume vortex grating induced by femtosecond laser pulses in glass

We presented a microfabrication process for optical volume vortex grating inside glass by femtosecond laser pulses. The self-trapped filament of femtosecond laser pulses can induce hundreds μm-long region refractive-index changes in glass. We realized the restructured optical vortex beams using a collimated He–Ne laser beam. The maximum first-order diffraction efficiency was about 19.6%. The volume vortex grating structure fabricated in glass is polarization dependent.