Graphene oxide-COOH as a new saturable absorber for both Q-switching and mode-locking fiber lasers

Graphene oxide carboxylic acid(COOH), a novel two-dimensional(2D) layered material with its unique optical and electronic properties, is discovered to exhibit the saturation of optical absorption under laser illumination.Applying the liquid-phase exfoliation method, we prepare graphene oxide-COOH dispersions with deionized water and fabricate graphene oxide-COOH polyvinyl alcohol polymer composite film. We further obtain stable Q-switching pulse and mode-locked laser operation with a 22.7 MHz repetition rate and a 1.5 ps pulse duration by incorporating the graphene oxide-COOH-based saturable absorbers into the all-fiber erbium-doped fiber laser cavity. The experimental results show that the proposed graphene oxide-COOH material can act as an effective absorber for pulsed fiber lasers, which demonstrate potential applications in the area of ultrafast optics.     

A study on the pulsed laser printing of liquid-phase exfoliated graphene for organic electronics

The aim of this work is the pulsed laser printing of liquid-phase exfoliated graphene in the nanosecond regime and the optimization of the printing process on Si/SiO₂ and flexible polymer substrates (polyethylene naphthalate) via the laser-induced forward transfer technique (LIFT). The laser printing conditions and the optimum energy fluence window for reproducible deposition have been investigated, while the deposited graphene features have been studied morphologically and structurally by means of optical microscopy, micro-Raman spectroscopy and electrical characterization. LIFT experiments were carried out using the fourth harmonic (266 nm) of a pulsed ns Nd:YAG laser combined with a high-power imaging micromachining system to monitor the printing process throughout the experiments. The irradiation of our graphene solution resulted in the deposition of well-resolved patterns on different surfaces, highlighting LIFT as an alternative technique for the printing and patterning of liquid-phase exfoliated graphene for organic electronics applications.     

基于石墨烯可饱和吸收体的纳秒锁模掺铥光纤激光器

报道了一种基于石墨烯可饱和吸收体的纳秒锁模掺铥光纤激光器.该激光器采用环形腔结构,利用自制的三层石墨烯薄膜作为可饱和吸收体实现锁模.同时在腔内插入一个窄带光纤光栅,约束腔内起振的纵模数,适当调节抽运功率和偏振控制器的角度,得到了重复频率为3.8 MHz、脉宽在3.8—94.3 ns之间灵活可调的2μm纳秒锁模脉冲输出,整个脉宽调节范围超过90 ns.此外,由于获得的兆赫兹纳秒锁模脉冲时间带宽积在49—1119范围内,即存在强烈的啁啾,因而可作为2μm波段啁啾脉冲放大系统中的种子源使用.     

Laser scribing on HOPG for graphene stamp printing on silicon wafer

Highly oriented pyrolytic graphite (HOPG) was scribed by pulsed laser beam to produce square patterns. Patterning of HOPG surface facilitates the detachment of graphene layers during contact printing. Direct HOPG-to-substrate and glue-assisted stamp printing of a few-layers graphene was compared. Printed graphene sheets were visualized by optical and scanning electron microscopy. The number of graphene layers was measured by atomic force microscopy. Glue-assisted stamp printing allows printing relatively large graphene sheets (40×40 μm) onto a silicon wafer. The presented method is easier to implement and is more flexible than the majority of existing ways of placing graphene sheets onto a substrate.     

A method of relaying the transverse profile of a laser beam and its application to holography

The holography of engineering plant where only restricted access is available requires a method of piping the pulsed laser beam to a compact, remote head. Because amplifier distortions which occur in pulsed lasers result in far field beam break-up, it is not possible to simply collimate the beam as normally possible with a continuous wave laser. A possible way to transmit the pulsed laser beam is by an optical relay which repeatedly images the output until the launching point is reached.

The use of a relay system to transmit the pulsed laser output 20 m has been demonstrated in the laboratory. Holograms taken at the output of the relay showed a resolution of 18l.p. mm^-1, the same as that achieved when a hologram was taken by expanding the beam immediately at the laser output.     

Hand-held laser welding of metals using fibre optics

A fibre optic delivery system has for the first time been used in laser welding of metals. The optical fibre is flexible and has a length of 140 cm. It can transmit pulsed energies from a Nd-YAG laser in excess of 25 J with an efficiency of 85%. Potential applications in industry and in dentistry are discussed.     

脉冲激光光热失调技术

将脉冲激光作为加热光引入光热失调测量技术中,提出了脉冲激光光热失调测量技术,介绍了其基本原理,分析了脉冲激光光热失调测量技术用于测量光学薄膜微弱吸收的可行性.实验以532 nm的高反射光学薄膜为样品,采用波长为632.8 nm的探测光,研究了脉冲激光光热失调技术信号振幅的时间特性以及最大信号幅值与样品表面加热光能量密度、加热光斑与探测光斑相对位置的变化关系.研究结果表明,光热信号随时间先增大后减小,而随表面加热光能量密度的提高而增大,当样品表面加热和探测光斑重合时光热信号最大.     

金属衬底上石墨烯的红外近场光学

对石墨烯/铜体系开展了系统性的近场光学实验研究,成功观测到了区别于铜衬底的、来自石墨烯的近场光学响应信号,发现在表面台阶几何参数相同的铜衬底上的不同石墨烯样品表现出了截然不同的近场光学响应.     

具有脉冲增益调制自由电子激光器的光场混沌

用唯象理论模型讨论了储存环型自由电子激光振荡器的光场混沌问题.通过理论分析和数值模拟发现:当激光共振腔内的增益调制由周期振荡型变为周期脉冲型时,随着调制参数的改变,光场强度随时间的变化仍然要经过一个由倍周期分叉进入混沌状态的过程。相应的最大Lyapunov特征指数证明了光场混沌的存在。进一步研究表明:周期脉冲型增益调制比周期振荡型增益调制更接近于实际情况,因为它给出的光场时间结构与实验测得的结果更接近.     

Time-multiplexing generates a diode laser beam with high beam quality

The beams of four pulsed high-power laser diodes are time-multiplexed resulting in a laser beam of high quality. A combination of polarization switches and filters forming a digital time-multiplexer is utilized to guide laser pulses produced by the individual laser diodes onto a common optical path. A resulting beam with an optical power of 10 W and a beam quality comparable with that of a single laser diode at a wavelength of 960 nm is obtained.     

Diode laser spectrometer for high-resolution spectroscopy in the visible range

A high-resolution diode laser spectrometer operating at 657 nm is described. To achieve a narrow linewidth and a high power, a master-slave laser system is employed. The master laser is an extended cavity diode laser whose linewidth is reduced to less than 100 Hz by the FM sideband technique. The slave laser is an AR-coated diode laser and characteristics of injection locking are experimentally studied. The injection current of the slave laser is utilized to stabilize the output power or to produce pulsed output. Using this spectrometer, we probed the intercombination line of Ca and observed high-contrast optical Ramsey fringes with a linewidth of 10 kHz. A velocity-selective Ramsey fringe is also observed in the pulse-mode operation.     

用于宽带啁啾脉冲光参量放大系统精确同步的新方法

基于非共线光参量放大,以波长800 nm飞秒激光的倍频光为抽运光,以激光二极管640 nm连续波激光为信号光,产生了与800 nm飞秒激光精确同步的无直流本底的1064 nm脉冲光。实验结果显示该1064 nm的光脉冲在脉冲能量和空间光束质量上均可作为1064 nm波长脉冲放大器的种子光。仅通过一级简单紧凑的非共线参量放大就可实现光周期量级的光参量啁啾脉冲放大系统的抽运激光和种子光的精确同步。     

Narrowband tuning of an injection-seeded pulsed optical parametric oscillator based on a self-adaptive, phase-conjugate cavity mirror

Narrowband tuning of a pulsed optical parametric oscillator (OPO) is achieved with a self-adaptive injection-seeded optical cavity employing a phase-conjugate reflector. This approach is used in a novel OPO system based on periodically poled KTiOPO4 and pumped at 532 nm by a pulsed Nd:YAG laser. The OPO is injection seeded at 835-855 nm by a continuous-wave tunable diode laser, which also enables a Rh:BaTiO3 photorefractive crystal to act as a wavelength-selective phase-conjugate reflector, with no need for active control of cavity length. The single-longitudinal-mode tunability and operational simplicity of this OPO system are demonstrated experimentally.     

石墨烯在中红外波段的光限幅效应研究

利用纳秒级脉冲量激光的Z 扫描方法对不同层数石墨烯薄膜在3 m~5 m中红外波段的光限幅效应开展了研究,获得的开孔Z扫描曲线均呈现出单一谷结构,而闭孔Z扫描曲线没有明显的峰谷对称结构。通过对开孔Z扫描实验数据进行数值模拟,分别得到3层石墨烯在3.010 m、3.522 m、4.326 m和4.880 4 m 4个中心波长处的三阶非线性吸收系数和光限幅阈值分别为11.3910-7cm/W、10.6110-7cm/W、9.7510-7cm/W、8.8110-7cm/W和3.49 J/cm2、3.75 J/cm2、4.11 J/cm2、4.55 J/cm2;3层、5层和7层石墨烯在3.522 m中心波长处的三阶非线性吸收系数和光限幅阈值分别为10.6110-7 cm/W、11.3210-7 cm/W、11.9510-7 cm/W和3.75 J/cm2、3.41 J/cm2、3.32 J/cm2。实验数据表明,石墨烯在中红外波段产生了较强的非线性反饱和吸收而具有明显的光限幅效应。     

Suppression of intensity fluctuations in free space high-speed optical communication based on spectral encoding of a partially coherent beam

A new concept of a free space, high-speed (Gbps) optical communication system based on spectral encoding of radiation from a broadband pulsed laser is developed. It is shown that, in combination with the use of partially coherent laser beams and a relatively slow photosensor, scintillations can be suppressed by orders of magnitude for distances of more than 10 km.     

LIBS-Raman光谱联合水下探测系统及初步试验

水下激光诱导击穿光谱技术(LIBS)和水下激光拉曼光谱技术(Raman)已在深海成功获得应用,这两种技术探测对象互补、器件类似,两者联合探测可更好的进行深海研究。针对此需求研发了一套LIBS-Raman光谱联合水下原位探测原理样机,整个系统集成于L790 mm×Φ270 mm的舱体内,在舱体前端有光学窗口和水密插头,舱体内部主要包括脉冲激光器、光谱仪、嵌入式计算机和供电转换装置,甲板控制终端通过水密电缆实现对系统的供电、控制和数据采集。该联合系统采用一台双波长脉冲激光器同时作为LIBS和拉曼光谱的激发光源,LIBS采用1 064 nm波长,拉曼光谱采用532 nm波长。双波长激光器发出的光束经分光镜分为两路,经过后向散射光路收集的两路信号分别进入两个小型光纤光谱仪进行分光探测,LIBS采用AvaSpec-ULS2048光谱仪,拉曼光谱采用QE 65000光谱仪。利用搭建的原理样机在青岛近海进行水下原位探测,在实验室开展了水中固体靶的探测,实验结果证明了LIBS-Raman联合光谱探测装置的可行性。下一步将优化系统并开展深海探测应用。     

Scanning compensation in imaging lidar using a double-sided reflector

In this paper, we present a bistatic scanning imaging lidar optical system. A double-sided scanning mirror is used in this system, which can compensate image spot migration. Geometrical optical analysis is conducted for the scanning light path and an optimal detector position is given. The optical simulation is also implemented using soft-ware Zemax to verify the compensation effect of double-sided reflector. An experiment is carried out with a CW-HeNe laser to observe image spot migration in different positions. The experimental results are in agreement with simulation results. In addition, imaging experiment is performed using 905 nm pulsed laser in the laboratory. The scanning image for black and white stripes target is obtained by single-element detector. Theoretical and experimental results confirm that the use of a double-sided flat reflector can effectively compensate image spot migration.     

A simple heterodyne frequency offset locking system for pulsed lasers

As a new approach the heterodyne frequency offset locking system which is applicable to a broad range of pulsed lasers is described. A 100 MHz wide-band and all-digital frequency discriminating technique is presented and an offset locking loop in which the frequency discriminator works accordingly is designed. The result of the experiment on offset locking between a CW CO₂ laser and an electro-optically Q-switched CO₂ laser with an optical pulse width 300 ns and its repetition rate 20 kHz showed that the beat frequency stability was kept within ±2 MHz.     

High power optical fibre delivery system for the laser generation of ultrasound

A plastic-clad optical fibre system has been examined as a delivery system of pulsed laser energy for the generation of ultrasound. The onset of significant optical damage caused by the laser has been investigated. By using multimode fibres of 1 m length with 600 μm core size, it was found that laser power densities from the fibre were sufficient to produce ultrasonic waveforms corresponding to both the thermoelastic and plasma generation regimes. Out-of-plane acoustic displacements of >250 pm can be achieved through 2.5 cm thick aluminium test samples, showing that fibre optical delivery systems may be considered in systems using laser-generated ultrasound for non-destructive testing applications.     

All-fiber eye-safe pulsed laser with Er-Yb Co-doped multi-stage amplifier

We report an all-fiber pulsed laser with multistage fiber amplifier which was suitable for high power eye-safe free space optical communications. Tapered structure has been utilized between booster and final amplifiers, which could increase the power coupling from the former fiber into the core of the latter fiber, and the beam quality of the output laser could be improved simultaneously. A maximum output power over 6 W has been achieved from the master-oscillator-power-amplifier system. With the multi-stage configuration and forward pumping, the optical signal to noise ratio was measured to be better than 50 dB.