1 MHz repetition rate hollow fiber pulse compression to sub-100-fs duration at 100 W average power

We report on nonlinear pulse compression at very high average power. A high-power fiber chirped pulse amplification system based on a novel large pitch photonic crystal fiber delivers 700 fs pulses with 200 μJ pulse energy at a 1 MHz repetition rate, resulting in 200 W of average power. Subsequent spectral broadening in a xenon-filled hollow-core fiber and pulse compression with chirped mirrors is employed for pulse shortening and peak power enhancement. For the first time, to our knowledge, more than 100 W of average power are transmitted through a noble-gas-filled hollow fiber. After pulse compression of 81 fs, 93 μJ pulses are obtained at a 1 MHz repetition rate.     

90 W average power 100 microJ energy femtosecond fiber chirped-pulse amplification system

We report on an ytterbium-doped fiber based chirped-pulse amplification system delivering 100 microJ pulse energy at a repetition rate of 900 kHz, corresponding to an average power of 90 W. The emitted pulses are as short as 500 fs. To the best of our knowledge, this is the highest average power ever reported for high-energy femtosecond solid-state laser systems.     

Fiber optical parametric oscillator for sub-50 fs pulse generation: optimization of fiber length

We demonstrate generation of 48fs pulses with linear chirp using a short (27mm) fiber optical parametric oscillator (FOPO), which is synchronously pumped by a mode-locked ytterbium-doped fiber laser. We also study the pulse quality for both the short- and long-wavelength operation where the fiber length inside of the oscillator varies from 17 to 61mm. The optimal pulse duration is observed only in the short-wavelength operation. Furthermore, we model the FOPO system as a single-pass parametric amplifier including dispersive pulse broadening and walk-off between the pump and output. The optimal condition arises from the minimization of the walk-off and dispersion. When walk-off is large, the parametric amplification process is most efficient over some reduced effective fiber length, leading to an upper limit in the amount of the observed pulse broadening.     

全啁啾镜色散补偿的亚8 fs钛宝石激光器

报道了一种基于全啁啾镜腔内色散补偿的、可长期稳定运行的亚8 fs钛宝石激光器.在4 W绿光抽运下, 可获得300 mW、86 MHz脉冲输出.腔内用于色散补偿的两对啁啾镜是国内自主设计自行镀膜的, 其对色散的精确控制可以在腔内不加尖劈对的情况下获得半宽超过150 nm超宽带输出.利用腔外色散补偿, 脉冲宽度被压缩至7.9 fs, 这是目前采用国产啁啾镜获得的最短脉宽, 也是无尖劈对谐振腔获得的最短脉宽.同时, 利用电路系统提供实时反馈调节, 可保证钛宝石激光器长期稳定运行, 24 h内功率抖动约0.6%.     

Yb-doped fiber oscillator generating 41 fs wave-breaking-free pulses

We report on the generation of wave-breaking-free pulses from an Yb-doped fiber oscillator at 1.03 μm by using the nonlinear polarization rotation mode-locking. The average output power reached 113 mW as limited by available pump power of 578 mW. The generated pulses had a pulse energy up to 2 nJ and could be externally compressed down to 41 fs. The output pulses exhibited a smooth spectrum without any side lobe or temporal wave-packet breaking due to the nonlinear phase modulation in an additional Erdoped fiber acted as a saturable absorber in the fiber laser.     

Sub-picosecond pulses at 100 W average power from a Yb:YLF chirped-pulse amplification system

We present a high-repetition-frequency, diode-pumped, and chirped-pulse amplification system operating at 106 W average output power with excellent beam quality (M(2)=1.3), based on cryogenically cooled Yb:YLF. 1 nJ seed pulses, derived from a mode-locked Ti:sapphire laser, are first amplified to 1 mJ pulse energy at 10 kHz repetition frequency in a regenerative amplifier. The second-stage, multipass amplifier increases the pulse energy to 10.6 mJ, resulting in a spectral width of 2.2 nm. The pulses are compressed to 865 fs in duration, which is 1.26 times the transform limit.     

Direct observation of sub-100 fs mobile charge generation in a polymer-fullerene film

The formation of mobile charges in a roll-to-roll processed poly-3-hexylthiophene-fullerene bulk heterojunction film is observed directly by using transient terahertz spectroscopy with sub-100?fs temporal resolution. The transient terahertz ac conductivity reveals that 20% of the incident pump photons are converted into highly delocalized charges within the 40?fs, 3.1?eV pump pulse duration, which then rapidly becomes localized within 120?fs. Approximately 2/3 of these carriers subsequently decay, possibly into an exciton, on a 1?ps time scale.     

131 W 220 fs fiber laser system

We report on an ytterbium-doped photonic-crystal-fiber-based chirped-pulse amplification system delivering 131 W average power 220 fs pulses at 1040 nm center wavelength in a diffraction-limited beam. The pulse repetition rate is 73 MHz, corresponding to a pulse energy of 1.8 microJ and a peak power as high as 8.2 MW.     

亚百飞秒高功率掺镱大模面积光子晶体光纤飞秒激光放大器的实验研究

实验研究了掺镱双包层保偏大模面积光子晶体光纤飞秒激光放大器. 获得了平均功率达16W的飞秒激光放大输出,在50MHz重复频率下,对应的单脉冲能量达到320nJ. 增益光纤长3.5m,由于自相位调制效应,种子光脉冲光谱在放大过程中同时展宽,从而支持更窄的脉冲宽度. 经过光栅后,脉冲宽度压缩到了85fs. 系统中的振荡器和放大器基于同一种具有偏振结构的大模面积光子晶体光纤,具有很好的环境稳定性和进一步集成的可能. 关键词： 光子晶体光纤 大模场面积光纤 飞秒激光 光纤放大器     

23W peak power picosecond pulses from a single-stage all-semiconductor master oscillator power amplifier

Using a single-stage all-semiconductor master oscillator-power amplifier, we generate narrow-band laser pulses of 23?W peak power at 1063?nm wavelength. These pulses of 40?ps length FWHM have a variable repetition rate and pulse energies around 2?nJ, which exceeds previous realizations and makes them ideally suited for second harmonic generation. With a spectral filter, an extinction ratio above 36?dB could be achieved at nearly 10?W peak power. We use a novel spectral method to reliably determine pulse energies independently of the background level.     

Cavity-dumped intracavity-frequency-doubled Yb:YAG thin disk laser with 100 W average power

We report on a cavity-dumped Yb:YAG thin disk laser with intracavity-frequency doubling to provide pulses in the millijoule energy range at a repetition rate of up to 100 kHz. The maximum average output power at 515 nm was 102 W with pulses of a pulse length of 300 ns. An additional advantage of the presented laser setup is the wide tunability of the pulse duration.     

522 W average power, spectrally beam-combined fiber laser with near-diffraction-limited beam quality

We report a three-channel, spectrally beam-combined (SBC), 1 mum fiber laser that produces 522 W of average power with near-diffraction-limited (M2 ~ 1.2) beam quality. The laser features a SBC power combining efficiency of 93%, versatile master-oscillator, power-amplifier fiber channels with up to 260 W of narrow-band, polarized, and near-diffraction-limited output that is tunable over nearly the entire 1 micro m Yb(3+) gain bandwidth, and excellent prospects for significant power scaling. To our knowledge, these results represent the highest beam quality and average power achieved to date for a beam-combined fiber laser system.     

Diode-pumped sub-100 fs Kerr-lens mode-locked Yb3+:Sc2O3 ceramic laser

Diode-pumped Kerr-lens mode-locked laser operations of Yb3+:Sc2O3 ceramics have been achieved. 92 fs pulses with the average power of 850 mW under 3.89 W incident pump power were obtained at a center wavelength of 1042 nm. The optical-to-optical efficiency was 21.9%. 90 fs pulses with the average power of 160 mW were also obtained at a center wavelength of 1092 nm. To our knowledge, this is the first demonstration of a Kerr-lens mode-locked Yb3+:Sc2O3 laser.     

Over 200 W average power tunable Raman amplifier based on fused silica step index fiber

A high-power tunable Raman Amplifier is presented. The seed signal (varying from 1118 nm to 1130 nm in wavelength) was generated in a tunable Raman oscillator and fed into the Raman amplification stage. A conversion efficiency of up to 86 % was achieved and a maximum output power of over 200 W was measured. The Raman gain coefficient for the amplifier fiber was measured to be 0.76×10^?14 m/W. Furthermore, the measured output power was compared with values obtained from simple mathematical model and a good agreement up to the highest output power of amplified signal was achieved.     

Single-frequency, single-mode, plane-polarized ytterbium-doped fiber master oscillator power amplifier source with 264 W of output power

We present a single-frequency, single-mode, plane-polarized ytterbium-doped all-fiber master oscillator power amplifier source at 1060 nm generating 264 W of continuous-wave output power. The final-stage amplifier operated with a high gain of 19 dB and a high conversion efficiency of 68%. There was no evidence of rollover from stimulated Brillouin scattering even at the highest output power, and the maximum output was limited only by the available pump power.     

300 W quasi-continuous-wave diffraction-limited output from a diode-pumped Nd:YAG master oscillator power amplifier with fiber phase-conjugate stimulated Brillouin scattering mirror

A master oscillator power amplifier system comprising a cw Nd:YAG master oscillator, a quasi-cw diode-pumped power amplifier, and a fiber-based stimulated Brillouin scattering phase-conjugate mirror is reported. A 12-pass amplifier configuration is employed to achieve high gain in a small-length slab amplifier. Residual and pump-induced optical inhomogeneities in the slab are corrected by the fiber phase conjugator to achieve diffraction-limited output beam quality. 300 W quasi-cw output and a maximal attainable gain of approximately 150 for the system are obtained.     

Efficient hollow fiber compression scheme for generating multi-mJ,carrier-envelope phase stable,sub-5 fs pulses

We show that a standard hollow-core fiber (HCF) compressor device can be used to efficiently compress multi-mJ energy laser pulses down to few-cycle duration, when seeded with linearly chirped, circularly polarized pulses. With this approach, we routinely generate carrier-envelope phase (CEP)-locked, 1.6 mJ, 4.8 fs pulses using only 3 mJ, 25 fs pulses as the seed.     

Linearly polarized 100-kW-Peak-power pulsed fiber laser with a novel master oscillator

We report progress in the design and fabrication of a monolithic, linearly polarized, pulsed, Yb-doped fiber laser. This laser has a peak power of more than 100 kW, a tunable repetition rate from 100 kHz to 1 MHz, a tunable pulse duration from 2 ns to 2.5 μs, and a diffraction-limited, linearly polarized output beam with a mean power of 21 W and a wavelength of 1064 nm. A seed source that consists of a microchip Nd:YVO₄ laser and an electro optic deflector is developed. Using this source, the repetition rate and pulse duration are varied independently of each other. In addition, an excellent pulse-to-pulse repeatability is achieved.     

Optical parametric oscillator with a 10-GHz repetition rate and 100-mW average output power in the spectral region near 1.5 mum

We demonstrate a synchronously pumped optical parametric oscillator that emits picosecond pulses at an ~1.55-mum wavelength with a repetition rate as a high as 10 GHz and as much as 100 mW of average power. It is pumped with a diode-pumped passively mode-locked 10-GHz Nd:YVO(4) laser. Because of its high repetition rate and its potential for ultrabroad tunability, this kind of system is useful for telecom applications. It should be scalable to 40 GHz and higher as required for future telecom networks.     

26 nJ picosecond solitons from thulium-doped single-mode master oscillator power fiber amplifier

We report on an all single-mode master oscillator power fiber amplifier delivering high energy picosecond solitons at 1960 nm. The Bragg stabilized and self-starting oscillator delivers 62 pJ transform-limited pulses at 11.2 MHz pulse repetition frequency. Solitons are amplified in a core-pumped single-mode heavily thulium-doped fiber up to 26 nJ. The average and peak power are 291 mW and 7.4 kW, respectively. Pulses remain transform limited without significant self-phase-modulation distortion. We discuss the limitations of picosecond pulse amplification in a core-pumped single-mode fiber amplifier.