Application of longitudinal multimode laser coherence properties to increase the holographic depth of field

It has been shown that the temporal coherence of a non-mode-locked laser is periodic in 2L/c. It has also been demonstrated that the limitations imposed on the depth of field in holography by the laser coherence properties may easily be overcome by illuminating the object with multiple beams. In such a system each object beam should travel the same distance to the holographic plate as the reference beam, or a multiple of 2L farther. For large objects (which would have large depths of field) multiple beam illumination is necessary anyway, to ensure uniform illumination of the object. In fact the limiting factor with regard to the size of an object and the depth of field should be the laser's power and not its coherence length. An advantage in this method of overcoming conventional limitations is that there is no reduction in the laser's output power as is involved in some other methods of coherence length improvement.     

Low-frequency modulation of 0.6328 μm He–Ne laser by transverse magnetic field intensity

Effect of transverse magnetic field on 0.6328 μm He–Ne laser light polarized parallel and perpendicular to transverse magnetic field has been studied in this paper. Low-frequency modulation of two kinds of polarized laser light is completed and low-frequency modulation of polarization degree is put forward.     

Switchable dual-wavelength polarization-maintaining erbium-doped fiber laser using an optical circulator as the all-reflecting mirror

A simple and effective switchable dual-wavelength polarization-maintaining erbium-doped fiber laser is proposed and demonstrated. Only using a uniform fiber Bragg grating written directly in a segment of the photosensitive and polarization-maintaining erbium-doped fiber as the wavelength selector and an optical circulator as the all-reflecting mirror, a stable simultaneous dual-wavelength oscillation is achieved with a wavelength spacing of 0.364 nm experimentally by exploiting the polarization hole burning effect at room temperature. The output can be switched between single- and dual-wavelength by adjusting the polarization controller. The 3-dB bandwidth and the side mode suppression ratio of the laser’s outputs are measured to be less than 0.01 nm and more than 50 dB. The power fluctuation and wavelength drift are measured to be less than 0.50 dB and 0.020 nm over an hour.     

Optical absorption of EuTe in high magnetic fields

For the first time, the optical absorption edge of the magnetic semiconductor europium telluride has been studied at low temperature (1.7 K) as a function of magnetic field in the high field range 0 ≤ H ≤ 9.5 Tesla, and related to the magnetic phase diagram of this material. The exponential absorption edge has been parameterized using a magnetic field dependent extension of Urbach's rule, and the observations are found to be consistent with a simple dependence of the gap parameter on polarization and magnetic field.     

Polarization Dynamics of a Distributed-Feedback Dye Laser

The polarization dynamics of a dye-solution laser with light-induced distributed feedback (DFB) has been analyzed. A theoretical model of a DFB-laser, which makes it possible to calculate the dynamics of the lasing process for two orthogonally polarized modes, has been constructed. The influence of three main factors — rotational diffusion of dye molecules in solution, anisotropy of the saturation effect, and orientation of the electric vector of pumping beams with respect to the plane of their incidence — on the degree of polarization of output radiation has been investigated. Comparison of the calculated dependences with the results of experimental measurements has shown that the latter factor is of the greatest importance. It is shown that in this case, the degree of polarization of the output radiation of a DFB-laser can have a complex dynamics that does not correlate with the time behavior of the lasing pulse.     

Top-hat beam Tm<Superscript>3+</Superscript>-doped fiber laser using an intracavity abrupt taper

The top-hat beam clad-pumped Tm³⁺-doped fiber laser was realized simply using an intracavity multi-mode abrupt taper. The ratio of the flat-top diameter to the spot diameter reaches 53%, with a small intensity variation less than 6%, and the top-hat beam’s half-divergence angle is only 5.3°. The fiber laser has a maximal output power of 5 W with slope efficiency of 39.7%, pumped by the 792 nm diode laser (LD). The abrupt taper is directly made on the multi-mode double-clad Tm³⁺-doped fiber near the fiber laser output end with the 0.45 ratio of taper waist diameter to fiber clad diameter, and this fiber end 4% Fresnel reflection is used to be the output coupler. The fiber laser’s high reflective coupler is an intracore multi-mode FBG, which is directly written into the multi-mode Tm³⁺-doped fiber core using femtosecond laser and phase mask, at the other fiber end. The abrupt taper has no obviously influence on the fiber laser output power, and the output laser spectrum.     

Cross-sectional study of femtosecond laser bulk modification of crystalline α-quartz

Bulk irradiation of crystalline α-quartz was performed with ∼170-fs laser pulses with a wavelength of 800 nm focused below the sample surface. Investigations were carried out using transmission electron microscopy on a cross-sectional specimen prepared using focused ion beam techniques. We observed alternating amorphous–crystalline structures with sharp transitions and associated density changes, surrounded by a highly strained crystalline structure. The alternating sub-surface structures are parallel to the laser’s electric field polarization and exhibit a spacing which is close to the laser wavelength in air. Cracking was also observed in the near proximity of these structures.     

Single-mode giga-hertz optical pulses generated by a self-modulation of the relaxation oscillation frequency in a semiconductor laser with subharmonic polarization-rotated optical feedback

In this research, single-mode 3.76 GHz optical pulses were generated in a Fabry-Perot type single-mode semiconductor laser with polarization-rotated optical feedback (PROF) at a round-trip feedback distance of 50.8 cm, corresponding to a feedback frequency of 0.59 GHz. Experimental results and numerical simulations revealed that the pulse generation mechanism involved a self-modulation of the laser’s relaxation oscillation frequency so that the oscillation frequency approximated to an integer multiple of the PROF round-trip feedback frequency. This effect is very different from similar experiments reported by many researchers before, in which the laser’s output was amplitude modulated by the feedback frequency and an ultra-short feedback distance was required to generate giga-hertz optical pulses. Investigations about some characteristics of the self-modulation mechanism will be reported in the paper.     

双反射膜双频He-Ne激光器双频特性及偏振特性的实验研究

本文对 5 MHz频差双反射膜双频 He- Ne激光器输出激光的双频特性及偏振特性进行了实验研究。研究结果表明 ,当磁场方向同反射膜的一个本征模方向基本重合时 ,有双频出现 ;当磁场方向同反射膜的一个本征模方向夹角在 45°左右时 ,无双频出现。输出激光的偏振方向由反射膜的本征模确定 ,其偏振非正交程度为 tgρ≤ 0 .0 0 87,椭圆化程度tgβ随激光管与磁场的相对角位置变化而发生变化。在合适的位置 ,tgβ可以小至 2 / 70 0。该种外差光源具有较好的偏振特性。     

Laser–diode-pumped passively Q-switched Nd:NaY(WO4)2 laser with GaAs saturable absorber

A laser–diode-pumped passively Q-switched new type crystal Nd³⁺:NaY(WO₄)₂ (known as Nd:NYW) laser with GaAs semiconductor saturable absorber has been realized. The dependence of pulse repetition rate, pulse energy, pulse width, and peak power on pump power for different output coupler reflectivities are measured. The coupled rate equations are used to simulate the Q-switched process of laser, and the numerical solutions agree with the experimental results.     

Polarization modulation in an optically-pumped far-infrared laser

Measurements performed on intracavity polarization modulation in an optically-pumped far-infrared laser are presented. The experimental work is a preparatory first step towards the development of a polarimeter diagnostic system for plasma physics applications. The present system utilizes a CO₂ laser whose output polarization state is modulated using a CdTe crystal placed within a sinusoidal magnetic field. The corresponding polarization modulated amplitude of the far-infrared output is determined, and the results obtained are in good agreement with the Verdet coefficient of CdTe previously reported.     

Electric field effects on an optically-pumped HCOOH FIR laser and Zeeman laser theory

Electric field effects have been investigated on the output power of six far-infrared (FIR) laser lines from H¹²COOH optically-pumped by a CO₂ laser with its polarization arranged perpendicular to the Stark field. Optoacoustic signals observed on the pump lines were hardly affected by the applied electric field up to 0.6 kV/cm. By neglecting the electric field effects on the pump transitions, Zeeman laser theory has been applied to the FIR laser transitions. Numerical calculation predicts the observed FIR output power as a function of electric field. Experessions for oscillation frequency and intensity in homogeneous limit are given, which may be applicable to any FIR Stark laser so far as the pump transition is free from electric field effects.     

Noise reduction in optically pumped magnetometer assemblies

In most magnetic field measurement configurations the resolution of optically pumped magnetometers is limited by the shot noise of the pump light. However, in practice this noise limit is overwhelmed by other sources. One of them is the conversion of the pump laser’s frequency modulation (FM) noise to amplitude modulation (AM) noise due to the absorption in the magnetometer’s alkali vapour cell. This extra noise can be nearly completely cancelled by the illumination of an additional cell with the same laser light and the subtraction of its photo current from that of the measurement cell. The correlation of the photo signals of different cells is just slightly decreased by the applied measurement and rf fields B ₀ and B ₁, respectively. As a result, in real magnetic field measurements using the photo-current subtraction, a noise-limited magnetic field resolution of just twice the shot-noise limit can be achieved. This is experimentally shown for the most thrifty setup with two cells; one time using the second cell just for the photo-current subtraction, the other time also serving for magnetic field measurements, forming a gradiometer with the first cell. Yet, the photo-current subtraction method is most appealing for magnetometer arrays, where the photo signal of just one additional vapour cell can be used for the noise reduction of the complete array.     

Hot-electron-induced plasma formation on the rear surface of a foil

The plasma jet formed on the rear surface of a foil in laser–solid interaction is investigated by laser probing. The rear plasma jet, which is in line with the laser, formed a few picoseconds after the incidence of the focused laser, is due to a beam of fast electrons propagating through the target and is collimated by a strong magnetic field in the plasma. Received: 14 January 2003 / Revised version: 2 April 2003 / Published online: 2 June 2003 RID="*" ID="*"Corresponding author. Fax: +86-10/8264-9531 E-mail: jzhang@aphy.iphy.ac.cn     

Generation of coherent X-rays from a relativistic electron beam backscattered by a CO2 laser

On the basis of Palmer's criterion for the self-bunching effect of a relativistic electron beam in a helical magnetic field, it is shown that coherent X-rays can be generated from relativistic electron beams backscattered by laser beams without the need of any resonant cavity.     

Polarized nonequilibrium Bose-Einstein condensates of spinor exciton polaritons in a magnetic field

The effect of a magnetic field on a spinor exciton-polariton condensate has been investigated. A quenching of a polariton Zeeman splitting and an elliptical polarization of the condensate have been observed at low magnetic fields B<2 T. The effects are attributed to a competition between the magnetic field induced circular polarization buildup and the spin-anisotropic polariton-polariton interaction which favors a linear polarization. The sign of the circular polarization of the condensate emission at B<3 T is negative, suggesting that a dynamic condensation in the excited spin state rather than the ground spin state takes place in this magnetic field range. From about 2T on, the Zeeman splitting opens and from then on the slope of the circular polarization degree changes its sign. For magnetic fields larger than the 3 T, the upper spin state occupation is energetically suppressed and circularly polarized condensation takes place in the ground state.     

Two-wavelength self-seeded pulsed tunable laser

A compact self-seeded pulsed tunable laser is described. Its optical cavity comprises a diffraction grating, operating at a grazing angle of incidence as a spectral selector and narrow-band spectral gate. The grating couples two partially overlapping laser channels: a highly selective master laser and a nonselective slave laser. Due to the implemented efficient intracavity self-seeding the laser emits spectrally pure single-longitudinal-mode radiation at two independently tunable wavelengths, with an efficiency and output energy that are typical for nonselective lasers. Results of the experimental investigation of the laser’s output characteristics are presented. Received: 12 March 2001 / Revised version: 10 December 2001 / Published online: 7 February 2002     

Effect of polarization on the structure of electromagnetic field and spatiotemporal distribution of <Emphasis Type="Italic">e</Emphasis><Superscript>+</Superscript><Emphasis Type="Italic">e</Emphasis><Superscript>–</Superscript> pairs generated by colliding laser pulses

We have studied the production of electron–positron pairs due to polarization of vacuum in the presence of the strong electromagnetic field of two counterpropagating laser pulses. The structure of the electromagnetic field with the circular polarization has been determined using the 3D model of focused laser pulses, which was proposed by Narozhny and Fofanov. Analytic calculations have shown that the electric and magnetic fields are almost parallel to each other in the focal region when the laser pulses are completely transverse in the electric (E-wave) or magnetic (H-wave) field. On the other hand, the electric and magnetic fields are almost orthogonal when laser pulses consist of a mixture of E- and H-waves of the same amplitude. It has been found that although the latter configuration of colliding laser pulses has a much higher pair production threshold, it can generate much shorter electron–positron pulses as compared to the former configuration. The dependence of the production efficiency of pairs and their spatiotemporal distribution on the polarization of laser pulses has been analyzed using the structure of the electromagnetic field in the focal plane.     

极化3He系统核磁共振FID信号的激光探测

极化率测量装置是极化³He系统的重要组成部分之一.本文介绍了一套在极化³He系统上搭建的激光探测自由感应衰减核磁共振（FID NMR）信号的实验装置,该装置有望为³He极化率的高精度实时测量提供新的途径.激光探测法的原理是法拉第旋光效应,该方法使用一束线偏振光探测极化³He磁矩绕主磁场进动的FID信号,实验结果表明相较于拾波线圈探测方法,激光探测方法的信噪比提高了106%,对³He的极化率测量更精确.该探测方法有望替代传统的拾波线圈,广泛地应用于³He极化系统的极化率测量或精密测量实验中.