钛宝石激光器9.5 fs脉冲输出中的啁啾镜色散补偿

根据钛宝石激光器的要求,实验设计了中心波长800 nm带宽200 nm的啁啾镜,在700—900 nm波长范围内提供约-60 fs²群延迟色散(group delay dispersion,GDD).采用双射频离子束溅射方法进行制备,用实验室搭建的白光干涉仪进行色散性能测试,从测试结果可以看出,制备的啁啾镜的性能和设计值符合得比较好.制备得到的非成对啁啾镜在钛宝石激光谐振腔中进行色散补偿,锁模后分别获得了12 fs和9.5 fs的激光脉冲输出.这是目前报道的使用国产啁啾镜获得的最短的 关键词： 啁啾镜 群延迟色散 色散补偿 钛宝石激光器     

Generation of 7-fs laser pulse directly from a compact Ti:sapphire laser with chirped mirrors

A compact femtosecond Ti:sapphire laser resonator consisting of three chirped mirrors and one output coupler was designed. By accurately balancing the intra- cavity dispersions between Ti:sapphire crystal, air and chirped mirrors, we directly generated the laser pulse shorter than 7 fs at the average power of 340 mW with 3.1 W pump. The repetition rate of the laser oscillator is 173 MHz at the centre wavelength of 791 nm, and the ultrabroaden spectrum covers from 600 nm to 1000 nm. To the best of our knowledge, this is the simplest laser resonator capable of generating sub-10 fs laser pulse.     

Achieving strong doubling power by optical phase-locked Ti:sapphire laser and MOPA system

We show two external cavity-enhanced second-harmonic generations of 922 nm with periodically poled potassium titanyl phosphate crystal,whose doubling cavities are locked separately with Hansch-Couillaud and intra-modulation methods.The outputs of second-harmonic generation reach 310 mW,54.8%of the conversion efficiency from the Ti:sapphire laser with the crystal length of 10 mm,and 208 mW,59% of the conversion efficiency from the MOPA system with the crystal length of 30 mm.It consists of heterodyning the Ti:sapphire laser and the MOPA system,and compares the phase of the beat frequency signal with the phase of a reference RF local oscillator.The resulting phase error is used as a feedback signal and fed back to the reference cavity of the Ti:sapphire laser to lock the two lasers in phase.A stable blue power of 520 mW is obtained,which supplies enough power for the cooling and trapping step of the strontium (Sr)optical lattice clock.Four stable isotopes of Sr, 84 Sr, 86 Sr, 87 Sr,and 88 Sr,are detected by probing the laser during a strong 460.7-nm cycling transition(5s 21 S0?5s5p 1 P1).     

Wavefront correction of Ti:sapphire terawatt laser with varying precision of phase conjugation between deformable mirror and wavefront sensor

The phase conjugation between the deformable mirror and the wavefront sensor in the aberration correction of a terawatt Ti:sapphire laser is studied experimentally and theoretically in this paper. At varying values of phase-conjugation precision, we focus the corresponding beams into spots of the same size of 5.1 μm×5.3 μm with a f/4 parabola in the 32 TW/36 fs Ti:sapphire laser system. The results show that the precision of conjugation can induce an intensity modulation but does not significantly affect the wavefront correction.     

All-optical phase locking of two femtosecond Ti:sapphire lasers: a passive coupling mechanism beyond the slowly varying amplitude approximation

Two independently tunable femtosecond Ti:sapphire lasers are passively synchronized with a stable relative carrier-envelope offset phase. By heterodyning the spectral overlap of the two frequency combs, we observe multiple regimes for the cavity length difference in which the relative round-trip phase slip is effectively locked to zero. The strong correlation of the femtosecond pulse trains is maintained over minutes without any external stabilization, and relative cavity length variations of 50 nm are compensated. The phase synchronization relies on phase-dependent cross-phase modulation, taking full advantage of the nonresonant optical nonlinearity of the shared gain medium, which is much faster than the optical cycle.     

Nonintrusive phase stabilization of sub-two-cycle pulses from a prismless octave-spanning Ti:sapphire laser

Carrier-envelope (CE) phase-stabilized sub-two-cycle pulses are generated from a 500 MHz compact prismless octave-spanning laser without extracavity nonlinear optical processes distorting the laser output. The necessary f and 2f spectral components are generated intracavity and coupled out independently from the main pulse through specially designed cavity mirrors, resulting in a 55 dB CE beat note (100 kHz resolution bandwidth). The in-loop CE phase error (integrated from 2.5 mHz to 10 MHz) is 67 mrad, equivalent to a timing jitter between carrier and envelope of 28 as at 790 nm.     

Phase-stable Ti:sapphire oscillator quasi-synchronously pumped by a thin-disk laser

We report on the combination of an octave-spanning Ti:sapphire oscillator and a frequency-doubled thin-disk laser used as pump source. Self-starting and self-synchronization of the two lasers has been observed. We demonstrate for the first time the stabilization of the carrier-envelope phase of a Ti:sapphire laser pumped by a mode-locked pump source.     

PPLN晶体差频测量飞秒激光脉冲的载波包络相移

在飞秒激光频率梳系统中，通常采用自参考技术测量飞秒激光脉冲的载波包络相移，但该技术需要采用光子晶体光纤进行光谱扩展从而增加了系统的不稳定性，这种技术已经制约了高稳定度的飞秒激光频率梳的发展.采用PPLN晶体差频法测量了宽谱钛宝石振荡器输出的7fs激光脉冲的载波包络频移，得到了大于30dB的拍频信号，为研制无光纤的新一代高稳定度光学频率梳奠定了基础.     

Beam quality of truncated laser beams with amplitude modulations and phase fluctuations in turbulence

The closed-form expressions for the Rayleigh range z_R and the M²-factor of truncated laser beams with amplitude modulations (AMs) and phase fluctuations (PFs) in turbulence are derived, and the beam quality is studied by taking the z_R and the M²-factor as the characteristic parameters of beam quality. The M²-factor of truncated laser beams with AMs and PFs is always larger than that of truncated Gaussian beams both in free space and in turbulence. However, in turbulence the beam quality of truncated laser beams with AMs and PFs may be better than that of truncated Gaussian beams if the z_R is taken as the characteristic parameter of beam quality. For laser beams with AMs and PFs in turbulence, the beam quality expressed in terms of z_R is consistent with that in terms of the M²-factor versus the phase fluctuation parameter α, but not versus the intensity modulation parameter σ_A. The beam quality of truncated laser beams with AMs and PFs is less sensitive to turbulence than that of truncated Gaussian beams. The beam quality of laser beams with smaller α and larger σ_A is less affected by turbulence than those with larger α and smaller σ_A.     

Ti:sapphire planar waveguide laser grown by pulsed laser deposition

We document the lasing performance of a waveguiding layer of Ti:sapphire, of ~12-mum thickness, grown by pulsed laser deposition from a 0.12-wt.% Ti(2)O(3) Ti:sapphire single-crystal target onto an undoped z-cut sapphire substrate. Lasing around 800 nm is observed when the waveguide layer is pumped by an argon-ion laser running on all-blue-green lines, with an absorbed power threshold of 0.56 W, with high-reflectivity (R>98%) mirrors. With a 5% pump duty cycle and a T=35% output coupler, a slope efficiency of 26% with respect to absorbed power is obtained, giving quasi-cw output powers in excess of 350 mW.     

飞秒钛宝石放大激光脉冲的载波包络相位测量与控制

通过对重复频率为1 kHz的放大飞秒激光脉冲的光谱干涉实验,结合傅里叶变换进行了载波包络相位漂移的实验研究.在此基础上利用锁相环反馈控制技术实现了对载波包络相位的精密锁定,锁定后的激光脉冲稳态相位均方根误差小于80mrad,锁定时间超过3h.同时在理论上分析了光谱干涉测量放大激光脉冲载波包络相位的原理,给出了光谱干涉信号与载波包络相位的关系. 关键词： 飞秒钛宝石放大器 载波包络相位 光谱干涉 超连续     

Characterization of frequency-tripled nanosecond pulsed Ti:sapphire laser injection seeded by a frequency-scanning cw Ti:sapphire laser by use of optogalvanic spectroscopy of silicon atoms

The performance of a narrow-linewidth nanosecond pulsed deep-UV coherent light source consisting of a frequency-tripled nanosecond pulsed Ti:sapphire laser injection seeded by a frequency-scanning cw Ti:sapphire laser has been characterized by using optogalvanic spectroscopy of silicon atoms as a diagnostic. The envelope of the optogalvanic spectrum indicates the pure Doppler broadening of silicon atoms, which was estimated to be as broad as 4 GHz, without the broadening effect from the laser linewidth itself.     

Extreme events in the Ti:sapphire laser

We report experimental and theoretical evidence of the existence of extreme value events in the form of scarce and randomly emerging giant pulses in the femtosecond (self-pulsing or Kerr-lens mode-locked) Ti:sapphire laser. This laser displays complex dynamical behavior, including deterministic chaos, in two different regimes. The extreme value pulses are observed in the chaotic state of only one of these two regimes. The observations agree with the predictions of a well-tested theoretical model that does not include noise or self-Q-switching into its framework. This implies that, in this laser, the extreme effects have a nontrivial dynamical origin. The Ti:sapphire laser is hence revealed as a new and convenient system for the study of these effects.     

Direct diode-laser pumping of a mode-locked Ti:sapphire laser

Direct diode-laser pumping of a mode-locked Ti:Al(2)O(3) laser is reported. A single 1 W GaN-based diode laser operating at 452 nm is used as the pump laser. Pulse durations as short as 114 fs and average output powers of up to 13 mW are obtained.     

Period doubling of a femtosecond Ti:sapphire laser by total mode locking

Period doubling of an 84-MHz repetition-rate Kerr-lens mode-locked Ti:sapphire laser operated at 830 nm and producing ~300mW of average power has been observed and explained in terms of total mode locking of TEM(00) and TEM(01) modes in an effective confocal cavity. This configuration leads to a spatial sweeping action of a single-peaked pulse at 42 MHz. Period tripling and quadrupling is observed for certain cavity configurations.     

Self-starting mode-locked picosecond Ti：sapphire laser by using of a fast SESAM

A stable continuous wave mode-locked picosecond Ti:sapphire laser by using a fast semiconductor saturable absorber mirror (SESAM) is demonstrated. The laser delivers pulse width of 20 ps at a central wavelength of 813 nm and a repetition rate of 100 MHz. The maximum output power is 1.34 W with pump power of 7 W which corresponds to an optical--optical conversion efficiency of 19.1%.     

Propagation properties of apertured laser beams with amplitude modulations and phase fluctuations through atmospheric turbulence

The propagation properties of apertured laser beams with amplitude modulations (AMs) and phase fluctuations (PFs) through atmospheric turbulence are studied in detail both analytically and numerically. The analytical expressions for the average intensity, power in the bucket (PIB) and Strehl ratio (S _R ) of apertured laser beams with AMs and PFs propagating through atmospheric turbulence are derived. It is found that the worse the phase fluctuation and the higher the amplitude modulation are, the less laser beams are affected by turbulence. Furthermore, apertured Gaussian beams are more sensitive to turbulence than apertured laser beams with AMs and PFs. The average intensity of apertured laser beams with AMs and PFs may be even larger than that of apertured Gaussian beams due to turbulence. In particular, the influence of turbulence on the average maximum intensity of apertured laser beams with PFs and AMs may become serious if an unsuitable truncated parameter is chosen, which should be avoided in practice.     

Sub-two-cycle pulses from a Kerr-lens mode-locked Ti:sapphire laser

Pulses shorter than two optical cycles with bandwidths in excess of 400 nm have been generated from a Kerr-lens mode-locked Ti:sapphire laser with a repetition rate of 90 MHz and an average power of 200 mW. Low-dispersion prisms and double-chirped mirrors provide broadband controlled dispersion and high reflectivity. These pulse durations are to our knowledge the shortest ever generated directly from a laser oscillator.     

Amplification of femtosecond laser filaments in Ti:sapphire

Femtosecond laser filamentation is studied in a broadband amplifying medium, sapphire doped with electronically excited Ti ions. Evidence for fluence amplification of self-guided pulses, increase of filamentation length, as well as a lowering of the input laser power necessary for filamentation is reported.