Bistability and passive Q-switching of a CO2 laser with saturable absorber

The coexistence of bistability and repetitive passive Q-switching of a CO₂ laser with a gaseous saturable absorber has been investigated experimentally. With CH₃F as the saturable absorber bistability has been observed simultaneously with passive Q-switching, whereas with CH₃OH either one of these phenomena can only exist, as demonstrated for the first time. The measured features of both systems can be explained qualitatively by rate-equation theory.     

Analysis of Q-switch in a CO2 laser with saturable absorber

Intracavity experiments with an SF₆ saturable absorber have been performed with a CO₂ infrared laser. Accurate measurements of the passive Q-switch pulses versus the laser parameters have been made. A comparison with theoretical models is presented, discussing the involved approximations.     

Experimental bifurcations and homoclinic chaos in a laser with a saturable absorber

The shape and the peak values of the pulses from a passive Q-switching CO2 laser with SF6 as saturable absorber were detected while the laser was tuned in frequency across a longitudinal mode. A succession of stability windows, typical for bifurcation diagrams in the homoclinic scenario, was observed and the widths of those windows were measured. The expansion rate of the undulations in individual pulses was also obtained and compared to Floquet's multipliers given by the ratio of widths in consecutive windows. The dynamics is consistent with a homoclinic tangency to a periodic orbit.     

A simple current pulsed low-pressure CO2 laser with passive Q-switching

We report on a simple and stable pulse tunable CO₂ laser suitable for many investigations in the region around 10m. The pulsed discharge when combined with the passiveQ-switching technique provides pulses of 100 ns duration with a peak power of few kilowatts.Due to the interest in pulsed low-pressure CO₂ lasers as useful irradiation sources, extensive investigations have been carried out. In particular, various Q-switching techniques have been developed to generate short CO₂ laser pulses [1–4].     

Passive Q-switching in an erbium-doped fiber laser using tungsten sulphoselenide as a saturable absorber

A highly stable Q-switched laser incorporating a mechanically exfoliated tungsten sulphoselenide (WSSe) thin sheet saturable absorber (SA) is proposed and demonstrated. The SA assembly, formed by sandwiching a thin WSSe sheet between two fiber ferrules within the erbium-doped fiber laser, is used to effectively modulate the laser cavity losses. The WSSe-based SA has a saturation intensity of ~0.006 MW∕cm~2 and a modulation depth of 7.8%, giving an optimum Q-switched laser output with a maximum repetition rate of 61.81 kHz and a minimum pulse width of 2.6 μs. The laser's highest output power of 0.45 mW and highest pulse energy of 7.31 nJ are achieved at the maximum pump power of 280.5 mW. The tunability of the cavity's output at the maximum pump power is analyzed with a C-band tunable bandpass filter, giving a broad tunable range of ~40 nm, from 1530 nm to 1570 nm. The output performance of the tunable Q-switched laser correlates well with the gain spectrum of erbium-doped fibers, with the shift in the gain profile as a result of the saturated SA.     

Passive Q-switching of a laser-diode-pumped intracavity-frequency-doubling Nd:NYW/KTP laser with GaAs saturable absorber

Passive Q-switching of a laser-diode-pumped intracavity-frequency-doubling Nd:NYW/KTP laser has been realized with GaAs semiconductor saturable absorber. The dependence of pulse repetition rate, pulse energy, and pulse width on incident pump power 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.     

Undamped undulation superposed on the passive Q-switching pulse of a CO2 laser

An undamped undulation superposed on the pulse tail of the passive Q-switching is observed using HCOOH gas as a saturable absorber. The pulse shapes with the undulation are nicely reproduced through the rate-equation analysis in which the laser gain medium is described as a three-level system. Good agreements between the observation and the calculation are also obtained in the dependence of the period and the width of passive Q-switching pulse on laser parameters. The mechanism of the undulation is interpreted as the relaxation oscillation attributed to the relaxation from the lower laser level. The collisional rate constant of HCOOH molecule is also obtained.     

MoS_2 saturable absorber prepared by chemical vapor deposition method for nonlinear control in Q-switching fiber laser

Due to the remarkable carrier mobility and nonlinear characteristic,MoS_2 is considered to be a powerful competitor as an effective optical modulated material in fiber lasers.In this paper,the Moare prepared by the chemical vapor deposition method to guarantee the high quality of the crystal lattice and uniform thickness.The transfer of the films to microfiber and the operation of gold plated films ensure there is no heat-resistant damage and anti-oxidation.The modulation depth of the prepared integrated microfiber-Moabsorber is 11.07%.When the microfiber-Mo S_2 saturable absorber is used as a light modulator in the Q-switching fiber laser,the stable pulse train with a pulse duration of 888 ns at 1530.9 nm is obtained.The ultimate output power and pulse energy of output pulses are 18.8 mW and 88 nJ,respectively.The signal-to-noise ratio up to 60 dB indicates the good stability of the laser.This work demonstrates that the Moabsorber prepared by the chemical vapor deposition method can serve as an effective nonlinear control device for the Q-switching fiber laser.     

Excitability in a semiconductor laser with saturable absorber

We show that a monolithic and compact vertical cavity laser with intracavity saturable absorber can emit short excitable pulses. These calibrated optical pulses can be excited as a response to an input perturbation whose amplitude is above a certain threshold. Subnanosecond excitable response is promising for applications to novel all-optical devices for information processing or logical gates.     

Stochastic resonance in a laser with saturable absorber

Summary We have investigated, experimentally and theoretically, the occurrence of stochastic resonance (SR) in a laser with saturable absorber: a non-linear optical system presenting optical bistability and self-pulsed regimes for the laser output intensity. In the optical-bistability regime we have obtained an excellent demonstration of SR by studying Fourier spectra and residence time distributions; operating just below the Hopf bifurcation that originates pulsed periodic regime we have obtained experimental evidence of the SR phenomenon. For operation close to the Hopf bifurcation, the theoretical analysis (performed through numerical simulations) has demonstrated that simultaneous presence of noise and periodic forcing generates excursions far from equilibrium; from the locking between these excursions and periodic forcing the SR phenomenon may arise. Paper presented at the International Workshop “Fluctuations in Physics and Biology: Stochastic Resonance, Signal Processing and Related Phenomena”, Elba, 5–10 June 1994.     

Repetitive passive Q-switching and bistability in lasers with saturable absorbers

We report detailed experimental data on the passive Q-switching operation in a CO₂ laser with CH₃I saturable absorber, and on the transient behaviour in the near-Q-switching situation. Under suitable operating conditions, we found bistability in the output power. In some cases, we observed the simultaneous presence of bistability and passive Q-switching. The theoretical part of the paper starts from the four-level model of laser with saturable absorber, as formulated by other authors. By adiabatically eliminating the variables of the resonant levels, we reduce the problem to a set of three differential equations, from which we derive explicit analytical conditions for the rise of passive Q-switching. These conditions turn out to be in good qualitative and partially quantitative agreement with our experimental findings as well as with other experimental data previously obtained by other authors. Finally we classify the possible combinations of passive Q-switching and bistability that one can find in this type of experiments.     

Bifurcation phenomena in a laser with saturable absorber I

We investigate the bifurcation diagram of a laser with saturable absorber in the low and medium intensity regimes. The linear stability of the stationary solutions corresponding to these regimes is studied. In the low intensity domain, a Hopf bifurcation point is determined from which a time-periodic solution emerges. This solution is contructed and its stability is analyzed in the vicinity of the bifurcation point. It is shown that this time-periodic solution is stable in a finite domain of the parameter space.     

Self-pulsing localized structures in a laser with saturable absorber

We consider a broad area heterostructured semiconductor laser with an integrated saturable absorber in a monolithic configuration. We extend beyond the single-longitudinal mode approximation a model already used to predict transversely localized structures or cavity solitons (CSs) in a shorter device and we numerically demonstrate the existence of self-pulsing transverse localized structures. Like CSs, these structures can simultaneously coexist in different transverse locations.     

Phase transition analogies in a laser with saturable absorber

The possible threshold behaviours of a four-level laser in the presence of an saturable absorber are examined. In the parameter space of the absorber the regions where the threshold behaviours resemble first or second order phase transitions are found. The analysis is based on the semi-classical approximation and makes use of some concepts taken from Thom's theory of catastrophes.     

Effect of detuning on the lasing dynamics of a CO2 laser with a saturable absorber in the resonator

Translated from Zhurnal Prikladnoi Spektroskopii, Vol. 55, No. 3, pp. 457–461, September, 1991.