Cooperative frequency locking and tristability in a class-B laser

The locking and unlocking phenomena of the modes of the transverse familyq=1 in a CO₂ laser are investigated. The experimental results show three characteristic regions: a bistability between two helical waves of opposite handedness, a tristability among the two helicities of opposite handedness and an unlocked state, and the unlocked state. Near the locking threshold, oscillations which can be interpreted as due to the oscillations of the modal amplitudes and relative phase are also observed. These results are found to be consistent with solutions of the two-mode Maxwell-Bloch equations for class-B lasers.     

Numerical study of active mode locking in pulsed solid-state lasers

Transient mode locking of spiking solid-state lasers is studied with the help of two theoretical approaches. The first of them is an extension of the previous transient theory with single-mode rate equations to find the limited spike build-up time depending on the modulation index. The second is based on semiclassical multimode equations describing both spiking behaviour and formation of the picosecond pulse from the initial noise. The derivation of the equations as well as a comparison of results from both approaches are given. The obtained numerical results agree with experimental data. It is shown that the pulsewidth in a spiking laser can approach the small value predicted by the steady-state theory. This minimal pulsewidth can be reached at a smaller modulation index than predicted by the standard transient mode locking theory. The minimal modulation index for generation of good picosecond pulses free of noise is found to be 0.6 in our case. Losses connected with amplitude modulation have a negligible effect on spike build-up time and pulse duration.     

Theory of passive mode locking of colour-center lasers by a fast saturable absorber

A theoretical model of passive mode locking of colour-center lasers by an effective fast saturable absorber is presented where a hybrid saturation scheme is applied to consider the interaction of the mode-locked pulse with the gain medium. Intracavity group-velocity dispersion and Kerr-type nonlinearity are taken into account and their combined action can result in solition-like pulse shaping and shortening. Chirped steady-state solutions whose carrier frequency can be shifted with respect to the central frequency of the gain are found in a limited range of the parameters specifying the problem.     

Toward passive mode locking by nonlinear polarization evolution in a cascaded Raman fiber ring laser

We demonstrate a cascaded Raman fiber ring laser delivering a pulsed fourth-order Stokes component. Periodic emission of subnanosecond pulses is achieved from the interplay between nonlinear polarization evolution and Raman cascade process.     

Folded diffractive laser resonators with user-defined fundamental mode

The adjustment effort required for the alignment of laser resonators with arbitrarily shaped end mirrors can be significantly reduced by folding the resonator path half-way between the two end mirrors and by slightly tilting the resonator axis. Thus the resulting resonator consists only of one diffractive mirror and a plane mirror, and the separate alignment of both diffractive end mirrors with respect to each other can be avoided. This principle is demonstrated by a Nd:YAG laser with super-Gaussian output beam. Furthermore, it is shown theoretically that the influence of phase quantization effects on the beam quality can be strongly reduced as a consequence of the tilted resonator axis.     

Passive mode locking of a diode-pumped Nd:Gd 0.64 Y 0.36 VO 4 laser with a GaAs saturable absorber mirror

We report a diode-pumped Nd:Gd_0.64Y_0.36VO₄ laser passively mode locked by using a GaAs saturable absorber mirror. Both the Q-switched and continuous-wave (CW) mode locking were experimentally realized. The CW mode-locked pulses have a pulse width of about 8.8 ps at a repetition rate of 161.3 MHz. Limited by the available pump power, a maximum output power of 2.47 W was obtained for the CW mode-locked pulses with a slope efficiency of about 26.6%.     

Additive-pulse mode locking of a diode-pumped Nd:KGd(WO4)2 laser

Self-starting additive-pulse mode locking of a diode-pumped Nd:KGd(WO₄)₂ laser is demonstrated for the first time. An output power of 0.85 W is achieved with 2.3-ps pulses at a repetition frequency of 76.5 MHz. The shortest pulse generated had a duration of 1.9 ps. Received: 2 May 2002 / Published online: 25 October 2002 RID="*" ID="*"Corresponding author. Fax: +44-141/5482891, E-mail: a.major@phys.strath.ac.uk     

Additive-pulse mode locking of a diode-pumped Nd3+:YVO4 laser

We demonstrate self-starting additive-pulse mode locking of a diode-pumped Nd³⁺:YVO₄ laser. Pulse durations of 2.7 ps are measured at a repetition frequency of 90.7 MHz and at an average output power of 1.1 W. This corresponds to a peak power of 4.5 kW. Received: 27 June 2001 / Revised version: 10 October 2001 / Published online: 29 November 2001     

The Rydberg matter laser: excitation, delays and mode effects in the laser cavity medium

Temporal and temperature effects are studied in Rydberg matter (RM) formed from K atoms and N₂ molecules as the active medium in a cavity. The function of this setup as a laser was recently described. Temperature-variation studies show that the photons re-exciting the RM clusters usually have a longer wavelength than the photons emitted in the stimulated emission process in the cavity. The deficit is probably covered by background photons. Very long time constants observed after emitter temperature changes indicate that long-wavelength photon energy is accumulated in the RM clusters. Long-wavelength modes are located farther from the RM emitter. The modal structure can be TEM₀₁ or TEM₀₀, as observed clearly by the spatial structure in rapid pulsing experiments. The in-cavity chopped beam signal is delayed by approximately 50 μs. The initial growth rate of the signal during chopping is temperature dependent. Tailing is also observed by chopping, but rapid pulsing of the beam with a spinning mirror does not show any delay of the start of the lasing. The conclusion is that delays exist in the stimulated emission process. The broad intense band appearing at 11 000 nm is shown to be formed partly by light in the range 3500–5000 nm, probably by standing wave interaction at the grating surface (grating bands).     

A tuneable, single-mode titanium-doped-sapphire laser source with variable pulse duration in the nanosecond regime

We built and characterized a high-energy, injection-seeded, single-longitudinal-mode pulsed titanium-doped-sapphire laser with tuneable wavelength in the near-infrared and variable pulse temporal duration in the nanosecond regime. We show experimentally how the pulse duration can be easily varied either by changing the cavity length or by changing the pump energy. We successfully interpreted these results on the basis of a theoretical model which treats the operation of this type of laser as a gain-switching technique. Also, as far as the stabilization of the laser cavity, compared to the traditional techniques we employed a novel simplified solution involving the use of an avalanche photodiode.     

Passive mode locking with slow saturable absorbers

We give a comprehensive overview on passive mode locking of solid-state lasers with slow saturable absorbers, based on analytical and numerical calculations. For picosecond lasers, we present a simple equation to estimate the obtained pulse duration and compare the results to those for mode locking with fast saturable absorbers. We also discuss how much shorter the pulse duration can be compared to the absorber recovery time and present a simple rule. The effect of self-phase modulation is found to be qualitatively different compared to the case of a fast saturable absorber, and the effect of phase changes in the absorber is also discussed. Finally, we discuss various issues concerning soliton mode-locked lasers. Received: 20 July 2001 / Revised version: 28 September 2001 / Published online: 7 November 2001     

Generation of a radially polarized doughnut mode of high quality

We present an experimental set-up to generate laser beams with locally varying polarization distribution. In a linear set-up, a radially polarized beam of high quality regarding intensity distribution, polarization and phase-front distortion is generated. This beam can be used for tight focusing. Further applications are discussed.     

CW diode pumping and FM mode locking of a Nd: KGW laser

We have demonstrated cw diode end pumping of Nd: KGW, a novel solid-state gain medium, with up to 30% conversion efficiency into near-TEM₀₀ (M² < 1.05) output at = 1.067 µm for a pump level of 2.7 W. The slope efficiency was limited by intracavity reflections to 36%; however, direct comparison to a similar Nd:YAG laser indicates the same intrinsic slope efficiency of 60%. FM mode locking of this laser at 200 MHz has produced 12 ps pulses (compared to 16 ps for Nd: YAG), although an intracavity etalon was required. Considerable reduction in pulse width is possible (the line width limit is 0.5 ps) but different techniques may be necessary. Spatial hole burning was evident in both the 120 GHz free-running spectrum and the etalon-limited mode-locked spectrum.     

Passive mode locking of thin-disk lasers: effects of spatial hole burning

We recently demonstrated that passive mode locking of a thin-disk Yb:YAG laser is possible and that this concept leads to sources of femtosecond pulses with very high average power. Here we discuss in detail the effect of spatial hole burning on the mode-locking behavior of such lasers. We have developed an efficient numerical model and arrive at quantitative stability criteria which agree well with experimental data. The main result is that stable soliton mode locking can in general be obtained only in a certain range of pulse durations. We use our model to investigate the influence of various cavity parameters and the situation for different gain media. We also consider several methods to reduce the effect of spatial hole burning in order to expand the range of possible pulse durations. Received: 4 September 2000 / Published online: 10 January 2001     

Single mode oscillation of TEA CO2 laser with an interference resonator

An effective single-longitudinal mode (SLM) pulse TEA CO₂ laser operation was demonstrated using a Michelson’s type resonator with a tilting Fabry-Perot etalon. A modified numerical model of the interference resonator was investigated for designing the laser. The experimentally measured values were found to have good agreement with the numerical model. A pulse width of about 90 ns and the maximum pulse energy of about 300 mJ were achieved at 10.59 μm in SLM and TEM₀₀ mode. The reliability of producing SLM pulses was 100% and there was no damage on the etalon. By turning the interference resonator, the SLM output was tuned 44 lines of the CO₂ spectrum.     

Active mode locking of a high pressure CW waveguide CO2 laser

In this paper, we report on a new concept for active mode locking of lasers. It has been successfully applied to a cw waveguide CO₂ laser and pulse widths as short as 2 ns have been obtained.     

Amplitude noise suppression in high-repetition-rate pulse train generation from a frequency-modulated Er-Yb laser

A detailed experimental analysis of the amplitude noise in high-repetition-rate picosecond pulse trains generated by spectral filtering of a frequency-modulated Er-Yb:glass laser is reported. Two distinct sources of noise are identified, and stabilization techniques for noise suppression are proposed and experimentally demonstrated. Intensity noise suppression of ∼20 dB, corresponding to less than 2% residual amplitude fluctuations of the pulse train, has been achieved at repetition rates of 2.5 GHz and 5 GHz with pulse durations of ∼50 ps. Received: 28 July 1999 / Revised version: 13 September 1999 / Published online: 20 October 1999     

Smoothing effect in the broadband laser through a dispersive wedge

The propagation expression of a broadband laser passing through a dispersive wedge is derived on the basis of the Huygens-Fresnel diffraction integral. Smoothing effects caused by the phase perturbation of the dispersive wedge on the intensity profiles are investigated in detail. The phase perturbation of the dispersive wedge induces a relative transverse position shift between the diffraction patterns of different frequency components. The relative transverse position shift is of great benefit to the fill of the intensity peaks of some patterns in the valleys of others when these patterns are overlapped and thus the smoothing effect is achieved.     

Passive mode locking of the continuous wave DCM dye laser

The first passive mode locking of the continuous wave (cw) DCM dye laser is reported. Subpicosecond pulses as short as 0.68 ps were obtained over the spectral region from 655 to 673 nm from a simple linear cavity with no dispersion optimisation. The dye 1,3 Diethyl 4,2 quinolythiacarbocyanine iodide (DQTCI) was used as the saturable absorber.     

Multiwavelength Q-switched CO2 laser with continuous discharge

A low-pressure (20 mbar) CO₂ laser allows to extract pulses at several selected wavelengths simultaneously from the same active medium. We demonstrated this, using an industrial laser modified by a Q-switch and a resonator with two branches. In one branch the wavelengths are spatially separated, whereas in the other they oscillate in one common transverse mode. We designed a multi-wavelength resonator which requires a single additional reflector compared to usual laser cavities. It provided tunable oscillation at six wavelength simultaneously.