Radiation Polarization Distribution Function of a Dye Laser

The Fokker–Planck equation for the distribution function of the intensity of an individual component has been solved in the approximation of the Ornstein–Uhlenbeck process within the framework of the formalism of the method of polarization components. Based on this solution, we have constructed the distribution functions of the degree of lasing radiation polarization, analyzed experimental data for a certain geometry of laser pumping, and determined the values of the distribution parameters, including the loss coefficients for the polarization component.     

Comparative studies of eye-safe intracavity and extracavity optical parametric oscillators with an unstable telescopic cavity

We have experimentally studied the lasing characteristics of an eye-safe optical parametric oscillator (OPO) with an unstable telescopic cavity when it is placed inside (intracavity OPO) and outside (extracavity OPO) the plane-parallel cavity of a pulsed, nearly single-mode KGW:Nd pump laser. We used a KTP crystal as the nonlinear medium for the OPO. We have shown that the intracavity OPO has the higher lasing efficiency. We have observed that the distribution of nonlinear losses introduced by the intracavity OPO, nonuniform over the cavity cross section, leads to an increase in the diameter and divergence of the radiation beam from the pump laser and a dependence of its temporal lasing dynamics on the transverse beam coordinate. We propose a physical model qualitatively explaining the spatial and temporal lasing dynamics of a radiation source with an intracavity OPO. Both OPO versions generate beams of radiation with about the same divergence. When the KGW:Nd laser has an electrical pumping energy of 7.3 J and a cavity length of 77 cm, the intracavity OPO and the extracavity OPO emit pulses with energies of 14.5 mJ and 12.0 mJ and duration 18 nsec and 13 nsec respectively. The divergence of the eye-safe radiation (λ = 1.578 μm) at 86.5% of the total pulse energy is no greater than 5.5 mrad for an OPO output beam diameter of = 2 mm. __________ Translated from Zhurnal Prikladnoi Spektroskopii, Vol. 73, No. 4, pp. 535–543, July–August, 2006.     

Investigation of cw injection laser with external dispersive cavity

Tunable single-frequency lasing with output power up to 9 mW was achieved in an injection laser with an external dispersive cavity. The bistable lasing mode was investigated theoretically and experimentally. It is shown that its presence is due to the laser-diode active-region optical nonlinearity. Investigation of equal-frequency fluctuation spectra of the output power has shown that only modes with differing transverse structures can be excited simultaneously. Suppression of weak modes by the field of a strong mode was observed. This increases the stability of the single-frequency lasing as the laser output power is increased.Translated from Trudy Ordena Lenina Fizicheskogo Instituta im. P. N. Lebedeva, Vol. 141, pp. 62–88, 1983.     

Dynamics of a Loss-Modulated, Two-Wave CO2 Laser Lasing on Lines of Different Vibrational Bands

The nonlinear dynamics of a loss-modulated, two-wave CO₂ laser lasing on vibrational–rotational lines of different vibrational bands has been investigated theoretically and experimentally. It is shown that the time and energy parameters of laser radiation can be controlled within fairly wide limits by changing the depth and frequency of modulation and the ratio between the constant components of the losses.     

Distributed feedback dye laser holographically induced in improved organic–inorganic photocurable nanocomposites

Distributed feedback (DFB) lasing in permanent volume transmission gratings formed in a laser dye-doped organic–inorganic nanocomposite has been investigated. DFB laser cavities were fabricated using one-step two-beam holographic exposure of Pyrromethene 567 (PM567) doped photopolymerizable acrylate monomers containing inorganic (LaPO₄) nanoparticles. Compared to the formulation previously utilized, the material composition presented provides longer lifetime of the laser. Spectral and polarization properties, input–output and stability characteristics of the laser output have been investigated by varying the material composition and the patterning parameters. DFB lasing emission of the second and the third diffraction orders has been demonstrated. The spectral linewidth of ∼0.08 nm has been observed at a pump energy threshold of about 0.2 μJ/pulse for the second-order DFB lasing when pumped with 532 nm 500 ps laser pulses. Spectral tuning of the lasing output over ∼56 and ∼7 nm was obtained by varying the grating period and the content of inorganic nanoparticles in the polymer matrix, respectively.     

Influence of nonradiative excitation-energy transfer on the dye laser active-medium gain-coefficient dichroism

The excitation power dependences of the luminescence polarization degree and of the anisotropy of the stimulated emission from glycerin solutions of rhodamine 6G at different dye concentrations have been obtained experimentally. It is shown that the anisotropy of the stimulated emission is determined by the dichroism of induced absorption in the range of low concentrations and by the development of excitation-energy migration into the generation channel. The complex character of the behavior of the fluorescence polarization degree is explained by the competition between several processes of excitation-energy transformation — nonradiative energy transfer and directed energy transfer to excimers with an increase in the dye concentration and in the excitation power.__________Translated from Zhurnal Prikladnoi Spektroskopii, Vol. 72, No. 1, pp. 63–66, January–February, 2005.     

Passive mode locking of fiber lasers upon doubling the period of repetition of ultrashort pulses in the output radiation

The dynamics of the output radiation of fiber lasers with nonlinear losses caused by an intracavity polarizer and by nonlinear optical activity due to the Kerr nonlinearity of the fiber is studied by numerical simulation. It is shown that the model of lasing that takes into account the concentration of nonlinear losses in the intracavity polarizer describes the characteristic transient regimes of the passive mode locking, connected with a nonstationarity of the parameters of the output radiation: doubling of the period of repetition of the field structure in the output radiation, appearance of slow periodic changes of the parameters of light pulses in the regimes with the doubled period, and transitions to the regimes with chaotic change of the characteristics of ultrashort pulses.     

On polarization of transition bremsstrahlung in a weakly gyrotropic plasma

The degree of polarization of transition bremsstrahlung (TBS) is calculated in a plasma with weak gyrotropy. The cases of weak and strong Faraday rotation in a radiation source are discussed. The distribution of polarization is shown to have no azimuthal symmetry, if the particle gyroradius is larger than the source size. We calculate the polarization degree of TBS for an ensemble of fast particles and show that polarization exceeds the respective value for transition radiation in the presence of nonthermal inhomogeneities of the plasma density.A. F. Ioffe Physical and Technical Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg. Translated from Izvestiya Vysshikh Uchebnykh Zavedenii, Radiofizika, Vol. 38, No. 9, pp. 887–892, September, 1995.     

Corrugated neat thin-film conjugated polymer distributed-feedback lasers

Wave-guided thin-film distributed-feedback (DFB) polymer lasers are fabricated by spin coating a PPV-derived semiconducting polymer, thianthrene-DOO-PPV, onto oxidised silicon wafers with corrugated second-order periodic gratings. The gratings are written by reactive ion beam etching. Laser action is achieved by transverse pumping with picosecond laser pulses (wavelength 347.15 nm, duration 35 ps). The DFB-laser surface emission and edge emission are analysed. Outside the grating region the polymer film is used for comparative wave-guided travelling wave laser (amplified spontaneous emission (ASE)) studies. The pump pulse threshold energy density for wave-guided DFB-laser action (4–9 μJ cm^-2) is found to be approximately a factor of two lower than the threshold for wave-guided travelling wave laser action. The spectral width of the DFB laser (down to Δλ_DFB≈0.07 nm) is considerably narrower than that of the travelling wave laser (Δλ_TWL≈14 nm). The DFB-laser emission is highly linearly polarised transverse to the grating axis (TE mode). Only at high pump pulse energy densities does an additional weak TM mode build up. The surface-emitted DFB-laser radiation has a low divergence along the grating direction. For both the DFB lasers and the travelling wave lasers, gain saturation occurs at high excitation energy densities. Received: 7 January 2002 / Revised version: 15 February 2002 / Published online: 14 March 2002     

Regularities of Bonding of Chlorin e 6 to the Oligomeric Enzyme Lactate Dehydrogenase

Using differential-spectrophotometry, spectral-luminescence, and polarization methods, we have investigated regularities of complexing of a promising photodynamic sensitizer — chlorin e ₆ — with a key glycolytic enzyme — lactate dehydrogenase (LDH). The parameters of the dye–enzyme complex have been estimated by the difference between the spectral characteristics of the free dye and the dye bonded to the enzyme. It is shown that the tetrameric LDH molecule forms an equilibrium complex with four chlorin molecules and the sensitizer is bonded independently to each subunit entering into the composition of the tetramer. It has been established that the spectral characteristics of chlorin bonded to LDH are sensitive to the structure transformations arising in the active center of the enzyme as a result of the formation of an unproductive enzyme–coenzyme–substrate complex, which allows the conclusion that the dye is localized in the neighborhood of the active center of LDH.     

Prepulse dependence ofJ=0−1 lasing at 32.6 nm in neon-like titanium

The dependence of the intensity of the 3p—3s,J = 0–1 lasing line at 32.6 nm in neon-like titanium on the prepulse level has been investigated experimentally. Titanium slabs were irradiated with 1.315 µm/450 ps pulses from the Asterix IV iodine laser using a defined prepulse of 5.2 ns before the main pulse. It is found that for pump energies close to the minimum energy for which lasing is observed, a prepulse level of order 0.5% gives the highest XUV laser intensity, whereas a higher prepulse level, of order 10% and more, is required for optimum XUV lasing far above the threshold. For a 2.7 cm long titanium target lasing was observed down to a pump irradiance of 2.5 TW/cm² (50 J/450 ps) for the 0.5% prepulse.     

Effect on zero drift of accuracy of reciprocal tuning of elements of fiber-optic interferometer

The effect of the accuracy of reciprocal tuning of the elements of a fiber-optic interferometer (FOI) — laser, polarizer, and eigenaxes of single-mode-fiber (SMF) birefringence — is examined. It is shown that zero drift in the FOI consists of two parts — a constant part and a temperature-related variable part. Both of these parts are functions of the polarization state of the radiation at the entrance to the polarizer, the extinction coefficient of the polarized, and the orientation of the SMF eigenaxes with respect to the polarizer. The variable part of the zero drift is also a function of the birefringence and h-parameter of the SMF and the width of the radiation-source spectrum. Numerical estimates of FOI zero drift are made.Institute of Applied Physics, Academy of Sciences of the USSR. Translated from Izvestiya Vysshikh Uchebnykh Zavedenii, Radiofizika, Vol. 34, No. 7, pp. 817–824, July, 1991.     

Stable multiwavelength fiber ring laser with equalized power spectrum based on a semiconductor optical amplifier

We experimentally demonstrated a new structure of a multiwavelength semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) ring laser based on a fiber Sagnac loop filter that can generate up to 25 stable output lasing wavelengths at room temperature. By varying the length of a polarization-maintaining (PM) fiber within the Sagnac loop filter, the wavelength spacing between the output lasing wavelengths can be changed to a desired value. By tuning a polarization controller (PC) within the Sagnac loop filter, stable multiwavelength 1550-nm operation with up to 17 lasing lines within 3 dB power level variation and with a wavelength spacing of ∼0.8 nm was achieved. The optical signal-to-noise ratios (OSNRs) of all the lasing wavelengths are greater than 40 dB.     

A microchip-laser-pumped DFB-polymer-dye laser

A miniaturized, high repetition rate, picosecond all solid state photo-induced distributed feedback (DFB) polymer-dye laser is described by applying a passively Q-switched and frequency-doubled Cr⁴⁺:Nd³⁺:YAG-microchip laser (pulse width Δτ=540 ps, repetition rate ν=3 kHz, pump energy E_pump=0.15 μJ) as a pump source. A poly-methylmethacrylate film doped with rhodamine B dye serves as active medium. The DFB-laser pulses are temporally and spectrally characterized, and the stability of the thin polymer/dye film at high repetition rates is analyzed. The shortest DFB-laser pulses obtained have a duration of 11 ps. After the emission of 350000 pulses the intensity of the DFB-laser output has decreased by a factor of two and the pulse duration has increased by a factor of 1.2. For single DFB-laser pulses of 20-ps duration the spectral bandwidth is measured to be Δλ=0.03 nm, which is only 0.005 nm above the calculated Fourier limit assuming a Gaussian profile for the temporal shape of the pulses. Coarse wavelength tuning of the DFB laser between 590 and 619 nm is done by turning the prism. Additionally, a fine tuning of the DFB-polymer-laser wavelength is achieved by changing the temperature of the polymer/dye layer (=-0.05 nm/°C) in the range from 20 to 40 °C. Received: 1 March 2001 / Revised version: 23 May 2001 / Published online: 18 July 2001     

Ellipticity of the Linearly Polarized He-Ne Laser Radiation Reflected by the Leaves of Plants

The phenomenon of elliptical polarization of the linearly polarized radiation reflected near the Brewster angle by the leaves of plants has been investigated. It has been shown that the appearance of ellipticity is associated with the complex structure of the cuticle.__________Translated from Zhurnal Prikladnoi Spektroskopii, Vol. 72, No. 2, pp. 236–240, March–April, 2005.     

Optical Resonances in One-Dimensional Chains of Dipole Centers

The problem on the interaction of optical radiation with a nanostructure representing a one-dimensional (linear) chain of electrodynamically interacting dipole centers — atoms — has been considered. It has been shown that the number of optical resonances of the nanostructure and the detuning of the resonance frequencies from the eigenfrequency of the atom are only determined by the internal parameters of the nanostructure. The dependence of the number of resonances on the number of atoms in the nanostructure has been established. For nanostructures having a symmetry center, the number of resonances in atoms depends also on the orientation of the nanostructure axis with respect to the direction of external-wave propagation.     

Evolution of polarization in an inhomogeneous isotropic medium

The depolarization and rotation of the polarization plane of radiation propagating in a two-dimensional graded-index medium is investigated on the basis of the quantum-mechanical method of coherent states. It is shown that the degree of polarization of both linearly and circularly polarized radiation decreases with increasing distance as a result of interaction between the polarization (spin) and the path (orbital angular momentum) of the beam. The wave nature of the depolarization is emphasized. The depolarization decreases as the radiation wavelength decreases. It is found that the degree of polarization exhibits oscillations of pure diffraction origin during the propagation of light in a single-mode optical fiber. It is shown that the rotation of the polarization plane is nonuniform in character and depends on the offset and the tilt angle of the incident-beam axis relative to the fiber axis. The Berry phase is found to undergo oscillations of a wave nature during the propagation of radiation in an inhomogeneous medium. It is shown that the spread in the angle of rotation of the polarization plane increases with distance and can be determined from measurements of the degree of polarization of the radiation. Zh. éksp. Teor. Fiz. 112, 1985–2000 (December 1997)     

Ensemble of asymmetric quantum dots in a cavity as a terahertz laser source

The possibility of establishing a terahertz laser generation at a transition between the dressed states formed by the interaction of an intense optical field with an ensemble of asymmetric quantum dots (QDs) in a high-Q terahertz cavity is discussed. It has been shown that the population inversion in the system of dressed states is achieved owing to spontaneous relaxation of the excited state of the QDs. The set of Maxwell–Bloch equations for the difference between dressed-state populations, polarization, and population of the cavity mode has been analyzed in the mean-field approximation. The lasing conditions have been clarified and the possibility of controlling the terahertz radiation intensity has been studied, including the case of an inhomogeneously broadened ensemble of QDs.     

Mathematical modeling of random coupling between polarization modes in single-mode optical fibers: XVI. Depolarization and repolarization of polychromatic radiation in single-mode optical fibers with random inhomogeneities

The dependences of the degree of polarization of polychromatic radiation on the length of a single-mode optical fiber (SMF) with random inhomogeneities have been obtained by mathematical modeling. The case is considered where radiation having both polarization modes excited with equal weights of linear polarization is first introduced into a depolarizer of polychromatic radiation (a SMF segment with high linear birefringence) and arrives at an SMF with low linear birefringence. It is shown that the degree of polarization of radiation after transmission through the first segment becomes significantly suppressed and remains almost constant upon propagation through the second segment, after which it begins to sharply increase at some length; i.e., repolarization of radiation occurs. It is shown that repolarization of radiation depends weakly on the angle made by the axes of unperturbed linear birefringence of the first and second segments. The conditions for the length of the first segment (depolarizer) under which the degree of polarization remains minimum throughout the second segment are determined.     

Formation of an Equilibrium Complex of Lactate Dehydrogenase with Chlorin e 6

Using spectrophotometric, spectral-luminescent, and polarization methods, we have detected the formation of strong equilibrium complexes of a key glycolytic enzyme — lactate dehydrogenase — with a promising photodynamic sensitizer — chlorin e ₆. It has been established that enzymes serve as the most sensitive targets destroying tumor cells subjected to photodynamic therapy.