Generation of Red Light Femtosecond Pulses from an Intra-Cavity Frequency-Doubled Cr^4＋： Forsterite Laser

We demonstrate the generation of red light femtosecond laser pulses from an intra-cavity frequency-doubled Cr^4＋ ：forsterite laser. An average output power of 75 mW is obtained at the central wavelength of 647nm with a pulse width of 55 fs by inserting a 500μm-thick BBO crystal in the laser cavity. The bandwidth of the spectrum of second harmonic pulses is 9 nm, corresponding to a time-bandwidth product of 0.355.     

Generation of 200 femtosecond pulses tunable between 2.5 and 5.5 µm

The signal and idler output of an optical parametric oscillator are mixed in LiIO₃ and AgGaS₂ crystals to generate infrared pulses with a repetition rate of 82 MHz and an average power of 500µW. The infrared pulses are tunable between 2.5 and 5.5 µm, have a duration of 200 fs and a peak-to-peak intensity fluctuation of less than 5 %.     

41 mW high average power picosecond 177.3 nm laser by second-harmonic generation in KBBF

We report on the generation of high average power, high repetition rate, and picosecond (ps) deep-ultraviolet (DUV) 177.3 nm laser. The DUV laser is produced by second-harmonic generation of a frequency-tripled mode-locked Nd: YVO₄ laser (<15 ps, 80 MHz) with KBBF nonlinear crystal. The influence of different fundamental beam diameters on DUV output power and KBBF-SHG conversion efficiency are investigated. Under the 355 nm pump power of 7.5 W with beam diameter of 145 μm, 41 mW DUV output at 177.3 nm is obtained. To our knowledge, this is the highest average power for the 177.3 nm laser. Our results provide a power scaling by three times with respect to previous best works.     

Generation of 17-TW 23-fs Pulses with a Two-Stage Ti：Sapphire Amplifier at Repetition Rate 10 Hz

We have developed a two-stage Ti：sapphire amplifier system which can produce 17- TW/23-fs pulses at a repetition rate 10Hz. A birefringent plate is used in the regenerative amplifier to alleviate gain narrowing, while an all- reflective cylindrical-mirror-based pulse stretcher and an acousto-optic programmable dispersive filter （AOPDF） are used to compensate for the higher order dispersion of the system.     

Proposal of high quality walk-off compensated sum frequency generation of ultra-short pulses

A multi-crystal and a frequency-selective group-velocity compensating schemes are proposed for the sum frequency-third harmonic generation of low power ultra-short pulses from a Ti:sapphire femtosecond laser. The mechanisms of compensation are analyzed accordingly. It is shown that the temporal walk-off can be effectively compensated without any dispersive element. By use of BBO, calcite crystals together with specially designed composite phase delay plates and dichroic beamsplitters, high quality third harmonic ultra-violet pulses within 300 nm can be generated by the two schemes.     

A novel-high energy pulse compression system: generation of multigigawatt sub-5-fs pulses

Received: 28 February 1997 / Revised version: 2 May 1997     

Generation of subpicosecond vacuum ultraviolet pulses at 126 nm by using harmonics of a subpicosecond Ti:Sapphire laser

Subpicosecond vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) pulses at the wavelength of 126 nm have been generated in rare gases as a result of the 7th harmonic radiation of a subpicosecond Ti:Sapphire laser oscillating at 882 nm. The VUV harmonic intensity was optimized in Xe at the pressure of 1.2 Torr. The behavior of the harmonic emission was qualitatively reproduced by the classical nonlinear optics. The increase of the harmonic intensity was limited by multiphoton ionization of Xe.     

High average power ultra-fast fiber chirped pulse amplification system

We report on a high-gain diode-pumped ytterbium-doped fiber-amplifier system delivering pulse energies in the 100-μJ range at high repetition rates (32 kHz) with nearly-diffraction-limited beam quality (M²∼1.7) at a 1060-nm center wavelength. Femtosecond seed-laser pulses are stretched in a commercially available single-mode fiber and compressed after amplification to subpicosecond pulse duration. In a multimode Yb-doped fiber amplifier we have demonstrated average powers of up to 22 W and single-pulse energies of up to 130 μJ. Received: 16 August 2000 / Revised version: 4 September 2000 / Published online: 8 November 2000     

Generation of Continuum Extreme-Ultraviolet Radiation by Carrier-Envelope-Phase-Stabilized 5-fs Laser Pulses

Coherent extreme-ultraviolet （XUV） radiation is studied by interaction of carrier-envelope （CE） phase stabilized high energy 5-fs infrared （800 nm） laser pulses with neon gas at a repetition rate of 1 kHz. A broadband continuum XUV spectrum in the cut-off region is demonstrated when the CE phase is shifted to about zero, rather than modulated spectral harmonics when setting of CE phase is nonzero. The results show the generation of isolated attosecond XUV pulses.     

Generation of femtosecond pulses by two-photon pumping supercontinuum-seeded collinear traveling wave amplification in a dye solution

Visible femtosecond (fs) laser pulses have been obtained in a dye solution with a very simple traveling wave collinear configuration. A femtosecond Ti:sapphire laser (790 nm) pumps the dye solution by two-photon absorption and simultaneously generates supercontinuum, which seeds a light-amplification mechanism. Cross-correlation frequency-resolved optical gating measurements reveal a chirped structure in the dye pulse. The shortest pulse duration achieved is 170 fs and the overall energy efficiency of the process is typically 25%. Received: 22 March 2001 / Revised version: 4 July 2001 / Published online: 19 September 2001     

Simultaneous Generation of Multi-Wavelength Laser from Nd:YAG Crystals in a Cruciform Cavity

A cruciform cavity is presented for multi-wavelength laser generation. On the basis of considering the optimal power ratio and good spatial overlap of the two fundamental beams, the maximum output power of 589 nm laser reaches 3.5 W when the pumping power of Nd：YAG A and Nd：YAG B are 311.5 W and 261.8 W, respectively. At the same time, the other wavelength lasers are also obtained with the output power distribution of 2.5 W at 66Onto, 15 W at 532nm, lOOmW at 1319nm and 240mW at 1064nm. The corresponding beam quality factors are M^2 x = 4.93, M^2 y = 5.01 at 589nm, M^2z = 4.51, M^2 y = 4.85 at 660hm, and M^2 x = 4.12, M^2 y = 3.96 at 532nm, respectively. The instabilities of the three visible lights are measured, which are also less than 2% within three hours.     

Optimized Second Harmonic Generation of Femtosecond Pulse by Phase-Blanking Effect in Aperiodically Optical Superlattice

In order to minimize the effect of the unconsidered frequency components on the generated compression pulse, the phasing-blanking effect is taken into account of designing the one~dimensionai aperiodic domain reversal structure. Hierarchic genetic algorithm for the design of a domain reversal grating to modulate the spectrum and phase of the generated SH pulse simultaneously are presented. Our simulation shows that the quality of an output pulse is fairly improved.     

Tunable picosecond UV source at 10 kHz based on an all-solid-state diode-pumped laser system

4 laser. The amplified pulses were frequency-converted in the blue and in the UV by harmonic generation (doubling and tripling) in two lithium triborate (LBO) crystals. Received: 11 March 1997/Accepted: 24 April 1997     

Measurement of thermal lensing in a power amplifier of a terawatt Ti:sapphire laser

We have measured detailed thermal lensing in a power amplifier of a terawatt Ti:sapphire laser operating at 50 Hz. The thermal lensing in the amplifier was evaluated by measuring the optical path difference (OPD) using a Shack–Hartmann-type wavefront sensor. It was found that the radial dependence of the OPD was almost quadratic in the pumping region, despite inhomogeneous pumping. Therefore, a simple spherical lens or convex mirror effectively compensates for the thermal lens in our amplifier. We found that the thermal lens profile was temporally stable, and did not degrade the pointing stability of the amplified laser pulses. We also found that the time constant of the thermal distortion in our power amplifier was approximately 0.5 s. Received: 3 September 2001 / Revised version: 23 January 2002 / Published online: 14 March 2002     

Generation of tunable sub-picosecond pulses in the UV with a travelling wave dye laser

Received: 22 June 1998/Revised version: 3 August 1998     

Generation of subpicosecond infrared pulses tunable between 5.2 μm and 18 μm at a repetition rate of 76 MHz

2 (2 mm thick) and GaSe (1 mm thick) crystals are applied as nonlinear media. GaSe has a larger tuning range and is more efficient in the whole spectral range than AgGaS₂. The average IR power reaches up to 2.0 mW at 8.5 μm when the GaSe crystal is used, and up to 1.3 mW at the same wavelength when AgGaS₂ is applied for the frequency conversion. Received: 17 February 1997/Revised version: 14 July 1997     

High power and high beam quality CW green beam generated by diode-side-pumped intracavity frequency doubled Nd:YAG laser

We report a stable high power and high beam quality diode-side-pumped CW green laser from intracavity frequency doubled Nd:YAG laser with LBO crystal. By using a advanced resonator, a large fundamental mode size in the laser crystal and a tight focus in the nonlinear crystal could be obtained simultaneously, which are favorable for high power and high beam quality CW green laser generation. The green laser delivered a maximum 532 nm output power of 40 W. The corresponding optical-to-optical conversion efficiency and electrical-to-optical conversion efficiency were 8.6% and 5.0%, respectively. Under 532 nm output power of 34 W, the beam quality factor was measured to be 1.6.     

Coherent enhancement of broadband frequency up-conversion in BBO crystal by shaping femtosecond laser pulses

An optimal feedback control of broadband frequency up-conversion in BBO crystal is experimentally demonstrated by shaping femtosecond laser pulses based on genetic algorithm, and the frequency up-conversion efficiency can be enhanced by ∼16%. SPIDER results show that the optimal laser pulses have shorter pulse-width with the little negative chirp than the original pulse with the little positive chirp. By modulating the fundamental spectral phase with periodic square distribution on SLM-256, the frequency up-conversion can be effectively controlled by the factor of about 17%. The experimental results indicate that the broadband frequency up-conversion efficiency is related to both of second harmonic generation (SHG) and sum frequency generation (SFG), where the former depends on the fundamental pulse intensity, and the latter depends on not only the fundamental pulse intensity but also the fundamental pulse spectral phase.     

Generation of subterawatt sub-10-fs blue pulses at 1-5 kHz by broadband frequency doubling

Blue pulses with durations of 8.5 fs are generated by broadband frequency doubling of subterawatt Ti:sapphire laser systems at 1-5-kHz repetition rates. The average powers are 1.6 W at 5 kHz and 1.9 W at 1 kHz. The peak power is 0.16 TW with a duration of 12 fs at 1 kHz.     

Supercontinuum extending from > 1000 to 250 nm, generated by focusing ten-fs laser pulses at 805 nm into Ar

Ten femtosecond pulses at 805 nm with energy up to 1 mJ were produced by self-phase modulation of 45-fs pulses in Ar at atmospheric pressure and subsequent compression by chirped mirrors. Focusing part of this radiation again into Ar at atmospheric pressure generates a single filament with broadband emission covering the range from > 1000 to 250 nm. This range extends farther into the UV than previously observed with such low energies, overlapping even the region of the third harmonic. Only a small fraction of the power is contained outside the central spot. Using a simple prism compressor, pulses were obtained with durations of 70 fs and energies of 700 nJ in the range 270–290 nm.This revised version was published online in March 2005. The last name of the corresponding author W. Fuß was corrected.