Modeling of Q-switched lasers with top-hat pump beam distribution

For laser diode end-pumped solid-state lasers, the pump beam can be considered to be a Gaussian distribution or a top-hat distribution or between them. The rate equations for Q-switched lasers have been treated before, by considering the pump beam as a Gaussian distribution. This paper deals with the rate equations and the solutions for Q-switched lasers under a top-hat pump beam distribution. The normalized rate equation is obtained and solved numerically. A group of general curves are given and the comparison with the results under the Gaussian pump beam distribution and the plane-wave approximation is made. The results show that the solutions of the rate equations under a top-hat pump beam distribution are different from those under a Gaussian pump beam distribution, but the difference is very small. The solutions of the rate equations under both situations can give much more precise theoretical results than those under the plane-wave approximation. PACS 42.60.Gd; 42.55.Xi; 42.55.Ah     

TRANSVERSE MODULATION OF BEAM PROFILES IN PUMP-PROBE CONFIGURATIONS WITH BaTiO3:Ce

Transverse spatial modulation of beam profiles for a probe beam counterpropagating to a pump beam in a 45°-cut BaTiO₃:Ce crystal with an externally applied electric field is studied numerically studied. For the case that the direct ion of the external field makes an angle of 45° with the c-axis of the crystal, the probe beam, which propagates in the direction perpendicular to the external field and has a waist wider than that of the pump beam, can acquire deep spatial modulation. In contrast, the pump beam shows no spatial modulation but diffracts only. For the case the external field is directed opposite to the direction mentioned above, the probe beam shows much stronger spatial modulation as compared to the pump.     

光扇效应对Ce∶KNSBN记录偏振组态的影响

在非同时读出条件下,采用Ar+ 514.5 nm单色激光为光源。以信号光为非寻常偏振光(e光),通过改变抽运光的偏振态,研究不同写入光偏振组态下Ce∶KNSBN晶体的两波耦合特性。结果表明     

TRANSVERSE MODULATION OF BEAM PROFILES IN PUMP-PROBE CONFIGURATIONS WITH BaTiO3:Ce

Transverse spatial modulation of beam profiles for a probe beam counterpropagating to a pump beam in a 45°-cut BaTiO₃:Ce crystal with an externally applied electric field is studied numerically studied. For the case that the direct ion of the external field makes an angle of 45° with the c-axis of the crystal, the probe beam, which propagates in the direction perpendicular to the external field and has a waist wider than that of the pump beam, can acquire deep spatial modulation. In contrast, the pump beam shows no spatial modulation but diffracts only. For the case the external field is directed opposite to the direction mentioned above, the probe beam shows much stronger spatial modulation as compared to the pump.     

Competition between subharmonic and signal beams for photorefractive gain in BSO with two pump beams

It is shown that two pump beams incident upon a bismuth silicon oxide crystal give rise to a subharmonic beam bisecting the pump beam. Simultaneously a signal beam injected between the pump beams may be strongly amplified at the expense of the pump beams. It is shown that the amplified signal beam grows with a faster time constant than the subharmonic beam and that there is competition for gain in the steady state regime.     

Quasistable bright dissipative holographic solitons in photorefractive two-wave mixing system

The dynamical evolution of both signal and pump beams are traced by numerically solving the coupled-wave equation for a photorefractive two-wave mixing system. The direct simulations show that, when the intensity ratio of the pump beam to the signal beam is large enough, the pump beam presents a common decaying behaviour without modulational instability (MI), while the signal beam can evolve into a quasistable spatial soliton within a regime in which the pump beam is depleted slightly. The larger the ratio is, the longer the regime is. Such quasistable solitons can overcome the initial perturbations and numerical noises in the course of propagation, perform several cycles of slow oscillation in intensity and width, and persist over tens of diffraction lengths. From physical viewpoints, these solitons actually exist as completely rigorous physical objects. If the ratio is quite small, the pump beam is apt to show MI, during which the signal beam experiences strong expansion and shrinking in width and a drastic oscillation in intensity, or completely breaks up. The simulations using actual experimental parameters demonstrate that the observation of an effectively stable soliton is quite possible in the proposed system.     

Efficient conical emission of stimulated Raman Stokes light generated by a Bessel pump beam

Stimulated Raman scattering in H(2) gas was studied with a Bessel pump beam, which was generated with a binary phase grating. The first Stokes light was emitted along the surface of a cone, the angle of which was equal to the cone angle of the Bessel pump beam multiplied by the ratio of the wavelengths of the Stokes and pump beams. High conversion efficiency into the first Stokes light of as much as 60% was achieved, indicating that the complete Bessel J(0) mode of the pump beam is involved in the stimulated scattering process.     

三维自散焦介质中的暗光束诱导亮光束聚焦

为了获得一种对称压缩圆光束的方法,系统研究了三维自散焦介质中亮暗光束对的共同传输。数值结果表明:当两光束中心重合时,若抽运光(暗光束)初始振幅远大于信号光(亮光束)初始振幅,抽运光将通过交叉相位调制(XPM)诱导信号光聚焦,使得信号光的圆形光斑被对称压缩。讨论了光束参量对信号光聚焦效果的影响,发现抽运光初始振幅越大,信号光聚焦越强。当抽运光初始振幅一定时,暗光束的初始束宽存在最佳值使得信号光压缩最强。当抽运光与信号光的波长比取值为0.5~1.5时,信号光聚焦程度随着波长比的增大而有所降低。还设计了验证理论结果的实验方案。     

All-optical display using photoinduced anisotropy in a bacteriorhodopsin film

Photoinduced anisotropy in a bacteriorhodopsin film using the pump-probe method was investigated. A diode-pumped second-harmonic YAG laser was used as the pump beam, and three wavelengths, at lambda = 442, 532, 655 nm, from different lasers were used as probe beams. Without the pump beam, the probe light cannot transmit the analyzer to the detector. However, because of photoinduced anisotropy, a portion of the probe light is detected when the pump beam is present. Based on this property, we demonstrate a full-color all-optical display.     

All-optical switchings of 3-hydroxyflavone in different solvents

3-hydroxyflavone （3-HF） is an organic molecule with an excited-stated intramolecular proton transfer （ESIPT） effect. All-optical switchings and beam deflections of 3-HF in three kinds of solvents （cyclohexane, ethanol and dimethyl sulfoxide） have been investigated by using the third-harmonic generation （355 nm） of a mode-locked Nd：YAG laser as a pump beam and a continuous-wave （cw） He-Ne laser （632.8 nm） as a probe beam. The nonlinear refractive indices of 3-HF in the three different solvents are determined by using the Z-scan technique under an ultraviolet （UV） pump beam at a wavelength of 355 nm. It has been found that the optical switching and beam deflection effects result from the change in refractive index of 3-HF under the irradiation of the pump beam. On the basis of the analyses of absorption spectra and fluorescence spectra, we conclude that the change in refractive index of 3-HF is due to not the thermal effect but the ESIPT effect of 3-HF under the pump beam. As the ESIPT is exceedingly fast, 3-HF might be an excellent candidate for high-speed optical switching.     

Influence of pump beam size on laser diode end-pumped solid state lasers

Based on space-dependent rate equation, the lowest threshold input power for diode end-pumped solid state lasers is obtained for pump spot size w_p → 0. However, when the pump beam waist is decreased, the far-field half-angle increases due to the same beam quality, which will influence the match between the pump volume and mode volume. Most importantly, when the pump beam waist is decreased, the temperature and temperature gradient in the laser rod would be very high due to the resulting heat, which would cause material distortion, variation of refractive index, instability of laser resonator etc. We analyze the temperature distributions with different pump beam sizes and conclude that the condition w_p ≈ w₀ (the radius of the laser beam at the laser rod) is often taken as a rough guide to the optimum case.     

Stimulated Brillouin scattering of elliptical laser beam in collisionless plasma

This paper presents an investigation of self-focusing of elliptical laser beam in collisionless plasma and its effect on stimulated Brillouin scattering. The pump beam interacts with a pre-excited ion-acoustic wave leading to Brillouin back-scattered process. The transverse intensity gradient of a pump beam generates a ponderomotive force, which modifies the background plasma density profile in a direction transverse to pump beam axis. This modification in density effects the incident laser beam, ion-acoustic wave and back-scattered beam. Non-linear differential equations for the beam width parameters of pump laser beam, ion-acoustic wave and back-scattered beam are set up and solved numerically. It is observed from the analysis that the focusing of waves enhances the SBS back-reflectivity.     

Eu:Fe:LiNbO3晶体非简并四波混频的研究

用波长为623.8nm的He-Ne激光作信号光和一束泵浦光,用波长为488.0nm的Ar⁺激光作另一束泵浦光,在Eu:Fe:LiNbO₃晶体中实现了非简并四波混频,获得了波长为488.0nm的变频相位共轭光,同时还产生了波长为632.8nm的同频相位共扼光。本文对上述实验结果进行了定性分析。     

Novel achromatic distributed feedback dye laser for subpicosecond operation

The optical pump arrangement of distributed feedback dye lasers (DFDLs) having a grating beam splitter is analyzed in detail. The upper limit of the pump spectral bandwidth and beam divergence are given as a function of the length of the excited volume. A novel achromatic pump arrangement is reported which is capable of producing a short, high visibility interference pattern even if a divergent pump source of several nm bandwidth is used. The DFDL pulse duration has an estimated lower limit of 200 fs.     

Nonlinear optical effects in an inhomogeneous Bose—Einstein condensate

A variety of nonlinear optical effects arising upon the interaction of a signal beam with a strong pump beam at the second harmonic frequency in a nonlinear Bose-Einstein condensate is studied. Along with the ratio of signal and pump beam widths, the influence of the mutual geometry of the trap and the pump beam profile on the studied processes is investigated.     

线阵激光二极管侧面抽运Nd∶YAG激光器特性研究

依据四能级系统速率方程 ,推导出了多横模振荡固体激光器输出与输入参量的关系。对二极管抽运固体激光器中线阵激光二极管三向对称侧面抽运结构 ,计算了抽运光强分布 ,并就激光器的阈值抽运功率、近阈值条件下的斜率效率、输出功率和光束质量等与抽运参量的关系 ,进行了数值计算。由计算结果看出 ,线阵激光二极管侧面抽运Nd∶YAG激光器中晶体半径和抽运光束腰半径是影响输出激光功率和光束质量的主要因素 ,并通过在谐振腔中加小孔选模 ,使光束质量得到明显改善。选择了一组三向侧面抽运结构参量进行了实验验证 ,实验结果与理论计算一致。     

Doppler-free spectroscopy of neon atoms dressed by optical photons in nearly-degenerate four-wave mixing

We have investigated nearly degenerate four-wave mixing in neon on the 607 nm line. We have considered the case where one pump beam saturates the medium while the two other incident beams have a much weaker intensity. The frequency of the most intense pump beam is equal to the frequency of the probe beam. When the frequency of the second pump beam is scanned, narrow resonances are observed. These resonances correspond to transitions between the energy levels of the atom dressed by the photons of the intense pump beam.     

Tunneling of optical beams through inhomogeneity of a refractive index

We consider the effect of tunneling of optical beams through a narrow induced inhomogeneity in a refractive index. It is shown that under the condition of total internal reflection from the induced channel, part of the signal beam leaks if the channel is narrow. Dependence of the pump beam width at which the tunneling of half signal power occurs is found as a function of the pump intensity and the angle of beam crossing.     

Design of a 2.5 THz submillimeter wave laser with optical pump beam guiding

A ring resonator design using the same set of mirrors for pump beam and submillimeter wave (SMMW) beam guiding is introduced. Optimal design is discussed on the example of a 2.5 THz methanol laser. It turns out that due to refocussing of the pump beam on the pinhole certain focal lengths of the focussing mirror, which mainly is responsible for the beam guiding, should be avoided. Diffraction losses and pinhole losses determine optimalg-parameters for which the pump beam guiding losses of the resonator are minimum, and optimal pump beam waist radii.The setup of an experimental laser with the optimized resonator and the experimental setup to measure laser performance are described, and results concerning laser output power, beam quality and efficiency are discussed.     

One — dimensional laser beam steering using frequency detuning in two — wave mixing with a BaTiO3 crystal

We demonstrate a method of one-dimensional laser beam deflection using frequency detuning in two-wave mixing. Energy exchange between the interfering beams in a photo-refractive BaTiO₃ crystal has been used for deflection of a pump beam into predetermined probe beam directions. A one-dimensional array of several beams is generated from a single probe beam, employing a piezo-mirror and beam splitter combination. Probe beams so produced are detuned by exciting the piezo-mirror with a periodic near-saw-tooth voltage so as to produce running fringes. However, stable holographic gratings are recorded by matching the frequency of the probe beam with that of a pump beam reflected from another vibrating piezo-mirror, thereby controlling the direction of beam deflection.