High repetition rate LiF<Stack><Subscript>2</Subscript><Superscript>−</Superscript></Stack>: Color center laser

The efficient oscillation of LiF:F₂⁻ color center laser pumped by a compact LD-pumped Nd:YVO₄ acousto optically Q-switched laser with 30 kHz pulse repetition rate was demonstrated. The broadband oscillation with 75 μJ pulse energy and 37 kW peak power with the slope efficiency 20% was obtained. The average output power as high as 230 mW was reached. The narrow line tunable from 1.10 to 1.29 μm laser radiation with 10% conversion efficiency in the maximum of the tuning curve was achieved under pumping with 1.6 W average pump power.     

Efficient and compact intracavity-frequency-doubled Nd:LuVO<Subscript>4</Subscript>/LBO laser at 538 nm end-pumped by a fiber-coupled laser diode

We report a diode-pumped Nd:LuVO₄ laser emitting at 1076 nm, based on the ⁴ F _3/2−⁴ I _11/2 transition, generally used for a 1066 nm emission. A power of 689 mW at 1076 nm has been achieved in continuous-wave (CW) operation with a fiber-coupled laser diode emitting 17.8 W at 809 nm. Intracavity second-harmonic generation (SHG) in CW mode has also been demonstrated with a power of 105 mW at 538 nm by using a LiB₃O₅ (LBO) nonlinear crystal.     

Fabrication and characterization of double-wall carbon nanotube absorber for passive mode-locked Nd:GdVO<Subscript>4</Subscript> laser

Using the vertical evaporation technique we fabricated saturable absorbers by transferring the double-wall carbon nanotubes (DWCNT) onto a hydrophilic quartz substrate. The fast recovery time and the saturation intensity of the absorber were measured to be 228 fs and 130 μJ/cm², respectively, at 1060 nm. The modulation depth of the absorber was about 3.7%. Passive mode-locked Nd:GdVO₄ laser was demonstrated. The continuous wave mode-locked pulses pulse duration is 5.6 ps and the largest average output power is 1.2 W at the pump power of 9.5 W. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first demonstration of high power continuous wave mode locking laser with DWCNT absorber.     

Cooperative emission study in ytterbium doped NdVO4

The infrared and visible cooperative emissions of ytterbium ions are studied in Yb-doped NdVO₄ single crystals. The absorption of optical phonons allows the emissions at room temperature when a Nd:YAG laser is used. Low temperature emissions are observed due to the Nd³⁺→Yb³⁺ energy transfer following an argon ion laser excitation of the Nd³⁺ ions. Analysis of the cooperative emission at low doping concentration (1%) indicates that it is generated by distant pair forming Yb³⁺ ions while at high doping concentration (≥ 5%) close ions magnetically coupled and superexchange mechanisms prevail in the emitting process.     

Analytical study of an active piezoelectric absorber on vibration attenuation of a plate

The attenuation of the transverse vibration of a plate, subjected to a harmonic force, is studied. This goal can be achieved by using an active dynamic absorber. The active absorber is made of a pair of piezoelectric sheets, attached to both sides of the plate, and closed electric circuits. One piece of the piezoelectric material provides a sensor for detecting the motion of the plate. Another piece serves as an active dynamic absorber. The equations of motion of the composite plate, including the plate and the piezoelectric material, and the circuit equations of the sensor and the absorber are derived. The displacements of the plate and the currents in the circuits are calculated. The active absorber can successfully attenuate the vibration. The numerical results show that the proposed active absorber can offer more reduction than that using a passive absorber while the absorber is designed to suppress the resonance of a particular vibration mode. Moreover, the active absorber can also reduce the displacements corresponding to other uncontrolled modes. The effects of altering various parameters of the active absorber are studied and discussed.     

Spin-glass behavior and magnetocaloric effect in melt-spun TbCuAl alloys

Magnetic properties and magnetocaloric effects of amorphous and crystalline TbCuAl ribbons are investigated by measuring their ac susceptibilities including a nonlinear term and dc magnetizations. The in-phase third harmonic ac susceptibility is found to be negative. It can be well fitted by the expression at high temperatures, indicating a spin-glass behavior in amorphous TbCuAl alloy. ΔT_f(ω)/[T_f(ω)Δlog₁₀ω], a possible distinguishing criterion to judge the presence of a spin-glass behavior is ∼0.011. The frequency-dependent data can be well fitted by the conventional critical slowing down law and the spin-glass transition temperature is obtained to be 20.1 K. The maximum of magnetic entropy change reaches 4.5 J kg⁻¹ K⁻¹ for a field change of 0-50 000 Oe, while the crystalline TbCuAl compound experiences a simple ferromagnetic-to-paramagnetic phase transition. The peak value of magnetic entropy change is obtained at the Curie temperature and reaches 14.4 J kg⁻¹ K⁻¹ for the same field change, which is much larger than that of amorphous TbCuAl alloy.     

Vibrational spectroscopy studies of a pressure-induced disproportionation reaction of LaH2

The pressure-induced disproportionation reaction of LaH₂ was investigated by infrared reflection and Raman measurements at ambient temperature. The relative reflection intensity in the 4000-6000 cm⁻¹ region began to decrease significantly at a pressure of about 12 GPa and fell to 10% of the initial value at 20 GPa. Absorption peaks, which appeared around 1200 and 700 cm⁻¹ at pressures above 14 GPa, were assigned to the hydrogen vibrations at the tetrahedral and octahedral sites of the fcc metal lattice, respectively. The peak frequencies measured in the 14-30 GPa range were similar to those observed in LaH₃. These infrared results indicated insulating LaH₃ precipitated from metallic LaH₂. Above 20 GPa, a Raman peak related to the hydrogen vibration in the octahedral sites appeared around 700 cm⁻¹, and was likely due to lattice distortion. The disproportionation reaction of LaH₂ into and solid solution LaH_x (x<1) was confirmed.     

Film thickness dependence of electro-optic effect in epitaxial BaTiO3 thin films

Based on the phenomenological Landau-Devonshire theory, we investigate the film thickness dependence of ferroelectric and electro-optic properties of epitaxial BaTiO₃ thin films grown on SrTiO₃ and MgO substrates. By using the effective substrate lattice parameter concept, the film thickness dependence of misfit strain is incorporated into the theory. Therefore, the film thickness dependence of ferroelectric and electro-optic properties in epitaxial BaTiO₃ thin films can be explained. Moreover, a large quadratic electro-optic effect was obtained in the BaTiO₃ thin films, which is in good agreement with the experimental result of BaTiO₃ thin films on the MgO substrate.     

Diode both ends pumped two crystals Tm:YLF laser

In this paper, we report two crystals Tm:YLF laser pumped by a fiber coupled diode laser with total power of 180 W at 792 nm. When the incident power reached up to 117.0 and 37.3 W of the emission wave-length at 1.91 μm was achieved. Through linear fit, the corresponding slope efficiency of 38.5%, optical-to-optical conversion efficiency of 31.9% and the beam quality factor of M ² ∼ 1.1 were obtained, indicating nearly diffraction limited beam propagation. To our best knowledge, this is the best beam quality among the reported paper results under the similar experiments.     

High power passively mode-locked Nd:YVO<Subscript>4</Subscript> laser using graphene oxide as a saturable absorber

We report on a passively mode-locked Nd:YVO₄ laser using a novel graphene oxide saturable absorber fabricated by vertical evaporation method. An 880 nm LD pump source was used to reduce the thermal load of the laser crystal. At the pump power of 7.4 W, 1.2 W average output power of continuous wave mode-locked laser with optical conversion efficiency of 16.2% was achieved. To the best of our knowledge, this is the highest output power of passively mode-locked solid-state laser using graphene oxide saturable absorber. The repetition rate of passively mode-locked pulse was 88 MHz with the pulse energy of 13.6 nJ.