ZnS Nanospheres for Optical Modulator in an Erbium-Doped Fiber Laser

Zinc sulfide (ZnS), which belongs to transition metal monochalcogenides, is a semiconductor material with wide direct band gap. It can potentially show some special applications (such as luminescence, phosphor, sensors, infrared window materials, photocatalysis) by changing the morphology, size, and crystal structure of semiconductor materials. However, ZnS nanospheres have not been studied as optical modulators until now. Herein, ZnS nanospheres are synthesized by the hydrothermal method and are used to realize optical modulators in an Er-doped fiber laser. The evanescent field effect is utilized to incorporate the ZnS nanospheres on a tapered fiber. Furthermore, with the increase in pump power, the modulation interval gradually decreases to a minimum of 34.36 ns corresponding to the modulation frequency of 29.1 MHz, which is the highest modulation frequency to our knowledge in a ring cavity all-fiber laser. These results demonstrate ZnS nanospheres together with the interaction of dispersion and nonlinearity in optical fibers can modulate the proposed lasers. This not only provides a new method for controlling the power and frequency of all optical modulators, but also marks an important step for ZnS materials in optics research and device applications.     

Dielectric-Barrier Discharges: Their History, Discharge Physics, and Industrial Applications

Dielectric-barrier discharges (silent discharges) are used on a large industrial scale. They combine the advantages of non-equilibrium plasma properties with the ease of atmospheric-pressure operation. A prominent feature is the simple scalability from small laboratory reactors to large industrial installations with megawatt input powers. Efficient and cost-effective all-solid-state power supplies are available. The preferred frequency range lies between 1 kHz and 10 MHz, the preferred pressure range between 10 kPa and 500 kPa. Industrial applications include ozone generation, pollution control, surface treatment, high power CO₂ lasers, ultraviolet excimer lamps, excimer based mercury-free fluorescent lamps, and flat large-area plasma displays. Depending on the application and the operating conditions the discharge can have pronounced filamentary structure or fairly diffuse appearance. History, discharge physics, and plasma chemistry of dielectric-barrier discharges and their applications are discussed in detail.     

光纤光栅对FBG-ECL静态特性的影响

光纤光栅外腔半导体激光器(FBG-ECL)在未来光通信系统占有着越来越重要的地位。根据FBG-ECL的等效腔模型,讨论了光纤光栅反射率、带宽对FBG-ECL的输出功率,阈值特性、边模抑制比等静态特性的影响。指出了存在最佳光纤光栅峰值反射率,不仅使得FBG-ECL具有更高的输出功率,而且可以获得极好的边模抑制比。最后根据实测在不同反射率下外腔激光器的激射光谱,发现理论分析结果和实验数据是吻合的。     

无内热激光器运转对抽运光光强的需求条件研究

研究了无内热激光器和激光放大器运转时对抽运光的需求条件.运用激光器的速率方程理论,给出了抽运光所应满足条件的表达式.无内热激光运转时,不仅要求抽运光光强要大于阈值条件,而且要大于某个最小抽运光强(与增益材料性质、抽运光波长、激光波长等有关).以掺镱的KY(WO4)2晶体为无内热激光器的放大介质,计算了抽运光光强应满足的空间分布条件.要使激光器无内热运转,抽运光光强需随激光光强的增大而相应减小.对于无内热激光器,抽运光光强的空间分布与谐振腔前后镜的反射率和增益介质长度密切相关,在谐振腔输出耦合镜反射率不是太低的情况下,腔内抽运光强需近似为均匀分布.     

Terahertz radiation generation by beating of two spatial-Gaussian lasers

Terahertz radiation generation is proposed based on beating of two spatial-Gaussian lasers in a periodic density plasma, where a transverse component of current is realized that resonantly excites the radiation with efficiency ∼10⁻³. Importance of laser-beam-width, amplitude and periodicity of density structure is discussed for the efficient THz generation.     

Asynchronous sampling for ultrafast experiments with low momentum compaction at the ANKA ring

A high‐repetition‐rate pump–probe experiment is presented, based on the asynchronous sampling approach. The low‐α mode at the synchrotron ANKA can be used for a time resolution down to the picosecond limit for the time‐domain sampling of the coherent THz emission as well as for hard X‐ray pump–probe experiments, which probe structural dynamics in the condensed phase. It is shown that a synchronization of better than 1 ps is achieved, and examples of phonon dynamics of semiconductors are presented.     

Interaction of Short Laser Pulses in Wavelength Range from Infrared to X‐ray with Metals,Semiconductors, and Dielectrics

Laser‐matter interaction is defined by an electronic band structure of condensed matter and frequency ω_L of electromagnetic radiation. In the range of moderate fluences, the energy absorbed by electrons from radiation finally thermalizes in the ion thermal energy. The thermalization processes are different for optical as compared with X‐ray quanta and for metals relative to semiconductors and dielectrics, since the light absorption and electron‐electron, electron‐ion dynamics are sensitive to the electron population in a conduction band and the width of a forbidden gap. Although the thermalization processes are different, the final state is simply a heated matter. Laser heating creates powerful stresses in a target if duration of a laser pulse τ_L is short in acoustic time scale. Nucleation and material removal take place under such stresses. Such way of removal is called here the spallative ablation. Thus the spallative ablation is an ablation mechanism universally important for qualitatively different materials and quanta (© 2011 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

A narrow-linewidth continuous wave Ho：YAL03 laser with Fabry-Perot etalons

A narrow linewidth continuous wave Ho：YAP laser with two Fabry-Perot etalons pumped by a Tm：YLF laser is reported. The maximum output power reaches 8.3 W when the incident pump power is 15.8 W, with 52.5% optical-to- optical conversion efficiency and 62.6% slope efficiency. A stable laser output at 2118.1 nm is achieved, with a linewidth less than 0.4 nm （full width at half maximum）. The beam quality factor is M2- 1.25, measured by the traveling knife-edge method.     

Nonstoichiometric laser materials: Designer wavelengths in neodymium-doped garnets

The tunable nature of lasers provides for a wide range of applications. Most applications rely on finding available laser wavelengths to meet the needs of the research. This article presents the concept of compositional tuning, whereby the laser wavelength is designed by exploiting nonstoichiometry. For research where precise wavelengths are required, such as remote sensing, this is highly advantageous. A theoretical basis for the concept is presented and experimental results in spectroscopic measurements support the theoretical basis. Laser operation nicely demonstrates the validity of the concept of designer lasers.