A Master-Oscillator-Power-Amplifier 2-micron Laser Using Fiber Phase-conjugate Mirror

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Yu, Jirong; Bai, Yingxin; Shkunov, V.; Rockwell, D.; Betin, A.; Wang, J.; Petros, M.; Petzar, Paul; Trieu, Bo

2007-01-01

For the first time, a 2-micron master-oscillator-power-amplifier laser using a fiber based phase conjugation mirror has been demonstrated. The beam quality improvement and 56% of the PCM reflectivity have been achieved.

Generation of spectrally-stable continuous-wave emission and ns pulses at 800 nm and 975 nm with a peak power of 4 W using a distributed Bragg reflector laser and a ridge-waveguide power amplifier

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Klehr, A.; Wenzel, H.; Fricke, J.; Bugge, F.; Liero, A.; Hoffmann, Th.; Erbert, G.; Tränkle, G.

2015-03-01

Semiconductor based sources which emit high-power spectrally stable nearly diffraction-limited optical pulses in the nanosecond range are ideally suited for a lot of applications, such as free-space communications, metrology, material processing, seed lasers for fiber or solid state lasers, spectroscopy, LIDAR and frequency doubling. Detailed experimental investigations of 975 nm and 800 nm diode lasers based on master oscillator power amplifier (MOPA) light sources are presented. The MOPA systems consist of distributed Bragg reflector lasers (DBR) as master oscillators driven by a constant current and ridge waveguide power amplifiers which can be driven DC and by current pulses. In pulse regime the amplifiers modulated with rectangular current pulses of about 5 ns width and a repetition frequency of 200 kHz act as optical gates, converting the continuous wave (CW) input beam emitted by the DBR lasers into a train of short optical pulses which are amplified. With these experimental MOPA arrangements no relaxation oscillations in the pulse power occur. With a seed power of about 5 mW at a wavelength of 973 nm output powers behind the amplifier of about 1 W under DC injection and 4 W under pulsed operation, corresponding to amplification factors of 200 (amplifier gain 23 dB) and 800 (gain 29 dB) respectively, are reached. At 800 nm a CW power of 1 W is obtained for a seed power of 40 mW. The optical spectra of the emission of the amplifiers exhibit a single peak at a constant wavelength with a line width < 10 pm in the whole investigated current ranges. The ratios between laser and ASE levels were > 50 dB. The output beams are nearly diffraction limited with beam propagation ratios M2lat ~ 1.1 and M2ver ~ 1.2 up to 4 W pulse power.

Polarized millijoule fiber laser system with high beam quality and pulse shaping ability

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Rui; Tian, Xiaocheng; Xu, Dangpeng; Zhou, Dandan; Zong, Zhaoyu; Li, Hongxun; Fan, Mengqiu; Huang, Zhihua; Zhu, Na; Su, Jingqin; Zhu, Qihua; Jing, Feng

2017-05-01

The coherent amplification network (CAN) aims at developing a laser system based on the coherent combination of multiple laser beams, which are produced through a network of high beam quality optical fiber amplifiers. The scalability of the CAN laser facilitates the development of many novel applications, such as fiber-based acceleration, orbital debris removal and inertial confinement fusion energy. According to the requirements of CAN and the front end of high-power laser facilities, a millijoule polarized fiber laser system was studied in this paper. Using polarization maintaining Ytterbium-fiber laser system as the seed, and 10-μm core Yb-doped fiber amplifier as the first power amplifier and 40-μm core polarizing (PZ) photonic crystal fiber (PCF) as the second power amplifier, the all-fiber laser system outputs 1.06-mJ energy at 10 ns and diffraction limited mode quality. Using 85-μm rod-type PCF as the third power amplifiers, 2.5-mJ energy at 10-ns pulse width was obtained with better than 500:1 peak-to-foot pulse shaping ability and fundamental mode beam quality. The energy fluctuation of the system is 1.3% rms with 1-mJ output in one hour. When using phase-modulated pulse as the seed, the frequency modulation to amplitude modulation (FM-to-AM) conversion ratio of the system is better than 5%. This fiber laser system has the advantages of high beam quality, high beam shaping ability, good stability, small volume and free of maintenance, which can be used in many applications.

Covert laser remote sensing and vibrometry

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Maleki, Lutfollah (Inventor); Yu, Nan (Inventor); Matsko, Andrey B. (Inventor); Savchenkov, Anatoliy (Inventor)

2012-01-01

Designs of single-beam laser vibrometry systems and methods. For example, a method for detecting vibrations of a target based on optical sensing is provided to include operating a laser to produce a laser probe beam at a laser frequency and modulated at a modulation frequency onto a target; collecting light at or near the laser to collect light from the target while the target is being illuminated by the laser probe beam through an optical receiver aperture; using a narrow-band optical filter centered at the laser frequency to filter light collected from the optical receiver aperture to transmit light at the laser frequency while blocking light at other frequencies; using an optical detector to convert filtered light from the narrow-band optical filter to produce a receiver electrical signal; using a lock-in amplifier to detect and amplify the receiver electrical signal at the modulation frequency while rejecting signal components at other frequencies to produce an amplified receiver electrical signal; processing the amplified receiver electrical signal to extract information on vibrations of the target carried by reflected laser probe beam in the collected light; and controlling optical power of the laser probe beam at the target to follow optical power of background illumination at the target.

kW picosecond thin-disk regenerative amplifier

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Michel, Knut; Wandt, Christoph; Klingebiel, Sandro; Schultze, Marcel; Prinz, Stephan; Teisset, Catherine Y.; Stark, Sebastian; Grebing, Christian; Bessing, Robert; Herzig, Tobias; Häfner, Matthias; Budnicki, Aleksander; Sutter, Dirk; Metzger, Thomas

2018-02-01

TRUMPF Scientific Lasers provides ultrafast laser sources for the scientific community with high pulse energies and high average power. All systems are based on the industrialized TRUMPF thin-disk technology. Regenerative amplifiers systems with multi-millijoule pulses, kilohertz repetition rates and picosecond pulse durations are available. Record values of 220mJ at 1kHz could be demonstrated originally developed for pumping optical parametric amplifiers. The ultimate goal is to combine high energies, <100mJ per pulse, with average powers of several hundred watts to a kilowatt. Based on a regenerative amplifier containing two Ytterbium doped thin-disks operated at ambient temperature pulses with picosecond duration and more than 100mJ could be generated at a repetition rate of 10kHz reaching 1kW of average output power. This system is designed to operate at different repetition rates from 100kHz down to 5kHz so that even higher pulse energies can be reached. This type of ultrafast sources uncover new application fields in science. Laser based lightning rods, X-ray lasers and Compton backscatter sources are among them.

Impact of fiber ring laser configuration on detection capabilities in FBG based sensor systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Osuch, Tomasz; Kossek, Tomasz; Markowski, Konrad

2014-11-01

In this paper fiber ring lasers (FRL) as interrogation units for distributed fiber Bragg grating (FBG) based sensor networks are studied. In particular, two configurations of the fiber laser with erbium-doped fiber amplifier (EDFA) and semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) as gain medium were analyzed. In the case of EDFA-based fiber interrogation systems, CW as well as active-mode locking operation were taken into account. The influence of spectral overlapping of FBGs spectra on detection capabilities of examined FRLs are presented. Experimental results show that the SOA-based fiber laser interrogation unit can operate as a multi-parametric sensing system. In turn, using an actively mode-locked fiber ring laser with an EDFA, an electronically switchable FBG based sensing system can be realized.

Compact, highly efficient, single-frequency 25W, 2051nm Tm fiber-based MOPA for CO2 trace-gas laser space transmitter

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Engin, Doruk; Chuang, Ti; Litvinovitch, Slava; Storm, Mark

2017-08-01

Fibertek has developed and demonstrated an ideal high-power; low-risk; low-size, weight, and power (SWaP) 2051 nm laser design meeting the lidar requirements for satellite-based global measurement of carbon dioxide (CO2). The laser design provides a path to space for either a coherent lidar approach being developed by NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)1,2 or an Integrated Path Differential Lidar (IPDA) approach developed by Harris Corp using radio frequency (RF) modulation and being flown as part of a NASA Earth Venture Suborbital Mission—NASA's Atmospheric Carbon and Transport - America.3,4 The thulium (Tm) fiber laser amplifies a <500 kHz linewidth distributed feedback (DFB) laser up to 25 W average power in a polarization maintaining (PM) fiber. The design manages and suppresses all deleterious non-linear effects that can cause linewidth broadening or amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) and meets all lidar requirements. We believe the core laser components, architecture, and design margins can support a coherent or IPDA lidar 10-year space mission. With follow-on funding Fibertek can adapt an existing space-based Technology Readiness Level 6 (TRL-6), 20 W erbium fiber laser package for this Tm design and enable a near-term space mission with an electrical-to-optical (e-o) efficiency of <20%. A cladding-pumped PM Tm fiber-based amplifier optimized for high efficiency and high-power operation at 2051 nm is presented. The two-stage amplifier has been demonstrated to achieve 25 W average power and <16 dB polarization extinction ratio (PER) out of a single-mode PM fiber using a <500 kHz linewidth JPL DFB laser5-7 and 43 dB gain. The power amplifier's optical conversion efficiency is 53%. An internal efficiency of 58% is calculated after correcting for passive losses. The two-stage amplifier sustains its highly efficient operation for a temperature range of 5-40°C. The absence of stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) for the narrow linewidth amplification shows promise for further power scaling.

Single-frequency gain-switched Ho-doped fiber laser

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Geng, Jihong; Wang, Q.; Luo, T.; Case, B.; Jiang, S.; Amzajerdian, Farzin; Yu, Jirong

2012-10-01

We demonstrate a single-frequency gain-switched Ho-doped fiber laser based on heavily doped silicate glass fiber fabricated in house. A Q-switched Tm-doped fiber laser at 1.95μm was used to gain-switch the Ho-doped fiber laser via in-band pumping. Output power of the single-frequency gain-switched pulses has been amplified in a cladding-pumped Tm-Ho-codoped fiber amplifier with 1.2m active fiber pumped at 803nm. Two different nonlinear effects, i.e., modulation instability and stimulated Brillouin scattering, could be seen in the 10μm-core fiber amplifier when the peak power exceeds 3kW. The single-frequency gain-switched fiber laser was operated at 2.05μm, a popular laser wavelength for Doppler lidar application. This is the first demonstration of this kind of fiber laser.

Precision Laser Development for Gravitational Wave Space Mission

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Numata, Kenji; Camp, Jordan

2011-01-01

Optical fiber and semiconductor laser technologies have evolved dramatically over the last decade due to the increased demands from optical communications. We are developing a laser (master oscillator) and optical amplifier based on those technologies for interferometric space missions, such as the gravitational-wave mission LISA, and GRACE follow-on, by fully utilizing the mature wave-guided optics technologies. In space, where a simple and reliable system is preferred, the wave-guided components are advantageous over bulk, crystal-based, free-space laser, such as NPRO (Non-planar Ring Oscillator) and bulk-crystal amplifier, which are widely used for sensitive laser applications on the ground.

Precision Laser Development for Interferometric Space Missions NGO, SGO, and GRACE Follow-On

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Numata, Kenji; Camp, Jordan

2011-01-01

Optical fiber and semiconductor laser technologies have evolved dramatically over the last decade due to the increased demands from optical communications. We are developing a laser (master oscillator) and optical amplifier based on those technologies for interferometric space missions, including the gravitational-wave missions NGO/SGO (formerly LISA) and the climate monitoring mission GRACE Follow-On, by fully utilizing the matured wave-guided optics technologies. In space, where simpler and more reliable system is preferred, the wave-guided components are advantageous over bulk, crystal-based, free-space laser, such as NPRO (Nonplanar Ring Oscillator) and bulk-crystal amplifier.

Phased laser array for generating a powerful laser beam

DOEpatents

Holzrichter, John F.; Ruggiero, Anthony J.

2004-02-17

A first injection laser signal and a first part of a reference laser beam are injected into a first laser element. At least one additional injection laser signal and at least one additional part of a reference laser beam are injected into at least one additional laser element. The first part of a reference laser beam and the at least one additional part of a reference laser beam are amplified and phase conjugated producing a first amplified output laser beam emanating from the first laser element and an additional amplified output laser beam emanating from the at least one additional laser element. The first amplified output laser beam and the additional amplified output laser beam are combined into a powerful laser beam.

High-energy master oscillator power amplifier with near-diffraction-limited output based on ytterbium-doped PCF fiber

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, Rao; Qiao, Zhi; Wang, Xiaochao; Fan, Wei; Lin, Zunqi

2017-10-01

With the development of fiber technologies, fiber lasers are able to deliver very high power beams and high energy pulses which can be used not only in scientific researches but industrial fields (laser marking, welding,…). The key of high power fiber laser is fiber amplifier. In this paper, we present a two-level master-oscillator power amplifier system at 1053 nm based on Yb-doped photonic crystal fibers. The system is used in the front-end of high power laser facility for the amplification of nano-second pulses to meet the high-level requirements. Thanks to the high gain of the system which is over 50 dB, the pulse of more than 0.89 mJ energy with the nearly diffraction-limited beam quality has been obtained.

Direct solar-pumped iodine laser amplifier

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Han, K. S.

1985-01-01

This semiannual progress report covers the period from April 1, 1985 to Sept. 30, 1985 under NASA grant NAS1-441 entitled direct solar pumped iodine laser amplifier. During this period the parametric studies of the iodine laser oscillator pumped by a Vortek simulator was carried out before the amplifier studies. The amplifier studies are postponed to the extended period following completion of the parametric studies. In addition, the kinetic modeling of a solar pumped iodine laser amplifier, and the experimental work for a solar pumped dye laser amplifier are in progress. This report contains three parts: (1) the radiation characteristics of solar simulator and the parametric characteristics of photodissociation iodine laser continuously pumped by a Vortek solar simulator; (2) kinetic modeling of a solar pumped iodine laser amplifier; and (3) the study of the dye laser amplifier pumped by a Tamarack solar simulator.

Generation of 1-J bursts with picosecond pulses from Perla B thin-disk laser system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chyla, Michal; Nagisetty, Siva S.; Severova, Patricie; Zhou, Huang; Smrz, Martin; Endo, Akira; Mocek, Tomas

2018-02-01

In many fields of modern physics and industrial applications high-average power pulsed diode-pumped solid-state lasers are essential. Scaling of these lasers towards higher pulse energies is often limited by the onset of thermal effects which are determined by the average power. In this paper we would like to propose a way of increasing the pulse energies by operating the PERLA B laser system in 100 Hz burst mode with 1 ms burst duration and intra-burst repetition rate of 10 kHz. The CPA-based system incorporates fiber front-end, regenerative amplifier and the multipass amplifier followed by the booster amplifier and <2ps compressor.

Silicon-Chip-Based Optical Frequency Combs

DTIC Science & Technology

2015-10-26

waveform generation, frequency metrology, and astronomical spectrograph calibration [2,3,4]. Traditionally, modelocked solid-state and fiber lasers have...different external-cavity diode lasers covering a total tuning range between 1450 nm and 1640 nm. Lensed fibers are used to couple into and out of the...cavity resonance of a Si3N4 microring resonator with a single-frequency tunable diode laser amplified by a ytterbium-doped fiber amplifier. We use a

Research and Development of Laser Diode Based Instruments for Applications in Space

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Krainak, Michael; Abshire, James; Cornwell, Donald; Dragic, Peter; Duerksen, Gary; Switzer, Gregg

1999-01-01

Laser diode technology continues to advance at a very rapid rate due to commercial applications such as telecommunications and data storage. The advantages of laser diodes include, wide diversity of wavelengths, high efficiency, small size and weight and high reliability. Semiconductor and fiber optical-amplifiers permit efficient, high power master oscillator power amplifier (MOPA) transmitter systems. Laser diode systems which incorporate monolithic or discrete (fiber optic) gratings permit single frequency operation. We describe experimental and theoretical results of laser diode based instruments currently under development at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center including miniature lidars for measuring clouds and aerosols, water vapor and wind for Earth and planetary (Mars Lander) use.

Nd : glass rod laser with an output energy of 500 J

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shaykin, A. A.; Kuzmin, A. A.; Shaikin, I. A.; Burdonov, K. F.; Khazanov, E. A.

2016-04-01

The energy of two orthogonally polarised pulses injected into an available multistage amplifier based on neodymium phosphate glass rods was increased from 300 to 500 J (in both pulses). The second output pulse with an energy of 200 J will be used to pump an additional parametric amplifier of a petawatt laser.

Direct solar-pumped iodine laser amplifier

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Han, K. S.

1986-01-01

During this period the parametric studies of the iodine laser oscillator pumped by a Vortek simulator were carried out before amplifier studies. The amplifier studies are postponed to the extended period after completing the parametric studies. In addition, the kinetic modeling of a solar-pumped iodine laser amplifier, and the experimental work for a solar pumped dye laser amplifier are in progress. This report contains three parts: (1) a 10 W CW iodine laser pumped by a Vortek solar simulator; (2) kinetic modeling to predict the time to lasing threshold, lasing time, and energy output of solar-pumped iodine laser; and (3) the study of the dye laser amplifier pumped by a Tamarack solar simulator.

Narrow linewidth picosecond UV pulsed laser with mega-watt peak power.

PubMed

Huang, Chunning; Deibele, Craig; Liu, Yun

2013-04-08

We demonstrate a master oscillator power amplifier (MOPA) burst mode laser system that generates 66 ps/402.5 MHz pulses with mega-watt peak power at 355 nm. The seed laser consists of a single frequency fiber laser (linewidth < 5 KHz), a high bandwidth electro-optic modulator (EOM), a picosecond pulse generator, and a fiber based preamplifier. A very high extinction ratio (45 dB) has been achieved by using an adaptive bias control of the EOM. The multi-stage Nd:YAG amplifier system allows a uniformly temporal shaping of the macropulse with a tunable pulse duration. The light output from the amplifier is converted to 355 nm, and over 1 MW peak power is obtained when the laser is operating in a 5-μs/10-Hz macropulse mode. The laser output has a transform-limited spectrum with a very narrow linewidth of individual longitudinal modes. The immediate application of the laser system is the laser-assisted hydrogen ion beam stripping for the Spallation Neutron Source (SNS).

Optimising the efficiency of pulsed diode pumped Yb:YAG laser amplifiers for ns pulse generation.

PubMed

Ertel, K; Banerjee, S; Mason, P D; Phillips, P J; Siebold, M; Hernandez-Gomez, C; Collier, J C

2011-12-19

We present a numerical model of a pulsed, diode-pumped Yb:YAG laser amplifier for the generation of high energy ns-pulses. This model is used to explore how optical-to-optical efficiency depends on factors such as pump duration, pump spectrum, pump intensity, doping concentration, and operating temperature. We put special emphasis on finding ways to achieve high efficiency within the practical limitations imposed by real-world laser systems, such as limited pump brightness and limited damage fluence. We show that a particularly advantageous way of improving efficiency within those constraints is operation at cryogenic temperature. Based on the numerical findings we present a concept for a scalable amplifier based on an end-pumped, cryogenic, gas-cooled multi-slab architecture.

Auto-locking waveguide amplifier system for lidar and magnetometric applications

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pouliot, A.; Beica, H. C.; Carew, A.; Vorozcovs, A.; Carlse, G.; Kumarakrishnan, A.

2018-02-01

We describe a compact waveguide amplifier system that is suitable for optically pumping rubidium magnetometers. The system consists of an auto-locking vacuum-sealed external cavity diode laser, a semiconductor tapered amplifier and a pulsing unit based on an acousto-optic modulator. The diode laser utilises optical feedback from an interference filter to narrow the linewidth of an inexpensive laser diode to 500 kHz. This output is scannable over an 8 GHz range (at 780 nm) and can be locked without human intervention to any spectral marker in an expandable library of reference spectra, using the autolocking controller. The tapered amplifier amplifies the output from 50 mW up to 2 W with negligible distortions in the spectral quality. The system can operate at visible and near infrared wavelengths with MHz repetition rates. We demonstrate optical pumping of rubidium vapour with this system for magnetometric applications. The magnetometer detects the differential absorption of two orthogonally polarized components of a linearly polarized probe laser following optical pumping by a circularly polarized pump laser. The differential absorption signal is studied for a range of pulse lengths, pulse amplitudes and DC magnetic fields. Our results suggest that this laser system is suitable for optically pumping spin-exchange free magnetometers.

Waveform agile high-power fiber laser illuminators for directed-energy weapon systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Engin, Doruk; Lu, Wei; Kimpel, Frank; Gupta, Shantanu

2012-06-01

A kW-class fiber-amplifier based laser illuminator system at 1030nm is demonstrated. At 125 kHz pulse repetition rate, 1.9mJ energy per pulse (235W average power) is achieved for 100nsec pulses with >72% optical conversion efficiency, and at 250kHz repetition, >350W average power is demonstrated, limited by the available pumps. Excellent agreement is established between the experimental results and dynamic fiber amplifier simulation, for predicting the pulse shape, spectrum and ASE accumulation throughout the fiber-amplifier chain. High pulse-energy, high power fiber-amplifier operation requires careful engineering - minimize ASE content throughout the pre-amplifier stages, use of large mode area gain fiber in the final power stage for effective pulse energy extraction, and pulse pre-shaping to compensate for the laser gain-saturation induced intra-pulse and pulse-pattern dependent distortion. Such optimization using commercially available (VLMA) fibers with core size in the 30-40μm range is estimated to lead to >4mJ pulse energy for 100nsec pulse at 50kHz repetition rate. Such waveform agile high-power, high-energy pulsed fiber laser illuminators at λ=1030nm satisfies requirements for active-tracking/ranging in high-energy laser (HEL) weapon systems, and in uplink laser beacon for deep space communication.

High removal rate laser-based coating removal system

DOEpatents

Matthews, Dennis L.; Celliers, Peter M.; Hackel, Lloyd; Da Silva, Luiz B.; Dane, C. Brent; Mrowka, Stanley

1999-11-16

A compact laser system that removes surface coatings (such as paint, dirt, etc.) at a removal rate as high as 1000 ft.sup.2 /hr or more without damaging the surface. A high repetition rate laser with multiple amplification passes propagating through at least one optical amplifier is used, along with a delivery system consisting of a telescoping and articulating tube which also contains an evacuation system for simultaneously sweeping up the debris produced in the process. The amplified beam can be converted to an output beam by passively switching the polarization of at least one amplified beam. The system also has a personal safety system which protects against accidental exposures.

Millijoule-level 20 ps Nd:YAG oscillator-amplifier laser system for investigation of stimulated Raman scattering and optical parametric generation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jelínek, Michal; Kubecek, Vàclav

2012-06-01

We report on quasi-continuously pumped oscillator-amplifier laser system. The laser oscillator was based on highly 2.4 at.% doped crystalline Nd:YAG in a bounce geometry and passively mode locked by a semiconductor saturable absorber mirror. Using the cavity dumping technique, 19 ps pulses with the energy of 20 μJ and Gaussian spatial beam profile were generated directly from the oscillator at the repetition rate up to 50 Hz. For applications requiring more energetic pulses the amplification was studied using either an identical highly doped Nd:YAG module in bounce geometry or flashlamp pumped Nd:YAG laser rod. Using compact all diode pumped oscillator-amplifier system, 130 μJ pulses were generated. The flashlamp pumped amplifier with 100 mm long Nd:YAG enabled to obtain higher energy. In the single pass configuration the pulse was amplified to 4.5 mJ, using the double pass configuration the pulse energy was further increased up to 20 mJ with the duration of 25 ps at 10 Hz. The developed laser system was used for investigation of stimulated Raman scattering in Strontium Barium Niobate and optical parametric generation in CdSiP2.

Generation of spectrally stable continuous-wave emission and ns pulses with a peak power of 4 W using a distributed Bragg reflector laser and a ridge-waveguide power amplifier.

PubMed

Klehr, A; Wenzel, H; Fricke, J; Bugge, F; Erbert, G

2014-10-06

We have developed a diode-laser based master oscillator power amplifier (MOPA) light source which emits high-power spectrally stabilized and nearly-diffraction limited optical pulses in the nanoseconds range as required by many applications. The MOPA consists of a distributed Bragg reflector (DBR) laser as master oscillator driven by a constant current and a ridge waveguide power amplifier (PA) which can be driven by a constant current (DC) or by rectangular current pulses with a width of 5 ns at a repetition frequency of 200 kHz. Under pulsed operation the amplifier acts as an optical gate, converting the CW input beam emitted by the DBR laser into a train of short amplified optical pulses. With this experimental MOPA arrangement no relaxation oscillations occur. A continuous wave power of 1 W under DC injection and a pulse power of 4 W under pulsed operation are reached. For both operational modes the optical spectrum of the emission of the amplifier exhibits a peak at a constant wavelength of 973.5 nm with a spectral width < 10 pm.

Comparative assessment of erbium fiber ring lasers and reflective SOA linear lasers for fiber Bragg grating dynamic strain sensing.

PubMed

Wei, Heming; Krishnaswamy, Sridhar

2017-05-01

Fiber Bragg grating (FBG) dynamic strain sensors using both an erbium-based fiber ring laser configuration and a reflective semiconductor optical amplifier (RSOA)-based linear laser configuration are investigated theoretically and experimentally. Fiber laser models are first presented to analyze the output characteristics of both fiber laser configurations when the FBG sensor is subjected to dynamic strains at high frequencies. Due to differences in the transition times of erbium and the semiconductor (InP/InGaAsP), erbium-doped fiber amplifier (EDFA)- and RSOA-based fiber lasers exhibit different responses and regimes of stability when the FBG is subjected to dynamic strains. The responses of both systems are experimentally verified using an adaptive photorefractive two-wave mixing (TWM) spectral demodulation technique. The experimental results show that the RSOA-FBG fiber linear cavity laser is stable and can stably respond to dynamic strains at high frequencies. An example application using a multiplexed TWM interferometer to demodulate multiple FBG sensors is also discussed.

Compact nanosecond laser system for the ignition of aeronautic combustion engines

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Amiard-Hudebine, G.; Tison, G.; Freysz, E.

2016-12-01

We have studied and developed a compact nanosecond laser system dedicated to the ignition of aeronautic combustion engines. This system is based on a nanosecond microchip laser delivering 6 μJ nanosecond pulses, which are amplified in two successive stages. The first stage is based on an Ytterbium doped fiber amplifier (YDFA) working in a quasi-continuous-wave (QCW) regime. Pumped at 1 kHz repetition rate, it delivers TEM00 and linearly polarized nanosecond pulses centered at 1064 nm with energies up to 350 μJ. These results are in very good agreement with the model we specially designed for a pulsed QCW pump regime. The second amplification stage is based on a compact Nd:YAG double-pass amplifier pumped by a 400 W peak power QCW diode centered at λ = 808 nm and coupled to a 800 μm core multimode fiber. At 10 Hz repetition rate, this system amplifies the pulse delivered by the YDFA up to 11 mJ while preserving its beam profile, polarization ratio, and pulse duration. Finally, we demonstrate that this compact nanosecond system can ignite an experimental combustion chamber.

Laser amplifier and method

DOEpatents

Backus, S.; Kapteyn, H.C.; Murnane, M.M.

1997-07-01

Laser amplifiers and methods for amplifying a laser beam are disclosed. A representative embodiment of the amplifier comprises first and second curved mirrors, a gain medium, a third mirror, and a mask. The gain medium is situated between the first and second curved mirrors at the focal point of each curved mirror. The first curved mirror directs and focuses a laser beam to pass through the gain medium to the second curved mirror which reflects and recollimates the laser beam. The gain medium amplifies and shapes the laser beam as the laser beam passes therethrough. The third mirror reflects the laser beam, reflected from the second curved mirror, so that the laser beam bypasses the gain medium and return to the first curved mirror, thereby completing a cycle of a ring traversed by the laser beam. The mask defines at least one beam-clipping aperture through which the laser beam passes during a cycle. The gain medium is pumped, preferably using a suitable pumping laser. The laser amplifier can be used to increase the energy of continuous-wave or, especially, pulsed laser beams including pulses of femtosecond duration and relatively high pulse rate. 7 figs.

Laser amplifier and method

DOEpatents

Backus, Sterling; Kapteyn, Henry C.; Murnane, Margaret M.

1997-01-01

Laser amplifiers and methods for amplifying a laser beam are disclosed. A representative embodiment of the amplifier comprises first and second curved mirrors, a gain medium, a third mirror, and a mask. The gain medium is situated between the first and second curved mirrors at the focal point of each curved mirror. The first curved mirror directs and focuses a laser beam to pass through the gain medium to the second curved mirror which reflects and recollimates the laser beam. The gain medium amplifies and shapes the laser beam as the laser beam passes therethough. The third mirror reflects the laser beam, reflected from the second curved mirror, so that the laser beam bypasses the gain medium and return to the first curved mirror, thereby completing a cycle of a ring traversed by the laser beam. The mask defines at least one beam-clipping aperture through which the laser beam passes during a cycle. The gain medium is pumped, preferably using a suitable pumping laser. The laser amplifier can be used to increase the energy of continuous-wave or, especially, pulsed laser beams including pulses of femtosecond duration and relatively high pulse rate.

1.2 MW peak power, all-solid-state picosecond laser with a microchip laser seed and a high gain single-passing bounce geometry amplifier

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, Chunhua; Shen, Lifeng; Zhao, Zhiliang; Liu, Bin; Jiang, Hongbo; Chen, Jun; Liu, Chong

2016-11-01

A semiconductor saturable absorber mirror (SESAM) based passively Q-switched microchip Nd:YVO4 seed laser with pulse duration of 90 ps at repetition rate of 100 kHz is amplified by single-passing a Nd:YVO4 bounce amplifier with varying seed input power from 20 μW to 10 mW. The liquid pure metal greasy thermally conductive material is used to replace the traditional thin indium foil as the thermal contact material for better heat load transfer of the Nd:YVO4 bounce amplifier. Temperature distribution at the pump surface is measured by an infrared imager to compare with the numerically simulated results. A highest single-passing output power of 11.3 W is obtained for 10 mW averaged seed power, achieving a pulse peak power of ~1.25 MW and pulse energy of ~113 μJ. The beam quality is well preserved with M2 ≤1.25. The simple configuration of this bounce laser amplifier made the system flexible, robust and cost-effective, showing attractive potential for further applications.

1047 nm laser diode master oscillator Nd:YLF power amplifier laser system

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Yu, A. W.; Krainak, M. A.; Unger, G. L.

1993-01-01

A master oscillator power amplifier (MOPA) laser transmitter system at 1047 nm wavelength using a semiconductor laser diode and a diode pumped solid state (Nd:YLF) laser (DPSSL) amplifier is described. A small signal gain of 23 dB, a near diffraction limited beam, 1 Gbit/s modulation rates and greater than 0.6 W average power are achieved. This MOPA laser has the advantage of amplifying the modulation signal from the laser diode master oscillator (MO) with no signal degradation.

Improved optical efficiency of bulk laser amplifiers with femtosecond written waveguides

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bukharin, Mikhail A.; Lyashedko, Andrey; Skryabin, Nikolay N.; Khudyakov, Dmitriy V.; Vartapetov, Sergey K.

2016-04-01

In the paper we proposed improved technique of three-dimensional waveguides writing with direct femtosecond laser inscription technology. The technique allows, for the first time of our knowledge, production of waveguides with mode field diameter larger than 200 μm. This result broadens field of application of femtosecond writing technology into bulk laser schemes and creates an opportunity to develop novel amplifiers with increased efficiency. We proposed a novel architecture of laser amplifier that combines free-space propagation of signal beam with low divergence and propagation of pump irradiation inside femtosecond written waveguide with large mode field diameter due to total internal reflection effect. Such scheme provides constant tight confinement of pump irradiation over the full length of active laser element (3-10 cm). The novel amplifier architecture was investigated numerically and experimentally in Nd:phosphate glass. Waveguides with 200 μm mode field diameter were written with high frequency femtosecond oscillator. Proposed technique of three-dimensional waveguides writing based on decreasing and compensation of spherical aberration effect due to writing in heat cumulative regime and dynamic pulse energy adjustment at different depths of writing. It was shown, that written waveguides could increase optical efficiency of amplifier up to 4 times compared with corresponding usual free-space schemes. Novelty of the results consists in technique of femtosecond writing of waveguides with large mode field diameter. Actuality of the results consists in originally proposed architecture allows to improve up to 4 times optical efficiency of conventional bulk laser schemes and especially ultrafast pulse laser amplifiers.

100μJ-level single frequency linearly-polarized nanosecond pulsed laser at 775 nm (Conference Presentation)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shi, Wei; Fang, Qiang; Fan, Jingli; Cui, Xuelong; Zhang, Zhuo; Li, Jinhui; Zhou, Guoqing

2017-02-01

We report a single frequency, linearly polarized, near diffraction-limited, pulsed laser source at 775 nm by frequency doubling a single frequency nanosecond pulsed all fiber based master oscillator-power amplifier, seeded by a fiber coupled semiconductor DFB laser diode at 1550 nm. The laser diode was driven by a pulsed laser driver to generate 5 ns laser pulses at 260 Hz repetition rate with 50 pJ pulse energy. The pulse energy was boosted to 200 μJ using two stages of core-pumped fiber amplifiers and two stages of cladding-pumped fiber amplifiers. The multi-stage synchronous pulse pumping technique was adopted in the four stages of fiber amplifiers to mitigate the ASE. The frequency doubling is implemented in a single pass configuration using a periodically poled lithium niobate (PPLN) crystal. The crystal is 3 mm long, 1.4 mm wide, 1 mm thick, with a 19.36 μm domain period chosen for quasi-phase matching at 33°C. It was AR coated at both 1550 nm and 775 nm. The maximum pulse energy of 97 μJ was achieved when 189 μJ fundamental laser was launched. The corresponding conversion efficiency is about 51.3%. The pulse duration was measured to be 4.8 ns. So the peak power of the generated 775 nm laser pulses reached 20 kW. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first demonstration of a 100 μJ-level, tens of kilowatts-peak-power-level single frequency linearly polarized 775 nm laser based on the frequency doubling of the fiber lasers.

Development of a US Gravitational Wave Laser System for LISA

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Camp, Jordan B.; Numata, Kenji

2015-01-01

A highly stable and robust laser system is a key component of the space-based LISA mission architecture.In this talk I will describe our plans to demonstrate a TRL 5 LISA laser system at Goddard Space Flight Center by 2016.The laser system includes a low-noise oscillator followed by a power amplifier. The oscillator is a low-mass, compact 10mW External Cavity Laser, consisting of a semiconductor laser coupled to an optical cavity, built by the laser vendorRedfern Integrated Optics. The amplifier is a diode-pumped Yb fiber with 2W output, built at Goddard. I will show noiseand reliability data for the full laser system, and describe our plans to reach TRL 5 by 2016.

High energy diode-pumped solid-state laser development at the Central Laser Facility

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mason, Paul D.; Banerjee, Saumyabrata; Ertel, Klaus; Phillips, P. Jonathan; Butcher, Thomas; Smith, Jodie; De Vido, Mariastefania; Chekhlov, Oleg; Hernandez-Gomez, Cristina; Edwards, Chris; Collier, John

2016-04-01

In this paper we review the development of high energy, nanosecond pulsed diode-pumped solid state lasers within the Central Laser Facility (CLF) based on cryogenic gas cooled multi-slab ceramic Yb:YAG amplifier technology. To date two 10J-scale systems, the DiPOLE prototype amplifier and an improved DIPOLE10 system, have been developed, and most recently a larger scale system, DiPOLE100, designed to produce 100 J pulses at up to 10 Hz. These systems have demonstrated amplification of 10 ns duration pulses at 1030 nm to energies in excess of 10 J at 10 Hz pulse repetition rate, and over 100 J at 1 Hz, with optical-to-optical conversion efficiencies of up to 27%. We present an overview of the cryo-amplifier concept and compare the design features of these three systems, including details of the amplifier designs, gain media, diode pump lasers and the cryogenic gas cooling systems. The most recent performance results from the three systems are presented along with future plans for high energy DPSSL development within the CLF.

Modeling of induction-linac based free-electron laser amplifiers

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Jong, R.A.; Fawley, W.M.; Scharlemann, E.T.

We describe the modeling of an induction-linac based free-electron laser (IFEL) amplifier for producing multimegawatt levels of microwave power. We have used the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) free-electron laser simulation code, FRED, and the simulation code for sideband calculations, GINGER for this study. For IFEL amplifiers in the frequency range of interest (200 to 600 GHz), we have devised a wiggler design strategy which incorporates a tapering algorithm that is suitable for free-electron laser (FEL) systems with moderate space-charge effects and that minimizes spontaneous noise growth at frequencies below the fundamental, while enhancing the growth of the signal atmore » the fundamental. In addition, engineering design considerations of the waveguide wall loading and electron beam fill factor in the waveguide set limits on the waveguide dimensions, the wiggler magnet gap spacing, the wiggler period, and the minimum magnetic field strength in the tapered region of the wiggler. As an example, we shall describe an FEL amplifier designed to produce an average power of about 10 MW at a frequency of 280 GHz to be used for electron cyclotron resonance heating of tokamak fusion devices. 17 refs., 4 figs.« less

Optimisation of cascaded Yb fiber amplifier chains using numerical-modelling

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

He, F.; Price, J. H.; Vu, K. T.; Malinowski, A.; Sahu, J. K.; Richardson, D. J.

2006-12-01

We show that it is possible to adapt existing software packages developed originally for modeling telecommunication devices and systems to reliably predict and optimize the performance of high-power Ytterbium-doped fiber amplifier and laser systems. The ready availability of a flexible, user-friendly design tool should be of considerable practical interest to scientists and engineers working with this important new laser technology since Ytterbium amplifier and amplifier cascades are often difficult to optimize experimentally due to the three-level nature of the Ytterbium laser transition. As examples of the utility and accuracy of the software, as well as the complexity of the systems and amplifier properties that can be successfully modeled, we present a comparison of experimental and theoretical results for individual core and cladding pumped amplifiers, and also for an ultra-short pulse four-stage amplifier system optimized both to provide a broad gain bandwidth and to minimize nonlinear effects. We also show how high energy 100 ns pulses with complex user definable temporal profiles can be created in a gain-saturated amplifier by suitable pre-shaping of the low-energy input pulses. Furthermore, with appropriate modifications the same software package can be applied to fiber amplifiers based on other rare-earth elements and glass hosts.

1-MHz high power femtosecond Yb-doped fiber chirped-pulse amplifier

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hu, Zhong-Qi; Yang, Pei-Long; Teng, Hao; Zhu, Jiang-Feng; Wei, Zhi-Yi

2018-01-01

A practical femtosecond polarization-maintaining Yb-doped fiber amplifier enabling 153 fs transform-limited pulse duration with 32 μJ pulse energy at 1 MHz repetition rate corresponding to a peak power of 0.21 GW is demonstrated. The laser system based on chirped-pulse amplification (CPA) technique is seeded by a dispersion managed, nonlinear polarization evolution (NPE) mode-locked oscillator with spectrum bandwidth of 31 nm at 1040 nm and amplified by three fiber pre-amplifying stages and a rod type fiber main amplifying stage. The laser works with beam quality of M2 of 1.3 and power stability of 0.63% (root mean square, RMS) over 24 hours will be stable sources for industrial micromachining, medical therapy and scientific research.

High removal rate laser-based coating removal system

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Matthews, D.L.; Celliers, P.M.; Hackel, L.

1999-11-16

A compact laser system is disclosed that removes surface coatings (such as paint, dirt, etc.) at a removal rate as high as 1,000 ft{sup 2}/hr or more without damaging the surface. A high repetition rate laser with multiple amplification passes propagating through at least one optical amplifier is used, along with a delivery system consisting of a telescoping and articulating tube which also contains an evacuation system for simultaneously sweeping up the debris produced in the process. The amplified beam can be converted to an output beam by passively switching the polarization of at least one amplified beam. The systemmore » also has a personal safety system which protects against accidental exposures.« less

Thin disk lasers: history and prospects

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Speiser, Jochen

2016-04-01

During the early 1990s, collaboration between the German Aerospace Center and the University of Stuttgart started to work on the Thin Disk concept. The core idea behind the thin disk design is the use of a thin, disk-shaped active medium that is cooled through one of the flat faces of the disk. This ensures a large surface-to-volume ratio and therefore provides very efficient thermal management. Today, the thin disk concept is used in various commercial lasers - ranging from compact, efficient low power systems to multi-kW lasers, including cw lasers and also pulsed (femtosecond to nanosecond) oscillators and amplifiers. The whole development of the Thin Disk laser was and will be accompanied by numerical modeling and optimization of the thermal and thermo-mechanic behavior of the disk and also the heat sink structure, mostly based on finite element models. For further increasing the energy and efficiency of pulsed Thin Disk lasers, the effects of amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) are a core issue. Actual efforts are oriented towards short pulse and ultra-short pulse amplifiers with (multi-)kW average power or Joule-class Thin Disk amplifiers, but also on new designs for cw thin disk MOPA designs.

Birefringent Fiber Devices and Lasers

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Theimer, James Prentice

1995-01-01

This thesis presents the results of numerical simulations of mode-locked figure eight lasers and their components: fiber amplifiers and nonlinear optical loop mirrors (NOLMs). The computations were designed to study pulse evolution in optical amplifiers and NOLMs with periodic repetition of these elements. Since fiber laser systems also include birefringent fiber, the effects of fiber birefringence was incorporated into the simulations. My studies of pulse amplification in non-birefringent amplifiers show pulse breakup when their energies exceed 4.5 fundamental soliton energies. In birefringent fibers pulse breakup is also found, but the two orthogonally polarized pulses propagate together. I find that their behavior is related to the properties of a vector soliton. I found that vector waves have close to unity transmission through a birefringent NOLM, but the pulse shape is distorted. This shape distortion reduces subsequent transmissions through the NOLM. The energy required for peak transmission of the pulse is predicted by the theory based on vector solitons. The same theory also predicted the low intensity transmission. The performance of the NOLM with birefringent fiber could not be improved by altering the polarization state of the pulse from linear polarization; the polarization controller introduced pulse distortion that resulted in excessive loss. I found an instability in the steady-state operation of the figure eight laser, which is due to pulse reshaping during propagation in the amplifier section. To remove this instability I introduced the concept of dispersion balancing; by increasing the dispersion in the amplifier section, the pulse can propagate nearly as a fundamental soliton in both the amplifier and the NOLM sections of the laser. This eliminated a major source of dispersive wave shedding and allowed the laser operation to become independent of the amplifier length. Sidebands were found on the pulse spectrum and their maxima corresponded well with the periodic resonance model.

High power laser source for atom cooling based on reliable telecoms technology with all fibre frequency stabilisation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Legg, Thomas; Farries, Mark

2017-02-01

Cold atom interferometers are emerging as important tools for metrology. Designed into gravimeters they can measure extremely small changes in the local gravitational field strength and be used for underground surveying to detect buried utilities, mineshafts and sinkholes prior to civil works. To create a cold atom interferometer narrow linewidth, frequency stabilised lasers are required to cool the atoms and to setup and measure the atom interferometer. These lasers are commonly either GaAs diodes, Ti Sapphire lasers or frequency doubled InGaAsP diodes and fibre lasers. The InGaAsP DFB lasers are attractive because they are very reliable, mass-produced, frequency controlled by injection current and simply amplified to high powers with fibre amplifiers. In this paper a laser system suitable for Rb atom cooling, based on a 1560nm DFB laser and erbium doped fibre amplifier, is described. The laser output is frequency doubled with fibre coupled periodically poled LiNbO3 to a wavelength of 780nm. The output power exceeds 1 W at 780nm. The laser is stabilised at 1560nm against a fibre Bragg resonator that is passively temperature compensated. Frequency tuning over a range of 1 GHz is achieved by locking the laser to sidebands of the resonator that are generated by a phase modulator. This laser design is attractive for field deployable rugged systems because it uses all fibre coupled components with long term proven reliability.

co2amp: A software program for modeling the dynamics of ultrashort pulses in optical systems with CO 2 amplifiers

DOE PAGES

Polyanskiy, Mikhail N.

2015-01-01

We describe a computer code for simulating the amplification of ultrashort mid-infrared laser pulses in CO 2 amplifiers and their propagation through arbitrary optical systems. This code is based on a comprehensive model that includes an accurate consideration of the CO 2 active medium and a physical optics propagation algorithm, and takes into account the interaction of the laser pulse with the material of the optical elements. Finally, the application of the code for optimizing an isotopic regenerative amplifier is described.

Nd:YLF laser for airborne/spaceborne laser ranging

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Dallas, Joseph L.; Selker, Mark D.

1993-01-01

In order to meet the need for light weight, long lifetime, efficient, short pulse lasers, a diode-pumped, Nd:YLF oscillator and regenerative amplifier is being developed. The anticipated output is 20 mJ per 10 picosecond pulse, running at a repetition rate of 40 Hz. The fundamental wavelength is at 1047 nm. The oscillator is pumped by a single laser diode bar and mode locked using an electro-optic, intra-cavity phase modulator. The output from the oscillator is injected as a seed into the regenerative amplifier. The regenerative amplifier laser crystal is optically pumped by two 60W quasi-cw laser diode bars. Each diode is collimated using a custom designed micro-lens bar. The injected 10 ps pulse from the oscillator is kept circulating within the regenerative amplifier until this nanojoule level seed pulse is amplified to 2-3 millijoules. At this point the pulse is ejected and sent on to a more standard single pass amplifier where the energy is boosted to 20 mJ. The footprint of the entire laser (oscillator-regenerative amplifier-amplifier) will fit on a 3 by 4 ft. optical pallet.

Optically pre-amplified lidar-radar

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Morvan, Loic; Dolfi, Daniel; Huignard, Jean-Pierre

2001-09-01

We present the concept of an optically pre-amplified intensity modulated lidar, where the modulation frequency is in the microwave domain (1-10 GHz). Such a system permits to combine directivity of laser beams with mature radar processing. As an intensity modulated or dual-frequency laser beam is directed on a target, the backscattered intensity is collected by an optical system, pass through an optical preamplifier, and is detected on a high speed photodiode in a direct detection scheme. A radar type processing permits then to extract range, speed and identification information. The association of spatially multimode amplifier and direct detection allows low sensitivity to atmospheric turbulence and large field of view. We demonstrated theoretically that optical pre-amplification can greatly enhance sensitivity, even in spatially multimode amplifiers, such as free-space amplifier or multimode doped fiber. Computed range estimates based on this concept are presented. Laboratory demonstrations using 1 to 3 GHz modulated laser sources and >20 dB gain in multimode amplifiers are detailed. Preliminary experimental results on range and speed measurements and possible use for large amplitude vibrometry will be presented.

Multiple excitation regenerative amplifier inertial confinement system

DOEpatents

George, V.E.; Haas, R.A.; Krupke, W.F.; Schlitt, L.G.

1980-05-27

The invention relates to apparatus and methods for producing high intensity laser radiation generation which is achieved through an optical amplifier-storage ring design. One or two synchronized, counterpropagating laser pulses are injected into a regenerative amplifier cavity and amplified by gain media which are pumped repetitively by electrical or optical means. The gain media excitation pulses are tailored to efficiently amplify the laser pulses during each transit. After the laser pulses have been amplified to the desired intensity level, they are either switched out of the cavity by some switch means, as for example an electro-optical device, for any well known laser end uses, or a target means may be injected into the regenerative amplifier cavity in such a way as to intercept simultaneously the counterpropagating laser pulses. One such well known end uses to which this invention is intended is for production of high density and temperature plasmas suitable for generating neutrons, ions and x-rays and for studying matter heated by high intensity laser radiation. 11 figs.

Multiple excitation regenerative amplifier inertial confinement system

DOEpatents

George, Victor E. [Livermore, CA; Haas, Roger A. [Pleasanton, CA; Krupke, William F. [Pleasanton, CA; Schlitt, Leland G. [Livermore, CA

1980-05-27

The invention relates to apparatus and methods for producing high intensity laser radiation generation which is achieved through an optical amplifier-storage ring design. One or two synchronized, counterpropagating laser pulses are injected into a regenerative amplifier cavity and amplified by gain media which are pumped repetitively by electrical or optical means. The gain media excitation pulses are tailored to efficiently amplify the laser pulses during each transit. After the laser pulses have been amplified to the desired intensity level, they are either switched out of the cavity by some switch means, as for example an electro-optical device, for any well known laser end uses, or a target means may be injected into the regenerative amplifier cavity in such a way as to intercept simultaneously the counterpropagating laser pulses. One such well known end uses to which this invention is intended is for production of high density and temperature plasmas suitable for generating neutrons, ions and x-rays and for studying matter heated by high intensity laser radiation.

75 W 40% efficiency single-mode all-fiber erbium-doped laser cladding pumped at 976 nm.

PubMed

Kotov, L V; Likhachev, M E; Bubnov, M M; Medvedkov, O I; Yashkov, M V; Guryanov, A N; Lhermite, J; Février, S; Cormier, E

2013-07-01

Optimization of Yb-free Er-doped fiber for lasers and amplifiers cladding pumped at 976 nm was performed in this Letter. The single-mode fiber design includes an increased core diameter of 34 μm and properly chosen erbium and co-dopant concentrations. We demonstrate an all-fiber high power laser and power amplifier based on this fiber with the record slope efficiency of 40%. To the best of our knowledge, the achieved output power of 75 W is the highest power reported for such lasers.

Versatile monolithic 2-micron laser systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wysmolek, M.; Steinke, M.; Neumann, J.; Kracht, D.

2018-02-01

To answer a growing demand in development of high power pulsed and continuous wave sources at 2 micron spectral range we have participated in several projects, which resulted in a delivery of versatile monolithic sources providing picosecond, nanosecond and CW laser signal. As an example of pulsed sources we developed all-fiber monolithic devices based on a directly modulated laser diode and gain-switched laser diode to generate nanosecond and picosecond pulses, respectively, which are amplified in the same fiber amplifier chain up to 50 µJ with 96 ps and more than 1 mJ with pulses longer than 35 ns.

Phasing of two amplifier channels for the coherent combining of laser beams with a total power of 60 W

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Trikshev, A. I.; Pyrkov, Yu. N.; Tsvetkov, V. B.

2017-12-01

We have demonstrated stable operation of a system for maintaining a constant phase difference between two laser channels with a total output power of 60 W. The system is based on a two-channel fibre amplifier with phase modulators based on piezoceramic spools. At a main piezo element modulation frequency of 11 kHz, the phasing time after thermal and mechanical influences on the active medium is 100 ms.

A Laser Interferometric Miniature Seismometer

DTIC Science & Technology

2008-09-01

zero bias, convert the photodiode currents to voltages with transimpedance amplifiers based on operational amplifiers (op amps) and produce a...light is collected at the photodiodes and transimpedance amplifiers convert the photocurrent to a voltage, and the seismic signal is the difference... transimpedance amplifiers . CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS Achieving LNM resolution in a seismic sensor is a very strong challenge. While we have built

Solid-State Laser Source of Tunable Narrow-Bandwidth Ultraviolet Radiation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Goldberg, Lew; Kliner, Dahv A.; Koplow, Jeffrey P.

1998-01-01

A solid-state laser source of tunable and narrow-bandwidth UV light is disclosed. The system relies on light from a diode laser that preferably generates light at infrared frequencies. The light from the seed diode laser is pulse amplified in a light amplifier, and converted into the ultraviolet by frequency tripling, quadrupling, or quintupling the infrared light. The narrow bandwidth, or relatively pure light, of the seed laser is preserved, and the pulse amplifier generates high peak light powers to increase the efficiency of the nonlinear crystals in the frequency conversion stage. Higher output powers may be obtained by adding a fiber amplifier to power amplify the pulsed laser light prior to conversion.

Amplified spontaneous emission in solar-pumped iodine laser

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Cho, Yong S.; Hwang, In H.; Han, Kwang S.; Lee, Ja H.

1992-01-01

The amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) from a long pulse, solar-simulating radiation pumped iodine laser amplifier is studied. The ASE threshold pump intensity is almost proportional to the inverse of the laser gain length when the gas pressure is constant in the laser tube.

Single mode terahertz quantum cascade amplifier

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Ren, Y., E-mail: yr235@cam.ac.uk; Wallis, R.; Shah, Y. D.

2014-10-06

A terahertz (THz) optical amplifier based on a 2.9 THz quantum cascade laser (QCL) structure has been demonstrated. By depositing an antireflective coating on the QCL facet, the laser mirror losses are enhanced to fully suppress the lasing action, creating a THz quantum cascade (QC) amplifier. Terahertz radiation amplification has been obtained, by coupling a separate multi-mode THz QCL of the same active region design to the QC amplifier. A bare cavity gain is achieved and shows excellent agreement with the lasing spectrum from the original QCL without the antireflective coating. Furthermore, a maximum optical gain of ∼30 dB with single-modemore » radiation output is demonstrated.« less

Optimised design for a 1 kJ diode-pumped solid-state laser system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mason, Paul D.; Ertel, Klaus; Banerjee, Saumyabrata; Phillips, P. Jonathan; Hernandez-Gomez, Cristina; Collier, John L.

2011-06-01

A conceptual design for a kJ-class diode-pumped solid-state laser (DPSSL) system based on cryogenic gas-cooled multislab ceramic Yb:YAG amplifier technology has been developed at the STFC as a building block towards a MJ-class source for inertial fusion energy (IFE) projects such as HiPER. In this paper, we present an overview of an amplifier design optimised for efficient generation of 1 kJ nanosecond pulses at 10 Hz repetition rate. In order to confirm the viability of this technology, a prototype version of this amplifier scaled to deliver 10 J at 10 Hz, DiPOLE, is under development at the Central Laser Facility. A progress update on the status of this system is also presented.

Self-assembled InAs/InP quantum dots and quantum dashes: Material structures and devices

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Khan, Mohammed Zahed Mustafa; Ng, Tien Khee; Ooi, Boon S.

2014-11-01

The advances in lasers, electronic and photonic integrated circuits (EPIC), optical interconnects as well as the modulation techniques allow the present day society to embrace the convenience of broadband, high speed internet and mobile network connectivity. However, the steep increase in energy demand and bandwidth requirement calls for further innovation in ultra-compact EPIC technologies. In the optical domain, advancement in the laser technologies beyond the current quantum well (Qwell) based laser technologies are already taking place and presenting very promising results. Homogeneously grown quantum dot (Qdot) lasers and optical amplifiers, can serve in the future energy saving information and communication technologies (ICT) as the work-horse for transmitting and amplifying information through optical fiber. The encouraging results in the zero-dimensional (0D) structures emitting at 980 nm, in the form of vertical cavity surface emitting laser (VCSEL), are already operational at low threshold current density and capable of 40 Gbps error-free transmission at 108 fJ/bit. Subsequent achievements for lasers and amplifiers operating in the O-, C-, L-, U-bands, and beyond will eventually lay the foundation for green ICT. On the hand, the inhomogeneously grown quasi 0D quantum dash (Qdash) lasers are brilliant solutions for potential broadband connectivity in server farms or access network. A single broadband Qdash laser operating in the stimulated emission mode can replace tens of discrete narrow-band lasers in dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) transmission thereby further saving energy, cost and footprint. We herein reviewed the1 progress of both Qdots and Qdash devices, based on the InAs/InGaAlAs/InP and InAs/InGaAsP/InP material systems, from the angles of growth and device performance. In particular, we discussed the progress in lasers, semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOA), mode locked lasers, and superluminescent diodes, which are the building blocks of EPIC and ICT. Alternatively, these optical sources are potential candidates for other multi-disciplinary field applications.

Picosecond laser system with 30-W average power via cavity dumping and amplifying

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fu, J.; Pang, Q. S.; Chang, L.; Bai, Z. A.; Ai, Q. K.; Chen, L. Y.; Chen, M.; Li, G.; Ma, Y. F.; Fan, Z. W.; Niu, G.; Yu, J.; Liu, Y.; Zhang, X.; Kang, W. Y.; He, K.

2011-06-01

We present a picosecond laser system with high energy by technologies of cavity dumping and amplifying. Firstly, pulses with 10 ps and ˜520 nJ were obtained by cavity-dumped mode-locked laser at 10 kHz repetition rate. Secondly those pulses were seeded into a side-pumped regenerative amplifier (RA). Then pulses output from the regenerative amplifier were amplified by two four-pass post amplifiers. From the laser system pulses with an average power of 30 W corresponding to 3 mJ pulse energy were achieved with the pulse-width of 25.4 ps at repetition rate of 10 kHz.

Solid-state Yb : YAG amplifier pumped by a single-mode laser at 920 nm

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Obronov, I. V.; Demkin, A. S.; Myasnikov, D. V.

2018-03-01

An optical amplifier scheme for ultrashort 1030-nm pulses is proposed based on an Yb : YAG crystal with axial pumping by a transverse single-mode laser at a wavelength of 920 nm. A small-signal gain up to 40 dB per pass with a high output beam quality is demonstrated. The maximum average power is 14 W with a slope efficiency exceeding 50%.

Laser amplifier chain

DOEpatents

Hackel, Richard P.

1992-01-01

A laser amplifier chain has a plurality of laser amplifiers arranged in a chain to sequentially amplify a low-power signal beam to produce a significantly higher-power output beam. Overall efficiency of such a chain is improved if high-gain, low efficiency amplifiers are placed on the upstream side of the chain where only a very small fraction of the total pumped power is received by the chain and low-gain, high-efficiency amplifiers are placed on the downstream side where a majority of pumping energy is received by the chain.

Room Temperature Erbium-Doped Yttrium Vanadate (Er:YVO4) Laser and Amplifier

DTIC Science & Technology

2016-09-01

perpendicular to the laser cavity axis, was pumped in σ-polarization and lased in π-polarization. The laser operated in a quasi -continuous wave regime...laser, amplifier, quasi -continuous wave 16. SECURITY CLASSIFICATION OF: 17. LIMITATION OF ABSTRACT UU 18. NUMBER OF...distribution unlimited. iii Contents List of Figures iv 1. Introduction 1 2. Laser Experimental Setup and Results 2 3. Laser Amplifier Setup 6 4

LED-pumped Alexandrite laser oscillator and amplifier

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pichon, Pierre; Blanchot, Jean-Philippe; Balembois, François; Druon, Frédéric; Georges, Patrick

2018-02-01

In this paper, we report the first LED-pumped transition-metal-doped laser oscillator and amplifier based on an alexandrite crystal (Cr3+:BeAl2O4). A Ce:YAG luminescent concentrator illuminated by blue LEDs is used to reach higher pump powers than with LEDs alone. The luminescent 200-mm-long-composit luminescent concentrator involving 2240 LEDs can delivers up to 268 mJ for a peak irradiance of 8.5 kW/cm2. In oscillator configuration, an LED-pumped alexandrite laser delivering an energy of 2.9 mJ at 748 nm in free running operation is demonstrated. In the cavity, we measured a double pass small signal gain of 1.28, in good agreement with numerical simulations. As amplifier, the system demonstrated to boost a CW Ti:sapphire laser by a factor of 4 at 750 nm in 8 passes with a large tuning range from 710 nm to 800 nm.

Narrow line width dual wavelength semiconductor optical amplifier based random fiber laser

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shawki, Heba A.; Kotb, Hussein E.; Khalil, Diaa

2018-02-01

A novel narrow line-width Single longitudinal mode (SLM) dual wavelength random fiber laser of 20 nm separation between wavelengths of 1530 and 1550 nm is presented. The laser is based on Rayleigh backscattering in a standard single mode fiber of 2 Km length as distributed mirrors, and a semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) as the optical amplification medium. Two optical bandpass filters are used for the two wavelengths selectivity, and two Faraday Rotator mirrors are used to stabilize the two lasing wavelengths against fiber random birefringence. The optical signal to noise ratio (OSNR) was measured to be 38 dB. The line-width of the laser was measured to be 13.3 and 14 KHz at 1530 and 1550 nm respectively, at SOA pump current of 370 mA.

Research on High-Intensity Picosecond Pump Laser in Short Pulse Optical Parametric Amplification

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pan, Xue; Peng, Yu-Jie; Wang, Jiang-Feng; Lu, Xing-Hua; Ouyang, Xiao-Ping; Chen, Jia-Lin; Jiang, You-En; Fan, Wei; Li, Xue-Chun

2013-01-01

A 527 nm pump laser generating 1.7 mJ energy with peak power of more than 0.12 GW is demonstrated. The theoretical simulation result shows that it has 106 gain in the picosecond-pump optical parametric chirped pulse amplification when the pump laser peak power is 0.1 GW and the intensity is more than 5 GW/cm2, and that it can limit the parametric fluorescence in the picosecond time scale of pump duration. The pump laser system adopts a master-oscillator power amplifier, which integrates a more than 30 pJ fiber-based oscillator with a 150 μJ regenerative amplifier and a relay-imaged four-pass diode-pump Nd glass amplifier to generate a 1 Hz top hat spatial beam and about 14 ps temporal Guassian pulse with <2% pulse-to-pulse energy stability. The output energy of the power amplifier is limited to 4 mJ for B-integral concern, and the frequency doubling efficiency can reach 65% with input intensity 10 GW/cm2.

Ignition feedback regenerative free electron laser (FEL) amplifier

DOEpatents

Kim, Kwang-Je; Zholents, Alexander; Zolotorev, Max

2001-01-01

An ignition feedback regenerative amplifier consists of an injector, a linear accelerator with energy recovery, and a high-gain free electron laser amplifier. A fraction of the free electron laser output is coupled to the input to operate the free electron laser in the regenerative mode. A mode filter in this loop prevents run away instability. Another fraction of the output, after suitable frequency up conversion, is used to drive the photocathode. An external laser is provided to start up both the amplifier and the injector, thus igniting the system.

Multiple pass laser amplifier system

DOEpatents

Brueckner, Keith A.; Jorna, Siebe; Moncur, N. Kent

1977-01-01

A laser amplification method for increasing the energy extraction efficiency from laser amplifiers while reducing the energy flux that passes through a flux limited system which includes apparatus for decomposing a linearly polarized light beam into multiple components, passing the components through an amplifier in delayed time sequence and recombining the amplified components into an in phase linearly polarized beam.

Future directions in 980-nm pump lasers: submarine deployment to low-cost watt-class terrestrial pumps

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gulgazov, Vadim N.; Jackson, Gordon S.; Lascola, Kevin M.; Major, Jo S.; Parke, Ross; Richard, Tim; Rossin, Victor V.; Zhang, Kai

1999-09-01

The demands of global bandwidth and distribution are rising rapidly as Internet usage grows. This fundamentally means that more photons are flowing within optical cables. While transmitting sources launches some optical power, the majority of the optical power that is present within modern telecommunication systems originates from optical amplifiers. In addition, modern optical amplifiers offer flat optical gain over broad wavelength bands, thus making possible dense wavelength de-multiplexing (DWDM) systems. Optical amplifier performance, and by extension the performance of the laser pumps that drive them, is central to the future growth of both optical transmission and distribution systems. Erbium-doped amplifiers currently dominate optical amplifier usage. These amplifiers absorb pump light at 980 nm and/or 1480 nm, and achieve gain at wavelengths around 1550 nm. 980 nm pumps achieve better noise figures and are therefore used for the amplification of small signals. Due to the quantum defect, 1480 nm lasers deliver more signal photon per incident photon. In addition, 1480 nm lasers are less expensive than 980 nm lasers. Thus, 1480 nm pump lasers are used for amplification in situations where noise is not critical. The combination of these traits leads to the situation where many amplifiers contain 980 nm lasers to pump the input section of the Er- doped fiber with 1480 nm lasers being used to pump the latter section of Er fiber. This can be thought of as using 980 nm lasers to power an optical pre-amplifier with the power amplification function being pump with 1480 nm radiation. This paper will focus on 980 nm pump lasers and the impact that advances in 980 nm pump technology will have on optical amplification systems. Currently, 980 nm technology is rapidly advancing in two areas, power and reliability. Improving reliability is becoming increasingly important as amplifiers move towards employing more pump lasers and using these pump lasers without redundancy. Since the failure rate allowable for an amplifier is not a function of the number of pumps employed in the amplifier, the allowable failure rate of an individual pump laser is decreasing for next-generation amplifiers. This will lead to specifications for terrestrial pumps well below 1000 FIT, and may lead to the case where high power amplifiers need laser pump reliability to approach 100 FIT. In addition, 980 nm laser diodes are now being deployed in submarine systems where failure rates lower than 100 FIT are commonly specified. It is obvious that both terrestrial and submarine markets are pushing allowable failure rates for pumps for optical amplifiers to continually decrease. A second push for improvement is in the output power of 980 nm pump modules. There exist a number of motivations for increasing the output power of pump lasers. First, each additional channel in a DWDM system requires additional power. To first order, a doubling in channel count implies a doubling in pump power. Second, larger amplifiers require multiple pumps. Higher output power from pump modules allows for fewer pumps, less complicated control systems and smaller size amplifiers. The discussion of this paper will focus on how current development progress of 980 nm laser diodes addresses these issues: better reliability and higher output powers.

0.8 mJ quasi-continuously pumped sub-nanosecond highly doped Nd:YAG oscillator-amplifier laser system in bounce geometry

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jelínek, M.; Kubeček, V.; Čech, M.; Hiršl, P.

2011-03-01

A quasi-continuously pumped picosecond oscillator-amplifier laser system based on two identical 2.4% Nd:YAG slabs in a single bounce geometry was developed and investigated. The oscillator was passively mode locked by the multiple quantum well saturable absorber inserted into the resonator in transmission mode. Output train containing 7 pulses with total energy of 900 μJ was generated directly from the oscillator. Single pulse with energy of 75 μJ, duration of 113 ps and Gaussian spatial profile was cavity dumped from the resonator and amplified by the single pass amplifier to the energy of 830 μJ. Comparison with our previously reported data obtained with similar system based on Nd:GdVO4 shows advantage of using highly doped Nd:YAG for generation of sub-millijoule pulses in one hundred picoseconds range, which might be interesting in many applications.

Hybrid solid state laser system using a neodymium-based master oscillator and an ytterbium-based power amplifier

DOEpatents

Payne, Stephen A.; Marshall, Christopher D.; Powell, Howard T.; Krupke, William F.

2001-01-01

In a master oscillator-power amplifier (MOPA) hybrid laser system, the master oscillator (MO) utilizes a Nd.sup.3+ -doped gain medium and the power amplifier (PA) utilizes a diode-pumped Yb.sup.3+ -doped material. The use of two different laser gain media in the hybrid MOPA system provides advantages that are otherwise not available. The Nd-doped gain medium preferably serves as the MO because such gain media offer the lowest threshold of operation and have already been engineered as practical systems. The Yb-doped gain medium preferably serves in the diode-pumped PA to store pump energy effectively and efficiently by virtue of the long emission lifetime, thereby reducing diode pump costs. One crucial constraint on the MO and PA gain media is that the Nd and Yb lasers must operate at nearly the same wavelength. The 1.047 .mu.m Nd:YLF/Yb:S-FAP [Nd:LiYF.sub.4 /Yb:Sr.sub.5 (PO.sub.4).sub.3 F] hybrid MOPA system is a preferred embodiment of the hybrid Nd/Yb MOPA.

Method and system for compact, multi-pass pulsed laser amplifier

DOEpatents

Erlandson, Alvin Charles

2014-11-25

A laser amplifier includes an input aperture operable to receive laser radiation having a first polarization, an output aperture coupled to the input aperture by an optical path, and a polarizer disposed along an optical path. A transmission axis of the polarizer is aligned with the first polarization. The laser amplifier also includes n optical switch disposed along the optical path. The optical switch is operable to pass the laser radiation when operated in a first state and to reflect the laser radiation when operated in a second state. The laser amplifier further includes an optical gain element disposed along the optical path and a polarization rotation device disposed along the optical path.

80-W green KTP laser used in photoselective laser vaporization of the prostrate by frequency doubling of Yb 3+ -doped large-mode area fiber laser

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Xia, Hongxing; Li, Zhengjia

2007-05-01

Photoselective laser vaporization of the prostate (PVP) is the most promising method for the treatment of benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH), but KTP lasers used in PVP with lamp-pumped are low efficient .To increase the efficiency , we develop a 80-W, 400kHz, linearly polarized green laser based on a frequency-doubled fiber laser. A polarization-maintaining large-mode area (LMA) fiber amplifier generate polarized 1064nm fundamental wave by amplifying the seed signal from a composite Cr 4+:YAG-Nd 3+:YAG crystal fiber laser. The fundamental wave is injected into a KTP crystal with confined temperature management to achieve second harmonic generation (SHG). The overall electrical efficiency to the green portion of the spectrum is 10%.80-W maintenance-free long-lifetime KTP laser obtained can well satisfy the need of PVP.

Stochastic resonance-enhanced laser-based particle detector.

PubMed

Dutta, A; Werner, C

2009-01-01

This paper presents a Laser-based particle detector whose response was enhanced by modulating the Laser diode with a white-noise generator. A Laser sheet was generated to cast a shadow of the object on a 200 dots per inch, 512 x 1 pixels linear sensor array. The Laser diode was modulated with a white-noise generator to achieve stochastic resonance. The white-noise generator essentially amplified the wide-bandwidth (several hundred MHz) noise produced by a reverse-biased zener diode operating in junction-breakdown mode. The gain in the amplifier in the white-noise generator was set such that the Receiver Operating Characteristics plot provided the best discriminability. A monofiber 40 AWG (approximately 80 microm) wire was detected with approximately 88% True Positive rate and approximately 19% False Positive rate in presence of white-noise modulation and with approximately 71% True Positive rate and approximately 15% False Positive rate in absence of white-noise modulation.

The Multidisk Diode-Pumped High Power Yb:YAG Laser Amplifier of High-Intensity Laser System with 1 kHz Repetition Rate

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kuptsov, G. V.; Petrov, V. V.; Petrov, V. A.; Laptev, A. V.; Kirpichnikov, A. V.; Pestryakov, E. V.

2018-04-01

The source of instabilities in the multidisk diode-pumped high power Yb:YAG laser amplifier with cryogenic closed-loop cooling in the laser amplification channel of the high-intensity laser system with 1 kHz repetition rate was determined. Dissected copper mounts were designed and used to suppress instabilities and to achieve repeatability of the system. The equilibrium temperature dependency of the active elements on average power was measured. The seed laser for the multidisk amplifier was numerically simulated and designed to allow one to increase pulses output energy after the amplifier up to 500 mJ.

Laser amplifier chain

DOEpatents

Hackel, R.P.

1992-10-20

A laser amplifier chain has a plurality of laser amplifiers arranged in a chain to sequentially amplify a low-power signal beam to produce a significantly higher-power output beam. Overall efficiency of such a chain is improved if high-gain, low efficiency amplifiers are placed on the upstream side of the chain where only a very small fraction of the total pumped power is received by the chain and low-gain, high-efficiency amplifiers are placed on the downstream side where a majority of pumping energy is received by the chain. 6 figs.

Reduced Power Laser Designation Systems

DTIC Science & Technology

2009-01-10

buffering of the input stage; comparing the noise performance of the candidate amplifier designs; selection of the two-transistor bootstrap design as the...circuit of choice; and comparing the performance of this circuit against that of a basic transconductance amplifier . 15. SUBJECT TERMS Laser...Guided Weapons; Laser designation; laser rangefinders; infrared photodiodes; transconductance amplifiers . 16. SECURITY CLASSIFICATION OF: a. REPORT U

Efficient, diode-laser-pumped, diode-laser-seeded, high-peak-power Nd:YLF regenerative amplifier.

PubMed

Selker, M D; Afzal, R S; Dallas, J L; Yu, A W

1994-04-15

Optical amplification of 11 orders of magnitude in a microlens-collimated, diode-laser-pumped regenerative amplifier has been demonstrated. The amplifier was seeded with 20-ps pulses from an FM mode-locked oscillator and with 0.9-ns pulses from a modulated diode laser. Seed pulses from both sources were amplified to energies exceeding 2.5 mJ. With the thermoelectric coolers and the Pockels cell electronics neglected, the diode-seeded system exhibited an electrical-to-optical efficiency of 2.2%.

Reflex ring laser amplifier system

DOEpatents

Summers, M.A.

1983-08-31

The invention is a method and apparatus for providing a reflex ring laser system for amplifying an input laser pulse. The invention is particularly useful in laser fusion experiments where efficient production of high-energy and high power laser pulses is required. The invention comprises a large aperture laser amplifier in an unstable ring resonator which includes a combination spatial filter and beam expander having a magnification greater than unity. An input pulse is injected into the resonator, e.g., through an aperture in an input mirror. The injected pulse passes through the amplifier and spatial filter/expander components on each pass around the ring. The unstable resonator is designed to permit only a predetermined number of passes before the amplified pulse exits the resonator. On the first pass through the amplifier, the beam fills only a small central region of the gain medium. On each successive pass, the beam has been expanded to fill the next concentric non-overlapping region of the gain medium.

Every Good Virtue You Ever Wanted in a Q-switched Solid-state Laser and More: Monolithic, Diode-pumped, Self-q-switched, Highly Reproducible, Diffraction-limited Nd:yag Laser

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Chen, Y. C.; Lee, K. K.

1993-01-01

The applications of Q-switched lasers are well known, for example, laser radar, laser remote sensing, satellite orbit determination, Moon orbit and 'moon quake' determination, satellite laser communication, and many nonlinear optics applications. Most of the applications require additional properties of the Q-switched lasers, such as single-axial and/or single-transverse mode, high repetition rate, stable pulse shape and pulse width, or ultra compact and rugged oscillators. Furthermore, space based and airborne lasers for lidar and laser communication applications require efficient, compact, lightweight, long-lived, and stable-pulsed laser sources. Diode-pumped solid-state lasers (DPSSL) have recently shown the potential for satisfying all of these requirements. We will report on the operating characteristics of a diode-pumped, monolithic, self-Q-switched Cr,Nd:YAG laser where the chromium ions act as a saturable absorber for the laser emission at 1064 nm. The pulse duration is 3.5 ns and the output is highly polarized with an extinction ratio of 700:1. It is further shown that the output is single-longitudinal-mode with transform-limited spectral line width without pulse-to-pulse mode competition. Consequently, the pulse-to-pulse intensity fluctuation is less than the instrument resolution of 0.25 percent. This self-stabilization mechanism is because the lasing mode bleaches the distributed absorber and establishes a gain-loss grating similar to that used in the distributed feedback semiconductor lasers. A repetition rate above 5 KHz has also been demonstrated. For higher power, this laser can be used for injection seeding an amplifier (or amplifier chain) or injection locking of a power oscillator pumped by diode lasers. We will discuss some research directions on the master oscillator for higher output energy per pulse as well as how to scale the output power of the diode-pumped amplifier(s) to multi-kilowatt average power.

Optical amplifier operating at 1.3 microns useful for telecommunications and based on dysprosium-doped metal chloride host materials

DOEpatents

Page, R.H.; Schaffers, K.I.; Payne, S.A.; Krupke, W.F.; Beach, R.J.

1997-12-02

Dysprosium-doped metal chloride materials offer laser properties advantageous for use as optical amplifiers in the 1.3 {micro}m telecommunications fiber optic network. The upper laser level is characterized by a millisecond lifetime, the host material possesses a moderately low refractive index, and the gain peak occurs near 1.31 {micro}m. Related halide materials, including bromides and iodides, are also useful. The Dy{sup 3+}-doped metal chlorides can be pumped with laser diodes and yield 1.3 {micro}m signal gain levels significantly beyond those currently available. 9 figs.

Optical amplifier operating at 1.3 microns useful for telecommunications and based on dysprosium-doped metal chloride host materials

DOEpatents

Page, Ralph H.; Schaffers, Kathleen I.; Payne, Stephen A.; Krupke, William F.; Beach, Raymond J.

1997-01-01

Dysprosium-doped metal chloride materials offer laser properties advantageous for use as optical amplifiers in the 1.3 .mu.m telecommunications fiber optic network. The upper laser level is characterized by a millisecond lifetime, the host material possesses a moderately low refractive index, and the gain peak occurs near 1.31 .mu.m. Related halide materials, including bromides and iodides, are also useful. The Dy.sup.3+ -doped metal chlorides can be pumped with laser diodes and yield 1.3 .mu.m signal gain levels significantly beyond those currently available.

Research on the liquid coolant applied in the high repetition rate slab amplifier

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, Bingyan; Li, Yangshuai; Zhang, Panzheng; Wang, Li; Zhang, Yanli; Feng, Tao; Zhou, Qiong; Liu, Qiang; Li, Haiyuan; Zhang, Xu; Zhou, Shenlei; Ma, Weixin; Zhu, Jian; Zhu, Jianqiang

2018-03-01

High repetition rate slab amplifier (HRRSA) is extraordinarily indispensable for the future fusion power plant, ultra-short laser, laser weapon, and so on. Thermal controlling is the decisive factor for the repetition rate and the output energy of the slab amplifier. For larger clear aperture HRRSA, flash-lamp pumped slab amplifier based on neodymium phosphate glass (Nd:glass) is chosen with the liquid cooling. The liquid coolant circulates across the Nd:glass and takes off the thermal induced in the pumping process. A novel liquid coolant (Series A) whose refractive index is the same with Nd:glass is proposed to alleviate the wavefront distortion induced by thermal. The chemical stability of the liquid coolant under high energy flash-lamp irradiation with 200 shots and under the irradiation of a 1053nm laser with 19 hours and 37 hours are experimented. The results show that the chemical stability of the liquid coolant is stable under irradiation.

High-repetition-rate, narrow-band dye lasers with water as a solvent for dyes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ray, Alok K.; Sinha, Sucharita; Kundu, Soumitra; Kumar, Sasi; Nair, Sivagiriyal Karunakaran Sreenivasan; Pal, Tamal; Dasgupta, Kamalesh

2002-03-01

The performance of a copper vapor laser-pumped narrow-band dye laser in oscillator-amplifier configuration with water-based binary mixture solvents is described. Although oscillator efficiency in water-surfactant (sodium lauryl sulfate) solvent was comparable with that that employed pure ethanolic solvent, amplifier efficiency was found to be lower. Experiments that were carried out with vertically polarized pump beams and either horizontally or vertically polarized signal beams show that, in case of both the pump and signal having orthogonal polarization (horizontal) and same polarization (vertical), the extraction efficiency for both ethanolic and water-micelle media increased substantially from 15.7% to 18.5% and from 10% to 12.5%, respectively. However, the relative difference remained nearly the same, indicating that a slower orientational diffusion of excited dye molecules in a micellar medium is not responsible for a decrease in amplifier efficiency. Amplifier efficiency comparable with that containing ethanolic dye solutions could be obtained with a binary solvent that comprises a mixture of water and about 30% n-propanol. The performances of two efficient dyes, Rhodamine-6G and Kiton Red S, using water-based solvents were studied.

Quantum Optical Transistor and Other Devices Based on Nanostructures

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, Jin-Jin; Zhu, Ka-Di

Laser and strong coupling can coexist in a single quantum dot (QD) coupled to nanostructures. This provides an important clue toward the realization of quantum optical devices, such as quantum optical transistor, slow light device, fast light device, or light storage device. In contrast to conventional electronic transistor, a quantum optical transistor uses photons as signal carriers rather than electrons, which has a faster and more powerful transfer efficiency. Under the radiation of a strong pump laser, a signal laser can be amplified or attenuated via passing through a single quantum dot coupled to a photonic crystal (PC) nanocavity system. Such a switching and amplifying behavior can really implement the quantum optical transistor. By simply turning on or off the input pump laser, the amplified or attenuated signal laser can be obtained immediately. Based on this transistor, we further propose a method to measure the vacuum Rabi splitting of exciton in all-optical domain. Besides, we study the light propagation in a coupled QD and nanomechanical resonator (NR) system. We demonstrate that it is possible to achieve the slow light, fast light, and quantum memory for light on demand, which is based on the mechanically induced coherent population oscillation (MICPO) and exciton polaritons. These QD devices offer a route toward the use of all-optical technique to investigate the coupled QD systems and will make contributions to quantum internets and quantum computers.

Fiber Optical Parametric Oscillator for High Power, High Efficiency Short-Wavelength Generation

DTIC Science & Technology

2010-12-05

the spectral region about 1550 nm, this project has explored the possibility of using ytterbium - doped fiber lasers (YDFL) and amplifiers (YDFA) as...integration. From this point of view, an ytterbium - doped fiber -based pump source looks most attractive. Of particular interest is the master- oscillator... ytterbium - doped fiber amplifiers (YDFA). The MOPA constructed for this work is shown in Figure 1. It consists of a CW fiber ring-laser centered at

Fast terahertz imaging using a quantum cascade amplifier

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Ren, Yuan, E-mail: yr235@cam.ac.uk; Wallis, Robert; Jessop, David Stephen

2015-07-06

A terahertz (THz) imaging scheme based on the effect of self-mixing in a 2.9 THz quantum cascade (QC) amplifier has been demonstrated. By coupling an antireflective-coated silicon lens to the facet of a QC laser, with no external optical feedback, the laser mirror losses are enhanced to fully suppress lasing action, creating a THz QC amplifier. The addition of reflection from an external target to the amplifier creates enough optical feedback to initiate lasing action and the resulting emission enhances photon-assisted transport, which in turn reduces the voltage across the device. At the peak gain point, the maximum photon densitymore » coupled back leads to a prominent self-mixing effect in the QC amplifier, leading to a high sensitivity, with a signal to noise ratio up to 55 dB, along with a fast data acquisition speed of 20 000 points per second.« less

High power pulsed sources based on fiber amplifiers

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Canat, Guillaume; Jaouën, Yves; Mollier, Jean-Claude; Bouzinac, Jean-Pierre; Cariou, Jean-Pierre

2017-11-01

Cladding-pumped rare-earth-doped fiber laser technologies are currently among the best sources for high power applications. Theses extremely compact and robust sources appoint them as good candidate for aeronautical and space applications. The double-clad (DC) fiber converts the poor beamquality of high-power large-area pump diodes from the 1st cladding to laser light at another wavelength guided in an active single-mode core. High-power coherent MOPA (Master Oscillator Power Amplifier) sources (several 10W CW or several 100W in pulsed regime) will soon be achieved. Unfortunately it also brings nonlinear effects which quickly impairs output signal distortions. Stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) and optical parametric amplification (OPA) have been shown to be strong limitations. Based on amplifier modeling and experiments we discuss the performances of these sources.

Laser Amplifier Development for the Remote Sensing of CO2 from Space

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Yu, Anthony W.; Abshire, James B.; Storm, Mark; Betin, Alexander

2015-01-01

Accurate global measurements of tropospheric CO2 mixing ratios are needed to study CO2 emissions and CO2 exchange with the land and oceans. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) is developing a pulsed lidar approach for an integrated path differential absorption (IPDA) lidar to allow global measurements of atmospheric CO2 column densities from space. Our group has developed, and successfully flown, an airborne pulsed lidar instrument that uses two tunable pulsed laser transmitters allowing simultaneous measurement of a single CO2 absorption line in the 1570 nm band, absorption of an O2 line pair in the oxygen A-band (765 nm), range, and atmospheric backscatter profiles in the same path. Both lasers are pulsed at 10 kHz, and the two absorption line regions are sampled at typically a 300 Hz rate. A space-based version of this lidar must have a much larger lidar power-area product due to the approximately x40 longer range and faster along track velocity compared to airborne instrument. Initial link budget analysis indicated that for a 400 km orbit, a 1.5 m diameter telescope and a 10 second integration time, a approximately 2 mJ laser energy is required to attain the precision needed for each measurement. To meet this energy requirement, we have pursued parallel power scaling efforts to enable space-based lidar measurement of CO2 concentrations. These included a multiple aperture approach consists of multi-element large mode area fiber amplifiers and a single-aperture approach consists of a multi-pass Er:Yb:Phosphate glass based planar waveguide amplifier (PWA). In this paper we will present our laser amplifier design approaches and preliminary results.

Study of beam aberrations in a germanium XXIII XUV laser amplifier

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Smith, C. G.; Key, M. H.; Cairns, G.; Dwivedi, L.; Krishnan, J.; Lewis, C. L. S.; MacPhee, A. G.; Neely, D.; Ramsden, S. A.; Tallents, G.

1996-02-01

A beam of amplified spontaneous emission at {23.2}/{23.6}nm from a GeXXIII XUV laser has been injected into a separate amplifier plasma and the astigmatic aberrations introduced by plasma density gradients in the amplifier have been estimated from analysis of images of the amplified beam.

Switchable and spacing-tunable dual-wavelength thulium-doped silica fiber laser based on a nonlinear amplifier loop mirror.

PubMed

Liu, Shuo; Yan, Fengping; Feng, Ting; Wu, Beilei; Dong, Ze; Chang, Gee-Kung

2014-08-20

A kind of switchable and spacing-tunable dual-wavelength thulium-doped silica fiber laser based on a nonlinear amplifier loop mirror is presented and experimentally demonstrated. By adjusting the polarization controllers (PCs), stable dual-wavelength operation is obtained at the 2 μm band. The optical signal-to-noise ratio (OSNR) is better than 56 dB. The wavelength tuning is performed by applying static strain into the fiber Bragg grating. A tuning range from 0 to 5.14 nm is achieved for the dual-wavelength spacing. By adjusting the PCs properly, the fiber laser can also operate in single-wavelength state with the OSNR for each wavelength more than 50 dB.

Amplifying modeling for broad bandwidth pulse in Nd:glass based on hybrid-broaden mechanism

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Su, J.; Liu, L.; Luo, B.; Wang, W.; Jing, F.; Wei, X.; Zhang, X.

2008-05-01

In this paper, the cross relaxation time is proposed to combine the homogeneous and inhomogeneous broaden mechanism for broad bandwidth pulse amplification model. The corresponding velocity equation, which can describe the response of inverse population on upper and low energy level of gain media to different frequency of pulse, is also put forward. The gain saturation and energy relaxation effect are also included in the velocity equation. Code named CPAP has been developed to simulate the amplifying process of broad bandwidth pulse in multi-pass laser system. The amplifying capability of multi-pass laser system is evaluated and gain narrowing and temporal shape distortion are also investigated when bandwidth of pulse and cross relaxation time of gain media are different. Results can benefit the design of high-energy PW laser system in LFRC, CAEP.

High-power quantum-dot tapered tunable external-cavity lasers based on chirped and unchirped structures.

PubMed

Haggett, Stephanie; Krakowski, Michel; Montrosset, Ivo; Cataluna, Maria Ana

2014-09-22

A high-power tunable external cavity laser configuration with a tapered quantum-dot semiconductor optical amplifier at its core is presented, enabling a record output power for a broadly tunable semiconductor laser source in the 1.2 - 1.3 µm spectral region. Two distinct optical amplifiers are investigated, using either chirped or unchirped quantum-dot structures, and their merits are compared, considering the combination of tunability and high output power generation. At 1230 nm, the chirped quantum-dot laser achieved a maximum power of 0.62 W and demonstrated nearly 100-nm tunability. The unchirped laser enabled a tunability range of 32 nm and at 1254 nm generated a maximum power of 0.97 W, representing a 22-fold increase in output power compared with similar narrow-ridge external-cavity lasers at the same current density.

Direct solar-pumped iodine laser amplifier

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Han, Kwang S.; Hwang, In Heon; Stock, Larry V.

1989-01-01

This semiannual progress report covers the period from September 1, 1988 to February 28, 1989 under NASA grant NAG-1-441 entitled, Direct Solar-Pumped Iodine Laser Amplifier. During this period, the research effort was concentrated on the solar pumped master oscillator power amplifier (MOPA) system using n-C3F7I. In the experimental work, the amplification measurement was conducted to identify the optimum conditions for amplification of the center's Vortek solar simulator pumped iodine laser amplifier. A modeling effort was also pursued to explain the experimental results in the theoretical work. The amplification measurement of the solar simulator pumped iodine laser amplifier is the first amplification experiment on the continuously pumped amplifier. The small signal amplification of 5 was achieved for the triple pass geometry of the 15 cm long solar simulator pumped amplifier at the n-C3F7I pressure of 20 torr, at the flow velocity of 6 m/sec and at the pumping intensity of 1500 solar constants. The XeCl laser pumped iodine laser oscillator, which was developed in the previous research, was employed as the master oscillator for the amplification measurement. In the theoretical work, the rate equations of the amplifier was established and the small signal amplification was calculated for the solar simulator pumped iodine laser amplifier. The amplification calculated from the kinetic equations with the previously measured rate coefficients reveals very large disagreement with experimental measurement. Moreover, the optimum condition predicted by the kinetic equation is quite discrepant with that measured by experiment. This fact indicates the necessity of study in the measurement of rate coefficients of the continuously pumped iodine laser system.

Combination ring cavity and backward Raman waveguide amplifier

DOEpatents

Kurnit, Norman A.

1983-01-01

A combination regenerative ring and backward Raman waveguide amplifier and a combination regenerative ring oscillator and backward Raman waveguide amplifier which produce Raman amplification, pulse compression, and efficient energy extraction from the CO.sub.2 laser pump signal for conversion into a Stokes radiation signal. The ring cavity configuration allows the CO.sub.2 laser pump signal and Stokes signal to copropagate through the Raman waveguide amplifier. The backward Raman waveguide amplifier configuration extracts a major portion of the remaining energy from the CO.sub.2 laser pump signal for conversion to Stokes radiation. Additionally, the backward Raman amplifier configuration produces a Stokes radiation signal which has a high intensity and a short duration. Adjustment of the position of overlap of the Stokes signal and the CO.sub.2 laser pump signal in the backward Raman waveguide amplifiers alters the amount of pulse compression which can be achieved.

Segmented amplifier configurations for laser amplifier

DOEpatents

Hagen, Wilhelm F.

1979-01-01

An amplifier system for high power lasers, the system comprising a compact array of segments which (1) preserves high, large signal gain with improved pumping efficiency and (2) allows the total amplifier length to be shortened by as much as one order of magnitude. The system uses a three dimensional array of segments, with the plane of each segment being oriented at substantially the amplifier medium Brewster angle relative to the incident laser beam and with one or more linear arrays of flashlamps positioned between adjacent rows of amplifier segments, with the plane of the linear array of flashlamps being substantially parallel to the beam propagation direction.

Electra: Repetitively Pulsed Angularly Multiplexed KrF Laser System Performance

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wolford, Matthew; Myers, Matthew; Giuliani, John; Sethian, John; Burns, Patrick; Hegeler, Frank; Jaynes, Reginald

2008-11-01

As in a full size fusion power plant beam line, Electra is a multistage laser amplifier system. The multistage amplifier system consists of a commercial discharge laser and two doubled sided electron beam pumped amplifiers. Angular multiplexing is used in the optical layout to provide pulse length control and to maximize laser extraction from the amplifiers. Two angularly multiplexed beams have extracted 30 J of KrF laser light with an aperture 8 x 10 cm^2, which is sufficient to extract over 500 J from the main amplifier and models agree. The main amplifier of Electra in oscillator mode has demonstrated single shot and rep-rate laser energies exceeding 700 J with 100 ns pulsewidth at 248 nm with an aperture 29 x 29 cm^2. Continuous operation of the KrF electron beam pumped oscillator has lasted for more than 2.5 hours without failure at 1 Hz and 2.5 Hz. The measured intensity and pulse energy for durations greater than thousand shots are consistent at measurable rep-rates of 1 Hz, 2.5 Hz and 5 Hz.

High Efficiency End-Pumped Ho:Tm:YLF Disk Amplifier

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Yu, Jirong; Singh, Upendra N.; Petros, Mulugeta; Axenson, Theresa J.; Barnes, Norman P.

1999-01-01

Space based coherent lidar for global wind measurement requires an all solid state laser system with high energy, high efficiency and narrow linewidth that operates in the eye safe region. A Q-switched, diode pumped Ho:Tm:YLF 2 micrometer laser with output energy of as much as 125 mJ at 6 Hz with an optical-to-optical efficiency of 3% has been reported. Single frequency operation of the laser was achieved by injection seeding. The design of this laser is being incorporated into NASA's SPARCLE (SPAce Readiness Coherent Lidar Experiment) wind lidar mission. Laser output energy ranging from 500 mJ to 2 J is required for an operational space coherent lidar. We previously developed a high energy Ho:Tm:YLF master oscillator and side pumped power amplifier system and demonstrated a 600-mJ single frequency pulse at a repetition rate of 10 Hz. Although the output energy is high, the optical-to-optical efficiency is only about 2%. Designing a high energy, highly efficient, conductively cooled 2-micrometer laser remains a challenge. In this paper, the preliminary result of an end-pumped amplifier that has a potential to provide a factor 3 of improvement in the system efficiency is reported.

Short pulse free electron laser amplifier

DOEpatents

Schlitt, Leland G.; Szoke, Abraham

1985-01-01

Method and apparatus for amplification of a laser pulse in a free electron laser amplifier where the laser pulse duration may be a small fraction of the electron beam pulse duration used for amplification. An electron beam pulse is passed through a first wiggler magnet and a short laser pulse to be amplified is passed through the same wiggler so that only the energy of the last fraction, f, (f<1) of the electron beam pulse is consumed in amplifying the laser pulse. After suitable delay of the electron beam, the process is repeated in a second wiggler magnet, a third, . . . , where substantially the same fraction f of the remainder of the electron beam pulse is consumed in amplification of the given short laser pulse in each wiggler magnet region until the useful electron beam energy is substantially completely consumed by amplification of the laser pulse.

A stabilized optical frequency comb based on an Er-doped fiber femtosecond laser

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Xia, Chuanqing; Wu, Tengfei; Zhao, Chunbo; Xing, Shuai

2018-03-01

An optical frequency comb based on a 250 MHz home-made Er-doped fiber femtosecond laser is presented in this paper. The Er-doped fiber laser has a ring cavity and operates mode-locked in femtosecond regime with the technique of nonlinear polarization rotation. The pulse duration is 118 fs and the spectral width is 30 nm. A part of the femtosecond laser is amplified in Er-doped fiber amplifier before propagating through a piece of highly nonlinear fiber for expanding the spectrum. The carrier-envelope offset frequency of the comb which has a signal-to-noise ratio more than 35 dB is extracted by means of f-2f beating. It demonstrates that both carrier-envelope offset frequency and repetition frequency keep phase locked to a Rubidium atomic clock simultaneously for 2 hours. The frequency stabilized fiber combs will be increasingly applied in optical metrology, attosecond pulse generation, and absolute distance measurement.

Bismuth-doped optical fibres: A new breakthrough in near-IR lasing media

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Dianov, Evgenii M

Recent results demonstrate that bismuth-doped optical fibres have considerable potential as near-IR active lasing media. This paper examines bismuth-doped fibres intended for the fabrication of fibre lasers and optical amplifiers and reviews recent results on the luminescence properties of various types of bismuth-doped fibres and the performance of bismuth-doped fibre lasers and optical amplifiers for the spectral range 1150 - 1550 nm. Problems are discussed that have yet to be solved in order to improve the efficiency of the bismuth lasers and optical amplifiers. (optical fibres, lasers and amplifiers. properties and applications)

Advanced 2-micron Solid-state Laser for Wind and CO2 Lidar Applications

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Yu, Jirong; Trieu, Bo C.; Petros, Mulugeta; Bai, Yingxin; Petzar, Paul J.; Koch, Grady J.; Singh, Upendra N.; Kavaya, Michael J.

2006-01-01

Significant advancements in the 2-micron laser development have been made recently. Solid-state 2-micron laser is a key subsystem for a coherent Doppler lidar that measures the horizontal and vertical wind velocities with high precision and resolution. The same laser, after a few modifications, can also be used in a Differential Absorption Lidar (DIAL) system for measuring atmospheric CO2 concentration profiles. The world record 2-micron laser energy is demonstrated with an oscillator and two amplifiers system. It generates more than one joule per pulse energy with excellent beam quality. Based on the successful demonstration of a fully conductive cooled oscillator by using heat pipe technology, an improved fully conductively cooled 2-micron amplifier was designed, manufactured and integrated. It virtually eliminates the running coolant to increase the overall system efficiency and reliability. In addition to technology development and demonstration, a compact and engineering hardened 2-micron laser is under development. It is capable of producing 250 mJ at 10 Hz by an oscillator and one amplifier. This compact laser is expected to be integrated to a lidar system and take field measurements. The recent achievements push forward the readiness of such a laser system for space lidar applications. This paper will review the developments of the state-of-the-art solid-state 2-micron laser.

10J water-cooled DPSSL system based on Yb:YAG crystal edge-cladded by Cr:YAG ceramics (Conference Presentation)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zheng, Jian-Gang; Yan, Xiongwei; Jiang, Xinying; Wang, Zhenguo; Li, Mingzhong; Zhang, Jun; Zhu, Qihua; Zheng, Wanguo

2017-05-01

Laser Inertial Fusion Energy (IFE) has been attracting the interests of the researchers around the world, because of the promising to the future energy. The Yb:YAG was broadly used in the research field of high-peak power and large energy laser with repetition-rate for IFE because of its outstanding performance, including significant thermal and mechanical capacities, long upper energy level lifetime, high quantum efficiency and highly doping capacity. But it exhibits high saturation fluence at room temperature because of the small emission and absorption cross-section. And at the same time this gain material exhibits self-absorption of laser because of the thermal population at lower laser level at room temperature. Ant it appears to have been solved by means of the cryogenic temperature, but the total efficiency of the laser system will be decreased as the use of cryogenic temperature. The amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) effect of the amplifier can be relaxed by means of edge-cladded absorption material. And the difficulties of edge cladding can be will solved as the emergence of ceramics. But at present the ceramics exhibits high scattering and many disfigurements, which limited the application in the high-power large-energy laser system. So the edge-cladding of Yb:YAG crystal will be a key issue for solution the ASE in amplifier. In this paper, we will introduce a 10J water-cooled DPSSL system, based on Yb:YAG crystal at room temperature. In this system a new edge cladding method has been used, that the Yb:YAG crystal was edge cladded by Cr:YAG ceramics, which was used as the absorption material of ASE. The amplifier was an active mirror water-cooled room temperature amplifier. With the help of this edge cladding the ASE has been lowered, and about 5 times small signal gain has been obtained in a single pass amplification, which was much higher than the earlier of 2 times. And the wavefront aberrance of the laser beam was also reduced due to the thermal equilibrium between the edge cladding and the gain region. the amplifiers can be stably operated under 10Hz. Finally the output of the laser system was about 7.15J@10Hz and 10.8J@1-2Hz. The total optical-to-optical efficiency was about 8.3% for 1-2Hz (under the condition of 120kW/1ms pumping, 880mJ input and 10.8J output) and 5.6% for 10Hz.

100J-level nanosecond pulsed Yb:YAG cryo-cooled DPSSL amplifier

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Smith, J. M.; Butcher, T. J.; Mason, P. D.; Ertel, K.; Phillips, P. J.; Banerjee, S.; De Vido, M.; Chekhlov, O.; Divoky, M.; Pilar, J.; Shaikh, W.; Hooker, C.; Lucianetti, A.; Hernandez Gomez, C.; Mocek, T.; Edwards, C.; Collier, J. L.

2018-02-01

We report on the successful demonstration of the world's first kW average power, 100 Joule-class, high-energy, nanosecond pulsed diode-pumped solid-state laser (DPSSL), DiPOLE100. Results from the first long-term test for amplification will be presented; the system was operated for 1 hour with 10 ns duration pulses at 10 Hz pulse repetition rate and an average output energy of 105 J and RMS energy stability of approximately 1%. The laser system is based on scalable cryogenic gas-cooled multi-slab ceramic Yb:YAG amplifier technology. The DiPOLE100 system comprises three major sub-systems, a spatially and temporally shaped front end, a 10 J cryo-amplifier and a 100 J cryo-amplifier. The 10 J cryo-amplifier contain four Yb:YAG ceramic gain media slabs, which are diode pumped from both sides, while a multi-pass architecture configured for seven passes enables 10 J of energy to be extracted at 10 Hz. This seeds the 100 J cryo-amplifier, which contains six Yb:YAG ceramic gain media slabs with the multi-pass configured for four passes. Our future development plans for this architecture will be introduced including closed-loop pulse shaping, increased energy, higher repetition rates and picosecond operation. This laser architecture unlocks the potential for practical applications including new sources for industrial materials processing and high intensity laser matter studies as envisioned for ELI [1], HiLASE [2], and the European XFEL [3]. Alternatively, it can be used as a pump source for higher repetition rate PW-class amplifiers, which can themselves generate high-brightness secondary radiation and ion sources leading to new remote imaging and medical applications.

Method and system for compact efficient laser architecture

DOEpatents

Bayramian, Andrew James; Erlandson, Alvin Charles; Manes, Kenneth Rene; Spaeth, Mary Louis; Caird, John Allyn; Deri, Robert J.

2015-09-15

A laser amplifier module having an enclosure includes an input window, a mirror optically coupled to the input window and disposed in a first plane, and a first amplifier head disposed along an optical amplification path adjacent a first end of the enclosure. The laser amplifier module also includes a second amplifier head disposed along the optical amplification path adjacent a second end of the enclosure and a cavity mirror disposed along the optical amplification path.

Development of injector/amplifier XUV lasers and initial studies of ultrashort pulse UV multiphoton ionization

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Key, Michael H.; Blyth, W. J.; Cairns, Gerald F.; Damerell, A. R.; Dangor, A. E.; Danson, Colin N.; Evans, J. M.; Hirst, Graeme J.; Holden, M.; Hooker, Chris J.; Houliston, J. R.; Krishnan, J.; Lewis, Ciaran L. S.; Lister, J. M. D.; MacPhee, Andrew G.; Najmudin, Z.; Neely, David; Norreys, Peter A.; Offenberger, Allen A.; Osvay, Karoly; Pert, Geoffrey J.; Preston, S. G.; Ramsden, Stuart A.; Ross, Ian N.; Sibbett, Wilson; Tallents, Gregory J.; Smith, C.; Wark, Justin S.; Zhang, Jie

1994-02-01

An injector-amplifier architecture for XUV lasers has been developed and demonstrated using the Ge XXIII collisional laser. Results are described for injection into single and double plasma amplifiers. Prismatic lens-like and higher order aberrations in the amplifier are considered. Limitations on ultimate brightness are discussed and also scaling to operation at shorter wavelengths. A preliminary study has been made of UV multiphoton ionization using 300 fs pulses at high intensity.

Target-in-the-loop high-power adaptive phase-locked fiber laser array using single-frequency dithering technique

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tao, R.; Ma, Y.; Si, L.; Dong, X.; Zhou, P.; Liu, Z.

2011-11-01

We present a theoretical and experimental study of a target-in-the-loop (TIL) high-power adaptive phase-locked fiber laser array. The system configuration of the TIL adaptive phase-locked fiber laser array is introduced, and the fundamental theory for TIL based on the single-dithering technique is deduced for the first time. Two 10-W-level high-power fiber amplifiers are set up and adaptive phase locking of the two fiber amplifiers is accomplished successfully by implementing a single-dithering algorithm on a signal processor. The experimental results demonstrate that the optical phase noise for each beam channel can be effectively compensated by the TIL adaptive optics system under high-power applications and the fringe contrast on a remotely located extended target is advanced from 12% to 74% for the two 10-W-level fiber amplifiers.

Applications of Optical Coherent Transient Technology to Pulse Shaping, Spectral Filtering, Arbitrary Waveform Generation and RF Beamforming

DTIC Science & Technology

2006-04-15

was amplified by injection locking of a high power diode laser and further amplified to -300 mW with a semiconductor optical amplifier. This light...amplifiers at 793nm, cascaded injection locked amplifiers at 793nm, and frequency chirped lasers at 793nm. 15. SUBJECT TERMS Optical Coherent Transients...injection- locking for broadband optical signal amplification ................. 34 2.10. Tapered semiconductor optical amplifier

Microsecond gain-switched master oscillator power amplifier (1958 nm) with high pulse energy

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Ke Yin; Weiqiang Yang; Bin Zhang

2014-02-28

An all-fibre master oscillator power amplifier (MOPA) emitting high-energy pulses at 1958 nm is presented. The seed laser is a microsecond gain-switched thulium-doped fibre laser (TDFL) pumped with a commercial 1550-nm pulsed fibre laser. The TDFL operates at a repetition rate f in the range of 10 to 100 kHz. The two-stage thulium-doped fibre amplifier is built to scale the energy of the pulses generated by the seed laser. The maximum output pulse energy higher than 0.5 mJ at 10 kHz is achieved which is comparable with the theoretical maximum extractable pulse energy. The slope efficiency of the second stagemore » amplifier with respect to the pump power is 30.4% at f = 10 kHz. The wavelength of the output pulse laser is centred near 1958 nm at a spectral width of 0.25 nm after amplification. Neither nonlinear effects nor significant amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) is observed in the amplification experiments. (lasers)« less

High Energy 2-Micron Laser Developments

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Yu, Jirong; Trieu, Bo C.; Petros, Mulugeta; Bai, Yingxin; Petzar, Paul J.; Koch, Grady J.; Singh, Upendra N.; Kavaya, Michael J.

2007-01-01

A master oscillator power amplifier, high energy Q-switched 2-micron laser system has been recently demonstrated. The laser and amplifiers are all designed in side-pumped rod configuration, pumped by back-cooled conductive packaged GaAlAs diode laser arrays. This 2-micron laser system provides nearly transform limited beam quality.

Construction and Calibration of a Difference Frequency Laser Spectrometer and New THZ Frequency Measurements of water and Ammonia

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Pearson, J. C.; Pickett, Herbert M.; Chen, Pin; Matsuura, Shuji; Blake, Geoffry A.

1999-01-01

A three laser system based on 852nm DBR lasers has been constructed and used to generate radiation in the 750 GHz to 1600 GHz frequency region. The system works by locking two of the three lasers to modes of an ultra low expansion Fabry-Perot cavity. The third laser is offset locked to one of the cavity locked lasers with conventional microwave techniques. The signal from the offset laser and the other cavity locked laser are injected into a Master Oscillator Power Amplifier (MOPA), amplified and focused on a low temperature grown GaAs photomixer, which radiates the difference frequency. The system has been calibrated with molecular lines to better than one part in 10(exp 7). In this paper we present the application of this system to the v(sub 2) in inversion band of Ammonia and the ground and v(sub 2) states of water. A discussion of the system design, the calibration and the new spectral measurements will be presented.

ELI-beamlines: progress in development of next generation short-pulse laser systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rus, B.; Bakule, P.; Kramer, D.; Naylon, J.; Thoma, J.; Fibrich, M.; Green, J. T.; Lagron, J. C.; Antipenkov, R.; Bartoníček, J.; Batysta, F.; Baše, R.; Boge, R.; Buck, S.; Cupal, J.; Drouin, M. A.; Durák, M.; Himmel, B.; Havlíček, T.; Homer, P.; Honsa, A.; Horáček, M.; Hríbek, P.; Hubáček, J.; Hubka, Z.; Kalinchenko, G.; Kasl, K.; Indra, L.; Korous, P.; Košelja, M.; Koubíková, L.; Laub, M.; Mazanec, T.; Meadows, A.; Novák, J.; Peceli, D.; Polan, J.; Snopek, D.; Šobr, V.; Trojek, P.; Tykalewicz, B.; Velpula, P.; Verhagen, E.; Vyhlídka, Å.; Weiss, J.; Haefner, C.; Bayramian, A.; Betts, S.; Erlandson, A.; Jarboe, J.; Johnson, G.; Horner, J.; Kim, D.; Koh, E.; Marshall, C.; Mason, D.; Sistrunk, E.; Smith, D.; Spinka, T.; Stanley, J.; Stolz, C.; Suratwala, T.; Telford, S.; Ditmire, T.; Gaul, E.; Donovan, M.; Frederickson, C.; Friedman, G.; Hammond, D.; Hidinger, D.; Chériaux, G.; Jochmann, A.; Kepler, M.; Malato, C.; Martinez, M.; Metzger, T.; Schultze, M.; Mason, P.; Ertel, K.; Lintern, A.; Edwards, C.; Hernandez-Gomez, C.; Collier, J.

2017-05-01

Overview of progress in construction and testing of the laser systems of ELI-Beamlines, accomplished since 2015, is presented. Good progress has been achieved in construction of all four lasers based largely on the technology of diode-pumped solid state lasers (DPSSL). The first part of the L1 laser, designed to provide 200 mJ <15 fs pulses at 1 kHz repetition rate, is up and running. The L2 is a development line employing a 10 J / 10 Hz cryogenic gas-cooled pump laser which has recently been equipped with an advanced cryogenic engine. Operation of the L3-HAPLS system, using a gas-cooled DPSSL pump laser and a Ti:sapphire broadband amplifier, was recently demonstrated at 16 J / 28 fs, at 3.33 Hz rep rate. Finally, the 5 Hz OPCPA front end of the L4 kJ laser is up running and amplification in the Nd:glass large-aperture power amplifiers was demonstrated.

Numerical investigations of self- and cross-phase modulation effects in high-power fiber amplifiers (Conference Presentation)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zunoubi, Mohammad R.; Anderson, Brian; Naderi, Shadi A.; Madden, Timothy J.; Dajani, Iyad

2017-03-01

The development of high-power fiber lasers is of great interest due to the advantages they offer relative to other laser technologies. Currently, the maximum power from a reportedly single-mode fiber amplifier stands at 10 kW. Though impressive, this power level was achieved at the cost of a large spectral linewidth, making the laser unsuitable for coherent or spectral beam combination techniques required to reach power levels necessary for airborne tactical applications. An effective approach in limiting the SBS effect is to insert an electro-optic phase modulator at the low-power end of a master oscillator power amplifier (MOPA) system. As a result, the optical power is spread among spectral sidebands; thus raising the overall SBS threshold of the amplifier. It is the purpose of this work to present a comprehensive numerical scheme that is based on the extended nonlinear Schrodinger equations that allows for accurate analysis of phase modulated fiber amplifier systems in relation to the group velocity dispersion and Kerr nonlinearities and their effect on the coherent beam combining efficiency. As such, we have simulated a high-power MOPA system modulated via filtered pseudo-random bit sequence format for different clock rates and power levels. We show that at clock rates of ≥30 GHz, the combination of GVD and self-phase modulation may lead to a drastic drop in beam combining efficiency at the multi-kW level. Furthermore, we extend our work to study the effect of cross-phase modulation where an amplifier is seeded with two laser sources.

Injection seeded, diode pumped regenerative ring Nd:YAG amplifier for spaceborne laser ranging technology development

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Coyle, D. Barry; Kay, Richard B.; Degnan, John J.; Krebs, Danny J.; Seery, Bernard D.

1992-01-01

A small, all solid state, regenerative ring amplifier designed as a prototype for space application is discussed. Novel features include dual side pumping of the Nd:YAG crystal and a triangular ring cavity design which minimizes the number of optical components and losses. The amplifier is relatively small (3 ns round trip time) even though standard optical elements are employed. The ring regeneratively amplifies a 100 ps single pulse by approximately 10(exp 5) at a repetition rate of 10 to 100 Hz. The amplifier is designed to be injection seeded with a pulsed, 100 ps laser diode at 1.06 microns, but another Nd:YAG laser system supplying higher pulse energies was employed for laboratory experiment. This system is a prototype laser oscillator for the Geoscience Laser Ranging System (GLRS) platform. Results on measurements of beam quality, astigmatism, and gain are given.

Free electron lasers for transmission of energy in space

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Segall, S. B.; Hiddleston, H. R.; Catella, G. C.

1981-01-01

A one-dimensional resonant-particle model of a free electron laser (FEL) is used to calculate laser gain and conversion efficiency of electron energy to photon energy. The optical beam profile for a resonant optical cavity is included in the model as an axial variation of laser intensity. The electron beam profile is matched to the optical beam profile and modeled as an axial variation of current density. Effective energy spread due to beam emittance is included. Accelerators appropriate for a space-based FEL oscillator are reviewed. Constraints on the concentric optical resonator and on systems required for space operation are described. An example is given of a space-based FEL that would produce 1.7 MW of average output power at 0.5 micrometer wavelength with over 50% conversion efficiency of electrical energy to laser energy. It would utilize a 10 m-long amplifier centered in a 200 m-long optical cavity. A 3-amp, 65 meV electrostatic accelerator would provide the electron beam and recover the beam after it passes through the amplifier. Three to five shuttle flights would be needed to place the laser in orbit.

Laser system using regenerative amplifier

DOEpatents

Emmett, John L. [Pleasanton, CA

1980-03-04

High energy laser system using a regenerative amplifier, which relaxes all constraints on laser components other than the intrinsic damage level of matter, so as to enable use of available laser system components. This can be accomplished by use of segmented components, spatial filters, at least one amplifier using solid state or gaseous media, and separated reflector members providing a long round trip time through the regenerative cavity, thereby allowing slower switching and adequate time to clear the spatial filters, etc. The laser system simplifies component requirements and reduces component cost while providing high energy output.

Tunable multiwavelength fiber laser based on a θ-shaped microfiber filter

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, Yue; Xu, Zhilin; Luo, Yiyang; Xiang, Yang; Yan, Zhijun; Liu, Deming; Sun, Qizhen

2018-06-01

We propose and experimentally demonstrate a flexibly tunable multiwavelength fiber ring laser based on a θ-shaped microfiber filter in conjunction with an erbium-doped fiber amplifier. The stable operation of the multiwavelength lasing is successfully achieved at room temperature, with the peak power fluctuation less than 0.519 dB. By micro-adjusting the cavity length of the filter, the channel spacing can be independently tuned within the gain range of the optical amplifier. We have achieved 0.084 nm-spacing 48 channel, 0.147 nm-spacing 25 channel, 0.190 nm-spacing 20 channel and 0.302 nm-spacing 15 channel lasing wavelengths at room temperature.

Coherent combining of high brightness tapered lasers in master oscillator power amplifier configuration

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Albrodt, P.; Hanna, M.; Moron, F.; Decker, J.; Winterfeldt, M.; Blume, G.; Erbert, G.; Crump, P.; Georges, P.; Lucas-Leclin, G.

2018-02-01

Improved diode laser beam combining techniques are in strong demand for applications in material processing. Coherent beam combining (CBC) is the only combining approach that has the potential to maintain or even improve all laser properties, and thus has high potential for future systems. As part of our ongoing studies into CBC of diode lasers, we present recent progress in the coherent superposition of high-power single-pass tapered laser amplifiers. The amplifiers are seeded by a DFB laser at λ = 976 nm, where the seed is injected into a laterally single-mode ridge-waveguide input section. The phase pistons on each beam are actively controlled by varying the current in the ridge section of each amplifier, using a sequential hill-climbing algorithm, resulting in a combined beam with power fluctuations of below 1%. The currents into the tapered sections of the amplifiers are separately controlled, and remain constant. In contrast to our previous studies, we favour a limited number of individual high-power amplifiers, in order to preserve a high extracted power per emitter in a simple, low-loss coupling arrangement. Specifically, a multi-arm interferometer architecture with only three devices is used, constructed using 6 mm-long tapered amplifiers, mounted junction up on C-mounts, to allow separate contact to single mode and amplifier sections. A maximum coherently combined power of 12.9 W is demonstrated in a nearly diffraction-limited beam, corresponding to a 65% combining efficiency, with power mainly limited by the intrinsic beam quality of the amplifiers. Further increased combined power is currently sought.

100 J UV glass laser for dynamic compression research

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zweiback, J.; Fochs, S. F.; Bromage, J.; Broege, D.; Cuffney, R.; Currier, Z.; Dorrer, C.; Ehrich, B.; Engler, J.; Guardalben, M.; Kephalos, N.; Marozas, J.; Roides, R.; Zuegel, J.

2017-02-01

A frequency tripled, Nd:Glass laser has been constructed and installed at the Dynamic Compression Sector located at the Advanced Photon Source. This 100-J laser will be used to drive shocks in condensed matter which will then be interrogated by the facility x-ray beam. The laser is designed for reliable operation, utilizing proven designs for all major subsystems. A fiber front-end provides arbitrarily shaped pulses to the amplifier chain. A diode-pumped Nd:glass regenerative amplifier is followed by a four-pass, flashlamp- pumped rod amplifier. The regenerative amplifier produces up to 20 mJ with better than 1% RMS stability. The passively multiplexed four-pass amplifier produces up to 2 J. The final amplifier uses a 15-cm Nd:glass disk amplifier in a six-pass configuration. Over 200 J of infrared energy is produced by the disk amplifier. A KDP Type-II/Type-II frequency tripler configuration, utilizing a dual tripler, converts the 1053-nm laser output to a wavelength of 351 nm and the ultraviolet beam is image relayed to the target chamber. Output energy stability is better than 3%. Smoothing by Spectral Dispersion and polarization smoothing have been optimized to produce a highly uniform focal spot. A distributed phase plate and aspheric lens produce a farfield spot with a measured uniformity of 8.2% RMS. Custom control software collects all data and provides the operator an intuitive interface to operate and maintain the laser.

Ultrafast Laser Techniques

DTIC Science & Technology

1991-06-05

2 Prism Dye Amplifiers .................................................................................. 2 Axicon...carried out under this project. PRISM DYE AMPLIFIERS A first effort was devoted to setting up an amplifier system for the output of a short pulse dye laser...For amplification up to pulse energies of approximately 500 p.J/pulse we chose three stages of prism amplifier cells, with diameters of 1 m, 3 mm

High-power arrays of quantum cascade laser master-oscillator power-amplifiers.

PubMed

Rauter, Patrick; Menzel, Stefan; Goyal, Anish K; Wang, Christine A; Sanchez, Antonio; Turner, George; Capasso, Federico

2013-02-25

We report on multi-wavelength arrays of master-oscillator power-amplifier quantum cascade lasers operating at wavelengths between 9.2 and 9.8 μm. All elements of the high-performance array feature longitudinal (spectral) as well as transverse single-mode emission at peak powers between 2.7 and 10 W at room temperature. The performance of two arrays that are based on different seed-section designs is thoroughly studied and compared. High output power and excellent beam quality render the arrays highly suitable for stand-off spectroscopy applications.

Raman Fiber Lasers and Amplifiers Based on Multimode Graded-Index Fibers and Their Application to Beam Cleanup

DTIC Science & Technology

2007-06-01

Scattering UV —Ultraviolet xvii List of Symbols Roman Symbols a radius of fiber core Ap,s amplitude of pump and Stokes waves m spA...written directly to the ends of the RFL with an ultraviolet ( UV ) laser [14] or written to separate pieces of fiber and then spliced onto the ends...beam [17,18,19,20,21]. This has led at least one author to suggest the output beam of a Raman fiber amplifier (RFA) will be nearly diffraction

A 532 nm Chaotic Fiber Laser Transmitter for Underwater Lidar

DTIC Science & Technology

2013-04-23

passes through unaffected. 3.1.1.2 Ring Lasers as Oscillators The simplest form of laser is a called a Fabry - Perot laser, in which two reflectors are...insufficient to drive the gain amplifier, and so the circulator-based design was scrapped in favor of the Fabry - Perot , whose efficiency was far better...Bidirectional Ring and Fabry - Perot Lasers The Fabry - Perot laser used two matched FBGs to create a wavelength-selective resonator cavity. First single- and

Formation of short high-power laser radiation pulses in excimer mediums

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Losev, V. F., Sr.; Ivanov, N. G.; Panchenko, Yu. N.

2007-06-01

Presently an excimer mediums continue are examined as one of variants for formation of powerful and over powerful pulses of laser radiation with duration from units of nanosecond up to tens femtosecond. The researches on such powerful installations as "NIKE" (USA) and << SUPER ASHURA >>, Japan) proceed in this direction. The main advantage of excimer mediums is the opportunity to work in a frequency mode, absence of restriction on the size of active area, high uniformity of a gas working medium, high efficiency (up to 10 %) and wide spectral range of laser radiation (KrF, XeCl ~ 2nm, XeF (C-A), Xe IICl ~ 50-100 nanometers). Research in area of high quality laser beams formation in excimer mediums and its amplification in high power amplifiers are carried out the long time in Institute of High Current Electronics SB RAS, Tomsk, Russia. The wide aperture XeCl laser system of MELS-4k is used for these investigations. Last time we take part in program on development of high power excimer laser system with a petawatt level of power. This system supposes the formation and amplification high quality laser beams with different pulse duration from units of nanosecond up to tens femtosecond. We research the possibility of laser beams formation in excimer mediums with ps-ns pulse duration having the low noise and divergence near to diffraction limit. In other hand, we are developing the wide aperture XeF(C-A) amplifier with optical pump on base electron accelerator. According to our estimations of the XeF(C-A) amplifier based on the converter of e-beam energy to the Xe II* fluorescence at 172 nm will allow to obtain up to 100 TW peak power in a 30 fs pulse.

Ring-shaped active mode-locked tunable laser using quantum-dot semiconductor optical amplifier

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Mingxiao; Wang, Yongjun; Liu, Xinyu

2018-03-01

In this paper, a lot of simulations has been done for ring-shaped active mode-locked lasers with quantum-dot semiconductor optical amplifier (QD-SOA). Based on the simulation model of QD-SOA, we discussed about the influence towards mode-locked waveform frequency and pulse caused by QD-SOA maximum mode peak gain, active layer loss coefficient, bias current, incident light pulse, fiber nonlinear coefficient. In the meantime, we also take the tunable performance of the laser into consideration. Results showed QD-SOA a better performance than original semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) in recovery time, line width, and nonlinear coefficients, which makes it possible to output a locked-mode impulse that has a higher impulse power, narrower impulse width as well as the phase is more easily controlled. After a lot of simulations, this laser can realize a 20GHz better locked-mode output pulse after 200 loops, where the power is above 17.5mW, impulse width is less than 2.7ps, moreover, the tunable wavelength range is between 1540nm-1580nm.

Numerical simulation of incoherent optical wave propagation in nonlinear fibers

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fernandez, Arnaud; Balac, Stéphane; Mugnier, Alain; Mahé, Fabrice; Texier-Picard, Rozenn; Chartier, Thierry; Pureur, David

2013-11-01

The present work concerns the study of pulsed laser systems containing a fiber amplifier for boosting optical output power. In this paper, this fiber amplification device is included into a MOPFA laser, a master oscillator coupled with fiber amplifier, usually a cladding-pumped high-power amplifier often based on an ytterbium-doped fiber. An experimental study has established that the observed nonlinear effects (such as Kerr effect, four waves mixing, Raman effect) could behave very differently depending on the characteristics of the optical source emitted by the master laser. However, it has not yet been possible to determine from the experimental data if the statistics of the photons is alone responsible for the various nonlinear scenarios observed. Therefore, we have developed a numerical simulation software for solving the generalized nonlinear Schrödinger equation with a stochastic source term in order to validate the hypothesis that the coherence properties of the master laser are mainly liable for the behavior of the observed nonlinear effects. Contribution to the Topical Issue "Numelec 2012", Edited by Adel Razek.

Diode pumped alkali vapor fiber laser

DOEpatents

Payne, Stephen A.; Beach, Raymond J.; Dawson, Jay W.; Krupke, William F.

2007-10-23

A method and apparatus is provided for producing near-diffraction-limited laser light, or amplifying near-diffraction-limited light, in diode pumped alkali vapor photonic-band-gap fiber lasers or amplifiers. Laser light is both substantially generated and propagated in an alkali gas instead of a solid, allowing the nonlinear and damage limitations of conventional solid core fibers to be circumvented. Alkali vapor is introduced into the center hole of a photonic-band-gap fiber, which can then be pumped with light from a pump laser and operated as an oscillator with a seed beam, or can be configured as an amplifier.

Diode pumped alkali vapor fiber laser

DOEpatents

Payne, Stephen A [Castro Valley, CA; Beach, Raymond J [Livermore, CA; Dawson, Jay W [Livermore, CA; Krupke, William F [Pleasanton, CA

2006-07-26

A method and apparatus is provided for producing near-diffraction-limited laser light, or amplifying near-diffraction-limited light, in diode pumped alkali vapor photonic-band-gap fiber lasers or amplifiers. Laser light is both substantially generated and propagated in an alkali gas instead of a solid, allowing the nonlinear and damage limitations of conventional solid core fibers to be circumvented. Alkali vapor is introduced into the center hole of a photonic-band-gap fiber, which can then be pumped with light from a pump laser and operated as an oscillator with a seed beam, or can be configured as an amplifier.

Laser system using regenerative amplifier

DOEpatents

Emmett, J.L.

1980-03-04

High energy laser system is disclosed using a regenerative amplifier, which relaxes all constraints on laser components other than the intrinsic damage level of matter, so as to enable use of available laser system components. This can be accomplished by use of segmented components, spatial filters, at least one amplifier using solid state or gaseous media, and separated reflector members providing a long round trip time through the regenerative cavity, thereby allowing slower switching and adequate time to clear the spatial filters, etc. The laser system simplifies component requirements and reduces component cost while providing high energy output. 10 figs.

Repetitive output laser system and method using target reflectivity

DOEpatents

Johnson, Roy R.

1978-01-01

An improved laser system and method for implosion of a thermonuclear fuel pellet in which that portion of a laser pulse reflected by the target pellet is utilized in the laser system to initiate a succeeding target implosion, and in which the energy stored in the laser system to amplify the initial laser pulse, but not completely absorbed thereby, is used to amplify succeeding laser pulses initiated by target reflection.

Ultrashort pulse amplification in cryogenically cooled amplifiers

DOEpatents

Backus, Sterling J.; Kapteyn, Henry C.; Murnane, Margaret Mary

2004-10-12

A laser amplifier system amplifies pulses in a single "stage" from .about.10.sup.-9 joules to more than 10.sup.-3 joules, with average power of 1-10 watts, and beam quality M.sup.2 <2. The laser medium is cooled substantially below room temperature, as a means to improve the optical and thermal characteristics of the medium. This is done with the medium inside a sealed, evacuated or purged cell to avoid moisture or other materials condensing on the surface. A "seed" pulse from a separate laser is passed through the laser medium, one or more times, in any of a variety of configurations including single-pass, multiple-pass, and regenerative amplifier configurations.

Investigations of gain redshift in high peak power Ti:sapphire laser systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wu, Fenxiang; Yu, Linpeng; Zhang, Zongxin; Li, Wenkai; Yang, Xiaojun; Wu, Yuanfeng; Li, Shuai; Wang, Cheng; Liu, Yanqi; Lu, Xiaoming; Xu, Yi; Leng, Yuxin

2018-07-01

Gain redshift in high peak power Ti:sapphire laser systems can result in narrowband spectral output and hence lengthen the compressed pulse duration. In order to realize broadband spectral output in 10 PW-class Ti:sapphire lasers, the influence on gain redshift induced by spectral pre-shaping, gain distribution of cascaded amplifiers and Extraction During Pumping (EDP) technique have been investigated. The theoretical and experimental results show that the redshift of output spectrum is sensitive to the spectral pre-shaping and the gain distribution of cascaded amplifiers, while insensitive to the pumping scheme with or without EDP. Moreover, the output spectrum from our future 10 PW Ti:sapphire laser is theoretically analyzed based on the investigations above, which indicates that a Fourier-transform limited (FTL) pulse duration of 21 fs can be achieved just by optimizing the spectral pre-shaping and gain distribution in 10 PW-class Ti:sapphire lasers.

A diode laser-based velocimeter providing point measurements in unseeded flows using modulated filtered Rayleigh scattering (MFRS)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jagodzinski, Jeremy James

2007-12-01

The development to date of a diode-laser based velocimeter providing point-velocity-measurements in unseeded flows using molecular Rayleigh scattering is discussed. The velocimeter is based on modulated filtered Rayleigh scattering (MFRS), a novel variation of filtered Rayleigh scattering (FRS), utilizing modulated absorption spectroscopy techniques to detect a strong absorption of a relatively weak Rayleigh scattered signal. A rubidium (Rb) vapor filter is used to provide the relatively strong absorption; alkali metal vapors have a high optical depth at modest vapor pressures, and their narrow linewidth is ideally suited for high-resolution velocimetry. Semiconductor diode lasers are used to generate the relatively weak Rayleigh scattered signal; due to their compact, rugged construction diode lasers are ideally suited for the environmental extremes encountered in many experiments. The MFRS technique utilizes the frequency-tuning capability of diode lasers to implement a homodyne detection scheme using lock-in amplifiers. The optical frequency of the diode-based laser system used to interrogate the flow is rapidly modulated about a reference frequency in the D2-line of Rb. The frequency modulation is imposed on the Rayleigh scattered light that is collected from the probe volume in the flow under investigation. The collected frequency modulating Rayleigh scattered light is transmitted through a Rb vapor filter before being detected. The detected modulated absorption signal is fed to two lock-in amplifers synchronized with the modulation frequency of the source laser. High levels of background rejection are attained since the lock-ins are both frequency and phase selective. The two lock-in amplifiers extract different Fourier components of the detected modulated absorption signal, which are ratioed to provide an intensity normalized frequency dependent signal from a single detector. A Doppler frequency shift in the collected Rayleigh scattered light due to a change in the velocity of the flow under investigation results in a change in the detected modulated absorption signal. This change in the detected signal provides a quantifiable measure of the Doppler frequency shift, and hence the velocity in the probe volume, provided that the laser source exhibits acceptable levels of frequency stability (determined by the magnitude of the velocities being measured). An extended cavity diode laser (ECDL) in the Littrow configuration provides frequency tunable, relatively narrow-linewidth lasing for the MFRS velocimeter. Frequency stabilization of the ECDL is provided by a proportional-integral-differential (PID) controller based on an error signal in the reference arm of the experiment. The optical power of the Littrow laser source is amplified by an antireflection coated (AR coated) broad stripe diode laser. The single-mode, frequency-modulatable, frequency-stable O(50 mW) of optical power provided by this extended cavity diode laser master oscillator power amplifier (ECDL-MOPA) system provided sufficient scattering signal from a condensing jet of CO2 to implement the MFRS technique in the frequency-locked mode of operation.

Laser Development for Gravitational-Wave Interferometry in Space

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Numata, Kenji; Camp, Jordan

2012-01-01

We are reporting on our development work on laser (master oscillator) and optical amplifier systems for gravitational-wave interferometry in space. Our system is based on the mature, wave-guided optics technologies, which have advantages over bulk, crystal-based, free-space optics. We are investing in a new type of compact, low-noise master oscillator, called the planar-waveguide external cavity diode laser. We made measurements, including those of noise, and performed space-qualification tests.

Integrated Photonic Orbital Angular Momentum Multiplexing and Demultiplexing on Chip

DTIC Science & Technology

2014-10-31

OAM free space coherent communication link testbed. ECL: external cavity laser . EDFA: erbium-doped fiber amplifier. PC: polarization controller. ATT...wave (cw) laser centered at 1540 nm, followed by an erbium-doped fiber amplifier (EDFA), an I/Q modulator, and another EDFA. The I/Q modulator was...communication link testbed. ECL: external cavity laser . EDFA: erbium-doped fiber amplifier. PC: polarization controller. ATT: attenuator. BPF: bandpass filter

Study on the amplifier experiment of end-pumped long pulse slab laser

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jin, Quanwei; Chen, Xiaoming; Jiang, JianFeng; Pang, Yu; Tong, Lixin; Li, Mi; Hu, Hao; Lv, Wenqiang; Gao, Qingsong; Tang, Chun

2018-03-01

The amplifier experiment research of end-pumped long pulse slab laser is developed, the results of out-put energy, optical-optical efficiency and pulse waveform are obtained at different experiment conditions, such as peak pumped power, amplifier power and pumped pulse width. The seed laser is CW fundamental transverse-mode operation fiber laser, the laser medium is composited Nd:YAG slab. Under end-pumped and the 2 passes, the laser obtain 7.65J out-put energy and 43.1% optical-optical efficiency with 45kW peak-pumped power and 386μs pump pulse width. The experimental results provide the basic for the optimization design to high frequency, high energy and high beam-quality slab lasers.

Three-beam coherent combination experiments based on segmented mirrors and measure of phase characteristics of beams passing through Yb-doped fiber amplifier

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yang, Ping; Yang, Ruo fu; Shen, Feng; Ao, Mingwu; Jiang, Wenhan

2009-05-01

Coherent combination is one of the most promising ways to realize high power laser output. A three- laser-beam coherent combination system based on adaptive optics (AO) technique has been set up in our laboratory. In this system, three 1064nm laser beams are placed side-by-side and compressed by two reflective mirrors. An active segmented deformable mirror (DM) is used to compensate the optical path difference (OPD) among three laser beams. The beams are overlapped onto a 2900Hz CCD camera to form an interference pattern while the peak intensity of the interference pattern is taken as the cost function to optimize by a stochastic parallel gradient descent (SPGD) algorithm. SPGD algorithm is realized on a RT-Linux dual-core industrial computer. A series of experiments have been accomplished and experimental results show that both static distorted aberrations in the beams and active distorted aberrations (which are brought in by a hot iron and the frequency is about 5Hz) can be compensated successfully when the gain coefficients and the perturbation amplitude of SPGD are chosed appropriately, thereby three beams can be well combined. For controlling the phase of fiber lasers, the phase characteristics of beams passing through Yb-doped dual-clad fiber amplifier are measured by means of investigating the interference pattern under different output power through experiments. The frequency of phase fluctuation is evaluated through analyzing the fluctuation of power within a 90um aperture of far-field focal spot. Experimental results show that the phase fluctuation frequencies of laser beam transmitted through fiber amplifier are mainly in the range of 100~1500Hz. As a result, to control the phase fluctuation of beams passing through fiber amplifier, the bandwidth of any potential phase control scheme must be greater than 1.5 kilohertz.

Pulse Height Analyzer Interfacing and Computer Programming in the Environmental Laser Propagation Project

DTIC Science & Technology

1976-06-01

United States Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey , California, 1974. 6. Anton , H., Elementary Linear Algebra , John Wiley & Sons, 1973. 7. Parrat, L. G...CONVERTER ln(laser & bias) PULSE HEIGHT ANALYZER © LINEAR AMPLIFIER SAMPLE TRIGGER OSCILLATOR early ln(laser & bias) SCINTILLOMETERS recent BACKGROUND...DEMODULATOR LASER CALIBRATION BOX LASER OR CAL VOLTAGE LOG CONVERTER LN (LASER OR CAL VOLT) LINEAR AMPLIFIER uLN (LASER OR CAL VOLT) PULSE HEIGHTEN ANALYZER V

High Energy, Narrow Linewidth 1572nm Eryb-Fiber Based MOPA for a Multi-Aperture CO2 Trace-Gas Laser Space Transmitter

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Engin, Doruk; Mathason, Brian; Stephen, Mark; Yu, Anthony; Cao, He; Fouron, Jean-Luc; Storm, Mark

2016-01-01

Accurate global measurements of tropospheric CO2 mixing ratios are needed to study CO2 emissions and CO2 exchange with the land and oceans. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) is developing a pulsed lidar approach for an integrated path differential absorption (IPDA) lidar to allow global measurements of atmospheric CO2 column densities from space. Our group has developed, and successfully flown, an airborne pulsed lidar instrument that uses two tunable pulsed laser transmitters allowing simultaneous measurement of a single CO2 absorption line in the 1570 nm band, absorption of an O2 line pair in the oxygen A-band (765 nm), range, and atmospheric backscatter profiles in the same path. Both lasers are pulsed at 10 kHz, and the two absorption line regions are sampled at typically a 300 Hz rate. A space-based version of this lidar must have a much larger lidar power-area product due to the x40 longer range and faster along track velocity compared to airborne instrument. Initial link budget analysis indicated that for a 400 km orbit, a 1.5 m diameter telescope and a 10 second integration time, a 2 mJ laser energy is required to attain the precision needed for each measurement. To meet this energy requirement, we have pursued parallel power scaling efforts to enable space-based lidar measurement of CO2 concentrations. These included a multiple aperture approach consists of multi-element large mode area fiber amplifiers and a single-aperture approach consists of a multi-pass Er:Yb:Phosphate glass based planar waveguide amplifier (PWA). In this paper we will present our laser amplifier design approaches and preliminary results.

Beam quality management by periodic reproduction of wavefront aberrations in end-pumped Nd:YVO₄ laser amplifiers.

PubMed

Liu, Bin; Liu, Chong; Shen, Lifeng; Wang, Chunhua; Ye, Zhibin; Liu, Dong; Xiang, Zhen

2016-04-18

A method for beam quality management is presented in a master oscillator power amplifier (MOPA) using Nd:YVO₄ as the gain medium by extra-cavity periodic reproduction of wavefront aberrations. The wavefront aberration evolution of the intra-cavity beams is investigated for both symmetrical and asymmetrical resonators. The wavefront aberration reproduction process is successfully realized outside the cavity in four-stage amplifiers. In the MOPA with a symmetrical oscillator, the laser power increases linearly and the beam quality hardly changes. In the MOPA with an asymmetrical oscillator, the beam quality is deteriorated after the odd-stage amplifier and is improved after the even-stage amplifier. The wavefront aberration reproduction during the extra-cavity beam propagation in the amplifiers is equivalent to that during the intra-cavity propagation. This solution helps to achieve the effective beam quality management in laser amplifier chains.

Pulsed high-peak-power and single-frequency fibre laser design for LIDAR aircraft safety application

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Liégeois, Flavien; Vercambre, Clément; Hernandez, Yves; Salhi, Mohamed; Giannone, Domenico

2006-09-01

Laser wind velocimeters work by monitoring the Doppler shift induced on the backscattered light by aerosols that are present in the air. Recently there has been a growing interest in the scientific community for developing systems operating at wavelengths near 1.5 μm and based on all-fibre lasers configuration. In this paper, we propose a new all-fibre laser source that is suitable for Doppler velocimetry in aircraft safety applications. The all-fibre laser has been specifically conceived for aircraft safety application. Our prototype has a conveniently narrow linewidth (9 kHz) and is modulated and amplified through an all fibre Master Oscillator Power Amplifier (MOPA) configuration. According to the measurements, we performed the final characteristics of the laser consist in a maximum peak power of 2.7 kW and an energy of 27 μJ energy per pulses of 10 ns at 30 kHz repetition rate. The only limiting factor of these performances is the Stimulated Brillouin Scattering.

Fourier plane image amplifier

DOEpatents

Hackel, Lloyd A.; Hermann, Mark R.; Dane, C. Brent; Tiszauer, Detlev H.

1995-01-01

A solid state laser is frequency tripled to 0.3 .mu.m. A small portion of the laser is split off and generates a Stokes seed in a low power oscillator. The low power output passes through a mask with the appropriate hole pattern. Meanwhile, the bulk of the laser output is focused into a larger stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) amplifier. The low power beam is directed through the same cell in the opposite direction. The majority of the amplification takes place at the focus which is the fourier transform plane of the mask image. The small holes occupy large area at the focus and thus are preferentially amplified. The amplified output is now imaged onto the multichip module where the holes are drilled. Because of the fourier plane amplifier, only .about.1/10th the power of a competitive system is needed. This concept allows less expensive masks to be used in the process and requires much less laser power.

Fourier plane image amplifier

DOEpatents

Hackel, L.A.; Hermann, M.R.; Dane, C.B.; Tiszauer, D.H.

1995-12-12

A solid state laser is frequency tripled to 0.3 {micro}m. A small portion of the laser is split off and generates a Stokes seed in a low power oscillator. The low power output passes through a mask with the appropriate hole pattern. Meanwhile, the bulk of the laser output is focused into a larger stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) amplifier. The low power beam is directed through the same cell in the opposite direction. The majority of the amplification takes place at the focus which is the fourier transform plane of the mask image. The small holes occupy large area at the focus and thus are preferentially amplified. The amplified output is now imaged onto the multichip module where the holes are drilled. Because of the fourier plane amplifier, only about 1/10th the power of a competitive system is needed. This concept allows less expensive masks to be used in the process and requires much less laser power. 1 fig.

Ultra-flat and ultra-broadband supercontinuum generation in photonic crystal fiber pumped by noise-like pulses

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chen, Yewang; Ruan, Shuangchen; Wu, Xu; Guo, Chunyu; Liu, Weiqi; Yu, Jun; Luo, Ruoheng; Ren, Xikui; Zhu, Yihuai

2017-02-01

An ultra-flat and ultra-broadband supercontinuum (SC) is demonstrated in a 4-m photonic crystal fiber (PCF) pumped by an Yb-doped all-fiber noise-like pulses (NLP) laser. The Yb-doped fiber laser is seeded by a SESAM mode-locked fiber laser, and amplified by cascaded fiber amplifiers, with its center wavelength, repetition frequency and the average noise-like bunch duration of 1064.52 nm, 50.18 MHz, 9.14 ps, respectively. Pumped by this NLP laser, the SC source has a 3 dB bandwidth and a 7 dB bandwidth (ignore the pump residue) of 1440 nm and 1790 nm at the maximum average output power of 6.94 W. To the best of our knowledge, this flatness is significantly prominent for the performance of PCF-based SC sources.

Laser spark distribution and ignition system

DOEpatents

Woodruff, Steven [Morgantown, WV; McIntyre, Dustin L [Morgantown, WV

2008-09-02

A laser spark distribution and ignition system that reduces the high power optical requirements for use in a laser ignition and distribution system allowing for the use of optical fibers for delivering the low peak energy pumping pulses to a laser amplifier or laser oscillator. An optical distributor distributes and delivers optical pumping energy from an optical pumping source to multiple combustion chambers incorporating laser oscillators or laser amplifiers for inducing a laser spark within a combustion chamber. The optical distributor preferably includes a single rotating mirror or lens which deflects the optical pumping energy from the axis of rotation and into a plurality of distinct optical fibers each connected to a respective laser media or amplifier coupled to an associated combustion chamber. The laser spark generators preferably produce a high peak power laser spark, from a single low power pulse. The laser spark distribution and ignition system has application in natural gas fueled reciprocating engines, turbine combustors, explosives and laser induced breakdown spectroscopy diagnostic sensors.

Design of high-capacity fiber-optic transport systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Liao, Zhi Ming

2001-08-01

We study the design of fiber-optic transport systems and the behavior of fiber amplifiers/lasers with the aim of achieving higher capacities with larger amplifier spacing. Solitons are natural candidates for transmitting short pulses for high-capacity fiber-optic networks because of its innate ability to use two of fiber's main defects, fiber dispersion and fiber nonlinearity to balance each other. In order for solitons to retain its dynamic nature, amplifiers must be placed periodically to restore powers to compensate for fiber loss. Variational analysis is used to study the long-term stability of a periodical- amplifier system. A new regime of operation is identified which allows the use of a much longer amplifier spacing. If optical fibers are the blood vessels of an optical communication system, then the optical amplifier based on erbium-doped fiber is the heart. Optical communication systems can avoid the use of costly electrical regenerators to maintain system performance by being able to optically amplify the weakened signals. The length of amplifier spacing is largely determined by the gain excursion experienced by the solitons. We propose, model, and demonstrate a distributed erbium-doped fiber amplifier which can drastically reduce the amount of gain excursion experienced by the solitons, therefore allowing a much longer amplifier spacing and superior stability. Dispersion management techniques have become extremely valuable tools in the design of fiber-optic communication systems. We have studied in depth the advantage of different arnplification schemes (lumped and distributed) for various dispersion compensation techniques. We measure the system performance through the Q factor to evaluate the added advantage of effective noise figure and smaller gain excursion. An erbium-doped fiber laser has been constructed and characterized in an effort to develop a test bed to study transmission systems. The presence of mode-partition noise in an erbium-doped fiber laser was experimentally demonstrated. A numerical model has been developed using the Langevin rate equations and its predictions are in qualitative agreement with experimental data.

Picosecond laser with 11 W output power at 1342 nm based on composite multiple doping level Nd:YVO4 crystal

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rodin, Aleksej M.; Grishin, Mikhail; Michailovas, Andrejus

2016-01-01

We report results of design and optimization of high average output power picosecond and nanosecond laser operating at 1342 nm wavelength. Developed for selective micromachining, this DPSS laser is comprised of master oscillator, regenerative amplifier and output pulse control module. Passively mode-locked by means of semiconductor saturable absorber mirror and pumped with 808 nm wavelength Nd:YVO4 master oscillator emits 12.5 ps pulses at repetition rate of 55 MHz with average output power of ∼100 mW. The four-pass confocal delay line forms a longest part of the oscillator cavity in order to suppress thermo-mechanical misalignment. Picked from the train seed pulses were injected to the cavity of regenerative amplifier based on composite Nd:YVO4 crystal with diffusion-bonded segments of multiple Nd doping concentration end-pumped at 880 nm wavelength. Laser produces pulses of ∼13 ps duration at 300 kHz repetition rate with average output power of 11 W and nearly diffraction limited beam quality of M2∼1.03. Attained high peak power ∼2.8 MW facilitates conversion to the 2nd, 3rd and 6th harmonics at 671 nm, 447 nm and 224 nm wavelengths with 80%, 50% and 15% efficiency respectively. Without seeding the regenerative amplifier transforms to electro-optically cavity-dumped Q-switched laser providing 10 ns output pulses at high repetition rates with beam propagation factor of M2∼1.06.

Intensity noise properties of a compact laser device based on a miniaturized MOPA system for spectroscopic applications

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Baumgärtner, S.; Juhl, S.; Opalevs, D.; Sahm, A.; Hofmann, J.; Leisching, P.; Paschke, K.

2018-02-01

We present a novel compact laser device based on a semiconductor master-oscillator power-amplifier (MOPA) emitting at 772 nm, suitable for quantum optic and spectroscopy. The optical performance of the laser device is characterized. For miniaturized lasers the thermal management is challenging, we therefore perform thermal simulations and measurements. The first demonstrator is emitting more than 3 W optical power with a linewidth below 2lMHz. Using this MOPA design also compact devices for quantum optics (e.g. rubidium atomic clock) and seed lasers for frequency conversion can be realized [1].

Preliminary studies of radiation coupling between remote soft X-ray laser amplifiers

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cairns, G.; Lewis, C. L. S.; Macphee, A. G.; Neely, D.; Holden, M.; Krishnan, J.; Tallents, G. J.; Key, M. H.; Norreys, P. N.; Smith, C. G.; Zhang, J.; Holden, P. B.; Pert, G. J.; Plowes, J.; Ramsden, S. A.

1994-01-01

Coupling of a soft X-ray laser beam with a relaying concave mirror in a sequentially pumped amplifier geometry using the Ne-like Ge system has been studied experimentally. Preliminary observations indicate an increase in the spatial coherence of the amplified relayed beam. In addition, near-field imaging of one of the amplifier plasmas shows a double-lobed intensity pattern of the emergent beam indicating refractive guiding of the amplified beam with components both normal and tangential to the target surface.

Laser-Based Measurements of OH, Temperature, and Water Vapor Concentration in a Hydrocarbon-Fueled Scramjet (POSTPRINT)

DTIC Science & Technology

2008-07-01

hours. The detector signals are post-processed with a software lock-in amplifier to recover the WMS-1f and WMS-2f signals. The TDLAS sensor utilizes...Figure 6. Schematic of TDLAS sensor for temperature and water vapor concentration. Fiber Diode lasers Grating Fiber Detectors Demultiplexer Multiplexer...within the combustor. Tunable diode laser- based absorption spectroscopy ( TDLAS ) is used to measure water vapor concentration and static temperature near

DNA-based dye lasers: progress in this half a decade

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kawabe, Yutaka

2016-09-01

After the invention of DNA-surfactant films and the proposal of dye doping into them by Ogata, many applications were demonstrated. Among them tunable thin film laser is one of the most attractive functional devices. Development and progress in DNA based lasers after the first observation of amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) by us has been reviewed in a former paper published in 2011.1 In this proceeding, progresses in the subsequent half a decade are described.

Spectrally tunable, temporally shaped parametric front end to seed high-energy Nd:glass laser systems

DOE PAGES

Dorrer, C.; Consentino, A.; Cuffney, R.; ...

2017-10-18

Here, we describe a parametric-amplification–based front end for seeding high-energy Nd:glass laser systems. The front end delivers up to 200 mJ by parametric amplification in 2.5-ns flat-in-time pulses tunable over more than 15 nm. Spectral tunability over a range larger than what is typically achieved by laser media at similar energy levels is implemented to investigate cross-beam energy transfer in multibeam target experiments. The front-end operation is simulated to explain the amplified signal’s sensitivity to the input pump and signal. A large variety of amplified waveforms are generated by closed-loop pulse shaping. Various properties and limitations of this front endmore » are discussed.« less

Spectrally tunable, temporally shaped parametric front end to seed high-energy Nd:glass laser systems

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Dorrer, C.; Consentino, A.; Cuffney, R.

Here, we describe a parametric-amplification–based front end for seeding high-energy Nd:glass laser systems. The front end delivers up to 200 mJ by parametric amplification in 2.5-ns flat-in-time pulses tunable over more than 15 nm. Spectral tunability over a range larger than what is typically achieved by laser media at similar energy levels is implemented to investigate cross-beam energy transfer in multibeam target experiments. The front-end operation is simulated to explain the amplified signal’s sensitivity to the input pump and signal. A large variety of amplified waveforms are generated by closed-loop pulse shaping. Various properties and limitations of this front endmore » are discussed.« less

Terahertz lasers and amplifiers based on resonant optical phonon scattering to achieve population inversion

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hu, Qing (Inventor); Williams, Benjamin S. (Inventor)

2007-01-01

The present invention provides quantum cascade lasers and amplifier that operate in a frequency range of about 1 Terahertz to about 10 Terahertz. In one aspect, a quantum cascade laser of the invention includes a semiconductor heterostructure that provides a plurality of lasing modules connected in series. Each lasing module includes a plurality of quantum well structure that collectively generate at least an upper lasing state, a lower lasing state, and a relaxation state such that the upper and the lower lasing states are separated by an energy corresponding to an optical frequency in a range of about 1 to about 10 Terahertz. The lower lasing state is selectively depopulated via resonant LO-phonon scattering of electrons into the relaxation state.

Terahertz lasers and amplifiers based on resonant optical phonon scattering to achieve population inversion

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Williams, Benjamin S. (Inventor); Hu, Qing (Inventor)

2009-01-01

The present invention provides quantum cascade lasers and amplifier that operate in a frequency range of about 1 Terahertz to about 10 Terahertz. In one aspect, a quantum cascade laser of the invention includes a semiconductor heterostructure that provides a plurality of lasing modules connected in series. Each lasing module includes a plurality of quantum well structure that collectively generate at least an upper lasing state, a lower lasing state, and a relaxation state such that the upper and the lower lasing states are separated by an energy corresponding to an optical frequency in a range of about 1 to about 10 Terahertz. The lower lasing state is selectively depopulated via resonant LO-phonon scattering of electrons into the relaxation state.

Development of cryogenic Yb:YAG ceramics amplifier for over 100 J DPSSL

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sekine, T.; Takeuchi, Y.; Kurita, T.; Hatano, Y.; Muramatsu, Y.; Mizuta, Y.; Kabeya, Y.; Tamaoki, Y.; Kato, Y.

2017-02-01

A high gain cryogenic Yb:YAG ceramics laser amplifier for a high energy laser amplification system has been developed. The laser system consists of a fiber oscillator and two stage LD pumped cryogenic Yb:YAG ceramic amplifiers. The preamplifier stage has a 5-pass laser amplifier head and the main amplifier stage has a 2-pass laser amplifier head, respectively. The preamplifier obtained an average stored energy density of 0.836 J/cc and small-signal gain (SSG) of 60 with 33 J of stored energy. Then about 1 μJ of input energy from the oscillator was amplified to 3.6 J. The main amplifier head had four pumping LD modules which irradiated the Yb:YAG ceramics directly. This original angular pumping scheme ideally increases irradiation intensity and homogenizes irradiation pattern on the Yb:YAG ceramics due to superposition effect of all of the LD modules. A maximum peak power of over 100 kW was generated by one LD module. When the output energy of the LD modules was 450 J, a 20 of SSG at single pass was obtained. Stored energy density was evaluated to 0.429 J/cc when 148 J energy was stored in 346 cc of Yb:YAG ceramics. As a result, a 55-J output energy with 10 ns pulse duration was demonstrated at a pumping energy of 450 J. The optical-tooptical conversion efficiency which includes transmissivity of the LD modules was 12 %. The extraction efficiency was estimated to 37%.

Advances in high power linearly polarized fiber laser and its application

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhou, Pu; Huang, Long; Ma, Pengfei; Xu, Jiangming; Su, Rongtao; Wang, Xiaolin

2017-10-01

Fiber lasers are now attracting more and more research interest due to their advantages in efficiency, beam quality and flexible operation. Up to now, most of the high power fiber lasers have random distributed polarization state. Linearlypolarized (LP) fiber lasers, which could find wide application potential in coherent detection, coherent/spectral beam combining, nonlinear frequency conversion, have been a research focus in recent years. In this paper, we will present a general review on the achievements of various kinds of high power linear-polarized fiber laser and its application. The recent progress in our group, including power scaling by using power amplifier with different mechanism, high power linearly polarized fiber laser with diversified properties, and various applications of high power linear-polarized fiber laser, are summarized. We have achieved 100 Watt level random distributed feedback fiber laser, kilowatt level continuous-wave (CW) all-fiber polarization-maintained fiber amplifier, 600 watt level average power picosecond polarization-maintained fiber amplifier and 300 watt level average power femtosecond polarization-maintained fiber amplifier. In addition, high power linearly polarized fiber lasers have been successfully applied in 5 kilowatt level coherent beam combining, structured light field and ultrasonic generation.

Over 10-watt pico-second diffraction-limited output from a Nd:YVO4 slab amplifier with a phase conjugate mirror.

PubMed

Ojima, Yasukuni; Nawata, Kouji; Omatsu, Takashige

2005-10-31

We have produced a high beam quality pico-second laser based on a continuous-wave diode pumped Nd:YVO4 slab amplifier with a photorefractive phase conjugate mirror. 12.8W diffraction-limited output with a pulse width of 8.7ps was obtained.

New amplifying laser concept for inertial fusion driver

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mourou, G. A.; Labaune, C.; Hulin, D.; Galvanauskas, A.

2008-05-01

This paper presents a new amplifying laser concept designed to produce high energy in either short or long pulses using coherent or incoherent addition of few millions fibers. These are called respectively CAN for Coherent Amplification Network and FAN for Fiber Amplification Network. The fibers would be large core or Large Mode Area (LMA) which have demonstrated up to 10, mJ output energy per fiber1. Such a system could meet the driver criteria of Inertial Fusion Energy (IFE) power plants based on Inertial Confinement Fusion (ICF), in particular high efficiency and high repetition rate.

High energy, narrow linewidth 1572nm ErYb-fiber based MOPA for a multi-aperture CO2 trace-gas laser space transmitter

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Engin, Doruk; Mathason, Brian; Stephen, Mark; Yu, Anthony; Cao, He; Fouron, Jean-Luc; Storm, Mark

2016-03-01

A cladding-pumped, LMA ErYb fiber-based, amplifier is presented for use in a LIDAR transmitter for remote sensing of atmospheric CO2 from space. The amplifier is optimized for high peak power, high efficiency, and narrow linewidth operation at 1572.3nm. Using highly reliable COTS components, the amplifier achieves 0.5kW peak power (440uJ pulse energy), 3.3W average power with transform limited (TL) linewidth and M2<1.3. The power amplifier supports a 30% increase in pulse energy when linewidth is increased to 100MHz. A preliminary conductively cooled laser optical module (LOM) concept has size 9x10x1.25 in (113 in3) and estimated weight of 7.2lb (3.2 kg). Energy scaling with pulse width up to 645uJ, 1.5usec is demonstrated. A novel doubleclad ErYb LMA fiber (30/250um) with high pump absorption (6 dB/m at 915nm) was designed, fabricated, and characterized for power scaling. The upgraded power amplifier achieves 0.8kW peak power (720uJ pulse energy) 5.4W average power with TL linewidth and M2<1.5.

Method for generating high-energy and high repetition rate laser pulses from CW amplifiers

DOEpatents

Zhang, Shukui

2013-06-18

A method for obtaining high-energy, high repetition rate laser pulses simultaneously using continuous wave (CW) amplifiers is described. The method provides for generating micro-joule level energy in pico-second laser pulses at Mega-hertz repetition rates.

Modulated Pulsed Laser Sources for Imaging Lidars

DTIC Science & Technology

2007-10-01

doped PM fiber . The ytterbium ions in the fiber are cladding-pumped to their excited states using four, 6-Watt multimode lasers at 976 nm. Yh-dop...next amplified using a fiber amplifier to an average power of 10-15 Watts. A highly efficient, periodically poled nonlinear optical material will be...establish the feasibility of both pulsing a 1064 nm laser to produce enough average power to successfully seed a Yb- doped fiber amplifier so it will

High-speed carrier-envelope phase drift detection of amplified laser pulses.

PubMed

Fordell, T; Miranda, M; Arnold, C L; L'Huillier, A

2011-11-21

An instrument for measuring carrier-envelope phase (CEP) drift of amplified femtosecond laser pulses at repetition rates up to the 100-kHz regime is presented. The device can be used for real-time pulse labeling and it could also enable single-loop CEP control of future high-repetition rate laser amplifiers. The scheme is demonstrated by measuring the CEP drift of a 1-kHz source. © 2011 Optical Society of America

Laser-Powered Thrusters for High Efficiency Variable Specific Impulse Missions (Preprint)

DTIC Science & Technology

2007-04-10

technology. However, a laser-ablation propulsion engine using a set of diode-pumped glass fiber amplifiers with a total of 350-W optical power can...in a single device using low-mass diode-pumped glass fiber laser amplifiers to operate in either long- or short-pulse regimes at will. Adequate fiber...pulsewidth glass fiber oscillator-amplifiers, rather than the diodes used in the µ LPT, to achieve Table 2. Demonstrated technology basis Ablation Fuel Gold

Numerical analysis of amplification of picosecond pulses in a THL-100 laser system with an increase in the pump energy of the XeF(C – A) amplifier

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yastremskii, A. G.; Ivanov, N. G.; Losev, V. F.

2018-03-01

Energy characteristics of laser radiation with a pulse width of 50 ps at an elevated pump energy of the XeF(C – A) amplifier of a hybrid THL-100 laser system are analysed numerically. The dynamics of the change in the energy and maximum intensity of laser radiation with an increase in the pump energy of the XeF(C – A) amplifier from 270 to 400 J is investigated. The results of studying the influence of the input beam divergence on the energy characteristics of the output beam are presented. It is shown that, for the existing system of mirrors, an increase in the pump energy to 400 J leads to an increase in the output energy from 3.2 to 5.5 J at a maximum radiation intensity of 57 GW cm-2. A system of amplifier mirrors with 27 laser beam passes and enlarged divergence angle of the amplified beam is considered. Theoretically, the proposed system of mirrors allows one to increase the laser pulse energy to 7.5 J at a maximum intensity of no more than 14.8 GW cm-2. The calculated efficiency of the conversion of the pump energy absorbed in the amplifier gas chamber into the lasing energy exceeds 3% in this regime.

Hydrodynamic study of plasma amplifiers for soft-x-ray lasers: a transition in hydrodynamic behavior for plasma columns with widths ranging from 20 μm to 2 mm.

PubMed

Oliva, Eduardo; Zeitoun, Philippe; Velarde, Pedro; Fajardo, Marta; Cassou, Kevin; Ros, David; Sebban, Stephan; Portillo, David; le Pape, Sebastien

2010-11-01

Plasma-based seeded soft-x-ray lasers have the potential to generate high energy and highly coherent short pulse beams. Due to their high density, plasmas created by the interaction of an intense laser with a solid target should store the highest amount of energy density among all plasma amplifiers. Our previous numerical work with a two-dimensional (2D) adaptive mesh refinement hydrodynamic code demonstrated that careful tailoring of plasma shapes leads to a dramatic enhancement of both soft-x-ray laser output energy and pumping efficiency. Benchmarking of our 2D hydrodynamic code in previous experiments demonstrated a high level of confidence, allowing us to perform a full study with the aim of the way for 10-100 μJ seeded soft-x-ray lasers. In this paper, we describe in detail the mechanisms that drive the hydrodynamics of plasma columns. We observed transitions between narrow plasmas, where very strong bidimensional flow prevents them from storing energy, to large plasmas that store a high amount of energy. Millimeter-sized plasmas are outstanding amplifiers, but they have the limitation of transverse lasing. In this paper, we provide a preliminary solution to this problem.

Pulsed hybrid dual wavelength Y-branch-DFB laser-tapered amplifier system suitable for water vapor detection at 965 nm with 16 W peak power

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Vu, Thi N.; Klehr, Andreas; Sumpf, Bernd; Hoffmann, Thomas; Liero, Armin; Tränkle, Günther

2016-03-01

A master oscillator power amplifier system emitting alternatingly at two neighbored wavelengths around 965 nm is presented. As master oscillator (MO) a Y-branch DFB-laser is used. The two branches, which can be individually controlled, deliver the two wavelengths needed for a differential absorption measurement of water vapor. Adjusting the current through the DFB sections, the wavelength can be adjusted with respect to the targeted either "on" or "off" resonance, respectively wavelength λon or wavelength λoff. The emission of this laser is amplified in a tapered amplifier (TA). The ridge waveguide section of the TA acts as optical gate to generate short pulses with duration of 8 ns at a repetition rate of 25 kHz, the flared section is used for further amplification to reach peak powers up to 16 W suitable for micro-LIDAR (Light Detection and Ranging). The necessary pulse current supply user a GaN-transistor based driver electronics placed close to the power amplifier (PA). The spectral properties of the emission of the MO are preserved by the PA. A spectral line width smaller than 10 pm and a side mode suppression ratio (SMSR) of 37 dB are measured. These values meet the demands for water vapor absorption measurements under atmospheric conditions.

Angle amplifier based on multiplexed volume holographic gratings

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cao, Liangcai; Zhao, Yifei; He, Qingsheng; Jin, Guofan

2008-03-01

Angle amplifier of laser beam scanner is a widely used device in optical systems. Volume holographic optical elements can be applied in the angle amplifier. Compared with the traditional angle amplifier, it has the advantages of high angle resolution, high diffraction efficiency, small size, and high angle magnification and flexible design. Bragg anglewavelength- compensating recording method is introduced. Because of the Bragg compensatory relation between angle and wavelength, this device could be recorded at another wavelength. The design of the angle amplifier recording at the wavelength of 514.2nm for the working wavelength of 632.8nm is described. An optical setup for recording the angle amplifier device is designed and discussed. Experimental results in the photorefractive crystal Fe:LiNbO 3 demonstrate the feasibility of the angle amplifier scheme.

KrF laser amplifier with phase-conjugate Brillouin retroreflectors.

PubMed

Gower, M C

1982-09-01

We have demonstrated the use of phase-conjugate stimulated Brillouin scattering mirrors to produce high-quality, short-pulse KrF laser beams from angular multiplexed and regenerative amplifiers. The mirror was also shown to isolate systems optically from amplifier spontaneous emission. Automatic alignment of targets using this mirror as a retroreflector was also demonstrated.

20 mJ, 1 ps Yb:YAG Thin-disk Regenerative Amplifier

PubMed Central

Alismail, Ayman; Wang, Haochuan; Brons, Jonathan; Fattahi, Hanieh

2017-01-01

This is a report on a 100 W, 20 mJ, 1 ps Yb:YAG thin-disk regenerative amplifier. A homemade Yb:YAG thin-disk, Kerr-lens mode-locked oscillator with turn-key performance and microjoule-level pulse energy is used to seed the regenerative chirped-pulse amplifier. The amplifier is placed in airtight housing. It operates at room temperature and exhibits stable operation at a 5 kHz repetition rate, with a pulse-to-pulse stability less than 1%. By employing a 1.5 mm-thick beta barium borate crystal, the frequency of the laser output is doubled to 515 nm, with an average power of 70 W, which corresponds to an optical-to-optical efficiency of 70%. This superior performance makes the system an attractive pump source for optical parametric chirped-pulse amplifiers in the near-infrared and mid-infrared spectral range. Combining the turn-key performance and the superior stability of the regenerative amplifier, the system facilitates the generation of a broadband, CEP-stable seed. Providing the seed and pump of the optical parametric chirped-pulse amplification (OPCPA) from one laser source eliminates the demand of active temporal synchronization between these pulses. This work presents a detailed guide to set up and operate a Yb:YAG thin-disk regenerative amplifier, based on chirped-pulse amplification (CPA), as a pump source for an optical parametric chirped-pulse amplifier. PMID:28745636

Dye laser amplifier including a dye cell contained within a support vessel

DOEpatents

Davin, James

1992-01-01

A large (high flow rate) dye laser amplifier in which a continous replenished supply of dye is excited by a first light beam, specifically a copper vapor laser beam, in order to amplify the intensity of a second different light beam, specifically a dye beam, passing through the dye is disclosed herein. This amplifier includes a dye cell defining a dye chamber through which a continuous stream of dye is caused to pass at a flow rate of greater than 30 gallons/minute at a static pressure greater than 150 pounds/square inch and a specifically designed support vessel for containing the dye cell.

High pulse energy sub-nanosecond Tm-doped fiber laser

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cserteg, Andras; Guillemet, Sebastien; Hernandez, Yves; Giannone, Domenico

2012-02-01

We report a core pumped thulium-doped fiber amplifier that generates 1.4 μJ pulses at 1980 nm with a repetition rate of 3.6 MHz preserving the original spectral bandwidth of the oscillator. The amplifier chain is seeded by a passively modelocked fiber laser with 5 mW output power and the pulses are stretched to 800 picoseconds. The amplifier is core pumped by a single mode erbium fiber laser. The slope efficiency is 35%. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first demonstration of sub nanosecond pulses with energies higher than 1 μJ coming out of a thulium-doped fiber amplifier.

Laser Development for Interferometry in Space

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Numata, Kenji; Camp, Jordan

2012-01-01

We are developing a laser (master oscillator) and optical amplifier for interferometric space missions, including the gravitational-wave missions NGO and OpTIIX experiment on the international space station. Our system is based on optical fiber and semiconductor laser technologies, which have evolved dramatically in the past decade. We will report on the latest status of the development work, including noise measurements and space qualification tests.

Toward compact and ultra-intense laser-based soft x-ray lasers

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sebban, S.; Depresseux, A.; Oliva, E.; Gautier, J.; Tissandier, F.; Nejdl, J.; Kozlova, M.; Maynard, G.; Goddet, J. P.; Tafzi, A.; Lifschitz, A.; Kim, H. T.; Jacquemot, S.; Rousseau, P.; Zeitoun, P.; Rousse, A.

2018-01-01

We report here recent work on an optical field ionized (OFI), high-order harmonic-seeded EUV laser. The amplifying medium is a plasma of nickel-like krypton obtained by OFI when focusing a 1 J, 30 fs, circularly-polarized, infrared pulse into a krypton-filled gas cell or krypton gas jet. The lasing transition is the 3d94d (J = 0) → 3d94p (J = 1) transition of Ni-like krypton ions at 32.8 nm and is pumped by collisions with hot electrons. The gain dynamics was probed by seeding the amplifier with a high-order harmonic pulse at different delays. The gain duration monotonically decreased from 7 ps to an unprecedented shortness of 450 fs full width at half-maximum as the amplification peak rose from 150 to 1200 with an increase of the plasma density from 3 × 1018 to 1.2 × 1020 cm-3. The integrated energy of the EUV laser pulse was also measured, and found to be around 2 μJ. It is to be noted that in the ASE mode, longer amplifiers were achieved (up to 2 cm), yielding EUV outputs up to 14 μJ.

Dispersion-based Fresh-slice Scheme for Free-Electron Lasers

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Guetg, Marc

The Fresh-slice technique improved the performance of several Self-Amplified Spontaneous Emission Free-Electron laser schemes by granting selective control on the temporal lasing slice without spoiling the other electron bunch slices. So far, the implementation required a special insertion device to create the beam yaw, called dechirper. We demonstrate a novel scheme to enable Freshslice operation based on electron energy chirp and orbit dispersion that can be implemented at any free-electron laser facility without additional hardware.

Design update and recent results of the Apollon 10 PW facility

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Le Garrec, B.; Papadopoulos, D. N.; Le Blanc, C.; Zou, J. P.; Chériaux, G.; Georges, P.; Druon, F.; Martin, L.; Fréneaux, L.; Beluze, A.; Lebas, N.; Mathieu, F.; Audebert, P.

2017-05-01

In this paper we are giving a summary of the Apollon 10 PW facility laser design together with updated laser performance. The Apollon facility is currently under construction in France. The APOLLON laser system is a laser designed for delivering pulses as short as 15 fs (10-15 s) with an energy exceeding 150 Joules on target. The peak power delivered by this laser system will be 10 Petawatts (1016W). The Apollon laser system will be delivering 4 beams: one 10 PW beam (F1 beam 400 mm diameter), one 1 PW beam (F2 beam 140 mm diameter) and two additional probe beams (F3 and F4) at a repetition rate of 1 shot per minute. The laser system is based on Ti-sapphire amplifiers pumped by frequency doubled solid-state lasers. The repetition rate of the high energy part will be 1 shot per minute. The main beam at the output of the last amplifier will be split and dispatched to two experimental areas. The main laser beam is delivering 30 J before compression at a repetition rate of 1 shot per minute and we are currently increasing to get 100J.

Cleanliness for the NIF 1ω Laser Amplifiers

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Spaeth, M. L.; Manes, K. R.; Honig, J.

During the years before the National Ignition Facility (NIF) laser system, a set of generally accepted cleaning procedures had been developed for the large 1ω amplifiers of an inertial confinement fusion laser, and up until 1999 similar procedures were planned for NIF. Several parallel sets of test results were obtained from 1992 to 1999 for large amplifiers using these accepted cleaning procedures in the Beamlet physics test bed and in the Amplifier Module Prototype Laboratory (AMPLAB), a four-slab-high prototype large amplifier structure. Both of these showed damage to their slab surfaces that, if projected to operating conditions for NIF, wouldmore » lead to higher than acceptable slab-refurbishment rates. Finally, this study tracks the search for the smoking gun origin of this damage and describes the solution employed in NIF for avoiding flashlamp-induced aerosol damage to its 1ω amplifier slabs.« less

Pulse laser imaging amplifier for advanced ladar systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Khizhnyak, Anatoliy; Markov, Vladimir; Tomov, Ivan; Murrell, David

2016-05-01

Security measures sometimes require persistent surveillance of government, military and public areas Borders, bridges, sport arenas, airports and others are often surveilled with low-cost cameras. Their low-light performance can be enhanced with laser illuminators; however various operational scenarios may require a low-intensity laser illumination with the object-scattered light intensity lower than the sensitivity of the Ladar image detector. This paper discusses a novel type of high-gain optical image amplifier. The approach enables time-synchronization of the incoming and amplifying signals with accuracy <= 1 ns. The technique allows the incoming signal to be amplified without the need to match the input spectrum to the cavity modes. Instead, the incoming signal is accepted within the spectral band of the amplifier. We have gauged experimentally the performance of the amplifier with a 40 dB gain and an angle of view 20 mrad.

Cleanliness for the NIF 1ω Laser Amplifiers

DOE PAGES

Spaeth, M. L.; Manes, K. R.; Honig, J.

2017-03-23

During the years before the National Ignition Facility (NIF) laser system, a set of generally accepted cleaning procedures had been developed for the large 1ω amplifiers of an inertial confinement fusion laser, and up until 1999 similar procedures were planned for NIF. Several parallel sets of test results were obtained from 1992 to 1999 for large amplifiers using these accepted cleaning procedures in the Beamlet physics test bed and in the Amplifier Module Prototype Laboratory (AMPLAB), a four-slab-high prototype large amplifier structure. Both of these showed damage to their slab surfaces that, if projected to operating conditions for NIF, wouldmore » lead to higher than acceptable slab-refurbishment rates. Finally, this study tracks the search for the smoking gun origin of this damage and describes the solution employed in NIF for avoiding flashlamp-induced aerosol damage to its 1ω amplifier slabs.« less

Direct solar-pumped iodine laser amplifier

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Han, Kwang S.; Kim, K. H.; Stock, L. V.

1986-01-01

In order to evaluate the feasibility of the solar pumped dye laser, the parametric study of a dye laser amplifier pumped by a solar simulator and flashlamp was carried out, and the amplifier gains were measured at various pump beam irradiances on the dye cell. Rhodamine 6G was considered as a candidate for the solar pumped laser because of its good utilization of the solar spectrum and high quantum efficiency. The measurement shows that a solar concentration of 20,000 is required to reach the threshold of the dye. The work to construct a kinetic model algorithm which predicts the output parameter of laser was progressed. The kinetic model was improved such that there is good agreement between the theoretical model and experimental data for the systems defined previously as flashlamp pumped laser oscillator, and the long path length solar pumped laser.

[Absorption spectrum of Quasi-continuous laser modulation demodulation method].

PubMed

Shao, Xin; Liu, Fu-Gui; Du, Zhen-Hui; Wang, Wei

2014-05-01

A software phase-locked amplifier demodulation method is proposed in order to demodulate the second harmonic (2f) signal of quasi-continuous laser wavelength modulation spectroscopy (WMS) properly, based on the analysis of its signal characteristics. By judging the effectiveness of the measurement data, filter, phase-sensitive detection, digital filtering and other processing, the method can achieve the sensitive detection of quasi-continuous signal The method was verified by using carbon dioxide detection experiments. The WMS-2f signal obtained by the software phase-locked amplifier and the high-performance phase-locked amplifier (SR844) were compared simultaneously. The results show that the Allan variance of WMS-2f signal demodulated by the software phase-locked amplifier is one order of magnitude smaller than that demodulated by SR844, corresponding two order of magnitude lower of detection limit. And it is able to solve the unlocked problem caused by the small duty cycle of quasi-continuous modulation signal, with a small signal waveform distortion.

Applications of Optical Coherent Transient Technology to Pulse Shaping, Spectral Filtering Arbitrary Waveform Generation and RF Beamforming

DTIC Science & Technology

2006-04-14

the EOPM (~1 mW) was amplified by injection locking of a high power diode laser and further amplified to ~300 mW with a semiconductor optical ...The spectra of 8 GHz CW phase modulated signals in cascaded injection locking system from (a) master laser ; (b) the first slave, and (c) the second...cascaded injection locked amplifiers at 793nm, and frequency chirped lasers at 793nm. 15. SUBJECT TERMS Optical Coherent Transients, Spatial

Integrated injection seeded terahertz source and amplifier for time-domain spectroscopy.

PubMed

Maysonnave, J; Jukam, N; Ibrahim, M S M; Maussang, K; Madéo, J; Cavalié, P; Dean, P; Khanna, S P; Steenson, D P; Linfield, E H; Davies, A G; Tignon, J; Dhillon, S S

2012-02-15

We used a terahertz (THz) quantum cascade laser (QCL) as an integrated injection seeded source and amplifier for THz time-domain spectroscopy. A THz input pulse is generated inside a QCL by illuminating the laser facet with a near-IR pulse from a femtosecond laser and amplified using gain switching. The THz output from the QCL is found to saturate upon increasing the amplitude of the THz input power, which indicates that the QCL is operating in an injection seeded regime.

Compact laser amplifier system

DOEpatents

Carr, R.B.

1974-02-26

A compact laser amplifier system is described in which a plurality of face-pumped annular disks, aligned along a common axis, independently radially amplify a stimulating light pulse. Partially reflective or lasing means, coaxially positioned at the center of each annualar disk, radially deflects a stimulating light directed down the common axis uniformly into each disk for amplification, such that the light is amplified by the disks in a parallel manner. Circumferential reflecting means coaxially disposed around each disk directs amplified light emission, either toward a common point or in a common direction. (Official Gazette)

Research of energy characteristics of power amplifier containing KNFS Nd:phosphate glass slabs and MIRO Silver foil reflectors at the “Luch” facility

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Belov, I. A.; Bel'kov, S. A.; Voronich, I. N.; Garanin, S. G.; Derkach, V. N.; Koshechkin, S. V.; Lysov, M. I.; Markov, S. S.; Savkin, S. V.

2016-09-01

The amplifier elements upgrade at the “Luch” laser facility was carried out. Measurements showed that the upgrade of the amplifier elements resulted in the amplifier's small signal gain coefficient K0 increase from 12.9% to 14.3% depending on the capacitor charging voltage; the linear gain coefficient increase was about g0 ≈ (6-8)%. Full-scale laser experiments at the facility showed the power amplifier gain coefficient increase consistent with active medium gain coefficient measurement results.

Efficient Operation of Conductively Cooled Ho:Tm:LuLiF Laser Oscillator/Amplifier

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Yu, Jirong; Bai, Yingxin; Trieu, Bo; Petros, M.; Petzar, Paul; Lee, Hyung; Singh, U.

2008-01-01

A conductively-cooled Ho:Tm:LuLiF laser oscillator generates 1.6J normal mode pulses at 10Hz with optical to optical efficiency of 20%. When the laser head module is used as the amplifier, the double-pass small-signal amplification excesses 25.

Theoretical studies of solar lasers and converters

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Heinbockel, John H.

1990-01-01

The research described consisted of developing and refining the continuous flow laser model program including the creation of a working model. The mathematical development of a two pass amplifier for an iodine laser is summarized. A computer program for the amplifier's simulation is included with output from the simulation model.

Performance of a High-Concentration Erbium-Doped Fiber Amplifier with 100 nm Amplification Bandwidth

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Hajireza, P.; Shahabuddin, N. S.; Abbasi-Zargaleh, S.

2010-07-07

Increasing demand for higher bandwidth has driven the need for higher Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM) channels. One of the requirements to achieve this is a broadband amplifier. This paper reports the performance of a broadband, compact, high-concentration and silica-based erbium-doped fiber amplifier. The amplifier optimized to a 2.15 m long erbium-doped fiber with erbium ion concentration of 2000 ppm. The gain spectrum of the amplifier has a measured amplification bandwidth of 100 nm using a 980 nm laser diode with power of 150 mW. This silica-based EDFA shows lower noise figure, higher gain and wider bandwidth in shorter wavelengths comparedmore » to Bismuth-based EDFA with higher erbium ion concentration of 3250 ppm at equivalent EDF length. The silica-based EDF shows peak gain at 22 dB and amplification bandwidth between 1520 nm and 1620 nm. The lowest noise figure is 5 dB. The gain is further improved with the implementation of enhanced EDFA configurations.« less

A Flexible Master Oscillator for a Thomson Scattering Pulse-Burst Laser System

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

den Hartog, D. J.; Young, W. C.

2015-11-01

A new master oscillator will be installed in the pulse-burst laser system used for high-rep-rate Thomson scattering on the MST experiment. This new master oscillator will enable pulse repetition rates up to 1 MHz, with the ability to program a burst of pulses with arbitrary and varying time separation between each pulse. In addition, the energy of each master oscillator pulse can be adjusted to compensate for gain variations in the power amplifier section of the laser system. This flexibility is accomplished by chopping a CW laser source with a high-bandwidth acousto-optic modulator (AOM). The laser source is a 1064 nm diode-pumped solid-state laser with continuous output power variable from 100 to 500 mW. The 2 mm diameter polarized beam is focused into the gallium phosphide crystal of the AOM, which deflects the beam by approximately 60 mrad. Beam deflection is controlled by a simple digital input pulse, and is capable of producing laser pulses of less than 20 ns width at repetition rates much greater than 1 MHz. These pulses from the output of the AOM will be collimated and propagated into the laser amplifier system, where they will be amplified to ~ 2 J/pulse and injected into the MST plasma. This material is based upon work supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Fusion Energy Sciences under Award Number DE-FC02-05ER54814, and by the National Science Foundation under Award Number PHY-0821899.

Quantum Illumination-Based Target Detection and Discrimination

DTIC Science & Technology

2014-06-30

amplifier (EDFA) was combined with the signal to simulate a high-noise environment, with a noise photon number per mode NB in the range 40–300. The...Research Triangle Park, NC 27709-2211 quantum communication, target detection, entanglement , parametric downconversion, optical parametric amplifiers...laser system of the same average transmitted photon number, when the target return has random-amplitude behavior. Receiver operating characteristic

Method and system for homogenizing diode laser pump arrays

DOEpatents

Bayramian, Andrew James

2016-05-03

An optical amplifier system includes a diode pump array including a plurality of semiconductor diode laser bars disposed in an array configuration and characterized by a periodic distance between adjacent semiconductor diode laser bars. The periodic distance is measured in a first direction perpendicular to each of the plurality of semiconductor diode laser bars. The diode pump array provides a pump output propagating along an optical path and characterized by a first intensity profile measured as a function of the first direction and having a variation greater than 10%. The optical amplifier system also includes a diffractive optic disposed along the optical path. The diffractive optic includes a photo-thermo-refractive glass member. The optical amplifier system further includes an amplifier slab having an input face and position along the optical path and separated from the diffractive optic by a predetermined distance. A second intensity profile measured at the input face of the amplifier slab as a function of the first direction has a variation less than 10%.

Method and system for homogenizing diode laser pump arrays

DOEpatents

Bayramian, Andy J

2013-10-01

An optical amplifier system includes a diode pump array including a plurality of semiconductor diode laser bars disposed in an array configuration and characterized by a periodic distance between adjacent semiconductor diode laser bars. The periodic distance is measured in a first direction perpendicular to each of the plurality of semiconductor diode laser bars. The diode pump array provides a pump output propagating along an optical path and characterized by a first intensity profile measured as a function of the first direction and having a variation greater than 10%. The optical amplifier system also includes a diffractive optic disposed along the optical path. The diffractive optic includes a photo-thermo-refractive glass member. The optical amplifier system further includes an amplifier slab having an input face and position along the optical path and separated from the diffractive optic by a predetermined distance. A second intensity profile measured at the input face of the amplifier slab as a function of the first direction has a variation less than 10%.

Switchable dual-wavelength SLM narrow linewidth fiber laser based on nonlinear amplifying loop mirror

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fu, Pan; Feng, Xiao-qiang; Lu, Baole; Qi, Xin-yuan; Chen, Haowei; Sun, Bo; Jiang, Man; Wang, Kaile; Bai, Jintao

2018-01-01

We demonstrate a stable switchable dual-wavelength single longitudinal mode (SLM) narrow linewidth ytterbium-doped fiber (YDF) laser using a nonlinear amplifying fiber loop mirror (NALM) at 1064 nm. The NALM of intensity-dependent transmission acts as a saturable absorber filter and an amplitude equalizer to suppress mode competition and the fiber Bragg grating (FBG) pair is used as one wavelength selection component. By properly adjusting the polarization controllers (PCs), the switchable dual-wavelength SLM fiber laser can be operated steadily at room temperature. The optical signal-to-noise ratio (OSNR) is better than 50 dB for both lasing wavelengths. Meanwhile, the linewidth of the fiber laser for each wavelength is approximate 17.07 kHz and 18.64 kHz with a 20 dB linewidth, which means the laser linewidth is approximate 853 Hz and 932 Hz FWHM. Correspondingly, the measured relative intensity noise (RIN) is less than -120 dB/Hz at frequencies over 5.0 MHz.

Spatial filter with volume gratings for high-peak-power multistage laser amplifiers

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tan, Yi-zhou; Yang, Yi-sheng; Zheng, Guang-wei; Shen, Ben-jian; Pan, Heng-yue; Liu, Li

2010-08-01

The regular spatial filters comprised of lens and pinhole are essential component in high power laser systems, such as lasers for inertial confinement fusion, nonlinear optical technology and directed-energy weapon. On the other hand the pinhole is treated as a bottleneck of high power laser due to harmful plasma created by the focusing beam. In this paper we present a spatial filter based on angular selectivity of Bragg diffraction grating to avoid the harmful focusing effect in the traditional pinhole filter. A spatial filter consisted of volume phase gratings in two-pass amplifier cavity were reported. Two-dimensional filter was proposed by using single Pi-phase-shifted Bragg grating, numerical simulation results shown that its angular spectrum bandwidth can be less than 160urad. The angular selectivity of photo-thermorefractive glass and RUGATE film filters, construction stability, thermal stability and the effects of misalignments of gratings on the diffraction efficiencies under high-pulse-energy laser operating condition are discussed.

Compact 1 mJ fiber MOPA for space-based laser-ablation resonant ionization mass spectrometry (LARIMS)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mu, Xiaodong; Crain, William; Nguyen, Can; Ionov, Pavel; Steinvurzel, Paul; Dotan, Yaniv; Karuza, Petras; Lotshaw, William; Rose, Todd; Beck, Steven; Anderson, F. Scott

2018-02-01

A 1064 nm, 1 mJ pulsed fiber MOPA module, housed in 16"x14"x2.5" package for application in a lunar and planetary in-situ surface dating instrument is demonstrated. The module is based on a three-stage MOPA with a 60 μm core tapered fiber terminal amplifier. The master oscillator and first two preamplifier stages, which generate 20 μJ pulses, are all contained on a 13"x11"x1" board. Several improvements to the electronic signal control were instrumental to the laser development, including bipolar drive of the phase modulator for SBS suppression, shaping of the seed pulse to compensate pulse steepening, and pulsed operation of the power amplifier pump to reduce spontaneous emission at low pulse repetition frequency. The packaged laser runs at a repetition rate of 10 kHz and generates 10 ns pulses at 1 mJ with a 40 GHz linewidth, an M2 1.2 beam quality, and an 18 dB polarization extinction ratio. The modular design enables seven independent lasers to be stacked in a 20"x18"x16.25" enclosure, supporting a path towards a fiber laser based LARIMS for advanced materials characterization and chronological dating in harsh and remote environments.

Direct solar-pumped iodine laser amplifier

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Han, Kwang S.; Hwang, In H.; Stock, Larry V.

1988-01-01

A XeCl laser which was developed earlier for an iodine laser oscillator was modified in order to increase the output pulse energy of XeCl laser so that the iodine laser output energy could be increased. The electrical circuit of the XeCl laser was changed from a simple capacitor discharge circuit of the XeCl laser to a Marx system. Because of this improvement the output energy from the XeCl laser was increased from 60 mj to 80 mj. Subsequently, iodine laser output energy was increased from 100 mj to 3 mj. On the other hand, the energy storage capability and amplification characteristics of the Vortek solar simulator-pumped amplifier was calculated expecting the calculated amplification factor is about 2 and the energy extraction efficiency is 26 percent due to the very low input energy density to the amplifier. As a result of an improved kinetic modeling for the iodine solar simulator pumped power amplifier, it is found that the I-2 along the axis of the tube affects seriously the gain profile. For the gas i-C3F7I at the higher pressures, the gain will decrease due to the I-2 as the pumping intensity increases, and at these higher pressures an increase in flow velocity will increase the gain.

0.4 mJ quasi-continuously pumped picosecond Nd:GdVO4 laser with selectable pulse duration

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kubeček, V.; Jelínek, M.; Čech, M.; Hiršl, P.; Diels, J.-C.

2010-02-01

A quasi-continuously pumped picosecond oscillator-amplifier Nd:GdVO4 laser system based on two identical slabs in a single bounce geometry is reported. Pulse duration is from 160 to 55 ps resulting from the pulse shortening along the extended mode locked train from passively mode locked oscillator, which was measured directly from a single laser shot. The shortest 55 ps long cavity dumped single pulses from the oscillator with the energy of 15±1 μJ and the contrast better than 10-3 were amplified to the energy of 150 μJ with the contrast better than 10-3 after the single-pass amplification and to the energy of 400 μJ after the double-pass amplification.

A cryo-cooled high-energy DPSSL system delivering ns-pulses at 10 J and 10 Hz

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ertel, Klaus; Banerjee, Saumyabrata; Butcher, Thomas J.; De Vido, Mariastefania; Mason, Paul D.; Phillips, P. J.; Richards, David; Shaikh, Waseem; Smith, Jodie M.; Greenhalgh, R. Justin S.; Hernandez-Gomez, Cristina; Collier, John L.

2015-02-01

Lasers generating multi-J to kJ ns-pulses are required for many types of laser-plasma interactions. Such lasers are either used directly for compressing matter to extreme densities or they serve as pump lasers for short-pulses laser chains based on large-aperture Ti:sapphire or parametric amplifiers. The thus generated high-energy fs-pulses are most useful for laser driven secondary sources of particles (electrons, protons) or photons (from THz to gamma). While proof-of-principle experiments have been carried out with flashlamp-pumped glass lasers, lasers with much higher efficiency and repetition rate are required to make this applications practically viable. We have developed a scalable new laser concept called DiPOLE (diode pumped optical laser for experiments) based on a gas-cooled ceramic Yb:YAG multi-slab architecture operating at cryogenic temperatures. While the viability of this concept has been shown earlier [1], we have now reached our target performance of 10 J pulse energy at 10 Hz repetition rate at an optical-to-optical efficiency of 21%. To the best of our knowledge, these are record values for average power and efficiency for lasers of this type. We have also upgraded the system by adding a fibre-based front-end system with arbitrary pulse shaping capability and by installing an image-relayed multipass system enabling up to eight passes of the main amplifier. We have then used this system to demonstrate frequency doubling with 65 % conversion efficiency and a long-term shot-to-shot stability of 0.5% rms over a total of nearly 2 million shots, achieved in runs extending over 4 to 6 hours.

Application of Yb:YAG short pulse laser system

DOEpatents

Erbert, Gaylen V.; Biswal, Subrat; Bartolick, Joseph M.; Stuart, Brent C.; Crane, John K.; Telford, Steve; Perry, Michael D.

2004-07-06

A diode pumped, high power (at least 20W), short pulse (up to 2 ps), chirped pulse amplified laser using Yb:YAG as the gain material is employed for material processing. Yb:YAG is used as the gain medium for both a regenerative amplifier and a high power 4-pass amplifier. A single common reflective grating optical device is used to both stretch pulses for amplification purposes and to recompress amplified pulses before being directed to a workpiece.

Single frequency 1083nm ytterbium doped fiber master oscillator power amplifier laser.

PubMed

Huang, Shenghong; Qin, Guanshi; Shirakawa, Akira; Musha, Mitsuru; Ueda, Ken-Ichi

2005-09-05

Single frequency 1083nm ytterbium fiber master oscillator power amplifier system was demonstrated. The oscillator was a linear fiber cavity with loop mirror filter and polarization controller. The loop mirror with unpumped ytterbium fiber as a narrow bandwidth filter discriminated and selected laser longitudinal modes efficiently. Spatial hole burning effect was restrained by adjusting polarization controller appropriately in the linear cavity. The amplifier was 5 m ytterbium doped fiber pumped by 976nm pigtail coupled laser diode. The linewidth of the single frequency laser was about 2 KHz. Output power up to 177 mW was produced under the launched pump power of 332 mW.

Fifteen terawatt picosecond CO2 laser system.

PubMed

Haberberger, D; Tochitsky, S; Joshi, C

2010-08-16

The generation of a record peak-power of 15 TW (45 J, 3 ps) in a single CO(2) laser beam is reported. Using a master oscillator-power amplifier laser system, it is shown that up to 100 J of energy can be extracted in a train of 3 ps laser pulses separated by 18 ps, a characteristic time of the CO(2) molecule. The bandwidth required for amplifying the short injected laser pulse train in a 2.5 atm final CO(2) amplifier is provided by field broadening of the medium at intensities of up to 140 GW/cm(2). The measured saturation energy for 3 ps pulses is 120 mJ/cm(2) which confirms that energy is simultaneously extracted from six rovibrational lines.

Nanosecond pulse shaping at 780 nm with fiber-based electro-optical modulators and a double-pass tapered amplifier

DOE PAGES

Rogers, III, C. E.; Gould, P. L.

2016-02-01

Here, we describe a system for generating frequency-chirped and amplitude-shaped pulses on time scales from sub-nanosecond to ten nanoseconds. The system starts with cw diode-laser light at 780 nm and utilizes fiber-based electro-optical phase and intensity modulators, driven by an arbitrary waveform generator, to generate the shaped pulses. These pulses are subsequently amplified to several hundred mW with a tapered amplifier in a delayed double-pass configuration. Frequency chirps up to 5 GHz in 2 ns and pulse widths as short as 0.15 ns have been realized.

Nanosecond pulse shaping at 780 nm with fiber-based electro-optical modulators and a double-pass tapered amplifier.

PubMed

Rogers, C E; Gould, P L

2016-02-08

We describe a system for generating frequency-chirped and amplitude-shaped pulses on time scales from sub-nanosecond to ten nanoseconds. The system starts with cw diode-laser light at 780 nm and utilizes fiber-based electro-optical phase and intensity modulators, driven by an arbitrary waveform generator, to generate the shaped pulses. These pulses are subsequently amplified to several hundred mW with a tapered amplifier in a delayed double-pass configuration. Frequency chirps up to 5 GHz in 2 ns and pulse widths as short as 0.15 ns have been realized.

1-kW monolithic narrow linewidth linear-polarized fiber laser at 1030 nm

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Xu, Yang; Fang, Qiang; Cui, Xuelong; Hou, Bowen; Fu, Shijie; Xie, Zhaoxin; Shi, Wei

2018-02-01

We demonstrate an all-fiberized, linear-polarized, narrow spectral linewidth laser system with kilowatts-level output power at 1030 nm in master oscillator-power amplifier (MOPA) configuration. The laser system consists of a linear-polarized, narrow linewidth ( 28 GHz) fiber laser oscillator and two stages of linear-polarized fiber amplifiers. A 925 W linear-polarized fiber laser with a polarization extinction ratio (PER) of 15.2 dB and a spectral width of 60 GHz at the central wavelength of 1030.1 nm is achieved. Owing to the setting of the appropriate parameters for the laser, no indication of Stimulate Brillouin Scattering (SBS) is observed in the system. Moreover, thanks to the excellent quantum efficiency of the laser and the thightly coiling of the active fiber in the main amplifier, the mode instability (MI) is successfully avoided. As a result, the near diffraction-limited beam quality (M2<1.3) is achieved.

Enhancement of the beam quality of non-uniform output slab laser amplifier with a 39-actuator rectangular piezoelectric deformable mirror.

PubMed

Yang, Ping; Ning, Yu; Lei, Xiang; Xu, Bing; Li, Xinyang; Dong, Lizhi; Yan, Hu; Liu, Wenjing; Jiang, Wenhan; Liu, Lei; Wang, Chao; Liang, Xingbo; Tang, Xiaojun

2010-03-29

We present a slab laser amplifier beam cleanup experimental system based on a 39-actuator rectangular piezoelectric deformable mirror. Rather than use a wave-front sensor to measure distortions in the wave-front and then apply a conjugation wave-front for compensating them, the system uses a Stochastic Parallel Gradient Descent algorithm to maximize the power contained within a far-field designated bucket. Experimental results demonstrate that at the output power of 335W, more than 30% energy concentrates in the 1x diffraction-limited area while the beam quality is enhanced greatly.

30-W Yb3+-pulsed fiber laser with wavelength tuning

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Davydov, B. L.; Krylov, A. A.

2007-12-01

We have investigated various pulsed operation regimes of a diode-pumped Yb3+-doped fiber laser with both an acoustooptic filter and a shutter inside the resonator. To imbed the polarization-sensitive acoustooptic-tunable spectral filter into the polarization-nonmaintaining resonator, based on an “isotropic” single-mode fiber without “polarization’ losses, we have used a CaCO3 single-crystal nondispersive thermostable polarization splitter. Stable smooth bell-shaped laser pulses were obtained in the Q-switch generation regime across the entire wavelength tuning band. Their duration depended on the resonator travel time and their repetition rate was determined exclusively by the outer high-frequency generator controlling the acoustooptic shutter. A pulsed laser radiation tuning bandwidth of more than 20-nm at a repetition rate band of 10-100 kHz was observed in the amplification band of the Yb3+-doped fiber. A stable average power of 30 W of the pulsed 70-ns 100-kHz laser radiation in a near Gaussian beam was reached by means of the two-stage amplifier based on Yb3+-doped fibers with an enlarged mode field diameter (14 μm). The amplifier was pumped by λ = 975 nm CW multimode laser diodes with a maximum average power of 42 W.

The behavior of gain and saturation characteristics versus temperature in a copper bromide laser

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mohammadpour Lima, S.; Behrouzinia, S.; Salem, M. K.; Elahei, M.; Khorasani, K.; Dorranian, D.

2017-05-01

A pair of copper bromide lasers in an oscillator-amplifier configuration was used to investigate the temperature dependence of the small-signal gain, saturation intensity, and output power of the laser. The observations were explained in terms of the electron temperature and energy levels of transition. An optimum electrical input power of 1.6 kW and a corresponding operational temperature of 510 °C were determined for the maximum values of these parameters. The balance between the microscopic parameters, such as stimulated emission cross-section, laser upper-level lifetime, and population inversion, which determine the behavior of the amplifying parameters and laser output power with respect to the operational temperature, has been investigated. We used the steady-state rate equation from the Hargrove model to determine the amplifying parameters, instead of the Frantz-Nodvik formula. The power extracted from the amplifier exceeds that achieved with the same device as the oscillator by more than 60%.

Mid-infrared optical parametric oscillator pumped by an amplified random fiber laser

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shang, Yaping; Shen, Meili; Wang, Peng; Li, Xiao; Xu, Xiaojun

2017-01-01

Recently, the concept of random fiber lasers has attracted a great deal of attention for its feature to generate incoherent light without a traditional laser resonator, which is free of mode competition and insure the stationary narrow-band continuous modeless spectrum. In this Letter, we reported the first, to the best of our knowledge, optical parametric oscillator (OPO) pumped by an amplified 1070 nm random fiber laser (RFL), in order to generate stationary mid-infrared (mid-IR) laser. The experiment realized a watt-level laser output in the mid-IR range and operated relatively stable. The use of the RFL seed source allowed us to take advantage of its respective stable time-domain characteristics. The beam profile, spectrum and time-domain properties of the signal light were measured to analyze the process of frequency down-conversion process under this new pumping condition. The results suggested that the near-infrared (near-IR) signal light `inherited' good beam performances from the pump light. Those would be benefit for further develop about optical parametric process based on different pumping circumstances.

Total internal reflection-based side-pumping configuration for terawatt ultraviolet amplifier and laser oscillator development

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cadatal-Raduban, Marilou; Pham, Minh Hong; Pham, Duong Van; Bui, Duong Thi Thuy; Yamanoi, Kohei; Takeda, Kohei; Empizo, Melvin John F.; Mui, Luong Viet; Shimizu, Toshihiko; Nguyen, Hung Dai; Sarukura, Nobuhiko; Fukuda, Tsuguo

2018-06-01

A two-side-pumping scheme that is based on total internal reflection in a diamond-cut Ce3+:LiCaAlF6 crystal suitable for the development of an ultraviolet laser and femtosecond amplifier system is proposed. Experimental fluorescence images and lasing results that demonstrate total internal reflection of the excitation beam using this diamond-cut crystal are presented. Calculations for the optimized crystal geometry that facilitate high extraction efficiency and homogeneity of the absorbed excitation beam are also discussed. About 50% increase in extraction efficiency compared to previously reported chirped-pulse femtosecond ultraviolet amplifier operating at 50-GW peak power is expected using this total internal reflection-based two-side-pumping configuration and a diamond-cut Ce3+:LiCaAlF6 crystal with a geometry of {φ _1} = 103°, {φ _2} = {φ _4} = 82°, {φ _3} = 93°, a length of 1.23 cm, a height of 2 cm, and an absorption coefficient of 1.5 cm-1. Our results can be used as a guide during the crystal growth process by providing the appropriate crystal geometry and size for a particular absorption coefficient to achieve high extraction efficiency. With the appropriate crystal combined with multiple-beam pumping afforded by the side-pumping scheme, the development of an all-solid-state ultraviolet laser operating at terawatt level would be within reach.

Characteristics research on self-amplified distributed feedback fiber laser

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Song, Zhiqiang; Qi, Haifeng; Guo, Jian; Wang, Chang; Peng, Gangding

2014-09-01

A distributed feedback (DFB) fiber laser with a ratio of the backward to forward output power of 1:100 was composed by a 45-mm-length asymmetrical phase-shifted fiber grating fabricated on the 50-mm erbium-doped photosensitive fiber. Forward output laser was amplified using a certain length of Nufern EDFL-980-Hp erbium-doped fiber to absorb the surplus pump power after the active phase-shifted fiber grating and get population inversion. By using OptiSystem software, the best fiber length of the EDFL to get the highest gain was simulated. In order to keep the amplified laser with the narrow line-width and low noise, a narrow-band light filter consisting of a fiber Bragg grating (FBG) with the same Bragg wavelength as the laser and an optical circulator was used to filter the amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) noise of the out-cavity erbium-doped fiber. The designed laser structure sufficiently utilized the pump power, and a DFB fiber laser with the 32.5-mW output power, 11.5-kHz line width, and -87-dB/Hz relative intensity noise (RIN) at 300 mW of 980 nm pump power was brought out.

1.5  kW ytterbium-doped single-transverse-mode, linearly polarized monolithic fiber master oscillator power amplifier.

PubMed

Huang, Long; Ma, Pengfei; Tao, Rumao; Shi, Chen; Wang, Xiaolin; Zhou, Pu

2015-04-01

A linearly polarized monolithic fiber laser based on a master oscillator power amplifier structure with a master oscillator and a one-stage power amplifier is reported. We design a homemade oscillator based on the theory that, in the coiled gain fiber, the higher modes and the polarized mode of the fundamental mode along the fast axis are suppressed effectively because of their obviously higher bend loss than that of the polarized mode of the fundamental mode along the slow axis. The oscillator operates at 1080 nm, launching a 30 W seed laser with a high polarization extinction ratio of 19 dB into the power amplifier via a mode field adapter. The power amplifier utilizes Yb-doped polarization-maintaining fiber of 20/400  μm, which produces nearly diffraction-limited output power of about 1.5 kW with an optical-optical efficiency of 81.5% and a polarization extinction ratio of 13.8 dB. Both the M(x)² factor and the M(y)² factor of the collimated beam are measured to be about 1.2. The spectral width of the output power is broadened approximately linearly, and the full width at half maximum of the spectrum at the maximum output power is about 5.8 nm. It is known as the highest linearly polarized output power to the best of our knowledge.

Method for optimizing output in ultrashort-pulse multipass laser amplifiers with selective use of a spectral filter

DOEpatents

Backus, Sterling J [Erie, CO; Kapteyn, Henry C [Boulder, CO

2007-07-10

A method for optimizing multipass laser amplifier output utilizes a spectral filter in early passes but not in later passes. The pulses shift position slightly for each pass through the amplifier, and the filter is placed such that early passes intersect the filter while later passes bypass it. The filter position may be adjust offline in order to adjust the number of passes in each category. The filter may be optimized for use in a cryogenic amplifier.

Watt-level single-frequency tunable neodymium MOPA fiber laser operating at 915-937 nm

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rota-Rodrigo, S.; Gouhier, B.; Laroche, M.; Zhao, J.; Canuel, B.; Bertoldi, A.; Bouyer, P.; Traynor, N.; Cadier, B.; Robin, T.; Santarelli, G.

2018-02-01

We have developed a Watt-level single-frequency tunable fiber laser in the 915-937 nm spectral window. The laser is based on a neodymium-doped fiber master oscillator power amplifier architecture, with two amplification stages using a 20 mW extended cavity diode laser as seed. The system output power is higher than 2 W from 921 to 933 nm, with a stability better than 1.4% and a low relative intensity noise.

Semiconductor lasers with a continuous tuning range above 100 nm in the nearest IR spectral region

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Kostin, Yu O; Lobintsov, A A; Shramenko, M V

2015-08-31

We have developed two new types of lasers based on quantum-confined semiconductor optical amplifiers with an acousto-optic tunable filter in an external fibre ring cavity. The lasers offer continuous wavelength tuning ranges from 780 to 885 and from 880 to 1010 nm, 20 mW of cw output power, and a tuning rate up to 10{sup 4} nm s{sup -1} at an instantaneous spectral linewidth less than 0.1 nm. (lasers)

Ring cavity for a Raman capillary waveguide amplifier

DOEpatents

Kurnit, N.A.

1981-01-27

A regenerative ring amplifier and regenerative ring oscillator are described which function to feed back a portion of the Stokes signal to complete the ring cavity. The ring cavity configuration allows the CO/sub 2/ laser pump signal and Stokes signal to copropagate through the Raman capillary waveguide amplifier. A Raman capillary waveguide amplifier is also provided in the return leg of the ring cavity to increase gain without increasing the round trip time. Additionally, the ring cavity can be designed such that the amplified Stokes signal is synchronous with the mode-locked spikes of the incoming CO/sub 2/ laser pump signal.

Ring cavity for a raman capillary waveguide amplifier

DOEpatents

Kurnit, Norman A.

1983-07-19

A regenerative ring amplifier and regenerative ring oscillator which function to feed back a portion of the Stokes signal to complete the ring cavity. The ring cavity configuration allows the CO.sub.2 laser pump signal and Stokes signal to copropagate through the Raman capillary waveguide amplifier. A Raman capillary waveguide amplifier is also provided in the return leg of the ring cavity to increase gain without increasing the round trip time. Additionally, the ring cavity can be designed such that the amplifier Stokes signal is synchronous with the mode-locked spikes of the incoming CO.sub.2 laser pump signal.

Electron transport in solid targets and in the active mixture of a CO2 laser amplifier

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Galkowski, A.

The paper examines the use of the NIKE code for the Monte Carlo computation of the deposited energy profile and other characteristics of the absorption process of an electron beam in a solid target and the spatial distribution of primary ionization in the active mixture of a CO2 laser amplifier. The problem is considered in connection with the generation of intense electron beams and the acceleration of thin metal foils, as well as in connection with the electric discharge pumping of a CO2 laser amplifier.

Spot-shadowing optimization to mitigate damage growth in a high-energy-laser amplifier chain.

PubMed

Bahk, Seung-Whan; Zuegel, Jonathan D; Fienup, James R; Widmayer, C Clay; Heebner, John

2008-12-10

A spot-shadowing technique to mitigate damage growth in a high-energy laser is studied. Its goal is to minimize the energy loss and undesirable hot spots in intermediate planes of the laser. A nonlinear optimization algorithm solves for the complex fields required to mitigate damage growth in the National Ignition Facility amplifier chain. The method is generally applicable to any large fusion laser.

Laser Space Propulsion Overview (Postprint)

DTIC Science & Technology

2006-09-01

meet with currently fielded thruster technology. However, a laser-ablation propulsion engine using a set of diode-pumped glass fiber amplifiers with a...with Cm = 56µN/W and ηAB = 100%. These two units will be combined in a single device using low-mass diode-pumped glass fiber laser amplifiers to...advantage of extremely lightweight diode-pumped glass fiber lasers onboard the spacecraft to provide thrust with variable Isp and unmatched thrust

Thin Disk Ti:Sapphire amplifiers for Joule-class ultrashort pulses with high repetition rate (Conference Presentation)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nagymihály, Roland S.; Cao, Huabao; Kalashnikov, Mikhail P.; Khodakovskiy, Nikita; Ehrentraut, Lutz; Osvay, Károly; Chvykov, Vladimir V.

2017-05-01

High peak power CPA laser systems can deliver now few petawatt pulses [1]. Reaching the high energies with broad spectral bandwidth necessary for these pulses was possible by the use of large aperture Ti:Sa crystals as final amplifier media. Wide applications for these systems will be possible if the repetition rate could be increased. Therefore, thermal deposition in Ti:Sa amplifiers is a key issue, which has to be solved in case of high average power pumping. The thin disk (TD) laser technology, which is intensively developed nowadays by using new laser materials, is able to overcome thermal distortions and damages of laser crystals [2]. TD technique also has the potential to be used in systems with both high peak and average power. For this, the commonly used laser materials with low absorption and emission cross sections, also low heat conductivity, like Yb:YAG, need to be replaced by a gain medium that supports broad enough emission spectrum and high thermal conductivity to obtain few tens of fs pulses with high repetition rates. Parasitic effects during the amplification process however seriously limit the energy that can be extracted from the gain medium and also they distort the gain profile. Nevertheless, the application of the Extraction During Pumping (EDP) technique can mitigate the depopulation losses in the gain medium with high aspect ratio [3]. We proposed to use Ti:Sa in combination with TD and EDP techniques to reach high energies at high repetition rates, and we presented numerical simulations for different amplifier geometries and parameters of the amplification [4,5]. We present the results of the proof-of-principle experiment, where a EDP-TD Ti:Sa amplifier was tested for the first time. In our experiment, the final cryogenically cooled Ti:Sa amplifier in a 100 TW/10 Hz/28 fs laser system was replaced with the EDP-TD room temperature cooled arrangement. Amplified seed pulse energy of 2.6 J was reached only for 3 passes through TD with 0.5 J of input seed and 5 J of absorbed pump energy. We verified the excellent heat extraction capabilities of our amplifier module. Results of the scaling simulations on the base of this experiment for 100s of TW peak power laser systems operating at up to 100 Hz will be also presented. References 1. Y. Chu et al, Opt. Lett. 40, 5011-5014 (2015). 2. C. R. E. Baer et al, Opt. Exp. 20, 7054-7065 (2012). 3. V. Chvykov et al, Opt. Comm. 285, 2134-2136 (2012). 4. V. Chvykov, R. S. Nagymihaly, H. Cao, M. Kalashnikov, K. Osvay, Opt. Exp. 24, 3721 (2016). 5. V.Chvykov, R. S. Nagymihaly, H. Cao, M. Kalashnikov, K. Osvay, Opt. Lett. 41,13, 3017 (2016).

Yb:YAG master oscillator power amplifier for remote wind sensing.

PubMed

Sridharan, A K; Saraf, S; Byer, R L

2007-10-20

We have demonstrated key advances towards a solid-state laser amplifier at 1.03 microm for global remote wind sensing. We designed end-pumped zig-zag slab amplifiers to achieve high gain. We overcame parasitic oscillation limitations using claddings on the slab's total internal reflection (TIR) and edge surfaces to confine the pump and signal light by TIR and allow leakage of amplified spontaneous emission rays that do not meet the TIR condition. This enables e3, e5, and e8 single-, double-, and quadruple-pass small-signal amplifier gain, respectively. The stored energy density is 15.6 J/cm3, a record for a laser-diode end-pumped Yb:YAG zig-zag slab amplifier.

Post pulse shutter for laser amplifier

DOEpatents

Bradley, Laird P. [Livermore, CA; Carder, Bruce M. [Antioch, CA; Gagnon, William L. [Berkeley, CA

1981-03-17

Apparatus and method for quickly closing off the return path for an amplified laser pulse at the output of an amplifier so as to prevent damage to amplifiers and other optical components appearing earlier in the chain by the return of an amplified pulse. The apparatus consists of a fast retropulse or post pulse shutter to suppress target reflection and/or beam return. This is accomplished by either quickly placing a solid across the light transmitting aperture of a component in the chain, such as a spatial filter pinhole, or generating and directing a plasma with sufficiently high density across the aperture, so as to, in effect, close the aperture to the returning amplified energy pulse.

Post pulse shutter for laser amplifier

DOEpatents

Bradley, L.P.; Carder, B.M.; Gagnon, W.L.

1981-03-17

Disclosed are an apparatus and method for quickly closing off the return path for an amplified laser pulse at the output of an amplifier so as to prevent damage to amplifiers and other optical components appearing earlier in the chain by the return of an amplified pulse. The apparatus consists of a fast retropulse or post pulse shutter to suppress target reflection and/or beam return. This is accomplished by either quickly placing a solid across the light transmitting aperture of a component in the chain, such as a spatial filter pinhole, or generating and directing a plasma with sufficiently high density across the aperture, so as to, in effect, close the aperture to the returning amplified energy pulse. 13 figs.

Double-pass tapered amplifier diode laser with an output power of 1 W for an injection power of only 200 μW.

PubMed

Bolpasi, V; von Klitzing, W

2010-11-01

A 1 W tapered amplifier requiring only 200 μW of injection power at 780 nm is presented in this paper. This is achieved by injecting the seeding light into the amplifier from its tapered side and feeding the amplified light back into the small side. The amplified spontaneous emission of the tapered amplifier is suppressed by 75 dB. The double-passed tapered laser, presented here, is extremely stable and reliable. The output beam remains well coupled to the optical fiber for a timescale of months, whereas the injection of the seed light did not require realignment for over a year of daily operation.

Demonstration of coherent addition of multiple gratings for high-energy chirped-pulse-amplified lasers.

PubMed

Kessler, Terrance J; Bunkenburg, Joachim; Huang, Hu; Kozlov, Alexei; Meyerhofer, David D

2004-03-15

Petawatt solid-state lasers require meter-sized gratings to reach multiple-kilojoule energy levels without laser-induced damage. As an alternative to large single gratings, we demonstrate that smaller, coherently added (tiled) gratings can be used for subpicosecond-pulse compression. A Fourier-transform-limited, 650-fs chirped-pulse-amplified laser pulse is maintained by replacing a single compression grating with a tiled-grating assembly. Grating tiling provides a means to scale the energy and irradiance of short-pulse lasers.

Feedback stabilization system for pulsed single longitudinal mode tunable lasers

DOEpatents

Esherick, Peter; Raymond, Thomas D.

1991-10-01

A feedback stabilization system for pulse single longitudinal mode tunable lasers having an excited laser medium contained within an adjustable length cavity and producing a laser beam through the use of an internal dispersive element, including detection of angular deviation in the output laser beam resulting from detuning between the cavity mode frequency and the passband of the internal dispersive element, and generating an error signal based thereon. The error signal can be integrated and amplified and then applied as a correcting signal to a piezoelectric transducer mounted on a mirror of the laser cavity for controlling the cavity length.

Solvent-free fluidic organic dye lasers.

PubMed

Choi, Eun Young; Mager, Loic; Cham, Tran Thi; Dorkenoo, Kokou D; Fort, Alain; Wu, Jeong Weon; Barsella, Alberto; Ribierre, Jean-Charles

2013-05-06

We report on the demonstration of liquid organic dye lasers based on 9-(2-ethylhexyl)carbazole (EHCz), so-called liquid carbazole, doped with green- and red-emitting laser dyes. Both waveguide and Fabry-Perot type microcavity fluidic organic dye lasers were prepared by capillary action under solvent-free conditions. Cascade Förster-type energy transfer processes from liquid carbazole to laser dyes were employed to achieve color-variable amplified spontaneous emission and lasing. Overall, this study provides the first step towards the development of solvent-free fluidic organic semiconducting lasers and demonstrates a new kind of optoelectronic applications for liquid organic semiconductors.

Laser simulation applying Fox-Li iteration: investigation of reason for non-convergence

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Paxton, Alan H.; Yang, Chi

2017-02-01

Fox-Li iteration is often used to numerically simulate lasers. If a solution is found, the complex field amplitude is a good indication of the laser mode. The case of a semiconductor laser, for which the medium possesses a self-focusing nonlinearity, was investigated. For a case of interest, the iterations did not yield a converged solution. Another approach was needed to explore the properties of the laser mode. The laser was treated (unphysically) as a regenerative amplifier. As the input to the amplifier, we required a smooth complex field distribution that matched the laser resonator. To obtain such a field, we found what would be the solution for the laser field if the strength of the self focusing nonlinearity were α = 0. This was used as the input to the laser, treated as an amplifier. Because the beam deteriorated as it propagated multiple passes in the resonator and through the gain medium (for α = 2.7), we concluded that a mode with good beam quality could not exist in the laser.

Cryogenic cooling for high power laser amplifiers

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Perin, J. P.; Millet, F.; Divoky, M.; Rus, B.

2013-11-01

Using DPSSL (Diode Pumped Solid State Lasers) as pumping technology, PW-class lasers with enhanced repetition rates are developed. Each of the Yb YAG amplifiers will be diode-pumped at a wavelength of 940 nm. This is a prerequisite for achieving high repetition rates (light amplification duration 1 millisecond and repetition rate 10 Hz). The efficiency of DPSSL is inversely proportional to the temperature, for this reason the slab amplifier have to be cooled at a temperature in the range of 100 K-170 K with a heat flux of 1 MW*m-2. This paper describes the thermo-mechanical analysis for the design of the amplification laser head, presents a preliminary proposal for the required cryogenic cooling system and finally outlines the gain of cryogenic operation for the efficiency of high pulsed laser.

[The design of all solid-state tunable pulsed Ti:sapphire laser system].

PubMed

Chen, Zhe; Ku, Geng; Wan, Junchao; Wang, Wei; Zhou, Chuanqing

2013-05-01

This paper presented a design of broadly all solid-state tunable pulsed Ti:sapphire laser with high power and stable performance. The laser was pumped by custom-made Nd:YAG laser which had water cooling system and amplified by two stage amplifier. The method accomplished tunable output of all solid-state tunable pulsed Ti:sapphire laser by modifying the reflection angle of the back mirror. We investigated the relationship between the power of the pumping laser and the all solid-state tunable pulsed Ti: sapphire laser by changing the power of the pumping source.

Architecture and Bloch-Maxwell modelling of multi-mJ 100 fs fully-coherent soft X-ray laser based on X-ray CPA

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zeitoun, Ph.; Oliva, E.; Fajardo, M.; Cheriaux, G.; Le, T. T. T.; Li, L.; Pitman, M.; Ros, D.; Sebban, S.; Velarde, P.

2012-07-01

By seeding amplifying plasmas pumped with the so-called Transient collisionnal excitation scheme, the amplified pulse seems to be limited to an energy of several 10's of μJ. Aiming to attain several mJ, we study the seeding of plasma pumped by long laser pulse. Thanks to our time-dependent Maxwell-Bloch code, we demonstrate that direct seeding with femtosecond pulse is inefficient. We also study the amplification of pulse train with the drawback of re-synchronizing the pulses. We proposed and studied the amplification of high harmonic seed stretched by a grating pair, amplified finally compressed. We consider off-axis diffraction on the gratings for maximizing their efficiency. Considering the phase deformation induced by the amplification and the spectral narrowing the final pulse is 230 fs in duration and 5 mJ.

Hydrodynamic evolution of plasma waveguides for soft-x-ray amplifiers

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Oliva, Eduardo; Depresseux, Adrien; Cotelo, Manuel; Lifschitz, Agustín; Tissandier, Fabien; Gautier, Julien; Maynard, Gilles; Velarde, Pedro; Sebban, Stéphane

2018-02-01

High-density, collisionally pumped plasma-based soft-x-ray lasers have recently delivered hundreds of femtosecond pulses, breaking the longstanding barrier of one picosecond. To pump these amplifiers an intense infrared pulse must propagate focused throughout all the length of the amplifier, which spans several Rayleigh lengths. However, strong nonlinear effects hinder the propagation of the laser beam. The use of a plasma waveguide allows us to overcome these drawbacks provided the hydrodynamic processes that dominate the creation and posterior evolution of the waveguide are controlled and optimized. In this paper we present experimental measurements of the radial density profile and transmittance of such waveguide, and we compare them with numerical calculations using hydrodynamic and particle-in-cell codes. Controlling the properties (electron density value and radial gradient) of the waveguide with the help of numerical codes promises the delivery of ultrashort (tens of femtoseconds), coherent soft-x-ray pulses.

Architecture and Bloch-Maxwell modelling of multi-mJ 100 fs fully-coherent soft X-ray laser based on X-ray CPA

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Zeitoun, Ph.; Oliva, E.; Fajardo, M.

2012-07-09

By seeding amplifying plasmas pumped with the so-called Transient collisionnal excitation scheme, the amplified pulse seems to be limited to an energy of several 10's of {mu}J. Aiming to attain several mJ, we study the seeding of plasma pumped by long laser pulse. Thanks to our time-dependent Maxwell-Bloch code, we demonstrate that direct seeding with femtosecond pulse is inefficient. We also study the amplification of pulse train with the drawback of re-synchronizing the pulses. We proposed and studied the amplification of high harmonic seed stretched by a grating pair, amplified finally compressed. We consider off-axis diffraction on the gratings formore » maximizing their efficiency. Considering the phase deformation induced by the amplification and the spectral narrowing the final pulse is 230 fs in duration and 5 mJ.« less

Lithographic wavelength control of an external cavity laser with a silicon photonic crystal cavity-based resonant reflector.

PubMed

Liles, Alexandros A; Debnath, Kapil; O'Faolain, Liam

2016-03-01

We report the experimental demonstration of a new design for external cavity hybrid lasers consisting of a III-V semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) with fiber reflector and a photonic crystal (PhC)-based resonant reflector on SOI. The silicon reflector is composed of an SU8 polymer bus waveguide vertically coupled to a PhC cavity and provides a wavelength-selective optical feedback to the laser cavity. This device exhibits milliwatt-level output power and side-mode suppression ratios of more than 25 dB.

Merged beam laser design for reduction of gain-saturation and two-photon absorption in high power single mode semiconductor lasers.

PubMed

Lysevych, M; Tan, H H; Karouta, F; Fu, L; Jagadish, C

2013-04-08

In this paper we report a method to overcome the limitations of gain-saturation and two-photon absorption faced by developers of high power single mode InP-based lasers and semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOA) including those based on wide-waveguide or slab-coupled optical waveguide laser (SCOWL) technology. The method is based on Y-coupling design of the laser cavity. The reduction in gain-saturation and two-photon absorption in the merged beam laser structures (MBL) are obtained by reducing the intensity of electromagnetic field in the laser cavity. Standard ridge-waveguide lasers and MBLs were fabricated, tested and compared. Despite a slightly higher threshold current, the reduced gain-saturation in MBLs results in higher output power. The MBLs also produced a single spatial mode, as well as a strongly dominating single spectral mode which is the inherent feature of MBL-type cavity.

Dye laser traveling wave amplifier

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Davidson, F.; Hohman, J.

1984-01-01

A flashlamp pumped dye laser suitable for use as a single stage amplifier is described. Particular emphasis is placed on the efforts to increase output pulse energy and improve the temporal profile of the injected pulse. By using high power thin film polarizers, output energies reach from 4 to 45 mJ. Various dispersive elements are used to develop an amplified pulse with an extremely clean temporal profile.

Final EDP Ti: sapphire amplifiers for ELI project

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chvykov, Vladimir; Kalashnikov, Mikhail; Osvay, Károly

2015-05-01

Recently several ultrahigh intensity Chirped Pulse Amplification (CPA) laser systems have reached petawatt output powers [1, 2] setting the next milestone at tens or even hundreds petawatts for the next three to ten years [3, 4]. These remarkable results were reached when laser amplifiers (opposite to Optical Parametric Amplification (OPA) [5]) were used as final ones and from them Ti:Sapphire crystals supposed to be the working horses as well in the future design of these laser systems. Nevertheless, the main limitation that arises on the path toward ultrahigh output power and intensity is the restriction on the pumping and extraction energy imposed by Transverse Amplified Spontaneous Emission (TASE) [6] and/or transverse parasitic generation (TPG) [7] within the large aperture of the disc-shape amplifier volume.

Dye laser amplifier including a low turbulence, stagnation-free dye flow configuration

DOEpatents

Davin, J.

1992-12-01

A large (high flow rate) dye laser amplifier in which a continuous replenished supply of dye is excited by a first light beam, specifically a copper vapor laser beam, in order to amplify the intensity of a second different light beam, specifically a dye beam, passing through the dye is disclosed herein. This amplifier includes a dye cell defining a dye chamber through which a continuous stream of dye is caused to pass at a flow rate of for example 30 gallons/minute, a specifically designed support vessel for containing the dye cell and a screen device for insuring that the dye stream passes into the dye cell in a substantially turbulent free, stagnation-free manner. 9 figs.

Initial operation of a pulse-burst laser system for high-repetition-rate Thomson scattering

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Harris, W. S.; Hurst, N. C.; Den Hartog, D. J.

2010-10-15

A pulse-burst laser has been installed for Thomson scattering measurements on the Madison Symmetric Torus reversed-field pinch. The laser design is a master-oscillator power-amplifier. The master oscillator is a commercial Nd:YVO{sub 4} laser (1064 nm) which is capable of Q-switching at frequencies between 5 and 250 kHz. Four Nd:YAG (yttrium aluminum garnet) amplifier stages are in place to amplify the Nd:YVO{sub 4} emission. Single pulses through the Nd:YAG amplifier stages gives energies up to 1.5 J and the gain for each stage has been measured. Repetitive pulsing at 10 kHz has also been performed for 2 ms bursts, giving averagemore » pulse energies of 0.53 J with {Delta}E/E of 4.6%, where {Delta}E is the standard deviation between pulses. The next step will be to add one of two Nd:glass (silicate) amplifier stages to produce final pulse energies of 1-2 J for bursts up to 250 kHz.« less

High Power Q-Switched Thulium Doped Fibre Laser using Carbon Nanotube Polymer Composite Saturable Absorber

PubMed Central

Chernysheva, Maria; Mou, Chengbo; Arif, Raz; AlAraimi, Mohammed; Rümmeli, Mark; Turitsyn, Sergei; Rozhin, Aleksey

2016-01-01

We have proposed and demonstrated a Q-switched Thulium doped fibre laser (TDFL) with a ‘Yin-Yang’ all-fibre cavity scheme based on a combination of nonlinear optical loop mirror (NOLM) and nonlinear amplified loop mirror (NALM). Unidirectional lasing operation has been achieved without any intracavity isolator. By using a carbon nanotube polymer composite based saturable absorber (SA), we demonstrated the laser output power of ~197 mW and pulse energy of 1.7 μJ. To the best of our knowledge, this is the highest output power from a nanotube polymer composite SA based Q-switched Thulium doped fibre laser. PMID:27063511

Widely tunable, all-polarization maintaining, monolithic mid-infrared radiation source based on differential frequency generation in PPLN crystal

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Krzempek, Karol; Sobon, Grzegorz; Sotor, Jaroslaw; Dudzik, Grzegorz; Abramski, Krzysztof M.

2014-10-01

We present a difference frequency generation based (DFG) mid-infrared (mid-IR) laser source using an all-polarization-maintaining-fiber (all-PM) amplifier capable of simultaneous amplification of 1064 nm and 1550 nm signals. The amplifier incorporates a single piece of a standard erbium:ytterbium (Er:Yb) co-doped double-clad (DC) active fiber and a limited number of off-the-shelf fiber-based components. Excited by a single 9 W multimode pump, the amplifier delivered over 12.1 dB and 17.8 dB gain at 1 µm and 1.55 µm, respectively. Due to an all-PM configuration, the amplifier was exceptionally convenient for DFG of mid-IR radiation in periodically polled lithium niobate (PPLN) crystal, yielding an output power of ~200 µW in a wide spectral range spanning from 3300 to 3470 nm.

High-power highly stable passively Q-switched fiber laser based on monolayer graphene

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wu, Hanshuo; Song, Jiaxin; Wu, Jian; Xu, Jiangming; Xiao, Hu; Leng, Jinyong; Zhou, Pu

2018-03-01

We demonstrate a monolayer graphene-based passively Q-switched fiber laser with three-stage amplifiers that can deliver an average power of over 80 W at 1064 nm. The highest average power achieved is 84.1 W, with a pulse energy of 1.67 mJ. To the best of our knowledge this is the first report of a high-power passively Q-switched fiber laser in the 1 µm range. More importantly, the Q-switched fiber laser operated stably during a week of tests for a few hours per day, which proves the stability and practical application potential of graphene in high-power pulsed fiber lasers.

Solid-state-based laser system as a replacement for Ar⁺ lasers.

PubMed

Beck, Tobias; Rein, Benjamin; Sörensen, Fabian; Walther, Thomas

2016-09-15

We report on a solid-state-based laser system at 1028 nm. The light is generated by a diode laser seeded ytterbium fiber amplifier. In two build-up cavities, its frequency is doubled and quadrupled to 514 nm and 257 nm, respectively. At 514 nm, the system delivers up to 4.7 W of optical power. In the fourth harmonic, up to 173 mW are available limited by the nonlinear crystal. The frequency of the laser is mode-hop-free tunable by 16 GHz in 10 ms in the UV. Therefore, the system is suitable as a low maintenance, efficient, and tunable narrowband replacement for frequency doubled Ar⁺ laser systems.

Laser system development for gravitational-wave interferometry in space

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Numata, Kenji; Yu, Anthony W.; Camp, Jordan B.; Krainak, Michael A.

2018-02-01

A highly stable and robust laser system is a key component of the space-based Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) mission, which is designed to detect gravitational waves from various astronomical sources. The baseline architecture for the LISA laser consists of a low-power, low-noise Nd:YAG non-planar ring oscillator (NPRO) followed by a diode-pumped Yb-fiber amplifier with 2 W output. We are developing such laser system at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), as well as investigating other laser options. In this paper, we will describe our progress to date and plans to demonstrate a technology readiness level (TRL) 6 LISA laser system.

Fiber-Based Laser Transmitter at 1.57 Micrometers for Remote Sensing of Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide from Satellites

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Yu, Anthony W.; Abshire, James B.; Stephen, Mark A.; Chen, Jeffrey R.; Wu, Stewart; Gonzalez, Brayler; Han, Lawrence; Numata, Kenji; Allan, Graham R.; Hasselbrack, William;

Ring cavity for a Raman capillary waveguide amplifier

DOEpatents

Kurnit, N.A.

1983-07-19

Disclosed is a regenerative ring amplifier and regenerative ring oscillator which function to feed back a portion of the Stokes signal to complete the ring cavity. The ring cavity configuration allows the CO[sub 2] laser pump signal and Stokes signal to copropagate through the Raman capillary waveguide amplifier. A Raman capillary waveguide amplifier is also provided in the return leg of the ring cavity to increase gain without increasing the round trip time. Additionally, the ring cavity can be designed such that the amplifier Stokes signal is synchronous with the mode-locked spikes of the incoming CO[sub 2] laser pump signal. 6 figs.

Intensity noise cancellation in solid-state laser at 1.5  μm using SHG depletion as a buffer reservoir.

PubMed

Audo, Kevin; Alouini, Mehdi

2018-03-01

An absorption mechanism based on second-harmonic generation (SHG) is successfully implemented as a buffer reservoir in a solid-state Er,Yb:Glass laser emitting at the telecom wavelength. We show that a slight absorption mechanism based on SHG rate conversion of 0.016% using a beta barium borate crystal enables the canceling out of the excess intensity noise at the relaxation oscillation frequency, i.e., 35 dB reduction, as well as canceling the amplified spontaneous emission beating at the free spectral range resonances of the laser lying in the gigahertz range. Laser robustness is discussed.

Multi-kW coherent combining of fiber lasers seeded with pseudo random phase modulated light

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Flores, Angel; Ehrehreich, Thomas; Holten, Roger; Anderson, Brian; Dajani, Iyad

2016-03-01

We report efficient coherent beam combining of five kilowatt-class fiber amplifiers with a diffractive optical element (DOE). Based on a master oscillator power amplifier (MOPA) configuration, the amplifiers were seeded with pseudo random phase modulated light. Each non-polarization maintaining fiber amplifier was optically path length matched and provides approximately 1.2 kW of near diffraction-limited output power (measured M2<1.1). Consequently, a low power sample of each laser was utilized for active linear polarization control. A low power sample of the combined beam after the DOE provided an error signal for active phase locking which was performed via Locking of Optical Coherence by Single-Detector Electronic-Frequency Tagging (LOCSET). After phase stabilization, the beams were coherently combined via the 1x5 DOE. A total combined output power of 4.9 kW was achieved with 82% combining efficiency and excellent beam quality (M2<1.1). The intrinsic DOE splitter loss was 5%. Similarly, losses due in part to non-ideal polarization, ASE content, uncorrelated wavefront errors, and misalignment errors contributed to the efficiency reduction.

Large area single-mode parity-time-symmetric laser amplifiers.

PubMed

Miri, Mohammad-Ali; LiKamWa, Patrik; Christodoulides, Demetrios N

2012-03-01

By exploiting recent developments associated with parity-time (PT) symmetry in optics, we here propose a new avenue in realizing single-mode large area laser amplifiers. This can be accomplished by utilizing the abrupt symmetry breaking transition that allows the fundamental mode to experience gain while keeping all the higher order modes neutral. Such PT-symmetric structures can be realized by judiciously coupling two multimode waveguides, one exhibiting gain while the other exhibits an equal amount of loss. Pertinent examples are provided for both semiconductor and fiber laser amplifiers. © 2012 Optical Society of America

High power 938 nanometer fiber laser and amplifier

DOEpatents

Dawson, Jay W [Livermore, CA; Liao, Zhi Ming [Pleasanton, CA; Beach, Raymond J [Livermore, CA; Drobshoff, Alexander D [Livermore, CA; Payne, Stephen A [Castro Valley, CA; Pennington, Deanna M [Livermore, CA; Hackenberg, Wolfgang [Munich, DE; Calia, Domenico Bonaccini [Garching, DE; Taylor, Luke [Montauban de Bretagne, FR

2006-05-02

An optical fiber amplifier includes a length of silica optical fiber having a core doped with neodymium, a first cladding and a second cladding each with succeeding lower refractive indices, where the first cladding diameter is less than 10 times the diameter of the core. The doping concentration of the neodymium is chosen so that the small signal absorption for 816 nm light traveling within the core is less than 15 dB/m above the other fiber losses. The amplifier is optically pumped with one laser into the fiber core and with another laser into the first cladding.

Current status of Kumgang laser system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kong, Hong Jin; Park, Sangwoo; Ahn, HeeKyung; Lee, Hwihyeong; Oh, Jungsuk; Kim, Jom Sool

2015-02-01

In KAIST, Kumgang laser is being developed for demonstration of the kW level coherent beam combination using stimulated Brillouin scattering phase conjugation mirrors. It will combine 4 modules of DPSSL rod amplifier which produces 1 kW output power. It is composed of the single frequency front-end, pre-amplifier module, and main amplifier. The output powers of the pre-amp and main amplifier module are 200 W (20 mJ @ 10 kHz / 10 ns) and 1.07kW (107 mJ @ 10 kHz / 10 ns), respectively.

A practical model of thin disk regenerative amplifier based on analytical expression of ASE lifetime

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhou, Huang; Chyla, Michal; Nagisetty, Siva Sankar; Chen, Liyuan; Endo, Akira; Smrz, Martin; Mocek, Tomas

2017-12-01

In this paper, a practical model of a thin disk regenerative amplifier has been developed based on an analytical approach, in which Drew A. Copeland [1] had evaluated the loss rate of the upper state laser level due to ASE and derived the analytical expression of the effective life-time of the upper-state laser level by taking the Lorentzian stimulated emission line-shape and total internal reflection into account. By adopting the analytical expression of effective life-time in the rate equations, we have developed a less numerically intensive model for predicting and analyzing the performance of a thin disk regenerative amplifier. Thanks to the model, optimized combination of various parameters can be obtained to avoid saturation, period-doubling bifurcation or first pulse suppression prior to experiments. The effective life-time due to ASE is also analyzed against various parameters. The simulated results fit well with experimental data. By fitting more experimental results with numerical model, we can improve the parameters of the model, such as reflective factor which is used to determine the weight of boundary reflection within the influence of ASE. This practical model will be used to explore the scaling limits imposed by ASE of the thin disk regenerative amplifier being developed in HiLASE Centre.

Active lamp pulse driver circuit. [optical pumping of laser media

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Logan, K. E. (Inventor)

1983-01-01

A flashlamp drive circuit is described which uses an unsaturated transistor as a current mode switch to periodically subject a partially ionized gaseous laser excitation flashlamp to a stable, rectangular pulse of current from an incomplete discharge of an energy storage capacitor. A monostable multivibrator sets the pulse interval, initiating the pulse in response to a flash command by providing a reference voltage to a non-inverting terminal of a base drive amplifier; a tap on an emitter resistor provides a feedback signal sensitive to the current amplitude to an inverting terminal of amplifier, thereby controlling the pulse amplitude. The circuit drives the flashlamp to provide a squarewave current flashlamp discharge.

Power Scaling Fiber Amplifiers Using Very-Large-Mode-Area Fibers

DTIC Science & Technology

2016-02-23

fiber lasers are limited to below 1kW due to limited mode size and thermal issues, particularly thermal mode instability (TMI). Two comprehensive models...accurately modeling very- large-mode-area fiber amplifiers while simultaneously including thermal lensing and TMI. This model was applied to investigate...expected resilience to TMI. 15. SUBJECT TERMS Fiber amplifier, high power laser, thermal mode instability, large-mode-area fiber, ytterbium-doped

Grism compressor for carrier-envelope phase-stable millijoule-energy chirped pulse amplifier lasers featuring bulk material stretcher.

PubMed

Ricci, A; Jullien, A; Forget, N; Crozatier, V; Tournois, P; Lopez-Martens, R

2012-04-01

We demonstrate compression of amplified carrier-envelope phase (CEP)-stable laser pulses using paired transmission gratings and high-index prisms, or grisms, with chromatic dispersion matching that of a bulk material pulse stretcher. Grisms enable the use of larger bulk stretching factors and thereby higher energy pulses with lower B-integral in a compact amplifier design suitable for long-term CEP control.

Mid-infrared 1  W hollow-core fiber gas laser source.

PubMed

Xu, Mengrong; Yu, Fei; Knight, Jonathan

2017-10-15

We report the characteristics of a 1 W hollow-core fiber gas laser emitting CW in the mid-IR. Our system is based on an acetylene-filled hollow-core optical fiber guiding with low losses at both the pump and laser wavelengths and operating in the single-pass amplified spontaneous emission regime. Through systematic characterization of the pump absorption and output power dependence on gas pressure, fiber length, and pump intensity, we determine that the reduction of pump absorption at high pump flux and the degradation of gain performance at high gas pressure necessitate the use of increased gain fiber length for efficient lasing at higher powers. Low fiber attenuation is therefore key to efficient high-power laser operation. We demonstrate 1.1 W output power at a 3.1 μm wavelength by using a high-power erbium-doped fiber amplifier pump in a single-pass configuration, approximately 400 times higher CW output power than in the ring cavity previously reported.

Silicon Photonics Transmitter with SOA and Semiconductor Mode-Locked Laser.

PubMed

Moscoso-Mártir, Alvaro; Müller, Juliana; Hauck, Johannes; Chimot, Nicolas; Setter, Rony; Badihi, Avner; Rasmussen, Daniel E; Garreau, Alexandre; Nielsen, Mads; Islamova, Elmira; Romero-García, Sebastián; Shen, Bin; Sandomirsky, Anna; Rockman, Sylvie; Li, Chao; Sharif Azadeh, Saeed; Lo, Guo-Qiang; Mentovich, Elad; Merget, Florian; Lelarge, François; Witzens, Jeremy

2017-10-24

We experimentally investigate an optical link relying on silicon photonics transmitter and receiver components as well as a single section semiconductor mode-locked laser as a light source and a semiconductor optical amplifier for signal amplification. A transmitter based on a silicon photonics resonant ring modulator, an external single section mode-locked laser and an external semiconductor optical amplifier operated together with a standard receiver reliably supports 14 Gbps on-off keying signaling with a signal quality factor better than 7 for 8 consecutive comb lines, as well as 25 Gbps signaling with a signal quality factor better than 7 for one isolated comb line, both without forward error correction. Resonant ring modulators and Germanium waveguide photodetectors are further hybridly integrated with chip scale driver and receiver electronics, and their co-operability tested. These experiments will serve as the basis for assessing the feasibility of a silicon photonics wavelength division multiplexed link relying on a single section mode-locked laser as a multi-carrier light source.

Generation of 180 W average green power from a frequency-doubled picosecond rod fiber amplifier

DOE PAGES

Zhao, Zhi; Sheehy, Brian; Minty, Michiko

2017-03-29

Here, we report on the generation of 180 W average green power from a frequency-doubled picosecond rod fiber amplifier. In an Yb-doped fiber master-oscillator-power-amplifier system, 2.3-ps 704 MHz pulses are first amplified in small-core fibers and then in large-mode-area rod fibers to produce 270 W average infrared power with a high polarization extinction ratio and diffraction-limited beam quality. By carrying out frequency doubling in a lithium triborate (LBO) crystal, 180 W average green power is generated. To the best of our knowledge, this is the highest average green power achieved in fiber-based laser systems.

Closed-loop wavelength stabilization of an optical parametric oscillator as a front end of a high-power iodine laser chain.

PubMed

Kral, L

2007-05-01

We present a complex stabilization and control system for a commercially available optical parametric oscillator. The system is able to stabilize the oscillator's output wavelength at a narrow spectral line of atomic iodine with subpicometer precision, allowing utilization of this solid-state parametric oscillator as a front end of a high-power photodissociation laser chain formed by iodine gas amplifiers. In such setup, a precise wavelength matching between the front end and the amplifier chain is necessary due to extremely narrow spectral lines of the gaseous iodine (approximately 20 pm). The system is based on a personal computer, a heated iodine cell, and a few other low-cost components. It automatically identifies the proper peak within the iodine absorption spectrum, and then keeps the oscillator tuned to this peak with high precision and reliability. The use of the solid-state oscillator as the front end allows us to use the whole iodine laser system as a pump laser for the optical parametric chirped pulse amplification, as it enables precise time synchronization with a signal Ti:sapphire laser.

Development of a Fiber Laser with Independently Adjustable Properties for Optical Resolution Photoacoustic Microscopy.

PubMed

Aytac-Kipergil, Esra; Demirkiran, Aytac; Uluc, Nasire; Yavas, Seydi; Kayikcioglu, Tunc; Salman, Sarper; Karamuk, Sohret Gorkem; Ilday, Fatih Omer; Unlu, Mehmet Burcin

2016-12-08

Photoacoustic imaging is based on the detection of generated acoustic waves through thermal expansion of tissue illuminated by short laser pulses. Fiber lasers as an excitation source for photoacoustic imaging have recently been preferred for their high repetition frequencies. Here, we report a unique fiber laser developed specifically for multiwavelength photoacoustic microscopy system. The laser is custom-made for maximum flexibility in adjustment of its parameters; pulse duration (5-10 ns), pulse energy (up to 10 μJ) and repetition frequency (up to 1 MHz) independently from each other and covers a broad spectral region from 450 to 1100 nm and also can emit wavelengths of 532, 355, and 266 nm. The laser system consists of a master oscillator power amplifier, seeding two stages; supercontinuum and harmonic generation units. The laser is outstanding since the oscillator, amplifier and supercontinuum generation parts are all-fiber integrated with custom-developed electronics and software. To demonstrate the feasibility of the system, the images of several elements of standardized resolution test chart are acquired at multiple wavelengths. The lateral resolution of optical resolution photoacoustic microscopy system is determined as 2.68 μm. The developed system may pave the way for spectroscopic photoacoustic microscopy applications via widely tunable fiber laser technologies.

Development of a Fiber Laser with Independently Adjustable Properties for Optical Resolution Photoacoustic Microscopy

PubMed Central

Aytac-Kipergil, Esra; Demirkiran, Aytac; Uluc, Nasire; Yavas, Seydi; Kayikcioglu, Tunc; Salman, Sarper; Karamuk, Sohret Gorkem; Ilday, Fatih Omer; Unlu, Mehmet Burcin

2016-01-01

Photoacoustic imaging is based on the detection of generated acoustic waves through thermal expansion of tissue illuminated by short laser pulses. Fiber lasers as an excitation source for photoacoustic imaging have recently been preferred for their high repetition frequencies. Here, we report a unique fiber laser developed specifically for multiwavelength photoacoustic microscopy system. The laser is custom-made for maximum flexibility in adjustment of its parameters; pulse duration (5–10 ns), pulse energy (up to 10 μJ) and repetition frequency (up to 1 MHz) independently from each other and covers a broad spectral region from 450 to 1100 nm and also can emit wavelengths of 532, 355, and 266 nm. The laser system consists of a master oscillator power amplifier, seeding two stages; supercontinuum and harmonic generation units. The laser is outstanding since the oscillator, amplifier and supercontinuum generation parts are all-fiber integrated with custom-developed electronics and software. To demonstrate the feasibility of the system, the images of several elements of standardized resolution test chart are acquired at multiple wavelengths. The lateral resolution of optical resolution photoacoustic microscopy system is determined as 2.68 μm. The developed system may pave the way for spectroscopic photoacoustic microscopy applications via widely tunable fiber laser technologies. PMID:27929049

Infrared laser system

DOEpatents

Cantrell, Cyrus D.; Carbone, Robert J.; Cooper, Ralph S.

1977-01-01

An infrared laser system and method for isotope separation may comprise a molecular gas laser oscillator to produce a laser beam at a first wavelength, Raman spin flip means for shifting the laser to a second wavelength, a molecular gas laser amplifier to amplify said second wavelength laser beam to high power, and optical means for directing the second wavelength, high power laser beam against a desired isotope for selective excitation thereof in a mixture with other isotopes. The optical means may include a medium which shifts the second wavelength high power laser beam to a third wavelength, high power laser beam at a wavelength coincidental with a corresponding vibrational state of said isotope and which is different from vibrational states of other isotopes in the gas mixture.

Infrared laser system

DOEpatents

Cantrell, Cyrus D.; Carbone, Robert J.; Cooper, Ralph

1982-01-01

An infrared laser system and method for isotope separation may comprise a molecular gas laser oscillator to produce a laser beam at a first wavelength, Raman spin flip means for shifting the laser to a second wavelength, a molecular gas laser amplifier to amplify said second wavelength laser beam to high power, and optical means for directing the second wavelength, high power laser beam against a desired isotope for selective excitation thereof in a mixture with other isotopes. The optical means may include a medium which shifts the second wavelength high power laser beam to a third wavelength, high power laser beam at a wavelength coincidental with a corresponding vibrational state of said isotope and which is different from vibrational states of other isotopes in the gas mixture.

kW-level commercial Yb-doped aluminophosphosilicate ternary laser fiber

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sun, Shihao; Zhan, Huan; Li, Yuwei; Liu, Shuang; Jiang, Jiali; Peng, Kun; Wang, Yuying; Ni, Li; Wang, Xiaolong; Jiang, Lei; Yu, Juan; Liu, Gang; Lu, Pengfei; Wang, Jianjun; Jing, Feng; Lin, Aoxiang

2018-03-01

Based on a master oscillator power amplifier configuration, laser performance of commercial Nufern-20/400-8M Ybdoped aluminophosphosilicate ternary laser fiber was investigated. Pumped by 976 nm laser diodes, 982 W laser output power was obtained with a slope efficiency of 84.9%. Spectrum of output was centered at 1066.56nm with 3dB bandwidth less than 0.32 nm, and the nonlinearity suppression ratio was more than 39dB. Beam quality of Mx2 and M2y were 1.55 and 1.75 at 982 W, respectively. The laser performance indicated that Nufern-20/400-8M Yb-doped aluminophosphosilicate ternary laser fiber is highly competitive for industry fiber laser use.

All-optical laser spectral narrowing and line fixing at atomic absorption transition by injection competition and gain knock-down techniques

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gacheva, Lazarina I.; Deneva, Margarita A.; Kalbanov, Mihail H.; Nenchev, Marin N.

2008-12-01

We present two original, all optical techniques, to produce a narrowline laser light, fixed at the frequency of a chosen reference atomic absorption transition. The first type of systems is an essential improvement of our method 3,4 for laser spectral locking using a control by two frequency scanned, competitive injections with disturbed power ratio by the absorption at the reference line. The new development eliminates the narrowing limiting problem, related with the fixed laser longitudinal mode structure. We have proposed an original new technique for continuously tunable single mode laser operation in combination with synchronously and equal continuous tuning of the modes of the amplifier. By adapting the laser differential rate equations, the system is analyzed theoretically in details and is shown its feasibility. The results are in agreement with previous our experiments. The essential advantage, except simplicity of realization, is that the laser line can be of order of magnitude and more narrowed than the absorption linewidth. The second system is based of the laser amplifier arrangement with a gain knock-down from the competitive frequency scanned pulse, except at the wavelength of the desired absorption reference line. The essential advantages of the last system are that the problem of fixing laser mode presence is naturally avoided. The theoretical modeling and the numerical investigations show the peculiarity and advantages of the system proposed. The developed approaches are of interest for applications in spectroscopy, in DIAL monitoring of the atmospheric pollutants, in isotope separation system and potentially - for creation of simple, all optical, frequency standards for optical communications. Also, the continuously tunable single mode laser (and the combination with the simultaneously tunable amplifier) presents itself the interest for many practical applications in spectroscopy, metrology, and holography. We compare the action and the advantages of the two systems proposed.

Direct solar-pumped iodine laser amplifier

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Han, Kwang S.; Hwang, In Heon

1990-01-01

The optimum conditions of a solar pumped iodine laser are found in this research for the case of a continuous wave operation and a pulsed operation. The optimum product of the pressure(p) inside the laser tube and the tube diameter(d) was pd=40 approx. 50 torr-cm on the contrary to the case of a high intensity flashlamp pumped iodine laser where the optimum value of the product is known to be pd=150 torr-cm. The pressure-diameter product is less than 1/3 of that of the high power iodine laser. During the research period, various laser materials were also studied for solar pumping. Among the laser materials, Nd:YAG is found to have the lowest laser threshold pumping intensity of about 200 solar constant. The Rhodamine 6G was also tested as the solar pumped laser material. The threshold pumping power was measured to be about 20,000 solar constant. The amplification experiment for a continuously pumped iodine laser amplifier was performed using Vortek solar simulator and the amplification factors were measured for single pass amplification and triple pass amplification of the 15 cm long amplifier tube. The amplification of 5 was obtained for the triple pass amplification.

Series production of next-generation guide-star lasers at TOPTICA and MPBC

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Enderlein, Martin; Friedenauer, Axel; Schwerdt, Robin; Rehme, Paul; Wei, Daoping; Karpov, Vladimir; Ernstberger, Bernhard; Leisching, Patrick; Clements, Wallace R. L.; Kaenders, Wilhelm G.

2014-07-01

Large telescopes equipped with adaptive optics require high power 589-nm continuous-wave sources with emission linewidths of ~5 MHz. These guide-star lasers should be highly reliable and simple to operate and maintain for many years at the top of a mountain facility. After delivery of the first 20-W systems to our lead customer ESO, TOPTICA and MPBC have begun series production of next-generation sodium guide-star lasers. The chosen approach is based on ESO's patented narrow-band Raman fiber amplifier (RFA) technology [1]. A master oscillator signal from a TOPTICA 50-mW, 1178-nm diode laser, with stabilized emission frequency and linewidth of ~ 1 MHz, is amplified in an MPBC polarization-maintaining (PM) RFA pumped by a high-power 1120-nm PM fiber laser. With efficient stimulated Brillouin scattering suppression, an unprecedented 40 W of narrow-band RFA output has been obtained. This is spatially mode-matched into a patented resonant-cavity frequency doubler providing also the repumper light [2]. With a diffraction-limited output beam and doubling efficiencies < 80%, all ESO design goals have been easily fulfilled. Together with a wall-plug efficiency of < 3%, including all system controls, and a cooling liquid flow of only 5 l/min, the modular, turn-key, maintenance-free and compact system design allows a direct integration with a launch telescope. With these fiber-based guide star lasers, TOPTICA for the first time offers a fully engineered, off-the-shelf guide star laser system for ground-based optical telescopes. Here we present a comparison of test results of the first batch of laser systems, demonstrating the reproducibility of excellent optical characteristics.

1.6  MW peak power, 90  ps all-solid-state laser from an aberration self-compensated double-passing end-pumped Nd:YVO₄ rod amplifier.

PubMed

Wang, Chunhua; Liu, Chong; Shen, Lifeng; Zhao, Zhiliang; Liu, Bin; Jiang, Hongbo

2016-03-20

In this paper a delicately designed double-passing end-pumped Nd:YVO₄ rod amplifier is reported that produces 10.2 W average laser output when seeded by a 6 mW Nd:YVO₄ microchip laser at a repetition rate of 70 kHz with pulse duration of 90 ps. A pulse peak power of ∼1.6  MW and pulse energy of ∼143  μJ is achieved. The beam quality is well preserved by a double-passing configuration for spherical-aberration compensation. The laser-beam size in the amplifier is optimized to prevent the unwanted damage from the high pulse peak-power density. This study provides a simple and robust picosecond all-solid-state master oscillator power amplifier system with both high peak power and high beam quality, which shows great potential in the micromachining.

Stable passive optical clock generation in SOA-based fiber lasers.

PubMed

Wang, Jing-Yun; Lin, Kuei-Huei; Chen, Hou-Ren

2015-02-15

Stable optical pulse trains are obtained from 1.3-μm and 1.5-μm semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA)-based fiber lasers using passive optical technology. The waveforms depend on SOA currents, and the repetition rates can be tuned by varying the relative length of sub-cavities. The output pulse trains of these SOA-based fiber lasers are stable against intracavity polarization adjustment and environmental perturbation. The optical clock generation is explained in terms of mode competition, self-synchronization, and SOA saturation. Without resorting to any active modulation circuits or devices, the technology used here is simple and may find various applications in the future.

Sub-Nanosecond Infrared Optical Parametric Pulse Generation in Periodically Poled Lithium Niobate Pumped by a Seeded Fiber Amplifier

DTIC Science & Technology

2008-02-01

Photonics. New York: John J. Wiley & Sons, Inc, 1991. 30. “How to (Maybe) Measure Laser Beam Quality” Prof. A. E. Siegman Tutorial Presentation at...Deterministic Nanosecond Laser -Induced Breakdown Thresholds in Pure and Yb3+ Doped Fused Silica,” Proc. of SPIE 6453 (2007) 37. Siegman , A.E...seeded at one end and pumped at the other end, using dichroic filters to protect the pump and seed lasers , creating a fiber amplifier. The seed laser

EFFECTS OF LASER RADIATION ON MATTER. LASER PLASMA: Formation of amplified spontaneous radiation in an expanding laser plasma allowing for refraction

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gulov, A. V.; Derzhiev, V. I.; Zhidkov, A. G.; Terskikh, A. O.; Yakovlenko, Sergei I.

1990-06-01

Calculations are made of the divergence of amplified spontaneous radiation in a laser plasma allowing for refraction by free electrons. An analysis is made of the divergence of the radiation generated due to a 3p→3s' transition in neon-like ions. Calculations are made of the divergence of the radiation due to the 4→3 transition in the O VIII ion allowing for refraction during expansion of a Formvar plasma.

ARPA/NRL X-Ray Laser Program - Semiannual Technical Report to Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, 1 January 1975-30 June 1975

DTIC Science & Technology

1975-09-01

being conducted with highly- stripped carbon ions emitted fron a laser -irradiated surface and ^xpandin- into a background gas . The...obtained from reported measurement s of noble gas lasers indicate that the amplifiers will operate in I depletion mode, providing pulse powers in the...pumping appears to be the easier alternative and it will be pursued. The alternative amplifier approach involving electron beam pumped noble gas lasers

Observation and theory of X-ray mirages

PubMed Central

Magnitskiy, Sergey; Nagorskiy, Nikolay; Faenov, Anatoly; Pikuz, Tatiana; Tanaka, Mamoko; Ishino, Masahiko; Nishikino, Masaharu; Fukuda, Yuji; Kando, Masaki; Kawachi, Tetsuya; Kato, Yoshiaki

2013-01-01

The advent of X-ray lasers allowed the realization of compact coherent soft X-ray sources, thus opening the way to a wide range of applications. Here we report the observation of unexpected concentric rings in the far-field beam profile at the output of a two-stage plasma-based X-ray laser, which can be considered as the first manifestation of a mirage phenomenon in X-rays. We have developed a method of solving the Maxwell–Bloch equations for this problem, and find that the experimentally observed phenomenon is due to the emergence of X-ray mirages in the plasma amplifier, appearing as phase-matched coherent virtual point sources. The obtained results bring a new insight into the physical nature of amplification of X-ray radiation in laser-induced plasma amplifiers and open additional opportunities for X-ray plasma diagnostics and extreme ultraviolet lithography. PMID:23733009

Conceptual design of sub-exa-watt system by using optical parametric chirped pulse amplification

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kawanaka, J.; Tsubakimoto, K.; Yoshida, H.; Fujioka, K.; Fujimoto, Y.; Tokita, S.; Jitsuno, T.; Miyanaga, N.; Gekko-EXA Design Team

2016-03-01

A 50 PW ultrahigh-peak-power laser has been conceptually designed, which is based on optical parametric chirped pulse amplification (OPCPA). A 250 J DPSSL and a flash- lamp-pumped kJ laser are adopted as new repeatable pump source. The existed LFEX-laser with more than ten kilo joules are used in the final amplifier stage and the OPCPA with the 2x2 tiled pump beams in random phase has been proposed with several ten centimeter aperture. A pulse duration of amplified pulses is set at less than 10 fs. A broadband OPCPA with ∼500 nm of the gain spectral width near 1 μm is required. A partially deuterated KDP (p-DKDP) crystal is one of the most promising nonlinear crystals and our numerical calculation ensured such ultra-broad gain width. p-DKDP crystals with several deuteration ratio have been successfully grown.

Observation and theory of X-ray mirages.

PubMed

Magnitskiy, Sergey; Nagorskiy, Nikolay; Faenov, Anatoly; Pikuz, Tatiana; Tanaka, Mamoko; Ishino, Masahiko; Nishikino, Masaharu; Fukuda, Yuji; Kando, Masaki; Kawachi, Tetsuya; Kato, Yoshiaki

2013-01-01

The advent of X-ray lasers allowed the realization of compact coherent soft X-ray sources, thus opening the way to a wide range of applications. Here we report the observation of unexpected concentric rings in the far-field beam profile at the output of a two-stage plasma-based X-ray laser, which can be considered as the first manifestation of a mirage phenomenon in X-rays. We have developed a method of solving the Maxwell-Bloch equations for this problem, and find that the experimentally observed phenomenon is due to the emergence of X-ray mirages in the plasma amplifier, appearing as phase-matched coherent virtual point sources. The obtained results bring a new insight into the physical nature of amplification of X-ray radiation in laser-induced plasma amplifiers and open additional opportunities for X-ray plasma diagnostics and extreme ultraviolet lithography.

A design of energy detector for ArF excimer lasers

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Feng, Zebin; Han, Xiaoquan; Zhou, Yi; Bai, Lujun

2017-08-01

ArF excimer lasers with short wavelength and high photon energy are widely applied in the field of integrated circuit lithography, material processing, laser medicine, and so on. Excimer laser single pulse energy is a very important parameter in the application. In order to detect the single pulse energy on-line, one energy detector based on photodiode was designed. The signal processing circuit connected to the photodiode was designed so that the signal obtained by the photodiode was amplified and the pulse width was broadened. The amplified signal was acquired by a data acquisition card and stored in the computer for subsequent data processing. The peak of the pulse signal is used to characterize the single pulse energy of ArF excimer laser. In every condition of deferent pulse energy value levels, a series of data about laser pulses energy were acquired synchronously using the Ophir energy meter and the energy detector. A data set about the relationship between laser pulse energy and the peak of the pulse signal was acquired. Then, by using the data acquired, a model characterizing the functional relationship between the energy value and the peak value of the pulse was trained based on an algorithm of machine learning, Support Vector Regression (SVR). By using the model, the energy value can be obtained directly from the energy detector designed in this project. The result shows that the relative error between the energy obtained by the energy detector and by the Ophir energy meter is less than 2%.

Phase-locked, erbium-fiber-laser-based frequency comb in the near infrared.

PubMed

Washburn, Brian R; Diddams, Scott A; Newbury, Nathan R; Nicholson, Jeffrey W; Yan, Man F; Jørgensen, Carsten G

2004-02-01

A phase-locked frequency comb in the near infrared is demonstrated with a mode-locked, erbium-doped, fiber laser whose output is amplified and spectrally broadened in dispersion-flattened, highly nonlinear optical fiber to span from 1100 to >2200 nm. The supercontinuum output comprises a frequency comb with a spacing set by the laser repetition rate and an offset by the carrier-envelope offset frequency, which is detected with the standard f-to-2f heterodyne technique. The comb spacing and offset frequency are phase locked to a stable rf signal with a fiber stretcher in the laser cavity and by control of the pump laser power, respectively. This infrared comb permits frequency metrology experiments in the near infrared in a compact, fiber-laser-based system.

Semiconductor-based narrow-line and high-brilliance 193-nm laser system for industrial applications

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Opalevs, D.; Scholz, M.; Stuhler, J.; Gilfert, C.; Liu, L. J.; Wang, X. Y.; Vetter, A.; Kirner, R.; Scharf, T.; Noell, W.; Rockstuhl, C.; Li, R. K.; Chen, C. T.; Voelkel, R.; Leisching, P.

2018-02-01

We present a novel industrial-grade prototype version of a continuous-wave 193 nm laser system entirely based on solid state pump laser technology. Deep-ultraviolet emission is realized by frequency-quadrupling an amplified diode laser and up to 20 mW of optical power were generated using the nonlinear crystal KBBF. We demonstrate the lifetime of the laser system for different output power levels and environmental conditions. The high stability of our setup was proven in > 500 h measurements on a single spot, a crystal shifter multiplies the lifetime to match industrial requirements. This laser improves the relative intensity noise, brilliance, wall-plug efficiency and maintenance cost significantly. We discuss first lithographic experiments making use of this improvement in photon efficiency.

High power green lasers for gamma source

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Durand, Magali; Sevillano, Pierre; Alexaline, Olivier; Sangla, Damien; Casanova, Alexis; Aubourg, Adrien; Saci, Abdelhak; Courjaud, Antoine

2018-02-01

A high intensity Gamma source is required for Nuclear Spectroscopy, it will be delivered by the interaction between accelerated electron and intense laser beams. Those two interactions lasers are based on a multi-stage amplification scheme that ended with a second harmonics generation to deliver 200 mJ, 5 ps pulses at 515 nm and 100 Hz. A t-Pulse oscillator with slow and fast feedback loop implemented inside the oscillator cavity allows the possibility of synchronization to an optical reference. A temporal jitter of 120 fs rms is achieved, integrated from 10 Hz to 10 MHz. Then a regenerative amplifier, based on Yb:YAG technology, pumped by fiber-coupled QCW laser diodes, delivers pulses up to 30 mJ. The 1 nm bandwidth was compressed to 1.5 ps with a good spatial quality: M2 of 1.1. This amplifier is integrated in a compact sealed housing (750 x 500 x 150 mm), which allows a pulse-pulse stability of 0.1 % rms, and a long-term stability of 1,9 % over 100 hours (with +/-1°C environment). The main amplification stage uses a cryocooled Yb:YAG crystal in an active mirror configuration. The crystal is cooled at 130 K via a compact and low-vibration cryocooler, avoiding any additional phase noise contribution, 340 mJ in a six pass scheme was achieved, with 0.9 of Strehl ratio. The trade off to the gain of a cryogenic amplifier is the bandwidth reduction, however the 1030 nm pulse was compressed to 4.4 ps. As for the regenerative amplifier a long-term stability of 1.9 % over 30 hours was achieved in an environment with +/-1°C temperature fluctuations The compression and Second Harmonics Generation Stages have allowed the conversion of 150 mJ of uncompressed infrared beam into 60 mJ at 515 nm.

High power diode laser Master Oscillator-Power Amplifier (MOPA)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Andrews, John R.; Mouroulis, P.; Wicks, G.

1994-01-01

High power multiple quantum well AlGaAs diode laser master oscillator - power amplifier (MOPA) systems were examined both experimentally and theoretically. For two pass operation, it was found that powers in excess of 0.3 W per 100 micrometers of facet length were achievable while maintaining diffraction-limited beam quality. Internal electrical-to-optical conversion efficiencies as high as 25 percent were observed at an internal amplifier gain of 9 dB. Theoretical modeling of multiple quantum well amplifiers was done using appropriate rate equations and a heuristic model of the carrier density dependent gain. The model gave a qualitative agreement with the experimental results. In addition, the model allowed exploration of a wider design space for the amplifiers. The model predicted that internal electrical-to-optical conversion efficiencies in excess of 50 percent should be achievable with careful system design. The model predicted that no global optimum design exists, but gain, efficiency, and optical confinement (coupling efficiency) can be mutually adjusted to meet a specific system requirement. A three quantum well, low optical confinement amplifier was fabricated using molecular beam epitaxial growth. Coherent beam combining of two high power amplifiers injected from a common master oscillator was also examined. Coherent beam combining with an efficiency of 93 percent resulted in a single beam having diffraction-limited characteristics. This beam combining efficiency is a world record result for such a system. Interferometric observations of the output of the amplifier indicated that spatial mode matching was a significant factor in the less than perfect beam combining. Finally, the system issues of arrays of amplifiers in a coherent beam combining system were investigated. Based upon experimentally observed parameters coherent beam combining could result in a megawatt-scale coherent beam with a 10 percent electrical-to-optical conversion efficiency.

Novel fiber-MOPA-based high power blue laser

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Engin, Doruk; Fouron, Jean-Luc; Chen, Youming; Huffman, Andromeda; Fitzpatrick, Fran; Burnham, Ralph; Gupta, Shantanu

2012-06-01

5W peak power at 911 nm is demonstrated with a pulsed Neodymium (Nd) doped fiber master oscillator power amplifier (MOPA). This result is the first reported high gain (16dB) fiber amplifier operation at 911nm. Pulse repetition frequency (PRF) and duty-cycle dependence of the all fiber system is characterized. Negligible performance degreadation is observed down to 1% duty cycle and 10 kHz PRF, where 2.5μJ of pulse energy is achieved. Continuous wave (CW) MOPA experiments achieved 55mW average power and 9dB gain with 15% optical to optical (o-o) efficiency. Excellent agreement is established between dynammic fiber MOPA simulation tool and experimental results in predicting output amplified spontaneous emission (ase) and signal pulse shapes. Using the simulation tool robust Stimulated Brillion Scattering (SBS) free operation is predicted out of a two stage all fiber system that generates over 10W's of peak power with 500 MHz line-width. An all fiber 911 nm pulsed laser source with >10W of peak power is expected to increase reliability and reduce complexity of high energy 455 nm laser system based on optical parametric amplification for udnerwater applications. The views expressed are thos of the author and do not reflect the official policy or position of the Department of Defense or the U.S. Government.

High power lasers for gamma source

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Durand, Magali; Sangla, Damien; Trophème, Benoit; Sevillano, Pierre; Casanova, Alexis; Caillon, Laurianne; Courjaud, Antoine

2017-02-01

A high intensity Gamma source is required for Nuclear Spectroscopy, it will be delivered by the interaction between accelerated electron and intense laser beams. Those two interactions lasers are based on a multi-stage amplification scheme that ended with a second harmonics generation to deliver 200 mJ, 3.5 ps pulses at 515 nm and 100 Hz. A t-Pulse oscillator with slow and fast feedback loop implemented inside the oscillator cavity allows the possibility of synchronization to an optical reference. A temporal jitter of 120 fs rms is achieved, integrated from 10 Hz to 10 MHz. Then a regenerative amplifier, based on Yb:YAG technology, pumped by fiber-coupled QCW laser diodes, delivers pulses up to 30 mJ. The 1 nm bandwidth was compressed to 1.5 ps with a good spatial quality: M2 of 1.1. This amplifier is integrated in a compact sealed housing (750x500x150 cm), which allows a pulse-pulse stability of 0.1% rms, and a long-term stability of 1,9% over 100 hours (with +/-1°C environment). The main amplification stage uses a cryocooled Yb:YAG crystal in an active mirror configuration. The crystal is cooled at 130 K via a compact and low-vibration cryocooler, avoiding any additional phase noise contribution, 340 mJ in a six pass scheme was achieved, with 0.9 of Strehl ratio. The trade off to the gain of a cryogenic amplifier is the bandwidth reduction, however the 1030 nm pulse was compressed to 3.5 ps.

High-power parametric amplification of 11.8-fs laser pulses with carrier-envelope phase control.

PubMed

Zinkstok, R Th; Witte, S; Hogervorst, W; Eikema, K S E

2005-01-01

Phase-stable parametric chirped-pulse amplification of ultrashort pulses from a carrier-envelope phase-stabilized mode-locked Ti:sapphire oscillator (11.0 fs) to 0.25 mJ/pulse at 1 kHz is demonstrated. Compression with a grating compressor and a LCD shaper yields near-Fourier-limited 11.8-fs pulses with an energy of 0.12 mJ. The amplifier is pumped by 532-nm pulses from a synchronized mode-locked laser, Nd:YAG amplifier system. This approach is shown to be promising for the next generation of ultrafast amplifiers aimed at producing terawatt-level phase-controlled few-cycle laser pulses.

Characterization of Ultrafast Laser Pulses using a Low-dispersion Frequency Resolved Optical Grating Spectrometer

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Whitelock, Hope; Bishop, Michael; Khosravi, Soroush; Obaid, Razib; Berrah, Nora

2016-05-01

A low dispersion frequency-resolved optical gating (FROG) spectrometer was designed to characterize ultrashort (<50 femtosecond) laser pulses from a commercial regenerative amplifier, optical parametric amplifier, and a home-built non-colinear optical parametric amplifier. This instrument splits a laser pulse into two replicas with a 90:10 intensity ratio using a thin pellicle beam-splitter and then recombines the pulses in a birefringent medium. The instrument detects a wavelength-sensitive change in polarization of the weak probe pulse in the presence of the stronger pump pulse inside the birefringent medium. Scanning the time delay between the two pulses and acquiring spectra allows for characterization of the frequency and time content of ultrafast laser pulses, that is needed for interpretation of experimental results obtained from these ultrafast laser systems. Funded by the DoE-BES, Grant No. DE-SC0012376.

Multiwavelength self-pulsating fibre laser based on cascaded SPM spectral broadening and filtering

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rochette, Martin; Sun, Kai; Hernández-Cordero, Juan; Chen, Lawrence R.

2008-06-01

We experimentally demonstrate the operation of a laser based on self-phase modulation followed by offset spectral filtering. This laser has three operation modes: a continuous-wave mode, a self-pulsating mode where the laser self ignites and produces pulses, and a pulse-buffering mode where no new pulse is formed from spontaneous emission noise but only pulses already propagating or pulses injected in the laser cavity can be sustained. In the self-pulsating and pulse-buffering modes, the laser is multi-wavelength and continuously tunable over the entire gain band of the amplifiers. The output pulse width is quasi transform-limited with respect to the spectral-width of the filters used in the cavity. Overall, this device provides a simple alternative to pulsed laser source and also represents a promising approach for signal buffering.

Diode amplifier of modulated optical beam power

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

D'yachkov, N V; Bogatov, A P; Gushchik, T I

2014-11-30

Analytical relations are obtained between characteristics of modulated light at the output and input of an optical diode power amplifier operating in the highly saturated gain regime. It is shown that a diode amplifier may act as an amplitude-to-phase modulation converter with a rather large bandwidth (∼10 GHz). The low sensitivity of the output power of the amplifier to the input beam power and its high energy efficiency allow it to be used as a building block of a high-power multielement laser system with coherent summation of a large number of optical beams. (lasers)

Ring cavity for a Raman capillary waveguide amplifir

DOEpatents

Kurnit, N.A.

1981-01-27

A regenerative ring amplifier and regenerative ring oscillator are described which function to feed back a portion of the Stokes signal to complete the ring cavity. The ring cavity configuration allows the CO/sub 2/ laser pump signal and Stokes signal to copropagate through the Raman capillary waveguide amplifier. A Raman capillary waveguide amplifier is also provided in the return leg of the ring cavity to increase gain without increasing the round trip time. Additionally, the ring cavity can be designed such that the amplified Stokes signal is synchronous with the mode-locked spikes of the incoming CO/sub 2/ laser pump signal.

Simulation of energy buildups in solid-state regenerative amplifiers for 2-μm emitting lasers

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Springer, Ramon; Alexeev, Ilya; Heberle, Johannes; Pflaum, Christoph

2018-02-01

A numerical model for solid-state regenerative amplifiers is presented, which is able to precisely simulate the quantitative energy buildup of stretched femtosecond pulses over passed roundtrips in the cavity. In detail, this model is experimentally validated with a Ti:Sapphire regenerative amplifier. Additionally, the simulation of a Ho:YAG based regenerative amplifier is conducted and compared to experimental data from literature. Furthermore, a bifurcation study of the investigated Ho:YAG system is performed, which leads to the identification of stable and instable operation regimes. The presented numerical model exhibits a well agreement to the experimental results from the Ti:Sapphire regenerative amplifier. Also, the gained pulse energy from the Ho:YAG system could be approximated closely, while the mismatch is explained with the monochromatic calculation of pulse amplification. Since the model is applicable to other solid-state gain media, it allows for the efficient design of future amplification systems based on regenerative amplification.

Spontaneous emission in semiconductor laser amplifiers

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Arnaud, J.; Coste, F.; Fesqueet, J.

1985-06-01

In a mode matched configuration, spontaneous emission in semiconductor laser amplifiers is enhanced by a factor which is larger than unity but which is significantly smaller than the K-factor calculated by Petermann. Using thin-slab model, we find that in typical situations, the factor is about K/2.

Investigation of pump-to-seed beam matching on output features of Rb and Cs vapor laser amplifiers

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shen, Binglin; Huang, Jinghua; Xu, Xingqi; Xia, Chunsheng; Pan, Bailiang

2018-05-01

Taking into account the beam radii of pump light and seed laser along the entire length of the cell and their intensities in the cross section, a physical model with ordinary differential equation methods for alkali vapor amplifiers is established. Applied to the reported optically pumped Rb and diode-pumped Cs vapor amplifiers, the model shows good agreement between the calculated and measured dependence of amplified power on the seed power. A larger width of the spontaneous emission region as compared to the widths of pump absorption and laser emission regions, which will result in very high energy losses, is observed in the cell. Influence of pump and seed beam waists on output performance is calculated, showing that the pump and seed beam should match each other not only in shape but also in size, thus an optimal combination of beam radii is very important for efficient operation of alkali vapor amplifiers.

1.5-μm high-average power laser amplifier using a Er,Yb:glass planar waveguide for coherent Doppler lidar

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sakimura, Takeshi; Watanabe, Yojiro; Ando, Toshiyuki; Kameyama, Shumpei; Asaka, Kimio; Tanaka, Hisamichi; Yanagisawa, Takayuki; Hirano, Yoshihito; Inokuchi, Hamaki

2012-11-01

We have developed a 1.5-μm eye-safe wavelength high average power laser amplifier using an Er,Yb:glass planar waveguide for coherent Doppler LIDAR. Large cooling surface of the planar waveguide enabled high average power pumping for Er,Yb:glass which has low thermal fracture limit. Nonlinear effects are suppressed by the large beam size which is designed by the waveguide thickness and the beam width of the planar direction. Multi-bounce optical path configuration and high-intensity pumping provide high-gain and high-efficient operation using three-level laser material. With pulsed operation, the maximum pulse energy of 1.9 mJ was achieved at the repetition rate of 4 kHz. Output average power of the amplified signal was 7.6W with the amplified gain of more than 20dB. This amplifier is suitable for coherent Doppler LIDAR to enhance the measurable range.

Far field beam pattern of one MW combined beam of laser diode array amplifiers for space power transmission

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kwon, Jin H.; Lee, Ja H.

1989-01-01

The far-field beam pattern and the power-collection efficiency are calculated for a multistage laser-diode-array amplifier consisting of about 200,000 5-W laser diode arrays with random distributions of phase and orientation errors and random diode failures. From the numerical calculation it is found that the far-field beam pattern is little affected by random failures of up to 20 percent of the laser diodes with reference of 80 percent receiving efficiency in the center spot. The random differences in phases among laser diodes due to probable manufacturing errors is allowed to about 0.2 times the wavelength. The maximum allowable orientation error is about 20 percent of the diffraction angle of a single laser diode aperture (about 1 cm). The preliminary results indicate that the amplifier could be used for space beam-power transmission with an efficiency of about 80 percent for a moderate-size (3-m-diameter) receiver placed at a distance of less than 50,000 km.

Two-beam combined 3.36  J, 100  Hz diode-pumped high beam quality Nd:YAG laser system.

PubMed

Qiu, J S; Tang, X X; Fan, Z W; Wang, H C; Liu, H

2016-07-20

In this paper, we develop a diode-pumped all-solid-state high-energy and high beam quality Nd:YAG laser system. A master oscillator power amplifier structure is used to provide a high pulse energy laser output with a high repetition rate. In order to decrease the amplifier working current so as to reduce the impact of the thermal effect on the beam quality, a beam splitting-amplifying-combining scheme is adopted. The energy extraction efficiency of the laser system is 50.68%. We achieve 3.36 J pulse energy at a 100 Hz repetition rate with a pulse duration of 7.1 ns, a far-field beam spot 1.71 times the diffraction limit, and 1.07% energy stability (RMS).

Combined Yb/Nd driver for optical parametric chirped pulse amplifiers.

PubMed

Michailovas, Kirilas; Baltuska, Andrius; Pugzlys, Audrius; Smilgevicius, Valerijus; Michailovas, Andrejus; Zaukevicius, Audrius; Danilevicius, Rokas; Frankinas, Saulius; Rusteika, Nerijus

2016-09-19

We report on the developed front-end/pump system for optical parametric chirped pulse amplifiers. The system is based on a dual output fiber oscillator/power amplifier which seeds and assures all-optical synchronization of femtosecond Yb and picosecond Nd laser amplifiers operating at a central wavelength of 1030 nm and 1064 nm, respectively. At the central wavelength of 1030 nm, the fiber oscillator generates partially stretched 4 ps pulses with the spectrum supporting a <120 fs pulse duration and pulse energy of 0.45 nJ. The energy of generated 1064 nm pulses is 0.15 nJ, which is sufficient for the efficient seeding of high-contrast Nd:YVO chirped pulse regenerative amplifier/post amplifier systems generating 9 mJ pulses compressible to 16 ps duration. The power amplification stages, based on Nd:YAG crystals, provide 62 mJ pulses compressible to 20 ps pulse duration at a repetition rate of 1 kHz. Further energy scaling currently is prevented by limited dimensions of the diffraction gratings, which, because of the fast progress in MLD grating manufacturing technologies is only a temporary obstacle.

High average power scaleable thin-disk laser

DOEpatents

Beach, Raymond J.; Honea, Eric C.; Bibeau, Camille; Payne, Stephen A.; Powell, Howard; Krupke, William F.; Sutton, Steven B.

2002-01-01

Using a thin disk laser gain element with an undoped cap layer enables the scaling of lasers to extremely high average output power values. Ordinarily, the power scaling of such thin disk lasers is limited by the deleterious effects of amplified spontaneous emission. By using an undoped cap layer diffusion bonded to the thin disk, the onset of amplified spontaneous emission does not occur as readily as if no cap layer is used, and much larger transverse thin disks can be effectively used as laser gain elements. This invention can be used as a high average power laser for material processing applications as well as for weapon and air defense applications.

Development of compact excimer lasers for remote sensing

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Laudenslager, J. B.; Mcdermid, I. S.; Pacala, T. J.

1983-01-01

The capabilities of excimer lasers for remote sensing applications are illustrated in a discussion of the development of a compact tunable XeCl excimer laser for the detection of atmospheric OH radicals. Following a brief review of the operating principles and advantages of excimer lasers, measurements of the wavelength dependence of the net small signal gain coefficient of a discharge excited XeCl laser are presented which demonstrate the overlap of several absorption lines of the A-X(0,0) transition of OH near 308 nm with the wavelengths of the XeCl laser. A range of continuous narrow bandwidth tunability of from 307.6 to 308.4 nm with only a 30 percent variation in output is reported for an XeCl laser used as a double-pass amplifier for a frequency-doubled dye laser, and measurements demonstrating the detection of laser-induced fluorescence from OH in a methane-oxygen flame are also noted. The design of an oscillator-amplifier excimer system comprising a corona-preionized, transverse-discharge oscillator and amplifier is then presented. Output energies of 12-15 mJ have been achieved in the regions where injection locking was established, with energies of 8-10 mJ elsewhere.

High power gas laser amplifier

DOEpatents

Leland, Wallace T.; Stratton, Thomas F.

1981-01-01

A high power output CO.sub.2 gas laser amplifier having a number of sections, each comprising a plurality of annular pumping chambers spaced around the circumference of a vacuum chamber containing a cold cathode, gridded electron gun. The electron beam from the electron gun ionizes the gas lasing medium in the sections. An input laser beam is split into a plurality of annular beams, each passing through the sections comprising one pumping chamber.

Wavelength-controlled external-cavity laser with a silicon photonic crystal resonant reflector

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gonzalez-Fernandez, A. A.; Liles, Alexandros A.; Persheyev, Saydulla; Debnath, Kapil; O'Faolain, Liam

2016-03-01

We report the experimental demonstration of an alternative design of external-cavity hybrid lasers consisting of a III-V Semiconductor Optical Amplifier with fiber reflector and a Photonic Crystal (PhC) based resonant reflector on SOI. The Silicon reflector comprises a polymer (SU8) bus waveguide vertically coupled to a PhC cavity and provides a wavelength-selective optical feedback to the laser cavity. This device exhibits milliwatt-level output power and sidemode suppression ratio of more than 25 dB.

Intracavity dispersion effect on timing jitter of ultralow noise mode-locked semiconductor based external-cavity laser.

PubMed

Gee, S; Ozharar, S; Plant, J J; Juodawlkis, P W; Delfyett, P J

2009-02-01

We report the generation of optical pulse trains with 380 as of residual timing jitter (1 Hz-1 MHz) from a mode-locked external-cavity semiconductor laser, through a combination of optimizing the intracavity dispersion and utilizing a high-power, low-noise InGaAsP quantum-well slab-coupled optical waveguide amplifier gain medium. This is, to our knowledge, the lowest residual timing jitter reported to date from an actively mode-locked laser.

1.7  μm band narrow-linewidth tunable Raman fiber lasers pumped by spectrum-sliced amplified spontaneous emission.

PubMed

Zhang, Peng; Wu, Di; Du, Quanli; Li, Xiaoyan; Han, Kexuan; Zhang, Lizhong; Wang, Tianshu; Jiang, Huilin

2017-12-10

A 1.7 μm band tunable narrow-linewidth Raman fiber laser based on spectrally sliced amplified spontaneous emission (SS-ASE) and multiple filter structures is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. In this scheme, an SS-ASE source is employed as a pump source in order to avoid stimulated Brillouin scattering. The ring configuration includes a 500 m long high nonlinear optical fiber and a 10 km long dispersion shifted fiber as the gain medium. A segment of un-pumped polarization-maintaining erbium-doped fiber is used to modify the shape of the spectrum. Furthermore, a nonlinear polarization rotation scheme is applied as the wavelength selector to generate lasers. A high-finesse ring filter and a ring filter are used to narrow the linewidth of the laser, respectively. We demonstrate tuning capabilities of a single laser over 28 nm between 1652 nm and 1680 nm by adjusting the polarization controller (PC) and tunable filter. The tunable laser has a 0.023 nm effective linewidth with the high-finesse ring filter. The stable multi-wavelength laser operation of up to four wavelengths can be obtained by adjusting the PC carefully when the pump power increases.

Narrow linewidth diode laser modules for quantum optical sensor applications in the field and in space

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wicht, A.; Bawamia, A.; Krüger, M.; Kürbis, Ch.; Schiemangk, M.; Smol, R.; Peters, A.; Tränkle, G.

2017-02-01

We present the status of our efforts to develop very compact and robust diode laser modules specifically suited for quantum optics experiments in the field and in space. The paper describes why hybrid micro-integration and GaAs-diode laser technology is best suited to meet the needs of such applications. The electro-optical performance achieved with hybrid micro-integrated, medium linewidth, high power distributed-feedback master-oscillator-power-amplifier modules and with medium power, narrow linewidth extended cavity diode lasers emitting at 767 nm and 780 nm are briefly described and the status of space relevant stress tests and space heritage is summarized. We also describe the performance of an ECDL operating at 1070 nm. Further, a novel and versatile technology platform is introduced that allows for integration of any type of laser system or electro-optical module that can be constructed from two GaAs chips. This facilitates, for the first time, hybrid micro-integration, e.g. of extended cavity diode laser master-oscillator-poweramplifier modules, of dual-stage optical amplifiers, or of lasers with integrated, chip-based phase modulator. As an example we describe the implementation of an ECDL-MOPA designed for experiments on ultra-cold rubidium and potassium atoms on board a sounding rocket and give basic performance parameters.

Towards an 100 Hz X-Ray Laser Station

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tümmler, J.; Stiel, H.; Jung, R.; Janulewicz, K. A.; Nickles, P. V.; Sandner, W.

During the last few years the optimization of pumping schemes of X-ray lasers (XRL) has reached a level where the required pump power could be provided by table-top or even by commercially available laser systems. But the stability of the XRL output signal is limited by that of the pumping lasers and also the repetition rate is at maximum about 10 Hz. Many envisioned applications would however benefit from an improvement of these crucial parameters. A way to overcome this situation could be the use of diode pumped solid state lasers (DPSSL) as drivers. Therefore we are developing a new 100 Hz DPSSL based on Yb:YAG thin disk and CPA technology. This system is based on newly developed efficient diode stacks for 100 Hz repetition rate. According to the common requirements of a transient collisional XRL (here in a grazing incidence pumping scheme -GRIP) the new laser driver has a double beam structure with one beam for plasma performing, delivering an energy at the target in the range of 200 mJ in 200 ps and a second one with > 500 mJ and < 5 ps to heat the plasma. The amplifier system consists of 4 amplifiers of different sizes. For the following XRL operation a water cooled Ag or Mo tape as target for 13.9 nm or 18.9 nm XRL emission was developed. The target speed can be adjusted to the driver laser repetition rate. Parallel to the commissioning the XRL station and first application experiments an upgrade of the driver laser is planned.

Multipass laser amplification with near-field far-field optical separation

DOEpatents

Hagen, Wilhelm F.

1979-01-01

This invention discloses two classes of optical configurations for high power laser amplification, one allowing near-field and the other allowing far-field optical separation, for the multiple passage of laser pulses through one or more amplifiers over an open optical path. These configurations may reimage the amplifier or any other part of the cavity on itself so as to suppress laser beam intensity ripples that arise from diffraction and/or non-linear effects. The optical cavities combine the features of multiple passes, spatial filtering and optical reimaging and allow sufficient time for laser gain recovery.

Development of thermally controlled HALNA DPSSL for inertial fusion energy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Matsumoto, Osamu; Yasuhara, Ryo; Kurita, Takashi; Ikegawa, Tadashi; Sekine, Takashi; Kawashima, Toshiyuki; Kawanaka, Junji; Norimatsu, Takayoshi; Miyanaga, Noriaki; Izawa, Yasukazu; Nakatsuka, Masahiro; Miyamoto, Masahiro; Kan, Hirofumi; Furukawa, Hiroyuki; Motokoshi, Shinji

2006-02-01

We have been developing a high average-power laser system for science and industry applications that can generate an output of 20 J per pulse at 10-Hz operation. Water-cooled Nd:glass zig-zag slab is pumped with 803-nm AlGaAs laser-diode modules. To efficiently extract energy from the laser medium, the laser beam alternately passes through dual zig-zag slab amplifier modules. Twin LD modules equipped on each slab amplifier module pump the laser medium with a peak power density of 2.5 kW/cm2. In high power laser system, thermal load in the laser medium causes serious thermal effects. We arranged cladding glasses on the top and bottom of the laser slab to reduce thermal effects.

Investigation of Fiber Optics Based Phased Locked Diode Lasers

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Burke, Paul D.; Gregory, Don A.

1997-01-01

Optical power beaming requires a high intensity source and a system to address beam phase and location. A synthetic aperture array of phased locked sources can provide the necessary power levels as well as a means to correct for phase errors. A fiber optic phase modulator with a master oscillator and power amplifier (MOPA) using an injection-locking semiconductor optical amplifier has proven to be effective in correcting phase errors as large as 4pi in an interferometer system. Phase corrections with the piezoelectric fiber stretcher were made from 0 - 10 kHz, with most application oriented corrections requiring only 1 kHz. The amplifier did not lose locked power output while the phase was changed, however its performance was below expectation. Results of this investigation indicate fiber stretchers and amplifiers can be incorporated into a MOPA system to achieve successful earth based power beaming.

Full System Operations of Mercury: A Diode Pumped Solid-State Laser

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Bibeau, C.; Bayramian, A.J.; Armstrong, P.

Operation of the Mercury laser with two amplifiers has yielded 30 Joules at 1 Hz and 12 Joules at 10 Hz with over 8x10{sup 4} shots on the system. Static distortions in the Yb:S-FAP amplifiers were corrected by a magneto-rheological finishing technique.

Full System Operations of Mercury; A Diode-Pumped Solid-State Laser

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Bayramian, A J; Armstrong, P; Beach, R J

Operation of the Mercury laser with two amplifiers activated has yielded 30 Joules at 1 Hz and 12 Joules at 10 Hz and over 8 x 10{sup 4} shots on the system. Static distortions in the Yb:S-FAP amplifiers were corrected by magneto rheological finishing technique.

Quantum dash based single section mode locked lasers for photonic integrated circuits.

PubMed

Joshi, Siddharth; Calò, Cosimo; Chimot, Nicolas; Radziunas, Mindaugas; Arkhipov, Rostislav; Barbet, Sophie; Accard, Alain; Ramdane, Abderrahim; Lelarge, Francois

2014-05-05

We present the first demonstration of an InAs/InP Quantum Dash based single-section frequency comb generator designed for use in photonic integrated circuits (PICs). The laser cavity is closed using a specifically designed Bragg reflector without compromising the mode-locking performance of the self pulsating laser. This enables the integration of single-section mode-locked laser in photonic integrated circuits as on-chip frequency comb generators. We also investigate the relations between cavity modes in such a device and demonstrate how the dispersion of the complex mode frequencies induced by the Bragg grating implies a violation of the equi-distance between the adjacent mode frequencies and, therefore, forbids the locking of the modes in a classical Bragg Device. Finally we integrate such a Bragg Mirror based laser with Semiconductor Optical Amplifier (SOA) to demonstrate the monolithic integration of QDash based low phase noise sources in PICs.

The Mercury Laser System: An Average power, gas-cooled, Yb:S-FAP based system with frequency conversion and wavefront correction

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Bibeau, C; Bayramian, A; Armstrong, P

We report on the operation of the Mercury laser with fourteen 4 x 6 cm{sup 2} Yb:S-FAP amplifier slabs pumped by eight 100 kW peak power diode arrays. The system was continuously run at 55 J and 10 Hz for several hours, (2 x 10{sup 5} cumulative shots) with over 80% of the energy in a 6 times diffraction limited spot at 1.047 um. Improved optical quality was achieved in Yb:S-FAP amplifiers with magneto-rheological finishing, a deterministic polishing method. In addition, average power frequency conversion employing YCOB was demonstrated at 50% conversion efficiency or 22.6 J at 10 Hz.

Phase-Locked Optical Generation of mmW/THz Signals

DTIC Science & Technology

2009-11-01

22 6.2. TIA (Trans-Impedance Amplifier ...24 6.3. Variable gain Amplifier ...loop architectures. Generate models including detector impulse response, feedback amplifier impulse response and laser current tuning response

Multi-rate DPSK optical transceivers for free-space applications

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Caplan, D. O.; Carney, J. J.; Fitzgerald, J. J.; Gaschits, I.; Kaminsky, R.; Lund, G.; Hamilton, S. A.; Magliocco, R. J.; Murphy, R. J.; Rao, H. G.; Spellmeyer, N. W.; Wang, J. P.

2014-03-01

We describe a flexible high-sensitivity laser communication transceiver design that can significantly benefit performance and cost of NASA's satellite-based Laser Communications Relay Demonstration. Optical communications using differential phase shift keying, widely deployed for use in long-haul fiber-optic networks, is well known for its superior sensitivity and link performance over on-off keying, while maintaining a relatively straightforward design. However, unlike fiber-optic links, free-space applications often require operation over a wide dynamic range of power due to variations in link distance and channel conditions, which can include rapid kHz-class fading when operating through the turbulent atmosphere. Here we discuss the implementation of a robust, near-quantum-limited multi-rate DPSK transceiver, co-located transmitter and receiver subsystems that can operate efficiently over the highly-variable free-space channel. Key performance features will be presented on the master oscillator power amplifier (MOPA) based TX, including a wavelength-stabilized master laser, high-extinction-ratio burst-mode modulator, and 0.5 W single polarization power amplifier, as well as low-noise optically preamplified DSPK receiver and built-in test capabilities.

Simple ps microchip Nd:YVO4 laser with 3.3-ps pulses at 0.2 to 1.4 MHz and single-stage amplification to the microjoule level

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Türkyilmaz, Erdal; Lohbreier, Jan; Günther, Christian; Mehner, Eva; Kopf, Daniel; Giessen, Harald; Braun, Bernd

2016-06-01

Commercial picosecond sources have found widespread applications. Typical system parameters are pulse widths below 20 ps, repetition rates between 0.1 and 2 MHz, and microjoule level pulse energies. Most systems are based on short pulse mode-locked oscillators, regenerative amplifiers, and pockel cells as active beam switches. In contrast, we present a completely passive system, consisting of a passively Q-switched microchip laser, a single-stage amplifier, and a pulse compressor. The Q-switched microchip laser has a 50-μm-long Nd:YVO4 gain material optically bonded to a 4.6-mm-thick undoped YVO4 crystal. It delivers pulse widths of 40 ps and repetition rates of 0.2 to 1.4 MHz at a wavelength of 1.064 μm. The pulse energy is a few nanojoule. These 40-ps pulses are spectrally broadened in a standard single-mode fiber and then compressed in a 24-mm-long chirped Bragg grating to as low as 3.3 ps. The repetition rate can be tuned from ˜0.2 to 1.4 MHz by changing the pump power, while the pulse width and the pulse energy from the microchip laser are unchanged. The spectral broadening in the fiber is observed throughout the pulse repetition rate, supporting sub-10-ps pulses. Finally, the pulses are amplified in a single-stage Nd:YVO4 amplifier up to the microjoule level (up to 4 μJ pulse energy). As a result, the system delivers sub-10-ps pulses at a microjoule level with about 1 MHz repetition rate, and thus fulfills the requirements for ps-micromachining. It does not contain any active switching elements and can be integrated in a very compact setup.

Simple ps microchip Nd:YVO4 laser with 3.3 ps pulses at 0.2 - 1.4 MHz and single-stage amplification to the microjoule level

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Türkyilmaz, Erdal; Lohbreier, Jan; Günther, Christian; Mehner, Eva; Kopf, Daniel; Giessen, Harald; Braun, Bernd

2016-03-01

Commercial picosecond sources have found widespread applications. Typical system parameters are pulse widths below 20 ps, repetition rates between 0.1 to 2 MHz, and micro Joule level pulse energies. Most systems are based on short pulse modelocked oscillators, regenerative amplifiers, and pockel cells as active beam switches. In contrast we present a completely passive system, consisting of a passively Q-switched microchip laser, a single-stage amplifier, and a pulse compressor. The Q-switched microchip laser has a 50 μm long Nd:YVO4-gain material optically bonded to a 4.6 mm thick undoped YVO4-crystal. It delivers pulse widths of 40 ps and repetition rates of 0.2 - 1.4 MHz at a wavelength of 1.064 μm. The pulse energy is a few nJ. These 40-ps pulses are spectrally broadened in a standard single mode fibre and then compressed in a 24 mm long chirped Bragg grating to as low as 3.3 ps. The repetition rate can be tuned from app. 0.2 to 1.4 MHz by changing the pump power while the pulse width and the pulse energy from the microchip laser are unchanged. The spectral broadening in the fibre is observed throughout the pulse repetition rate, supporting sub-10- ps pulses. Finally, the pulses are amplified in a single-stage Nd:YVO4-amplifier up to the microjoule level (up to 4 μJ pulse energy). As a result the system delivers sub-10-ps pulses at a microjoule level with about 1 MHz repetition rate, and thus fulfills the requirements for ps-micromachining. It does not contain any active switching elements and can be integrated in a very compact setup.

System for generating pluralities of optical pulses with predetermined frequencies in a temporally and spatially overlapped relationship

DOEpatents

Meyerhofer, David D.; Schmid, Ansgar W.; Chuang, Yung-ho

1992-01-01

Ultra short (pico second and shorter) laser pulses having components of different frequency which are overlapped coherently in space and with a predetermined constant relationship in time, are generated and may be used in applications where plural spectrally separate, time-synchronized pulses are needed as in wave-length resolved spectroscopy and spectral pump probe measurements for characterization of materials. A Chirped Pulse Amplifier (CPA), such as a regenerative amplifier, which provides amplified, high intensity pulses at the output thereof which have the same spatial intensity profile, is used to process a series of chirped pulses, each with a different central frequency (the desired frequencies contained in the output pulses). Each series of chirped pulses is obtained from a single chirped pulse by spectral windowing with a mask in a dispersive expansion stage ahead of the laser amplifier. The laser amplifier amplifies the pulses and provides output pulses with like spatial and temporal profiles. A compression stage then compresses the amplified pulses. All the individual pulses of different frequency, which originated in each single chirped pulse, are compressed and thereby coherently overlapped in space and time. The compressed pulses may be used for the foregoing purposes and other purposes wherien pulses having a plurality of discrete frequency components are required.

System for generating pluralities of optical pulses with predetermined frequencies in a temporally and spatially overlapped relationship

DOEpatents

Meyerhofer, D.D.; Schmid, A.W.; Chuang, Y.

1992-03-10

Ultrashort (pico second and shorter) laser pulses having components of different frequency which are overlapped coherently in space and with a predetermined constant relationship in time, are generated and may be used in applications where plural spectrally separate, time-synchronized pulses are needed as in wave-length resolved spectroscopy and spectral pump probe measurements for characterization of materials. A Chirped Pulse Amplifier (CPA), such as a regenerative amplifier, which provides amplified, high intensity pulses at the output thereof which have the same spatial intensity profile, is used to process a series of chirped pulses, each with a different central frequency (the desired frequencies contained in the output pulses). Each series of chirped pulses is obtained from a single chirped pulse by spectral windowing with a mask in a dispersive expansion stage ahead of the laser amplifier. The laser amplifier amplifies the pulses and provides output pulses with like spatial and temporal profiles. A compression stage then compresses the amplified pulses. All the individual pulses of different frequency, which originated in each single chirped pulse, are compressed and thereby coherently overlapped in space and time. The compressed pulses may be used for the foregoing purposes and other purposes wherien pulses having a plurality of discrete frequency components are required. 4 figs.

Arbitrary temporal shape pulsed fiber laser based on SPGD algorithm

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jiang, Min; Su, Rongtao; Zhang, Pengfei; Zhou, Pu

2018-06-01

A novel adaptive pulse shaping method for a pulsed master oscillator power amplifier fiber laser to deliver an arbitrary pulse shape is demonstrated. Numerical simulation has been performed to validate the feasibility of the scheme and provide meaningful guidance for the design of the algorithm control parameters. In the proof-of-concept experiment, information on the temporal property of the laser is exchanged and evaluated through a local area network, and the laser adjusted the parameters of the seed laser according to the monitored output of the system automatically. Various pulse shapes, including a rectangular shape, ‘M’ shape, and elliptical shape are achieved through experimental iterations.

A Real-Time Terahertz Time-Domain Polarization Analyzer with 80-MHz Repetition-Rate Femtosecond Laser Pulses

PubMed Central

Watanabe, Shinichi; Yasumatsu, Naoya; Oguchi, Kenichi; Takeda, Masatoshi; Suzuki, Takeshi; Tachizaki, Takehiro

2013-01-01

We have developed a real-time terahertz time-domain polarization analyzer by using 80-MHz repetition-rate femtosecond laser pulses. Our technique is based on the spinning electro-optic sensor method, which we recently proposed and demonstrated by using a regenerative amplifier laser system; here we improve the detection scheme in order to be able to use it with a femtosecond laser oscillator with laser pulses of a much higher repetition rate. This improvement brings great advantages for realizing broadband, compact and stable real-time terahertz time-domain polarization measurement systems for scientific and industrial applications. PMID:23478599

All-Glass Fiber Amplifier Pumped by Ultra-High Brightness Pumps

DTIC Science & Technology

2016-02-15

coated triple-clad fibers, we are developing triple-clad Yb fiber with gold coating for improved thermal management. 2.1 Pump laser The two...amplifier results using gain fiber with metalized fiber coating . Keywords: Fiber laser , specialty fiber, pump laser , beam combining, fiber metal coating ... coating can exceed its long-term damage threshold. Such a concern obviously does not apply to a fiber with gold protective coating [14]. Thus in

Carrier-envelope phase stabilization and control of 1 kHz, 6 mJ, 30 fs laser pulses from a Ti:sapphire regenerative amplifier.

PubMed

Chen, Shouyuan; Chini, Michael; Wang, He; Yun, Chenxia; Mashiko, Hiroki; Wu, Yi; Chang, Zenghu

2009-10-20

Carrier-envelope (CE) phase stabilization of a two-stage chirped pulse amplifier laser system with regenerative amplification as the preamplifier is demonstrated. The CE phase stability of this laser system is found to have a 90 mrad rms error averaged over 50 laser shots for a locking period of 4.5 h. The CE phase locking was confirmed unambiguously by experimental observation of the 2pi periodicity of the high-order harmonic spectrum generated by double optical gating.

Object-oriented wavefront correction in an asymmetric amplifying high-power laser system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yang, Ying; Yuan, Qiang; Wang, Deen; Zhang, Xin; Dai, Wanjun; Hu, Dongxia; Xue, Qiao; Zhang, Xiaolu; Zhao, Junpu; Zeng, Fa; Wang, Shenzhen; Zhou, Wei; Zhu, Qihua; Zheng, Wanguo

2018-05-01

An object-oriented wavefront control method is proposed aiming for excellent near-field homogenization and far-field distribution in an asymmetric amplifying high-power laser system. By averaging the residual errors of the propagating beam, smaller pinholes could be employed on the spatial filters to improve the beam quality. With this wavefront correction system, the laser performance of the main amplifier system in the Shen Guang-III laser facility has been improved. The residual wavefront aberration at the position of each pinhole is below 2 µm (peak-to-valley). For each pinhole, 95% of the total laser energy is enclosed within a circle whose diameter is no more than six times the diffraction limit. At the output of the main laser system, the near-field modulation and contrast are 1.29% and 7.5%, respectively, and 95% of the 1ω (1053 nm) beam energy is contained within a 39.8 µrad circle (6.81 times the diffraction limit) under a laser fluence of 5.8 J cm-2. The measured 1ω focal spot size and near-field contrast are better than the design values of the Shen Guang-III laser facility.

Picosecond 1064-nm fiber laser with tunable pulse width and low timing jitter

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tian, Wenyan; Zhang, Shukui

2018-02-01

We report an all-fiber, linearly polarized, 1.1-W, 1064-nm fiber laser based on a two-stage Ytterbium-doped fiber amplifier seeded by a gain-switched diode laser with tunable pulse width from 21 to 200 ps at repetition rates of 0.5-1.5 GHz. Timing jitter of our 1064-nm fiber laser was measured to be 0.60 ps over 10 Hz-40 MHz when the gain-switched diode laser was operated at a repetition rate of 0.5, 1, and 1.5 GHz. The fiber laser offers an excellent long term power stability of +/- 0.3% and wavelength stability of +/- 0.01 nm over 8 hours

High power, high contrast hybrid femtosecond laser systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dabu, Razvan

2017-06-01

For many research applications a very high laser intensity of more than 1022 W/cm2 in the focused beam is required. If a laser intensity of about 1011W/cm2 is reached on the target before the main laser pulse, the generated pre-plasma disturbs the experiment. High power femtosecond lasers must be tightly focused to get high intensity and in the same time must have a high enough intensity contrast of the temporally compressed amplified pulses. Reaching an intensity contrast in the range of 1012 represents a challenging task for a Ti:sapphire CPA laser. Hybrid femtosecond lasers combine optical parametric chirped pulsed amplification (OPCPA) in nonlinear crystals with the chirped pulse amplification (CPA) in laser active media. OPCPA provides large amplification spectral bandwidth and improves the intensity contrast of the amplified pulses. A key feature of these systems consists in the adaptation of the parametric amplification phase-matching bandwidth of nonlinear crystals to the spectral gain bandwidth of laser amplifying Ti:sapphire crystals. OPCPA in BBO crystals up to mJ energy level in the laser Front-End, followed by CPA up to ten/hundred Joules in large aperture Ti:sapphire crystals, represents a suitable solution for PW-class femtosecond lasers. The configuration and expected output beam characteristics of the hybrid amplification 2 × 10 PW ELI-NP laser are described.

Guided Wave Sensing In a Carbon Steel Pipe Using a Laser Vibrometer System

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ruíz Toledo, Abelardo; Salazar Soler, Jordi; Chávez Domínguez, Juan Antonio; García Hernández, Miguel Jesús; Turó Peroy, Antoni

2010-05-01

Non-Destructive Evaluation (NDE) techniques have achieved a great development during the last decades as a valuable tool for material characterization, manufacturing control and structural integrity tests. Among these tools, the guided wave technology has been rapidly extended because it reduces inspection time and costs compared to the ordinary point by point testing in large structures, as well as because of the possibility of inspecting under insulation and coating conditions. This fast development has motivated the creation of several inspection and material characterization systems including different technologies which can be combined with this technique. Different measurements systems based on laser techniques have been presented in order to inspect pipes, plates and diverse structures. Many of them are experimental systems of high cost and complexity which combine the employment of a laser for generation of waves in the structure and an interferometer for detection. Some of them employ air-coupled ultrasound generation transducers, with high losses in air and which demand high energy for exciting waves in materials of high stiffness. The combined employment of a commercial vibrometer system for Lamb wave sensing in plates has been successfully shown in the literature. In this paper we present a measurement system based on the combined employment of a piezoelectric wedge transducer and a laser vibrometer to sense guided acoustic waves in carbon steel pipes. The measurement system here presented is mainly compounded of an angular wedge transducer, employed to generate the guided wave and a commercial laser vibrometer used in the detection process. The wedge transducer is excited by means of a signal function generator whose output signal has been amplified with a power signal amplifier. A high precision positioning system is employed to place the laser beam at different points through the pipe surface. The signal detected by the laser vibrometer system is amplified with a signal amplifier and then it is displayed in a digital storage oscilloscope. This set-up offers the possibility of analyzing in a simpler way the wave propagation and the material evaluation in pipes of certain wall thickness. The material characterization considering distinct wave propagation modes can be easily achieved, changing the different incident angles of the wedge piezoelectric probe and their combined employment with several driving signals. Moreover, this experimental sensing system offers other possibilities of inspecting and analyzing the wave propagation in some features (bends, flange joints, welds,…) of the pipe surface which cause very large reflections and mode conversions and which in practice limits the inspection range when are inspected with conventional receiving transducer arrangements.

Modulation instability in high power laser amplifiers.

PubMed

Rubenchik, Alexander M; Turitsyn, Sergey K; Fedoruk, Michail P

2010-01-18

The modulation instability (MI) is one of the main factors responsible for the degradation of beam quality in high-power laser systems. The so-called B-integral restriction is commonly used as the criteria for MI control in passive optics devices. For amplifiers the adiabatic model, assuming locally the Bespalov-Talanov expression for MI growth, is commonly used to estimate the destructive impact of the instability. We present here the exact solution of MI development in amplifiers. We determine the parameters which control the effect of MI in amplifiers and calculate the MI growth rate as a function of those parameters. The safety range of operational parameters is presented. The results of the exact calculations are compared with the adiabatic model, and the range of validity of the latest is determined. We demonstrate that for practical situations the adiabatic approximation noticeably overestimates MI. The additional margin of laser system design is quantified.

High repetition rate tunable femtosecond pulses and broadband amplification from fiber laser pumped parametric amplifier.

PubMed

Andersen, T V; Schmidt, O; Bruchmann, C; Limpert, J; Aguergaray, C; Cormier, E; Tünnermann, A

2006-05-29

We report on the generation of high energy femtosecond pulses at 1 MHz repetition rate from a fiber laser pumped optical parametric amplifier (OPA). Nonlinear bandwidth enhancement in fibers provides the intrinsically synchronized signal for the parametric amplifier. We demonstrate large tunability extending from 700 nm to 1500 nm of femtosecond pulses with pulse energies as high as 1.2 muJ when the OPA is seeded by a supercontinuum generated in a photonic crystal fiber. Broadband amplification over more than 85 nm is achieved at a fixed wavelength. Subsequent compression in a prism sequence resulted in 46 fs pulses. With an average power of 0.5 W these pulses have a peak-power above 10 MW. In particular, the average power and pulse energy scalability of both involved concepts, the fiber laser and the parametric amplifier, will enable easy up-scaling to higher powers.

An optical parametric chirped-pulse amplifier for seeding high repetition rate free-electron lasers

DOE PAGES

Höppner, H.; Hage, A.; Tanikawa, T.; ...

2015-05-15

High repetition rate free-electron lasers (FEL), producing highly intense extreme ultraviolet and x-ray pulses, require new high power tunable femtosecond lasers for FEL seeding and FEL pump-probe experiments. A tunable, 112 W (burst mode) optical parametric chirped-pulse amplifier (OPCPA) is demonstrated with center frequencies ranging from 720–900 nm, pulse energies up to 1.12 mJ and a pulse duration of 30 fs at a repetition rate of 100 kHz. Since the power scalability of this OPCPA is limited by the OPCPA-pump amplifier, we also demonstrate a 6.7–13.7 kW (burst mode) thin-disk OPCPA-pump amplifier, increasing the possible OPCPA output power to manymore » hundreds of watts. Furthermore, third and fourth harmonic generation experiments are performed and the results are used to simulate a seeded FEL with high-gain harmonic generation.« less

Picosecond transient backward stimulated Raman scattering and pumping of femtosecond dye lasers

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Arrivo, Steven M.; Spears, Kenneth G.; Sipior, Jeffrey

1995-02-01

We report studies of transient, backward stimulated, Raman scattering (TBSRS) in solvents with a 10 Hz, 27 ps, 532 nm pump laser. The TBSRS effect was used to create pulses at 545 nm and 630 nm with durations of 2-3 ps and 5-10 μJ of energy. The duration, energy and fluctuations of the Raman pulse were studied as a function of pump energy and focal parameters. A 5 μJ Raman pulse was amplified in either a Raman amplifier or two stage dye amplifier to 1 mJ levels. A 545 nm pulse of 3 ps duration was generated in CCl 4 and was then used to pump a short cavity dye laser (SCDL). The SCDL oscillator and a 5 stage dye amplifier provided a pulse of 700 fs and 400 μJ that was tunable near 590 nm.

Single-mode single-frequency high peak power all-fiber MOPA at 1550 nm

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kotov, L. V.; Likhachev, M. E.; Bubnov, M. M.; Paramonov, V. M.; Belovolov, M. I.; Lipatov, D. S.; Guryanov, A. N.

2014-10-01

In this Report, we present a record-high-peak-power single-frequency master oscillator power amplifier (MOPA) system based on a newly developed double-clad large-mode-area Yb-free Er-doped fiber (DC-LMA-EDF). A fiber Bragg grating wavelength-stabilized fiber-coupled diode laser at λ=1551 nm with ~2 MHz spectral width was used as the master oscillator. Its radiation was externally modulated with a 5 kHz repetition rate and 92 ns pulse duration and then amplified in a core-pumped Er-doped fiber amplifier up to an average power of 4 mW. The amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) generated at the last preamplifier stage was suppressed by a narrow-band (0.7 nm) DWDM filter. The last MOPA stage was based on the recently developed single-mode DC-LMA-EDF with a mode field diameter of 25 microns and pump clad-absorption of 3 dB/m at λ=980 nm. The pump and the signal were launched into this fiber through a commercial pump combiner in a co-propagating amplifier scheme. At first, we used a 3-m long DC-LMAEDF. In such configuration, a peak power of 800 W was achieved at the output of the amplifier together with a ~ 12 % pump conversion slope efficiency. Further power scaling was limited by SBS. After that we shortened the fiber length to 1 m. As a result, owing to large unabsorbed pump power, the efficiency decreased to ~5 %. However, a peak power of more than 3.5 kW was obtained before the SBS threshold. In this case, the pulse shape changed and its duration decreased to ~60 ns owing to inversion depletion after propagation of the forward front of the pulse. To the best of our knowledge, the peak power of more than 3.5 kW reported here is the highest value ever published for a single-frequency single-mode silica-based fiber laser system operating near λ=1550 nm.

High-efficiency cyrogenic-cooled diode-pumped amplifier with relay imaging for nanosecond pulses

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Körner, J.; Hein, J.; Kahle, M.; Liebetrau, H.; Kaluza, M.; Siebold, M.; Loeser, M.

2011-06-01

We present temperature dependent gain measurements with different Ytterbium doped laser media, such as Yb:YAG, Yb:FP15-glass and Yb:CaF2 in a multi-pass amplifier setup. The temperature of these materials was adjusted arbitrarily between 100K and 300K, while heat removal was realized by transverse cooling. In order to obtain a good beam profile throughout the amplification process, we used an all-mirror based relay imaging setup consisting of a telescope accomplishing a 4f-imaging with a plane mirror in each image plane. The amplification beam is then coupled into the cavity and doing several round trips wandering over the surface of the spherical mirrors. Hence the laser material is placed in one of the image planes, the beam quality of the amplifier was ruled by the intensity profile of the pumping laser diodes consisting of two stacks with 2.5kW peak output power each. Due to the given damage threshold fluence, the output energy of the amplifier was limited to about 1J at a beam diameter of 4.5 mm (FWHM). The seed pulses with a duration of 6 ns were generated in a Yb:FP15-glass cavity dumped oscillator with further amplification up to the 100mJ level by a room temperature Yb:YAG multi pass amplifier. The 1 Hz repetition rate of the system was limited by the repetition rate of the front-end. With Yb:YAG for instance an output energy of 1.1 J with an record high optical to optical efficiency of more than 35% was achieved, which was further increased to 45% for 500 mJ output energy.

Thin film DNA-complex-based dye lasers fabricated by immersion and conventional processes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kawabe, Yutaka; Suzuki, Yuki

2017-08-01

DNA based thin film dye laser is one of promising optical devices for future technology. Laser oscillation and amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) were demonstrated by hemicyanine-doped DNA complex films prepared with `immersion method' as well as those made by a conventional way. In the immersion process, DNA-surfactant complex films were stained by immersion into an acetone solution including the dyes. In this study, three types of hemicyanines were incorporated with both methods, and laser oscillation was achieved with optically induced population grating formed in all of the complex films. The laser threshold values for six cases ranged in 0.07 - 0.18 mJ/cm2 , which was close to the best values made in DNA complex matrices. Continual pumping showed that laser oscillation persisted for 4 - 10 minutes. Immersion process gave superior laser capability especially for output efficiency over the conventional counterparts.

Gain and saturation energy measurements in low pressure longitudinally excited N 2-lasers

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ghoreyshi, S.; Rahimian, K.; Hariri, Akbar

2004-08-01

A flat-plate Blumlein circuit has been used for operating a low pressure longitudinally excited oscillator-amplifier N 2-laser at 14 kV input voltage (LE-LE type). For investigating the effect of the excitation length on the laser performances, various amplifiers made of glass tubes of different lengths ranging from 15.5 to 35 cm with 4 mm inner bore diameters have been used. The measurements have been carried out for the laser parameters: small signal gain, and saturation energy density; and the laser beam divergence. Details of our measurements are presented. The results of our measurements have also been compared with the reported values of laser parameters in TE-TEA and LE N 2-laser configurations.

Receiver Design, Performance Analysis, and Evaluation for Space-Borne Laser Altimeters and Space-to-Space Laser Ranging Systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Davidson, Frederic M.; Sun, Xiaoli; Field, Christopher T.

1996-01-01

This progress report consists of two separate reports. The first one describes our work on the use of variable gain amplifiers to increase the receiver dynamic range of space borne laser altimeters such as NASA's Geoscience Laser Altimeter Systems (GLAS). The requirement of the receiver dynamic range was first calculated. A breadboard variable gain amplifier circuit was made and the performance was fully characterized. The circuit will also be tested in flight on board the Shuttle Laser Altimeter (SLA-02) next year. The second report describes our research on the master clock oscillator frequency calibration for space borne laser altimeter systems using global positioning system (GPS) receivers.

175 fs-long pulses from a high-power single-mode Er-doped fiber laser at 1550 nm

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Elahi, Parviz; Kalaycıoğlu, Hamit; Li, Huihui; Akçaalan, Önder; Ilday, F. Ömer

2017-11-01

Development of Er-doped ultrafast lasers have lagged behind the corresponding developments in Yb- and Tm-doped lasers, in particular, fiber lasers. Various applications benefit from operation at a central wavelength of 1.5 μm and its second harmonic, including emerging applications such as 3D processing of silicon and 3D printing based on two-photon polymerization. We report a simple, robust fiber master oscillator power amplifier operating at 1.55 μm, implementing chirp pulse amplification using single-mode fibers for diffraction-limited beam quality. The laser generates 80 nJ pulses at a repetition rate of 43 MHz, corresponding to an average power of 3.5 W, which can be compressed down to 175 fs. The generation of short pulses was achieved using a design which is guided by numerical simulations of pulse propagation and amplification and manages to overturn gain narrowing with self-phase modulation, without invoking excessive Raman scattering processes. The seed source for the two-stage amplifier is a dispersion-managed passively mode-locked oscillator, which generates a ∼40 nm-wide spectrum and 1.7-ps linearly chirped pulses.

The spontaneous emission factor for lasers with gain induced waveguiding

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Newstein, M.

1984-11-01

The expression for the spontaneous emission factor for lasers with gain induced waveguiding has a factor K, called by Petermann ''the astigmatism parameter.'' This factor has been invoked to explain spectral and dynamic characteristics of this class of lasers. We contend that the widely accepted form of the K factor is based on a derivation which is not appropriate for the typical laser situation where the spontaneous emission factor is much smaller than unity. An alternative derivation is presented which leads to a different form for the K factor. The new expression predicts much smaller values under conditions where themore » previous theory gave values large compared to unity. Petermann's form for the K factor is shown to be relevant to large gain linear amplifiers where the power is amplified spontaneous emission noise. The expression for the power output has Petermann's value of K as a factor. The difference in the two situations is that in the laser oscillator the typical atom of interest couples a small portion of its incoherent spontaneous emission into the dominant mode, whereas in the amplifier only the atoms at the input end are important as sources and their output is converted to a greater degree into the dominant mode through the propagation process. In this analysis the authors use a classical model of radiating point dipoles in a continuous medium characterized by a complex permittivity. Since uncritical use of this model will lead to infinite radiation resistance they address the problem of its self-consistency.« less

Generation of high-field terahertz pulses in an HMQ-TMS organic crystal pumped by an ytterbium laser at 1030 nm.

PubMed

Rovere, Andrea; Jeong, Young-Gyun; Piccoli, Riccardo; Lee, Seung-Heon; Lee, Seung-Chul; Kwon, O-Pil; Jazbinsek, Mojca; Morandotti, Roberto; Razzari, Luca

2018-02-05

We present the generation of high-peak-electric-field terahertz pulses via collinear optical rectification in a 2-(4-hydroxy-3-methoxystyryl)-1-methilquinolinium-2,4,6-trimethylbenzenesulfonate (HMQ-TMS) organic crystal. The crystal is pumped by an amplified ytterbium laser system, emitting 170-fs-long pulses centered at 1030 nm. A terahertz peak electric field greater than 200 kV/cm is obtained for 420 µJ of optical pump energy, with an energy conversion efficiency of 0.26% - about two orders of magnitude higher than in common inorganic crystals collinearly pumped by amplified femtosecond lasers. An open-aperture Z-scan measurement performed on an n-doped InGaAs thin film using such terahertz source shows a nonlinear increase in the terahertz transmission of about 2.2 times. Our findings demonstrate the potential of this terahertz generation scheme, based on ytterbium laser technology, as a simple and efficient alternative to the existing intense table-top terahertz sources. In particular, we show that it can be readily used to explore nonlinear effects at terahertz frequencies.

All-fiber dynamic gain equalizer based on a twisted long-period grating written by high-frequency CO2 laser pulses.

PubMed

Zhu, T; Rao, Y J; Wang, J L

2007-01-20

A novel dynamic gain equalizer for flattening Er-doped fiber amplifiers based on a twisted long-period fiber grating (LPFG) induced by high-frequency CO(2) laser pulses is reported for the first time to our knowledge. Experimental results show that its transverse-load sensitivity is up to 0.34 dB/(g.mm(-1)), while the twist ratio of the twisted LPFG is approximately 20 rad/m, which is 7 times higher than that of a torsion-free LPFG. In addition, it is found that the strong orientation dependence of the transverse-load sensitivity of the torsion-free LPFG reported previously has been weakened considerably. Therefore such a dynamic gain equalizer based on the unique transverse-load characteristics of the twisted LPFG provides a much larger adjustable range and makes packaging of the gain equalizer much easier. A demonstration has been carried out to flatten an Er-doped fiber amplifier to +/-0.5 dB over a 32 nm bandwidth.

Gain measurement of a CuBr laser by means of modified amplified spontaneous emission

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chan, W. C.; Liu, H. P.; Yen, S. H.; Chen, W. Y.; Lin, Y. H.; Chen, W. C.

1990-05-01

A modified amplified spontaneous emission technique has been introduced to measure the radial distributions of the gain and the saturation energy density of the output of a double-discharge pulsed CuBr laser. An asymmetric distribution of the gain was obtained. With the laser tube temperature at 420 °C, the peak value of the gain and the saturation energy density are 70 db/m and 85 μJ/cm3, respectively.

Thermal refraction focusing in planar index-antiguided lasers.

PubMed

Casperson, Lee W; Dittli, Adam; Her, Tsing-Hua

2013-03-15

Thermal refraction focusing in planar index-antiguided lasers is investigated both theoretically and experimentally. An analytical model based on zero-field approximation is presented for treating the combined effects of index antiguiding and thermal focusing. At very low pumping power, the mode is antiguided by the amplifier boundary, whereas at high pumping power it narrows due to thermal focusing. Theoretical results are in reasonable agreement with experimental data.

Laser Research and Development Studies for Laser Guide Star Systems

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Pennington, D.; Beach, R.; Ebbers, C.

2000-02-23

In this paper we consider two CW solid state laser approaches to a 589 nm LGS system. Both are based on the technique of sum-frequency generation, but differ in the cavity architecture. Both technologies are very promising and are worth of further consideration. This preliminary proposal is intended to encompass both designs. A down select shall be performed early in the project execution to focus on the most promising option. The two design options consist of: (1) A dual-frequency resonator with intra-cavity doubling in LB0 offers the promise of a simple architecture and may scale more easily to high power.more » This design has been shown to be highly reliable, efficient and high power when used in frequency-doubled Nd:YAG lasers for programs at LLNL and in commercial products. The challenge in this design is the demonstration of a high power13 18 nm oscillator with adequate suppression of the 1064 nm line. (2) A MOPA based design uses commercial low power oscillators to produce both wavelengths, then amplifies the wavelengths before doubling. This design requires the demonstration of a 1318 nm amplifier, though the design is scaled from a kW CW amplifier already delivered to a customer at a different wavelength. The design must also demonstrate high power scaling of sum-frequency generation in the relatively new nonlinear material, PPLN. The first step in the process would be to further evaluate the two conceptual options for technical feasibility, cost and constructability. Then a down selection to one design would be conducted. Finally, R&D on that design would then proceed. Minimal testing should be required for this selection. The majority of the funding received would be allocated to development of the design selected.« less

A Hybrid Fiber/Solid-State Regenerative Amplifier with Tunable Pulse Widths for Satellite Laser Ranging

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Coyle, Barry; Poulios, Demetrios

2013-01-01

A fiber/solid-state hybrid seeded regenerative amplifier, capable of achieving high output energy with tunable pulse widths, has been developed for satellite laser ranging applications. The regenerative amplifier cavity uses a pair of Nd:YAG zigzag slabs oriented orthogonally to one another in order to make thermal lensing effects symmetrical and simplify optical correction schemes. The seed laser used is a fiber-coupled 1,064-nm narrowband (<0.02 nm) diode laser that is discretely driven in a new short-pulsed mode, enabling continuously tunable seed pulse widths in the 0.2-to-0.4-ns range. The amplifier gain unit consists of a pair of Brewster-cut 6-bounce zigzag Nd:YAG laser slabs, oriented 90deg relative to each other in the amplifier head. This arrangement creates a net-symmetrical thermal lens effect (an opposing singleaxis effect in each slab), and makes thermo-optical corrections simple by optimizing the curvature of the nearest cavity mirror. Each slab is pumped by a single 120-W, pulsed 808-nm laser diode array. In this configuration, the average pump beam distribution in the slabs had a 1-D Gaussian shape, which matches the estimated cavity mode size. A half-wave plate between the slabs reduces losses from Fresnel reflections due to the orthogonal slabs Brewster-cut end faces. Successful "temporal" seeding of the regenerative amplifier cavity results in a cavity Q-switch pulse envelope segmenting into shorter pulses, each having the width of the input seed, and having a uniform temporal separation corresponding to the cavity round-trip time of approx. =10 ns. The pulse energy is allowed to build on successive passes in the regenerative amplifier cavity until a maximum is reached, (when cavity gains and losses are equal), after which the pulse is electro- optically switched out on the next round trip The overall gain of the amplifier is approx. =82 dB (or a factor of 1.26 million). After directing the amplified output through a LBO frequency doubling crystal, approx. = 2.1 W of 532-nm output (>1 mJ) was measured. This corresponds to a nonlinear conversion efficiency of >60%. Furthermore, by pulse pumping this system, a single pulse per laser shot can be created for the SLR (satellite laser ranging) measurement, and this can be ejected into the instrument. This is operated at the precise frequency needed by the measurement, as opposed to commercial short-pulsed, mode-locked systems that need to operate in a continuous fashion, or CW (continuous wave), and create pulses at many MHz. Therefore, this design does not need to throw away or dump 99% of the laser energy to produce what is required; this system can be far smaller, more efficient, cheaper, and readily deployed in the field when packaged efficiently. Finally, by producing custom diode seed pulses electronically, two major advantages over commercial systems are realized: First, this pulse shape is customizable and not affected by the cavity length or gain of the amplifier cavity, and second, it can produce adjustable (selectable) pulse widths by simply adding multiple seed diodes and coupling each into commercial, low-cost fiber-optic combiners.

Interband cascade laser-based ppbv-level mid-infrared methane detection using two digital lock-in amplifier schemes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Song, Fang; Zheng, Chuantao; Yu, Di; Zhou, Yanwen; Yan, Wanhong; Ye, Weilin; Zhang, Yu; Wang, Yiding; Tittel, Frank K.

2018-03-01

A parts-per-billion in volume (ppbv) level mid-infrared methane (CH4) sensor system was demonstrated using second-harmonic wavelength modulation spectroscopy (2 f-WMS). A 3291 nm interband cascade laser (ICL) and a multi-pass gas cell (MPGC) with a 16 m optical path length were adopted in the reported sensor system. Two digital lock-in amplifier (DLIA) schemes, a digital signal processor (DSP)-based DLIA and a LabVIEW-based DLIA, were used for harmonic signal extraction. A limit of detection (LoD) of 13.07 ppbv with an averaging time of 2 s was achieved using the DSP-based DLIA and a LoD of 5.84 ppbv was obtained using the LabVIEW-based DLIA with the same averaging time. A rise time of 0→2 parts-per-million in volume (ppmv) and fall time of 2→0 ppmv were observed. Outdoor atmospheric CH4 concentration measurements were carried out to evaluate the sensor performance using the two DLIA schemes.

Thermal dephasing in second-harmonic generation of an amplified copper-vapor laser beam in beta barium borate.

PubMed

Prakash, Om; Dixit, Sudhir Kumar; Bhatnagar, Rajiva

2005-03-20

The conversion efficiency in second-harmonic generation of an amplified beam in a master-oscillator power amplifier copper-vapor laser (CVL) is lower than that of the oscillator beam alone. This lower efficiency is often vaguely attributed to wave-front degradation in the amplifier. We investigate the role of wave-front degradation and thermal dephasing in the second-harmonic generation of a CVL from a beta-barium borate crystal. Choosing two beams with constant intrapulse divergence, one from a generalized diffraction filtered resonator master oscillator alone and other obtained by amplifying oscillator by use of a power amplifier, we show that at low flux levels the decrease in efficiency is due to wave-front degradation. At a fundamental power above the critical power for thermal dephasing, the decrease is due to increased UV absorption and consequent thermal dephasing. Thermal dephasing is higher for the beam with the lower coherence width.

High-power graphene mode-locked Tm/Ho co-doped fiber laser with evanescent field interaction.

PubMed

Li, Xiaohui; Yu, Xuechao; Sun, Zhipei; Yan, Zhiyu; Sun, Biao; Cheng, Yuanbing; Yu, Xia; Zhang, Ying; Wang, Qi Jie

2015-11-16

Mid-infrared ultrafast fiber lasers are valuable for various applications, including chemical and biomedical sensing, material processing and military applications. Here, we report all-fiber high-power graphene mode-locked Tm/Ho co-doped fiber laser at long wavelength with evanescent field interaction. Ultrafast pulses up to 7.8 MHz are generated at a center wavelength of 1879.4 nm, with a pulse width of 4.7 ps. A graphene absorber integrated with a side-polished fiber can increase the damage threshold significantly. Harmonics mode-locking can be obtained till to the 21(th) harmonics at a pump power of above 500 mW. By using one stage amplifier in the anomalous dispersion regime, the laser can be amplified up to 450 mW and the narrowest pulse duration of 1.4 ps can be obtained simultaneously. Our work paves the way to graphene Tm/Ho co-doped mode-locked all-fiber master oscillator power amplifiers as potentially efficient and economic laser sources for high-power laser applications, such as special material processing and nonlinear optical studies.

Experimental investigation into generation of bursts of linearly-polarized, dissipative soliton pulses from a figure-eight fiber laser at 1.03 µm

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ko, Seunghwan; Lee, Junsu; Koo, Joonhoi; Lee, Ju Han

2018-03-01

We experimentally demonstrate a simple and stable all-polarization maintaining fiber (PMF) nonlinear amplifying loop mirror (NALM)-based burst pulse fiber laser with a pulse number tuning capability, which can readily generate bursts of linearly-polarized femtosecond pulses at 1030 nm. The laser was based on an NALM that was operated to produce burst-mode, dissipative soliton pulses at a wavelength of 1030 nm, and these were then compressed into 400 fs Gaussian pulses using a grating pair-based compressor. The laser was constructed with the figure-eight configuration incorporating ytterbium-doped fiber as gain medium. It was shown that the number of burst pulses was readily tunable through the adjustment of the pump power. Further, the output-pulse characteristics were quantitatively investigated and the laser stability was checked by observing the temporal characteristic variation of the output pulses for one hour.

MW peak power Er/Yb-doped fiber femtosecond laser amplifier at 1.5 µm center wavelength

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Han, Seongheum; Jang, Heesuk; Kim, Seungman; Kim, Young-Jin; Kim, Seung-Woo

2017-08-01

An erbium (Er)/ytterbium (Yb) co-doped double-clad fiber is configured to amplify single-mode pulses with a high average power of 10 W at a 1.5 µm center wavelength. The pulse duration at the exit of the Er/Yb fiber amplifier is measured to be ~440 fs after grating-based compression. The whole single-mode operation of the amplifier system permits the M 2-value of the output beam quality to be evaluated better than 1.05. By tuning the repetition rate from 100 MHz down to 600 kHz, the pulse peak power is scaled up to 19.1 MW to be the highest ever reported using an Er/Yb single-mode fiber. The proposed amplifier system is well suited for strong-power applications such as free-space LIDAR, non-thermal machining and medical surgery.

Experimental Implementation of a Quantum Optical State Comparison Amplifier

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Donaldson, Ross J.; Collins, Robert J.; Eleftheriadou, Electra; Barnett, Stephen M.; Jeffers, John; Buller, Gerald S.

2015-03-01

We present an experimental demonstration of a practical nondeterministic quantum optical amplification scheme that employs two mature technologies, state comparison and photon subtraction, to achieve amplification of known sets of coherent states with high fidelity. The amplifier uses coherent states as a resource rather than single photons, which allows for a relatively simple light source, such as a diode laser, providing an increased rate of amplification. The amplifier is not restricted to low amplitude states. With respect to the two key parameters, fidelity and the amplified state production rate, we demonstrate significant improvements over previous experimental implementations, without the requirement of complex photonic components. Such a system may form the basis of trusted quantum repeaters in nonentanglement-based quantum communications systems with known phase alphabets, such as quantum key distribution or quantum digital signatures.

Diode pumped, regenerative Nd:YAG ring amplifier for space application

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Coyle, D. B.; Kay, Richard B.; Degnan, John J.; Krebs, Danny J.; Seery, Bernard D.

1992-01-01

The study reviews the research and development of a prototype laser used to study one possible method of short-pulse production and amplification, in particular, a pulsed Nd:YAG ring laser pumped by laser diode arrays and injected seeded by a 100-ps source. The diode array pumped, regenerative amplifier consists of only five optical elements, two mirrors, one thin film polarizer, one Nd:YAG crystal, and one pockels cell. The pockels cell performed both as a Q-switch and a cavity dumper for amplified pulse ejection through the thin film polarizer. The total optical efficiency was low principally due to the low gain provided by the 2-bar pumped laser head. After comparison with a computer model, a real seed threshold of about 10 exp -15 J was achieved because only about 0.1 percent of the injected energy mode-matched with the ring.

Operation and beam profiling of an up to 200 kHz pulse-burst laser for Thomson scattering

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Young, W. C., E-mail: wcyoung2@wisc.edu; Den Hartog, D. J.; Center for Magnetic Self-Organization in Laboratory and Astrophysical Plasmas, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin 53706

2014-11-15

A new, high-repetition rate laser is in development for use on the Thomson scattering diagnostic on the Madison Symmetric Torus. The laser has been tested at a rate of 200 kHz in a pulse-burst operation, producing bursts of 5 pulses above 1.5 J each, while capable of bursts of 17 pulses at 100 kHz. A master oscillator-power amplifier architecture is used with a Nd:YVO{sub 4} oscillator, four Nd:YAG amplifiers, and a Nd:glass amplifier. A radial profile over the pulse sequence is measured by using a set of graphite apertures and an energy meter, showing a change in beam quality overmore » a pulsing sequence.« less

Direct diode pumped Ti:sapphire ultrafast regenerative amplifier system

DOE PAGES

Backus, Sterling; Durfee, Charles; Lemons, Randy; ...

2017-02-10

Here, we report on a direct diode-pumped Ti:sapphire ultrafast regenerative amplifier laser system producing multi-uJ energies with repetition rate from 50 to 250 kHz. By combining cryogenic cooling of Ti:sapphire with high brightness fiber-coupled 450nm laser diodes, we for the first time demonstrate a power-scalable CW-pumped architecture that can be directly applied to demanding ultrafast applications such as coherent high-harmonic EUV generation without any complex post-amplification pulse compression. Initial results promise a new era for Ti:sapphire amplifiers not only for ultrafast laser applications, but also for tunable CW sources. We discuss the unique challenges to implementation, as well as themore » solutions to these challenges.« less

Direct diode pumped Ti:sapphire ultrafast regenerative amplifier system

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Backus, Sterling; Durfee, Charles; Lemons, Randy

Here, we report on a direct diode-pumped Ti:sapphire ultrafast regenerative amplifier laser system producing multi-uJ energies with repetition rate from 50 to 250 kHz. By combining cryogenic cooling of Ti:sapphire with high brightness fiber-coupled 450nm laser diodes, we for the first time demonstrate a power-scalable CW-pumped architecture that can be directly applied to demanding ultrafast applications such as coherent high-harmonic EUV generation without any complex post-amplification pulse compression. Initial results promise a new era for Ti:sapphire amplifiers not only for ultrafast laser applications, but also for tunable CW sources. We discuss the unique challenges to implementation, as well as themore » solutions to these challenges.« less

A high speed and high gain CMOS receiver chip for a pulsed time-of-flight laser rangefinder

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yu, Jin-jin; Deng, Ruo-han; Yuan, Hong-hui; Chen, Yong-ping

2011-06-01

An integrated receiver channel for a pulsed time-of-flight (TOF) laser rangefinder has been designed. Pulsed TOF laser range finding devices using a laser diode transmitter can achieve millimeter-level distance measurement accuracy in a measurement range of several tens of meters to non-cooperative targets. The amplifier exploits the regulated cascade (RGC) configuration as the input-stage, thus achieving as large effective input trans-conductance as that of Si Bipolar or GaAs MESFET. The RGC input configuration isolates the input parasitic capacitance including photodiode capacitance from the bandwidth determination better than common-gate TIA. To enlarge the bandwidth, inductive peaking technology has been adopted. An active inductor (MOS-L) is used instead of spiral inductor in CMOS process. An R-2R resistor ladder is inserting between per-amplifier and post-amplifier as the variable attenuator for digital gain control purpose. The gain-bandwidth of a basic differential pair with resistive load is not large enough for broad band operation. A circuit solution to improve both gain and bandwidth of an amplifying stage is proposed. Traditional and modified Cherry-Hooper amplifiers are discussed and the cascading of several stages to constitute the post-amplifier is designed. The fully integrated one-chip solution is designed with Cadence IC design platform. The simulation result shows the bandwidth of the trans-impedance amplifier is 215MHz with the presence of a 2pF input capacitor and 5pF load capacitor. And the maximum trans-impedance gain is 136dB. The walk error is less than 1ns in 1:1000 dynamic range. The responsive time is less than 2.2ns.

Laser Sounder Approach for Measuring Atmospheric CO2 from Orbit

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Krainak, Michael A.; Andrews, Arlyn E.; Allan, Graham R.; Burris, John F.; Collatz, G. James; Riris, Harris; Stephen, Mark A.; Sun, Xiao-Li; Abshire, James B.

2004-01-01

We report on an active remote sensing approach using an erbium fiber amplifier based transmitter for atmospheric CO2 measurements in an overtone band near 1.57 microns and initial horizontal path measurements to less than 1% precision.

Micro-laser

DOEpatents

Hutchinson, Donald P.; Richards, Roger K.

2003-07-22

A micro-laser is disclosed which includes a waveguide, a first and a second subwavelength resonant grating in the waveguide, and at least one photonic band gap resonant structure (PBG) in the waveguide and at least one amplifying medium in the waveguide. PBG features are positioned between the first and second subwavelength resonant gratings and allow introduction of amplifying mediums into the highly resonant guided micro-laser microcavity. The micro-laser may be positioned on a die of a bulk substrate material with one or more electronic and optical devices and may be communicably connected to the same. A method for fabricating a micro-laser is disclosed. A method for tuning the micro-laser is also disclosed. The micro-laser may be used as an optical regenerator, or a light source for data transfer or for optical computing.

The Effects of Atmospheric Water Vapor Absorption on Infrared Laser Propagation in the 5 Micrometer Band.

DTIC Science & Technology

1983-05-01

which allows for thermal linedr expansion of the structure. 32 1 I 2. Second Harmonic Generation The second harmonic generation was achieved by mounting a...filter unit and then to the reference channel lock-in amplifier. C. TESTS 1 . DC Amplifier and A/D Calibration The Ectron DC amplifiers and the Altair A/D...AD-A130 788 THE EFFECTS OF ATMOSPHERIC WATER VAPOR ABSORPTION ON 1 / INFRARED LASER PRUPA..(U) OHIO STATE UNIV COLUMBUS ELECTROSCIENCE LAB L G WALTER

A wavelength scannable XeCl oscillator-ring amplifier laser system

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Pacala, T. J.; Mcdermid, I. S.; Laudenslager, J. B.

1982-01-01

A holographic grating at grazing angle of incidence was used to achieve tunable, narrow bandwidth (0.005 nm) operation of a XeCl oscillator for injection locking of a ring amplifier. The amplifier's narrow bandwidth output energy was constant and equal to the untuned, broadband output (approximately 15 mJ) in regions where injection locking was achieved. Scanning was provided by use of a stepping motor-driven differential micrometer on the tuning mirror. This system was used to produce a laser excitation spectrum of hydroxyl radicals (OH) in a flame.

A 980 nm pseudomorphic single quantum well laser for pumping erbium-doped optical fiber amplifiers

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Larsson, A.; Forouhar, S.; Cody, J.; Lang, R. J.; Andrekson, P. A.

1990-01-01

The authors have fabricated ridge waveguide pseudomorphic InGaAs/GaAs/AlGaAs GRIN-SCH SQW (graded-index separate-confinement-heterostructure single-quantum-well) lasers, emitting at 980 nm, with a maximum output power of 240 mW from one facet and a 22 percent coupling efficiency into a 1.55-micron single-mode optical fiber. These lasers satisfy the requirements on efficient and compact pump sources for Er3+-doped fiber amplifiers.

Spatial filters for high-peak-power multistage laser amplifiers.

PubMed

Potemkin, A K; Barmashova, T V; Kirsanov, A V; Martyanov, M A; Khazanov, E A; Shaykin, A A

2007-07-10

We describe spatial filters used in a Nd:glass laser with an output pulse energy up to 300 J and a pulse duration of 1 ns. This laser is designed for pumping of a chirped-pulse optical parametric amplifier. We present data required to choose the shape and diameter of a spatial filter lens, taking into account aberrations caused by spherical surfaces. Calculation of the optimal pinhole diameter is presented. Design features of the spatial filters and the procedure of their alignment are discussed in detail.

Threshold pump power of a solar-pumped dye laser

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lee, Ja H.; Kim, Kyung C.; Kim, Kyong H.

1988-01-01

Threshold solar power for dye laser pumping has been determined by measuring the gain of a rhodamine 6G dye laser amplifier at various solar-simulated irradiances on an amplifier cell. The measured threshold was 20,000 solar constants (2.7 kW/sq cm) for the dye volume of 2 x 5 x 40 cu mm and the optimum dye concentration of 0.001 M. The threshold is about one-third of that achievable with a high-intensity solar concentrator.

Innovation in Broad-Area Diode Laser Array Architecture: Coupling Grating-Confined Zigzag Modes for High Power, High Brightness Applications

DTIC Science & Technology

2015-02-08

These unstable resonators can be designed as either independent lasers or amplifiers in master oscillator power amplifier (MOPA) configuration [27-29...far field shown in this section are obtained in a cryostat system with the heat sink temperature set at 230K. In all the measurements, the lasers are...result is shown in Fig. 5 in the red dashed line and agrees well with the measured result. The angular distance between two interference stripes in

Diode-Pumped Narrow Linewidth Multi-kW Metalized Yb Fiber Amplifier

DTIC Science & Technology

2016-10-01

multi-kW Yb fiber amplifier in a bi-directional pumping configuration. Each pump outputs 2 kW in a 200 µm, 0.2 NA multi-mode fiber. Gold -coated...multi-mode instability, with 90% O-O efficiency 12 GHz Linewidth and M2 < 1.15. OCIS codes: (140.3510) Lasers , fiber; (140.3615) Lasers , ytterbium...060.2430) Fibers, single-mode. 1. INTRODUCTION Yb-doped fiber laser has experienced exponential growth over the past decade. The output power

Proceedings of the International Conference on Lasers 󈨝 (12th), Held in New Orleans, Louisiana on December 3-8, 1989.

DTIC Science & Technology

1990-01-01

schedule soon, while in the percutaneous one auto-fluorescence spectroscopy could be the closest technique to be effectively included in the angioplasty...experiments Dashed line: Amplifier mode experiments ( scheduled ) Fig. 3 Schematic of laser, pulsed power, and X-ray preionizer 3. Pulsed Power 4. X-Ray...of KrF Amplifier * scheduled ** estimated value 120 CONDENSED PHASE RARE GAS HALIDE EXCIPLEX LASERS V. Ara Apkarian Professor of Chemistry Department

180 mJ, long-pulse-duration, master-oscillator power amplifier with linewidth less than 25.6 kHz for laser guide stars.

PubMed

Wang, Chunhua; Zhang, Xiang; Ye, Zhibin; Liu, Chong; Chen, Jun

2013-07-01

A high-energy single-frequency hundred-microsecond long-pulse solid-state laser is demonstrated, which features an electro-optically modulated seed laser and two-stage double-passed pulse-pumped solid-state laser rod amplifier. Laser output with energy of 180 mJ, repetition rate of 50 Hz, and pulse width of 150 μs is achieved. The laser linewidth is measured to be less than 25.52 kHz by a fiber delay self-heterodyne method. In addition, a closed-loop controlling system is adopted to lock the center wavelength. No relaxation oscillation spikes appear in the pulse temporal profile, which is beneficial for further amplification.

Sub-cycle light transients for attosecond, X-ray, four-dimensional imaging

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fattahi, Hanieh

2016-10-01

This paper reviews the revolutionary development of ultra-short, multi-TW laser pulse generation made possible by current laser technology. The design of the unified laser architecture discussed in this paper, based on the synthesis of ultrabroadband optical parametric chirped-pulse amplifiers, promises to provide powerful light transients with electromagnetic forces engineerable on the electron time scale. By coherent combination of multiple amplifiers operating in different wavelength ranges, pulses with wavelength spectra extending from less than 1 ?m to more than 10 ?m, with sub-cycle duration at unprecedented peak and average power levels can be generated. It is shown theoretically that these light transients enable the efficient generation of attosecond X-ray pulses with photon flux sufficient to image, for the first time, picometre-attosecond trajectories of electrons, by means of X-ray diffraction and record the electron dynamics by attosecond spectroscopy. The proposed system leads to a tool with sub-atomic spatio-temporal resolution for studying different processes deep inside matter.

Micro flow-through PCR in a PMMA chip fabricated by KrF excimer laser.

PubMed

Yao, Liying; Liu, Baoan; Chen, Tao; Liu, Shibing; Zuo, Tiechuan

2005-09-01

As the third PCR technology, micro flow-through PCR chip can amplify DNA specifically in an exponential fashion in vitro. Nowadays many academies in the world have successfully amplified DNA using their own-made flow-through PCR chip. In this paper, the ablation principle of PMMA at 248 nm excimer laser was studied, then a PMMA based flow-through PCR chip with 20 cycles was fabricated by excimer laser at 19 kv and 18 mm/min. The chip was bonded together with another cover chip at 105( composite function)C, 160 N and 20 minutes. In the end, it was integrated with electrical thermal thin films and Pt 100 temperature sensors. The temperature controllers was built standard PID digital temperature controller, the temperature control precision was +/- 0.2( composite function)C. The temperature grads between the three temperature zones were 16.5 and 22.2( composite function)C respectively, the gaps between the temperature zones could realize heat insulation.

Nd:YAG development for spaceborne laser ranging system

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Harper, L. L.; Logan, K. E.; Williams, R. H.; Stevens, D. A.

1979-01-01

The results of the development of a unique modelocked laser device to be utilized in future NASA space-based, ultraprecision laser ranger systems are summarized. The engineering breadboard constructed proved the feasibility of the pump-pulsed, actively modelocked, PTM Q-switched Nd:YAG laser concept for the generation of subnanosecond pulses suitable for ultra-precision ranging. The laser breadboard also included a double-pass Nd:YAG amplifier and provision for a Type II KD*P frequency doubler. The specific technical accomplishment was the generation of single 150 psec, 20-mJ pulses at 10 pps at a wavelength of 1.064 micrometers with 25 dB suppression of pre-and post-pulses.

High-power all-fiber ultra-low noise laser

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhao, Jian; Guiraud, Germain; Pierre, Christophe; Floissat, Florian; Casanova, Alexis; Hreibi, Ali; Chaibi, Walid; Traynor, Nicholas; Boullet, Johan; Santarelli, Giorgio

2018-06-01

High-power ultra-low noise single-mode single-frequency lasers are in great demand for interferometric metrology. Robust, compact all-fiber lasers represent one of the most promising technologies to replace the current laser sources in use based on injection-locked ring resonators or multi-stage solid-state amplifiers. Here, a linearly polarized high-power ultra-low noise all-fiber laser is demonstrated at a power level of 100 W. Special care has been taken in the study of relative intensity noise (RIN) and its reduction. Using an optimized servo actuator to directly control the driving current of the pump laser diode, we obtain a large feedback bandwidth of up to 1.3 MHz. The RIN reaches - 160 dBc/Hz between 3 and 20 kHz.

1540-nm single frequency single-mode pulsed all fiber laser for coherent Doppler lidar

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Xin; Diao, Weifeng; Liu, Yuan; Liu, Jiqiao; Hou, Xia; Chen, Weibiao

2015-02-01

A single-mode single frequency eye-safe pulsed all fiber laser based on master oscillator power amplification structure is presented. This laser is composed of a narrow linewidth distributed laser diode seed laser and two-stage cascade amplifiers. 0.8 m longitudinally gradient strained erbium/ytterbium co-doped polarization-maintaining fiber with a core diameter of 10 μm is used as the gain fiber and two acoustic-optics modulators are adopted to enhance pulse extinction ratio. A peak power of 160 W and a pulse width of 200 ns at 10 kHz repetition rate are achieved with transform-limited linewidth and diffraction-limited beam quality. This laser will be employed in a compact short range coherent Doppler wind lidar.

Phase stabilization for mode locked lasers

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Baer, M.T.

A method is described for stabilizing a phase relationship between two mode locked lasers, comprising: driving through a power splitter the mode lockers of both lasers from a single stable radio frequency source; monitoring the phase of pulses from each laser utilizing a fast photodiode output of each laser; feeding the output of the fast photodiodes to a phase detector and comparator; measuring a relative phase difference between the lasers with a phase detector and comparator, producing a voltage output signal or phase error signal representing the phase difference; amplifying and filtering the voltage output signal with an amplifier andmore » loop filter; feeding the resulting output signal to a voltage controlled phase delay between the power splitter and one of the lasers; and delaying the RF drive to the one laser to achieve a desired phase relationship, between the two lasers.« less

300-MHz-repetition-rate, all-fiber, femtosecond laser mode-locked by planar lightwave circuit-based saturable absorber.

PubMed

Kim, Chur; Kim, Dohyun; Cheong, YeonJoon; Kwon, Dohyeon; Choi, Sun Young; Jeong, Hwanseong; Cha, Sang Jun; Lee, Jeong-Woo; Yeom, Dong-Il; Rotermund, Fabian; Kim, Jungwon

2015-10-05

We show the implementation of fiber-pigtailed, evanescent-field-interacting, single-walled carbon nanotube (CNT)-based saturable absorbers (SAs) using standard planar lightwave circuit (PLC) fabrication processes. The implemented PLC-CNT-SA device is employed to realize self-starting, high-repetition-rate, all-fiber ring oscillators at telecommunication wavelength. We demonstrate all-fiber Er ring lasers operating at 303-MHz (soliton regime) and 274-MHz (stretched-pulse regime) repetition-rates. The 303-MHz (274-MHz) laser centered at 1555 nm (1550 nm) provides 7.5 nm (19 nm) spectral bandwidth. After extra-cavity amplilfication, the amplified pulse train of the 303-MHz (274-MHz) laser delivers 209 fs (178 fs) pulses. To our knowledge, this corresponds to the highest repetition-rates achieved for femtosecond lasers employing evanescent-field-interacting SAs. The demonstrated SA fabrication method, which is based on well-established PLC processes, also shows a potential way for mass-producible and lower-cost waveguide-type SA devices suitable for all-fiber and waveguide lasers.

Single-mode SOA-based 1kHz-linewidth dual-wavelength random fiber laser.

PubMed

Xu, Yanping; Zhang, Liang; Chen, Liang; Bao, Xiaoyi

2017-07-10

Narrow-linewidth multi-wavelength fiber lasers are of significant interests for fiber-optic sensors, spectroscopy, optical communications, and microwave generation. A novel narrow-linewidth dual-wavelength random fiber laser with single-mode operation, based on the semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) gain, is achieved in this work for the first time, to the best of our knowledge. A simplified theoretical model is established to characterize such kind of random fiber laser. The inhomogeneous gain in SOA mitigates the mode competition significantly and alleviates the laser instability, which are frequently encountered in multi-wavelength fiber lasers with Erbium-doped fiber gain. The enhanced random distributed feedback from a 5km non-uniform fiber provides coherent feedback, acting as mode selection element to ensure single-mode operation with narrow linewidth of ~1kHz. The laser noises are also comprehensively investigated and studied, showing the improvements of the proposed random fiber laser with suppressed intensity and frequency noises.

Navy Shipboard Lasers for Surface, Air, and Missile Defense: Background and Issues for Congress

DTIC Science & Technology

2013-06-27

include silicon carbide ( SiC )- based transistors, transformers and power converters. “ SiC is important because it improves power quality and reduces size...existing shipboard gun systems. An airborne mirror , perhaps mounted on an aerostat,11 could bounce light from a shipboard laser, so as to permit non-line...super conducting RF electron beam injectors, advanced high power cathode technologies, high power compact amplifiers, and advanced mirrors

Temperature dependence of Ti:Sapphire fluorescence spectra for the design of cryogenic cooled Ti:Sapphire CPA laser.

PubMed

Burton, Harry; Debardelaben, Christopher; Amir, Wafa; Planchon, Thomas A

2017-03-20

The fluorescence spectra of titanium doped sapphire (Ti:Sapphire) crystals were measured for temperature ranging from 300K to 77K. The resulting gain cross-section line shapes were calculated and used in a three-dimensional amplification model to illustrate the importance of the precise knowledge of these fluorescence spectra for the design of cryogenic cooled Ti:Sapphire based chirped-pulse laser amplifiers.

Core-pumped mode-locked ytterbium-doped fiber laser operating around 980 nm

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhou, Yue; Dai, Yitang; Li, Jianqiang; Yin, Feifei; Dai, Jian; Zhang, Tian; Xu, Kun

2018-07-01

In this letter, we first demonstrate a core-pumped passively mode-locked all-normal-dispersion ytterbium-doped fiber oscillator based on nonlinear polarization evolution operating around 980 nm. The dissipative soliton fiber laser pulse can be compressed down to 250 fs with 1 nJ pulse energy, and the slope efficiency of the oscillator can be as high as 19%. To improve the dissipative soliton laser output spectrum smoothness, we replace the birefringent plate based intracavity filter with a diffraction-grating based filter. The output pulse duration can then be further compressed down to 180 fs with improved spectral-smoothness. These schemes have potential applications in seeding cryogenic Yb:YLF amplifiers and underwater exploration of marine resources.

High energy, single frequency, tunable laser source operating in burst mode for space based lidar applications

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cosentino, Alberto; Mondello, Alessia; Sapia, Adalberto; D'Ottavi, Alessandro; Brotini, Mauro; Nava, Enzo; Stucchi, Emanuele; Trespidi, Franco; Mariottini, Cristina; Wazen, Paul; Falletto, Nicolas; Fruit, Michel

2017-11-01

This paper describes the laser transmitter assembly used in the ALADIN instrument currently in C/D development phase for the ESA ADM-AEOLUS mission (EADS Astrium as prime contractor for the satellite and the instrument). The Laser Transmitter Assembly (TXA), based on a diode pumped tripled Nd:YAG laser, is used to generate tunable laser pulses of 150 mJ at a nominal wavelength of 355 nm. This laser is operated in burst mode, with a pulse repetition cycle of 100 Hz. The TXA is composed of the following units: a diodepumped CW Nd:YAG Laser named Reference Laser Head (RLH), used to inject a diode-pumped, Q-switched, amplified and frequency tripled Nd:YAG Laser working in the third harmonic referred as Power Laser Head (PLH) and a Transmitter Laser Electronics (TLE) containing all the control and power electronics needed for PLH and RLH operation. The TXA is made by an European consortium under the leadership of Galileo Avionica (It), and including CESI (It), Quantel (Fr), TESAT (Ge) and Thales (Fr).

Yb:S-FAP Lasers

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Schaffers, K I

It has recently been reported that several high power, diode-pumped laser systems have been developed based on crystals of Yb:S-FAP [Yb{sup 3+}:Sr{sub 5}(PO{sub 4}){sub 3}F]. The Mercury Laser, at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, is the most prominent system using Yb:S-FAP and is currently producing 23J at 5 Hz in a 15 nsec pulse, based on partial activation of the system. In addition, a regenerative amplifier is being developed at Waseda University in Japan and has produced greater than 12 mJ with high beam quality at 50Hz repetition rate. Q-peak has demonstrated 16 mJ of maximum energy/output pulse in a multi-pass,more » diode side-pumped amplifier and ELSA in France is implementing Yb:S-FAP in a 985 nm pump for an EDFA, producing 250 mW. Growth of high optical quality crystals of Yb:S-FAP is a challenge due to multiple crystalline defects. However, at this time, a growth process has been developed to produce high quality 3.5 cm diameter Yb:S-FAP crystals and a process is under development for producing 6.5 cm diameter crystals.« less

Mobile SO2 and NO2 DIAL Lidar system for enforcement use

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cunningham, David L.; Pence, William H.; Moody, Stephen E.

1994-06-01

A self-contained mobile differential absorption lidar (DIAL) system intended for measuring SO2 and NO2 concentrations from stationary combustion sources has been completed for enforcement use. The system uses tunable Ti:sapphire laser technology, with nonlinear conversion to the blue and UV absorption wavelengths. Separate tunable laser oscillators at slightly offset wavelengths are pumped on alternate pulses of a 20 Hz doubled Nd:YAG pump laser; the outputs are amplified in a common amplifier, doubled or tripled, and transmitted toward a target region via a two-mirror beam director. Scattered atmospheric returns are collected in a 0.27-m-diameter telescope, detected with a filtered photomultiplier, and digitized and stored for analysis. Extensive software-based control and display windows are provided for operator interaction with the system. The DIAL system is built into a small motor coach. Gasoline- powered electrical generation, laser cooling, and air conditioning services are present. Separate computers are provided for simultaneous data collection and data analysis activities, with shared data base access. A laser printer supplies hardcopy output. The system includes the capability for automatic data collection at a series of scanner angles, and computer processing to present results in a variety of formats. Plumes from coal-fired and mixed-fuel-fired combusters have been examined for NO2 and SO2 content. Noise levels of a few parts per million are reached with averaging times of less than one minute.

Wide field video-rate two-photon imaging by using spinning disk beam scanner

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Maeda, Yasuhiro; Kurokawa, Kazuo; Ito, Yoko; Wada, Satoshi; Nakano, Akihiko

2018-02-01

The microscope technology with wider view field, deeper penetration depth, higher spatial resolution and higher imaging speed are required to investigate the intercellular dynamics or interactions of molecules and organs in cells or a tissue in more detail. The two-photon microscope with a near infrared (NIR) femtosecond laser is one of the technique to improve the penetration depth and spatial resolution. However, the video-rate or high-speed imaging with wide view field is difficult to perform with the conventional two-photon microscope. Because point-to-point scanning method is used in conventional one, so it's difficult to achieve video-rate imaging. In this study, we developed a two-photon microscope with spinning disk beam scanner and femtosecond NIR fiber laser with around 10 W average power for the microscope system to achieve above requirements. The laser is consisted of an oscillator based on mode-locked Yb fiber laser, a two-stage pre-amplifier, a main amplifier based on a Yb-doped photonic crystal fiber (PCF), and a pulse compressor with a pair of gratings. The laser generates a beam with maximally 10 W average power, 300 fs pulse width and 72 MHz repetition rate. And the beam incident to a spinning beam scanner (Yokogawa Electric) optimized for two-photon imaging. By using this system, we achieved to obtain the 3D images with over 1mm-penetration depth and video-rate image with 350 x 350 um view field from the root of Arabidopsis thaliana.

High Intensity Mirror-Free Nanosecond Ytterbium Fiber Laser System in Master Oscillator Power Amplification

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chun-Lin, Louis Chang

Rare-earth-doped fiber lasers and amplifiers are relatively easy to efficiently produce a stable and high quality laser beam in a compact, robust, and alignment-free configuration. Recently, high power fiber laser systems have facilitated wide spread applications in academics, industries, and militaries in replacement of bulk solid-state laser systems. The master oscillator power amplifier (MOPA) composed of a highly-controlled seed, high-gain preamplifiers, and high-efficiency power amplifiers are typically utilized to scale up the pulse energy, peak power, or average power. Furthermore, a direct-current-modulated nanosecond diode laser in single transverse mode can simply provide a compact and highly-controlled seed to result in the flexible output parameters, such as repetition rate, pulse duration, and even temporal pulse shape. However, when scaling up the peak power for high intensity applications, such a versatile diode-seeded nanosecond MOPA laser system using rare-earth-doped fibers is unable to completely save its own advantages compared to bulk laser systems. Without a strong seeding among the amplifiers, the guided amplified spontaneous amplification is easy to become dominant during the amplification, leading to the harmful self-lasing or pulsing effects, and the difficulty of the quantitative numerical comparison. In this dissertation, we study a high-efficiency and intense nanosecond ytterbium fiber MOPA system with good beam quality and stability for high intensity applications. The all-PM-fiber structure is achieved with the output extinction ratio of >12 dB by optimizing the interconnection of high power optical fibers. The diode-seeded MOPA configuration without parasitic stimulated amplification (PAS) is implemented using the double-pass scheme to extract energy efficiently for scaling peak power. The broadband PAS was studied experimentally, which matches well with our numerical simulation. The 1064-nm nanosecond seed was a direct-current-modulated Fabry-Perot diode laser associated with a weak and pulsed noise spanning from 1045 to 1063 nm. Even though the contribution of input noise pulse is only <5%, it becomes a significant transient spike during amplification. The blue-shifted pulsed noise may be caused by band filling effect for quantum-well seed laser driven by high peak current. The study helps the development of adaptive pulse shaping for scaling peak power or energy at high efficiency. On the other hand, the broadband spike with a 3-dB bandwidth of 8.8 nm can support pulses to seed the amplifier for sub-nanosecond giant pulse generation. Because of the very weak seed laser, the design of high-gain preamplifier becomes critical. The utilization of single-mode core-pumped fiber preamplifier can not only improve the mode contrast without fiber coiling effect but also significantly suppress the fiber nonlinearity. The double-pass scheme was therefore studied both numerically and experimentally to improve energy extraction efficiency for the lack of attainable seed and core-pumped power. As a result, a record-high peak power of > 30 kW and energy of > 0.23 mJ was successfully achieved to the best of our knowledge from the output of clad-pumped power amplifier with a beam quality of M2 ˜1.1 in a diode-seeded 15-microm-core fiber MOPA system. After the power amplifier, the MOPA conversion efficiency can be dramatically improved to >56% for an energy gain of >63 dB at a moderate repetition rate of 20 kHz with a beam quality of M 2 <1.5. The output energy of >1.1 mJ with a pulse duration of ˜6.1 ns can result in a peak power up to >116 kW which is limited by fiber fuse in long-term operation. Such a condition able to generate the on-target laser intensity of > 60 GW/cm2 for applications is qualified to preliminarily create a laser-plasma light source. Moreover, the related simulation results also reveal the double-passed power amplifier can further simplify MOPA. Such an intense clad-pumped power amplifier can further become a nonlinear fiber amplifier in all-normal dispersion instead of a nonlinear passive fiber. The combination of laser amplification and nonlinear conversion together can therefore overcome the significant pump depletion during the propagation along the passive fiber for power scaling. As a result, an intense spectrum spanning from 980 to 1600 nm as a high-power nanosecond supercontinuum source can be successfully generated with a conversion efficiency of >65% and a record-high peak power of >116 kW to the best of our knowledge. Because of MOPA structure, the influence of input parameters of nonlinear fiber amplifier on supercontinuum parameters can also be studied. The onset and interplay of fiber nonlinearities can be revealed stage by stage. Such an unique and linearly-polarized light source composed of an intense pump and broad sideband seed is beneficial for efficiently driving the broadband tunable optical parametric amplification free from the bulkiness and timing jitter. Keywords: High power fiber laser and amplifier, ytterbium fiber, master oscillator power amplification, parasitic stimulated amplification, multi-pass fiber amplification, peak power/pulse energy scaling, fiber nonlinear optics, supercontinuum generation.

1030 nm high power polarization maintained fiber laser with narrow linewidth and near-diffraction-limited beam quality

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chu, Qiuhui; Zhao, Pengfei; Li, Chengyu; Wang, Bopeng; Lin, Honghuan; Guo, Chao; Liu, Yu; Jing, Feng; Tang, Chuanxiang

2018-03-01

A high power 1030 nm ytterbium-doped polarization maintained fiber laser with optimized parameters is presented in this paper. The master oscillator power amplifier system with counter-pumped amplifier is established. The output power is 900 W, along with a light-to-light efficiency of 64.2%. The amplified spontaneous emission suppression ratio of spectrum reaches to 40 dB with 3 dB linewidth of 0.14 nm. The polarization extinction ratio is 12 dB, and the beam quality factor is M2x=1.07, M2y=1.12. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first demonstration of 1030 nm high power fiber laser with narrow linewidth, near linear polarization, and neardiffraction-limited beam quality

Single Frequency, Pulsed Laser Diode Transmitter for Dial Water Vapor Measurements at 935nm

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Switzer, Gregg W.; Cornwell, Donald M., Jr.; Krainak, Michael A.; Abshire, James B.; Rall, Johnathan A. R.

1998-01-01

We report a tunable, single frequency, narrow linewidth, pulsed laser diode transmitter at 935.68nm for remote sensing of atmospheric water vapor. The transmitter consists of a CW, tunable, external cavity diode laser whose output is amplified 2OdB using a tapered diode amplifier. The output is pulsed for range resolved DIAL lidar by pulsing the drive current to the diode amplifier at 4kHz with a .5% duty cycle. The output from the transmitter is 36OnJ/pulse and is single spatial mode. It maintains a linewidth of less than 25MHz as its wavelength is tuned across the water vapor absorption line at 935.68nm. The transmitter design and its use in a water vapor measurement will be discussed.

PCF based high power narrow line width pulsed fiber laser

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chen, H.; Yan, P.; Xiao, Q.; Wang, Y.; Gong, M.

2012-09-01

Based on semiconductor diode seeded multi-stage cascaded fiber amplifiers, we have obtained 88-W average power of a 1063-nm laser with high repetition rate of up to 1.5 MHz and a constant 2-ns pulse duration. No stimulated Brillouin scattering pulse or optical damage occurred although the maximum pulse peak power has exceeded 112 kW. The output laser exhibits excellent beam quality (M2x = 1.24 and M2y = 1.18), associated with a spectral line width as narrow as 0.065 nm (FWHM). Additionally, we demonstrate high polarization extinction ratio of 18.4 dB and good pulse stabilities superior to 1.6 % (RMS).

Public-channel cryptography based on mutual chaos pass filters.

PubMed

Klein, Einat; Gross, Noam; Kopelowitz, Evi; Rosenbluh, Michael; Khaykovich, Lev; Kinzel, Wolfgang; Kanter, Ido

2006-10-01

We study the mutual coupling of chaotic lasers and observe both experimentally and in numeric simulations that there exists a regime of parameters for which two mutually coupled chaotic lasers establish isochronal synchronization, while a third laser coupled unidirectionally to one of the pair does not synchronize. We then propose a cryptographic scheme, based on the advantage of mutual coupling over unidirectional coupling, where all the parameters of the system are public knowledge. We numerically demonstrate that in such a scheme the two communicating lasers can add a message signal (compressed binary message) to the transmitted coupling signal and recover the message in both directions with high fidelity by using a mutual chaos pass filter procedure. An attacker, however, fails to recover an errorless message even if he amplifies the coupling signal.

An overview of DREV's activities on pulsed CO2 laser transmitters: Frequency stability and lifetime aspects

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Cruickshank, James; Pace, Paul; Mathieu, Pierre

1987-01-01

After introducing the desired features in a transmitter for laser radar applications, the output characteristics of several configurations of frequency-stable TEA-CO2 lasers are reviewed. Based on work carried out at the Defence Research Establishment Valcartier (DREV), output pulses are examined from short cavity lasers, CW-TEA hybrid lasers, and amplifiers for low power pulses. It is concluded that the technique of injecting a low-power laser beam into a TEA laser resonator with Gaussian reflectivity mirrors should be investigated because it appears well adapted to producing high energy, single mode, low chirp pulses. Finally, a brief report on tests carried out on catalysts composed of stannic oxide and noble metals demonstrates the potential of these catalysts, operating at close to room temperature, to provide complete closed-cycle laser operation.

Parametric amplification of 100 fs mid-infrared pulses in ZnGeP₂ driven by a Ho:YAG chirped-pulse amplifier.

PubMed

Kanai, Tsuneto; Malevich, Pavel; Kangaparambil, Sarayoo Sasidharan; Ishida, Kakuta; Mizui, Makoto; Yamanouchi, Kaoru; Hoogland, Heinar; Holzwarth, Ronald; Pugzlys, Audrius; Baltuska, Andrius

2017-02-15

We report on the parametric generation of 100 fs sub-6-cycle 40 μJ pulses with the center wavelength at 5.2 μm using a 1 ps 2.1 μm pump laser and a dispersion management scheme based on bulk material. Our optically synchronized amplifier chain consists of a Ho:YAG chirped-pulse amplifier and white-light-seeded optical parametric amplifiers providing simultaneous passive carrier-envelope phase locking of three ultrashort longwave pulses at the pump, signal, and idler wavelengths corresponding, respectively, to 2.1, 3.5, and 5.2 μm. We also demonstrate bandwidth enhancement and efficient control over nonlinear spectral phase in the regime of cascaded χ² nonlinearity in ZnGeP₂.

All solid-state high power visible laser

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Grossman, William M.

1993-01-01

The overall objective of this Phase 2 effort was to develop and deliver to NASA a high repetition rate laser-diode-pumped solid-state pulsed laser system with output in the green portion of the spectrum. The laser is for use in data communications, and high efficiency, short pulses, and low timing jitter are important features. A short-pulse 1 micron laser oscillator, a new multi-pass amplifier to boost the infrared power, and a frequency doubler to take the amplified infrared pulsed laser light into the green. This produced 1.5 W of light in the visible at a pulse repetition rate of 20 kHz in the laboratory. The pulses have a full-width at half maximum of near 1 ns. The results of this program are being commercialized.

High-power diode laser bars as pump sources for fiber lasers and amplifiers (Invited Paper)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bonati, G.; Hennig, P.; Wolff, D.; Voelckel, H.; Gabler, T.; Krause, U.; T'nnermann, A.; Reich, M.; Limpert, J.; Werner, E.; Liem, A.

2005-04-01

Fiber lasers are pumped by fibercoupled, multimode single chip devices at 915nm. That"s what everybody assumes when asked for the type of fiber laser pumps and it was like this for many years. Coming up as an amplifier for telecom applications, the amount of pump power needed was in the range of several watts. Highest pump powers for a limited market entered the ten watts range. This is a range of power that can be covered by highly reliable multimode chips, that have to survive up to 25 years, e.g. in submarine applications. With fiber lasers entering the power range and the application fields of rod and thin disc lasers, the amount of pump power needed raised into the area of several hundred watts. In this area of pump power, usually bar based pumps are used. This is due to the much higher cost pressure of the industrial customers compared to telecom customers. We expect more then 70% of all industrial systems to be pumped by diode laser bars. Predictions that bar based pumps survive for just a thousand hours in cw-operation and fractions of this if pulsed are wrong. Bar based pumps have to perform on full power for 10.000h on Micro channel heat sinks and 20.000h on passive heatsinks in industrial applications, and they do. We will show a variety of data, "real" long time tests and statistics from the JENOPTIK Laserdiode as well as data of thousands of bars in the field, showing that bar based pumps are not just well suitable for industrial applications on high power levels, but even showing benefits compared to chip based pumps. And it"s reasonable, that the same objectives of cost effectiveness, power and lifetime apply as well to thin disc, rod and slab lasers as to fiber lasers. Due to the pumping of fiber lasers, examples will be shown, how to utilize bars for high brightness fiber coupling. In this area, the automation is on its way to reduce the costs on the fibercoupling, similar to what had been done in the single chip business. All these efforts are part of the JENOPTIK Laserdiode"s LongLifeTechnologie.

Laser transmitter for Lidar In-Space Technology Experiment

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Chang, John; Cimolino, Marc; Petros, Mulugeta

1991-01-01

The Lidar In-Space Technology Experiment (LITE) Laser Transmitter Module (LTM) flight laser optical architecture has been space qualified by extensive testing at the system, subsystem and component level. The projected system output performance has been verified using an optically and electrically similar breadboard version of the laser. Parasitic lasing was closely examined and completely suppressed after design changes were implemented and tested. Oscillator and amplifier type heads were separately tested to 150 million shots. Critical subassemblies have undergone environmental testing to Shuttle qualification levels. A superior three color anti-reflection coating was developed and tested for use on 14 surfaces after the final amplifier.

20 W continuous-wave cladding-pumped Nd-doped fiber laser at 910 nm.

PubMed

Laroche, M; Cadier, B; Gilles, H; Girard, S; Lablonde, L; Robin, T

2013-08-15

We demonstrate a double-clad fiber laser operating at 910 nm with a record power of 20 W. Laser emission on the three-level scheme is enabled by the combination of a small inner cladding-to-core diameter ratio and a high brightness pump source at 808 nm. A laser conversion efficiency as high as 44% was achieved in CW operating regime by using resonant fiber Bragg reflectors at 910 nm that prevent the lasing at the 1060 nm competing wavelength. Furthermore, in a master oscillator power-amplifier scheme, an amplified power of 14.8 W was achieved at 914 nm in the same fiber.

High-power graphene mode-locked Tm/Ho co-doped fiber laser with evanescent field interaction

PubMed Central

Li, Xiaohui; Yu, Xuechao; Sun, Zhipei; Yan, Zhiyu; Sun, Biao; Cheng, Yuanbing; Yu, Xia; Zhang, Ying; Wang, Qi Jie

2015-01-01

Mid-infrared ultrafast fiber lasers are valuable for various applications, including chemical and biomedical sensing, material processing and military applications. Here, we report all-fiber high-power graphene mode-locked Tm/Ho co-doped fiber laser at long wavelength with evanescent field interaction. Ultrafast pulses up to 7.8 MHz are generated at a center wavelength of 1879.4 nm, with a pulse width of 4.7 ps. A graphene absorber integrated with a side-polished fiber can increase the damage threshold significantly. Harmonics mode-locking can be obtained till to the 21th harmonics at a pump power of above 500 mW. By using one stage amplifier in the anomalous dispersion regime, the laser can be amplified up to 450 mW and the narrowest pulse duration of 1.4 ps can be obtained simultaneously. Our work paves the way to graphene Tm/Ho co-doped mode-locked all-fiber master oscillator power amplifiers as potentially efficient and economic laser sources for high-power laser applications, such as special material processing and nonlinear optical studies. PMID:26567536

10 GHz dual loop opto-electronic oscillator without RF-amplifiers

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhou, Weimin; Okusaga, Olukayode; Nelson, Craig; Howe, David; Carter, Gary

2008-02-01

We report the first demonstration of a 10 GHz dual-fiber-loop Opto-Electronic Oscillator (OEO) without RF-amplifiers. Using a recently developed highly efficient RF-Photonic link with RF-to-RF gain facilitated by a high power laser, highly efficient optical modulator and high power phototectectors, we have built an amplifier-less OEO that eliminates the phase noise produced by the electronic amplifier. The dual-loop approach can provide additional gain and reduce unwanted multi-mode spurs. However, we have observed RF phase noise produced by the high power laser include relative intensity noise (RIN) and noise related to the laser's electronic control system. In addition, stimulated Brillouin scattering limits the fiber loop's length to ~2km at the 40mW laser power needed to provide the RF gain which limits the system's quality factor, Q. We have investigated several different methods for solving these problems. One promising technique is the use of a multi-longitudinal-mode laser to carry the RF signal, maintaining the total optical power but reducing the optical power of each mode to eliminate the Brillouin scattering in a longer fiber thereby reducing the phase noise of the RF signal produced by the OEO. This work shows that improvement in photonic components increases the potential for more RF system applications such as an OEO's with higher performance and new capabilities.

Several hundred kHz repetition rate nanosecond pulses amplification in Er-Yb co-doped fiber amplifier

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yang, Weiqiang; Yin, Ke; Zhang, Bin; Xue, Guanghui; Hou, Jing

2014-07-01

We have experimentally investigated several hundred kHz repetition rate 1,550-nm nanosecond pulses amplification in Er-Yb co-doped fiber amplifier (EYDFA). The experimental setup has three stage fiber amplifiers. At the output of the second stage EYDFA, Yb3+ ions induced amplified spontaneous emission (Yb-ASE) is not observed owing to the low pump power. In the third stage EYDFA, a simultaneously seeded 1,064-nm continuous-wave laser is used to control Yb-ASE. Without any additional 1,064-nm signal, significantly backward Yb-ASE which caused loss-induced heat accumulation at the input port of the pump combiner can be observed. The monitored temperature at the input port of the pump combiner rapidly grows from 30 to 80 °C when the pump power is turned from 20 to 32 W. When a 196-mW forward 1,064-nm laser is added, the monitored backward Yb-ASE power is significantly declined, and the monitored temperature is kept below 35 °C. But, the additional signal caused a large power fraction at 1,064 nm in the output laser. In our experiment at the maximum pump power of 48.5 W, the total output power is 20 W with ~6.4-W 1,550-nm pulsed laser and ~13-W 1,064-nm continuous-wave laser.

Wind velocity measurement accuracy with highly stable 12 mJ/pulse high repetition rate CO2 laser master oscillator power amplifier

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bilbro, James W.; Johnson, Steven C.; Rothermel, Jeffry

1987-01-01

A coherent CO2 lidar operating in a master oscillator power amplifier configuration (MOPA) is described for both ground-based and airborne operation. Representative data taken from measurements against stationary targets in both the ground-based and airborne configurations are shown for the evaluation of the frequency stability of the system. Examples of data are also given which show the results of anomalous system operation. Overall results demonstrate that velocity measurements can be performed consistently to an accuracy of + or - 0.5 m/s and in some cases + or - 0.1 m/s.

Fully relayed regenerative amplifier

DOEpatents

Glass, Alexander J.

1981-01-01

A regenerative laser apparatus and method using the optical relay concept to maintain high fill factors, to suppress diffraction effects, and to minimize phase distortions in a regenerative amplifier.

Width-tunable pulse laser via optical injection induced gain modulation of semiconductor optical amplifiers

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pan, Honggang; Zhang, Ailing; Tong, Zhengrong; Zhang, Yue; Song, Hongyun; Yao, Yuan

2018-03-01

A width-tunable pulse laser via an optical injection induced gain modulation of a semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) is demonstrated. When the pump current of the SOA is 330 mA or 400 mA and a continuous wave is injected into the laser cavity with different powers, bright or dark pulses with different pulse widths and frequency repetition rates are obtained. The bright and dark pulses are formed by the effect of gain dispersion and cross-gain modulation of the SOA.

Cardiac cell: a biological laser?

PubMed

Chorvat, D; Chorvatova, A

2008-04-01

We present a new concept of cardiac cells based on an analogy with lasers, practical implementations of quantum resonators. In this concept, each cardiac cell comprises a network of independent nodes, characterised by a set of discrete energy levels and certain transition probabilities between them. Interaction between the nodes is given by threshold-limited energy transfer, leading to quantum-like behaviour of the whole network. We propose that in cardiomyocytes, during each excitation-contraction coupling cycle, stochastic calcium release and the unitary properties of ionic channels constitute an analogue to laser active medium prone to "population inversion" and "spontaneous emission" phenomena. This medium, when powered by an incoming threshold-reaching voltage discharge in the form of an action potential, responds to the calcium influx through L-type calcium channels by stimulated emission of Ca2+ ions in a coherent, synchronised and amplified release process known as calcium-induced calcium release. In parallel, phosphorylation-stimulated molecular amplification in protein cascades adds tuneable features to the cells. In this framework, the heart can be viewed as a coherent network of synchronously firing cardiomyocytes behaving as pulsed laser-like amplifiers, coupled to pulse-generating pacemaker master-oscillators. The concept brings a new viewpoint on cardiac diseases as possible alterations of "cell lasing" properties.

Remote Water Temperature Measurements Based on Brillouin Scattering with a Frequency Doubled Pulsed Yb:doped Fiber Amplifier

PubMed Central

Schorstein, Kai; Popescu, Alexandru; Göbel, Marco; Walther, Thomas

2008-01-01

Temperature profiles of the ocean are of interest for weather forecasts, climate studies and oceanography in general. Currently, mostly in situ techniques such as fixed buoys or bathythermographs deliver oceanic temperature profiles. A LIDAR method based on Brillouin scattering is an attractive alternative for remote sensing of such water temperature profiles. It makes it possible to deliver cost-effective on-line data covering an extended region of the ocean. The temperature measurement is based on spontaneous Brillouin scattering in water. In this contribution, we present the first water temperature measurements using a Yb:doped pulsed fiber amplifier. The fiber amplifier is a custom designed device which can be operated in a vibrational environment while emitting narrow bandwidth laser pulses. The device shows promising performance and demonstrates the feasibility of this approach. Furthermore, the current status of the receiver is briefly discussed; it is based on an excited state Faraday anomalous dispersion optical filter. PMID:27873842

Kilohertz Cr:forsterite regenerative amplifier.

PubMed

Evans, J M; Petri Evi, V; Alfano, R R; Fu, Q

1998-11-01

We report on a tunable regenerative amplifier that is operational in the near-infrared spectral region from 1230 to 1280 nm based on the vibronic laser material Cr:forsterite. Utilizing the technique of chirped-pulse amplification, we generated pulses as short as 150 fs at 1255 nm at a repetition rate of 1 kHz. Pulse amplification of more than 5 x 10(5) times was observed, with recorded output pulse energies of 34 muJ . Implementation of a second-harmonic generator yielded 110-fs-duration pulses of 7-muJ energy at 625 nm.

1047nm 270mJ all solid state diode pumped MOPA at 50 Hz

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ma, Jian; Yang, Qi; Lu, Tingting; Ma, Xiuhua; Zhu, Xiaolei; Chen, Weibiao

2015-02-01

A diode-pumped nanosecond Master Oscillator Power Amplifier (MOPA) system based on Nd:YLF crystal slabs has been demonstrated. The seed pulses with pulse duration of 11 ns were generated in an EO Q-switched Nd:YLF laser, with single pulse energy of 10 mJ. The 1047 nm signal pulses were amplified in a double-pass amplification system. Maximum output pulse energy of 270 mJ at a repetition rate of 50 Hz has been achieved with effective optical-to-optical efficiency of 14.5%.

Recent Results With Coupled Opto-Electronic Oscillators

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yao, X. S.; Maleki, L.; Wu, C.; Davis, L.; Forouhar, S.

1998-07-01

We present experimental results of coupled opto-electronic oscillators (COEOs) constructed with a semiconductor optical-amplifier-based ring laser, a semiconductor Fabry-Perot laser, and a semiconductor colliding-pulse mode-locked laser. Each COEO can simultaneously generate short optical pulses and spectrally pure RF signals. With these devices, we obtained optical pulses as short as 6 ps and RF signals as high in frequency as 18 GHz with a spectral purity comparable to an HP 8561B synthesizer. These experiments demonstrate that COEOs are promising compact sources for generating low jitter optical pulses and low phase noise RF/millimeter wave signals.

Recent results with the coupled opto-electronic oscillator

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yao, X. S.; Maleki, Lute; Wu, Chi; Davis, Lawrence J.; Forouhar, Siamak

1998-11-01

We present experimental results of coupled opto-electronic oscillators (COEO) constructed with a semiconductor optical amplifier based ring laser, a semiconductor Fabry-Perot laser, and a semiconductor colliding pulse mode-locked laser. Each COEO can simultaneously generate short optical pulses and spectrally pure RF signals. With these devices, we obtained optical pulses as short as 6 picoseconds and RF signals as high in frequency as 18 GHz with a spectral purity comparable with a HP8561B synthesizer. These experiments demonstrate that COEOs are promising compact sources for generating low jitter optical pulses and low phase noise RF/millimeter wave signals.

Compact CH4 sensor based on difference frequency mixing of diode lasers in quasi-phasematched LiNbO3

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lancaster, D. G.; Weidner, R.; Richter, D.; Tittel, F. K.; Limpert, J.

2000-01-01

A compact, portable and robust room temperature CH4 sensor is reported. By difference frequency mixing a 500 mW alpha-DFB diode laser at 1066 nm and an erbium-doped fiber amplified 1574 nm DFB diode laser in periodically poled lithium niobate up to 7 (mu)W of narrowband radiation at 3.3 microns is generated. Real-time monitoring of CH4 over a 7 day period using direct absorption in an open-path multipass cell (L = 36 m) demonstrates a detection precision of +/- 14 ppb.

A flexible master oscillator for a pulse-burst laser system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Den Hartog, D. J.; Young, W. C.

2015-12-01

A new master oscillator is being installed in the pulse-burst laser system used for high-rep-rate Thomson scattering on the MST experiment. This new master oscillator will enable pulse repetition rates up to 1 MHz, with the ability to program a burst of pulses with arbitrary and varying time separation between each pulse. In addition, the energy of each master oscillator pulse can be adjusted to compensate for gain variations in the power amplifier section of the laser system. This flexibility is accomplished by chopping a CW laser source with a high-bandwidth acousto-optic modulator (AOM). The laser source is a Laser Quantum ventus 1064 diode-pumped solid-state laser with continuous output power variable from 100 to 500 mW. The 1064 nm, 2.7 mm diameter polarized beam is focused into the gallium phosphide crystal of a Brimrose AOM, which deflects the beam by approximately 60 mR when driven by the 400 MHz fixed frequency driver. Beam deflection is controlled by a simple digital input pulse, and is capable of producing deflected pulses of less than 20 ns width at repetition rates much greater than 1 MHz. These deflected pulses from the output of the AOM are collimated and propagated into the laser amplifier system, where they will be amplified to ~ 2 J/pulse and injected into the MST plasma.

Two and Three Beam Pumped Optical Parametric Amplifier of Chirped Pulses

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ališauskas, S.; Butkus, R.; Pyragaitė, V.; Smilgevičius, V.; Stabinis, A.; Piskarskas, A.

2010-04-01

We present two and three beam pumped optical parametric amplifier of broadband chirped pulses. The seed pulses from Ti:sapphire oscillator were stretched and amplified in a non-collinear geometry pumping with up to three beams derived from independent laser amplifiers. The signal with ˜90 nm bandwidth was amplified up to 0.72 mJ. The conversion efficiency dependence on intersection angles of pump beams is also revealed.

Measurement of spectral phase noise in a cryogenically cooled Ti:Sa amplifier (Conference Presentation)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nagymihaly, Roland S.; Jójárt, Péter; Börzsönyi, Ádám.; Osvay, Károly

2017-05-01

In most of cases the drift of the carrier envelope phase (CEP) of a chirped pulse amplifier (CPA) system is determined only [1], being the relevant parameter at laser-matter interactions. The need of coherent combination of multiple amplifier channels to further increase the peak power of pulses requires interferometric precision [2]. For this purpose, the stability of the group delay of the pulses may become equally important. Further development of amplifier systems requires the investigation of phase noise contributions of individual subsystems, like amplifier stages. Spectrally resolved interferometry (SRI), which is a completely linear optical method, makes the measurement of spectral phase noise possible of basically any part of a laser system [3]. By utilizing this method, the CEP stability of water-cooled Ti:Sa based amplifiers was investigated just recently, where the effects of seed and pump energy, repetition rate, and the cooling crystal mounts were thoroughly measured [4]. We present a systematic investigation on the noise of the spectral phase, including CEP, of laser pulses amplified in a cryogenically-cooled Ti:Sa amplifier of a CPA chain. The double-pass amplifier was built in the sample arm of a compact Michelson interferometer. The Ti:Sa crystal was cooled below 30 °K. The inherent phase noise was measured for different operation modes, as at various repetition rates, and pump depletion. Noise contributions of the vacuum pumps and the cryogenic refrigerator were found to be 43 and 47 mrad, respectively. We have also identified CEP noise having thermal as well as mechanical origin. Both showed a monotonically decreasing tendency towards higher repetition rates. We found that the widths of the noise distributions are getting broader towards lower repetition rates. Spectral phase noise with and without amplification was measured, and we found no significant difference in the phase noise distributions. The mechanical vibration was also measured in the setup by using an accelerometer synchronously with the optical measurements. The noise spectra of phase and vibration measurements were compared and the sources of individual noise components were identified. References [1] Sebastian Koke et al, Opt. Lett. 33, 2545-2547 (2008). [2] J. Limpert et al, IEEE J. of Sel. Top. in Quant. El. 20, 0901810 (2014). [3] A. Borzsonyi, A.P. Kovacs, K. Osvay, Appl. Sci. 3, 515-544 (2013). [4] A. Borzsonyi, R.S. Nagymihaly, K. Osvay, Las. Phys. Lett. 13, 015301 (2016).

Analog phase lock between two lasers at LISA power levels

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Diekmann, Christian; Steier, Frank; Sheard, Benjamin; Heinzel, Gerhard; Danzmann, Karsten

2009-03-01

This paper presents the implementation of an analog optical phase-locked-loop with an offset frequency of about 20MHz between two lasers, where the detected light powers were of the order of 31 pW and 200 μW. The goal of this setup was the design and characterization of a photodiode transimpedance amplifier for application in LISA. By application of a transimpedance amplifier designed to have low noise and low power consumption, the phase noise between the two lasers was a factor of two above the shot noise limit down to 60mHz. The achievable phase sensitivity depends ultimately on the available power of the highly attenuated master laser and on the input current noise of the transimpedance amplifier of the photodetector. The limiting noise source below 60mHz was the analog phase measurement system that was used in this experiment. A digital phase measurement system that is currently under development at the AEI will be used in the near future. Its application should improve the sensitivity.

Carbon Nanotube-Poly(vinylalcohol) Nanocomposite Film Devices: Applications for Femtosecond Fiber Laser Mode Lockers and Optical Amplifier Noise Suppressors

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sakakibara, Youichi; Rozhin, Aleksey G.; Kataura, Hiromichi; Achiba, Yohji; Tokumoto, Madoka

2005-04-01

We fabricated single-wall carbon nanotube (SWNT)/poly(vinylalcohol) (PVA) nanocomposite freestanding films and examined their application in devices in which the saturable absorption of SWNTs at near-infrared optical telecommunication wavelengths can be utilized. In a passively mode-locked fiber laser, we integrated a 30-μm-thick SWNT/PVA film into a fiber connection adaptor with the film sandwiched by a pair of fiber ferrules. A ring fiber laser with a SWNT/PVA saturable absorber was operated very easily in the mode-locked short-pulse mode with a pulse width of about 500 fs. Reproducible stable device performance was confirmed. In examining noise suppression for optical amplifiers, mixed light of semiconductor amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) source and 370 fs laser pulses was passed through a 100-μm-thick SWNT/PVA film. The transmission loss of the femtosecond pulse light was smaller than that of the ASE light. This proved that the SWNT/PVA film has the ability to suppress ASE noise.

Difference frequency generation of Mid-IR radiation in PPLN crystals using a dual-wavelength all-fiber amplifier

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Krzempek, Karol; Soboń, Grzegorz; Dudzik, Grzegorz; Sotor, Jaroslaw; Abramski, Krzysztof M.

2014-02-01

We present a method of generating mid-IR radiation by means of nonlinear difference frequency generation (DFG) effects occurring in periodically polled lithium niobate (PPLN) crystals using an all-fiber dual-wavelength amplifier. The presented mid-IR laser source incorporates an unique double-clad (DC) Erbium and Ytterbium (Er-Yb) doped amplifier stage capable of simultaneous amplification of both wavelengths required in the DFG process - 1064 nm and 1550 nm. The amplifier delivered more than 23.7 dB and 14.4 dB of amplification for 1550 nm and 1064 nm wavelength, low power, off-the-shelf, fiber pigtailed, distributed feedback (DFB) laser diodes, respectively. The dual-wavelength amplifier parameters crucial for the DFG process were investigated, including long-term power and polarization instabilities and optical spectrum characteristics of both amplified wavelengths. The DFG setup used a single collimator radiation delivery scheme and an 40 mm long MgO doped PPLN crystal. In effect the DFG source was capable of generating 1.14 mW of radiation centered around 3.4 μm. The overall performance of the mid-IR source was elaborated by performing sensitive Tunable Diode Laser Absorption Spectroscopy (TDLAS) detection of methane (CH4) in ambient air on an free-space optical path-length of 8 m. The measured detection limit of the sensor was 26 ppbv with a 1σ SNR of 69.

Numerical simulation of passively mode-locked fiber laser based on semiconductor optical amplifier

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yang, Jingwen; Jia, Dongfang; Zhang, Zhongyuan; Chen, Jiong; Liu, Tonghui; Wang, Zhaoying; Yang, Tianxin

2013-03-01

Passively mode-locked fiber laser (MLFL) has been widely used in many applications, such as optical communication system, industrial production, information processing, laser weapons and medical equipment. And many efforts have been done for obtaining lasers with small size, simple structure and shorter pulses. In recent years, nonlinear polarization rotation (NPR) in semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) has been studied and applied as a mode-locking mechanism. This kind of passively MLFL has faster operating speed and makes it easier to realize all-optical integration. In this paper, we had a thorough analysis of NPR effect in SOA. And we explained the principle of mode-locking by SOA and set up a numerical model for this mode-locking process. Besides we conducted a Matlab simulation of the mode-locking mechanism. We also analyzed results under different working conditions and several features of this mode-locking process are presented. Our simulation shows that: Firstly, initial pulse with the peak power exceeding certain threshold may be amplified and compressed, and stable mode-locking may be established. After about 25 round-trips, stable mode-locked pulse can be obtained which has peak power of 850mW and pulse-width of 780fs.Secondly, when the initial pulse-width is greater, narrowing process of pulse is sharper and it needs more round-trips to be stable. Lastly, the bias currents of SOA affect obviously the shape of mode-locked pulse and the mode-locked pulse with high peak power and narrow width can be obtained through adjusting reasonably the bias currents of SOA.

Ultra-powerful compact amplifiers for short laser pulses

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Malkin, Vladimir

1999-11-01

Laser compressors-amplifiers more powerful and compact than ones based on the currently most advanced chirped pulse amplification technique must handle ultrahigh laser intensities. The medium capable of bearing those is plasma. An interesting kinetic regime of short laser pulse amplification by Compton backscattering of counterpropagating laser pump in plasma, akin to superradiant amplification in free-electron lasers, has been proposed recently (Shvets G., Fisch N. J., Pukhov A., and Meyer-ter-Vehn J., Phys. Rev. Lett., v.81, 4879 (1998)). However, the conversion efficiency of pump energy into a short pulse appears to be higher in a transient Raman backscattering regime (Malkin V. M., Shvets G. and Fisch N. J., Phys. Rev. Lett., v.82, 4448 (1999)), where the integrity of the three-wave interaction is maintained. In this regime the pump is completely depleted through the full nonlinear stage of the interaction, so that unwanted Raman and modulational instabilities limit just the amplification time, while the efficiency is kept about 100%. For instance, a 2*10^14 W/cm^2, 1 μm-wavelength laser pump can be compressed within 5 mm length, which is less than the length for filamentation instabilities to develop, to a 30--40 fsec pulse with fluence 6 kJ/cm^2. Such an output pulse is a thousand times shorter and a million time more intensive than outputs of conventional Raman amplifiers operating in a stationary regime. Yet larger amplification distances and output energies can be achieved by suppressing filamentation instabilities. It appears (Malkin V. M., Shvets G. and Fisch N. J., Submitted to Phys. Rev. Lett.) that appropriate detuning of the resonance (by plasma density gradient or/and chirping the pump laser) suppresses the Raman near-forward scattering instability of the pumped pulse, as well as the pump Raman backscattering instability to noise, while the high efficiency of the amplification still persists. The respective new class of transient amplification regimes, generalizing the classical pi-pulse regime of exactly resonant amplification, is described quantitatively. These regimes are of broad interest, being applicable also to other processes such as Brillouin scattering.

Cross-talk free, low-noise optical amplifier

DOEpatents

Dijaili, Sol P.; Patterson, Frank G.; Deri, Robert J.

1995-01-01

A low-noise optical amplifier solves crosstalk problems in optical amplifiers by using an optical cavity oriented off-axis (e.g. perpendicular) to the direction of a signal amplified by the gain medium of the optical amplifier. Several devices are used to suppress parasitic lasing of these types of structures. The parasitic lasing causes the gain of these structures to be practically unusable. The lasing cavity is operated above threshold and the gain of the laser is clamped to overcome the losses of the cavity. Any increase in pumping causes the lasing power to increase. The clamping action of the gain greatly reduces crosstalk due to gain saturation for the amplified signal beam. It also reduces other nonlinearities associated with the gain medium such as four-wave mixing induced crosstalk. This clamping action can occur for a bandwidth defined by the speed of the laser cavity. The lasing field also reduces the response time of the gain medium. By having the lasing field off-axis, no special coatings are needed. Other advantages are that the lasing field is easily separated from the amplified signal and the carrier grating fluctuations induced by four-wave mixing are decreased. Two related methods reduce the amplified spontaneous emission power without sacrificing the gain of the optical amplifier.

Cross-talk free, low-noise optical amplifier

DOEpatents

Dijaili, S.P.; Patterson, F.G.; Deri, R.J.

1995-07-25

A low-noise optical amplifier solves crosstalk problems in optical amplifiers by using an optical cavity oriented off-axis (e.g. perpendicular) to the direction of a signal amplified by the gain medium of the optical amplifier. Several devices are used to suppress parasitic lasing of these types of structures. The parasitic lasing causes the gain of these structures to be practically unusable. The lasing cavity is operated above threshold and the gain of the laser is clamped to overcome the losses of the cavity. Any increase in pumping causes the lasing power to increase. The clamping action of the gain greatly reduces crosstalk due to gain saturation for the amplified signal beam. It also reduces other nonlinearities associated with the gain medium such as four-wave mixing induced crosstalk. This clamping action can occur for a bandwidth defined by the speed of the laser cavity. The lasing field also reduces the response time of the gain medium. By having the lasing field off-axis, no special coatings are needed. Other advantages are that the lasing field is easily separated from the amplified signal and the carrier grating fluctuations induced by four-wave mixing are decreased. Two related methods reduce the amplified spontaneous emission power without sacrificing the gain of the optical amplifier. 11 figs.

Ti:sapphire/KrF hybrid laser system generating trains of subterawatt subpicosecond UV pulses

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zvorykin, V. D.; Ionin, A. A.; Levchenko, A. O.; Mesyats, G. A.; Seleznev, L. V.; Sinitsyn, D. V.; Ustinovskii, N. N.; Shutov, A. V.

2014-05-01

The GARPUN-MTW Ti:sapphire/KrF hybrid laser system is used to investigate different multipass schemes for amplifying trains of ultrashort pulses (USPs) of subpicosecond duration. It is shown that, for an USP repetition period of 3 - 5 ns, which exceeds the gain-medium recovery time (~2 ns), trains are amplified in the same way as single USPs. Due to this, a train can efficiently extract pump energy from the amplifier and sum energies of individual USPs. The energy of a four-USP train, extracted during four passes through the preamplifier and two passes through the final KrF amplifier (4 + 2 scheme), is saturated at a level of 1.6 J and corresponds to maximum USP peak powers of about 0.6 TW. The energy of amplified spontaneous emission (ASE), on the contrary, rapidly increases at a large total gain length Leff ≈ 6 m and is approximately equal to the USP energy. In the (4 + 1) and (2 + 2) schemes the USP energy decreases only slightly, to Eout = 1.3 and 1.2 J, and the ASE fraction is reduced to about 10% and 3%, respectively. USP self-focusing leads to multiple laser beam filamentation and a 200-fold local increase in the radiation intensity in filaments, to ~2 × 1011 W cm-2, a level at which the nonlinear loss in the output CaF2 windows of the KrF amplifier, caused by three-photon absorption, nonlinear scattering, and broadening of the radiation spectrum to a value exceeding the gain band of the KrF laser transition, becomes the main factor determining the saturation of the USP output energy.

High sustained average power cw and ultrafast Yb:YAG near-diffraction-limited cryogenic solid-state laser.

PubMed

Brown, David C; Singley, Joseph M; Kowalewski, Katie; Guelzow, James; Vitali, Victoria

2010-11-22

We report what we believe to be record performance for a high average power Yb:YAG cryogenic laser system with sustained output power. In a CW oscillator-single-pass amplifier configuration, 963 W of output power was measured. In a second configuration, a two amplifier Yb:YAG cryogenic system was driven with a fiber laser picosecond ultrafast oscillator at a 50 MHz repetition rate, double-passed through the first amplifier and single-passed through the second, resulting in 758 W of average power output. Pulses exiting the system have a FWHM pulsewidth of 12.4 ps, an energy/pulse of 15.2 μJ, and a peak power of 1.23 MW. Both systems are force convection-cooled with liquid nitrogen and have been demonstrated to run reliably over long time periods.

Tunable ring laser with internal injection seeding and an optically-driven photonic crystal reflector.

PubMed

Zheng, Jie; Ge, Chun; Wagner, Clark J; Lu, Meng; Cunningham, Brian T; Hewitt, J Darby; Eden, J Gary

2012-06-18

Continuous tuning over a 1.6 THz region in the near-infrared (842.5-848.6 nm) has been achieved with a hybrid ring/external cavity laser having a single, optically-driven grating reflector and gain provided by an injection-seeded semiconductor amplifier. Driven at 532 nm and incorporating a photonic crystal with an azobenzene overlayer, the reflector has a peak reflectivity of ~80% and tunes at the rate of 0.024 nm per mW of incident green power. In a departure from conventional ring or external cavity lasers, the frequency selectivity for this system is provided by the passband of the tunable photonic crystal reflector and line narrowing in a high gain amplifier. Sub - 0.1 nm linewidths and amplifier extraction efficiencies above 97% are observed with the reflector tuned to 842.5 nm.

High power continuous operation of a widely tunable quantum cascade laser with an integrated amplifier

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Slivken, S.; Sengupta, S.; Razeghi, M., E-mail: razeghi@eecs.northwestern.edu

2015-12-21

Wide electrical tuning and high continuous output power is demonstrated from a single mode quantum cascade laser emitting at a wavelength near 4.8 μm. This is achieved in a space efficient manner by integrating an asymmetric sampled grating distributed feedback tunable laser with an optical amplifier. An initial demonstration of high peak power operation in pulsed mode is demonstrated first, with >5 W output over a 270 nm (113 cm{sup −1}) spectral range. Refinement of the geometry leads to continuous operation with a single mode spectral coverage of 300 nm (120 cm{sup −1}) and a maximum continuous power of 1.25 W. The output beam is shown tomore » be nearly diffraction-limited, even at high amplifier current.« less

Performance of alumina-supported Pt catalysts in an electron-beam-sustained CO2 laser amplifier

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Cunningham, D. L.; Jones, P. L.; Miyake, C. I.; Moody, S. E.

1990-01-01

The performance of an alumina-supported Pt catalyst system used to maintain the gas purity in an electron-beam-sustained (636) isotope CO2 laser amplifier has been tested. The system characteristics using the two-zone, parallel flow reactor were determined for both continuous- and end-of-day reactor operation using on-line mass spectrometric sampling. The laser amplifier was run with an energy loading of typically 110 J-l/atm and an electron-beam current of 4 mA/sq cm. With these conditions and a pulse repetition frequency of 10 Hz for up to 10,000 shots, increases on the order of 100 ppm O2 were observed with the purifier on and 150 ppm with it off. The 1/e time recovery time was found to be approximately 75 minutes.

Strongly aligned gas-phase molecules at free-electron lasers

DOE PAGES

Kierspel, Thomas; Wiese, Joss; Mullins, Terry; ...

2015-09-16

Here, we demonstrate a novel experimental implementation to strongly align molecules at full repetition rates of free-electron lasers. We utilized the available in-house laser system at the coherent x-ray imaging beamline at the linac coherent light source. Chirped laser pulses, i.e., the direct output from the regenerative amplifier of the Ti:Sa chirped pulse amplification laser system, were used to strongly align 2, 5-diiodothiophene molecules in a molecular beam. The alignment laser pulses had pulse energies of a few mJ and a pulse duration of 94 ps. A degree of alignment ofmore » $$\\langle {\\mathrm{cos}}^{2}{\\theta }_{2{\\rm{D}}}\\rangle =0.85$$ was measured, limited by the intrinsic temperature of the molecular beam rather than by the available laser system. With the general availability of synchronized chirped-pulse-amplified near-infrared laser systems at short-wavelength laser facilities, our approach allows for the universal preparation of molecules tightly fixed in space for experiments with x-ray pulses.« less

An ultra-high gain and efficient amplifier based on Raman amplification in plasma

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Vieux, G.; Cipiccia, S.; Grant, D. W.

Raman amplification arising from the excitation of a density echelon in plasma could lead to amplifiers that significantly exceed current power limits of conventional laser media. Here we show that 1–100 J pump pulses can amplify picojoule seed pulses to nearly joule level. The extremely high gain also leads to significant amplification of backscattered radiation from “noise”, arising from stochastic plasma fluctuations that competes with externally injected seed pulses, which are amplified to similar levels at the highest pump energies. The pump energy is scattered into the seed at an oblique angle with 14 J sr -1, and net gainsmore » of more than eight orders of magnitude. The maximum gain coefficient, of 180 cm -1, exceeds high-power solid-state amplifying media by orders of magnitude. The observation of a minimum of 640 J sr -1 directly backscattered from noise, corresponding to ≈10% of the pump energy in the observation solid angle, implies potential overall efficiencies greater than 10%.« less

An ultra-high gain and efficient amplifier based on Raman amplification in plasma

DOE PAGES

Vieux, G.; Cipiccia, S.; Grant, D. W.; ...

2017-05-25

Raman amplification arising from the excitation of a density echelon in plasma could lead to amplifiers that significantly exceed current power limits of conventional laser media. Here we show that 1–100 J pump pulses can amplify picojoule seed pulses to nearly joule level. The extremely high gain also leads to significant amplification of backscattered radiation from “noise”, arising from stochastic plasma fluctuations that competes with externally injected seed pulses, which are amplified to similar levels at the highest pump energies. The pump energy is scattered into the seed at an oblique angle with 14 J sr -1, and net gainsmore » of more than eight orders of magnitude. The maximum gain coefficient, of 180 cm -1, exceeds high-power solid-state amplifying media by orders of magnitude. The observation of a minimum of 640 J sr -1 directly backscattered from noise, corresponding to ≈10% of the pump energy in the observation solid angle, implies potential overall efficiencies greater than 10%.« less

Laser radiation in active amplifying media treated as a transport problem - Transfer equation derived and exactly solved

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gupta, S. R. D.; Gupta, Santanu D.

1991-10-01

The flow of laser radiation in a plane-parallel cylindrical slab of active amplifying medium with axial symmetry is treated as a problem in radiative transfer. The appropriate one-dimensional transfer equation describing the transfer of laser radiation has been derived by an appeal to Einstein's A, B coefficients (describing the processes of stimulated line absorption, spontaneous line emission, and stimulated line emission sustained by population inversion in the medium) and considering the 'rate equations' to completely establish the rational of the transfer equation obtained. The equation is then exactly solved and the angular distribution of the emergent laser beam intensity is obtained; its numerically computed values are given in tables and plotted in graphs showing the nature of peaks of the emerging laser beam intensity about the axis of the laser cylinder.

Pulsed 1.55μm all-fiber laser combining high energy, ultranarrow linewidth and optimal spatial beam quality

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Liégeois, Flavien; Hernandez, Yves; Kinet, Damien; Giannone, Domenico; Robin, Thierry; Cadier, Benoît

2008-11-01

In this letter, we report on the study of a new all-fiber laser source suitable for coherent Doppler LIDAR use in the eyesafe domain. The laser consists on a MOPA configuration where the Master Oscillator is a modulated ultranarrow (< 8 kHz) fiber laser. The optical amplifiers are also all-fibered and make use of a new Large Mode Area (LMA) index pedestal fiber that is very effective in limiting the non-linear effects without quality degradation of the laser beam. The amplified pulses have a maximum energy of 0.15 mJ for a duration of 340 ns at a repetition rate of 15 kHz. The average output power of the laser is 2.5 W, free of Stimulated Brillouin Scattering and with a measured M2 = 1.3.

Coherent pulse and environmental characteristics of the intramolecular proton-transfer lasers based on 3-hydroxyflavone and fisetin

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Parthenopoulos, Dimitri A.; Kasha, Michael

1988-04-01

Coherent stimulated emission and laser beams of good quality are reported for 3-hydroxyfiavone (3-HF) and a polyhydroxyfiavone, risetin, acting as intramolecular proton-transfer lasers. The laser beam quality of these materials is comparable to that observed for rhodamine-6G. Studies of amplified spontaneous emission of 3-hydroxyflavone in highly polar solvents are also reported. The very large changes in dipole moment upon electronic excitation of 3-HF expected according to ZINDO semiempirical molecular orbital calculations fail to give rise to spectral shifts in the high dielectric constant solvents. The results are interpreted as a masking spectral effect caused by specific hydrogen bonding by the solvent.

Direct generation of 128-fs Gaussian pulses from a compensation-free fiber laser using dual mode-locking mechanisms

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Peng, Junsong; Zhan, Li; Gu, Zhaochang; Qian, Kai; Luo, Shouyu; Shen, Qishun

2012-03-01

We have experimentally demonstrated the direct generation of 128-fs pulses in an all-anomalous-dispersion all-fiber mode-locked laser. The laser is free of dispersion compensation in the cavity based on standard single mode fiber (SMF). The time-bandwidth product is 0.536. The laser is achieved by using two mode-lockers, one is nonlinear polarization rotation (NPR), and the other is nonlinear amplifying loop mirror. The coexistence of dual mode-locking mechanisms can decrease the cavity length to 12-m, and also results in producing high-quality pulses with a Gaussian shape both on the pulse profile and spectrum, but without Kelly sidebands.

Fiber-coupled three-micron pulsed laser source for CFRP laser treatment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nyga, Sebastian; Blass, David; Katzy, Veronika; Westphalen, Thomas; Jungbluth, Bernd; Hoffmann, Hans-Dieter

2018-02-01

We present a laser source providing up to 18 W and 1.5 mJ at a wavelength of 3 μm. The output is generated by frequency conversion of randomly polarized multimode radiation at 1064 nm of an Nd:YAG laser in a two-stage conversion setup. The frequency converter comprises an optical parametric oscillator and a subsequent optical parametric amplifier using PPLN as nonlinear medium in both stages. To implement fiber-based beam delivery for materials processing, we coupled the output at 3 μm to a multimode ZrF4-fiber. This source was then used to remove epoxy resin from the surface of CFRP samples.

Wavelength-stepped, actively mode-locked fiber laser based on wavelength-division-multiplexed optical delay lines

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lee, Eunjoo; Kim, Byoung Yoon

2017-12-01

We propose a new scheme for an actively mode-locked wavelength-swept fiber laser that produces a train of discretely wavelength-stepped pulses from a short fiber cavity. Pulses with different wavelengths are split and combined by standard wavelength division multiplexers with fiber delay lines. As a proof of concept, we demonstrate a laser using an erbium doped fiber amplifier and commercially available wavelength-division multiplexers with wavelength spacing of 0.8 nm. The results show simultaneous mode-locking at three different wavelengths. Laser output parameters in time domain, optical and radio frequency spectral domain, and the noise characteristics are presented. Suggestions for the improved design are discussed.

Linearly polarized fiber amplifier

DOEpatents

Kliner, Dahv A.; Koplow, Jeffery P.

2004-11-30

Optically pumped rare-earth-doped polarizing fibers exhibit significantly higher gain for one linear polarization state than for the orthogonal state. Such a fiber can be used to construct a single-polarization fiber laser, amplifier, or amplified-spontaneous-emission (ASE) source without the need for additional optical components to obtain stable, linearly polarized operation.

Dynamic Compression of the Signal in a Charge Sensitive Amplifier: From Concept to Design

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Manghisoni, Massimo; Comotti, Daniele; Gaioni, Luigi; Ratti, Lodovico; Re, Valerio

2015-10-01

This work is concerned with the design of a low-noise Charge Sensitive Amplifier featuring a dynamic signal compression based on the non-linear features of an inversion-mode MOS capacitor. These features make the device suitable for applications where a non-linear characteristic of the front-end is required, such as in imaging instrumentation for free electron laser experiments. The aim of the paper is to discuss a methodology for the proper design of the feedback network enabling the dynamic signal compression. Starting from this compression solution, the design of a low-noise Charge Sensitive Amplifier is also discussed. The study has been carried out by referring to a 65 nm CMOS technology.

Flying Focus: Spatiotemporal Control of the Laser Beam Intensity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Froula, D. H.; Turnbull, D.; Kessler, T. J.; Haberberger, D.; Bahk, S.-W.; Begishev, I. A.; Boni, R.; Bucht, S.; Davies, A.; Katz, J.; Sefkow, A. B.; Shaw, J. L.

2017-10-01

A ``flying focus'' is presented: this advanced focusing scheme provides unprecedented spatiotemporal control over the laser focal volume. A chromatic focusing system combined with chirped laser pulses enabled the speed of a small-diameter laser focus to propagate over nearly 100 × its Rayleigh length. Furthermore, the flying focus decouples the speed at which the peak intensity propagates from the group velocity of the laser pulse, allowing the laser focus to co- or counter-propagate along its axis at any velocity. Experiments have demonstrated a nearly constant intensity over 4.5 mm while the velocity of the focus ranged from subluminal (0.01 c) to superluminal (15 c) . These properties could provide the opportunity to overcome current fundamental limitations in laser-plasma amplifiers, laser-wakefield accelerators, photon accelerators, ion accelerators, and high-order frequency conversion. This material is based upon work supported by the Department of Energy National Nuclear Security Administration under Award Number DE-NA0001944.

Laser-plasma interactions in magnetized environment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shi, Yuan; Qin, Hong; Fisch, Nathaniel J.

2018-05-01

Propagation and scattering of lasers present new phenomena and applications when the plasma medium becomes strongly magnetized. With mega-Gauss magnetic fields, scattering of optical lasers already becomes manifestly anisotropic. Special angles exist where coherent laser scattering is either enhanced or suppressed, as we demonstrate using a cold-fluid model. Consequently, by aiming laser beams at special angles, one may be able to optimize laser-plasma coupling in magnetized implosion experiments. In addition, magnetized scattering can be exploited to improve the performance of plasma-based laser pulse amplifiers. Using the magnetic field as an extra control variable, it is possible to produce optical pulses of higher intensity, as well as compress UV and soft x-ray pulses beyond the reach of other methods. In even stronger giga-Gauss magnetic fields, laser-plasma interaction enters a relativistic-quantum regime. Using quantum electrodynamics, we compute a modified wave dispersion relation, which enables correct interpretation of Faraday rotation measurements of strong magnetic fields.

A frequency doubled pressure-tunable oscillator-amplifier dye laser system

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Moriarty, A.; Heaps, W.; Davis, D. D.

1976-01-01

A tunable high-repetition-rate oscillator-amplifier dye-laser system is reported. The dye laser described was longitudinally pumped with the second harmonic of a Nd-YAG laser operating at 10 Hz. Using three Faraday-Perot etalons and pressure tuning, a maximum fundamental output power of the order of 6 MW with a corresponding spectral width of less than 0.003 nm at 564 nm was obtained. The fundamental at 564 nm was frequency doubled to give a maximum power level of 0.6 MW of second-harmonic output power with a spectral width less than 0.0015 nm at 282 nm. Frequency stability could be maintained to within approximately 15% of the line-width.

Final Technical Report "Study of Efficiency of Raman Backscattering Amplification in Plasma"

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Suckewer, Szymon

2014-03-31

General : Our major scientific achievements in Raman Backscattering (RBS) amplification and compression of short laser pulses in plasma. The laser system based on RBS steps in where the current technology of chirped pulse amplification (CPA) (extremely successful in developing ultra-short and ultra-intense laser pulses in last 2 decades) becomes difficult and very expensive to apply. Good base for such RBS laser was created by our recent experiments, which were supported by GPS grants. The main objective of the present grant was: improvement efficiency of energy transfer from pump to seed. The results surpassed our expectations; we improved the efficiencymore » of energy transfer from pump to seed by a factor of 6 compared to the best of our previous results and amplified seed pulse compressed down to about 50 fsec.« less

Circuit-level simulation of transistor lasers and its application to modelling of microwave photonic links

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Iezekiel, Stavros; Christou, Andreas

2015-03-01

Equivalent circuit models of a transistor laser are used to investigate the suitability of this relatively new device for analog microwave photonic links. The three-terminal nature of the device enables transistor-based circuit design techniques to be applied to optoelectronic transmitter design. To this end, we investigate the application of balanced microwave amplifier topologies in order to enable low-noise links to be realized with reduced intermodulation distortion and improved RF impedance matching compared to conventional microwave photonic links.

Multiple Channel Laser Beam Combination and Phasing Using Stimulated Brillouin Scattering in Optical Fibers

DTIC Science & Technology

2005-12-22

etched glass into a waveguide containing methane gas (the SBS medium). The experiment compared the reflection from the SBS cell with that of a mirror...proposed tellurite glass as a candidate for fiber devices.105 Their work has led to the development of a number of rare-earth doped fiber lasers and...Tellurite glasses have also been quite successful as Raman amplifiers110,111 demonstrating over 90 times higher Raman gain than silica-based devices

Multiple Channel Laser Beam Combination and Phasing Using Stimulated Brillouin Scattering in Optical Fibers

DTIC Science & Technology

2005-12-01

etched glass into a waveguide containing methane gas (the SBS medium). The experiment compared the reflection from the SBS cell with that of a mirror...proposed tellurite glass as a candidate for fiber devices.105 Their work has led to the development of a number of rare-earth doped fiber lasers and...Tellurite glasses have also been quite successful as Raman amplifiers110,111 demonstrating over 90 times higher Raman gain than silica-based devices

Compact Mach-Zehnder interferometer based on photonic crystal fiber and its application in switchable multi-wavelength fiber laser

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chen, Weiguo; Lou, Shuqin; Wang, Liwen; Li, Honglei; Guo, Tieying; Jian, Shuisheng

2009-08-01

The compact Mach-Zehnder interferometer is proposed by splicing a section of photonic crystal fiber (PCF) and two pieces of single mode fiber (SMF) with the air-holes of PCF intentionally collapsed in the vicinity of the splices. The depedence of the fringe spacing on the length of PCF is investigated. Based on the Mach-Zehnder interferometer as wavelength-selective filter, a switchable dual-wavelength fiber ring laser is demonstrated with a homemade erbiumdoped fiber amplifier (EDFA) as the gain medium at room temperature. By adjusting the states of the polarization controller (PC) appropriately, the laser can be switched among the stable single-and dual -wavelength lasing operations by exploiting polarization hole burning (PHB) effect.

Parameter space for the collective laser coupling in the laser fusion driver based on the concept of fiber amplification network.

PubMed

Huang, Zhihua; Lin, Honghuan; Xu, Dangpeng; Li, Mingzhong; Wang, Jianjun; Deng, Ying; Zhang, Rui; Zhang, Yongliang; Tian, Xiaocheng; Wei, Xiaofeng

2013-07-15

Collective laser coupling of the fiber array in the inertial confinement fusion (ICF) laser driver based on the concept of fiber amplification network (FAN) is researched. The feasible parameter space is given for laser coupling of the fundamental, second and third harmonic waves by neglecting the influence of the frequency conversion on the beam quality under the assumption of beam quality factor conservation. Third harmonic laser coupling is preferred due to its lower output energy requirement from a single fiber amplifier. For coplanar fiber array, the energy requirement is around 0.4 J with an effective mode field diameter of around 500 μm while maintaining the fundamental mode operation which is more than one order of magnitude higher than what can be achieved with state-of-the-art technology. Novel waveguide structure needs to be developed to enlarge the fundamental mode size while mitigating the catastrophic self-focusing effect.

Fiber Raman laser and amplifier pumped by Nd3+:YVO4 solid state laser

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Liu, Deming; Zhang, Minming; Liu, Shuang; Nie, Mingju; Wang, Ying

2005-04-01

Pumping source is the key technology of fiber Raman amplifiers (FRA) which are important for ultra long haul and high bit rate dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) systems. In this paper the research work of the project, "Fiber Raman Laser and Amplifier pumped by Nd3+:YVO4 Solid State Laser", supported by the National High-tech Program (863-program) of China is introduced, in which a novel 14xx nm pump module with fine characteristics of high efficiency, simplicity, compactness and low cost is researched and developed. A compact 1342 nm Nd3+:YVO4 diode pumped solid state laser (DPSSL) module is developed with the total laser power of 655mW and the slope efficiency of 42.6% pumped by a 2W 808nm laser diode (LD). A special C-lens fiber collimator is designed to couple the 1342nm laser beam into a piece of single mode fiber (SMF) and the coupling efficiency of 80% is reached. The specific 14xx nm output laser is generated from a single stage Raman resonator which includes a pair of fiber Bragg gratings and a piece of Germanic-silicate or Phospho-silicate fiber pumped by such DPSSL module. The slope efficiency for conversion from 1342 to 14xx nm radiation is 75% and the laser power is more than 300mW each. Finally, Raman gain experiments are carried out with 100km SMF. 100 nm bandwidth with 10dB on-off Raman gain and 1.1dB gain flatness is achieved by pumped at 1425, 1438, 1455 and 1490nm.

An ultra-wideband tunable multi-wavelength Brillouin fibre laser based on a semiconductor optical amplifier and dispersion compensating fibre in a linear cavity configuration

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Zulkifli, M Z; Ahmad, H; Hassan, N A

2011-07-31

A multi-wavelength Brillouin fibre laser (MBFL) with an ultra-wideband tuning range from 1420 nm to 1620 nm is demonstrated. The MBFL uses an ultra-wideband semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) and a dispersion compensating fibre (DCF) as the linear gain medium and nonlinear gain medium, respectively. The proposed MBFL has a wide tuning range covering the short (S-), conventional (C-) and long (L-) bands with a wavelength spacing of 0.08 nm, making it highly suitable for DWDM system applications. The output power of the observed Brillouin Stokes ranges approximately from -5.94 dBm to -0.41 dBm for the S-band, from -4.34 dBm tomore » 0.02 dBm for the C-band and from -2.19 dBm to 0.39 dBm for the L-band. The spacing between each adjacent wavelengths of all the three bands is about 0.08 nm, which is approximately 10.7 GHz for the frequency domain. (lasers)« less

Optimizing pulse compressibility in completely all-fibered Ytterbium chirped pulse amplifiers for in vivo two photon laser scanning microscopy

PubMed Central

Fernández, A.; Grüner-Nielsen, L.; Andreana, M.; Stadler, M.; Kirchberger, S.; Sturtzel, C.; Distel, M.; Zhu, L.; Kautek, W.; Leitgeb, R.; Baltuska, A.; Jespersen, K.; Verhoef, A.

2017-01-01

A simple and completely all-fiber Yb chirped pulse amplifier that uses a dispersion matched fiber stretcher and a spliced-on hollow core photonic bandgap fiber compressor is applied in nonlinear optical microscopy. This stretching-compression approach improves compressibility and helps to maximize the fluorescence signal in two-photon laser scanning microscopy as compared with approaches that use standard single mode fibers as stretcher. We also show that in femtosecond all-fiber systems, compensation of higher order dispersion terms is relevant even for pulses with relatively narrow bandwidths for applications relying on nonlinear optical effects. The completely all-fiber system was applied to image green fluorescent beads, a stained lily-of-the-valley root and rat-tail tendon. We also demonstrated in vivo imaging in zebrafish larvae, where we simultaneously measure second harmonic and fluorescence from two-photon excited red-fluorescent protein. Since the pulses are compressed in a fiber, this source is especially suited for upgrading existing laser scanning (confocal) microscopes with multiphoton imaging capabilities in space restricted settings or for incorporation in endoscope-based microscopy. PMID:28856032

Optimizing pulse compressibility in completely all-fibered Ytterbium chirped pulse amplifiers for in vivo two photon laser scanning microscopy.

PubMed

Fernández, A; Grüner-Nielsen, L; Andreana, M; Stadler, M; Kirchberger, S; Sturtzel, C; Distel, M; Zhu, L; Kautek, W; Leitgeb, R; Baltuska, A; Jespersen, K; Verhoef, A

2017-08-01

A simple and completely all-fiber Yb chirped pulse amplifier that uses a dispersion matched fiber stretcher and a spliced-on hollow core photonic bandgap fiber compressor is applied in nonlinear optical microscopy. This stretching-compression approach improves compressibility and helps to maximize the fluorescence signal in two-photon laser scanning microscopy as compared with approaches that use standard single mode fibers as stretcher. We also show that in femtosecond all-fiber systems, compensation of higher order dispersion terms is relevant even for pulses with relatively narrow bandwidths for applications relying on nonlinear optical effects. The completely all-fiber system was applied to image green fluorescent beads, a stained lily-of-the-valley root and rat-tail tendon. We also demonstrated in vivo imaging in zebrafish larvae, where we simultaneously measure second harmonic and fluorescence from two-photon excited red-fluorescent protein. Since the pulses are compressed in a fiber, this source is especially suited for upgrading existing laser scanning (confocal) microscopes with multiphoton imaging capabilities in space restricted settings or for incorporation in endoscope-based microscopy.

Femtosecond laser pulse distortion in Ti:sapphire multipass amplifier by atomic phase shifts

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hwang, Seungjin; Jeong, Jihoon; Cho, Seryeyohan; Lee, Jongmin; Yu, Tae Jun

2017-11-01

We have derived modified Frantz-Nodvik equations that simultaneously account for atomic phase shift (APS) and gain depletion as the chirped laser pulse passes through a gain medium, and have analyzed the effect of temporal pulse distortion in a Ti:sapphire multipass amplifier chain. The combination of APS and gain depletion distorted a temporal pulse and decreased the peak power. The pulse width increased from 21.3 fs to 22.8 fs and the peak power reduced to 89% for the PW class Ti:sapphire CPA laser system in the particular conditions.

Compact, high energy gas laser

DOEpatents

Rockwood, Stephen D.; Stapleton, Robert E.; Stratton, Thomas F.

1976-08-03

An electrically pumped gas laser amplifier unit having a disc-like configuration in which light propagation is radially outward from the axis rather than along the axis. The input optical energy is distributed over a much smaller area than the output optical energy, i.e., the amplified beam, while still preserving the simplicity of parallel electrodes for pumping the laser medium. The system may thus be driven by a comparatively low optical energy input, while at the same time, owing to the large output area, large energies may be extracted while maintaining the energy per unit area below the threshold of gas breakdown.

Cascaded-cladding-pumped cascaded Raman fiber amplifier.

PubMed

Jiang, Huawei; Zhang, Lei; Feng, Yan

2015-06-01

The conversion efficiency of double-clad Raman fiber laser is limited by the cladding-to-core area ratio. To get high conversion efficiency, the inner-cladding-to-core area ratio has to be less than about 8, which limits the brightness enhancement. To overcome the problem, a cascaded-cladding-pumped cascaded Raman fiber laser with multiple-clad fiber as the Raman gain medium is proposed. A theoretical model of Raman fiber amplifier with multiple-clad fiber is developed, and numerical simulation proves that the proposed scheme can improve the conversion efficiency and brightness enhancement of cladding pumped Raman fiber laser.

Doping management for high-power fiber lasers: 100 W, few-picosecond pulse generation from an all-fiber-integrated amplifier.

PubMed

Elahi, P; Yılmaz, S; Akçaalan, O; Kalaycıoğlu, H; Oktem, B; Senel, C; Ilday, F Ö; Eken, K

2012-08-01

Thermal effects, which limit the average power, can be minimized by using low-doped, longer gain fibers, whereas the presence of nonlinear effects requires use of high-doped, shorter fibers to maximize the peak power. We propose the use of varying doping levels along the gain fiber to circumvent these opposing requirements. By analogy to dispersion management and nonlinearity management, we refer to this scheme as doping management. As a practical first implementation, we report on the development of a fiber laser-amplifier system, the last stage of which has a hybrid gain fiber composed of high-doped and low-doped Yb fibers. The amplifier generates 100 W at 100 MHz with pulse energy of 1 μJ. The seed source is a passively mode-locked fiber oscillator operating in the all-normal-dispersion regime. The amplifier comprises three stages, which are all-fiber-integrated, delivering 13 ps pulses at full power. By optionally placing a grating compressor after the first stage amplifier, chirp of the seed pulses can be controlled, which allows an extra degree of freedom in the interplay between dispersion and self-phase modulation. This way, the laser delivers 4.5 ps pulses with ~200 kW peak power directly from fiber, without using external pulse compression.

System for obtaining smooth laser beams where intensity variations are reduced by spectral dispersion of the laser light (SSD)

DOEpatents

Skupsky, S.; Kessler, T.J.; Short, R.W.; Craxton, S.; Letzring, S.A.; Soures, J.

1991-09-10

In an SSD (smoothing by spectral dispersion) system which reduces the time-averaged spatial variations in intensity of the laser light to provide uniform illumination of a laser fusion target, an electro-optic phase modulator through which a laser beam passes produces a broadband output beam by imposing a frequency modulated bandwidth on the laser beam. A grating provides spatial and angular spectral dispersion of the beam. Due to the phase modulation, the frequencies (''colors'') cycle across the beam. The dispersed beam may be amplified and frequency converted (e.g., tripled) in a plurality of beam lines. A distributed phase plate (DPP) in each line is irradiated by the spectrally dispersed beam and the beam is focused on the target where a smooth (uniform intensity) pattern is produced. The color cycling enhances smoothing and the use of a frequency modulated laser pulse prevents the formation of high intensity spikes which could damage the laser medium in the power amplifiers. 8 figures.

System for obtaining smooth laser beams where intensity variations are reduced by spectral dispersion of the laser light (SSD)

DOEpatents

Skupsky, Stanley; Kessler, Terrance J.; Short, Robert W.; Craxton, Stephen; Letzring, Samuel A.; Soures, John

1991-01-01

In an SSD (smoothing by spectral dispersion) system which reduces the time-averaged spatial variations in intensity of the laser light to provide uniform illumination of a laser fusion target, an electro-optic phase modulator through which a laser beam passes produces a broadband output beam by imposing a frequency modulated bandwidth on the laser beam. A grating provides spatial and angular spectral dispersion of the beam. Due to the phase modulation, the frequencies ("colors") cycle across the beam. The dispersed beam may be amplified and frequency converted (e.g., tripled) in a plurality of beam lines. A distributed phase plate (DPP) in each line is irradiated by the spectrally dispersed beam and the beam is focused on the target where a smooth (uniform intensity) pattern is produced. The color cycling enhances smoothing and the use of a frequency modulated laser pulse prevents the formation of high intensity spikes which could damage the laser medium in the power amplifiers.

Direct solar-pumped iodine laser amplifier

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Han, Kwang S.

1987-01-01

This semiannual progress report covers the period from March 1, 1987 to September 30, 1987 under NASA grant NAG1-441 entitled 'Direct solar-pumped iodine laser amplifier'. During this period Nd:YAG and Nd:Cr:GSGG crystals have been tested for the solar-simulator pumped cw laser, and loss mechanisms of the laser output power in a flashlamp-pumped iodine laser also have been identified theoretically. It was observed that the threshold pump-beam intensities for both Nd:YAG and Nd:Cr:GSGG crystals were about 1000 solar constants, and the cw laser operation of the Nd:Cr:GSGG crystal was more difficult than that of the Nd:YAG crystal under the solar-simulator pumping. The possibility of the Nd:Cr:GSGG laser operation with a fast continuously chopped pumping was also observed. In addition, good agreement between the theoretical calculations and the experimental data on the loss mechanisms of a flashlamp-pumped iodine laser at various fill pressures and various lasants was achieved.

Diode-pumped large-aperture Nd:YAG slab amplifier for high energy nanosecond pulse laser

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Guo, Guangyan; Chen, Yanzhong; He, Jianguo; Lang, Ye; Lin, Weiran; Tang, Xiongxin; Zhang, Hongbo; Kang, Zhijun; Fan, Zhongwei

2017-10-01

A high gain, low thermal-induced wavefront distortion, laser diode-pumped Nd: YAG slab amplifier is demonstrated with its active media dimensions of 7 mm ×35 mm ×138.2 mm. Under the 200 Hz, 1440 W pulse pumping condition while no seed light to amplify, the thermal induced wavefront aberration of a He-Ne probe passing through the gain meUdium is 0.165 λ@633 nm (RMS). The amplifier shows stable aberration character with two major low-order terms, defocus and 0° astigmatism. The fluorescence distribution, stored energy, and small-signal gain of the amplifier are measured and have a good agreement with the calculated results. In the amplifier, the fluorescence is uniformly distributed and the maximum stored energy of 3.2 J can be achieved with a plane-concave cavity at 200 Hz pump repetition frequency. For a repetition frequency of 200 Hz, 25 μJ injection polarized seed-light and 1440 W pump power, the small signal gain reaches 9.45. The amplifier has been successfully employed in a 200 Hz, 5 J, MOPA system with 1.7 times diffraction limited output.

Fiber-Based, Trace-Gas, Laser Transmitter Technology Development for Space

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Stephen, Mark; Yu, Anthony; Chen, Jeffrey; Nicholson, Jeffrey; Engin, Doruk; Mathason, Brian; Wu, Stewart; Allan, Graham; Hasselbrack, William; Gonzalez, Brayler;

Fiber-based, trace-gas, laser transmitter technology development for space

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Stephen, Mark; Yu, Anthony; Chen, Jeffrey; Nicholson, Jeffrey; Engin, Doruk; Mathason, Brian; Wu, Stewart; Allan, Graham; Hasselbrack, William; Gonzales, Brayler; Han, Lawrence; Numata, Kenji; Storm, Mark; Abshire, James

2015-09-01

NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) is working on maturing the technology readiness of a laser transmitter designed for use in atmospheric CO2 remote-sensing. GSFC has been developing an airplane-based CO2 lidar instrument over several years to demonstrate the efficacy of the instrumentation and measurement technique and to link the science models to the instrument performance. The ultimate goal is to make space-based satellite measurements with global coverage. In order to accomplish this, we must demonstrate the technology readiness and performance of the components as well as demonstrate the required power-scaling to make the link with the required signal-to-noise-ratio (SNR). To date, all the instrument components have been shown to have the required performance with the exception of the laser transmitter. In this program we are working on a fiber-based master oscillator power amplifier (MOPA) laser transmitter architecture where we will develop a ruggedized package and perform the relevant environmental tests to demonstrate TRL-6. In this paper we will review our transmitter architecture and progress on the performance and packaging of the laser transmitter.

Technology assessment of high pulse energy CO(2) lasers for remote sensing from satellites

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hess, R. V.; Brockman, P.; Schryer, D. R.; Miller, I. M.; Bair, C. H.; Sidney, B. D.; Wood, G. M.; Upchurch, B. T.; Brown, K. G.

1985-01-01

Developments and needs for research to extend the lifetime and optimize the configuration of CO2 laser systems for satellite based on remote sensing of atmospheric wind velocities and trace gases are reviewed. The CO2 laser systems for operational satellite application will require lifetimes which exceed 1 year. Progress in the development of efficient low temperature catalysts and gas mixture modifications for extending the lifetime of high pulse energy closed cycle common and rare isotope CO2 lasers and of sealed CW CO2 lasers is reviewed. Several CO2 laser configurations are under development to meet the requirements including: unstable resonators, master oscillator power amplifiers and telescopic stable resonators, using UV or E-beam preionization. Progress in the systems is reviewed and tradeoffs in the system parameters are discussed.

Four Dimensional Analysis of Free Electron Lasers in the Amplifier Configuration

DTIC Science & Technology

2007-12-01

FEL. The power capability of this device was so much greater than that of conventional klystrons and magnetrons that records for peak power ...understand the four dimensional behavior of the high power FEL amplifier. The simulation program required dimensionless input parameters, which make...33 OPTICAL PARAMETERS inP Seed laser power inT Seed pulse duration S Distance to First Optic 0Z Rayleigh length 2 0 0 WZ π λ= λ

Photonic Lantern Adaptive Spatial Mode Control in LMA Fiber Amplifiers using SPGD

DTIC Science & Technology

2015-12-15

ll.mit.edu Abstract: We demonstrate adaptive-spatial mode control (ASMC) in few- moded double- clad large mode area (LMA) fiber amplifiers by using an...combination resulting in a single fundamental mode at the output is achieved. 2015 Optical Society of America OCIS codes: (140.3510) Lasers ...fiber; (140.3425) Laser stabilization; (060.2340) Fiber optics components; (110.1080) Active or adaptive optics; References and links 1. C

System and method for linearly amplifying optical analog signals by backward Raman scattering

DOEpatents

Lin, Cheng-Heui

1988-01-01

A system for linearly amplifying an optical analog signal by backward stimulated Raman scattering comprises a laser source for generating a pump pulse; and an optic fiber having two opposed apertures, a first aperture for receiving the pump pulse and a second aperture for receiving the optical analog signal, wherein the optical analog signal is linearly amplified to an amplified optical analog signal.

System and method for linearly amplifying optical analog signals by backward Raman scattering

DOEpatents

Lin, Cheng-Heui

1988-07-05

A system for linearly amplifying an optical analog signal by backward stimulated Raman scattering comprises a laser source for generating a pump pulse; and an optic fiber having two opposed apertures, a first aperture for receiving the pump pulse and a second aperture for receiving the optical analog signal, wherein the optical analog signal is linearly amplified to an amplified optical analog signal.

Broadband Electric-Field Sensor Array Technology

DTIC Science & Technology

2012-08-05

output voltage modulation on the output RF transmission line (impedance Z0 = 50 Ω) via a transimpedance amplifier connected to the photodiode. The...voltage amplitude is where G is the conversion gain of the photodiode and amplifier . The RF power detected by an RF receiver with a matched impedance...wave (CW) tunable near-infrared laser amplified by an erbium-doped fiber amplifier (EDFA) is guided by single-mode optical fiber and coupled into

ICESat-2 laser Nd:YVO4 amplifier

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sawruk, Nicholas W.; Burns, Patrick M.; Edwards, Ryan E.; Litvinovitch, Viatcheslav; Martin, Nigel; Witt, Greg; Fakhoury, Elias; Iskander, John; Pronko, Mark S.; Troupaki, Elisavet; Bay, Michael M.; He, Charles C.; Wang, Liqin L.; Cavanaugh, John F.; Farrokh, Babak; Salem, Jonathan A.; Baker, Eric

2018-02-01

We report on the cause and corrective actions of three amplifier crystal fractures in the space-qualified laser systems used in NASA Goddard Space Flight Center's (GSFC) Ice, Cloud, and Land Elevation Satellite-2 (ICESat-2). The ICESat-2 lasers each contain three end-pumped Nd:YVOO4 amplifier stages. The crystals are clamped between two gold plated copper heat spreaders with an indium foil thermal interface material, and the crystal fractures occurred after multiple years of storage and over a year of operational run-time. The primary contributors are high compressive loading of the NdYVO4 crystals at the beginning of life, a time dependent crystal stress caused by an intermetallic reaction of the gold plating and indium, and slow crack growth resulting in a reduction in crystal strength over time. An updated crystal mounting scheme was designed, analyzed, fabricated and tested. Thee fracture slab failure analysis, finite-element modeling and corrective actions are presented.

Characterization of a High-SpeedHigh-Power Semiconductor Master-Oscillator Power-Amplifier (MOPA) Laser as a Free-Space Transmitter

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wright, M. W.

2000-04-01

Semiconductor lasers offer promise as high-speed transmitters for free-space optical communication systems. This article examines the performance of a semiconductor laser system in a master-oscillator power-amplifier (MOPA) geometry developed through a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) contract with SDL, Inc. The compact thermo-electric cooler (TEC) packaged device is capable of 1-W output optical power at greater than 2-Gb/s data rates and a wavelength of 960 nm. In particular, we have investigated the effects of amplified spontaneous emission on the modulation extinction ratio and bit-error rate (BER) performance. BERs of up to 10^(-9) were possible at 1.4 Gb/s; however, the modulation extinction ratio was limited to 6 dB. Other key parameters for a free-space optical transmitter, such as the electrical-optical efficiency (24 percent) and beam quality, also were measured.

High peak-power kilohertz laser system employing single-stage multi-pass amplification

DOEpatents

Shan, Bing; Wang, Chun; Chang, Zenghu

2006-05-23

The present invention describes a technique for achieving high peak power output in a laser employing single-stage, multi-pass amplification. High gain is achieved by employing a very small "seed" beam diameter in gain medium, and maintaining the small beam diameter for multiple high-gain pre-amplification passes through a pumped gain medium, then leading the beam out of the amplifier cavity, changing the beam diameter and sending it back to the amplifier cavity for additional, high-power amplification passes through the gain medium. In these power amplification passes, the beam diameter in gain medium is increased and carefully matched to the pump laser's beam diameter for high efficiency extraction of energy from the pumped gain medium. A method of "grooming" the beam by means of a far-field spatial filter in the process of changing the beam size within the single-stage amplifier is also described.

520-µJ mid-infrared femtosecond laser at 2.8 µm by 1-kHz KTA optical parametric amplifier

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

He, Huijun; Wang, Zhaohua; Hu, Chenyang; Jiang, Jianwang; Qin, Shuang; He, Peng; Zhang, Ninghua; Yang, Peilong; Li, Zhiyuan; Wei, Zhiyi

2018-02-01

We report on a 520-µJ, 1-kHz mid-infrared femtosecond optical parametric amplifier system driven by a Ti:sapphire laser system. The seeding signal was generated from white-light continuum in YAG plate and then amplified in four non-collinear amplification stages and the idler was obtained in the last stage with central wavelength at 2.8 µm and bandwidth of 525 nm. To maximize the bandwidth of the idler, a theoretical method was developed to give an optimum non-collinear angle and estimate the conversion efficiency and output spectrum. As an experimental result, laser pulse energy up to 1.8 mJ for signal wave and 520 µJ for idler wave were obtained in the last stage under 10-mJ pump energy, corresponding to a pump-to-idler conversion efficiency of 5.2%, which meets well with the numerical calculation.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Xu, Luyao; Curwen, Christopher; Chen, Daguan

A longstanding challenge for terahertz quantum-cascade (QC) lasers is achieving both a high power and high-quality beam pattern, this is due in part due to their use of sub-wavelength metallic waveguides. Recently, the vertical-external-cavity surface-emitting laser (VECSEL) concept was demonstrated for the first time in the terahertz range and for a QC-laser. This is enabled by the development of an amplifying metasurface reflector capable of coupling incident free-space THz radiation to the QC-laser material such that it is amplified and re-radiated. The THz metasurface QC-VECSEL initiates a new approach for making QC-lasers with high power and excellent beam pattern. Furthermore,more » the ability to engineer the electromagnetic phase, amplitude, and polarization response of the metasurface enables lasers with new functionality. Our article provides an overview of the fundamental theory, design considerations, and recent results for high-performance THz QC-VECSELs.« less

Laser Radiation in Active Amplifying Media Treated as a Transport Problem - Transfer Equation Derived and Exactly Solved

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Das Gupta, Santanu; Das Gupta, S. R.

1991-10-01

The flow of laser radiation in a plane-parallel cylindrical slab of active amplifying medium with axial symmetry is treated as a problem in radiative transfer. The appropriate one-dimensional transfer equation describing the transfer of laser radiation has been derived by an appeal to Einstein'sA, B coefficients (describing the processes of stimulated line absorption, spontaneous line emission, and stimulated line emission sustained by population inversion in the medium) and considering the ‘rate equations’ to completely establish the rational of the transfer equation obtained. The equation is then exactly solved and the angular distribution of the emergent laser beam intensity is obtained; its numerically computed values are given in tables and plotted in graphs showing the nature of peaks of the emerging laser beam intensity about the axis of the laser cylinder.

Terahertz metasurface quantum-cascade VECSELs: theory and performance

DOE PAGES

Xu, Luyao; Curwen, Christopher; Chen, Daguan; ...

2017-04-12

A longstanding challenge for terahertz quantum-cascade (QC) lasers is achieving both a high power and high-quality beam pattern, this is due in part due to their use of sub-wavelength metallic waveguides. Recently, the vertical-external-cavity surface-emitting laser (VECSEL) concept was demonstrated for the first time in the terahertz range and for a QC-laser. This is enabled by the development of an amplifying metasurface reflector capable of coupling incident free-space THz radiation to the QC-laser material such that it is amplified and re-radiated. The THz metasurface QC-VECSEL initiates a new approach for making QC-lasers with high power and excellent beam pattern. Furthermore,more » the ability to engineer the electromagnetic phase, amplitude, and polarization response of the metasurface enables lasers with new functionality. Our article provides an overview of the fundamental theory, design considerations, and recent results for high-performance THz QC-VECSELs.« less

Ablation of biological tissues by radiation of strontium vapor laser

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Soldatov, A. N., E-mail: general@tic.tsu.ru; Vasilieva, A. V., E-mail: anita-tomsk@mail.ru

2015-11-17

A two-stage laser system consisting of a master oscillator and a power amplifier based on sources of self- contained transitions in pairs SrI and SrII has been developed. The radiation spectrum contains 8 laser lines generating in the range of 1 – 6.45 μm, with a generation pulse length of 50 – 150 ns, and pulse energy of ∼ 2.5 mJ. The divergence of the output beam was close to the diffraction and did not exceed 0.5 mrad. The control range of the laser pulse repetition rate varied from 10 to 15 000 Hz. The given laser system has allowed to perform ablationmore » of bone tissue samples without visible thermal damage.« less

11 W narrow linewidth laser source at 780nm for laser cooling and manipulation of Rubidium

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sané, S. S.; Bennetts, S.; Debs, J. E.; Kuhn, C. C. N.; McDonald, G. D.; Altin, P. A.; Close, J. D.; Robins, N. P.

2012-04-01

We present a narrow linewidth continuous laser source with over 11 Watts of output power at 780nm, based on single-pass frequency doubling of an amplified 1560nm fibre laser with 36% efficiency. This source offers a combination of high power, simplicity, mode quality and stability. Without any active stabilization, the linewidth is measured to be below 10kHz. The fibre seed is tunable over 60GHz, which allows access to the D2 transitions in 87Rb and 85Rb, providing a viable high-power source for laser cooling as well as for large-momentum-transfer beamsplitters in atom interferometry. Sources of this type will pave the way for a new generation of high flux, high duty-cycle degenerate quantum gas experiments.

Organic holographic polymer dispersed liquid crystal distributed feedback laser from different diffraction orders

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Liu, Minghuan; Liu, Yonggang; Zhang, Guiyang; Peng, Zenghui; Li, Dayu; Ma, Ji; Xuan, Li

2016-11-01

Holographic polymer dispersed liquid crystal (HPDLC) based distributed feedback (DFB) lasers were prepared with poly (-methoxy-5-(2‧-ethyl-hexyloxy)-1,4-phenylene-vinylene) (MEH-PPV) film as the active medium layer. The HPDLC grating film was fabricated via holographic induced photopolymerization. The pure film spectra of MEH-PPV and the amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) spectrum were investigated. The laser device was single-longitudinal mode operation. The tunability of the HPDLC DFB laser was achieved by selecting different grating periods. The lasing performances were also characterized and compared from different diffraction orders. The lasing threshold increased with the diffraction order and the third order laser possessed the largest conversion efficiency in this device. The experimental results were in good agreement with the theoretical calculations.

Guiding and amplification properties of rod-type photonic crystal fibers with sectioned core doping

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Selleri, S.; Poli, F.; Passaro, D.; Cucinotta, A.; Lægsgaard, J.; Broeng, J.

2009-05-01

Rod-type photonic crystal fibers are large mode area double-cladding fibers with an outer diameter of few millimeters which can provide important advantages for high-power lasers and amplifiers. Numerical studies have recently demonstrated the guidance of higher-order modes in these fibers, which can worsen the output beam quality of lasers and amplifiers. In the present analysis a sectioned core doping has been proposed for Ybdoped rod-type photonic crystal fibers, with the aim to improve the higher-order mode suppression. A full-vector modal solver based on the finite element method has been applied to properly design the low refractive index ring in the fiber core, which can provide an increase of the differential overlap between the fundamental and the higher-order mode. Then, the gain competition among the guided modes along the Yb-doped rod-type fibers has been investigated with a spatial and spectral amplifier model. Simulation results have shown the effectiveness of the sectioned core doping in worsening the higher-order mode overlap on the doped area, thus providing an effective single-mode behavior of the Yb-doped rod-type photonic crystal fibers.

Efficient Ti:LiNbO3 ridge waveguide lasers: investigation of Er and Yb:Er doped waveguides pumped at 980nm and 1486nm

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Brüske, Dominik; Suntsov, Sergiy; Volk, Martin F.; Rüter, Christian E.; Kip, Detlef

2018-02-01

Erbium-ytterbium-codoped titanium in-diffused ridge waveguides optical amplifiers in x-cut congruent LiNbO3 substrates pumped at 980.5 nm and 1486 nm are reported for the first time. An internal gain of 2.8 dB/cm has been measured in 2.3 cm long Yb:Er:Ti:LiNbO3 ridge waveguides for the coupled pump power of 145 mW at 980.5 nm, which is the highest gain ever reported, to the best of our knowledge, for erbium-based LiNbO3 waveguide amplifiers under 980 nm excitation. Furthermore, we realized an internal gain of 3.2 dB/cm for the coupled pump power of 200 mW at 1486 nm, which also exceeds the best literature values for Er:Ti:LiNbO3 waveguide amplifiers pumped at this wavelength. In addition, we report on a method for local periodic poling (periods of 30 μm and 18.4 μm) of ridge waveguides in LiNbO3, which allows for future integration of waveguide lasers and nonlinear frequency converters on the same substrate.

Generating femtosecond optical pulses tunable from 2 to 3  μm with a silica-based all-fiber laser system.

PubMed

Anashkina, E A; Andrianov, A V; Yu Koptev, M; Muravyev, S V; Kim, A V

2014-05-15

Femtosecond pulses with broad tunability in the range of 2-3 μm are generated in a germanate-glass core silica-glass cladding fiber with a driving pulse at 2 μm produced by an all-fiber laser system consisting of an Er:fiber source at 1.6 μm, a Raman fiber shifter, and a Tm:fiber amplifier. We demonstrate optical pulses with a duration of the order of 100 fs that are the shortest ones reported in the 2.5-3 μm range obtained by fiber laser systems.

Balanced detection for self-mixing interferometry.

PubMed

Li, Kun; Cavedo, Federico; Pesatori, Alessandro; Zhao, Changming; Norgia, Michele

2017-01-15

We propose a new detection scheme for self-mixing interferometry using two photodiodes for implementing a differential acquisition. The method is based on the phase opposition of the self-mixing signal measured between the two laser diode facet outputs. The subtraction of the two outputs implements a sort of balanced detection that improves the signal quality, and allows canceling of unwanted signals due to laser modulation and disturbances on laser supply and transimpedance amplifier. Experimental results demonstrate the benefits of differential acquisition in a system for both absolute distance and displacement-vibration measurement. This Letter provides guidance for the design of self-mixing interferometers using balanced detection.

Beam Conditioning and Harmonic Generation in Free ElectronLasers

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Charman, A.E.; Penn, G.; Wolski, A.

2004-07-05

The next generation of large-scale free-electron lasers (FELs) such as Euro-XFEL and LCLS are to be devices which produce coherent X-rays using Self-Amplified Spontaneous Emission (SASE). The performance of these devices is limited by the spread in longitudinal velocities of the beam. In the case where this spread arises primarily from large transverse oscillation amplitudes, beam conditioning can significantly enhance FEL performance. Future X-ray sources may also exploit harmonic generation starting from laser-seeded modulation. Preliminary analysis of such devices is discussed, based on a novel trial-function/variational-principle approach, which shows good agreement with more lengthy numerical simulations.

PicoGreen dye as an active medium for plastic lasers

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pradeep, C.; Vallabhan, C. P. G.; Radhakrishnan, P.; Nampoori, V. P. N.

2015-08-01

Deoxyribonucleic acid lipid complex thin films are used as a host material for laser dyes. We tested PicoGreen dye, which is commonly used for the quantification of single and double stranded DNA, for its applicability as lasing medium. PicoGreen dye exhibits enhanced fluorescence on intercalation with DNA. This enormous fluorescence emission is amplified in a planar microcavity to achieve yellow lasing. Here the role of DNA is not only a host medium, but also as a fluorescence dequencher. With the obtained results we have ample reasons to propose PicoGreen dye as a lasing medium, which can lead to the development of DNA based bio-lasers.

Narrow linewidth power scaling and phase stabilization of 2-μm thulium fiber lasers

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Goodno, Gregory D.; Book, Lewis D.; Rothenberg, Joshua E.; Weber, Mark E.; Benjamin Weiss, S.

2011-11-01

Thulium-doped fiber lasers (TFLs) emitting retina-safe 2-μm wavelengths offer substantial power-scaling advantages over ytterbium-doped fiber lasers for narrow linewidth, single-mode operation. This article reviews the design and performance of a pump-limited, 600 W, single-mode, single-frequency TFL amplifier chain that balances thermal limitations against those arising from stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS). A simple analysis of thermal and SBS limits is anchored with measurements on kilowatt class Tm and Yb fiber lasers to highlight the scaling advantage of Tm for narrow linewidth operation. We also report recent results on active phase-locking of a TFL amplifier to an optical reference as a precursor to further parallel scaling via coherent beam combining.

HASEonGPU-An adaptive, load-balanced MPI/GPU-code for calculating the amplified spontaneous emission in high power laser media

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Eckert, C. H. J.; Zenker, E.; Bussmann, M.; Albach, D.

2016-10-01

We present an adaptive Monte Carlo algorithm for computing the amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) flux in laser gain media pumped by pulsed lasers. With the design of high power lasers in mind, which require large size gain media, we have developed the open source code HASEonGPU that is capable of utilizing multiple graphic processing units (GPUs). With HASEonGPU, time to solution is reduced to minutes on a medium size GPU cluster of 64 NVIDIA Tesla K20m GPUs and excellent speedup is achieved when scaling to multiple GPUs. Comparison of simulation results to measurements of ASE in Y b 3 + : Y AG ceramics show perfect agreement.

160 W 800 fs Yb:YAG single crystal fiber amplifier without CPA.

PubMed

Markovic, Vesna; Rohrbacher, Andreas; Hofmann, Peter; Pallmann, Wolfgang; Pierrot, Simonette; Resan, Bojan

2015-10-05

We demonstrate a compact and simple two-stage Yb:YAG single crystal fiber amplifier which delivers 160 W average power, 800 fs pulses without chirped pulse amplification. This is the highest average power of femtosecond laser based on SCF. Additionally, we demonstrate the highest small signal gain of 32.5 dB from the SCF in the first stage and the highest extraction efficiency of 42% in the second stage. The excellent performance of the second stage was obtained using the bidirectional pumping scheme, which is applied to SCF for the first time.

Progress on High-Energy 2-micron Solid State Laser for NASA Space-Based Wind and Carbon Dioxide Measurements

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Singh, Upendra N.

2011-01-01

Sustained research efforts at NASA Langley Research Center during last fifteen years have resulted in significant advancement of a 2-micron diode-pumped, solid-state laser transmitter for wind and carbon dioxide measurements from ground, air and space-borne platforms. Solid-state 2-micron laser is a key subsystem for a coherent Doppler lidar that measures the horizontal and vertical wind velocities with high precision and resolution. The same laser, after a few modifications, can also be used in a Differential Absorption Lidar system for measuring atmospheric CO2 concentration profiles. Researchers at NASA Langley Research Center have developed a compact, flight capable, high energy, injection seeded, 2-micron laser transmitter for ground and airborne wind and carbon dioxide measurements. It is capable of producing 250 mJ at 10 Hz by an oscillator and one amplifier. This compact laser transmitter was integrated into a mobile trailer based coherent Doppler wind and CO2 DIAL system and was deployed during field measurement campaigns. This paper will give an overview of 2-micron solid-state laser technology development and discuss results from recent ground-based field measurements.

High brightness fully coherent x-ray amplifier seeded by a free-electron laser oscillator

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, Kai; Yan, Jiawei; Feng, Chao; Zhang, Meng; Deng, Haixiao

2018-04-01

X-ray free-electron laser oscillator (XFELO) is expected to be a cutting-edge tool for fully coherent x-ray laser generation, and undulator taper technique is well-known for considerably increasing the efficiency of free-electron lasers (FELs). In order to combine the advantages of these two schemes, FEL amplifier seeded by XFELO is proposed by simply using a chirped electron beam. With the right choice of the beam parameters, the bunch tail is within the gain bandwidth of XFELO, and lase to saturation, which will be served as a seeding for further amplification. Meanwhile, the bunch head which is outside the gain bandwidth of XFELO, is preserved and used in the following FEL amplifier. It is found that the natural "double-horn" beam current, as well as residual energy chirp from chicane compressor, are quite suitable for the new scheme. Inheriting the advantages from XFELO seeding and undulator tapering, it is feasible to generate nearly terawatt level, fully coherent x-ray pulses with unprecedented shot-to-shot stability, which might open up new scientific opportunities in various research fields.

High-power ultralong-wavelength Tm-doped silica fiber laser cladding-pumped with a random distributed feedback fiber laser

PubMed Central

Jin, Xiaoxi; Du, Xueyuan; Wang, Xiong; Zhou, Pu; Zhang, Hanwei; Wang, Xiaolin; Liu, Zejin

2016-01-01

We demonstrated a high-power ultralong-wavelength Tm-doped silica fiber laser operating at 2153 nm with the output power exceeding 18 W and the slope efficiency of 25.5%. A random distributed feedback fiber laser with the center wavelength of 1173 nm was employed as pump source of Tm-doped fiber laser for the first time. No amplified spontaneous emissions or parasitic oscillations were observed when the maximum output power reached, which indicates that employing 1173 nm random distributed feedback fiber laser as pump laser is a feasible and promising scheme to achieve high-power emission of long-wavelength Tm-doped fiber laser. The output power of this Tm-doped fiber laser could be further improved by optimizing the length of active fiber, reflectivity of FBGs, increasing optical efficiency of pump laser and using better temperature management. We also compared the operation of 2153 nm Tm-doped fiber lasers pumped with 793 nm laser diodes, and the maximum output powers were limited to ~2 W by strong amplified spontaneous emission and parasitic oscillation in the range of 1900–2000 nm. PMID:27416893

High-power ultralong-wavelength Tm-doped silica fiber laser cladding-pumped with a random distributed feedback fiber laser.

PubMed

Jin, Xiaoxi; Du, Xueyuan; Wang, Xiong; Zhou, Pu; Zhang, Hanwei; Wang, Xiaolin; Liu, Zejin

2016-07-15

We demonstrated a high-power ultralong-wavelength Tm-doped silica fiber laser operating at 2153 nm with the output power exceeding 18 W and the slope efficiency of 25.5%. A random distributed feedback fiber laser with the center wavelength of 1173 nm was employed as pump source of Tm-doped fiber laser for the first time. No amplified spontaneous emissions or parasitic oscillations were observed when the maximum output power reached, which indicates that employing 1173 nm random distributed feedback fiber laser as pump laser is a feasible and promising scheme to achieve high-power emission of long-wavelength Tm-doped fiber laser. The output power of this Tm-doped fiber laser could be further improved by optimizing the length of active fiber, reflectivity of FBGs, increasing optical efficiency of pump laser and using better temperature management. We also compared the operation of 2153 nm Tm-doped fiber lasers pumped with 793 nm laser diodes, and the maximum output powers were limited to ~2 W by strong amplified spontaneous emission and parasitic oscillation in the range of 1900-2000 nm.

Laser source with high pulse energy at 3-5 μm and 8-12 μm based on nonlinear conversion in ZnGeP2

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lippert, Espen; Fonnum, Helge; Haakestad, Magnus W.

2014-10-01

We present a high energy infrared laser source where a Tm:fiber laser is used to pump a high-energy 2-μm cryogenically cooled Ho:YLF laser. We have achieved 550 mJ of output energy at 2.05 μm, and through non-linear conversion in ZnGeP2 generated 200 mJ in the 3-5-μm range. Using a numerical simulation tool we have also investigated a setup which should generate more than 70 mJ in the 8-12-μm range. The conversion stage uses a master-oscillator-power-amplifier architecture to enable high conversion efficiency and good beam quality.

Two-stage optical parametric chirped-pulse amplifier using sub-nanosecond pump pulse generated by stimulated Brillouin scattering compression

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ogino, Jumpei; Miyamoto, Sho; Matsuyama, Takahiro; Sueda, Keiichi; Yoshida, Hidetsugu; Tsubakimoto, Koji; Miyanaga, Noriaki

2014-12-01

We demonstrate optical parametric chirped-pulse amplification (OPCPA) based on two-beam pumping, using sub-nanosecond pulses generated by stimulated Brillouin scattering compression. Seed pulse energy, duration, and center wavelength were 5 nJ, 220 ps, and ˜1065 nm, respectively. The 532 nm pulse from a Q-switched Nd:YAG laser was compressed to ˜400 ps in heavy fluorocarbon FC-40 liquid. Stacking of two time-delayed pump pulses reduced the amplifier gain fluctuation. Using a walk-off-compensated two-stage OPCPA at a pump energy of 34 mJ, a total gain of 1.6 × 105 was obtained, yielding an output energy of 0.8 mJ. The amplified chirped pulse was compressed to 97 fs.

DiPOLE: a scalable laser architecture for pumping multi-Hz PW systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ertel, Klaus; Banerjee, Saumyabrata; Mason, Paul D.; Phillips, P. Jonathan; Greenhalgh, R. Justin S.; Hernandez-Gomez, Cristina; Collier, John L.

2013-05-01

DiPOLE is a concept for a large aperture gas-cooled cryogenic multislab DPSSL amplifier based on ceramic Yb:YAG. It is designed to amplify ns-pulses at multi-Hz repetition rates and is scalable up the kJ-level. The concept was first tested on a small scale prototype which has so far produced 7.4 J at 10 Hz, with the aim of reaching 10 J at an optical-to-optical efficiency of 25 %. The design of an additional amplifier stage producing 100 J at 10 Hz is underway. When used to pump short-pulse Ti:S or OPCPA systems, PW peak power levels can be produced at repetition rates and efficiencies that lie orders of magnitude above what is achievable today.

Multifrequency Raman amplifiers

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Barth, Ido; Fisch, Nathaniel J.

2018-03-01

In its usual implementation, the Raman amplifier features only one pump carrier frequency. However, pulses with well-separated frequencies can also be Raman amplified while compressed in time. Amplification with frequency-separated pumps is shown to hold even in the highly nonlinear, pump-depletion regime, as derived through a fluid model, and demonstrated via particle-in-cell simulations. The resulting efficiency is similar to single-frequency amplifiers, but, due to the beat-wave waveform of both the pump lasers and the amplified seed pulses, these amplifiers feature higher seed intensities with a shorter spike duration. Advantageously, these amplifiers also suffer less noise backscattering, because the total fluence is split between the different spectral components.