Compact continuous-wave blue lasers by direct frequency doubling of laser diodes with periodically poled lithium niobate waveguide crystals

A compact continuous-wave blue laser has been demonstrated by direct frequency doubling of a laser diode with a periodically poled lithium niobate (PPLN) waveguide crystal. The optimum PPLN temperature is near 28 degreesC, and the dependence of waveguide crystals on crystal temperature is less sensitive than that of bulk crystals. A total of 14.8 mW of 488-nm laser power has been achieved. (C) 2005 Optical Society of America.

Passive Q-switching of short-length Tm3+-doped silica fiber lasers by polycrystalline Cr2+:ZnSe microchips

We demonstrate passive Q-switching of short-length double-clad Tm3+-doped silica fiber lasers near 2 mu m pumped by a laser diode array (LDA) at 790 nm. Polycrystalline Cr2+:ZnSe microchips with thickness from 0.3 to 1 mm are adopted as the Q-switching elements. Pulse duration of 120 ns, pulse energy over 14 mu] and repetition rate of 53 kHz are obtained from a 5-cm long fiber laser. As high as 530 kHz repetition rate is achieved from a 50-cm long fiber laser at similar to 10-W pump power. The performance of the Q-switched fiber lasers as a function of fiber length is also analyzed. (c) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Infrared-to-visible upconversion emissions in Er3+ doped TeO2-based oxyhalide glasses

The fluorescence and up-conversion spectral properties of Er3+-doped TeO2-ZnO and TeO2-ZnO-PbCl2 glasses suitable for developing optical fiber amplifier and laser have been fabricate and characterized. Strong green (around 527-550 nm) and red (around 661 nm) up-conversion emissions under 977 nm laser diode excitation were investigated, corresponding to H-2(11/2), S-4(3/2), --> I-4(15/2) and F-4(9/2) --> I-4(15/2) transitions of Er3+ ions respectively, have been observed and the involved mechanisms have been explained. The dependence of up-converted fluorescence intensity versus laser power confirm that two-photons contribute to up-conversion of the green-red emissions. The novelty of this kind of optical material has been its ability in resisting devitrification, and its promising optical properties strongly encourage for their further development as the rare-earth doped optical fiber amplifiers and upconversion fiber laser systems.

Spectroscopic properties of fluorophosphate glass with high Er(3+)supercript stop concentration

Fluorophosphate glass with 4 mol.% ErF3 content was prepared. The different scanning calorimetry was conducted. Raman spectrum, infrared transmission spectrum, absorption spectrum were measured. Fluorescence spectrum and lifetime of emission around 1.53 mu m were measured under 970 nm laser diode excitation. The metaphosphate content in the composition is limited, but the maximum phonon energy of glass amounts to 1290 cm- 1, and is comparatively high. The full width at half maximum is about 56 nm, and is wider than for most of the materials investigated. The measured lifetime of I-4(13/2) -> I-4(15/2) transition, contributed by the high phonon energy, inefficient interaction of Er3+ ions, and low water content, amounts to no less than 7.36 ms though the Er3+ concentration is high. This work might provide useful information for the development of compact optical devices.

Preparation and spectroscopic properties of Yb-doped and Yb-Al-codoped high silica glasses

Yb-doped and Yb-Al-codoped high silica glasses have been prepared by sintering nanoporous glasses. The absorption, fluorescent spectra and fluorescent lifetimes have been measured and the emission cross-section and minimum pump intensities were calculated. Codoping aluminum ions enhanced the fluorescence intensity of Yb-doped high silica glass obviously. The emission cross-sections of Yb-doped and Yb-Al-codoped high silica glasses were 0.65 and 0.82 pm(2), respectively. The results show that Yb-Al-codoped high silica glass has better spectroscopic properties for a laser material. The study of high silica glass doped with ytterbium is helpful for its application in Yb laser systems, especially for high-power and high-repetition lasers. (C) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Two-photon excited red upconversion luminescence of thulium ions doped GeS2-In2S3-CsI glass

We report a novel phenomenon in GeS2-In2S3-CsI chalcohalide glass doped with Tm3+ ions. Under irradiation with an 808 nm laser diode, a bright red emission centered at 700 nm is observed for the first time in this glass. The log-log correlation between integrated emission intensity and pump power reveals that a two-photon absorption process is involved in the phenomenon, suggesting that the F-3(3,2) -> H-3(6) transition of Tm3+ ions is responsible for the appearance of the red emission. The results indicate that the indium (In) based chalcohalide glass containing Tm3+ ions is expected to find applications in visible lasers, high density optical storage and three-dimensional color displays. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Passively Q-switched Nd:YVO4 laser with a Cr4+:YAG crystal saturable absorber

We demonstrate, for the first time as far as Re known, a passively Q-switched operation of a Nd:YVO4 laser in which a Cr4+:YAG crystal and a laser-diode bar are used as the saturable absorber and the pump source, respectively. Stable laser pulses as short as 28 ns with 20-mu J energy can be generated with this laser, which has the advantages of simplicity, high efficiency, and good long-term stability. (C) 1997 Optical Society of America.

Infrared (1.2-1.6 mu m) luminescence in Cr4+: Yb3Al5O12 single crystal with 940 nm diode pumping

Infrared (1.2-1.6 mu m) luminescence in a ytterbium aluminium garnet (YbAG) crystal, doped with Cr (0.05 at.%) ions, was investigated under CW laser diode pumping (lambda = 940 nm). The Cr4+ emission band was observed with its peak at 1.34 mu m and measured to be about 1.3 times with respect to Yb3+ IR luminescence (lambda = 1.03 mu m). We demonstrate that for the excitation wavelength of 940 nm Yb3+ ions act as sensitizers of the B-3(2)(T-3(2))-B-3(1)((3)A(2)) emission of Cr4+ ions. This crystal is promising as a high-efficient system for tunable laser (1.2-1.6 mu m) output. (c) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Rare-earth-doped silica microchip laser fabricated by sintering nanoporous glass

We report a new method for fabricating rare-earth-doped silica glasses for laser materials obtained by sintering nanoporous silica glasses impregnated with rare-earth-doped ions. The fabricated materials have no residual pores and show good optical and mechanical properties. Good performance from a Nd3+-doped silica microchip laser operating at 1.064 mum is successfully demonstrated, suggesting that the fabricated silica glasses have potential for use as active materials for high-power solid-state lasers. (C) 2005 Optical Society of America.

High quantum fluorescence yield of Er3+ at 1.5 mu m in an Yb3+, Ce3+-codoped CaF2 crystal

For the first time, a quaternary doping system of Er3+, Yb3+, Ce3+, Na+:CaF2 single crystal was demonstrated to have high fluorescence yield in the eye-safe 1.5 mu m region under 980 nm laser diode pumping, with relatively broad and flat gain curves. A simplified model was established to illustrate the effect of Ce3+ on the branching ratio for the Er3+4I11/2 -> I-4(13/2) transition. With 0.2-at.% Er3+ and 2.0-at.% Ce3+ in the quaternary-doped CaF2 crystal, the branching ratio was estimated to be improved more than 40 times by the deactivating effect of Ce3+ on the Er3+ 4I11/2 level. The quaternary-doped CaF2, system shows great potential to achieve high laser performance in the 1.5 mu m region. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

高效室温下激光二极管泵浦Tm:YAP激光器

文章报道了室温下二极管泵浦Tm：YAP激光器，最大输出功率5.2瓦，波长为1981nm，斜率效率是30％。实验测量800nm左右晶体的吸收谱以及1800nm附近的荧光发射谱。此外，讨论了输出功率随晶体工作温度关系。

Influence of substoichiometer on the laser-induced damage characters of HfO2 thin films

HfO2 is one of the most important high refractive index materials for depositing high power optical mirrors. In this research, HfO2 thin films were prepared by dual-ion beam reactive sputtering method, and the laser-induced damage thresholds (LIDT) of the sample were measured in 1-on-1 mode for laser with 1064 nm wavelength. The results indicate that the LIDT of the as-grown sample is only 3.96 J/cm(2), but it is increased to 8.98 J/cm(2) after annealing under temperature of 200 degrees C in atmosphere. By measuring the laser weak absorption and SIMS of the samples, we deduced that substoichiometer is the main reason for the low LIDT of the as-grown sample, and the experiment results were well explained with the theory of electronic-avalanche ionization. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Effects of deposition rates on laser damage threshold of TiO2/SiO2 high reflectors

TiO2 single layers and TiO2/SiO2 high reflectors (HR) are prepared by electron beam evaporation at different TiO2 deposition rates. It is found that the changes of properties of TiO2 films with the increase of rate, such as the increase of refractive index and extinction coefficient and the decrease of physical thickness, lead to the spectrum shift and reflectivity bandwidth broadening of HR together with the increase of absorption and decrease of laser-induced damage threshold. The damages are found of different morphologies: a shallow pit to a seriously delaminated and deep crater, and the different amorphous-to-anatase-to-rutile phase transition processes detected by Raman study. The frequency shift of Raman vibration mode correlates with the strain in. film. Energy dispersive X-ray analysis reveals that impurities and non-stoichiometric defects are two absorption initiations resulting to the laser-induced transformation. (C) 2008 Elsevier B. V. All rights reserved.

Photoluminescence properties of tensile-strained GaAsP/GaInP single quantum wells grown by metal organic chemical vapor deposition

Tensile-strained GaAsP/GaInP single quantum well (QW) laser diode (I-D) structures have been grown by low-pressure metal organic chemical vapor deposition (LP-MOCVD) and related photoluminescence (PL) properties have been investigated in detail. The samples have the same well thickness of 16 nm but different P compositions in a GaAsP QW. Two peaks in room temperature (RT) PL spectra are observed for samples with a composition larger than 0.10. Temperature and excitation-power-dependent PL spectra have been measured for a sample with it P composition of 0.15. It is found that the two peaks have a 35 meV energy separation independent of temperature and only the low-energy peak exists below 85 K. Additionally, both peak intensities exhibit a monotonous increase as excitation power increases. Analyses indicate that the two peaks arise from the intrinsic-exciton recombination mechanisms of electron-heavy hole (e-hh) and electron-light hole (e-hh). A theoretical calculation based oil model-solid theory, taking, into account the spin-orbit splitting energy, shows good agreement with our experimental results. The temperature dependence of PL intensity ratio is well explained using the spontaneous emission theory for e-hh and e-hh transitions. front which the ratio can be characterized mainly by the energy separation between the fill and Ill states.

High efficiency operation of butt joint line-defect-waveguide microlaser in two-dimensional photonic crystal slab

Butt joint line-defect-waveguide microlasers are demonstrated on photonic crystal slabs with airholes in a triangular lattice. Such microlaser is designed to increase the output power from the waveguide edge directly. The output power is remarkably enhanced to 214 times higher by introducing chirped structure in the output waveguide. The lasing mode operates in the linear dispersion region of the output waveguide so that the absorption loss due to the band-edge effect is reduced. The laser resonance is illustrated theoretically using the finite difference time domain method. A practical high power efficiency of 20% is obtained in this microlaser. (C) 2008 American Institute of Physics.