Optical breakdown of 6H SiC induced by wavelength-tunable femtosecond laser pulses

The damage mechanisms and micromachining of 6H SiC are studied by using femtosecond laser pulses at wavelengths between near infrared (NIR) and near ultraviolet (NUV) delivered from an optical parametric amplifier (OPA). Our experimental results indicate that high quality microstructures can be fabricated in SiC crystals. On the basis of the dependence of the ablated area and the laser pulse energy, the threshold fluence of SiC is found to increase with the incident laser wavelength in the visible region, while it remains almost constant for the NIR laser. For the NIR laser pulses, both photoionization and impact ionization play important roles in electronic excitation, while for visible lasers, photoionization plays a more important role.

Pulse compression by filamentation in argon with an acoustic optical programmable dispersive filter for predispersion compensation

We have experimentally demonstrated pulses 0.4 mJ in duration smaller than 12 fs; with an excellent spatial beam profile by self-guided propagation in argon. The original 52 fs pulses from the chirped pulsed amplification laser system are first precompressed to 32 fs by inserting an acoustic optical programmable dispersive filter instrument into the laser system for spectrum reshaping and dispersion compensation, and the pulse spectrum is subsequently broadened by filamentation in an argon cell. By using chirped mirrors for post-dispersion compensation, the pulses are successfully compressed to smaller than 12 fs.

Degenerated optical parametric chirped-pulse amplification with cesium lithium borate

A gain amplifier for degenerated optical parametric chirped-pulse amplification (OPCPA) with lithium triborate and cesium lithium borate (CLBO) crystals was demonstrated in a near-collinear configuration, The signal gain of the final energy amplifier with CLBO was similar to 6. After compression, the 123 fs pulse duration was obtained. Compared with potassium dihydrogen phosphate, it is confirmed that CLBO is more effective as a nonlinear crystal in a final power amplifier for terawatt or petawatt OPCPA systems. To our knowledge, this is the first demonstration of OPCPA with CLBO. (c) 2006 Optical Society of America.

Freestanding optical fibers fabricated in a glass chip by femtosecond laser micromachining for lab-on-a-chip application (vol 13, pg 7225, 2005)

An erratum is presented to correct the propagation loss of the freestanding optical fibers fabricated in glass chip. (c) 2006 Optical Society of America.

Optical properties of transparent alkali gallium silicate glass-ceramics containing Ni2+-doped beta-Ga2O3 nanocrystals

Broadband near-infrared (IR) luminescence in transparent alkali gallium silicate glass-ceramics containing N2+-doped beta-Ga2O3 nanocrystals was observed. This broadband emission could be attributed to the T-3(2g) (F-3) -> (3)A(2g) (F-3) transition of octahedral Ni2+ ions in glass-ceramics. The full width at half-maximum (FWHM) of the near-IR luminescence and fluorescent lifetime of the glass-ceramic doped with 0.10 mol% NiO were 260 nm and similar to 1220 mu s, respectively. It is expected that transparent Ni2+-doped beta-Ga2O3 glass-ceramics with this broad near-IR emission and long fluorescent lifetime have potential applications as super-broadband optical amplification media.