Tunable single- and dual-wavelength SHG from diode-pumped PPKTP waveguides

A compact, all-room-temperature, widely tunable, continuous wave laser source in the green spectral region (502.1–544.2 nm) with a maximum output power of 14.7 mW is demonstrated. This was made possible by utilizing second-harmonic generation (SHG) in a periodically poled potassium titanyl phosphate (PPKTP) crystal waveguide pumped by a quantum-well external-cavity fiber-coupled diode laser and exploiting the multimode-matching approach in nonlinear crystal waveguides. The dual-wavelength SHG in the wavelength region between 505.4 and 537.7 nm (with a wavelength difference ranging from 1.8 to 32.3 nm) and sum-frequency generation in a PPKTP waveguide is also demonstrated.

Ultrashort pulse generation from diode laser devices

This thesis presents a detailed, experiment-based study of generation of ultrashort optical pulses from diode lasers. Simple and cost-effective techniques were used to generate high power, high quality optical short pulses at various wavelength windows. The major achievements presented in the thesis is summarised as follows. High power pulses generation is one of the major topics discussed in the thesis. Although gain switching is the simplest way for ultrashort pulse generation, it proves to be quite effective to deliver high energy pulses on condition that the pumping pulses with extremely fast rising time and high enough amplitude are applied on specially designed pulse generators. In the experiment on a grating-coupled surface emitting laser (GCSEL), peak power as high as 1W was achieved even when its spectral bandwidth was controlled within 0.2nm. Another experiment shows violet picosecond pulses with peak power as high as 7W was achieved when the intensive electrical pulses were applied on optimised DC bias to pump on InGaN violet diode laser. The physical mechanism of this phenomenon, as we considered, may attributed to the self-organised quantum dots structure in the laser. Control of pulse quality, including spectral quality and temporal profile, is an important issue for high power pulse generation. The ways to control pulse quality described in the thesis are also based on simple and effective techniques. For instance, GCSEL used in our experiment has a specially designed air-grating structure for out-coupling of optical signals; hence, a tiny flat aluminium mirror was placed closed to the grating section and resulted in a wavelength tuning range over 100nm and the best side band suppression ratio of 40dB. Self-seeding, as an effective technique for spectral control of pulsed lasers, was demonstrated for the first time in a violet diode laser. In addition, control of temporal profile of the pulse is demonstrated in an overdriven DFB laser. Wavelength tuneable fibre Bragg gratings were used to tailor the huge energy tail of the high power pulse. The whole system was compact and robust. The ultimate purpose of our study is to design a new family of compact ultrafast diode lasers. Some practical ideas of laser design based on gain-switched and Q-switched devices are also provided in the end.

Mechanisms of a change in the refractive index of an intensely pumped Yb:YAG crystal

Mechanisms of a change in the refractive index appearing in an intensely diode-pumped Yb:YAG-laser disk element are studied with the help of polarisation interferometry and dynamic grating testing. It is found that changes in the electronic component of the refractive index arising upon changing the populations of electronic levels of Yb ions (the ground F state and the upper F level of the laser transition) and caused by the difference in the polarisability of these levels are an order of magnitude greater than thermal changes in the refractive index. It is shown that the difference Δp in the polarisability at the probe wavelength of 633 nm is 1.9 × 10 cm and at the laser transition wavelength of 1029 nm is 1.6 × 10 cm. ©2006 Kvantovaya Elektronika and Turpion Ltd.

Efficient yellow-green light generation at 561 nm by frequency-doubling of a QD-FBG laser diode in a PPLN waveguide

A compact high-power yellow-green continuous wave (CW) laser source based on second-harmonic generation (SHG) in a 5% MgO doped periodically poled congruent lithium niobate (PPLN) waveguide crystal pumped by a quantum-dot fiber Bragg grating (QD-FBG) laser diode is demonstrated. A frequency-doubled power of 90.11 mW at the wavelength of 560.68 nm with a conversion efficiency of 52.4% is reported. To the best of our knowledge, this represents the highest output power and conversion efficiency achieved to date in this spectral region from a diode-pumped PPLN waveguide crystal, which could prove extremely valuable for the deployment of such a source in a wide range of biomedical applications.

RIN mitigation in second-order pumped Raman fibre laser based amplification

We experimentally investigate three Raman fibre laser based amplification techniques with second-order bidirectional pumping. Relatively intensity noise (RIN) being transferred to the signal can be significantly suppressed by reducing first-order reflection near the input end. © 2015 OSA.