Design guidelines and characteristics of beam-shaping microstructure optical fibers

Microstructure optical fibers with flat-top fundamental mode are first proposed by introducing a low-index inner core into the core of index-guiding microstructure optical fibers. The design guidelines and characteristics of beam-shaping microstructure optical fibers are demonstrated. The interrelationships of inner-core index with laser wavelength, air hole diameter and size of inner core are investigated. The influence of the relative size of inner core on the spatial profile of the fundamental mode is demonstrated. Moreover, sensitivity of the flat-top fundamental mode profile from the slight change of the optimum inner-core index value is studied. Starting from these results we deduce that it is possible to fabricate beam-shaping microstructure fibers with nowadays technique. (C) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Focal shifts in focused Hermite-cosh-Gaussian laser beams

A closed-form propagation equation of Hermite-cosh-Gaussian beams passing through an unapertured thin lens is derived. Focal shifts are analyzed by means of two different methods according to the facts that the axial intensity of some focused Hermite-cosh-Gaussian beams are null and that of some others are not null but the principal maximum intensity may be located on the axis or off the axis. Optimal focusing for the beams is studied, and the condition of optimal focusing ensuring the smallest beam width is also given. (c) 2005 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.

Beam smoothing by lens array with spectral dispersion

A scheme of combining technology of lens array (LA) and smoothing by spectral dispersion (SSD) is introduced to improve the irradiation uniformity in laser fusion based on the earlier works on LA. The feasibility of the scheme is also analyzed by numerical simulation. It shows that a focal pattern with flat-top and sharp-edge profile could be obtained, and the irradiation nonuniformity can fall down from 14% with only LA to 3% with both SSD and LA. And this smoothing scheme is depended less on the incidence comparing to other smoothing methods. The preliminary experiment has demonstrated its effectiveness. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Split-aperture laser pulse compressor design tolerant to alignment and line-density differences

We introduce a four-pass laser pulse compressor design based on two grating apertures with two gratings per aperture that is tolerant to some alignment errors and, importantly, to grating-to-grating period variations. Each half-beam samples each grating in a diamond-shaped compressor that is symmetric about a central bisecting plane. For any given grating, the two half-beams impinge on opposite sides of its surface normal. It is shown that the two split beams have no pointing difference from paired gratings with different periods. Furthermore, no phase shift between half-beams is incurred as long as the planes containing a grating line and the surface normal for each grating of the pair are parallel. For grating pairs satisfying this condition, gratings surfaces need not be on the same plane, as changes in the gap between the two can compensate to bring the beams back in phase. © 2008 Optical Society of America.

Magnetic field modulated direct overwrite with pulsed laser irradiation for TbFeCo magneto-optical disks

WE have designed a dual-beam magneto-optical (MO) storage system to test the dynamic storage properties of MO disks. The characteristics of this dual-beam system are demonstrated. Magnetic field modulated direct overwrite, which is a promising technique for highspeed MO storage, is realized on TbFeCo MO disks with this dual-beam MO system. The effect of light intensity, magnetic field intensity, and linear velocity of the disk and the modulating frequency variation on carrier-to-noise ratio is investigated. (C) 1997 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers.

Super-resolution with a nonlinear thin film: Beam reshaping via internal multi-interference

In laser applications, the size of the focus spot can be reduced beyond the diffraction limit with a thin film of strong nonlinear optical Kerr effect. We present a concise theoretical simulation of the device. The origin of the super-resolution is found to be mainly from the reshaping effect due to the strongly nonlinear refraction mediated multi-interference inside the thin film. In addition, both diffraction and self-focusing effects have been explored and found negligible for highly refractive and ultrathin films in comparison with the reshaping effect. Finally, the theoretic model has been verified in experiments with single Ge2Sb2Te5 film and SiN/Si/SiN/Ge2Sb2Te2 multilayer structures. (c) 2006 American Institute of Physics.

Laser pulse induced bumps in chalcogenide phase change films

Formation of bumps in chalcogenide phase change thin films during the laser writing process is theoretically and experimentally investigated. The process involves basically fast heating and quenching stages. Circular bumps are formed after cooling, and the shape and size of the bumps depend on various parameters such as temperatures, laser power, beam size, laser pulse duration, etc. In extreme cases, holes are formed at the apex of the bumps. To understand the bumps and their formation is of great interest for data storage. In the present work, a theoretical model is established for the formation process, and the geometric characters of the formed bumps can be analytically and quantitatively evaluated from various parameters involved in the formation. Simulations based on the analytic solution are carried out taking Ag8In14Sb55Te23 as an example. The results are verified with experimental observations of the bumps. (C) 2008 American Institute of Physics.

Comparison of uniform amplitude beam and intercepted Gaussian beam superresolution theories

The general superresolution theories for uniform amplitude beams and intercepted Gaussian beams are investigated. For these two types of incident beam, both two-zone amplitude and pure-phase filters are adopted to provide specific numerical descriptions of their differences in superresolution performances. Simulated results of comparisons between their performances indicate that, with the same spot size ratio, the intercepted Gaussian beam achieves a higher central image brightness ratio and significantly lower side-lobe effect irrespective of the filter used. (c) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A planar waveguide Nd : YAG laser using active Q-switching of a hybrid unstable resonator

A planar waveguide laser operating in a negative branch unstable resonator is Q-switched by an acoustooptic mod latorin anew configuration, providing effective, high-speed switching. The laser using a 200-mu m Nd:YAG core, face pumped by 10 laser diode bars, has produced 100-W output in a good beam quality at 100-kHz pulse rate, and 4.5 mJ at lower frequency with 15-ns pulse duration.

基于正交频率变换的高功率蓝绿全固态激光器

对多横模全固态激光器使用正交频率变换进行了分析,计算了频率转换效率与激光发散角的关系。使用双KTP晶体正交倍频的方法,对Nd∶YAG激光器输出的含有高阶横模的激光进行倍频实验研究。在1064 nm Nd∶YAG激光基波功率密度为121 MW/cm2时,其谐波转换效率达到75.5%。研究表明,对于光束质量较差的基波激光,采用正交频率变换的方式,适当选择晶体参数,同样可以获得较高效率的二次谐波输出。

大模场面积多模光纤激光器的横模控制

缠绕技术通常被用于大模场面积多模光纤激光器的横模控制。将光纤弯曲成不同半径的圆环，多模光纤激光器的高阶横模逐个被抑制并在缠绕半径为20mm时，获得15.4W的单模激光输出。实验研究表明，缠绕半径减小时，由于激光器高阶模式被抑制，其光束质量变好，同时其斜率效率降低。实验测量了多模光纤激光器在不同缠绕半径下的输出性能，并理论计算了各阶模式在不同缠绕半径下的损耗特性。实验测量结果与理论计算结果符合得较好。

大模场面积光纤激光器79．4W单横模输出

abstract {A large-mode-area (LMA) multimode fiber before and after coiling was studied contrastively in the experiment. Single-transverse-mode output was achieved when the fiber laser was coiled around a mandrel of 65 mm radius. After coiling, beam quality factor of the laser dropped from 1.24 to 1.06 and slope efficiency dropped from 64.7% to 54.3%. When the launched pump power was 149 W, the corresponding output power was 94.7 W and 79.4 W, respectively. However, the brightness of the coiled fiber laser was 1.15 times that of the uncoiled. Coiled modal losses of different modes were also calculated for the fiber employed in the experiment. The measured results agree well with the calculated ones.}

弯曲直径对多模光纤激光器输出性能的影响

大模场面积(LMA)多模光纤激光器的输出性能与光纤的弯曲程度有关。为研究两者之间的关系，在光纤不同弯曲直径下，对多模光纤激光器的输出性能进行了实验测量和理论计算。采用刀口法测量了不同弯曲直径下的激光光束质量因子M2，并对每种情况下光纤激光器的斜率效率进行了测量。光纤弯曲直径分别为285 mm,195 mm和130 mm时，多模光纤激光器光束质量因子M2为2.88,1.82和1.67，斜率效率为39%,35%和34%。另外，对于实验所采用的大模场面积多模光纤，理论计算了各模式损耗与光纤弯曲直径的关系。

多模光纤激光器实现高功率低阶模输出

采用光纤缠绕的方法，来抑制大模场面积（LMA）双包层光纤激光器中的高阶模振荡。将光纤缠绕至两种不同半径，实验测量了相应条件下激光器的输出功率和光束质量因子M2。缠绕半径为165mm时，输出功率为217W，M2为2.96；缠绕半径为52mm时，输出功率为160W，M2为1.38。光纤激光器相应的斜率效率分别为60％和48％。光纤缠绕半径较小时，虽然激光器输出功率减小，但其亮度是大缠绕半径时对应值的3.4倍。