Write-once medium with Fe-Doped BiOx thin films for blue laser recording

Fe:BiOx films are fabricated on K9 glass substrates by rf-magnetron sputtering of a BiFeO target under argon atmosphere with increasing sputtering power from 80 to 200 W at room temperature. It is found that the thin films grown at the sputtering power of 160W can be formed at an appropriate deposition rate and have an improved surface morphology. The XPS result reveals that the films investigated are comprised of Bi, Fe and O elements. A typical XRD pattern shows that no phase transition occurs in the films up to 400 degrees C. The results of the blue laser recording test demonstrate that the Fe:BiOx films have good writing sensitivity for blue laser beam (406.7 nm) and good stability after reading 10000 times. The recording marks of 200nm or less are obtained. These results indicate that the introduction of Fe into BiOx films can reduce the mark size and improve the stability of the films.

Super-resolution scanning laser microscopy with a third-order optical nonlinear thin film

In a configuration of optical far-field scanning microscopy, super-resolution achieved by inserting a third-order optical nonlinear thin film is demonstrated and analyzed in terms of the frequency response function. Without the thin film the microscopy is diffraction limited; thus, subwavelength features cannot be resolved. With the nonlinear thin film inserted, the resolution is dramatically improved and thus the microscopy resolves features significantly smaller than the smallest spacing allowed by the diffraction limit. A theoretical model is established and the device is analyzed for the frequency response function. The results show that the frequency response function exceeds the cutoff spatial frequency of the microscopy defined by the laser wavelength and the numerical aperture of the convergent lens. The main contribution to the improvement of the cutoff spatial frequency is from the phase change induced by the complex transmission of the nonlinear thin film. Experimental results are presented and are shown to be consistent with the results of theoretical simulations.

Structural change of laser-irradiated Ge2Sb2Te5 films studied by electrical property measurement

Sheet resistance of laser-irradiated Ge2Sb2Te5 thin films prepared by magnetron sputtering was measured by the four-point probe method. With increasing laser power the sheet resistance undergoes an abrupt drop from 10(7) to 10(3) Omega/square at about 580 mW. The abrupt drop in resistance is due to the structural change from amorphous to crystalline state as revealed by X-ray diffraction (XRD) study of the samples around the abrupt change point. Crystallized dots were also formed in the amorphous Ge2Sb2Te5 films by focused short pulse laser-irradiated, the resistivities at the crystallized dots and the non-crystallized area are 3.375 x 10(-3) and 2.725 Omega m, sheet resistance is 3.37 x 10(4) and 2.725 x 10(7) Omega/square respectively, deduced from the I-V Curves that is obtained by conductive atomic force microscope (C-AFM). (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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.

Laser tunable Toraldo superresolution with a uniform nonlinear pupil filter

We demonstrate that it is possible to reduce the focal spot size by inserting a uniform nonlinear thin film at the aperture of a focusing lens. The reduction of spot size is tunable by adjusting the incoming laser power. In comparison with the original diffraction spot, the transverse spot size can be reduced 0.65 times. The nonlinear thin film acts effectively as a Toraldo filter, and the phase and amplitude modulation stems from the laser-induced variances in the transmission of the thin film. The proposed technique removes the need of fabricating annular pupil filters. (C) 2008 Optical Society of America.

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.}