Regenerative amplifier with continuously variable pulse duration used in an optical parametric chirped-pulse amplification laser system for synchronous pumping

A Nd:glass regenerative amplifier has been set up to generate the pumping pulse with variable pulse width for an optical parametric chirped-pulse amplification (OPCPA) laser system. Each pulse of the pulse train from a cw self-mode-locking femtosecond Ti:sapphire oscillator is stretched to approximate to300 ps at 1062 nm to be split equally and injected into a nonlinear crystal and the Nd:glass regenerative amplifier, as the chirped signal pulse train and the seed pulse train of the pumping laser system, respectively. By adjusting the cavity length of the regenerative amplifier directly, the width of amplified pulse could be varied continuously from approximate to300 ps to approximate to3 ns. The chirped signal pulse for the OPCPA laser system and the seed pulse for the pumping laser system come from the same oscillator, so that the time jitter between the signal pulse and the pumping pulse in optical parametric amplification stages could be <10 ps. (C) 2003 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers.

Excimer laser plasma to control laser pulse duration

An injection-locking excimer laser beam with a pulse duration of 25 ns is focused on the surface of a polymide film. The laser beam that passes through the etching film is shorter than the original one. By optimizing the thickness of the film and the beam power density, a pulse with a 3-ns pulse duration can be obtained using this switch technology.

Investigation of damage threshold to TiO2 coatings at different laser wavelength and pulse duration

Laser-induced damages to TiO2 single layers and TiO2/SiO2 high reflectors at laser wavelength of 1064 nm, 800 run, 532 urn, and pulse width of 12 ns, 220 ps, 50 fs, 8 ns are investigated. All films are prepared by electron beam evaporation. The relations among microstructure, chemical composition, optical properties and laser-induced damage threshold (LIDT), have been researched. The dependence of damage mechanism on laser wavelength and pulse width is discussed. It is found that from 1064 nm to 532 nm, LIDT is mainly absorption related, which is determined by film's extinction coefficient and stoichiometric defects. The rapid decrease of LIDT at 800 nm is due to the pulse width factor. TiO2 coatings are mainly thermally by damaged at long pulse (tau >= 220 ps). The damage shows ablation feature at 50 fs. (C) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Algorithm-based continuous pulse duration tuning and performance control of a mode-locked laser diode.

A control algorithm is presented that addresses the stability issues inherent to the operation of monolithic mode-locked laser diodes. It enables a continuous pulse duration tuning without any onset of Q-switching instabilities. A demonstration of the algorithm performance is presented for two radically different laser diode geometries and continuous pulse duration tuning between 0.5 ps to 2.2 ps and 1.2 ps to 10.2 ps is achieved. With practical applications in mind, this algorithm also facilitates control over performance parameters such as output power and wavelength during pulse duration tuning. The developed algorithm enables the user to harness the operational flexibility from such a laser with 'push-button' simplicity.

High repetition rate Q-switched microchip Nd:YVO4 laser with pulse duration as short as 1.1 ns

We have demonstrated a compact and an efficient passively Q-switched microchip Nd:YVO4 laser by using a composite semiconductor absorber as well as an output coupler. The composite semiconductor absorber was composed of an LT (low-temperature grown) In0.25Ga0.75As absorber and a pure GaAs absorber. To our knowledge, it was the first demonstration of the special absorber for Q-switching operation of microchip lasers. Laser pulses with durations of 1.1 ns were generated with a 350 mu m thick laser crystal and the repetition rate of the pulses was as high as 4.6 MHz. The average output power was 120 mW at the pump power of 700 mW. Pulse duration can be varied from 1.1 to 15.7 ns by changing the cavity length from 0.45 to 5 mm. Pulses with duration of 1.67 and 2.41 ns were also obtained with a 0.7 mm, thick laser crystal and a 1 mm thick laser crystal, respectively. (C) 2007 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.

High average power and short pulse duration continuous wave mode-locked Nd : GdVO4 laser with a semiconductor absorber mirror

Passive mode locking of a solid-state Nd:GdVO4 laser is demonstrated. The laser is mode locked by use of a semiconductor absorber mirror (SAM). A low Nd3+ doped Nd:GdVO4 crystal is used to mitigate the thermal lens effect of the laser crystal at a high pump power. The maximum average output power is up to 6.5 W, and the pulse duration is as short as 6.2 ps. The optic-to-optic conversion efficiency is 32.5% and the repetition rate is about 110 MHz.

Spectral width and pulse duration tuning in Yb+ modelocked fiber laser with birefringent Lyot filter

A method of pulse duration and spectral width control in all-fiber Ytterbium modelocked laser with SWCNT is presented. It is shown that PM-fiber can also serve as a spectrally selective filter. © 2012 OSA.

High peak power femtosecond pulse VECSELs for terahertz time domain spectroscopy

We report on a high peak power femtosecond modelocked VECSEL and its application as a drive laser for an all semiconductor terahertz time domain spectrometer. The VECSEL produced near-transform-limited 335 fs sech2 pulses at a fundamental repetition rate of 1 GHz, a centre wavelength of 999 nm and an average output power of 120 mW. We report on the effect that this high peak power and short pulse duration has on our generated THz signal.

Plasma channeling by multiple short-pulse lasers

Channeling by a train of laser pulses into homogeneous and inhomogeneous plasmas is studied using particle-in-cell simulation. When the pulse duration and the interval between the successive pulses are appropriate, the laser pulse train can channel into the plasma deeper than a single long-pulse laser of similar peak intensity and total energy. The increased penetration distance can be attributed to the repeated actions of the ponderomotive force, the continuous between-pulse channel lengthening by the inertially evacuating ions, and the suppression of laser-driven plasma instabilities by the intermittent laser-energy cut-offs.

Temporal synchronization in optical parametric chirped pulse amplification laser system

The effect of temporal synchronization between the chirped signal pulse and the pumping pulse in an optical parametric chirped pulse amplification laser system is researched theoretically and experimentally. The results show that the gain of optical parametric amplification is sensitive to the temporal synchronization. Therefore, accurate temporal synchronization between the chirped signal pulse and the pumping pulse is essential to obtain high optical parametric amplification gain and stable output from an optical parametric chirped pulse amplification laser. Based on our 16.7-TW/120-fs optical parametric chirped pulse amplification laser system with similar to1-ns pumping pulse duration and <10-ps time jitter between the signal and pumping pulse, the effect of the temporal synchronization on optical parametric chirped pulse amplification is demonstrated. The experimental results agree with the calculation. (C) 2004 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers.

Optimization of multi-cycle two-color laser fields for the generation of an isolated attosecond pulse

The effect of the mixing of pulsed two color fields on the generation of an isolated attosecond pulse has been systematically investigated. One main color is 800 nm and the other color (or secondary color) is varied from 1.2 to 2.4 mu m. This work shows that the continuum length behaves in a similar way to the behavior of the difference in the square of the amplitude of the strongest and next strongest cycle. As the mixing ratio is increased, the optimal wavelength for the extended continuum shifts toward shorter wavelength side. There is a certain mixing ratio of intensities at which the continuum length bifurcates, i.e., the existence of two optimal wavelengths. As the mixing ratio is further increased, each branch bifurcates again into two sub-branches. This 2D map analysis of the mixing ratio and the wavelength of the secondary field easily allows one to select a proper wavelength and the mixing ratio for a given pulse duration of the primary field. The study shows that an isolated sub-100 attosecond pulse can be generated mixing an 11 fs full-width-half-maximum (FWHM), 800 laser pulse with an 1840 nm FWHM pulse. Furthermore the result reveals that a 33 fs FWHM, 800 nm pulse can produce an isolated pulse below 200 as, when properly mixed. (c) 2008 Optical Society of America.

X-shaped third harmonic generated by ultrashort infrared pulse filamentation in air

The authors report the measurement of the angularly resolved spectrum of the third harmonic generated in a femtosecond filament in air and its evolution with increasing pump power. Pumped by a focused infrared ultrashort pulse with a carrier wavelength of 1270 nm, a pulse duration of similar to 20 fs, and pulse energy up to 487 mu J, the generated third harmonic is composed of an on-axis emission and a conical ring emission. When the pump power is sufficiently high, angularly resolved spectra with significant X-like feature could be observed, indicating the formation of nonlinear X wave at third harmonic. (c) 2008 American Institute of Physics.

Single sub-100 attosecond pulse generation in a two-colour time-gating laser field

We theoretically propose a method of generating a single sub-100 attosecond (as) pulse with a two-colour time-gating laser field. The field is synthesized by an 8 fs/800 nm (three optical cycles) pulse and a 24 fs/2400 nm (three optical cycles) pulse with an optimal time delay between them. In our simulation, we obtain a supercontinuum with an extremely broad spectrum of 150 eV and generate an isolated attosecond pulse with 96 as pulse duration without any dispersion compensation.