Correlation matrix for quadrature components of two cross-correlated stationary narrow-band Gaussian processes

Collecting the work of several previous authors concerning the cross-correlation functions of stationary narrow-band Gaussian processes with their Hilbert transforms, a brief derivation is given for the correlation matrix for the quadrature components of two cross-correlated stationary narrow-band Gaussian processes. The elements of the matrix are represented in terms of the auto-correlation functions RN(τ) and RN2(τ) of the two Gaussian processes, the cross-correlation function R12(τ), and the Hilbert transforms of these functions. Alternative representations are given in terms of the power density spectra S1(ω) and S2(ω) and the cross density spectrum S12(ω) of the two processes. The sixteen matrix elements are found to consist of a maximum of six independent functions.     

A DC-12 GHz monolithic GaAsFET distributed amplifier

A monolithic balanced traveling-wave amplifier stage using GaAs MESFET's is demonstrated. This amplifier achieves 7-9-dB gain with about 40-ps risetime and a -3-dB bandwidth of 12 GHz, on a 0.91 × 0.97-mm die. Its gain versus frequency is very flat, and |S11|, |S12|, and |S22| are less than 0.2 from 0-18 GHz. S-parameter uniformity and yield data are measured on-wafer with a special hybrid wafer probe.     

Stimulated rotational Raman scattering in the atmosphere

Theoretical and experimental information in the literature is used to calculate the gain coefficient for stimulated rotational Raman scattering by atmospheric N2and O2. The dependence on laser wavelength and polarization, as well as on the pressure and altitude is discussed. It is pointed out that because of pressure broadening, the gain coefficient is independent of altitude up to an altitude of 40-50 km, where the Raman transition becomes Doppler broadened. The 1 percent conversion threshold for vertical propagation from the ground up is calculated for various transitions and laser beam characteristics. The highest-gain transition, theS(8) transition of N2, is shown to have a 1 percent conversion intensity threshold of ∼ 1.2 MW/cm2for linearly polarized light at a wavelength of 400 nm.     

Stimulated rotational Raman scattering in CO2-pumped para-H2

Stimulated rotational Raman scattering in a 300 K multipass cell filled with para-H2with a single-mode CO2pump laser was studied using a single-mode OPO as a probe laser at the Stokes frequency for the So(0) transition. Amplification and pump depletion are examined as a function of incident pump energy. For an incident CO2pump laser energy of 1.5 J, a photon conversion efficiency of 47 percent is observed.     

A laser augmented reaction: SF6+ SiH4→S*2+ SiF4+ HF + H2· retention of isotopic selectivity during detonation

A single unfocused pulse of a free running CO2laser, area ∼ 8 cm², initiates an explosive reaction between SF6and SiH4. This occurs at a minimum energy of 4 J [full width at half maximum (FWHM)sim 1.5 /mus] of which about one half is absorbed in an 8 cm long cell; total pressure 12 torr; 0.65 <p(SiH4)/p(SF6) < 1.8. The spectral and temporal distributions of the emitted chemiluminescence depend sensitively on the fuel to oxidizer ratio, and on the pulse energy; we investigated the range 4 → 20 J. The principal emission is due to S2(B^{3}Sigma-_{u} rightarrow X^{3}Sigma-_{g}). Transitionsupsilon' (0-4) rightarrow upsilon" (2-15)were recorded. In the³Sigma-_{u}state, vibrational temperatures range from 3000-13000 K. The luminosity peaks sharply at (SiH4)/(SF6) = 1.0 ± 0.05. On each side of the maximum of the emission versus composition curve [at (SiH4)/(SF6) ≈ 0.95 and 1.22, for a 12 J pulse] the residual SF6(0.2-0.5 percent of initial amount) is enriched in³⁴SF6; the observed fractionation factors at these two compositions are 8 ± 2. The separation between the two sharply peaked optimum compositions appears to increase with increasing pulse energy. Preliminary results with other fuels suggest that the concurrent absorption of CO2laser radiation by the fuel, as well as a highly exothermic reaction, are pre-requisite for fine tuning of composition, injected power, and total pressure for optimum isotope fractionation.     

Stimulated Raman scattering of XeF* laser radiation in H2

Stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) experiments have been performed using an ∼2 J,sim0.4 mus pulsewidth XeF* laser as the pump and high-pressure molecular hydrogen as the Raman-active medium. The SRS conversion efficiency and spectral distribution have been characterized as functions of H2pressure and pump laser focal parameters. Energy conversion efficiencies of >60 percent have been obtained, with the converted energy in first and second Stokes radiation, at 414 nm and 500 nm, respectively.     

Tunnel generation and locking stimulated Raman radiation components

Stimulated Raman radiation is considered in a ring optical resonator. It is supposed that the resonator is partly filled with a condensed medium at the full length of the medium close to several tunnel lengths. A Raman-active medium and an optical waveguide are assumed to occupy a part of the condensed medium. The feasibility is shown of tunnel generation and synchronization of a great number of Stokes components of stimulated Raman radiation. Here, femtosecond light pulses are shown to be formed in a spacing adjacent to the Raman-active medium, the pulses being single over the periodT = 2pi/omega_{R}(ωRis the Raman frequency shift). Predicted and considered also are tunnel generation and locking of new light modes in an optical parametric oscillator. The effects are due to a correction for the dispersion of the full effective refractive index of the medium inside the resonator. Numerical calculations of the correction for a glass thin-film optical waveguide, quartz, and the Raman-active media CaCO3, C6H6, CS2inside the resonator are represented. Here, five or six Stokes components are shown to be generated and locked for CaCO3and C6H6, eight Stokes components for CS2. A similar numerical calculation is represented for the active medium LiNbO3in the corresponding optical parameteric oscillator. Here, new modes covering a frequency bandwidth of 5000 cm^-1are shown to be feasible. Noted and discussed is also a higher-order correction for the effective refractive index dispersion making it feasible to broaden the frequency bandwidth for tunnel generation and locking.     

Optically pumped CW dimer lasers

Bound-bound electronic transitions in simple molecules are generally suited to realize efficient multiline laser oscillation in the visible and ultraviolet spectral region. By means of optical excitation with argon and krypton lasers, CW laser oscillation could be obtained for various homonuclear diatomic (dimer) molecules such as Li2, Na2, K2, Bi2, S2, Te2, and I2, with emission of several hundred laser lines in the spectral range of about 400-1350 nm. The principles of these lasers and the general dependence of threshold and output power on temperature, pressure, length of vapor zone, and some other parameters is discussed. To achieve satisfactory CW operation, low quenching losses for the upper laser level population and a sufficiently fast relaxation of the population of the lower laser level are necessary. Under optimum operation conditions, efficiencies up to 15 percent, multiline output powers up to 400 mW, and single line-single frequency output powers up to 200 mW were achieved. These dimer lasers are three-level laser systems. In case of coherent optical excitation, two-photon or Raman-type processes contribute to the amplification process. Due to these mechanisms the forward direction is strongly favored and in a ring laser system spontaneous unidirectional oscillation is obtained. By means of a suitable three-level model, analytical and numerical calculations of gain profiles are performed and compared with experiments. These optically pumped molecular lasers are suited for various spectroscopic and kinetic investigations, for frequency standards or as simple and efficient systems to convert pump laser radiation into other spectral regions.     

A continuously tunable sequential Stokes Raman laser

We have obtained continuously tunable coherent radiation in the1-12 mum region via sequential Raman scattering of pulsed-dye-laser radiation in hydrogen. A multiple-pass-cell was used to enhance the Raman gain and produce an overall quantum conversion efficiency of at least 45 percent in the wavelength range from 0.9 to 5μm. At 5 μm, an energy output of 1 mj in a 7 ns pulse at a 10 Hz repetition rate has been obtained. Inherent four-wave mixing initiates the sequential Stokes conversion to the infrared and produces single transverse mode (TEM00) radiation in a 0.2 cm^-1bandwidth. We have developed a nonlinear model of the process that includes the effects of diffraction, four-wave mixing, and temporal pulse shape and gives numerical outputs in agreement with experiment.     

Characteristics of the electron beam pumped iodine monofluoride laser

Electron beam pumping of Ar/CF3I/NF3mixtures yields optical pulse lengthssim0.5 mus from iodine monofluoride. Laser efficiency in this system is ∼0.04 percent. Laser performance is limited by the formation of molecular iodine. The formation of molecular iodine in the excited state (I*2) reduces the number of iodine atoms available to form IF*. In the ground state, molecular iodine (I2) absorbs the IF* laser emission at 485 and 491 nm.     

Spin saturation and pump depletion in continuous spin-flip Raman oscillation

A saturation model of stimulated Raman scattering, of general applicability, is put forward. The model is developed with reference to spin-flip electronic Raman scattering in InSb, where the number of excitations available for Raman scattering may be small by comparison with the incident photon numbers. A rate equation technique is used to evaluate the steady-state Stokes intensity and output powers for a Gaussian pump beam. The model is extended to take account of pump depletion and the relative importance of depletion, and saturation in limiting the conversion efficiency under different conditions is brought out. By comparison with continuous wave spin-flip measurements, values are obtained for the spin-relaxation time (τs) associated with spin reversal in InSb. For 10¹⁶free carriers per cubic centimeter at 36 kG,tau_{s} sim 12ns and for 10¹⁵cm^-3at 16.9 kG,tau_{s} sim 1.3ns.     

Interferometric determination of dispersion variations in single-mode fibers

Interferometry is used to study the variation of the zero dispersion wavelength (λ0) and the absolute group index (Ng) along the lengths of depressed cladding single-mode fibers. All of the results are for 34-cm samples of AT&T fibers drawn on production facilities. For two 7.5-km fibers sampled approximately every 1 km,bar{lambda_{0}} = 1299.6 pm 2.7and 1300.5 ± 2.9 nm. For five additional 0.8-km fibers, the average of the end-to-end differences of λ0is 2.0 nm. These results indicate the feasibility of inferring λ0for long lengths of these fibers from measurements made on a 34-cm length. At 1.30 μm,bar{N_{g}}and σ are 1.4659 and 0.0003, respectively (60 fibers from 28 preforms). The corresponding values at 1.55 μm are 1.4666 and 0.0003 (46 fibers from 19 preforms). These results place a lower limit of 0.02 percent on the accuracy of pulse delay measurements of unstressed lengths of AT&T production fibers.     

Comparison of experimental and theoretical excited-state spectra for rhodamine 6G

The stimulated emission cross section (σe) and the excited-state absorption cross section (sigma*) for this dye are resolved across the fluorescence and the lowest energy ground-state absorption bands. The absorption is weak (sim0.4 times 10^{16}cm²), particularly at the longer wavelengths [Fig. 3(c)]. Lasing properties are predicted from Fig. 4(b), which shows a plot of the (σe) curve displaced with respect to the S1state as the zero-energy level of reference, on top of the long-axis polarized ground-state absorption band. Spectral assignments are proposed in terms of symmetry arguments based on this observation.     

Shallow angle beam combining using a broad-band XeF laser

Experiments in which two xenon fluoride laser pump beams (353 nm) were crossed at an angle of 2.5 mrad in a 565-cm-long Raman amplifier containing high-pressure (10-atm) hydrogen are described. Bisecting the angle made by these two pump beams was a seed beam at the vibrational Stokes shifted wavelength of 414 nm. This seed beam was generated from a portion of the pump beam that was split off and brought to focus in a separate Raman seed generator. All three beam paths were adjusted so they arrived in the main Raman amplifier at the same time. For the 1.4-Å (FWHM) xenon fluoride pump radiation this required path offset precision to within 0.2 mm over many meters of optical path. The beam quality of the resulting amplified Stokes beam was determined through shearing interferometry techniques to be near the diffraction limit, whereas the pump beams had significant optical distortion     

Microwave performance of InAlAs/InGaAs/InP MODFET's

Modulation-doped InAlAs/InGaAs/InP structures were grown by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) and fabricated into FET's with excellent RF gain performance. The intrinsic transconductance was about 400 mS/mm at 300 K. Current gain cutoff frequencies of up to 26.5 GHz were obtained in 1-µm gate devices. Extremely small S12and large S21led to a very largef_{max}of 62 GHz. These results represent the best reported figures for 1-µm devices in this material system and slightly better than those obtained in recently developed pseudomorphic modulation-doped field effect transistors (MODFET's).     

A double-discharge-initiated HF laser

A double-discharge hydrogen fluoride chemical laser using SF6+ C4H10and SF6+ H2is described. A maximum pulse energy of 102.5 mJ is reported, with a peak power of about 400 kW. The energy density is 300 mJ/l, and the electrical efficiency is 0.6 percent.     

Efficient Raman frequency conversion in liquid nitrogen

The single-pass efficiency of stimulated Raman scattering in liquid N2has been investigated under tight-focusing and collimated-beam conditions keeping the gain-length products approximately constant. In collimated-beam geometry, the gain-length is much greater than important four-wave mixing phasematching coherence lengths, and a 92 percent quantum (80 percent energy) efficiency for generation of the first Stokes Raman output is reported. In the much shorter confocal parameter tight-focusing geometry, parametric processes couple the scattered energy into a number of higher order Stokes components and limit the conversion efficiency into any single component.     

The effect of pulse walkoff on stimulated Raman scattering in fibers

We have experimentally investigated stimulated Raman scattering in single-mode fibers in the regime of large Raman Stokes pulse walkoff from the pump pulse by the effect of group-velocity dispersion. Measurements are made with 36 ps duration pulses at 532 nm produced from a frequency-doubled and harmonically mode-locked Nd:YAG laser. We find that for 20 percent conversion, the Raman output is produced about two walkoff lengths into the fiber as a pulse of approximately the same duration as the input pulse. We also find that the Raman pulse is produced with a strong frequency chirp.     

Pulsed laser damage thresholds in vitro for intraocular lenses and membranes

Energy and power density damage thresholds were determined in air, for plastic IOL's and membranes at the focal point of several solid-state laser systems: 1) 694 nm,Q-switched single pulse (30 ns), multimode, 2) 1064 nm,Q-switched single pulse (20 ns), TEM00, 3) 1060 nm, mode-locked single pulse, 15 ps, TEM11, 4) 530 nm, mode-locked single pulse, 15 ps, TEM11, and 5) 1064 nm, mode-locked pulse train (9-11 pulses, 30 ps), TEM00. Pulse energies bracketing damage thresholds as well as focal diameter and pulse duration for each system were determined. Energy density thresholds are lower, and power density thresholds higher, for shorter duration pulses-e.g., 23 J/cm²(1.15 GW/cm²) versus 6 J/cm²(400 GW/cm²) at the same wavelength as in systems 2) and 3) (p = 0.005). Damage thresholds for glass IOL's are 37 J/cm²(1.9 GW/cm²) and 37 J/cm²(1235 GW/cm²) as in systems 2) and 5). Damage threshold values for plastic membranes (Saran Wrap^®) exposed to nanosecond and picosecond pulse trains of Nd:YAG at 1064 nm are about half that of plastic IOL's. When laser pulses with a cone angle of 14° from systems 2) and 5) are focused on plastic membrane next to the IOL, damage thresholds are 30 J/cm²(1.5 GW/cm²) for 20 nsQ-switched pulses and 20 J/cm²(670 GW/cm²) for trains of 30 ps mode-locked pulses. Damage thresholds of IOL's immersed in 0.9 percent saline are approximately the same as those obtained in air.     

Intense electron-beam initiation of a high-energy hydrogen fluoride (HF) laser

A superradiant hydrogen fluoride (HF) laser is described in which an intense electron beam, propagating in a SF6and C2H6mixture, is used to initiate chemical reactions that produce vibrationally excited HF molecules. The variation of laser energy as a function of SF6pressure for fixed composition and as a function of composition at a fixed SF6pressure has been investigated. These experimental parametric curves are discussed in terms of the relevant physics. The maximum laser energy of 228 J in a 55- ns full-width-at-half-maximum (FWHM) pulse was obtained with a mixture of400-torr SF6and 40-torr C2H6. Measured efficiency for converting deposited beam energy to laser energy propagating in the forward direction was as large as 8 percent.