Preparation of Fiber Optics for the Delivery of High-Energy High-Beam-Quality Nd:YAG Laser Pulses

Recent improvements in design have made it possible to build Nd:YAG lasers with both high pulse energy and high beam quality. These lasers are particularly suited for percussion drilling of holes of as much as 1-mm diameter thick (a few millimeters) metal parts. An example application is the production of cooling holes in aeroengine components for which 1-ms duration, 30-J energy laser pulses produce holes of sufficient quality much more efficiently than with a laser trepanning process. Fiber optic delivery of the laser beam would be advantageous, particularly when one is processing complex three-dimensional structures. However, lasers for percussion drilling are available only with conventional bulk-optic beam delivery because of laser-induced damage problems with the small-diameter (approximately 200-400-mum) fibers that would be required for preserving necessary beam quality. We report measurements of beam degradation in step-index optical fibers with an input beam quality corresponding to an M(2) of 22. We then show that the laser-induced damage threshold of 400-mum core-diameter optical fibers can be increased significantly by a CO(2) laser treatment step following the mechanical polishing routine. This increase in laser-induced damage threshold is sufficient to propagate 25-J, 1-ms laser pulses with a 400-mum core-diameter optical fiber and an output M(2) of 31.     

Power-scalable system of phase-locked single-mode diode lasers

The direct use of diode lasers for high-power applications in material processing is limited to applications with relatively low beam quality and power density requirements. To achieve high beam quality one must use single-mode diode lasers, however with the drawback of relatively low optical output powers from these components. To realize a high-power system while conserving the high beam quality of the individual emitters requires coherent coupling of the emitters. Such a power-scalable system consisting of 19 slave lasers that are injection locked by one master laser has been built and investigated, with low-power diode lasers used for system demonstration. The optical power of the 19 injection-locked lasers is coupled into polarization-maintaining single-mode fibers and geometrically superimposed by a lens array and a focusing lens. The phase of each emitter is controlled by a simple electronic phase-control loop. The coherence of each slave laser is stabilized by computer control of the laser current and guarantees a stable degree of coherence of the whole system of 0.7. An enhancement factor of 13.2 in peak power density compared with that which was achievable with the incoherent superposition of the diode lasers was observed.     

Microchip lasers and their applications in optical microsystems

The microchip lasers are the most compact diode pumped solid state lasers. They are fabricated using collective mass production processes, at low cost. Several hundreds of microchip lasers can be fabricated on one single thin wafer of a laser material. The microchip laser is pumped with a standard GaAlAs or GaInAs diode laser, directly or through a multimode fibre. It is a kind of optical transformer which transforms a poor quality laser diode beam to a diffraction limited TEM00 and single frequency laser beam. Moreover, by Q-switching, very short pulses (∼0.4–2 ns) with very high peak power (0.5–50 kW) can be obtained. Most of the well known laser materials can be used for emissions near 1, 1.3, 1.5 and 2. Visible and UV emissions are obtained using harmonic generations in non-linear crystals. Microchip lasers have many different industrial applications in large markets such as: automotive, laser marking, environmental and medical applications, public works, telecommunications. They should open the domain of solid state lasers to high volume and low cost markets.     

Free-space wavelength-multiplexed optical scanner demonstration

Experimental demonstration of a no-moving-parts free-space wavelength-multiplexed optical scanner (W-MOS) is presented. With fast tunable lasers or optical filters and planar wavelength dispersive elements such as diffraction gratings, this microsecond-speed scanner enables large several-centimeter apertures for subdegree angular scans. The proposed W-MOS design incorporates a unique optical amplifier and variable optical attenuator combination that enables the calibration and modulation of the scanner response, leading to any desired scanned laser beam power shaping. The experimental setup uses a tunable laser centered at 1560 nm and a 600-grooves/mm blazed reflection grating to accomplish an angular scan of 12.92 degrees as the source is tuned over an 80-nm bandwidth. The values for calculated maximum optical beam divergance, required wavelength resolution, beam-pointing accuracy, and measured scanner insertion loss are 1.076 mrad, 0.172 nm, 0.06 mrad, and 4.88 dB, respectively.     

Diffractive light attenuators with variable transmission

Abstract

A new application of diffractive optical elements (DOEs) for continuous or multistage adjustment of optical radiation intensity is described. The diffractive attenuators are linear or circular gratings (amplitude or phase) with constant period and diffraction efficiency that varies across the grating. The zero order of diffraction is used as the output and transmitted through the grating without angular deviation. The diffractive attenuators, in distinction to conventional analogues, allow one to change the intensity of the light beam according to predetermined function and have no limitations for power of the regulated light beam. These elements can be used in optical systems as a beam splitter with adjusted splitting coefficient. The experimental results on a circular diffractive attenuator fabricated by direct laser writing on a chromium film are presented. The range of transmission variation was 20 times within a 340° angle of attenuator turn. The possibility to use a phase diffractive attenuator as a light radiation modulator for a powerful technological laser is discussed.     

Design considerations of stacked multilayers of diffractive optical elements for optical network units in optical subscriber-network applications

The detailed design process and experimental results of stacked multilayer diffractive optical elements are reported for an optical network unit used in optical subscriber-network applications. The optical network unit accepts two incoming light beams of 1.3- and 1.55-mum wavelengths through a single-mode optical fiber. A laser diode is also placed for bidirectional communications. The optical network unit consists of five diffractive optical elements that perform the following functions: collimation of incoming beams, focusing of the outgoing 1.55-mum beam, 3-dB splitting of the 1.3-mum beam, focusing of the 1.3-mum beam onto the photodiode, and collimation of the light emitted from a laser diode. Possible cost reductions as a result of mass production and the ease of alignment of the stacked diffractive optical elements could be ideal for constructing low-cost optical network units.     

Photoresonant ionization of gaseous media by excimer laser radiation

An identification is made of twenty five elements whose resonance lines overlap the emission lines of high-power pulsed ultraviolet gas lasers or lie in the immediate vicinity of them, so that the mechanism laser ionization based on resonance saturation (LIBORS) can be used to ionize the vapor of these elements. Resonance transitions of atoms and ions excited by the same laser (by krypton fluoride and xenon fluoride lasers, respectively) are observed for tantalum and uranium. It ishas been suggested that these elements may be used as “catalysts” for “ catalytic” resonance ionization (CATRION) of dense multicomponent gas mixtures. Experiments have been carried out to study the krypton fluoride laser irradiation of expanding vapor clouds of different elemental composition, created by the evaporation of targets with a ruby laser. Photographs obtained with an image converter, measurements of the refractive index gradient from the deflection of the laser beam, as well as probe and spectroscopic measurements indicate that the clouds undergo photoresonant ionization if they contain tantalum vapor but that the laser radiation has no influence otherwise. Pis’ma Zh. Tekh. Fiz. 23, 24–32 (May 12, 1997)     

Ultrasensitive laser measurements without tears

Several easily implemented devices for doing ultrasensitive optical measurements with noisy lasers are presented. They are all-electronic noise cancellation circuits that largely eliminate excess laser intensity noise as a source of measurement error and are widely applicable. Shot-noise-limited optical measurements can now easily be made at baseband with noisy lasers. These circuits are especially useful in situations where strong intermodulation effects exist, such as current-tuned diode laser spectroscopy. These inexpensive devices (parts cost approximately $10) can be optimized for particular applications such as wideband or differential measurements. Although they cannot eliminate phase noise effects, they can reduce amplitude noise by 55-70 dB or more, even in unattended operation, and usually achieve the shot-noise limit. With 1-Hz signal-to-noise ratios of 150-160 dB, they allow performance equal or superior to a complex heterodyne system in many cases, while using much simpler dual-beam or homodyne approaches. Although these devices are related to earlier differential and ratiometric techniques, their noise cancellation performance is much better. They work well at modulation frequencies from dc to several megahertz and should be extensible to approximately 100 MHz. The circuits work by subtracting photocurrents directly, with feedback applied outside the signal path to continuously adjust the subtraction for perfect balance; thus the excess noise and spurious modulation ideally cancel at all frequencies, leaving only the shot noise. The noise cancellation bandwidth is independent of the feedback bandwidth; it depends only on the speeds of the photodiodes and of the bipolar junction transistors used. Two noise-canceled outputs are available; one is a high-pass filtered voltage proportional to the signal photocurrent and the other is a low-pass filtered voltage related to the log ratio of the signal and comparison photocurrents. For reasonable current densities, the noise floors of the outputs depend only on the shot noise of the signal beam. Four variations on the basic circuit are presented: low noise floor, high cancellation, differential high power, and ratio-only. Emphasis is placed on the detailed operation and design considerations, especially performance extension by compensation of the nonideal character of system components. Experience has shown that some applications advice is required by most users, so that is provided as well.     

Applications and performance of high power lasers and in the battlefield

This paper reviews the status and applications of a defensive weapon based on high power lasers, in the battlefield. Laser weapon is a novel concept which utilizes high power laser beam to traverse the distance into incoming objects at a speed of light, and then, destroy or disable it. Various types of lasers and configurations will be discussed in this review including gas lasers, solid state lasers, fiber lasers and the free-electron laser. We will discuss various configurations such as airborne laser (ABL), diode pumped crystals and disk lasers as well as heat-capacity lasers. Recent applications of ultrafast solid state lasers for non-lethal or low collateral damage applications will be presented.     

Plasmonics for Laser Beam Shaping

This paper reviews our recent work on laser beam shaping using plasmonics. We demonstrated that by integrating properly designed plasmonic structures onto the facet of semiconductor lasers, their divergence angle can be dramatically reduced by more than one orders of magnitude, down to a few degrees. A plasmonic collimator consisting of a slit aperture and an adjacent 1-D grating can collimate laser light in the laser polarization direction; a collimator consisting of a rectangular aperture and a concentric ring grating can reduce the beam divergence both perpendicular and parallel to the laser polarization direction, thus achieving collimation in the plane perpendicular to the laser beam. The devices integrated with plasmonic collimators preserve good room-temperature performance with output power comparable to that of the original unpatterned lasers. A collimator design for one wavelength can be scaled to adapt to other wavelengths ranging from the visible to the far-IR regimes. Plasmonic collimation offers a compact and integrated solution to the problem of laser beam collimation and may have a large impact on applications such as free-space optical communication, pointing, and light detection and ranging. This paper opens up major opportunities in wavefront engineering using plasmonic structures.      

Compensation of beam ellipticity and astigmatism based on holographic diffractive elements recorded onto spherical substrates

Abstract

Edge emitting diode lasers with their divergent, highly elliptical and astigmatic beams in the visible spectrum are widely used in all branches of photonics. Usually the beams must be transformed into circular anastigmatic beams for the majority of applications. Holographic diffractive elements on spherical substrates are devised for transformation of beams to circular collimated beams. An off-axis holographic set-up is used to record diffractive elements into a thin photoresist layer as shallow surface-relief gratings working in reflection mode with curved and chirped grooves. The elements are destined for the diode lasers emitting at a suitable wavelength and with appropriate ellipticity and astigmatism. The performance of the elements is tested on the basis of intensity patterns and the elements produced at a focal plane on their illumination with a collimated expanded beam of a HeNe laser.     

Iterative processing of ultrasonic measurements to characterize flaws in critical optical components

Real-time nondestructive evaluation is crucial for the safety and maintenance of critical optics in high energy, laser physics experiments. Fluence levels in short pulse, high-energy lasers can produce pits and cracks in the surfaces of the laser's optical components. These flaws in the optical glass can adversely affect the production of the laser light, or even result in a catastrophic failure of the optical component itself. Consequently, the detection, localization, and characterization of these flaws is critical. This paper describes the novel application of several signal and image-processing techniques that detect, localize, and characterize flaws in optical components. These techniques are embedded into an optic scanning system to automatically identify and report on the condition of the vacuum windows used in high fluence laser systems. These techniques exploit measurements made from two orthogonal acoustic arrays mounted on adjacent edges of the optic. After preprocessing the raw channel measurement data from two orthogonal, narrow beamwidth, transducer arrays, a two-dimensional (2-D) power image is created. A physics-based 2-D matched filter is then developed for detecting and localization. An iterative solution to sequentially search the resulting image to extract and characterize the flaws is discussed.     

Coherent coupling of vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser arrays and efficient beam combining by diffractive optical elements: concept and experimental verification

A phase-locked diode-laser system based on master-slave coupling of two-dimensional vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) arrays by injection locking is presented. Frequencies and phases are adjusted by laser-trimmed microresistors. Additional beam-transformation optics consisting of two diffractive optical elements (DOEs) and a Fourier lens concentrates most of the far-field power in a nearly diffraction-limited beam. Both the VCSEL array and the microlens array are monolithically integrated and mounted in a compact module. With an array of 21 slave lasers a system coherence of 95% (for several hours) and of nearly 90% (for several months) has been demonstrated without any active phase control. The scalability of the output power has been verified by locking of an array of 77 slave lasers with a system coherence of 78%. The optical system efficiency is 20-23%; with beam-transformation optics this efficiency could be improved to 44%.     

三角法激光测量系统的误差分析及消除方法

从理论和应用两方面分析了三角法激光测量系统的误差，得出：定点标定和插值可以消除光学放大率随测量点位置变化的影响；双光路方案或标准点校准方法可以消除光线路径随环境温度，湿度变化而引入的误差；提高激光束质量和采用峰值求光斑中心的方法，可以消除激光束强度分布，物体表面粗糙度，CCD传感器，信号处理电路等引入的误差。     

Direct laser writing of surface reliefs in dry, self-developing photopolymer films

Fabrication of surface reliefs is achieved by raster scanning dry photopolymer films under a focused laser beam. The formation of the structure takes place subsequent to illumination without any chemical treatment or wet processing. Computer-generated optical elements can be recorded quickly, easily, and at low cost. The technology is particularly well suited for rapid prototyping and design purposes. These photopolymer films have potential in photonics applications, such as diffractive optical elements and waveguide structures.     

Investigation of the influence of spatial coherence of a broad-area laser diode on the interference fringe system of a Mach-Zehnder interferometer for highly spatially resolved velocity measurements

Laser Doppler anemometry is a method for absolute velocity measurements that is based on a Mach-Zehnder interferometer arrangement and usually employs transverse fundamental-mode lasers. We employed inexpensive and powerful broad-area laser diodes and investigated ways in which an interference fringe system is influenced by the spatial coherence properties of a multimode beam. It was demonstrated that, owing to poor spatial coherence of the beam, interference is suppressed in the marginal regions of the intersection volume. Based on these results, a sensor for highly spatially resolved velocity measurements can be built. The inherent astigmatism of the broad-area diode is corrected by an arrangement of two crossed cylindrical lenses. An interference fringe system of length 200 microm and a relative variation in fringe-spacing of only 0.22% were demonstrated with light emitted from a broad-area laser diode with a 100 microm x 1 microm emitter size. Based on this principle a powerful, simple, and robust laser Doppler sensor has been achieved. Highly spatially resolved measurements of a boundary layer flow are presented.     

Fluorescence diagnosis and photochemical treatment of diseased tissue using lasers: Part I

Lasers are useful in many applications in medicine and biology. Historically, most laser use has involved heat generated in the interaction of the laser beam with the tissue. Today, however, the spectroscopic aspects of this laser use are playing a more dominant role in a number of applications. In this two-part series, Sune Svanberg and co-workers present illustrations of emerging clinical applications from cooperative work performed by the Lund Institute of Technology and the Lund University Hospital. Part I includes a survey of laser techniques for atomic and molecular analyses of samples of medical interest, spectroscopic analysis of the laser-induced plasma obtained when a high-power pulsed laser beam interacts with tissue, and the use of tumor-seeking agents in combination with laser radiation to provide new possibilities for malignant tumor detection and treatment. Part II, which will appear in the January 1, 1990, issue, describes the use of laser-induced fluorescence for tumor and plaque diagnostics. Different lasers have been used, and research efforts increasingly are being focused on excimer lasers and lasers in the IR region for the ablation of atherosclerotic plaques, cell layer by cell layer.     

Polarisation behaviour of diode lasers with frequency selective feedback

The paper reviews recent results obtained with diode lasers used in external hybrid cavities with frequency selective feedback. Such cavities attract continuing interest for several reasons. They generate a tunable single laser mode with very low linewidths (usually a few tens of kilohertz). Very wide discrete tunable ranges over 100 nm for Fabry-Perot type and over 200 nm for quantum well lasers are achieved. They can be made to oscillate in a tunable mode having the desired polarization state,TE orTM and, in some cases, simultaneously atTE andTM. This is done by designing a cavity that increases strongly theTM/TE intensity ratio and by using coatings on one laser facet that greatly lower bothTE andTM reflectivities. High-speed polarization switching in the gigahertz range is possible by inserting passive or active polarization selecting elements in the cavity. For all these reasons hybrid external cavities are attractive for applications in optical metrology, spectroscopy and optical communications. Moreover, the external cavity configuration allows the study of physical mechanisms in the laser diode by inducing on purpose phenomena that would have been otherwise impossible to achieve with free-running lasers.     

“Thermal Prism” Method for Measuring Thermophysical Properties of Thin Films

Theoretical principles underlying the photothermal method for measuring the thickness and thermal properties of a thin film located between two optical elements (“sandwich”) are analyzed. The method is based on the irradiation of the assembly by repetitive pulse laser radiation. Radiation is absorbed in the film and causes heating of the optical elements by heat conduction. The element is monitored by a narrow beam of a second low-power laser propagating through the heated region. The beam is deflected due to the spatial variation of the refractive index, and the magnitude of the deflection angle as a function of time contains the relaxation and “wave” components. It is shown that the phase of the “wave” component depends on the thickness and thermophysical properties of the film. The thermophysical properties of the film can be determined, provided that the analogous properties of the optical element are measured previously or otherwise known, by comparing experimentally measured values of the phase shift with theoretical values obtained from the analytical solution of the non-stationary two-dimensional heat conduction equation.     

Shack-Hartmann sensor for fast infrared wave-front testing

Abstract

A Shack-Hartmann sensor has been designed for testing the wave front of CO₂ lasers. Fabrication of a lens array and a detector array with tight tolerances on position accuracy are essential steps. Parallel electronics allow for high-speed wave-front measurements with 1 kHz sampling frequency. The device has been used to investigate the behaviour of a high-power CO₂ laser. Besides the expected thermal drifts of beam direction at the beginning of laser action, periodic changes of beam direction, have been detected. The Shack-Hartmann sensor seems the appropriate device for controlling adaptive optics in high-power laser applications.