Gold-coated copper cone detector as a new standard detector for F2 laser radiation at 157 nm

A new standard detector for high-accuracy measurements of F2 laser radiation at 157 nm is presented. This gold-coated copper cone detector permits the measurement of average powers up to 2 W with an uncertainty of approximately 1%. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first highly accurate standard detector for F2 laser radiation for this power level. It is fully characterized according to Guide to the Expression of Uncertainty in Measurement of the International Organization for Standardization and is connected to the calibration chain for laser radiation established by the German National Metrology Institute.     

New PTB Setup for the Absolute Calibration of the Spectral Responsivity of Radiation Thermometers

The paper describes the new experimental setup assembled at the PTB for the absolute spectral responsivity measurement of radiation thermometers. The concept of this setup is to measure the relative spectral responsivity of the radiation thermometer using the conventional monochromator-based spectral comparator facility also used for the calibration of filter radiometers. The absolute spectral responsivity is subsequently measured at one wavelength, supplied by the radiation of a diode laser, using the new setup. The radiation of the diode laser is guided with an optical fiber into an integrating sphere source that is equipped with an aperture of absolutely known area. The spectral radiance of this integrating sphere source is determined via the spectral irradiance measured by a trap detector with an absolutely calibrated spectral responsivity traceable to the primary detector standard of the PTB, the cryogenic radiometer. First results of the spectral responsivity calibration of the radiation thermometer LP3 are presented, and a provisional uncertainty budget of the absolute spectral responsivity is given.     

Absolute measurement of F2-laser power at 157 nm

We report a comparison of laser power measurements at the F2-laser wavelength of 157 nm made at two facilities of the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB), the German national metrology institute. At the PTB laboratory at the electron storage ring BESSY II in Berlin, the scale for laser power was directly traced to a cryogenic radiometer operating at 157 nm, whereas at the PTB laser radiometry facility in Braunschweig the calibration of transfer detectors was performed with a newly developed standard for laser power at 157 nm, which is traceable in several steps to a cryogenic radiometer operating at 633 nm. The comparison was performed under vacuum conditions with laser pulse energies of approximately 10 microJ, however with different average powers because different primary standard radiometers were used. The relative deviation for the responsivity of the transfer detector was 4.8% and thus within the combined standard uncertainty.     

Tunable picosecond blue and ultraviolet pulses from a diode-pumped laser system seeded by a gain-switched laser diode

Picosecond pulses emitted from a gain-switched laser diode have been amplified in a Ti:sapphire regenerative amplifier indirectly pumped by a 4-W laser diode. This all-solid-state system produced microjoule pulses tunable from 803 to 840 nm at repetition rates up to 25 kHz with durations of 70-100 ps. By frequency doubling and tripling the output, we generated blue and UV pulses tunable from 401 to 420 nm and from 268 to 280 nm, respectively. Average powers larger than 4 mW were reached in these two wavelength regions.     

High cw power using an external cavity for spectral beam combining of diode laser-bar emission

In extension to known concepts of wavelength-multiplexing diode laser arrays, a new external cavity is presented. The setup simultaneously improves the beam quality of each single emitter of a standard 25 emitter broad-area stripe laser bar and spectrally superimposes the 25 beams into one. By using this external resonator in an "off-axis" arrangement, beam qualities of Mslow2<14 and Mfast2<3 with optical powers in excess of 10 W in cw operation are obtained.     

Narrow-linewidth, multi-Watt Yb-doped fiber amplifier at 1014.8 nm

We report on an efficient, narrow linewidth, two-stage fiber amplifier at 1014.8 nm based on Yb-doped double-clad fibers. The fibers are cooled to liquid-nitrogen temperatures in order to suppress absorption at the operating wavelength. We achieved output powers of up to 5.0 W at a linewidth of less than 3 MHz by seeding the amplifier with the radiation from an external cavity diode laser.     

Efficient diode side-pumping configuration of a Nd:YAG rod laser with a diffusive cavity

We propose an efficient, simple, and scalable diode side-pumping configuration of a solid-state rod laser. The rod is excited in a diffusive cavity and diode powers are transferred by a thin plate into the cavity. In multitransverse-mode cw operation, 40 W of laser power was generated with an optical-to-optical slope efficiency of 52.2% at a diode output power of 135.1 W and an electrical input power of 327.3 W into the diodes. These values correspond to an optical-to-optical total efficiency of 29.6% and an electrical-to-optical total efficiency of 12.2%. The electrical-to-optical slope efficiency was 30.3%.     

Absolute interferometry with a 670-nm external cavity diode laser

In the past few years there has been much interest in use of tunable diode lasers for absolute interferometry. Here we report on use of an external cavity diode laser operating in the visible (lambda ~ 670 nm) for absolute distance measurements. Under laboratory conditions we achieve better than 1-mum standard uncertainty in distance measurements over a range of 5 m, but significantly larger uncertainties will probably be more typical of shop-floor measurements where conditions are far from ideal. We analyze the primary sources of uncertainty limiting the performance of wavelength-sweeping methods for absolute interferometry, and we discuss how errors can be minimized. Many errors are greatly magnified when the wavelength sweeping technique is used; sources of error that are normally relevant only at the nanometer level when standard interferometric techniques are used may be significant here for measurements at the micrometer level.     

Near-field thermal lens detection at 257 nm as an alternative to absorption spectrometric detection in combination with electromigrative separation techniques

A device is presented that permits detection of analytes absorbing electromagnetic radiation at lambda = 257 nm (in fused-silica capillaries with 75-microm i.d.) via the near-field thermal lens effect. The detector was realized by using a frequency-doubled argon ion laser as pump laser and a laser diode (emission wavelength, 633 nm) coupled into a monomode optical fiber as probe laser. Comparing the performance of this detector to the performance of a commercial absorption spectrometric detector working at lambda = 257 nm equipped with a unit for on-column detection in fused-silica capillaries showed a substantial improvement in detection limits (up to 30-fold improvement) for the near-field thermal lens detector (NF-TLD). The feasibility of the NF-TLD for sensitive detection of nonfluorescent analytes in real samples after separation by micellar electrokinetic chromatography was shown taking the determination of nitroaromatic compounds in contaminated water from a former ammunition plant as an example. Dependence of the thermal lens signal on pump laser power, velocity of the mobile phase, and chopper frequency was investigated. A linear calibration range over 2 orders of magnitude was obtained.     

High-sensitivity mid-infrared heterodyne spectrometer with a tunable diode laser as a local oscillator

A new mid-IR heterodyne spectrometer, which is intended to be applied for atmospheric and astrophysical studies, is presented. The spectrometer uses a frequency-stabilized tunable diode laser as a local oscillator. Owing to the low output power of available single-mode diode lasers, a newly developed confocal-ring resonator, the diplexer, is used to superimpose the source signal efficiently with that of the local oscillator. Additionally, the diplexer serves as an optical filter that establishes controlled optical feedback between the laser diode and the detector, which allows stable laser operation with linewidths of the order of 1 MHz. The heterodyne signal from the HgCdTe detector is analyzed by means of a 1.4-GHz acousto-optical spectrometer. With this setup we find system temperatures as low as 4400 K (double sideband), that is, approximately a factor of 6 of the quantum limit.     

High-power 457-nm light source by frequency doubling of an amplified diode laser

We demonstrate the generation of 150-mW blue coherent single-mode radiation at 457 nm in a compact and inexpensive setup. The light is generated by frequency doubling the radiation of a master oscillator power amplifier (MOPA) system in an enhancement cavity with a potassium niobate (KNbO3) crystal. The MOPA consists of a 914-nm single-mode diode laser and a broad-area diode laser (BAL) as the amplifier. The BAL is a multimode laser with a specified wavelength of 938 nm. Sufficient gain at 914 nm is obtained by antireflection coating the BAL front surface and by cooling it to -10 degrees C.     

Efficient operation of a solid-state adaptive laser oscillator

We present the results of a cw diode-pumped Nd:YVO4 laser oscillator based on a self-starting adaptive gain-grating resonator. Adaptive laser operation has been demonstrated with 12-W output for 37 W of diode pumping, producing a TEM00 mode that compensates for thermal aberrations. The issue of the finite aperture of the amplifier is discussed, and a design that incorporates an intracavity lens is used to improve the collection efficiency with severe thermal lensing at high pump powers. The powers of the beams involved in the resonator are compared with theory and are found to be in good agreement. Spectral and temporal behavior of the adaptive laser is investigated, and very interesting behavior is shown, including self-induced temporal modulation dynamics and a switching between a narrowband and a broad bandwidth of operation.     

Sum-frequency mixing of radiation from two extended-cavity laser diodes using a doubly resonant external cavity for laser cooling of trapped ytterbium ions

Over 100 μW of continuous-wave tunable ultraviolet radiation at 370 nm is generated by the sum-frequency mixing of radiation from two extended-cavity laser diodes having powers of 60 mW at 822 nm and 8 mW at 671 nm in a lithium iodate crystal. The crystal is placed in an external cavity that enhances the powers of two fundamental beams simultaneously by approximately 40. This light source is successfully applied to the laser cooling of trapped ytterbium ions.     

Operation of an optical in-well-pumped vertical-external-cavity surface-emitting laser

We report the operation of an optical in-well-pumped vertical-external-cavity surface-emitting laser. The laser delivers 1 W at 855 nm and is pumped with a cost-effective fiber-coupled laser diode emitting at 806 nm. The laser modal gain is examined and ways of optimizing the system are investigated and discussed.     

Fixed-wavelength operation of a copper-laser-pumped dye laser injection seeded by low-power He-Ne lasers

The design and operating characteristics of a dye laser pumped by a 3-W copper-vapor laser (CVL) and injection seeded by low-power (1-5 mW) He-Ne lasers at 633 nm are reported. An extremely simple optical arrangement is used wherein the output mirror of the He-Ne laser and a third mirror form the dye laser cavity. Laser efficiency in fixed-wavelength operation has been investigated for variable CVL pump power, He-Ne injection power and polarization, and cavity output coupling for a standard Rhodamine 590/Rhodamine 640 dye solution. Over 90% of free-running (unseeded) laser power is obtained in fixed-wavelength (seeded) operation at low CVL pump powers (≤1 W), dropping to approximately 60% at 3-W pump power. Maximum CVL pump to dye laser optical conversion efficiency in narrow-band, fixed-wavelength operation at 633 nm was 12%.     

Iodine-stabilized extended cavity diode laser at λ=633 nm

An extended cavity diode laser at 633 nm has been frequency stabilized to I₂-Doppler-free absorption signals of the P(33)6-3 transition using a third-harmonic detection technique. The frequency was measured by the beat-frequency technique with an iodine-stabilized He-Ne laser as reference. A minimum value for the two-probe relative standard uncertainty of 1× 10^-11 (5 kHz) is reached after 100 s. We also report measurements of the hyperfine splittings of the P(33)6-3 transition and laser frequency dependence on modulation amplitude and iodine pressure     

Development of a 756 nm, 3 W injection-locked cw Ti:sapphire laser

We have developed a 756 nm, 3 W single-frequency cw Ti:sapphire laser by using the technique of injection locking. A cw Ti:sapphire laser in a ring-type configuration was forced to lase unidirectionally by use of an optical diode to prevent a high-power backward laser from disturbing the injection laser. A master laser was amplified by a broad-area laser diode and coupled into a single-mode fiber to generate a 50 mW injection laser with a Gaussian beam profile, which was enough to lock the Ti:sapphire laser at full power of 3 W. Such a high-power single-frequency Ti:sapphire laser enables a watt-level blue or near-ultraviolet single-frequency laser to be generated by frequency doubling.     

Tunable diffraction-limited light at 488 nm by single-pass frequency doubling of a broad area diode laser

A laser system that is based on second-harmonic generation of a broad area laser diode and provides 23.2 mW of diffraction-limited light with narrow bandwidth is described. It is tunable from 487.4 to 489 nm. The broad area laser diode is frequency stabilized in an external cavity that yields 800 mW of diffraction-limited light. This infrared light is converted into the visible by use of a 1 cm periodically poled MgO:LiNbO(3) bulk crystal with a measured single-pass conversion efficiency of up to 3.6%/W x cm.     

Measurement uncertainty and temporal resolution of Doppler global velocimetry using laser frequency modulation

A Doppler global velocimetry (DGV) measurement technique with a sinusoidal laser frequency modulation is presented for measuring velocity fields in fluid flows. A cesium absorption cell is used for the conversion of the Doppler shift frequency into a change in light intensity, which can be measured by a fiber coupled avalanche photo diode array. Because of a harmonic analysis of the detector element signals, no errors due to detector offset drifts occur and no reference detector array is necessary for measuring the scattered light power. Hence, large errors such as image misalignment errors and beam split errors are eliminated. Furthermore, the measurement system is also capable of achieving high measurement rates up to the modulation frequency (100 kHz) and thus opens new perspectives to multiple point investigations of instationary flows, e.g., for turbulence analysis. A fundamental measurement uncertainty analysis based on the theory of Cramér and Rao is given and validated by experimental results. The current relation between time resolution and measurement uncertainty, as well as further optimization strategies, are discussed.