量子阱二极管泵浦的Nd:YVO4/Cr:YAG高重复率被动调Q激光器

量子阱二极管端面泵浦的Nd:YVO₄激光器中,采用Cr:YAG作为可饱和吸收体,获得了1.06μm的高重复率被动调Q脉冲激光输出.在吸收泵浦功率528.3mW时,输出脉冲能量0.19μJ,宽度32ns,脉冲重复率达158.7kHz.     

Pulse-burst laser systems for fast Thomson scattering (invited)

Two standard commercial flashlamp-pumped Nd:YAG (YAG denotes yttrium aluminum garnet) lasers have been upgraded to "pulse-burst" capability. Each laser produces a burst of up to 15 2 J Q-switched pulses (1064 nm) at repetition rates of 1-12.5 kHz. Variable pulse-width drive (0.15-0.39 ms) of the flashlamps is accomplished by insulated gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) switching of electrolytic capacitor banks. Direct control of the laser Pockels cell drive enables optimal pulse energy extraction, and up to four 2 J laser pulses during one flashlamp pulse. These lasers are used in the Thomson scattering plasma diagnostic system on the MST reversed-field pinch to record the dynamic evolution of the electron temperature profile and temperature fluctuations. To further these investigations, a custom pulse-burst laser system with a maximum pulse repetition rate of 250 kHz is now being commissioned.     

Ablation drilling of invar alloy using ultrashort pulsed laser

Drilling a hole in Invar alloy is accomplished by using a nanosecond pulsed Nd:YAG laser. However, this process has a few problems, such as heat effect and poor edge quality. Therefore, the ablation properties of the Invar alloy were investigated by using an ultrashort pulsed laser, which is a regenerative amplifier Ti:sapphire laser with a 1 kHz repetition rate, a 184 fs pulse duration, and a 785 nm wavelength. To study the ablation characteristics of the Invar alloy, we measured the ablation shape, width, and ablated depth at the energy fluence of a single pulse. The optimal condition for hole drilling is a z-axis transfer depth of 4 μm, a circular feed rate of 0.2 mm/s, and a pulse energy of 26.4 μJ. A fine circular hole without burrs and thermal damage were obtained under the optimal processing conditions. The ultrashort pulsed laser system is an excellent tool for micro-hole drilling in Invar alloys without heat effects and poor edge quality.     

Note: self Q-switched Nd:YVO4 laser at 914 nm

By exploiting the saturable nature of re-absorption loss under the quasi-three-level laser transition self Q-switching operation in Nd:YVO(4) laser at 914 nm is demonstrated. The stable self-pulsing operation was observed with Nd:YVO(4) crystal with doping concentration of 0.3 at.%. At an incident pump power of 30 W around 600 mW of average power was obtained. Individual pulse energy and FWHM pulse duration were experimentally measured to be 10 μJ and 460 ns, respectively. The performance of the laser was analyzed with the help of a rate equation model. The simulation results show good agreement with the experiment.     

Effects of Operating Parameters on the Static Properties ofPulsed Laser Welded Zinc-Coated Steel.

The paper presents an analysis of the influences of the dominant parameters of the pulsed Nd:YAG laser seam welding process on the static behaviour of the welds. These parameters include average peak power density (APPD), mean laser power, traverse speeds, pulse duration, and pulse shapes. Three typical temporal pulse types – ramp-up, ramp-down, and "rectangu-lar" power pulses were used in this study. Laser seam welds were produced in 0.7 mm thick electrogalvanised steel sheets. A number of destructive tests of pulsed Nd:YAG laser welded zinc-coated steel sheet have been carried out to characterise the static properties of welds including hardness, bending strength, and ductility. An experimental study of acceptable welds revealed that the hardness was affected only by the traverse speed. The bend strength was increased with decreas-ing travel speed and increasing pulsed laser parameters. It was found that the operating parameters have no effect on the tensile strengths of the welds.     

外腔型YVO4拉曼激光器

采用提拉法生长了高光学质量的YVO4晶体,最大尺寸为28mm×40mm,重126g。以脉冲宽度为40皮秒的Nd:YAG锁模激光器作为激发源,研究了YVO4晶体在外置谐振腔条件下的拉曼输出特性：多波长输出的总转换效率达到51.4%,最大输出能量2.21mJ;1175nm一级斯托克斯拉曼输出的最高转换效率为32%,最大输出能量0.57mJ;1313nm二级斯托克斯拉曼输出的最高转换效率为12.3%,最大输出能量0.36mJ。     

Parametric analysis and optimization of Nd:YAG laser micro-grooving of aluminum titanate (Al2TiO5) ceramics

Pulsed Nd:YAG Laser offers an excellent role for various micro-machining operations of a wide range of engineering materials such as ceramics, composites, diamond etc. The micro-machining of ceramics are highly demanded in the present industry because of its wide and potential uses in various field such as automobile, electronic, aero-space, and bio-medical engineering applications etc. Aluminum titanate (Al₂TiO₅) has tremendous application in automobile and aero engine industry due to its excellent thermal property. The present research paper deals with the response surface methodology based mathematical modeling and analysis on machining characteristics of pulsed Nd:YAG laser during micro-grooving operation on a work piece of aluminum titanate. In this present study, lamp current, pulse frequency, pulse width, assist air pressure and cutting speed of laser beam are considered as machining process parameters during pulsed Nd:YAG laser micro-grooving operation. The response criteria selected for analysis are deviation of taper and deviation of depth characteristics of micro-groove produced on a work piece made of aluminum titanate (Al₂TiO₅). The analysis of variance test has also been carried out to check the adequacy of the developed regression mathematical models. The optimal process parameter settings are assist air pressure of 1.3 kgf/cm², lamp current of 20.44 amp, pulse frequency of 1.0 kHz, pulse width of 10% of duty cycle, and cutting speed of 10 mm/s for achieving the predicted minimum deviation of taper and deviation of depth of laser micro-groove. From the analysis, it is evident that the deviation of taper angle and deviation of depth of the micro-groove can be reduced by a great extent by proper control of laser machining process parameters during micro-grooving on aluminum titanate (Al₂TiO₅).     

Characterization of hole circularity in pulsed Nd:YAG laser micro-drilling of TiN–Al2O3 composites

In micro-manufacturing, circularity of a drilled hole at entry and exit are important attributes which greatly influence the quality of a drilled hole. This study investigates the effect of five parameters in the circularity of drilled holes in pulsed Nd:YAG laser micro-drilling process. The drilling operation has been carried out on titanium nitride–alumina (TiN–Al₂O₃) composite, an important electroconductive ceramics suitable for wear and heating applications. The effect of various process parameters like lamp current, pulse frequency, pulse width, air pressure, and focal length of Nd:YAG laser micro-drilling on hole circularity at entry and exit has been investigated through response-surface-methodology-based experimental study. The parametric combination for optimal hole circularity at entry and exit has also been evaluated.     

Detection of dust on JET with the high resolution Thomson scattering system

Dust particles have been observed with Thomson scattering systems on several tokamaks. We present here the first evidence of dust particles observed by the new high resolution Thomson scattering system on JET. The system consists of filter spectrometers that analyze the Thomson scattering spectrum from 670 to 1050 nm in four spectral channels. The laser source is a 5 J Q-switched Nd:YAG laser. Without a spectral channel at the laser wavelength, only dust particles that emit broadband light could be detected; these particles have been observed on JET after disruptions. The timing of their emission is clearly different from that expected for a Thomson scattering pulse. The light pulse from dust happens after the peak of the laser light and has a long tail.     

Laser ablation source for formation and deposition of size-selected metal clusters

This work describes construction of a source and optimisation of its parameters for production of cluster ion beams using material ablation by the second harmonic of a Nd:YAG laser (532 nm). The influence of different source parameters such as carrier gas pressure, laser power, delay time between gas, and laser pulses as well as nozzle configuration on the cluster formation are studied. For the current experiments the laser ablation cluster source was optimized for production of Con+ cluster ions. Clusters with n up to 150 atoms are registered by a time-of-flight mass spectrometer. Deposition of size-selected Co50+ clusters with kinetic energies in the interval of 250-4850 eV/cluster on highly ordered pyrolytic graphite is studied. At the highest impact energies the clusters are implanted. Craters and well-like structures can be seen by scanning tunneling microscopy at impact spots. A decrease in cluster kinetic energy leads to formation of bumplike structures which probably represent damaged graphite areas with incorporated Co atoms. Further decrease in the cluster impact energy to the level of 450-250 eV/cluster creates condition for so-called cluster pinning when the cluster constituents are intact but the energy transferred to the graphite is still enough to produce radiation defects to which the cluster is bound.     

长脉宽脉冲激光硅片弯曲成形试验

利用毫秒脉宽Nd:YAG激光对硅片进行了弯曲试验,给出了长脉宽脉冲激光弯曲硅片的能量阈值条件。研究了长脉宽Nd:YAG激光脉冲频率和脉冲宽度参数对硅片弯曲角度的影响,同时说明了脉冲频率和脉冲宽度参数对弯曲角度的影响可以转换成扫描速度和功率密度对弯曲角度的影响,并对试验结果进行了分析,引入了脉冲占空比来表征能量的时域分布对弯曲现象的影响。试验结果表明,采用毫秒量级脉冲激光可以对硅片进行弯曲加工,弯曲角度可达20°以上。     

A two-wave 1064/532-nm diode-pumped pulse-periodic YAG:Nd laser

A compact 1064/532-nm diode-pumped pulse-periodic YAG:Nd laser is described. Its parameters are as follows: the wavelength is 1064 nm, the pulse energy is 1.2 J, the pulse duration is 5 ns, the pulse repetition rate is 100 Hz, and the beam divergence is ≤1.6 mrad. The laser light efficiency is 12%, and the full efficiency of the laser system is 4%. Two lasing modes are realized in the laser: at the fundamental frequency and with the frequency conversion into the second harmonic at a wavelength of 532 nm and a pulse energy of 0.3 J.     

Synchronization of Thomson scattering measurements on MAST using an FPGA based "Smart" trigger unit

The MAST Thomson scattering diagnostic has recently been upgraded to make electron density and temperature measurements at 130 points across the 1.5 m diameter of the plasma. The new system is able to take 240 measurements per second using eight Nd:YAG lasers, each running at 30 Hz. The exact firing time of these lasers is adjusted with 100 ns precision using a field programmable gate array based trigger unit. Trigger pulses are produced to fire the lamps of all lasers and the Q switches with the appropriate delay depending on the warm-up status. The lasers may be fired in rapid bursts so as to achieve a high temporal resolution over eight points separated down to the microsecond level. This trigger unit receives optical trigger events and signals from external sources, allowing the trigger sequences to be resynchronized to the start of the plasma pulse and further events during the shot such as the entry of a fuelling pellet or randomly occurring plasma events. This resynchronization of the laser firing sequence allows accurate and reproducible measurements of fast plasma phenomena.     

毫秒激光金属打孔的解析和实验

研究了用毫秒脉宽的长脉冲激光单个脉冲打深孔的成形过程和打孔速率.首先,由切割法得到了1 ms脉宽的Nd:YAG高斯激光对厚铝板打孔时孔的形貌,激光能量为7.9和28.9 J时,对应的孔深分别为1.849和2.975 mm.根据实验建立了轴对称模型,通过热传导方程得到了固相温度的解析解.然后,假设物质一旦熔融就离开孔,由...     

The laser dressing of resin-bonded CBN wheels by a Q-switched Nd: YAG laser

Resin-bonded cubic boron nitride (CBN) grinding wheels are widely used in industry due to their good grinding ability. There is, therefore, a need to find a good method suitable for the dressing of these wheels. This paper presents a new method dressed by an acoustic-optic Q-switched Nd: YAG laser based on thermal interaction, which is unlike the conventional mechanical dressing methods based on force interaction. The mechanism of the selective removal of the bond was analysed. Experiments of a single pulse ablation on the resin bond and the CBN grains, and the laser dressing of resin-bonded CBN wheels with different dressing parameters have been carried out. The grinding force has been compared for the conventional mechanical dressed wheel and the laser dressed wheel. It is shown that the resin-bonded CBN grinding wheel is suitable for an acoustic-optic Q-switched Nd: YAG laser dressing with radial irradiation, which is better than a continuous wave (CW) laser dressing with radial irradiation and conventional mechanical dressing methods.     

6.5W LD泵浦914 nm钒酸钇激光器

掺钕钒酸钇作为一种重要的激光增益介质,以其受激发射截面大、对809 nm波长存在很强的宽吸收带、偏振发射等优点,在LD端面泵浦全固态激光器中得到了广泛的应用,其中比较有应用价值的受激发射谱线为1 064 nm,1 342 nm和914 nm。由于914 nm谱线属准三能级结构,以及钒酸钇晶体较低的热导率,限制了其向大功率方向的发展。研究了一种具有较高效率的大功率钒酸钇连续输出激光器,通过采用简单的折叠腔设计和对腔镜镀适当的介质膜,抑制了波长为1 064 nm和1 342 nm的高增益谱线。当泵浦功率为29W时,输出功率高达6.5W,斜效率为37.9%,光光转换效率为22.4%.     

YVO4-Nd:YVO4复合晶体热效应研究

在全固态激光器中使用了复合结构的激光晶体,通过端面泵浦复合晶体工作特点分析,提出了矩形截面复合晶体热分析模型。在热模型中,考虑了复合晶体具有轴向加热、周边恒温,耦合后的泵浦光束具有高斯分布的特点。利用热传导方程,得出了YVO₄-Nd:YVO₄复合晶体内部温度场及端面热形变的一般解析表达式。研究结果表明,若用输出功率为20 W的激光二极管端面泵浦YVO₄-Nd:YVO₄复合晶体(其中复合晶体中YVO₄晶体长为2 mm,Nd:YVO₄晶体长为6 mm,钕离子掺杂质量分数为0.5%),泵浦光斑为0.2 mm时,复合晶体内最大温升为324.5 ℃,泵浦端面具有3.61 mm的热形变量。在相同泵浦条件下,采用复合晶体替代Nd:YVO₄晶体,可将其最大温升降低23.4%,这对于消弱激光晶体热效应的影响,解决激光二极管端面泵浦激光晶体引起的非均匀温升以及热折裂问题,提高激光器性能有着重要的意义。     

Single-frequency coherent terahertz-wave generation using two Cr:forsterite lasers pumped using one Nd:YAG laser

We have developed a compact terahertz-wave generator using two small Cr:forsterite lasers with single Nd:YAG laser pumping based on difference frequency generation in a GaP crystal. A Cr:forsterite laser was constructed with diffraction gratings, by which the pulse duration and delay time of the Cr:forsterite laser depend on the Cr:forsterite laser energy and the cavity length. The Cr:forsterite laser energy was tuned using the optical alignment and pumping energy. Temporal overlap of two Cr:forsterite laser pulses was realized at the GaP crystal. A single-frequency terahertz wave was generated at energy of 4.7 pJ around 2.95 THz using a 30-cm-long Cr:forsterite laser system.     

Simple laser pulse energy monitor

A simple and inexpensive relative energy monitor for short laser pulses is described. The three basic units of this system are an integrating detector circuit, an amplifier, and a peak detector and hold circuit. With this device one can measure optical pulse energies (at 1.06 microm) as small as 1.0 nJ with an electronic accuracy of approximately 1%.     

A Pulse Two-Channel Nd:YAG Laser for Recording and Development of Photothermoplastic Holograms

A Nd:YAG laser with intracavity polarization decoupling of channels is designed to be used in devices for the recording and development of holograms on photothermoplastic materials. The device ensures the obtainment of nanosecond radiation pulses (30 ns, 0.01 J) of the second harmonic for exposure of photothermoplastic media and millisecond (4 ms, 0.5 J) IR radiation pulses at the fundamental frequency for proximate development of relief-phase holograms on photothermoplastic materials.