Short-pulse, high-power Q-switched fiber laser

A high-power, laser-diode-pumped, Q-switched fiber laser operating at 1.053 μm which is suitable for use in time-multiplexed fiber sensor applications is described. The laser emits >1-kW pulses at 1.053 μm with 2-ns duration at up to 1-kHz repetition rates for an adsorbed pump power of only 22 mW at 810 nm. Tunable Q-switched operation over a 40-nm wavelength range has also been demonstrated     

Laser diode-pumped internally folded Nd:YAG laser

A diode-pumped Nd:YAG laser in which the gain element is fabricated in the shape of an isosceles right-angle prism is described. An orthogonal face forms the highly reflective end of the resonator, while the hypotenuse serves as an internal fold mirror. Scaling was demonstrated by pumping the gain element along three axes simultaneously. The maximum power obtained was 1.3 W at 1.06 μm and 128 mW at 532 nm. Repetitive Q-switched operation is also reported     

High-power, mode-locked Nd:fibre laser pumped by aninjection-locked diode array

A neodymium-doped fibre laser has been actively mode-locked to produce pulses shorter than 120 ps using an intracavity acousto-optic loss modulator. The laser operated at 1.088 μm at an average power of 5 mW when pumped by an injection-locked diode array, which coupled approximately 40 mW of 0.82 μm into the fibre. A peak pulse power of 1 kW was obtained in Q-switched operation     

Continuous wave, Q-switched and mode-locked operation of alaser-pumped Nd:LNA laser

A linear cavity Nd:LNA laser pumped by a Ti:sapphire laser was investigated in a continuous wave (CW), Q-switched and mode-locked regime. A parallel study using a Nd:YAG crystal was also conducted using the same optics and intercavity elements. The slope efficiencies obtained with a 5% output coupler in CW operation are 41 and 55% for Nd:LNA (λ~1.054 nm) and Nd:YAG (λ~1.065 nm), respectively. Mode locking was achieved with a 360-MHz intracavity phase modulator and led to a relative improvement of the Nd:LNA versus the Nd:YAG device. In the Q-switched mode with an intracavity acoustooptic modulator, the performance of the two lasers is almost identical. With 300 mW of absorbed pump power at λ~800 nm, peak powers ~130 W were achieved in a 65-ns pulse with a 5% output coupler     

Short-pulsed 2.1 μm laser performance of Cr,Tm,Ho:YAG

An examination is conducted of Q-switching in flashlamp-pumped Cr,Tm,Ho:YAG 2.1 μm lasers. Experiments show that short-pulse operation in this material can exhibit comparable efficiencies to the long-pulse operation mode. Losses in overall efficiency are shown to be largely due to mode restriction in the resonator. A three-pulse extraction format is shown to improve slope efficiency by more than 200% compared to single Q-switched pulse extraction. The optimal interpulse interval was determined, revealing the time scale of the Tm sensitization process. Spectral shifts in the short-pulse operation mode were observed. Simultaneous dual-wavelength emission was found to be the most common mode of operation for the Q-switched laser     

A Q-switched diode-pumped neodymium yttrium aluminumborate laser

A report is presented on the first Q-switched laser operation of a room temperature CW diode-pumped Nd:YAB laser. The intense peak fundamental power obtained by Q-switching significantly enhances the green light output from the Nd:YAB laser through the second harmonic conversion process. A peak green power exceeding 3 W was obtained with a CW diode laser input power of 180 mW, as compared to a green output power of only about 1 mW under pure CW operation. Nd:YAB shows considerable promise as a room temperature self-doubling material. Diode-laser-pumped Nd:YAB lasers show promise as compact, and reliable green sources for practical applications     

Operation of erbium-doped fiber amplifiers and lasers pumped withfrequency-doubled Nd:YAG lasers

An optical amplifier consisting of an erbium-doped germanosilicate fiber optically pumped at 532 nm is described. Negligible excited-state absorption at 532 nm allows efficient pumping, enabling a gain of 34 dB at 1536 nm to be obtained for only 25 mW of pump power. The pulsed pump source produces negligible noise on the small signal if the pump repetition rate is above 10 kHz. Pulsed laser operation is achieved by pumping a Fabry-Perot erbium-doped fiber laser with a frequency-doubled Q-switched Nd:YAG laser. Pulses of 0.9-W peak power and 280-ns duration at 1.538-μm were obtained     

Mode-locked operation of a Nd:YLF laser and amplification in aQ-switched Nd:glass slab laser

A Nd:YLF laser pumped with a CW dye laser and acoustooptically mode locked at 38 MHz has an output power of 130 mW and a pulse length of 60 ps. Insertion of intracavity etalons and misaligning the mode locker allows for stable operation with a continuous range of pulse lengths from 60 ps to 4 ns. The 1.053-μm emission permits amplification of these pulses in a Q-switched Nd:phosphate glass slab laser oscillator up to intensities limited by optical damage     

Integrated Q-switched multiple-cavity glass waveguidelaser

A novel Q-switching scheme, using rapid variation of the path difference between the cavities of a multiple-cavity resonator, is described. A thermooptic phase modulator was used to switch the cavity loss of a Y-junction glass waveguide laser between high and low states. Q-switched pulses with durations of 5 μs and peak powers of 70 mW were obtained     

A self-injection locked, Q-switched, line-narrowed Ti:Al2O3 laser

Line-narrowing, Q-switched, and self-injection locking are studied independently and as a system. Line narrowing is shown both theoretically and experimentally to depend on the inverse square root of the pulse evolution time interval. Q switching of the Ti:Al₂O₃ laser is demonstrated and the laser output energy as a function of the Q-switch delay is investigated. Self-injection is demonstrated and the operation of the laser is explored as a function of loss and the Q-switch delay. Self-injection locking is demonstrated and the performance as a function of the Q-switch delay is determined     

Output beam focusability of a Nd:glass zig-zag slab laser

The focusability of a zig-zag optical path laser with a 230×65×5 mm Nd:glass for application to soft X-ray generation is described. A Q-switched laser output energy of 18.3 J with a pulse width of 28 ns was obtained in a phosphate glass LHG-5 (Nd:8 wt.%), with an extraction efficiency of 71% from a stored energy of 26 J at a pumping energy of 4 kJ. The focusability was achieved up to 6.2×10¹² W/cm² in a spot size of 100 μm, which was sufficient intensity to generate soft X-rays for X-ray lithography     

An EMQ-switched CO2 laser as a pump source for afar-infrared laser with a high peak power and a high repetitionrate

A modified current pulsed Q (EMQ)-switched CO₂ laser which is Q-switched by a mechanical beam chopper in combination with a pulsed discharge current is discussed. The laser produces a very stable output with a peak power greater than 1 kW at a repetition rate of 1000 p.p.s. for all transitions in the P and R branches of the CO₂ spectrum. A CH₃F laser pumped by the EMQ-switched laser produces 496 μm radiation in a 6.5 W peak, 100 ns pulses at 500 p.p.s. in the lowest loss EH₁₁ mode     

Ultrashort pulse generation from a passively mode-lockedTi:sapphire laser based system

The detailed characteristics of a passively mode-locked Ti:sapphire laser using saturable absorbers are described. This laser can stably generate nearly transform-limited sub-100-fs pulses around 780 nm. Combining this oscillator and a double-pass Ti:sapphire amplifier pumped by a CW Q-switched YAG laser (3 kHz) allows fiber-grating pulse compression down to 14 fs     

Transmission of water under erbium laser irradiation

Water can be used as a passive shutter for Q-switched erbium lasers. The switching mechanism induced in water under irradiation by 2.79- and 2.94-μm erbium laser light has been studied. It can be explained with a model based on evaporation. Time constants have been measured with a CW HeNe laser at 3.391 μm. The velocity of the vaporization front is about 10 m/s. This value leads to rise and fall times on the order of 10 μs in the given geometry     

Optical parametric amplification of a 1.54-μm single-mode DFBlaser in a Ti:LiNbO3 waveguide

Optical parametric amplification of radiation from a 1.54-μm single-mode DFB laser in a Ti:LiNbO₃ waveguide has been investigated by measuring the idler created in the nonlinear process. The pump was a frequency-doubled Nd:YAG laser at 532-nm wavelength, operated either Q-switched or both Q-switched and mode-locked to avoid permanent surface damage and to minimize photorefractive index changes. On comparison with theoretical predictions, the output was found to correspond to a pump power one order of magnitude below the true power in the waveguide. The highest gain obtained was 4.7 dB with 49 W of pump power in a 27-mm-long waveguide. Although the experimental results can be improved, it is obvious that the major difficulty to overcome is the large pump power required. The prospect of decreasing the power requirement by using materials with higher effective nonlinear coefficients or by using quasi-phase-matching techniques is discussed. A more fundamental drawback is that the amplification is polarization dependent, and it is unclear how this can be handled     

Effect of finite lower level lifetime on Q-switched lasers

Modeling of Q-switched laser operation for four-level lasers with finite lower-laser-level lifetime is presented. Extraction efficiency is reduced and pulse shape altered in comparison to the case of infinitely fast lower-level relaxation. This reduction in efficiency is dependent on the ratio of the lower state lifetime to the cavity lifetime, the number of times above threshold, and occupancy factors of the upper and lower laser manifolds. The model is applied to the case of a Nd:YAG laser operating at 1.064 μm. At worst, the extraction efficiency is 68% of that expected for infinitely fast relaxation     

Short pulse injection seeding of Q-switched Nd:glass laseroscillators-theory and experiment

A 0.5-GW-peak-power solid-state laser source that is based on injection seeding a Q-switched Nd:Glass laser is discussed. In the first experimental demonstration, a Q-switched oscillator producing 101 mJ was seeded by a train of 11-ps pulses from a CW (continuous-wave) mode-locked laser to produce injection-mode-locked pulses under a 91-ns envelope. A theoretical analysis of injection seeding of a high-gain Q-switched oscillator by the output of a mode-locked oscillator is presented. The numerical analysis predicts the minimum signal power required for injection mode locking and the temporal shape of the output pulse. The experimental results agree well with the theoretical predictions. The amplification demonstrated by this technique is 104.4 dB, which is much greater than that demonstrated by a multipass or regenerative amplifier. The experimental advantages of injection mode locking include greater than 100 dB of effective amplification and noncritical cavity length adjustment of the seed resonator     

Modulation instability and soliton-Raman generation inP2O5 doped silica fiber

Generation of high-repetition-rate modulation instability pulse trains and high- energy soliton-Raman pulses of ≃60 fs durations, in a single-mode P₂O₅-doped silica fiber, is reported. The 7 mol.% concentration P₂O₅ fiber was pumped in a single pass arrangement by a Q-switched and mode-locked Nd:YAG laser operated at 1.319 μm. Operating in the region of zero second-order dispersion, modulation instability Stokes sideband seeded resonantly cascade stimulated Raman scattering associated with Si-O-Si and P=0 vibration modes of the fiber. As a result, broad bandwidth and widely tunable 1.36-1.80 μm femtosecond pulses were obtained     

Development of EM field in lasers with rotating mirrorQ-switch

A fast-Fourier-transform (FFT) computational scheme based on a Fourier expansion technique is developed to calculate the development of an electromagnetic (EM) field from spontaneous noise inside a loaded rotating mirror Q-switched laser. A rate equations analysis is also carried out, using the FFT-calculated dependence of the diffraction loss on the fixed Q-switch mirror tilt angle. The computational results are compared with the output characteristics of an eye-safe (λ=1.54 μm) erbium glass laser. The experiments are in good qualitative and quantitative agreement with the predictions of the FFT mode. The model reveals short-duration intense spatial regions, as well as two types of temporal modulations of the laser output pulses. These modulations are attributed to the inhomogeneous development of the laser field in the longitudinal and transverse laser resonator direction. These irregularities must be taken into account when calculating eye-safety levels of rotating mirror Q-switched lasers     

Optimization of Q-switched lasers

The authors extend the standard rate equation analysis to obtain expressions for the maximum peak power, maximum pulse energy, and minimum pulsewidth of a single Q-switched output pulse; the maximum power efficiency of a repetitively Q-switched laser; and the corresponding cavity output couplings. Results are obtained analytically and numerically, and a comparison of the two sets of results is made. As a first step in this process the authors derive general expressions for the peak power, pulsewidth, pulse energy, and power efficiency. The authors next differentiate these expressions in order to find the maxima or minima that optimize the parameter of interest. Differentiation is done with respect to the cavity output coupling