We demonstrated an improved-beam-quality improved Er:YSGG laser emitting at wavelength of 2.79 μm by applying the Innoslab hybrid stable–unstable resonator and composite crystal with undoped YSGG section bonded to the pump side. With a space-combined, high peak power 976-nm quasicontinuous laser-diode stack and optimized coupling system, we obtained the maximum average output power of 10.2 W at 100 Hz repetition frequency and 500 μs pulse width, corresponding to the slope efficiency of 16.6%. The beam quality factors of M2 were measured to be 3.3 and 2.6 in the fast and slow axis directions, respectively. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first mid-infrared laser designed with Innoslab hybrid stable–unstable resonator ever reported.
We report on a long-pulse, quasicontinuous wave partially end-pumped slab (INNOSLAB) amplifier at 1319 nm. The low-pulse-energy seed laser was amplified to 8.24 mJ at repetition of 500 Hz by five-pass amplification. The beam quality factors are 1.70 and 1.28 in the horizontal and vertical directions, respectively. The optical–optical efficiency was 1.16% under the pump power of 187.5 W. The experimental results match well with the numerical simulation. The optical–optical efficiency can be improved to about 10% with higher absorption efficiency of the pump source and higher overlapping efficiency between the pump light and 1319-nm seed laser. And further improvements can be realized by optimizing the input pulse energy density and the pass of amplification.
A high-power tunable Littrow grating external-cavity tapered semiconductor laser is designed in this paper. By using the grating external cavity to lock the wavelength and narrow the linewidth, we gained a series of single-frequency laser with the central wavelength at 927 nm, tunable range >20nm and linewidth < 980 fm with the continuous pumping. When the wavelength is 926.8 nm, the threshold current is 1.25A and the oblique efficiency is 0.682 W/A. When the injection current increases to 4A, the maximum output power is up to 1.906W, with the electro-optic efficiency of 21.7%, the linewidth of 700fm, and the beam quality of 1.948 and 3.788 in the fast and slow axis respectively.
It’s widely agreed that optical characteristics at crystal boundary may change comparing to the internal part of bulk crystal but, as far as we know, sometimes the phenomenon, for example, the variation of susceptibility usually can’t be intuitively, simply presented in experiments. Recently, we observe a kind of special harmonic generation which is at the same wavelength as incident light. Besides, this kind of harmonic generation behaves in a similar way with nonlinear Cherenkov radiation, thus we call it linear Cherenkov radiation (LCR). We theoretically predict and calculate the phase-matching scheme and radiation path of LCR. In our experiment, we employ a polished KDP to verify our theory about the conversion of polarization in this process, and the phenomenon also help to rule out the possibility of birefringence at boundary. Combining with the coupling wave equation, we can derive new elements in linear susceptibility tensor according to the polarization states of incident light and LCR. The result tells us the linear susceptibility at the KDP boundary is assuredly different from that in bulk crystal, and this is mainly because of the breakdown of crystal symmetry at boundary, in our opinion. The existence of LCR is evidence of the variation of linear susceptibility. And in return, we could use this phenomenon to probe the non-zero elements in the tensor.
We demonstrate the quasi-continuous-wave long-pulsed operation of a compact all-solid-state modeless laser based on intracavity frequency-shifted feedback by an acousto-optic modulator. The laser active medium is an Nd:YAG crystal rod, side-pumped by high-brightness laser diodes of 808 nm. When the pump repetition and duration are 200 Hz and 250 μs, the maximum single pulse energy of 85 mJ is produced at an optical conversion efficiency of ~34%, and also a good beam quality of M2X = 1.80 and M2Y = 1.78 is obtained in the horizontal and vertical directions respectively. Moreover, a narrow continuous spectrum is achieved with the 3-dB linewidth of 75 pm (i.e. 20 GHz) and the center wavelength of 1064.16 nm. Via the sum frequency generation, such a long-pulse (several hundred μs), narrow-linewidth modeless laser source is preferred for solving the major problem of saturation of the mesospheric sodium atoms and can create a much brighter sodium guide star to meet the needs of adaptive imaging applications in astronomy.
KEYWORDS: Semiconductor lasers, Diffraction gratings, Diffraction, Deep ultraviolet, High power lasers, Nonlinear frequency conversion, Polarization, Laser systems engineering, Second-harmonic generation, Crystals
We reported a high-power narrowband blue diode laser which is suitable for subsequent nonlinear frequency conversion into the deep ultraviolet (DUV) spectral range. The laser is based on an external cavity diode laser (ECDL) system using a commercially available GaN-based high-power blue laser diode emitting at 448 nm. Longitudinal mode selection is realized by using a surface diffraction grating in Littrow configuration. The diffraction efficiency of the grating was optimized by controlling the polarization state of the laser beam incident on the grating. A maximum optical output power of 3.1 W in continuous-wave operation with a spectral width of 60 pm and a side-mode suppression ratio (SMSR) larger than 10 dB at 448.4 nm is achieved. Based on the experimental spectra and output powers, the theoretical efficiency and output power of the subsequent nonlinear frequency conversion were calculated according to the Boyd– Kleinman theory. The single-pass conversion efficiency and output power is expected to be 1.9×10-4 and 0.57 mW, respectively, at the 3.1 W output power of the ECDL. The high-power narrowband blue diode laser is very promising as pump source in the subsequent nonlinear frequency conversion.
For many applications, laser diodes with very narrow and stable emission wavelength are needed. The realization of mode selection by an external cavity system with a grating is widely used. The influence of longitudinal mode selection by external grating on the filamentation and catastrophic optical mirror damage (COMD) of 970 nm broad area single emitters is studied in this paper. The emitters worked at three configurations: free running, with 10% mirror feedback (mirror lasers), and 10% grating feedback (grating lasers). The grating lasers showed very short lifetime caused by COMD, while the free-running lasers and mirror lasers show no power degradation. The COMD was confirmed by optical microscope showing cracking and melting of the optical antireflective (AR) coatings. By observing the near-field pattern of the three lasers, the COMD of the grating lasers was attributed to the pronounced filamentation induced by the grating feedback. What’s more, the filamentations vary when the locked wavelength change which indicates that the carrier dynamics thus the refractive index profile is very sensitive to the locked lasing wavelength.
We developed a tunable-line-width 101 W average-power all-solid-state 589nm double spectral line sodium beacon laser. The laser was based on the technical route of 1064nm and 1319nm Nd:YAG laser extra cavity sum frequency generation. The laser contained two spectral lines: 589.1591 nm and 589.1571 nm. The former line was matched to the sodium D2a absorption line with the average power of 81W, while the other line was matched to the sodium D2b absorption line with the average power of 20W. The beam quality of the two spectral line lasers was both less than 1.3. The two lasers were polarized-combined to transmit coaxially. The initial line width of the laser was about 0.3GHz, which was in the comb-like discrete structure of about three longitudinal modes. We used a white noise generator to modulate the 1064nm single frequency seed laser in frequency domain. The line width’s tunability was accomplished by tuning the driving power of the white noise generator. The final line width tuning range of the 589nm laser was ~0.3GHz to ~1.1GHz.
True blue nitride laser diodes (LDs) are one of the key challenges for epitaxy of nitrides due to the variety of its potential applications. The growth of high temperature p-type layers may cause thermal degradation of the InGaN-based multiple quantum wells (MQWs) active region because of the annealing effect, since thick p-AlGaN layers were introduced as upper optical cladding layer in the LDs. The degradation was found in blue LDs grown on both Si and sapphire substrate. In the degraded LD wafer samples, “Dark” non-radiative MQWs regions were observed by microscopic photoluminescence. Formation of metallic indium precipitates and voids in these regions were confirmed by transmission electron microscope. The thermal degradation is attributed to the decomposition of indium-rich InGaN materials in the MQWs. The indium-rich InGaN materials were supposed to be accumulated at dislocation related V-shaped pits according to the surface morphology by atomic force microscope. To obtain high quality InGaN-based MQWs, one of the four methods can be introduced to eliminate the degradation. A lower thermal budget can suppress the decomposition of indium-rich InGaN clusters by a lower p-cladding layer growth temperature. The use of low threading dislocation density substrates results in low density indium-rich InGaN clusters. The introducing of H2 carrier gas during the quantum barriers growth or a 2-step growth scheme with a higher quantum barrier growth temperature etches off the indium-rich InGaN clusters. The suppression of the thermal degradation in the MQWs makes it possible for lasing of blue laser diode directly grown on Si.
An 81 W average-power all-solid-state sodium beacon laser at 589 nm with a repetition rate of 250 Hz is introduced, which is based on a novel sum frequency generation idea between two high-energy, different line widths, different beam quality infrared lasers (a 1064 nm laser and a 1319 nm laser). The 1064 nm laser, which features an external modulated CW single frequency seed source and two stages of amplifiers, can provide average-power of 150 W, beam quality M2 of ~1.8 with ultra-narrow line width (< 100 kHz). The 1319 nm laser can deliver average-power of 100 W, beam quality M2
of ~3.0 with a narrow line width of ~0.3 GHz. By sum frequency mixing in a LBO slab crystal (3 mm x 12 mm x 50 mm), pulse energy of 325 mJ is achieved at 589 nm with a conversion efficiency of 32.5 %. Tuning the center wavelength of 1064 nm laser by a PZT PID controller, the target beam’s central wavelength is accurately locked to 589.15910 nm with a line width of ~0.3 GHz, which is dominated mainly by the 1319 nm laser. The beam quality is measured to be M2 < 1.3. The pulse duration is measured to be 150 μs in full-width. To the best of our knowledge, this
represents the highest average-power for all-solid-state sodium beacon laser ever reported.
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