We obtained 51 W of UV laser light at 343nm for 8 ns temporally square-shape pulse at 400 kHz repetition rate which corresponds to a peak power of 42.5kW and a conversion rate of 38% from a 133W linearly polarized signal at 1030nm. This high UV power is achieved by third harmonic generation of infrared beam which is generated thanks to a newly developed Ytterbium-doped rod-type high-power amplifier effectively singlemode fiber with a hybrid hexagonal and aperiodic cladding design. Two fibers with MFD at 47µm and 67µm were tested. The 47µm MFD fiber allow to reach up to 200W of singlemode signal before the TMI appearance. This fiber can deliver 150 W of 1030 nm signal with a 250 W pump light, for different nanosecond pulse durations and repetition rates with excellent beam quality (M²<1.1).
We developed two Ytterbium-doped rod-type effective singlemode fibers based on new hexagonal FA-LPF design, exhibiting MFD of 47μm and 67μm. Both fibers can deliver 150W of 1030nm signal for 250W of pump power, characterized in a MOPA set-up for different nanosecond pulse durations and repetition rate with excellent beam quality (M2 ⪅ 1.1). Using the 47μm MFD fiber, TMI threshold has been measured for signal power slightly higher than 200W. Using the 67μm MFD fiber, we performed, through a third harmonic generation, the creation of 51W signal power at 343nm for 8ns temporally square pulse at 400 kHz repetition rate.
Silica fibers are successful at delivering high-power high-energy signals in the near-infrared and visible but suffer from high absorption and color formation in the UV spectrum. Hollow-core negative-curvature antiresonant fibers are promising alternatives as UV radiation has a low overlap with the guiding microstructure. However, their power scaling is hindered by the microstructure power handling and only a few tens to a few hundreds of milliwatt were reported delivered from the nano to the femtosecond regimes. We report on a record single-mode delivery of 23.3W (155μJ) with 89.1% transmission from a 343 nm, 10 ns, 150 kHz laser source developed by Bloom Lasers.
Single crystal fiber (SCF) is a hybrid laser architecture between conventional bulk laser crystals and active optical fibers
allowing higher average powers than with conventional crystals and higher energy than with fibers in pulsed regime. The
pump beam delivered by a fiber-coupled laser diode is confined by the guiding capacity of the SCF whereas the signal
beam is in free propagation. In this paper, we study the pump guiding in the SCF and give an overview of the results
obtained using SCF gain modules in laser oscillators and amplifiers. We report about up to 500 μJ nanosecond pulses at
the output of a passively Q-switched Er:YAG SCF oscillator at 1617 nm. High power experiments with Yb:YAG
allowed to demonstrate up to 250 W out of a multimode oscillator. High power 946 nm Nd:YAG SCF Q-switched
oscillators followed by second and fourth harmonic generation in the blue and the UV is also presented with an average
power up to 3.4 W at 473 nm and 600 mW at 236.5 nm. At 1064 nm, we obtain up to 3 mJ with a nearly fundamental
mode beam in sub-nanosecond regime with a micro-chip laser amplified in a Nd:YAG SCF. Yb:YAG SCF amplifiers are
used to amplify fiber based sources limited by non-linearities such as Stimulated Brillouin Scattering with a narrow
linewidth laser and Self Phase Modulation with a femtosecond source. Using chirped pulse amplification, 380 fs pulses
are obtained with an energy of 1 mJ and an excellent beam quality (M2<1.1).
We describe a multi-stages single crystal fiber (SCF) amplifier for the amplification of femtosecond pulses with radial or azimuthal polarization in view of high speed material processing (surface structuring, drilling). We demonstrate a three stages diode-pumped Yb:YAG single crystal fiber amplifier to achieve femtosecond pulses at an average power of 85W at 20 MHz in radial and azimuthal polarization.
We present some anisotropy properties of the Yb:CALGO with a spatial mode switching when pumped in the multihundred watts of power. This allows to automatically stabilize a TEM00 mode from highly spatial-multimode regime. This stabilization is achievable thanks to a polarization mode switching allowed by the particular anisotropic spectroscopy and thermal properties of Yb:CALGO.
We present laser operation of a 750 μm diameter Er:YAG single crystal fibers pumped at 1470 nm. Laser output performances are numerically simulated, experimentally measured and compared. In Passive Q-switch regime, we obtained pulse energy of 180 μJ around 500 Hz at 1617 nm without any spectral selecting element. Pulse duration is 33 ns. By controlling the saturable absorber temperature, we succeeded to improve the output energy up to 270 μJ. These results show the interesting potential of Er:YAG single crystal fiber for compact and low power consumption rangefinders.
We demonstrated growth of YAG, LuAG and CALGO single crystal fibers with doping Nd, Yb, Er, and Ce by the
micro-pulling-down technique. Those fibers have applications in high power lasers and scintillating detectors. For laser
operation, average power of 65 W energy of 4 mJ and peak power above 7 MW have been demonstrated in various
configurations. Those results push the limits of end-pumped bulk crystals in terms of average power and exceed the
limits of pulsed fibers lasers in terms of energy. For scintillating applications, high density/high light yield detectors are
developed for nuclear science and medical applications.
We demonstrated laser operation of a Er:YAG single crystal fiber at 1617 nm. Pumped on both sides by a laser diode at
1532 nm, a 600 μm diameter- 60 mm long- single crystal fiber produced an output power of 5.5 W once the wavelength
1617 nm was selected by an intracavity etalon. In Q-switched operation with an acousto-optic modulator, the laser
produced an energy of 0.5 mJ at 100 Hz repetition rate with a pulse duration of 28 ns. The Watt level in average power
was achieved for a repetition rate of 3 kHz with a pulse duration maintained around 30 ns.
We describe an efficient laser emission from a directly grown Er3+:YAG single-crystal fiber that is resonantly pumped
using a continuous-wave (CW) laser diode at 1532 nm. In a longitudinal pumping, it emits 12.5 W at 1645 nm with a
slope efficiency of 32%, which is the highest ever reported for a directly grown Er:YAG single-crystal fiber laser. Using
an off-axis pumping scheme, CW output powers up to 7.3 W can be reached and in Q-switched operation, the laser
produces 2 mJ pulses with a duration of 38 ns at the repetition rate of 1 kHz with an M2 factor below 1.8. To our
knowledge this is the first directly grown Er3+:YAG single-crystal fiber Q-switched laser. In dual-side pumping scheme a
laser emission at 1617 nm is achieved with output powers up to 5.7 W representing the highest output power ever
achieved by a diode-pumped Er:YAG laser at this wavelength.
We describe an efficient laser emission from a directly grown Er3+:YAG single-crystal fiber that is resonantly pumped
using a continuous-wave (CW) laser diode at 1532 nm. In a longitudinal pumping, it emits 12.5 W at 1645 nm with a
slope efficiency of 32%, which is the highest ever reported for a directly grown Er:YAG single-crystal fiber laser. Using
an off-axis pumping scheme, CW output powers up to 7.3 W can be reached and in Q-switched operation, the laser
produces 2 mJ pulses with a duration of 38 ns at the repetition rate of 1 kHz with an M2 factor below 1.8. To our
knowledge this is the first directly grown Er3+:YAG single-crystal fiber Q-switched laser.
Recent developments of the micro-pulling down technique lead to efficient laser demonstration with Nd:YAG single
crystal fibers. Indeed these media which benefit from the spectroscopic and thermal properties of bulk crystals and from
the thin and long shape of glass fibers are ideal candidates for high average and high peak power laser systems. In this
work, we investigate the potential of Yb:YAG single crystal fibers. After a careful design taking into account the quasithree
level structure of the Yb3+ ions, we grew single crystal fibers by the micro-pulling down technique. With a 1 at.%
doped and 40 mm long single crystal fiber of 1 mm in diameter, we obtained a power of 50 W in CW operation under
200 W of incident pump power. In the Q-switched regime, we achieved pulses with an energy of 1.8 mJ at 5 kHz and a
duration of 13 ns for 120 W of pump power. We measured a M² value below 2.5. We also investigated the thermal
management of our system by the use of thermal cartography and Finite Element Analysis, showing a maximum
temperature smaller than 120°C reached on the pumped end face for 200 W of pump power. These results are a very
promising to design high average power and high peak power laser sources.
Yb:CaGdAlO4 is a near infrared material which recently demonstrated very interesting features for the development of
the next generation of diode-pumped femtosecond lasers. This material presents two main assets as far as diode pumped
high power lasers are concerned. First, it has to our best knowledge, the broadest and the flattest emission band of the
Yb:doped crystals. This allowed the generation of 68 fs pulses at an average power of 520 mW. The measured thermal
conductivity for 2 at. % Yb:CaGdAlO4 is 6.9 and 6.3 W K-1 m-1 along the a and c axis, respectively. These values are
very similar to those of the doped Yb:YAG and allow to reach high output power with limited thermal effects. In the
present work, we investigate the performance of Yb3+:CaGdAlO4 for ytterbium concentration ranging between 2% and
5%, under low power diode pumping, in order to optimize the absorption and wavelength tunability. Then the 2%
Yb:CaGdAlO4 under high power diode pumping (100 W @ 980 nm) has been evaluated in a standard laser cavity and 15
W of output laser power have been obtained for 42 W absorbed.
We designed single-crystal fibers to combine excellent spectroscopic and thermo-mechanical properties of bulk crystals
and ability of pump guiding and good heat repartition of doped glass fibers. Such single-crystal fibers of excellent optical
quality were grown by the micro-pulling-down technique. A remarkable advantage of this technique is that pump
guiding is achieved in the directly grown fiber without additional polishing on the cylinder. We designed 0.2%-Nd doped
YAG crystal fibers sample of 50 mm and 1 mm diameter and AR coated on both end faces. It was longitudinally pumped
by a fiber-coupled laser diode with a maximum output power of 120 W at 808 nm. Laser emission at 1064 nm was
achieved inside a two concave mirrors cavity. We obtained 20 W of laser emission with a M2 quality factor of 6, for an
incident pump power of 120 W and a slope efficiency of 18% without any thermal management problems. Besides, a
power of 16 W with linearly polarized laser emission has been obtained under the same pump power by introducing a
thin plate polarizer in the cavity. An acousto-optical modulator was inserted inside the cavity and 360 kW of peak power
with 12 ns pulses at 1 kHz repetition rate were achieved under 60 W of pump power. This work shows real
improvements of laser performances in directly grown single crystal fibers. A complete thermal study confirms a good
heat management and demonstrates scalability to high average power laser sources.
Emission of Yb: CALGO is constituted of a broad band lying between 990 nm and 1060 nm with relatively high emission cross section values. Since Yb3+ ions occupy a single crystallographic
site, the disorder is related to the surrounding cations presenting different size and cationic charges. Laser experiments were performed on a 2%Yb:CALGO sample with anti-reflection
coating using Ti:sapphire pumping at 979 nm. A laser oscillation was obtained in sigma polarization from 1050 to 987.6 nm using non-collinear pumping. Consequently, a quantum defect value as low as 0.8% was obtained. This is one of the smallest values ever reported in the literature. In addition the thermal conductivity values are high (k=6.3 and 6.9 W.m-1.K-1 for the
two orientations).
The first experimental demonstration of a diode-pumped passively mode-locked femtosecond
laser based on an Yb3+:CaGdAlO4 single crystal is reported here. Yb3+:CaGdAlO4 (Yb:CALGO)
seems to be one of the most interesting since it both exhibits one of the broadest and smoothest
emission spectrum (from 990 to 1080 nm) among ytterbium-doped materials and a relatively
high thermal conductivity. The oscillator is directly diode-pumped by a high brightness 5-W
fiber coupled laser diode and pulses are produced using a SESAM. It allows the production of
pulses as short as 47 fs at 1050 nm, that is to our knowledge, the shortest laser pulses ever
obtained from an oscillator based on Yb3+-doped bulk materials. The average power was 38 mW
and the repetition rate 109 MHz.
We report on direct, absolute and spatially resolved temperature measurements in various diode-end-pumped laser crystals, using an infrared camera. Our measurement method requires careful calibrations of the camera, to take into account the emissivity of the crystals. We tested the repeatability of the calibration process, and the linearity of calibrations curves was verified to up to 100°C. We obtained good agreement between experimental results and finite elements analysis simulations done with LASCAD. We also studied and compared different types of thermal contacts and to measure the corresponding heat transfer coefficients using an Yb:YAG crystal. Finally we tried to highlight one of the major controversy concerning the comparison of the thermal behaviours of Nd:YVO4 and Nd:GdVO4 crystals.
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