We present a narrow linewidth frequency-doubled Cr:LiSAF laser with a 450- to 460-nm tunability and maximum repetition frequency (RF) of 63 kHz. Under a pump power of ∼900 mW, the fundamental wavelength could be tuned at the range of 883 to 1020 nm, with a maximum output power of 180 mW at 910 nm. The pulsed operation was achieved by using an acousto-optical modulator. An LBO crystal was adopted for intra-cavity frequency doubling and a maximum output power of 44.8 mW was obtained at 455 nm, indicating a slope efficiency of 11.2%. The spectral linewidth was <0.1 nm in the whole tuning range.
We report on the recent progress on high power pulsed 2.8 μm Er3+-doped ZBLAN fiber laser through techniques of passively and actively Q-switching in our research group. In passively Q-switched operation, a diode-cladding-pumped mid-infrared passively Q-switched Er3+-doped ZBLAN fiber laser with an average output power of watt-level based on a semiconductor saturable absorber mirror (SESAM) was demonstrated. Stable pulse train was produced at a slope efficient of 17.8% with respect to launched pump power. The maximum average power of 1.01 W at a repetition rate of 146.3 kHz was achieved with a corresponding pulse energy of 6.9 μJ. The maximum peak power was calculated to be 21.9 W. In actively Q-switched operation, a diode-pumped actively Q-switched Er3+-doped ZBLAN fiber laser at 2.8 μm with an optical chopper was reported. The maximum laser pulse energy of up to 130 μJ and a pulse width of 127.3 ns at a repetition rate of 10 kHz with an operating wavelength of 2.78 μm was obtained, yielding the maximum peak power of exceeding 1.1 kW.
We report a continuous wave (CW) all-solid-state Cr:LiSAF laser with a prism-controlled coupled-cavity. Broad-band tuning of 198 nm from 784 nm to 982 nm is demonstrated. The output power is always above 14 mW tuned from 825 nm to 975 nm and reaches the maximum value of 21.4 mW at 900 nm. Dual-wavelength operation is observed at the edge of the tuning range. The coupled-cavity passive loss is discussed and calculated to be 18%.
A general model has been developed for the optimization of the end-pumped solid-state lasers by including the effect of beam quality of the pump, and ellipticity of pump and oscillation beam into the overlap integrals. Previous models of mode-matching between oscillation and pump beam just consider of the ellipticity of pump beam, and assume the Gaussian oscillation beam to be circle TEM00 mode. Our model of mode-matching considers not only the ellipticity of the pump and oscillation beam, but also the angle of the long axis of the pump and oscillation beam. To illustrate the utility of the present model, an end-pumped Cr:LiSAF laser pumped is considered and the experimental results fit well with the theoretical results.
A pulsed Er3+-doped ZBLAN fiber laser at 2.8 μm in fundamental-transverse-mode operation is reported. Stable gainswitching
is achieved with the repetition rate range from 0.5 to 10 kHz. The maximum laser pulse energy of up to 4.2 μJ
and pulse duration of 1.18 μs at a repetition rate of 10 kHz, yielding the maximum peak power of 3.5 W, has been
obtained. The maximum slope efficiency with respect to the launched pump power at 975 nm is determined to be 12.2%.
Pulse spikes occur by increasing the pump energy of larger than 75 μJ.
The investigations of the XeF laser bumped by ultraviolet radiation have been studied for more than 20 years in Northwest Institute of Nuclear Technology (NINT Xi’an China). Up to now, several XeF laser devices were developed and an integrative experimental system has been set up which is comprised of a laser device, an electrical power supply, a high voltage trigger generator and a mixture gas supply device. Many key technologies were studied in detail and have been applied now. These technologies include section surface discharge, XeF2 photodissociation, synchronal trigger generating, double-sides optical pumping from opposite directions, active mixture gases supplying in real time, gases circulation, and so on. The XeF laser system operating on pulse repetition frequency (PRF) is up to 10 Hz. Two kinds of operating modes were applied. For the open gas flowing mode, the pulse energy of 3.2 J and the average power of 32 W at 10Hz is obtained. For the gases circumrotate mode, the average energy of 20 laser pulses is more than 0.5J.
This paper describes systematically the properties of the surface discharge pumping source. The pre-ionization technology was investigated. The characteristics of the surface discharge and the photodissociation wave of exciting media have been studied. The temporal and Spatial Stability of discharge were measured and analyzed. The discharge spectral and ablation rate of three different materials were obtained.
Excimer laser has been shown to be efficient tools in plasma physics and material science. Recent progress on techniques of beam control in excimer laser system required for energy scaling are overviewed, Configuration and initial results of a 100J/10ns, 18 beam excimer laser system are given.
We present the development of a laser damage and ablation test-bench able to accommodate ultrashort pulses down to 10
fs pulse duration. The laser test-bench is operated in air and we demonstrate its capability to accurately measure the
damage and ablation characteristics of optical materials, like fused silica, irradiated by single ultrashort pulses of < 15 fs
pulse duration. The careful characterization of beam propagation allows us to ascertain the precise retrieval of laserinduced
damage and ablation threshold fluences as well as to identify the energetic regime yielding to beam
filamentation.
The metrology of laser damage is essential for the development of intense laser chains and their applications, especially
in micromachining. We first present a test bench able to accurately measure the damage and ablation behaviour of
optical materials and components irradiated by femtosecond lasers (< 15 fs - 5 ps). We further illustrate the interest of
our measurements through examples related to laser technology and engineering, and also fundamental knowledge of
laser-matter interaction.
This paper presents the results of studies on high power photochemical XeF(C-A) laser with repetition mode. A new design of optical pumping source is proposed and the deposition efficiency is higher than 75 %. The form process and the temporal and spatial characteristics of the XeF2 photodissociation wave are studied experimentally. The results indicate that when the deposition power is 12.5 MW/cm, the maximum brightness temperature reaches more than 25 kK and the photon flux obtained more than 4×1023 photon s-1 cm-2 in the VUV range of 130 nm~180 nm. A novel XeF(C-A) laser which can be operated in repetition mode has been developed based on surface discharge optical pumping technique. The ideal output energy results of 20 laser pulses are presented under different repetitive rates and their optimal experimental conditions. Output energies of more than 4J and better stability can be obtained when the laser device operates at 1, 2 and 5 Hz, respectively. When the gas feed rate is larger than 53L/s, the average energy of 20 laser pulses is up to 3.2J at the repetitive rate of 10Hz. The technology for the laser spectral narrowing is studied.
High power acoustic sources, generated by laser-induced breakdown when high power laser is focused into water, have extensive application prospects in laser medicine and ocean exploration. Combining the models of sound column and plasma disc in laser-induced breakdown generated sound field, a plasma cylinder model is established. The directivity of the sound field, and it’s characteristics are mapped and analyzed through numerical simulation, as well as theoretical analysis. An experiment is designed and performed to verify the plasma cylinder model. The experimental results, which are in a good agreement with the simulation, reveal the maximum pressure amplitude of the acoustic signals is at the direction vertical to the light propagation, and present a distinct major-lobe and minor-lobes.
The design and performance of a closed cycle, repetitively pulsed HF laser is described. The homogeneous glow discharge is formed with UV pre-ionization and transverse discharge structure. The optimal output parameters of single pulse operation are given by the investigation of discharge characteristics in SF6 /C2H6 gas mixture and output characteristics of laser pulse. The repetitively pulse energy stability of laser device are checked with different conditions of gas flowing velocity, charging voltage and total pressure of gas mixture. It is shown that the maximal output energy of laser pulse of 0.6J, peak power 3MW are obtained. Total efficiency of laser device is about 2.4%. When the gas mixture circulating with 4m/s flowing velocity, the maximal running frequency of 50Hz are obtained and operating stability keep well. Under these conditions, the laser pulse energy keeps stable and the average output power is 18W.
The output energy stability of discharged-pumped pulsed HF laser in repetition rate mode is
studied experimentally, and the optimal operating conditions are obtained. The experimental
results show that the output energy decreases quickly with the increase of repetition rate, and
increasing gas flow rate is beneficial to improve the discharge stability and the output energy
stability as well. By optimizing the operating conditions, the laser can operate stably at the
repetition rate of 50 Hz, with the stable output energy of about 260 mJ, and the average power is
about 13 W.
A short pulse XeCl laser system is being developed for plasma physics and material science study. Partial spatial
incoherence seed with short pulse is amplified by MOPA chain including three discharge pumped amplifiers and two
electron beam pumped amplifiers for one beam. Final laser output of 5~10J in energy with pulse width of around 10ns
has been achieved, which lays a good foundation for full scale construction.
Surface discharge Radiation Source has been used as optical pumping source of XeF(C-A) gaseous laser. In
previous works, discharge deposition power, transition efficiency and UV radiation intensity of surface discharge
Radiation Source were mostly concerned, but the jitter of repetitively pulsed surface discharge was little studied. An
optical pumping source by segmented surface discharge on Al2O3 ceramic substrate is developed to design stable
XeF(C-A) laser with pulse repetitive mode. Distorted electric field near the surfaces of the ceramic substrate is calculated
based on equivalent chain circuit model under conditions of charging voltage from 0 to 26.8kV, thickness of the substrate
from 1mm to 3mm, and trigger pulse voltage from 47kV to 63kV. Analysis about trigger characteristics of pumping
source is carried out, and influence of these conditions on discharge jitter is discussed. And discharge jitter is investigated
in detail under different conditions. The experimental results show that discharge jitter decreases with increasing
charging voltage and trigger pulse voltage, as well as decreasing thickness of ceramic substrate, and the pulse repetition
rate has little influence on the discharge jitter in the range of 1Hz to 30Hz. These experimental results are coincident with
numerical simulation results. Normally, the discharge jitter can be less than 30ns. Research results indicate that the
optical pumping source has good time stability of repetitive pulse discharge.
The method of the spectral narrowing of optically pumped XeF(C-A) laser is discussed. Two experimental schemes are
used to narrow the spectrum of XeF(C-A) laser. Linewidth less than 1 nm can be obtained normally and the minimum
linewidth is up to 0.2 nm with more than 2J output energy. Broadband tunability of the XeF(C-A) laser in the spectral
range from 448 to 520nm is accomplished. The results of spectral narrowing of XeF(C-A) laser with different
experimental schemes are compared and tunable spectra of the XeF(C-A) laser are given.
The experimental setup and performance of a non-chain transverse excited HF laser with UV pre-ionization is described.
Electric discharge characteristics in gas mixture of SF6 /C2H6 are investigated for various initial conditions by recording
the discharge plasma fluorescence intensity and temporal evolution of discharge current and voltage. The laser pulse
energy is studied in different charging voltage, gas mixture pressure and concentration. It is shown that the process of
discharge in gas mixture has three phases: glow discharge, voltage plateau and arc discharge. The optimal energy
deposition obtained at the critical point that the voltage plateau just disappears. Maximal output energy of 0.6J and
electrical efficiency of 2.5% are obtained.
In this paper, a surface discharge optical pumping source module with high repetition mode is described. The electrical
and radiative properties of the optical pumping source have been studied. The equivalent resistance and inductance, the
maximum current and the deposition efficiency of the discharge circuit under various distances of electrodes have been
compared. The framing photographs of XeF2 photodissociation wave have been obtained which show the XeF laser can
be formed under the experimental condition. The repetition characteristics of the optical pumping source have been
experimentally studied. The maximum pulse repetition rate is up to 90 Hz. The ablation of the dielectric material surface
is considered.
The development of XeF(C-A) lasers by optical pumping in Northwest Institute of Nuclear Technology during recent 10 years is described in this paper. A joule level of XeF(C-A) laser optically pumped by a sectioned surface discharge was studied with the total efficiency of 0.1%. A more efficient XeF(C-A) laser was developed with the maximum outpup energy of 18.6 joules by two-side optically pumping and repetition mode operating.
Taking advantage of the framing camera, the performances of the laser pumping source were studied. The framing
photographs of XeF2 photodissociation wave (PDW) under different experimental conditions had been taken, which
showed the forming process of the PDW. The variations of the radius, thickness and developing velocity of the PDW
with time had been obtained under different XeF2 initial concentrations. The temporal and spatial characteristics of the
PDW had been analyzed. The irradiative intensity of pumping source could be diagnosed by calculating the time
evolution of XeF2 photodissociation wave which was photographed by framing camera. The framing photographs of the
discharge plasma channel under different conditions had been obtained. The effect of the discharge plasma extension on
the efficiency resistance of the discharge circuit had been analyzed.
A 250 J/210 ns four-stage XeCl laser system named Photons has been developed. Five lasers in MOPA chains characterized by different pumping techniques are described. Also, the main experimental results of the Photons are given.
A four-stage XeCl laser system named Photons has been developed for studying laser interaction with materials. The Photons are outlined and preliminary results characterizing the system are given. The master oscillator Photon-1 can provide “seed” light with laser energy of about 40mJ, pulse duration of about 250ns and good beam quality of nearly diffraction-limited divergence angle and narrow line width less than 1 cm-1 for whole system. The output energy of laser system of 251J has been obtained by four-stage amplification. The synchronization among five lasers is realized by the combination of low voltage timer, high voltage synchronic generators and compensated cables. The demonstration shows Photons good operation with low jitter of less than ±20ns.
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