Highly efficient CW laser operation in 4 at. % Tm^(3+) and 4 at. % Y^(3+) codoped CaF_2 crystals

Tm：CaF2 and Tm;Y：CaF2 single crystals were prepared by the temperature gradient technique. The spectral properties of Tm;Y：CaF2 single crystals were investigated and compared with those of Tm：CaF2. It was demonstrated that codoping with Y3＋ ions could efficiently improve the spectroscopic properties. Tm;Y：CaF2 crystals have larger absorption cross-sections at the pumping wavelength, larger mid-infrared stimulated emission cross-sections, and much longer fluorescence lifetimes of the upper laser level（Tm3＋：3H4 level） than Tm：CaF2 crystals. Continuous-wave（CW） lasers around 1.97 μm were demonstrated in 4.0 at. % Tm,4.0 at. % Y：CaF2 single crystals under 792 nm laser diode（LD） pumping. The best laser performance has been demonstrated with a low threshold of 0.368 W, a high slope efficiency of 54.8%, and a maximum output power of 1.013 W.

Passively Q-Switched Nd,Cr:YAG Laser Simultaneous Dual-Wavelength Operation at 946 nm and 1.3μm

A diode-end-pumped Q-switched high-efficiency Nd, Cr：YAG laser with simultaneous dual-wavelength emission at 946nm and 1.3μm is demonstrated. The maximum output power of 1.93 W with simultaneous dual-wavelength operation is achieved at an absorbed pump power of 13.32 W and an absorbed slope efficiency of 15.15%. The maximum optical-optical efficiency is 14.49% with pulse widths of 16.38ns at 946nm and 26.65ns at 1.3μm. A maximum total repetition rate of 43.25 kHz is obtained.

Acousto-Optically Q-Switched Operation of Yb:CNGG Disordered Crystal Laser

We report the repetitively Q-switched laser operation of the Yb-doped calcium niobium gallium garnet disordered garnet crystal, achieved with an acousto-optic modulator in a compact plano-concave resonator that is endpumped by a 935-nm diode laser. An average output power of 1.96 W is produced at pulse repetition rate of50 k Hz at emission wavelengths around 1035 nm, with a slope efficiency of 16%. The highest pulse energy of 269 μJ is generated at pulse repetition rate of 1 k Hz, with pulse width 12.1 ns and peak power 20.53 kW.

High-Power and High-Efficiency Operation of Terahertz Quantum Cascade Lasers at 3.3 THz

A high-power and high-effciency GaAs/A1GaAs-based terahertz （THz） quantum cascade laser structure emitting at 3.3 THz is presented. The structure is based on a hybrid bound-to-continuum transition and resonant-phonon extraction active region combined with a semi-insulating surface-plasmon waveguide. By optimizing material structure and device processing, the peak optical output power of 758mW with a threshold current density of 120 A/cm2 and a wall-plug effciency of 0.92% at 10K and 404mW at 77K are obtained in pulsed operation. The maximum operating temperature is as high as llS K. In the cw mode, a record optical output power of 160roW with a threshold current density of 178A/cm2 and a wall-plug efficiency of 1.32% is achieved at 1OK.

Electrically and Optically Bistable Operation in an Integration of a 1310 nm DFB Laser and a Tunneling Diode

We experimentally demonstrate an In P-based hybrid integration of a single-mode DFB laser emitting at around 1310 nm and a tunneling diode. The evident negative differential resistance regions are obtained in both electrical and optical output characteristics. The electrical and optical bistabilities controlled by the voltage through the tunneling diode are also measured. When the voltage changes between 1.46 V and 1.66 V, a 200-mV-wide hysteresis loop and an optical power ON/OFF ratio of 17 dB are obtained. A side-mode suppression ratio of the integrated device in the ON state is up to 43 dB. The tunneling diode can switch on/off the laser within a very small voltage range compared with that directly controlled by a voltage source.

Low Power Consumption Distributed-Feedback Quantum Cascade Lasers Operating in Continuous-Wave Mode above 90℃ at λ～7.2μm

We report on the design and fabrication of λ-7.2μm distributed feedback quantum cascade lasers lot very high temperature cw operation and low electrical power consumption. The cw operation is reported above 90℃. For a 2-mm-long and 10-μm-wide laser coated with high-reflectivity on the rear facet, more than 170mW of output power is obtained at 20℃ with a threshold power consumption of 2.4 W, corresponding to 30mW with a threshold power consumption of 3.9 W at 90℃. Robust single-mode emission with a side-mode suppression ratio above 25 dB is continuously tunable by the heat sink temperature or injection current.

A Broadband Pulsed External-Cavity Quantum Cascade Laser Operating near 6.9μm

We report an external cavity quantum cascade laser （EC-QCL） operating near 6.9μm using the Littman Metcalf configuration. The EC-QCL works in a pulsed mode and can be tuned continuously from 1340 to 1640cm^-1 by only tilting the tuning mirror. The fine tuning ability of the EC-QCL is demonstrated by measuring the absorption spectrum of water in the ambient air with a lock-in amplifier.

Generation of Q-Switched Mode-Locked Erbium-Doped Fiber Laser Operating in Dark Regime

We demonstrate a stable Q-switched mode-locked erbium-doped fiber laser （EDFL） operating in dark regime based on the nonlinear polarization rotation technique. The EDFL produces a pulse train where the Q-switching envelope is formed by multiple dark pulses. The repetition rate of the Q-switched envelope can be increased from 0.96kHz to 3.26kHz, whereas the pulse width reduces from 211 #s to 86#s. The highest pulse of 479nJ is obtained at the pump power of 55 mW. It is also observed that the dark pulses inside the Q-switching envelope consist of two parts： square and trailing dark pulses. The shortest pulse width of the dark square pulse is obtained at 40.5μs when the pump power is fixed at 145mW. The repetition rate of trailing dark pulses can be increased from 27.62kHz to 50kHz as the pump power increases from 55mW to 145mW.

Efficient Diode-Pumped Actively Q-Switched Ceramic Nd:YAG/YVO4 Raman Laser Operating at 1657 nm

A diode-pumped actively Q-switched Raman laser is demonstrated, with YV04 employed as Raman active medium, based on a ceramic Nd：YAG laser operating at 1444nm. The first-stokes Raman generation at 1657nm is achieved. A maximum output power of as high as 612mW is obtained under a pump power of 20. 7 W and at a pulse repetition frequency rate of 20kHz, corresponding to an optical-to-optical conversion efficiency of 3%.

Passively Q-Switched Yb-Doped Fiber Laser Operating at 1.06 μm with Two-Dimensional Silver Nanoplate as Saturable Absorber

A two-dimensional silver nanoplate is prepared with the seed-mediated growth method and is used for achieving pulse fiber laser operation. By controlling the dimension parameters of the silver nanoplate, the surface plasmon resonance absorption peak of the material is successfully adjusted to 1068 nm. Based on the silver nanoplate as a saturable absorber, a passively Q-switched Yb-doped fiber laser operating at 1062 nm is demonstrated. The maximum average output power of 3.49mW is obtained with a minimum pulse width of 1.84#s at a pulse repetition rate of 65.TkHz, and the corresponding pulse energy and peak power are 53.1 nJ and 28.8mW, respectively.

Laser-system model for enhanced operational performance and flexibility on OMEGA EP

The development of laser performance models having real-time prediction capability for the OMEGA EP laser system has been essential in meeting requests from its user community for increasingly complex pulse shapes that span a wide range of energies. The laser operations model PSOPS provides rapid and accurate predictions of OMEGA EP lasersystem performance in both forward and backward directions, a user-friendly interface and rapid optimization capability between shots. We describe the model’s features and show how PSOPS has allowed real-time optimization of the lasersystem configuration in order to satisfy the demands of rapidly evolving experimental campaign needs. We also discuss several enhancements to laser-system performance accuracy and flexibility enabled by PSOPS.

Passively spatiotemporal gain-modulation-induced stable pulsing operation of a random fiber laser

Unlike a traditional fiber laser with a defined resonant cavity, a random fiber laser(RFL), whose operation is based on distributed feedback and gain via Rayleigh scattering(RS) and stimulated Raman scattering in a long passive fiber, has fundamental scientific challenges in pulsing operation for its remarkable cavity-free feature. For the time being, stable pulsed RFL utilizing a passive method has not been reported. Here, we propose and experimentally realize the passive spatiotemporal gain-modulation-induced stable pulsing operation of counterpumped RFL. Thanks to the good temporal stability of an employed pumping amplified spontaneous emission source and the superiority of this pulse generation scheme, a stable and regular pulse train can be obtained.Furthermore, the pump hysteresis and bistability phenomena with the generation of high-order Stokes light is presented, and the dynamics of pulsing operation is discussed after the theoretical investigation of the counterpumped RFL. This work extends our comprehension of temporal property of RFL and paves an effective novel avenue for the exploration of pulsed RFL with structural simplicity, low cost, and stable output.

Universal single-mode lasing in fully chaotic two-dimensional microcavity lasers under continuous-wave operation with large pumping power [Invited]

For a fully chaotic two-dimensional(2D) microcavity laser, we present a theory that guarantees both the existence of a stable single-mode lasing state and the nonexistence of a stable multimode lasing state, under the assumptions that the cavity size is much larger than the wavelength and the external pumping power is sufficiently large. It is theoretically shown that these universal spectral characteristics arise from the synergistic effect of two different kinds of nonlinearities: deformation of the cavity shape and mode interaction due to a lasing medium. Our theory is based on the linear stability analysis of stationary states for the Maxwell–Bloch equations and accounts for single-mode lasing phenomena observed in real and numerical experiments of fully chaotic 2D microcavitylasers.

Stable single-mode operation of a distributed feedback quantum cascade laser integrated with a distributed Bragg reflector

We report an index-coupled distributed feedback quantum cascade laser by employing an equivalent phase shift(EPS) of quarter-wave integrated with a distributed Bragg reflector(DBR) at λ~5.03 μm. The EPS is fabricated through extending one sampling period by 50% in the center of a sampled Bragg grating. The key EPS and DBR pattern are fabricated by conventional holographic exposure combined with the optical photolithography technology, which leads to improved flexibility, repeatability, and cost-effectiveness. Stable single-mode emission can be obtained by changing the injection current or heat sink temperature even under the condition of large driving pulse width.

Twin-Pulse Soliton Operation of a Fiber Laser

We report on the experimental observation of a novel type of twin-pulse soliton in a passively mode-locked fiber ring laser. Twin-pulse soliton interaction in the laser cavity are also experimentally investigated and compared with those of the single pulse soliton.

Quantum cascade lasers operating from 1.4 to 4 THz

The development of teranertz （THz） quantum cascade lasers （QCLs） has progressed considerably since their advent almost a decade ago.THz QCLs operating in a frequency range from 1.4 to 4 THz with electron-phonon scattering mediated depopulation schemes are described.Several different types of GaAs/AlGaAs superlattice designs are reviewed.Some of the best temperature performances are obtained by the so-called resonant-phonon designs that are described.Operation above a temperature of 160 K has been obtained across the spectrum for THz QCLs operating at ν 〉 1.8 THz.The maximum operating temperature of previously reported THz QCLs has empirically been limited to a value of ～ω/k B.A new design scheme for THz QCLs with scattering-assisted injection is shown to surpass this empirical temperature barrier,and is promising to improve the maximum operating temperatures of THz QCLs even further.