Characteristic of pulsed fiber laser induced by switching time

Laser-diode pumped Q-switched ytterbium-doped switching time of acousto-optic modulator （AOM） fiber laser is studied experimentally by controlling the The characteristics of Q-switched pulses with different rise time of AOM regulated by the laser beam size along the window of AOM are presented. Meanwhile, the behaviors of Q-switched pulses are achieved by regulating the switching time of AOM. The singlerepetition-rate and half-repetition-rate phenomena are described and discussed. The experimental results confirm that the fiber laser with lower level inversion population can be more easily operated for half- repetition-rate generation.

Fenestration operation in middle ear bone with pulsed infrared lasers: an in-vivo study

The feasibility of fenestration operation in middle ear bone with pulsed infrared laser is evaluated. Healthy male New Zealand rabbits in vivo are used in the experiment. Middle ear mastoid bone of animal model is completely exposed with conventional methods, and then a pulsed CO2 laser （10.6 μm） and an Er：YAG laser （2.94 μm） are used to perform the fenestration operation. Diamond drill is also used as a control group. The total operation time and light irradiation time are recorded and the opening efficiency is assessed. The morphological changes and thermal damage around the opening window on the middle ear bone are examined. It is shown that both laser systems are suitable for the fenestration operation in middle ear bone, and this no-touch technique has a lot of benefits compared with traditional methods. The bleeding during operation has an important effect on operation time and thermal injury and needs to be controlled efficiently in further study.

Pulsed pumped Yb-doped fiber amplifier at low repetition rate

A pulsed pumped Yb-doped double-clad fiber (DCF) master-oscillator power amplifier (MOPA) at low repetition rate is reported. Seeded by a passive Q-switched Nd:YAG microchip laser, the fiber amplifier can generate 167-kW peak-power and 0.83-ns duration pulses at 200-Hz repetition rate. Because of the pulsed pump approach, the amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) and the spurious lasing between pulses are well avoided, and the repetition rate can be set freely from single-shot to 1 kHz. Peak power scaling limitations that arise from the fiber facet damage are discussed.

Analysis of laser induced thermal mechanical relationship of HfO_2/SiO_2 high reflective optical thin film at 1064 nm

A numerical model is developed for the calculation of transient temperature field of thin film coating induced by a long-pulsed high power laser beam. The electric field intensity distribution of HfO2/Si02 high reflective （HR） film is investigated to calculate the thermal field of the film. The thermal-mechanical relationships are discussed to predict the laser damage area of optical thin film under long pulse high energy laser irradiation.

589-nm yellow laser generation by intra-cavity sum-frequency mixing in a T-shaped Nd:YAG laser cavity

To obtain high power 589-nm yellow laser, a T-shaped thermal-insensitive cavity is designed. The optimal power ratio of 1064- and 1319-nm beams is considered and the fundamental spot size distribution from the output mirror to the two laser rods are calculated and simulated, respectively. As a result, a 589-nm yellow laser with the average output power of 5.7 W is obtained in the experiment when the total pumping power is 695 W. The optical-to-optical conversion efficiency from the fundamental waves to the sum frequency generation is about 15.2% and the pulse width is 150 ns at the repetition rate of 18 kHz. The instability of the yellow laser is also measured, which is less than 2% within 3 h. The beam quality factors are Mx^2 = 4.96 and My^2 = 5.08.

All-solid-state narrow-linewidth 455-nm blue laser based on Ti:sapphire crystal

A compact, all-solid-state, narrow-linewidth, pulsed 455-nm blue laser based on Ti：sapphire crystal is developed. Pumped by a 10-Hz, frequency-doubled all-solid-state Nd：YAG laser and injection-seeded by an external cavity laser diode, the narrow-linewidth 910-nm laser with pulse width of 20 ns is obtained from a Ti：sapphire laser. 3.43-mJ blue laser can be obtained from the laser system by frequency-doubling with BBO crystal. This research is very useful to determine the roadmap of developing the practical, high power blue laser. This kind of laser will have potential application for underwater communication.

Femtosecond laser ablation of metals:a molecular dynamics simulation study

Using molecular dynamics (MD) methods combining with two-step radiation heating model, the mechanisms of ablation and the thermodynamic states at Ni surface under femtosecond laser irradiation are investigated. Simulation results show that the main mechanisms of ablation are evaporation and tensile stresses generated inside the target. The velocity of stress wave is predicted to be nearly equal to sound velocity. The rates of ablation at different fluences obtained from simulations are in good agreement with experimental data. Superheating phen omenon is also discovered.

High energy optically pumped NH_3 terahertz laser with simple cavity

A high energy pulsed terahertz（THz） laser is studied experimentally.The laser cavity simply consists of a quartz glass waveguide,a coated GaAs input window,and a crystal quartz output window.NH3 is filled in the cavity as gain medium,and pumped by an 8-J line-tunable transversely excited atmospheric（TEA） CO_2 laser.When 9R（16） transition acts as the pump line,55.6-mJ THz radiation（90μm） is obtained at 730-Pa NH_3 pressure.The corresponding conversion efficiency is 13.54%.Energy and optimal pressure of amplified spontaneous emission and laser oscillation are compared.

Preparation of solder pads by selective laser scanning

We propose a new laser preparation technique to solder Sn-Ag3.5-Cu0.7 on a copper clad laminate （CCL）. The experiment is conducted by selective laser heating and melting the thin solder layer and then preprinting it on CCL in order to form the matrix with solder pads. Through the analysis of macro morphology of the matrix with solder pads and microstructure of single pads, this technique is proved to be suitable for preparing solder pads and that the solder pads are of good mechanical properties. The results also reveal that high frequency laser pulse is beneficial to the formation of better solder pad, and that the 12-W fiber laser with a beam diameter of 0.030 mm can solder Sn-Ag3.5-Cu0.7 successfully on CCL at 500-kHz pulse frequency. The optimized parameters of laser soldering on CCL are as follows： the laser power is 12 W, the scanning speed is 1.0 mm/s, the beam diameter is 0.030 ram, the lead-free solder is Sn-Ag3.5-Cu0.7, and the laser pulse frequency is 500 kHz.

Coherent population transfer with Coherent population transfer with chirped few-cycle laser pulses in an excited-doublet four-level system

The behavior of population transfcr in an excited-doublet four-level system driven by linear polarized few-cycle ultrashort laser pulses is investigated numerically. It is shown that almost complete population transfer can be achieved even when the adiabatic criterion is not fulfilled. Moreover, the robustness of this scheme in terms of the Rabi frequencies and chirp rates of the pulses is explored.

Performance testing of log pile photonic crystal fast-fabricated by direct femtosecond laser writing

Great efforts has been made on fabricating photonic crystals （PCs） with photonic band gaps （PBGs） during the past decade. Three-dimensional （3D） log pile PC was fabricated fast by direct femtosecond laser writing in ORMOCER. Qualitative analysis of the errors of PC was investigated using the Image Pro Plus. Surface qualities such as bending, distortion, and surface roughness were shown, and the band gap in the infrared wavelength region was observed. Meanwhile, the theory was experimentally verified that the center of PBG diminishes as the crystal lattice period reduces. Therefore, it is possible to fabricate PCs whose band gap range is from the near-infrared to visible wave band.

Optically pumped terahertz lasers with high pulse repetition frequency:theory and design

Optically pumped terahertz （THz） lasers with high pulse repetition frequency are designed. Such a laser includes two parts： the optically pumping laser and the THz laser. The structures of the laser are described and analyzed. The rate equations for the pulsed THz laser are given. The kinetic process and laser pulse waveform for this kind of laser are numerically calculated based on the theory of rate equations. The theoretical results give a helpful guide to the research of such lasers.

Passively Q-switched laser with single longitudinal mode based on the frequency selection of grating and F-P etalon in twisted-mode folded cavity

A passively Q-switched side-pumped laser with folded resonator is specially constructed for single- longitudinal-mode smooth pulse output. Nd：YAG is chosen as the laser active medium and Cr^4＋：YAG as the saturable absorber medium. Additionally, the method of frequency selection by grating with 1200 line/mm and Fabry-Perot （F-P） etalon is used in the twisted-mode cavity. The single-frequency smooth pulses are produced with 10-Hz repetition rate, 20-ns pulse width, and 1.064-μm wavelength. The proba- bility of single-frequency laser output measured is over 99% by using the methods of Fourier analysis and F-P etalon multiple-beam interferometry at the threshold voltage. The measured near-field and far-field angles of divergence are 1.442 and 1.315 mrad, respectively. The values of M^2 are 1.32 and 1.31 separately with the knife-edge method. Single pulse at 1.064 tim with the energy of 8.8 mJ is achieved in TEM00 mode.

Preparation of nanodiamonds by laser irradiation of graphite

Graphite powders were irradiated by pulsed laser at room temperature and normal pressure and then boiled in perchloric acid. Samples were characterized by high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM), electron diffraction pattern (EDP), X-ray diffraction (XRD) pattern, and Raman spectroscopy. The analyses on the HRTEM images, EDP, and XRD show that the diamond particles with a size of about 5 nm are obtained. The shifting and broadening of the diamond peak in Raman spectrum indicate that there are high defect density and residual internal stress in synthetic diamond.

Diode-pumped self-Q-switched Cr,Nd:YAG laser with 7-W average output power

We report a diode-pumped self-Q-switched 1064-nm Cr,Nd：YAG of 16-18 ns. The maximum average output power up to 7 W, 3370, is obtained in a simple and compact linear cavity by using transmittance of 1570. The laser operates at TEM00 mode with a laser with pulse duration in the range corresponding to a slope efficiency of a plane-concave output coupler with a pump power of 14.2 W.

Conductively cooled 250-Hz single frequency Nd:YAG laser

A conductively cooled, laser diode （LD） end-pumped, injection-seeded single frequency Nd：YAG laser is designed and impleinented. The laser utilizes Nd：YAG rod as gain medium and compact dual-endpumping arrangement using two fiber-coupled LDs with a maximum output of 150 W. The optimized ramp-fire technique is applied to build reliable single longitudinal mode oscillating. The laser is capable of producing a 10-raJ Q-switched pulse with 13-ns pulse width at 1064 nm at a pulse repetition rate of 250 Hz. The output beam qualities M2 of approximately 1.19 and 1.22 in horizontal and vertical directions are detected, respectively.

Improvement of the large aperture Ti:sapphire amplifiers in the petawatt femtosecond laser system at SIOM

We report the recent improvement on the petawatt （PW） femtosecond Ti：sapphire chirped pulse amplification （CPA） laser system at Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics （SIOM）, Chinese Academy of Sciences. By enlarging the sizes of the pump and signal beams in the large aperture Ti：sapphire amplifiers and optimizing the whole laser system, the output laser energy before the pulse compressor is upgraded to 42.6 J. Accordingly, the peak power of the laser system exceeds 1 PW. The shot-to-shot instability of the output laser energy at about 40 J is less than ±5%.

Damage induced by femtosecond laser in optical dielectric films

Both the nature of avalanche ionization （AI） and the role of multi-photon ionization （MPI） in the studies of laser-induced damage have remained controversial up to now. According to the model proposed by Stuart et al., we study the role of MPI and AI in laser-induced damage in two dielectric films, fused silica （FS） and barium aluminum borosilicate （BBS）, irradiated by 780-nm laser pulse with the pulse width range of 0.01 - 5 ps. The effects of MPI and initial electron density on seed electron generation are numerically analyzed. For FS, laser-induced damage is dominated by AI for the entire pulse width regime due to the wider band-gap. While for BBS, MPI becomes the leading power in damage for the pulse width T less than about 0.03 ps. MPI may result in a sharp rise of threshold fluence Fth on r, and AI may lead to a mild increase or even a constant value of Fth on r. MPI serves the production of seed electrons for AI when the electron density for AI is approached or exceeded before the end of MPI. This also means that the effect of initial electron can be neglected when MPI dominates the seed electron generation. The threshold fluence Fth decreases with the increasing initial electron density when the latter exceeds a certain critical value.

Influence of laser intensity on the double-resonance multiphoton ionization process of NO molecule

The analytic formula of the ionization efficiency in the process of double resonance enhanced multi-photon ionization （DREMPI） is derived from the dynamic rate equation about the interaction of photon and material. Based on this formula, the ionization efficiency and the laser power index versus laser intensity in the DREMPI process of NO molecule, via A2E and S2E intermediate resonant states, is numerically simulated. It is shown that the ionization efficiency of NO molecule increases with the laser intensity until getting saturation, while the laser power index decreases with the enhancement of the laser intensity and changes to zero at last. The variation of the laser power index with the laser intensity indicates that the ionization efficiency reaches saturation in the one, two, and three excitation steps respectively. It is also found that the narrower the laser pulse duration is, the higher becomes the laser intensity for saturation.

Ultrafast thermoelasticity modeling of microbump formation irradiated by femtosecond laser

Finite element method and ultrafast thermoelasticity model are combined to simulate the microbump formation irradiated by a femtosecond laser. It has been shown that the effect of microbump formation is related to the characteristic of incident femtosecond laser and the thermoelasticity properties of the film. The numerical results exhibit good agreements with the experimental results in both the shape and height of the conical microbump structure, which verify the effectiveness of the ultrafast thermoelasticity model in experiments. It should be helpful for selecting appropriate materials for nanotexturing of thin films by ultrafast lasers.