Development of miniaturized SAF-LIBS with high repetition rate acousto-optic gating for quantitative analysis

The self-absorption effect in laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy(LIBS)reduces the accuracy of quantitative measurement results.The self-absorption-free LIBS(SAF-LIBS)has been proved to directly capture the optically thin plasma spectra by setting an appropriate exposure time.In this work,a novel SAF-LIBS technique with high repetition rate acousto-optic gating is developed,in which an acousto-optic modulator is used as the shutter to diffract the optically thin fluorescence,and a high repetition rate laser is used to produce quasi-continuous plasmas to enhance the integral spectral intensity,so that the CCD spectrometer can replace an intensified CCD(ICCD)and echelle spectrometer in SAF-LIBS.Experimental results show that the average absolute prediction error of aluminum is reduced to 0.18%,which is equivalent to that of traditional SAF-LIBS.This technique not only effectively shields continuous background radiation and broadened spectral lines in optically thick plasma,but also has advantages of miniaturization,low cost,convenience and reliability.

Science Letters:Controllable high repetition rate gain-switchedNd:YVO_4 microchip laser

We demonstrated a monolithic, compact, diode-pumped gain-switched Nd:YVO4 laser at 1.064 μm wavelength with controllable repetition rate of 1 Hz to 25 kHz. Stable gain-switched pulse train with maximum repetition rate of 25 kHz and pulse width of 16 ns was obtained.

Passive Q-Switching of a Yb:LuVO_4 Laser with Cr^(4+):YAG:Approaching the Intrinsic Upper Limit of Repetition Rate

We demonstrate a diode pumped Yb：LuVO4 laser that can be passively Q-switched by a Cr^（4＋）：YAG saturable absorber having an initial transmission as high as 99.3%.A maximum pulsed output power of 2.35 W is generated at a repetition rate of 285.7 kHz,approaching or very near the intrinsic upper limit imposed by the recovery time of the Cr^（4＋）：YAG saturable absorber,and the resulting pulse energy,duration and peak power are,respectively,8.2μJ,39.2ns and 0.209kW.

The 266-nm ultraviolet-beam generation of all-fiberized super-large-mode-area narrow-linewidth nanosecond amplifier with tunable pulse width and repetition rate

We report on a compact, stable, all-fiberized narrow-linewidth(0.045 nm) pulsed laser source emitting laser beam with a wavelength of 266 nm, and tunable pulse width and repetition rate. The system is based on all-fiberized nanosecond amplifier architecture, which consists of Yb-doped fiber preamplifiers and a super-large-mode-area Yb-doped fiber power amplifier. The fiber amplifier with a core of 50 μm is used to raise the threshold of the stimulated Brillouin scattering(SBS) effect and to obtain high output power and single pulse energy. Using lithium triborate(LBO) crystal and betabarium borate(BBO) crystal for realizing the second-harmonic generation(SHG) and fourth-harmonic generation(FHG),we achieve 17 μJ(1.73 W) and 0.66 μJ(66 mW), respectively, at wavelengths of 532 nm and 266 nm and a repetition rate of 100 kHz with pulse width of 4 ns. This source has great potential applications in fluorescence research and solar-blind ultraviolet optical communication.

Erbium-Doped Zirconia-Alumina Silica Glass-Based Fiber as a Saturable Absorber for High Repetition Rate Q-Switched All-Fiber Laser Generation

We propose and demonstrate a Q-switched erbium-doped fiber laser （EDFL） using an erbium-doped zirconia-alumina silica glass-based fiber （Zr-EDF） as a saturable absorber. As a 16-cm-long Zr-EDF is incorporated into a ring EDFL cavity, a stable Q-switching pulse train operating at 1565？nm wavelength is successfully obtained. The repetition rate is tunable from 33.97？kHz to 71.23？kHz by increasing the pump power from the threshold of 26？mW to the maximum of 74？mW. The highest pulse energy of 26.67？nJ is obtained at the maximum pump power.

Generation of 10 fs Ti:sapphire laser at repetition rate of 525 MHz and measurement of carrier-envelope phase frequency

This paper presents a Kerr-lens mode-locked Ti：sapphire laser at the repetition rate of 525 MHz, stable laser pulse as short as 10 fs with average output power of 480 mW is obtained. By injecting the pulse into photonics crystal fibre, octave-spanning spectrum covered from 500 to 1050 nm is generated, carrier-envelope phase frequency with signal-to- noise ratio of 31dB is measured, which paves the way for the generation of a compact frequency comb.

Generation of high-energy dual-wavelength domain wall pulse with low repetition rate in an HNLF-based fiber ring laser

The generation of high-energy dual-wavelength domain wall pulse with a low repetition rate is demonstrated in a highly nonlinear fiber （HNLF）-based fiber ring laser. By introducing the intracavity birefringence-induced spectral filtering effect, the dual-wavelength lasing operation can be achieved. In order to enhance the cross coupling effect between the two lasing beams for domain wall pulse formation, a 215-m HNLF is incorporated into the laser cavity. Experimentally, it is found that the dual-wavelength domain wall pulse with a repetition rate of 77.67 kHz could be efficiently obtained through simply rotating the polarization controller （PC）. At a maximum pump power of 322 mW, the 655-nJ single pulse energy in cavity is obtained. The proposed configuration provides a simpler and more efficient way to generate high energy pulse with a low repetition rate.

All-fiberized very-large-mode-area Yb-doped fiber based high-peak-power narrow-linewidth nanosecond amplifier with tunable pulse width and repetition rate

We demonstrate an all-fiberized narrow-linewidth nanosecond amplifier with high peak power,tunable pulse width,and repetition rate.A fiber-coupled narrow-linewidth laser diode operating at 1064.1 nm is employed as the seed source,which is gain-switched to generate nanosecond pulses with tunable pulse widths of 1-200 ns and tunable repetition rates of10 Hz-100 kHz.By utilizing a very-large-mode-area Yb-doped fiber with a core diameter of 50 μm in the power amplifier,thresholds of the stimulated Brillouin scattering at different pulse widths and repetition rates are increased.The maximum average power reaches 30.8 W at the pulse width of 4 ns and a repetition rate of 100 kHz,corresponding to an optical-tooptical conversion efficiency of ~55.2%.Pulse energy and peak power are calculated to be 0.2 mJ and 50 kW,respectively,which are limited by stimulated Brillouin scattering.The 3-dB spectral linewidth remains around 0.05 nm during the power scaling process.The stimulated Brillouin scattering limited output powers at different pulse widths and repetition rates are investigated.Peak power of 47.5 kW(0.19 mJ) is obtained for the 4 ns pulses at a repetition rate of 50 kHz,which is nearly the same as that of 4 ns pulses at 100 kHz.When the pulse width of the seed source is increased to 8 ns,peak powers/pulse energies are decreased to 19.6 kW/0.11 mJ and 13.3 kW/0.08 mJ at repetition rates of 50 kHz and 100 kHz,respectively.

Fast repetition rate fs pulsed lasers for advanced PLIM microscopy

Simultaneous metabolic and oxygen imaging is promising to follow up therapy response,dis-ease development and to determine prognostic factors.FLIM of metabolic coenzymes is now widely accepted to be the most reliable method to determine cellular bioenergetics.Also,oxygen consumption has to be taken into account to understand treatment responses.The phosphorescence lifetimne of oxygen sensors is able to indicate local oxygen changes.For phosphorescence lifetime imaging(PLIM)dyes based on ruthenium(I)coordination com-plexes are useful,in detaill TLD1433 which possesses a variety of different triplet states,enables complex photochemistry and redox reactions.PLIM is usally reached by two photon exci-tation of the drug with a femtosecond(fs)pulsed Ti:Sapphire laser working at 80 MHz repe-tition rate and(time-correlated single photon counting)(TCSPC)detection electronics.The interesting question was whether it is possible to follow up PLIM 1using faster repetition rates.Faster repetition rates could be advantageous for the induction of specific photochemical reactions because of similar light doses used normally in standard CW light treatments.For this,a default 2p-FLIM-PLIM system was expanded by adding a second fs pulsed laser("helixx")which provides 50 fs pulses at a repetition rate of 250 MHz,more than 2.3 w average power and tunable from 720 nm to 920 nm.The laser beam was coupled into the AOM instead of the default 80 MHz laser.We demonstrated siuccessful applications of the 250 MHz laser for PLIM which correlates well with measurements done by excitation with the conventional 80MHx laser source.

Laser back scatter: Limitation to higher repetition rate [kHz] Satellite Laser Ranging system

Satellite laser ranging(SLR)with higher repetition rate is the recent trend for its various advantages.Laser backscatter(coincidence between recently transmitted pulses and received pulses near the detector)is found to be a constraint for the repetition rates higher than 20 kHz,due to,overlapping with photons returning from a satellite with the present constellation of most of the SLR systems.Such an overlap occurs at every 75 km satellite distance change at 2 kHz repetition rate,and remains for about 7.5 km;for a 20 kHz system however,it will occur after every 7.5 km and remains for 7.5 km,resulting in constant backscatter overlap e leaving no chance to avoid it.The resulting noise is 5 times more than before causing a serious problem in detection and lowers the signal to noise ratio of the overall SLR system.However,decreasing energy per shot at higher repetition rates e assuming a constant power laser e the resulting backscatter may decrease fractionally.

Development of a high-repetition-rate lumped-inductance kicker magnet prototype for the beam switchyard of SHINE

The Shanghai high-repetition-rate X-ray free-electron laser and extreme light facility(SHINE)operates at a maximum repetition rate of 1 MHz.Kicker magnets are key components that distribute electron bunches into three different undulator lines in a bunch-by-bunch mode.The kicker field width must be less than the time interval between bunches.A lumpedinductance kicker prototype was developed using a vacuum chamber with a single-turn coil.The full magnetic field strength was 0.005 T.This paper presents the requirements,design considerations,design parameters,magnetic field calculations,and measurements of the kicker magnets.The relevant experimental results are also presented.The pulse width of the magnetic field was approximately 600 ns,and the maximum operation repetition rate was 1 MHz.The developed kicker satisfies the requirements for the SHINE project.Finally,numerous recommendations for the future optimization of kicker magnets are provided.

Characteristics and suppression of beam distortion in a high repetition rate nanosecond stimulated Brillouin scattering phase conjugation mirror

The stimulated Brillouin scattering phase conjugation mirror (SBS-PCM) based on liquid media is widely used in high-power laser systems due to its robust thermal load capacity, high energy conversion efficiency and improved beam quality. Nevertheless, with an increase in the pump repetition rate, thermally-induced blooming and optical breakdown can emerge, leading to distortions in the Stokes beam. In this study, we delved into the thermal effects in liquid SBS-PCMs employing hydrodynamic analysis, establishing a relationship between beam profile distortion and the thermal convection field. We calculated the temperature and convection velocity distribution based on the pump light parameters and recorded the corresponding beam profiles. The intensities of the beam profiles were modulated in alignment with the convection directions, reaching a velocity peak of 2.85 mm/s at a pump pulse repetition rate of 250 Hz. The residual sum of squares (RSS) was employed to quantify the extent of beam profile distortion relative to a Gaussian distribution. The RSS escalated to 7.8, in contrast to 0.7 of the pump light at a pump pulse repetition rate of 500 Hz. By suppressing thermal convection using a high-viscosity medium, we effectively mitigated beam distortion. The RSS was reduced to 0.7 at a pump pulse repetition rate of 500 Hz, coinciding with a twentyfold increase in viscosity, thereby enhancing the beam quality. By integrating hydrodynamic analysis, we elucidated and mitigated distortion with targeted solutions. Our research offers an interdisciplinary perspective on studying thermal effects and contributes to the application of SBS-PCMs in high-repetition-rate laser systems by unveiling the mechanism of photothermal effects.

High efficiency,low threshold,high repetition rate H-βFraunhofer line light at 486.1 nm generation by an intracavity frequency-doubled optical parametric oscillator

A high efficiency,low threshold,high repetition rate H-βFraunhofer line light at 486.1 nm was demonstrated.A high-efficiency KTP optical parametric oscillator was achieved by double-pass pumping with a high-maturity 5 kHz 532 nm laser.Thanks to the efficient intracavity frequency doubling of the circulating signal wave by a BIBO crystal,the threshold pump power of the 486.1 nm output was 0.9 W,and the maximum output power of 1.6 W was achieved under the pump power of7.5 W.The optical–optical conversion efficiency was 21.3%,with the pulse duration of 45.2 ns,linewidth of~0.12 nm,and beam quality factor M~2 of 2.83.

Spectral manipulation in a high-power ultrafast fiber laser system generating ultrashort pulses with GHz repetition rate

In this work,we demonstrate the spectral manipulation in an ultrafast fiber laser system that generates ultrashort pulses with a repetition rate of 1.2 GHz and two switchable modes—a 1064-nm fundamental laser mode with a maximum output power of 66.6 W,and a 1125-nm Raman laser mode with a maximum output power of 17.23 W.The pulse width,beam quality,and power stability are carefully characterized.We also investigate a method to switch between the two modes by manipulating the duty cycle of the modulation signal.It is anticipated that this bi-mode ultrafast fiber laser system can be a promising ultrafast laser source for frontier applications,such as micromachining,bioimaging,and spectroscopy.

Short mid-infrared watt-level all-fiber nonlinear pulse compressor above 100-MHz pulse repetition rate

We firstly report a 2-μm all-fiber nonlinear pulse compressor based on two pieces of normal dispersion fiber(NDF),which enables a high-power scaling ability of watt-level and a high pulse compression ratio of 13.7.With the NDFbased all-fiber nonlinear pulse compressor,the 450-fs laser pulses with a repetition rate of 101.4 MHz are compressed to 35.1 fs,corresponding to a 5.2 optical oscillation cycle at the 2-μm wavelength region.The output average power reaches 1.28 W,which is believed to be the highest value never achieved from the previous 2-μm all-fiber nonlinear pulse compressors with a high pulse repetition rate above 100 MHz.The dynamic evolution of the ultrafast pulse inside the all-fiber nonlinear pulse compressor is numerically analyzed,matching well with the experimental results.

Key technologies implementation of high-repetition-rate satellite laser ranging

Satellite laser ranging （SLR） is one of the major space geodetic instruments, which has various applications in earth science. In this paper, we introduce several issues regarding the key technology implementation of high-repetition-rate SLR system. Compared with traditional technology, using kHz and 8ps pulse width laser component, the data quantity and quality of high-repetition-rate satellite laser ranging （SLR） can be significantly improved. The characteristics of high-repetition-rate laser ranging and the key technologies are presented, including the event timer with the precision of picosecond, the generation of range gate signal, and so on. All of them are based on the Field Programmable Gate Arrays （FPGA） and tested on China mobile SLR system-TROS1000. Finally, the observations of satellite Beacon-C are given.

A 2D scintillator-based proton detector for high repetition rate experiments

We present a scintillator-based detector able to measure the proton energy and the spatial distribution with a relatively simple design.It has been designed and built at the Spanish Center for Pulsed Lasers(CLPU)in Salamanca and tested in the proton accelerator at the Centro de Micro-Análisis de Materiales(CMAM)in Madrid.The detector is capable of being set in the high repetition rate(HRR)mode and reproduces the performance of the radiochromic film detector.It represents a new class of online detectors for laser-plasma physics experiments in the newly emerging high power laser laboratories working at HRR.

High repetition rate actively mode-locked Er:fiber laser with tunable pulse duration

An actively mode-locked fiber laser with controllable pulse repetition rate and tunable pulse duration is presented,in which an optical delay line(ODL)is used to adjust the cavity length precisely for regulating the repetition rate,and a semiconductor optical amplifier(SOA)is introduced for enabling the pulse duration control.Experimentally,continuous tuning of the repetition rate from 2 GHz to 6 GHz is realized,which is limited by the availability of an even higher repetition rate radiofrequency(RF)source.Specifically,when the repetition rate is fixed at 2.5 GHz,the pulse duration can be tuned from 4 ps to30 ps,which is,to the best of our knowledge,the widest tuning range of pulse duration ever achieved in a gigahertz(GHz)repetition rate actively mode-locked 1.5μm fiber laser oscillator.

Midinfrared optical frequency comb based on difference frequency generation using high repetition rate Er-doped fiber laser with single wall carbon nanotube film

We demonstrated stable midinfrared(MIR) optical frequency comb at the 3.0 μm region with difference frequency generation pumped by a high power, Er-doped, ultrashort pulse fiber laser system. A soliton mode-locked161 MHz high repetition rate fiber laser using a single wall carbon nanotube was fabricated. The output pulse was amplified in an Er-doped single mode fiber amplifier, and a 1.1–2.2 μm wideband supercontinuum(SC) with an average power of 205 m W was generated in highly nonlinear fiber. The spectrogram of the generated SC was examined both experimentally and numerically. The generated SC was focused into a nonlinear crystal, and stable generation of MIR comb around the 3 μm wavelength region was realized.

Kerr frequency combs in large-size,ultra-high-Q toroid microcavities with low repetition rates [Invited]

By overcoming fabrication limitations, we have successfully fabricated silica toroid microcavities with both large diameter(of 1.88 mm) and ultra-high-Q factor(of 3.3 × 10~8) for the first time, to the best of our knowledge. By employing these resonators, we have further demonstrated low-threshold Kerr frequency combs on a silicon chip,which allow us to obtain a repetition rate as low as 36 GHz. Such a low repetition rate frequency comb can now bedirectly measured through a commercialized optical-electronic detector.