Spectral Beam Combining of Fiber Lasers by Using Reflecting Volume Bragg Gratings

By employing three reflecting volume Bragg gratings, a near-infrared 4-channel spectral-beam-combining system is demonstrated to present 720 W combined power with a combining efficiency of 94.7%. The combined laser beam is near-diffraction-limited with a beam factor M^2-1.54. During this 4-channel beam-combining process, no special active cooling measures are used to evaluate the volume Bragg gratings as combining elements are under the higher power laser operation. Thermal expansion and period distortion are verified in a 2 k W 2-channel beam-combining process, and the heat issue in the transmission case is found to be more remarkable than that in the diffraction e-se. Transmitted and diffracted beams experience wave-front aberrations with different degrees, thus leading to distinct beam deterioration.

Angle amplifier in a 2D beam scanning system based on peristrophic multiplexed volume Bragg gratings

In this paper,a 2D angle amplifier based on peristrophic multiplexed volume Bragg gratings is designed and prepared,in which a calculation method is firstly proposed to optimize the number of channels to a minimum.The induction of peristrophic multiplexing reduces the performance difference in one bulk of the grating,whereas there is no need to deliberately optimize the fabrication process.It is revealed that a discrete 2D angle deflection range of±30°is obtained and the relative diffraction efficiency of all the grating channels reaches more than 55%with a root-meansquare deviation of less than 3.4%in the same grating.The deviation of the Bragg incidence and exit angles from the expected values is less than 0.07°.It is believed that the proposed 2D angle amplifier has the potential to realize high-performance and large-angle beam steering in high-power laser beam scanning systems.

Spectral Demodulation System Based on Two Transmission Volume Bragg Gratings

In this paper,a fiber grating demodulation system based on two transmission volume Bragg gratings(VBGs)was proposed.In order to resolve the problem that the spectral resolution of the present fiber grating demodulation system is not high enough,the two transmission VBGs were applied to improve the spectral resolution and reduce the volume of the spectrometer.The diffraction characteristics of the transmission VBGs were analyzed,and the optical path of the two transmission VBGs demodulation system was designed based on the diffraction characteristics.The grating constant,lens parameters,and aberration correction of the system were analyzed and calculated.The calculation showed that the theoretical wavelength range of the demodulation system was from 1525 nm to 1565 nm and the theoretical optical resolution was 60 pm when the grating constant was 0.9168,the angle between two transmission VBGs was 89°,the focal length of the collimator was 60 mm,and the focal length of the imaging lens was 131.5 mm.The aberration of the system was well corrected by using a lens as the collimator and a reflector as the imaging lens.The system principle prototype was assembled and calibrated,and its performances were experimentally investigated.The results showed that the spectrometer worked stably,with a wavelength range from 1525 nm to 1565 nm,an optical wavelength resolution of 65.3 pm,and a high demodulation speed of 10 kHz.

202 W dual-end-pumped Tm:YLF laser with a VBG as an output coupler

We demonstrated a 202 W Tm:YLF slab laser using a reflecting volume Bragg grating(VBG)as an output coupler at room temperature.Two kinds of active heat dissipation methods were used for the VBG to suppress the shift of wavelength caused by its increasing temperature.The maximum continuous wave(CW)output power of 202 W using the microchannel cooling was obtained under the total incident pump power of 553 W,the corresponding slope efficiency and optical-to-optical conversion efficiency were 39.7%and 36.5%,respectively.The central wavelength was 1908.5 nm with the linewidth(full width at half maximum)of 0.57 nm.Meanwhile,with the laser output increasing from 30 to 202 W,the total shift was about 1.0 nm,and the wavelength was limited to two water absorption lines near 1908 nm.The beam quality factors M;were measured to be 2.3 and 4.0 in x and y directions at 202 W.

High-power narrow-linewidth diode laser pump source based on high-efficiency external cavity feedback technology

In this research,the highly efficient external cavity feedback technology based on volume Bragg grating(VBG)is studied.By using the structure of a fast axis collimating lens,the beam transformation system,a slow axis collimating lens,and VBG,the divergence angle of the fast and slow axes of the diode laser incident on the VBG is reduced effectively,and the feedback efficiency of the external cavity is improved.Combined with beam combining technology,fiber coupling technology,and precision temperature control technology,a high-power and narrow-linewidth diode laser pump source of kilowatt class is realized for alkali metal vapor laser pumping.The core diameter of the optical fiber is 1000μm,the numerical aperture is 0.22,the output power from the fiber is 1013 W,the fiber coupling efficiency exceeds 89%,and the external cavity efficiency exceeds 91%.The central wavelength is 852.052 nm(in air),which is tunable from 851.956 nm to 852.152 nm,and the spectral linewidth is 0.167 nm.Research results can be used for cesium alkali metal vapor laser pumping.

An ultra-narrow linewidth solution-processed organic laser

Optically pumped lasers based on solution-processed thin-film gain media have recently emerged as low-cost,broadly tunable,and versatile active photonics components that can fit any substrate and are useful for,e.g.,chemo-or biosensing or visible spectroscopy.Although single-mode operation has been demonstrated in various resonator architectures with a large variety of gain media-including dye-doped polymers,organic semiconductors,and,more recently,hybrid perovskites-the reported linewidths are typically on the order of a fraction of a nanometer or broader,i.e.,the coherence lengths are no longer than a few millimeters,which does not enable high-resolution spectroscopy or coherent sensing.The linewidth is fundamentally constrained by the short photon cavity lifetime in the standard resonator geometries.We demonstrate here a novel structure for an organic thin-film solid-state laser that is based on a vertical external cavity,wherein a holographic volume Bragg grating ensures both spectral selection and output coupling in an otherwise very compact(,cm3)design.Under short-pulse(0.4 ns)pumping,Fourier-transform-limited laser pulses are obtained,with a full width at half-maximum linewidth of 900 MHz(1.25 pm).Using 20-ns-long pump pulses,the linewidth can be further reduced to 200 MHz(0.26 pm),which is four times above the Fourier limit and corresponds to an unprecedented coherence length of 1m.The concept is potentially transferrable to any type of thin-film laser and can be ultimately made tunable;it also represents a very compact alternative to bulky grating systems in dye lasers.