A 54-fs diode-pumped Kerr-lens mode-locked Yb:LuYSiO_(5) laser

We demonstrate a Kerr-lens mode-locked Yb:Lu YSiO_(5)(Yb:LYSO)laser with the pulse duration of 54 fs,corresponding to a spectral bandwidth of 25 nm centered at 1062 nm.To the best of our knowledge,this is the shortest pulse duration obtained from Yb:LYSO laser.At the repetition rate of 378.3 MHz,an output power of 111.6 m W is obtained using an output coupler with 0.6%transmittance,which can maintain long-time stable mode-locking more than 13 h.

The second fusion of laser and aerospace-an inspiration for high energy lasers

Since the first laser was invented,the pursuit of high-energy lasers(HELs)has always been enthusiastic.The first revolution of HELs was pushed by the fusion of laser and aerospace in the 1960s,with the chemical rocket engines giving fresh impetus to the birth of gas flow and chemical lasers,which finally turned megawatt lasers from dream into reality.Nowadays,the development of HELs has entered the age of electricity as well as the rocket engines.The properties of current electric rocket engines are highly consistent with HELs’goals,including electrical driving,effective heat dissipation,little medium consumption and extremely light weight and size,which inspired a second fusion of laser and aerospace and motivated the exploration for potential HELs.As an exploratory attempt,a new configuration of diode pumped metastable rare gas laser was demonstrated,with the gain generator resembling an electric rocket-engine for improved power scaling ability.

Diode-Pumped Passively Mode-Locked 1079 nm Nd:CaGdAlO_4 Laser

We demonstrate a diode-pumped passively cw mode-locked Nd：CaGdAlO4 laser operating at 1079nm with a semiconductor saturable absorber mirror for the first time to the best of our knowledge. The threshold pump power of the laser is 180mW. A maximum average output power of 93mW is obtained under the pump power of 1.94 W. The pulse duration of the mode-locked pulses is 3.1ps and the repetition rate is 157MHz.

Continuous-Wave and Actively Q-Switched Diode-Pumped Er:LuAG Ring Laser at 1650 nm

We demonstrate a cw and actively Q-switched Er：LuAO laser resonantly dual-end-pumped by 1532nm fibre- coupled laser diodes. A maximum cw output power of 1.9W at 1650.3nm is obtained at a pump power of 25.5 W, corresponding to a slope efficiency of 43.3 %. In the Q-switched regime, the maximum pulse energy of 3.51 mJ is reached at a pulse repetition rate of 100 Hz, a pulse duration of 90.5ns and a pump power of 25.5 W. At the repetition rate of 400 Hz, the output energy is 2.12m J, corresponding to a pulse duration of 125.4 ns.

Diode-pumped laser performance of Tm:Sc2SiO5 crystal at 1971 nm

The 4-at.% Tm：Sc_2SiO_5 （Tm：SSO） crystal is successfully obtained by the Czochralski method. The optical properties and thermal conductivity of the crystal are investigated. The broad continuous wave（CW） laser output of（100）-cut Tm：SSO with the dimensions of 3 mm×3 mm×3 mm under laser diode（LD）-pumping is realized. The full width at half maximum（FWHM） of the laser emitting reaches up to 21 nm. The laser threshold of Tm：SSO is measured to be 0.43 W. Efficient diode-pumped CW laser performance of Tm：SSO is demonstrated with a slope efficiency of 25.9% and maximum output power of 934 mW.

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%.

Temperature-Dependent Fluorescence Properties and Diode-Pumped Deep Red Laser Performance of Pr:LiGdF4 Crystal

We demonstrate the temperature-dependent fluorescence properties of Pr：LiGdF4 crystal tor the first time, to the best of our knowledge, and its blue diode pumped cw red laser at 720 nm at room temperature. The fluorescence lifetime and polarized emission cross sections in the visible range are measured and calculated in a temperature range from 77K to 300 K, and the variations of the fluorescence lifetime and spectra are discovered. The reasons for these changes are explained accordingly. The output wavelength of the 720nm laser is first reported on the laser performance by using a fiber-coupled laser diode at the wavelength of 442nm as the pump source, and the maximum cw output power is about 303roW.

Diode Pumped Rubidium Laser Based on Etalon Effects of Alkali Cell Windows

We demonstrate that the etalon effects of alkali cells can be used as the output coupler of an alkali laser.Based on a rubidium cell with highly parallelized windows,a 2.7 W rubidium laser with optical efficiency of 20.9%and slope efficiency of 31.8%is obtained by adopting unconventional output couplers.Since it has compact configuration and the inner surface of the rubidium cell is uncoated,this may be used in high power laser systems with long lifetimes.

激光烧蚀压印制备疏水铝箔表面的耐久性

提出了一种激光烧蚀压印技术制备具有多级微结构的疏水铝箔表面。该技术利用激光直接辐照在工件表面,利用烧蚀诱导的冲击压印获得一级微结构,同时利用烧蚀诱导的融化材料的流动获得二级微结构。为了检验耐久性,对疏水铝箔工件进行了酸碱腐蚀实验和不同环境存储实验。实验结果表明,酸碱腐蚀会破坏工件表面的微观形貌和低表面能,因此工件接触角随着腐蚀时间增长而降低。其中碱腐蚀工件时反应比酸腐蚀剧烈得多,工件表面形貌受损也更大,工件表面在碱腐蚀16 h后就达到了超亲水状态(25°),而酸腐蚀24 h后也依然表现为疏水性(97°)。再次进行时效处理后,工件依然能在三周后达到稳定的疏水状态,但疏水性能比腐蚀前要差,且酸腐蚀工件的最终疏水性(120°)比碱腐蚀工件(105°)要好。不同存储环境对工件表面形貌几乎没有影响。存储在空气中的工件接触角无明显变化,存储在盐水中的工件丧失疏水性(87°),存储在纯水中的工件表现比盐水稍好(96°)。再次进行时效处理后,纯水存储的工件接触角可以恢复到135°左右,而盐水存储的工件仅能恢复到120°。激光烧蚀压印制备的疏水铝箔基本能够满足应对复杂环境的要求。

Pushing the boundaries of diode-pumped solid-state lasers for high-energy applications

We report on the successful demonstration of a 150 J nanosecond pulsed cryogenic gas cooled,diode-pumped multi-slab Yb:YAG laser operating at 1 Hz.To the best of our knowledge,this is the highest energy ever recorded for a diodepumped laser system.

Quantitative analysis of C, Si, Mn, Ni, Cr and Cu in low-alloy steel under ambient conditions via laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy

A diode-pumped solid-state laser （DPSSL） with a high energetic stability and long service life is applied to ablate the steel samples instead of traditional Nd：YAG laser pumped by a xenon lamp, and several factors, such as laser pulse energy, repetition rate and argon flow rate, that influence laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy （LIBS） analytical performance are investigated in detail. Under the optimal experiment conditions, the relative standard deviations for C, Si, Mn, Ni, Cr and Cu are 3.3%-8.9%, 0.9%-2.8%, 1.2%-4.1%, 1.7%-3.0%, 1.1%-3.4% and 2.5%-8.5%, respectively, with the corresponding relative errors of 1.1%-7.9%, 1.0%-6.3%, 0.4%-3.9%, 1.5%-6.3%, 1.2%-4.0% and 1.2%-6.4%. Compared with the results of the traditional spark discharge optical emission spectrometry technique, the analytical performance of LIBS is just a little inferior due to the less stable laser-induced plasma and smaller amount of ablated sample by the laser. However, the precision, detection limits and accuracy of LIBS obtained in our present work were sufficient to meet the requirements for process analysis. These technical performances of higher stability of output energy and longer service life for DPSSL, in comparison to the Q-switch laser pumped by xeon lamp, qualify it well for the real time online analysis for different industrial applications.

Scaling diode-pumped, high energy picosecond lasers to kilowatt average powers

Recent results in the development of diode-driven high energy, high repetition rate, picosecond lasers, including the demonstration of a cryogenic Yb:YAG active mirror amplifier that produces 1.5 J pulses at 500 Hz repetition rate(0.75 kW average power) are reviewed. These pulses are compressed resulting in the generation of ~5 ps duration,1 J pulses with 0.5 kW average power. A full characterization of this high power cryogenic amplifier, including atwavelength interferometry of the active region under >1 kW average power pump conditions, is presented. An initial demonstration of operation at 1 kW average power(1 J, 1 k Hz) is reported.

MXene Ti_3C_2T_x saturable absorber for pulsed laser at 1.3 μm

The excellent optical properties of MXene provide new opportunities for short-pulse lasers. A diode-pumped passively Q-switched laser at 1.3 μm wavelength with MXene Ti3C2Tx as saturable absorber was achieved for the first time. The stable passively Q-switched laser has 454 ns pulse width and 162 kHz repetition rate at 4.5 W incident pumped power. The experimental results show that the MXene Ti3C2Tx saturable absorber can be used as an optical modulator to generate short pulse lasers in a solid-state laser field.

Passively mode-locked Nd：GdVO4 laser at 912nm

This paper demonstrates the passively mode-locked Nd：GdVO4 laser operating on the ^4F3/2-^4I9/2 transition at 912 nm by using a semiconductor saturable-absorber mirror for passive mode locking, stable continuous wave modelocked 912nm laser was achieved with a repetition rate of 176 MHz. At the incident pump power of 17.7W, 22.6mW average output power of stable mode-locked laser was obtained with a slope efficiency of 0.3%.

Experimental study of electro-optical-switched pulsed Nd:YAG laser

We report the specification of a compact and stable side diode-pumped Q-switched pulsed Nd：YAG laser. We ex- perimentally study and compare the performance of the pulsed Nd：YAG laser in the free-running and Q-switched modes at different pulse repetition rates from 1 Hz to 100 Hz. The laser output energy is stabilized by using a special configu- ration of the optical resonator. In this laser, an unsymmetrical concave-concave resonator is used and this structure helps the mode volume to be nearly fixed when the pulse repetition rate is increased. According to the experimental results in the Q-switched operation, the laser output energy is nearly constant around 70 mJ with an FWHM pulse width of 7 ns at 100 Hz. The optical-to-optical conversion efficiency in the Q-switched regime is 17.5%.

Theoretical and Numerical Study of Stress and Thermo-Optic in Photonic Crystal Fiber Laser in Different Pump Schemes

In this paper, we present a study of thermal, average power scaling, change in index of refraction and stress in photonic crystal fiber lasers with different pump schemes: forward pump scheme, backward pump scheme, forward pump scheme with reflection of 98%, backward pump scheme with reflection of 98% and bi-directional pump scheme. We show that management of thermal effects in fiber lasers will determine the efficiency and success of scaling-up efforts. In addition, we show that the most suitable scheme is the bi-directional.

High conversion efficiency, high power density Q-switched fiber laser

An acoustic-optic Q-switched all-fiber laser With a high-repetition-rate, a short pulse width, a wide spectrum, and a high conversion efficiency is experimentally demonstrated. In the laser configuration, a （1＋1）x 1 side-pumping coupler is introduced to perform backward pumping, and a 10/130%tm Yb fiber is adopted. The acoustic-optic component operates in the first direction, achieving a Q-switched pulse with a repetition rate adjustable in the range of 20 kHz-80 kHz. Under a repetition rate of 20 kHz and a pump power of 6.76 W, the fiber laser obtains a highly efficient and stable pulse output, with an average power of 4.3 W, a pulse width of 56 ns, a peak power of 3.83 kW, and a power density of 1.39x 101~ W/cm2. Particularly, the optic-optic conversion efficiency of the laser reaches as high as 64%. Another feature of the pulsed laser is that the high reflection mirror reflects the pump light as well, which brings the secondary absorption of the pump power into the gain fiber.

Compact, temperature-stable multi-gigahertz passively modelocked semiconductor disk laser

We present a compact passively mode-locked semiconductor disk laser at 1045 nm. The gain chip without any post processing consists of 16 compressively strained In Ga As symmetrical step quantum wells in the active region. 3-GHz repetition rate, 4.9-ps pulse duration, and 30-mW average output power are obtained with 1.4 W of 808-nm incident pump power. The temperature stability of the laser is demonstrated to have an ideal shift rate of 0.035 nm/K of the lasing wavelength.

Design of LD in-band direct-pumping side surface polished micro-rod Nd:YVO_4 laser

To diminish the thermal load, two ways, that is, in-band direct pumping and micro-rod crystal, could be adopted at the same time. The efficiency of LD in-band direct-pumping side surface polished micro-rod Nd：YVO_4 laser is numerically analyzed. By optimizing parameters such as crystal length, laser mode radius, pump beam radius, doping concentration and crystal cross-section size, the overall efficiency can reach over 50%. It is found that with micro-rod crystal implemented in the laser oscillator, high overall efficiency LD in-band direct-pumping Nd：YVO_4 laser could be realized. High efficiency combined with low thermal load makes this laser an outstanding scheme for building high-power Nd：YVO_4 lasers.

Design and performance of a composite Tm:YAG laser pumped by VBG-stabilized narrow-band laser diode

A 2-μm composite Tm：YAG laser pumped with a narrow-band laser diode was presented. The temperature distribution and thermal lens in the Tm：YAG were numerically simulated by a finite element method and the results were used to design the special cavity, in order to achieve a high efficiency and stable output. With a 25-W incident pump power, we obtained a maximum output power of 11 W at 2018.5 nm, corresponding to a slope efficiency of 51.3% and an optical-to-optical efficiency of 44.5%, respectively. The beam quality was measured to be M_x^2= 1.8 and M_y^2= 1.6.