Beam guiding system geometric arrangement in the target area of high-power laser drivers

With the increasing number of laser beams, the main difficulty in arranging beam guiding systems(BGSs) involves determining the corresponding relationships between the output and input ports to realize the identified light path length of all beams. Given the basic constraints of geometric arrangement, a BGS model is established, and a base-line algorithm is proposed to address the difficulty mentioned above. Boundary conditions of target area and target chamber are discussed to increase the number of laser beams, and a maximum value exists for a specific target area. Finally, the compatibility of a cylindrical hohlraum target chamber with a spherical hohlraum is analyzed, and a moveable final optics assembly is proposed to execute the switch between the two different targets.

High-Power Single-Spatial-Mode GaSb Tapered Laser around 2.0 μm with Very Small Lateral Beam Divergence

We report high-power single-spatial-mode type-I GaSb-based tapered lasers fabricated on the InGaSb/AlGaAsSb material system. A straight ridge and three different tapered waveguide structures with varying flare angles are fabricated to optimize the output power and spatial-mode performance. The best devices exhibit single-spatial-mode operation with room-temperature output power up to 350？mW in continuous-wave mode at an emission wavelength around 2.0？μm with a very small far-field lateral divergence angle, which is beyond state of the art in terms of single-spatial-mode output power.

A new method for measuring the pulse-front distortion of arbitrary shapes in high-power ultrashort laser systems

We present a new method that can be used to calculate pulse-front distortion by measuring the spectral interference of two point-diffraction fields in their overlapped district. We demonstrate, for the first time, the measurement of the pulse-front distortion of the pulse from a complex multi-pass amplification system, which exists in almost all high-power laser systems, and obtain the irregular pulse-front distribution. The method presented does not need any reference light or assumption about the pulse-front distribution, and has an accuracy of several femtoseconds.

High-Power Passively Q-Switched Nd:YAG Laser at 1112 nm with a Cr^(4+):YAG Saturable Absorber

A high-power passively Q-switched Nd：YAG laser operating at lll2nm with Cr4＋：yAO as a saturable absorber is demonstrated. Under 808 nm diode-direct pumping, the maximum average output power of 2.73 W is achieved at the pump power of 16.65 W, corresponding to an optical-to-optical conversion efficiency of 16.4%. At the same time, the pulse width, pulse repetition rate, single pulse energy and peak power are 27.2ns, 9 kHz, 303.3#3 and 11.2kW, respectively. As far as we know, the result gives the highest average output power at 1112nm generated by an 808 nm diode-end-pumped Nd：YAG laser.

Elucidation of Metallic Plume and Spatter Characteristics Based on SVM During High-Power Disk Laser Welding

During deep penetration laser welding,there exist plume（weak plasma） and spatters,which are the results of weld material ejection due to strong laser heating.The characteristics of plume and spatters are related to welding stability and quality.Characteristics of metallic plume and spatters were investigated during high-power disk laser bead-on-plate welding of Type 304 austenitic stainless steel plates at a continuous wave laser power of 10 kW.An ultraviolet and visible sensitive high-speed camera was used to capture the metallic plume and spatter images.Plume area,laser beam path through the plume,swing angle,distance between laser beam focus and plume image centroid,abscissa of plume centroid and spatter numbers are defined as eigenvalues,and the weld bead width was used as a characteristic parameter that reflected welding stability.Welding status was distinguished by SVM（support vector machine） after data normalization and characteristic analysis.Also,PCA（principal components analysis） feature extraction was used to reduce the dimensions of feature space,and PSO（particle swarm optimization） was used to optimize the parameters of SVM.Finally a classification model based on SVM was established to estimate the weld bead width and welding stability.Experimental results show that the established algorithm based on SVM could effectively distinguish the variation of weld bead width,thus providing an experimental example of monitoring high-power disk laser welding quality.

High-Power Continuous-Wave and Acousto-Optical Q-Switched Ho:(Sc_(0.5)Y_(0.5))_2SiO_5 Laser Pumped by Laser Diode

We experimentally investigate the continuous-wave(cw)and acousto-optical(AO)Q-switched performance of a diode-pumped Ho:(Sc_(0.5)Y_(0.5))_2SiO_5(Ho:SYSO)laser.A fiber-coupled laser diode at 1.91m is employed as the pump source.The cw Ho:SYSO laser produces 13.0 W output power at 2097.9 nm and 56.0%slope efficiency with respect to the absorbed pump power.In the AO Q-switched regime,at a pulse repetition frequency of 5 kHz,the Ho:SYSO laser yields 2.1 mJ pulse energy and 21 ns pulse width,resulting in a calculated peak power of 100 k W.In addition,at the maximum output level,the beam quality factor of the Q-switched Ho:SYSO laser is measured to be about 1.6.

Formation of choroidal neovascularization under macular fovea after high-power laser irradiation: a case report

Dear Editor,I am Dr.Shan-Shan Li,from Northern Jiangsu People’s Hospital,Yangzhou,China.I write to present the case of formation of choroidal neovascularization(CNV)under the fovea after high-power laser irradiation.Currently,there is an increasing availability and accessibility to laser instruments,but improper use of these tools can lead to macular damage and irreversible visual impairment.

An accurate and stable method of array element tiling for high-power laser facilities

Due to laser-induced damage, the aperture of optics is one of the main factors limiting the output capability of highpower laser facilities. Because of the general difficulty in achieving large-aperture optics, an alternative solution is to tile some small-aperture ones together. We propose an accurate, stable, and automatic method of array element tiling and verify it on a double-pass 1 × 2 tiled-grating compressor in the XG-III laser facility. The test results show the accuracy and stability of the method. This research provides an efficient way to obtain large-aperture optics for high-power laser facilities.

High-Power Dual-End-Pumped Actively Q-Switched Ho:YAG Ceramic Laser

We present a high-power Ho：YAG ceramic laser pumped at 1908nm. Using a dual-end-pumped structure, the maximum continuous-wave output power of 48 W is obtained, corresponding to a slope efficiency of 70.4% with respect to the absorbed pump power. At actively Q-switched mode, the maximum average output power of 46 W and the minimum pulse width of 21 ns are achieved at a pulse repetition frequency of 20 kHz, corresponding to a peak power of approximately 109.5kW. In addition, the beam-quality M2 factor is found to be 1.4 at the maximum output power.

High-Power Continuous-Wave Nd:GdVO4 Solid-State Laser Dual-End-Pumped at 880 nm

A high-power cw all-solid-state Nd：GdVO4 laser operating at 88Onto is reported. The laser consists of a low doped level Nd：GdV04 crystal dual-end-pumped by two high-power diode lasers and a compact negative confocM unstable-stable hybrid resonator. At an incident pump power of 820 W, a maximum cw output of 240 W at 1064nm is obtained. The optical-to-optical efficiency and Mope efficiency are 40.7% and 53.2%, respectively. The M2 factors in the unstable direction and in the stable direction are 4.38 and 5.44, respectively.

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.

A 15 Gbps-NRZ, 30 Gbps-PAM4, 120 mA laser diode driver implemented in 0.15-μm GaAs E-mode pHEMT technology

This paper presents the design and testing of a 15 Gbps non-return-to-zero(NRZ),30 Gbps 4-level pulse amplitude modulation(PAM4)configurable laser diode driver(LDD)implemented in 0.15-μm GaAs E-mode pHEMT technology.The driver bandwidth is enhanced by utilizing cross-coupled neutralization capacitors across the output stage.The output transmission-line back-termination,which absorbs signal reflections from the imperfectly matched load,is performed passively with on-chip 50-Ωresistors.The proposed 30 Gbps PAM4 LDD is implemented by combining two 15 Gbps-NRZ LDDs,as the high and low amplification paths,to generate PAM4 output current signal with levels of 0,40,80,and 120 mA when driving 25-Ωlasers.The high and low amplification paths can be used separately or simultaneously as a 15 Gbps-NRZ LDD.The measurement results show clear output eye diagrams at speeds of up to 15 and 30 Gbps for the NRZ and PAM4 drivers,respectively.At a maximum output current of 120 mA,the driver consumes 1.228 W from a single supply voltage of-5.2 V.The proposed driver shows a high current driving capability with a better output power to power dissipation ratio,which makes it suitable for driving high current distributed feedback(DFB)lasers.The chip occupies a total area of 0.7×1.3 mm^(2).

Effect of the high-power electromagnetic pulses on the reactivity of the coal-water slurry in hot environment

An effect of the high-power electromagnetic pulses onto the droplet of coal-water slurry inside the furnace was investigated.In contrary to the previously investigated laser-induced fuel atomization that occurs at the room temperature,the pre-heated(to 400 K)slurry becomes dry enough to prevent the explosion-like steam formation.Thus,fuel does not atomize and the ignition does not accelerate.Furthermore,the absorption of several laser pulses leads to evident sintering of irradiated surface with following increase of the ignition delay time for up to 24%.Variation of the pulse energy in range 48-118 mJ(corresponding intensity up to 2.4 J·cm^-2)leads to certain variation of the increase of ignition delay.The strong pulsed overheating of the coal water slurry which does not initiate the fine atomization of the fuel generally makes its ignition longer.

Laser Driver for Optic Fiber Gyro with 4 mA to 200 mA Drive Current

Abstract---The stability of the drive current is very important for a laser driver, while it is difficult to maintain the current stable at a high value for the laser driver. On the other hand, the range of the drive current is expected to be as wide as possible to be applied to different kinds of lasers. In this paper, a high current laser driver for the superluminescent light emitting diode （SLED） is presented, which is used in the optic fiber gyro embedded by a 0.35 μm bipolar complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor transistor （BiCMOS） process. The laser driver provides automatic power control and certain value of current determined by the external resister. The system is based on the optic-electric feedback theory and uses the closed-loop control technique to maintain the drive current stable. The system is capable of producing stable current ranges from 4 mA to 200 mA when the value of external resister changes.

Review of high-power pulsed systems at the Institute of High Current Electronics

In this paper,we give a review of some most powerful pulsed systems developed at the Institute of High Current Electronics(HCEI),Siberian Branch,Russian Academy of Sciences,and describe latest achievements of the teams dealing with these installations.Besides the presented high-power systems,HCEI performs numerous investigations using much less powerful generators.For instance,last year much attention was paying to the research and development of the intense low-energy(<200 kV)high-current electron and ion beam and plasma sources,and their application in the technology[1-3].

Drivers for High Power Laser Diodes

During the last year the high power laser diodes jumped over the 1 kW level of CW power for a stack, and the commercial 1 cm bars reached 100 W output optical power at the standard wavelengths around 800 nm and 980 nm. The prices are reaching the industry acceptable levels. All Nd∶YAG and fiber industrial lasers manufacturers have developed kW prototypes. Those achievements have set new requirements for the power supplies manufactuers-high and stable output current, and possibilities for fast control of the driving current, keeping safe the expensive laser diode. The fast switching frequencies also allow long range free space communications and optical range finding. The high frequencies allow the design of a 3D laser radar with high resolution and other military applications. The prospects for direct laser diode micro machining are also attractive.

A 155 Mbps laser diode driver with automatic power and extinction ratio control

An integrated laser diode driver(LDD) driving an edge-emitting laser diode was designed and fabricated by 0.35 μm BiCMOS technology. This paper proposes a scheme which combines the automatic power control loop and temperature com-pensation for modulation current in order to maintain constant extinction ratio and average optical power. To implement tem-perature compensation for modulation current,a novel circuit which generates a PTAT current by using the injecting base current of a bipolar transistor in saturation region,and alternates the amplifier feedback loop(closed or not) to control the state of the current path is presented. Simulation results showed that programmed by choice of external resistors,the IC can provide modu-lation current from 5 mA to 85 mA with temperature compensation adjustments and independent bias current from 4 mA to 100 mA. Optical test results showed that clear eye-diagrams can be obtained at 155 Mbps,with the output optical power being nearly constant,and the variation of extinction ratio being lower than 0.7 dB.

基于WMS的可调谐半导体激光器驱动与温控电路设计

针对可调谐半导体激光器工作时,其工作电流和工作温度的波动导致激光器的输出的波长和功率不能保持恒定的问题,设计了一套基于STM32F407为主控芯片联合FPGA的半导体激光器小型化驱动与温控电路。通过与上位机交互,系统可实现激光器驱动电流和工作温度的连续可调,使半导体激光器的输出光的波长在最佳的范围内。经过测试,系统的驱动模块电流稳定度为0.075%,电流的实际值与理论值之间的相对误差平均值为0.538%;温度电路的稳定度在0.03℃,完全满足实际应用需求。

一种多波长激光器的多模式驱动研究

介绍了一种多波长半导体激光器驱动系统的设计,该系统采用了压控电流源与PicoLAS模块混合驱动的方法,具有效率高、体积小、电路简单可靠、易于系统集成等优点,为半导体激光器的驱动设计提供了一种选择和参考。

一种纳秒级半导体激光器集成微模块

为提升半导体激光器在高重频下工作的稳定性,并满足模块高集成度的需求,研制了一款纳秒级半导体激光器集成微模块。该微模块包括半导体激光器芯片、装载激光器芯片的基板以及驱动电路。在基板侧面设计金属化过孔,将半导体激光器芯片的电极从基板侧面引出,实现了激光的垂直发射;采用球栅阵列(BGA)封装GaN HEMT和GaN驱动器,优化电路布局和半导体激光器的回流路径,减小寄生电感,实现了1 ns的发光脉冲宽度,工作重频达到了1 MHz;同时,发光脉冲信号的前沿抖动度小于60 ps,脉冲宽度抖动度小于200 ps,表明其具有较高的稳定性。最后,采用高透明、耐高温的灌封胶对该微模块实现集成化封装,整体尺寸仅为6mm×5mm×2.6mm。