Cadmium Selenide Polymer Microfiber Saturable Absorber for Q-Switched Fiber Laser Applications

We demonstrate the generation of a Q-switching pulse train in an erbium-doped fiber laser （EDFL） cavity using a newly developed cadmium selenide （CdSe） based saturable absorber （SA）. The SA is obtained by embedding CdSe nanomaterials into a polymethyl methacrylate （PMMA） microfiber. It is incorporated into an EDFL cavity to generate a Q-switched laser operating at 1533.6nm. The repetition rates of the produced pulse train are tunable within 37–64kHz as the pump power is varied from 34mW to 74mW. The corresponding pulse width reduces from 7.96μs to 4.84μs, and the maximum pulse energy of 1.16nJ is obtained at the pump power of 74mW.

A novel hybrid surface micromachined segmented mirror for large aperture laser applications

A novel hybrid surface micromachined segmented mirror array is described. This device is capable of scaling to large apertures for correcting time-varying aberrations in laser applications. Each mirror is composed of bottom electrode, support part, and mirror plate, in which a T-shaped beam structure is used to support the mirror plate. It can provide mirror with vertical movement and rotation around two horizontal axes. The test results show that the maximum deflection along the vertical direction of the mirror plate is 2 μm, while the rotation angles around x and y axes are±2.3° and ±1.45°, respectively.

Survey and technological analysis of laser and its defense applications

The laser technology has made remarkable progress over the past couple of decades.It is being widely employed in diverse domains,such as holography,space sciences,spectroscopy,medical sciences,micro and power electronics,industrial engineering,and most distinctively,as directed energy military weapons.Owing to their active transmissions,laser systems are similar to microwave radars to some extent;however,unlike conventional radars,the laser operates at very high frequencies thus making it a potent enabler of narrow-beam and high energy aerial deployments,both in offensive and defensive roles.In modern avionics systems,laser target indicators and beam riders are the most common devices that are used to direct the Laser Guided Weapons(LGW)accurately to the ground targets.Additionally,compact size and outstanding angular resolution of laser-based systems motivate their use for drones and unmanned aerial applications.Moreover,the narrow-beam divergence of laser emissions offers a low probability of intercept,making it a suitable contender for secure transmissions and safety-critical operations.Furthermore,the developments in space sciences and laser technology have given synergistic potential outcomes to use laser systems in space operations.This paper comprehensively reviews laser applications and projects for strategic defense actions on the ground or in space.Additionally,a detailed analysis has been done on recent advancements of the laser technology for target indicators and range-finders.It also reviews the advancements in the field of laser communications for surveillance,its earlier state of the art,and ongoing scientific research and advancements in the domain of high energy directed laser weapons that have revolutionized the evolving military battlefield.Besides offering a comprehensive taxonomy,the paper also critically analyzes some of the recent contributions in the associated domains.

Guest Editorial Special Issue on Mid-Infrared Lasers and Applications

Mid-infrared （mid-IR） lasers, generally defined as having an operation wavelength in the spectral region of 2μm to 20μm, have attracted great scientific and technological interests owing to their widespread applications. This wavelength range not only contains some strong vibration transitions of many important molecules, thus, exhibiting enormous potential in medical, spectroscopy.

Influence of adhesive layer properties on laser-generated ultrasonic waves in thin bonded plates

This paper studies quantitatively the generation of Lamb waves in thin bonded plates subjected to laser illumination, after considering the viscoelasticity of the adhesive layer. The displacements of such plates have been calculated in the frequency domain by using the finite element method, and the time domain response has been reconstructed by applying an inverse fast Fourier transform. Numerical results are presented showing the normal surface displacement for several configurations： a single aluminum plate, a three-layer bonded plate, and a two-layer plate. The characteristics of the laser-generated Lamb waves for each particular case have been investigated. In addition, the sensitivity of the transient responses to variations of material properties （elastic modulus, viscoelastic modulus, and thickness） of the adhesive layer has been studied in detail.

WIDE-BAND LASER CLADDING: WEAR AND CORROSION RESISTANCE OF A Ni-BASED ALLOY

A novel wide-band laser cladding system, with high rate of cladding, has been developed in the present work. The system mainly consisted of a 5kW CO2 laser, an automatic powder feeder and a wide-band scanning rotative polygon mirror which can produce a linear or rectangular focused laser beam. Using this system, a Ni-Cr-Si-B alloy powder was cladded on the surface of type 321 austenitic stainless steel in order to improve its wear and corrosion resistance. The pitting corrosion, high temperature oxidation and wear tests were conducted in order to evaluate the properties of the laser cladded layer. The results demonstrated that the cladded layer can significantly improve the adhesive wear and pitting corrosion resistance of the substrate. Moreover, the cladded layer exhibited good oxidation resistance, which is almost the same as that of GMR-235D Ni-based superalloy.

The Application of Laser Plasma in Ophthalmology

In this paper the production and development of laser plasma is introduced, and the contrlbutlon of laser biomedicine and laser plasma technology to ophthalmology is analyzed. In the end, the latest three progresses (laser photocoagulation, photorefractive keratotomy and laser lridectomy of laser plasma applications in ophthalmology are preserited.

The Application of Laser Processing on Clutch Manufacture

The first multi-function laser processing system in the domestic for clutch manufacture,with abilities of cutting, jointing and heat treatment,was reported in this paper.One external optical path,double laser heads,adjust device by manual operation,automatically track were employed in this system Also the other parts of vehicles can be fabricated by this system,as well as clutches.The special processing to manufacture the clutches of heavy vehicles,which was developed by the project of this laser processing system,achieved the international standards and satisfied the economic development and nation defense in the do- mestic.

Design and calibration of an elliptical crystal spectrometer for the diagnosis of proton-induced x-ray emission(PIXE)

Laser-driven proton-induced x-ray emission(laser-PIXE) is a nuclear analysis method based on the compact laser ion accelerator. Due to the transient process of ion acceleration, the laser-PIXE signals are usually spurted within nanoseconds and accompanied by strong electromagnetic pulses(EMP), so traditional multi-channel detectors are no longer applicable.In this work, we designed a reflective elliptical crystal spectrometer for the diagnosis of laser-PIXE. The device can detect the energy range of 1 keV–11 ke V with a high resolution. A calibration experiment was completed on the electrostatic accelerator of Peking University using samples of Al, Ti, Cu, and ceramic artifacts. The detection efficiency of the elliptical crystal spectrometer was obtained in the order of 10-9.

Improvement of bandwidth in a 100 kHz swept laser source with phase controllable signal driving

Swept source optical coherence tomography(SS-OCT)is a new noninvasive technique for assessing tissue.Although it hasadvantages,such as being label-free,noninvasive,and with high resolution,it also has drawbacks:there has been no indepth research into identifying the driving of swept source.Based on preliminary research,we demonstrate a novel drivingmodulation method of a fiber Fabry–Perot tunable filter ranging phase adjustable as a tool for making bandwidth compensation of a swept laser source.This novel method is analyzed in detail;a swept laser source with a sweep rate of100.5 kHz over a range of 152.25 nm and at a center wavelength of 1335.45 nm is demonstrated.

Rectification of 3D Data Obtained from Moving Range Sensor by Using Extended Projective Multiple View Geometry

To measure the 3D shape of large objects, scanning by a moving range sensor is one of the most efficient methods. However, if we use moving range sensors, the obtained data have some distortions due to the movement of the sensor during the scanning process. In this paper, we propose a method for recovering correct 3D range data from a moving range sensor by using the multiple view geometry under projective projections in space-time. We assume that range sensor radiates laser beams in a raster scan order, and they are observed from two cameras. We first show that we can deal with range data as 2D images, and show that the extended multiple view geometry can be used for representing the relationship between the 2D image of range data and the 2D image of cameras. We next show that the extended multiple view geometry can be used for rectifying 3D data obtained by the moving range sensor. The method is implemented and tested in synthetic images and range data. The stability of the recovered 3D shape is also evaluated.

MOCVD growth of AlGaInP/GaInP quantum well laser diode with asymmetric cladding structure for high power applications

In order to improve the characteristics of the general broad-waveguide 808-nm semiconductor laser diode （LD）, we design a new type quantum well LD with an asymmetric cladding structure. The structure is grown by metal organic chemical vapor deposition （MOCVD）. For the devices with 100-ttm-wide stripe and 1000-/zm-long cavity under continuous-wave （CW） operation condition, the typical threshold current is 190 mA, the slope efficiency is 1.31 W/A, the wall-plug efficiency reaches 63%, and the maximum output power reaches higher than 7 W. And the internal absorption value decreases to 1.5 cm^-1.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Optimized design of laser range finding system using the self-mixing effect in a single-mode VCSEL

An optimized design of laser range finding system using the self-mixing effect in a single-mode verticalcavity surface-emitting laser （VCSEL） is proposed. In order to improve the ranging accuracy and expand dynamic measurement range, we apply difference frequency analog phase-locked loop （PLL） instead of fast Fourier transform （FFT） to process signal, and choose the optimum triangular wave frequency .fm= 500 Hz and small modulation current △Ip p = 0.28 mA to modulate single-mode VCSEL. The experiment results show that, without controlling the laser＇s temperature, the ranging accuracy is better than 2 mm and the measurement dynamic range is as large as 50-500 mm when the sampling time is 0.1 s and the room temperature is 0--55℃.