Configuration optimization of laser guide stars and wavefront correctors for multi-conjugation adaptive optics

Multi-conjugation adaptive optics（MCAOs） have been investigated and used in the large aperture optical telescopes for high-resolution imaging with large field of view（FOV）.The atmospheric tomographic phase reconstruction and projection of three-dimensional turbulence volume onto wavefront correctors,such as deformable mirrors（DMs） or liquid crystal wavefront correctors（LCWCs）,is a very important step in the data processing of an MCAO＇s controller.In this paper,a method according to the wavefront reconstruction performance of MCAO is presented to evaluate the optimized configuration of multi laser guide stars（LGSs） and the reasonable conjugation heights of LCWCs.Analytical formulations are derived for the different configurations and are used to generate optimized parameters for MCAO.Several examples are given to demonstrate our LGSs configuration optimization method.Compared with traditional methods,our method has minimum wavefront tomographic error,which will be helpful to get higher imaging resolution at large FOV in MCAO.

A high precision phase reconstruction algorithm for multi-laser guide stars adaptive optics

Adaptive optics（AO） systems are widespread and considered as an essential part of any large aperture telescope for obtaining a high resolution imaging at present.To enlarge the imaging field of view（FOV）,multi-laser guide stars（LGSs） are currently being investigated and used for the large aperture optical telescopes.LGS measurement is necessary and pivotal to obtain the cumulative phase distortion along a target in the multi-LGSs AO system.We propose a high precision phase reconstruction algorithm to estimate the phase for a target with an uncertain turbulence profile based on the interpolation.By comparing with the conventional average method,the proposed method reduces the root mean square（RMS） error from 130 nm to 85 nm with a 30% reduction for narrow FOV.We confirm that such phase reconstruction algorithm is validated for both narrow field AO and wide field AO.

Development and Demonstration of Australian First Working Sodium Guide Star Laser

The Australian first working sodium guide star laser system has been designed and developed for various astronomical and space-related applications. A completely diode-pumped pulsed system was developed initially followed by a largely fiber-based continuous wave (CW) system operating at 589 nm achieved through a unique wavelength conversion scheme by combining 1342 and 1050 nm through a sum frequency generation process. For the CW system, single-mode laser beams at both 1342 and 1050 nm are achieved from fiber-based seed oscillators and fiber amplifiers. The output power of ~25 W at 1342 nm is achieved from a single frequency fiber Raman amplifier. Output power up to 70 W at 1050 nm is achieved from a Yb-doped fiber pre-amplifier followed by a Yb-doped fiber power amplifier. For the sum frequency generation process, optimum focusing parameters are evaluated and determined. The CW system has generated more than 20 W output power at 589 nm, a circularly polarised beam with a good beam quality, spectral linewidth ≤ 2 MHz, and the laser output locked on the sodium D2 line at 589.159 nm. The system has been successfully demonstrated at EOS Space Research Centre, Mt Stromlo, Canberra, and become the Australian first working sodium guide star laser system.

Characterization of relativistic electrons generated by a cone guiding laser pulse

We demonstrated the interaction of a gold cone target with a femto second（fs） laser pulse above the relativistic intensity of 1.37×10 18 μm 2 W/cm 2.Relativistic electrons with energy above 2 MeV were observed.A 25%-40% increase of the electron temperature is achieved compared to the case when a plane gold target is used.The electron temperature increase results from the guiding of the laser beam at the tip and the intense quasistatic magnetic field in the cone geometry.The behavior of the relativistic electrons is verified in our 2D-PIC simulations.

Laser guiding of cold molecules in a hollow optical fiber and continuous-wave cold molecular beam generation

A novel scheme for guiding arbitrary buffer-gas cooled neutral molecules in a hollow optical fiber （HOF） using a red-detuned HEll mode is proposed and analysed theoretically. We give the electromagnetic field distribution of the HEll mode in the HOF and calculate the optical potential of an 12 molecule, and study the molecule guiding mechanism using a classical Monte Carlo simulation. Using a 6 kW input laser, an S-shape HOF with a 2 cm curvature radius for both bends, and an input molecular beam with a transverse temperature of 0.5 K and longitudinal temperature of 5 K, we obtain a guiding efficiency of -0.126% for the scheme, and the transverse and longitudinal temperatures of the guided molecular beam are 1.9 mK and 0.5 K, respectively.

Contour Laser Guiding for the Mechanized ＂Vallerani＂ Micro-catchment Water Harvesting Systems

Mechanized construction of micro-catchments for water harvesting （WH） was successfully tested in the Badia （dry rangeland） areas in Syria and Jordan, using the ＂Vallerani＂ plow, model Delfino （50 MI/CM）, manufactured by Nardi, Italy. The plow was able to construct intermittent and continuous contour ridges, and could potentially be used to rehabilitate degraded rangelands. However, one major issue for large-scale implementation is the high cost and time required to manually identify contours for the plow to follow. Most existing auto-guiding systems, as usually used in road construction and agricultural land leveling, were expensive or impractical. The objective, therefore, was to add, adapt, and evaluate an auto-guiding system to enable a tractor to follow contours without demarcation through conventional surveying. A low-cost Contour Laser Guiding （CLG） system, with specifications that suit the contour ridging in undulating topographic conditions of dry rangelands, was chosen, adapted, mounted, and tested, under actual field conditions. The system consisted mainly of a portable laser transmitter and a tractor-mounted receiver, connected to a guidance display panel. The system was field-tested on 95 ha of land where the system capacity was determined under different terrains, slopes （1-8%）, and ridge spacings （4-12 m）. The easy adaptation and implementation of the CLG to the ＂Vallerani＂ unit tripled the system capacity, improved efficiency and precision, and substantially reduced the cost of constructing micro-catchments for WH. The system is recommended for large-scale rangeland rehabilitation projects in the dry areas, not only in West Asia, but worldwide.

Characterization of relativistic electrons generated by a cone guiding laser pulse

We demonstrated the interaction of a gold cone target with a femto second(fs) laser pulse above the relativistic intensity of 1.37×10 18 μm 2 W/cm 2.Relativistic electrons with energy above 2 MeV were observed.A 25%-40% increase of the electron temperature is achieved compared to the case when a plane gold target is used.The electron temperature increase results from the guiding of the laser beam at the tip and the intense quasistatic magnetic field in the cone geometry.The behavior of the relativistic electrons is verified in our 2D-PIC simulations.

Sodium guide star laser generation by single-pass frequency doubling in a periodically poled near-stoichiometric LiTaO_3 crystal

We report in this work a continuous wave(CW) narrowband 589 nm light generation for the purpose of laser guide assisted adaptive optics.A 39 mm long 1 mm thick periodically poled near stoichiometric LiTaO3 crystal with duty cycle near 50% was fabricated using electrical poling at room temperature and pumped by a Raman fiber amplifier.We tested two temperature control ovens,and a maximum conversion efficiency of about 14.3%,corresponding to 4 W of yellow light with 28 W of fundamental power,and bandwidth less than 0.18 GHz was achieved.

Quantum cascade laser thermal therapy guided by FDOCT

We demonstrate Fourier domain optical coherenc tomography （FDOCT） monitoring and guiding of quantum cascade laser （QCL） therapy. The laser therapy is performed with a 6.1-tim mid-IR QCL and it involves both tissue coagulation or ablation. FDOCT allows real-time monitoring that minimize unnecessary damage to the surrounding tissues. We perform lipid phantom tissue ablation, chicken egg yolk coagulation, and tissue and blood vessel coagulation on chicken embryo to validate the FDOCT guiding quantum cascade laser therapy.

Improving superficial microstructure and properties of the laser-processed ultrathin kerf in Ti-6Al-4V alloy by water-jet guiding

In the present research,the gas-assisted laser(GAL)and water-jet guided laser(WGL)processing technologies were applied to machine the ultrathin kerf in the wrought Ti-6Al-4V alloy.The microstructure,microhardness,and wear properties of the superficial layer were investigated.The results reveal that the GAL processing could machine the kerf with a high depth-to-width ratio of 12–15,but the increased processing times enhance the depth little.Due to the oxygen entrainment and relatively low heat and mass transferring efficiency,the assisted gas promotes the formation of a scaled recast layer containingβ-Ti phase and oxides,which increases the roughness to 20μm.The WGL processed kerf has a low depth-to-width ratio with a value of 1.9–2.5 and the depth could be increased by increasing the WGL processing times.With the assistance of the water jet,the remelted debris and heat could be eliminated immediately,which restrains the formation of the recast layer and heat-affected zone.The ultrathin oxide outer layer with hundreds of nanometers and ultrafineα-Ti grain inner layer are formed on the surface,which decreases the roughness to 12μm.Compared with the as-received Ti-6Al-4V alloy,the microhardness of GAL processed kerf surface is increased to 382.8 HV accompanied by residual tensile stress,while the microhardness of WGL processed kerf surface is increased to 481.6 HV accompanying with residual compressive stress.In addition,the GAL processing increases the wear rate at room temperature but decreases the wear rate at high temperatures.Comparatively,the WGL processing decreases the wear rate at room and high temperatures,simultaneously.Such wear behaviors could be ascribed to their different superficial microstructures and phase constituents.

Radial density profile and stability of capillary discharge plasma waveguides of lengths up to 40 cm

We measured the parameter reproducibility and radial electron density profile of capillary discharge waveguides with diameters of 650µm to 2 mm and lengths of 9 to 40 cm.To the best of the authors’knowledge,40 cm is the longest discharge capillary plasma waveguide to date.This length is important for≥10 GeV electron energy gain in a single laser-driven plasma wakefield acceleration stage.Evaluation of waveguide parameter variations showed that their focusing strength was stable and reproducible to<0.2%and their average on-axis plasma electron density to<1%.These variations explain only a small fraction of laser-driven plasma wakefield acceleration electron bunch variations observed in experiments to date.Measurements of laser pulse centroid oscillations revealed that the radial channel profile rises faster than parabolic and is in excellent agreement with magnetohydrodynamic simulation results.We show that the effects of non-parabolic contributions on Gaussian pulse propagation were negligible when the pulse was approximately matched to the channel.However,they affected pulse propagation for a non-matched configuration in which the waveguide was used as a plasma telescope to change the focused laser pulse spot size.

Generation of a curved plasma channel from a discharged capillary for intense laser guiding

Straight plasma channels are widely used to guide relativistic intense laser pulses over several Rayleigh lengths for laser wakefield acceleration.Recently,a curved plasma channel with gradually varied curvature was suggested to guide a fresh intense laser pulse and merge it into a straight channel for staged wakefield acceleration[Phys.Rev.Lett.120,154801(2018)].In this work,we report the generation of such a curved plasma channel from a discharged capillary.Both longitudinal and transverse density distributions of the plasma inside the channel were diagnosed by analyzing the discharging spectroscopy.Effects of the gas-filling mode,back pressure and discharging voltage on the plasma density distribution inside the specially designed capillary are studied.Experiments show that a longitudinally uniform and transversely parabolic plasma channel with a maximum channel depth of 47.5µm and length of 3 cm can be produced,which is temporally stable enough for laser guiding.Using such a plasma channel,a laser pulse with duration of 30 fs has been successfully guided along the channel with the propagation direction bent by 10.4◦.

The Effect of Lateral Guiding Mechanism on Noise Characteristics in Semiconductor Lasers

A comparison between intensity noise spectra and also the line shapes of gain-guided, weakly-index-guided, and strongly-index-guided semiconductor lasers are made using numerical solution of Maxwell-Bloch equations including spontaneous emission noise.

Tunable synchrotron-like radiation from centimeter scale plasma channels

Synchrotron radiation(SR)sources are immensely useful tools for scientific researches and many practical applications.Currently,the state-of-the-art synchrotrons rely on conventional accelerators,where electrons are accelerated in a straight line and radiate in bending magnets or other insertion devices.However,these facilities are usually large and costly.Here,we study a compact all optical synchrotron-like radiation source based on laser-plasma acceleration either in a straight or a curved plasma channel.With the laser pulse off-axially injected,its centroid oscillates transversely in the plasma channel.This results in a wiggler motion of the whole accelerating structure and the self-trapped electrons behind the laser pulse,leading to strong synchrotron-like radiations with tunable spectra.It is further shown that a palmtop ring-shaped synchrotron is possible with current high power laser technologies.With its potential of high flexibility and tunability,such light sources once realized would find applications in wide areas and make up the shortage of large SR facilities.