Influence of low temperature on the surface deformation of deformable mirrors

The two factors which influence the low temperature performance of deformable mirrors（DMs） are the piezoelectric stroke of the actuators and the thermally induced surface deformation of the DM. A new theory was proposed to explain the thermally induced surface deformation of the DM： because the thermal strain between the actuators and the base leads to an additional moment according to the theory of plates, the base will be bent and the bowing base will result in an obvious surface deformation of the facesheet. The finite element method（FEM） was used to prove the theory. The results showed that the thermally induced surface deformation is mainly caused by the base deformation which is induced by the coefficient of thermal expansion（CTE） mismatching; when the facesheet has similar CTE with the actuators, the surface deformation of the DM would be smoother. Then an optimized DM design was adopted to reduce the surface deformation of the DMs at low temperature. The low temperature tests of two 61-element discrete PZT actuator sample deformable mirrors and the corresponding optimized DMs were conducted to verify the simulated results. The results showed that the optimized DMs perform well.

An improved Prandtl-Ishlinskii model for compensating rate-dependent hysteresis in fast steering mirror system

To solve the rate-dependent hysteresis compensation problem in fast steering mirror(FSM) systems, an improved Prandtl-Ishlinskii(P-I) model is proposed in this paper. The proposed model is formulated by employing a linear density function into the STOP operator. By this way, the proposed model has a relatively simple mathematic format, which can be applied to compensate the rate-dependent hysteresis directly. Adaptive differential evolution algorithm is utilized to obtain the accurate parameters of the proposed model. A fast steering mirror control system is established to demonstrate the validity and feasibility of the improved P-I model. Comparative experiments with different input signals are performed and analyzed, and the results show that the proposed model not only suppresses the rate-dependent hysteresis effectively, but also obtains high tracking precision.

Diode-pumped electro-optical cavity-dumped Tm:YAP laser at 1996.9 nm

In this Letter, we demonstrate a diode-pumped electro-optical cavity-dumped Tm：YAP laser for the first time to our knowledge. A pulse width of 7.1 ns is achieved at a wavelength of 1996.9 nm. A maximum output power of 3.02 W is obtained with a pump power of 58.8 W at a repetition rate of 100 k Hz and a high-voltage time of 1000 ns, corresponding to an overall optical-to-optical conversion efficiency of 5.2%. In addition, we study the effect of repetition rate and high-voltage time on the output power characteristics of a cavity-dumped Tm：YAP laser.

Picosecond pulse generation in a mono-layer MoS2 mode-locked Ytterbium-doped thin disk laser

A mode-locked（ML）picosecond ytterbium-doped thin disk laser using a monolayer Mo S2as the saturable absorber（SA）is demonstrated.The monolayer MoS2 is fabricated through the method of low-pressure chemical vapor deposition.The laser directly produces stable ML picosecond pulses at a slope efficiency of 9.71%.The maximum output power is approximately 890 mW,while the corresponding repetition,pulse energy,and pulse duration are 48.6 MHz,18.3 nJ,and 13.1 ps,respectively.Results suggest that the monolayer MoS2 is a promising SA for ultrafast lasers system.

Measurement of small wavelength shifts based on total internal reflection heterodyne interferometry

This Letter presents a method of an optical sensor for measuring wavelength shifts. The system consists of a diffraction grating and a total internal reflection heterodyne interferometer. As a heterodyne light beam strikes a grating, the first-order diffraction beam is generated. The light penetrates into a total internal reflection prism at an angle larger than the critical angle. A wavelength variation will affect the diffractive angle of the first-order beam, thus inducing a phase difference variation of the light beam emerging from the total internal reflections inside the trapezoid prism. Both the experimental and theoretical results reveal that, for the first-order diffractive beam, the sensitivity and resolution levels are superior to 5°/nm and 0.006 nm, respectively, in the range of wavelength from 632 to 634 nm, and are superior to 3.1°/nm and 0.0095 nm in the range from 632 to 637 nm. For the theoretical simulation of the fourth-order diffractive beam, they are superior to 6.4 deg ∕nm and 0.0047 nm in the range from 632 to 637 nm.