Phase matched scanning optical parametric chirped pulse amplification based on pump beam deflection

Combined with the optical beam deflection,a novel approach of phase matched broadband scanning optical parametric chirped pulse amplification(OPCPA)was proposed.For this scheme,there was no superfluous operations to the chirped signal pulse which propagated in a changeless direction straightforward,but the pump beam were deflected in space with time by passing through a KTN crystal,which was applied with varied driving voltage.The theories of phase matching of each chirped signal frequency based on pump beam deflection was analyzed detailedly.And the type-I amplification of chirped signal with 800 nm central wavelength and 20 nm bandwidth pumped by 532 nm in BBO crystal was simulated as a case in point.The simulation results showed that the spectral distribution of chirped signal pulse was almost the same as the initial form,i.e.,there was nearly no narrowing on the amplified spectrum by using of the scanning OPCPA based on pump beam deflection.In addition,the simulations demonstrated that it was worth minimizing the voltage deviation applied to KTN crystal as much as possible for the sake of better waveform,larger bandwidth and higher conversion efficiency of amplified signal pulse in the proposed scanning OPCPA.

Trends in ultrashort and ultrahigh power laser pulses based on optical parametric chirped pulse amplification

Since the proof-of-principle demonstration of optical parametric amplification to efficiently amplify chirped laser pulses in 1992, optical parametric chirped pulse amplification（OPCPA） became the most promising method for the amplification of broadband optical pulses. In the meantime, we are witnessing an exciting progress in the development of powerful and ultrashort pulse laser systems that employ chirped pulse parametric amplifiers. The output power and pulse duration of these systems have ranged from a few gigawatts to hundreds of terawatts with a potential of tens of petawatts power level. Meanwhile, the output pulse duration based on optical parametric amplification has entered the range of fewoptical-cycle field. In this paper, we overview the basic principles, trends in development, and current state of the ultrashort and laser systems based on OPCPA, respectively.

Chirped pulse amplification: review and prospective from diffractive optics [Invited]

It is well-known that the chirped pulse amplification(CPA) technique won the award for the 2018 Nobel Prize in Physics to Mourou and Strickland. The compression and stretching using gratings is the essence of the CPA technique for amplifying femtosecond laser pulses. It seems the public is less aware that there are also other structures for compression and stretching of femtosecond laser pulses using other diffractive gratings, such as doubled-density gratings and deep-etched gratings. Therefore, from the view of diffractive optics, the CPA technique is reviewed with different approaches and experimental implementations that are not only useful for a more comprehensive retrospective overview of CPA, but also for the prospective of the CPA technique,which might lead us to new areas of picometer and femtometer optics in the future.

Review of fiber superluminescent pulse amplifications

High coherence of the laser is indispensable light sources in modern long or short-distance imaging systems, because the high coherence leads to coherent artifacts such as speckle that corrupt image formation. To deliver low coherence pulses in fiber amplifiers, we utilize the superluminescent pulsed light with broad bandwidth, nonlongitudinal mode structure and chaotic mode phase as the seed source of the cascaded fiber amplifiers. The influence of fiber superluminescent pulse amplification(SPA) on the limitations of the performance is analyzed. A review of our research results for SPA in the fibers are present, including the nonlinear theories of this low coherent light sources, i.e., self-focusing(SF), stimulated Raman scattering(SRS) and self-phase modulation(SPM) effects, and the experiment results of the nanosecond pulses with peak power as high as 4.8 MW and pulse energy as much as 55 mJ. To improve the brightness of SPA light in the future work, we introduce our novel evaluation term and a more reasonable criterion, which is denoted by a new parameter of brightness factor for active large mode area fiber designs. A core-doped active large pitch fiber with a core diameter of 190 μm and a mode-field diameter of 180 μm is designed by this method. The designed fiber allows near diffracted limited beam quality operation, and it can achieve 100 mJ pulse energy and 540 W average power by analyzing the mode coupling effects induced by heat.

Generation of high-contrast, joule-level pulses based on Nd:glass chirped pulse amplification laser

We demonstrate a high-contrast, joule-level Nd:glass laser system operating at 0.5 Hz repetition rate based on a double chirped pulse amplification(CPA) scheme. By injecting high-contrast, high-energy seed pulses into the Nd:glass CPA stage, the pulse energy is amplified to 1.9 J through two optical parametric CPA stages and two Nd:glass amplifiers. The temporal contrast of compressed pulse is measured down to the level of 10^(-8)at tens of ps, and 10^(-10) near 200 ps before the main pulse, respectively.

Compact pulsed thulium‐doped fiber laser for topographical patterning of hydrogels

We report the generation of high energy 2μm picosecond pulses from a thulium-doped fiber master oscillator power amplifier system.The all-fiber configuration was realized by a flexible large-mode area photonic crystal fiber(LMA-PCF).The amplifier output is a linearly-polarized 1.5 ns,100 kHz pulse train with a pulse energy of up to 250μJ.Pulse compression was achieved with(2+2)-pass chirped volume Bragg grating(CVBG)to obtain a 2.8 ps pulse width with a total pulse energy of 46μJ.The overall system compactness was enabled by the all-fiber amplifier design and the multi-pass CVBG-based compressor.The laser output was then used to demonstrate high-speed direct-writing capability on a temperature-sensitive biomaterial to change its topography(i.e.fabricate microchannels,foams and pores).The topographical modifications of biomaterials are known to influence cell behavior and fate which is potentially useful in many cell and tissue engineering applications.

High-energy femtosecond Yb-doped all-fiber monolithic chirped-pulse amplifier at repetition rate of 1 MHz

A high-energy femtosecond all ytterbium fiber amplifier based on a chirped-pulse amplification（CPA） technique at a repetition rate of 1 MHz seeded by a dispersion-management mode-locked picosecond broadband oscillator is studied.We find that the compressed pulse duration is dependent on the amplified energy,the pulse duration of 804 fs corresponds to the maximum amplified energy of 10.5 μJ,while the shortest pulse duration of 424 fs corresponds to the amplified energy of 6.75 μJ.The measured energy fluctuation is approximately 0.46% root mean square（RMS） over 2 h.The low-cost femtosecond fiber laser source with super-stability will be widely used in industrial micromachines,medical therapy,and scientific studies.

High-power all-fiber linearly polarized Yb-doped chirped pulse amplifier based on active polarization control

High-power ultrafast laser amplification based on a non-polarization maintaining fiber chirped pulse amplifier is demonstrated.The active polarization control technology based on the root-mean-square propagation(RMS-prop)algorithm is employed to guarantee a linearly polarized output from the system.A maximum output power of 402.3 W at a repetition rate of 80 MHz is realized with a polarization extinction ratio(PER)of>11.4 dB.In addition,the reliable operation of the system is verified by examining the stability and noise properties of the amplified laser.The M2factor of the laser beam at the highest output power is measured to be less than 1.15,indicating a diffraction-limited beam quality.Finally,the amplified laser pulse is temporally compressed to 755 fs with a highest average power of 273.8 W.This is the first time,to the best of our knowledge,that the active polarization control technology was introduced into the high-power ultrafast fiber amplifier.

High-power femtosecond laser generation from an all-fiber linearly polarized chirped pulse amplifier

An all-fiber high-power linearly polarized chirped pulse amplification(CPA)system is experimentally demonstrated.Through stretching the pulse duration to a full width of approximately 2 ns with two cascaded chirped fiber Bragg gratings(CFBGs),a maximum average output power of 612 W is achieved from a high-gain Yb-doped fiber that has a core diameter of 20μm with a slope efficiency of approximately 68%at the repetition rate of 80 MHz.At the maximum output power,the polarization degree is 92.5%and the M^(2)factor of the output beam quality is approximately 1.29;the slight performance degradations are attributed to the thermal effects in the main amplifier.By optimizing the B-integral of the amplifier and finely adjusting the higher-order dispersion of one of the CFBGs,the pulse width is compressed to 863 fs at the highest power with a compression efficiency of 72%,corresponding to a maximum compressed average power of 440.6 W,single pulse energy of 5.5μJ and peak power of about 4.67 MW.To the best of our knowledge,this is the highest average power of a femtosecond laser directly generated from an all-fiber linearly polarized CPA system.

Thulium-doped all-PM fiber chirped pulse amplifier delivering 314 W average power

A high-power all polarization-maintaining(PM) chirped pulse amplification(CPA) system operating in the 2.0 μm range is experimentally demonstrated.Large mode area(LMA) thulium-doped fiber(TDF) with a core/cladding diameter of25/400 μm is employed to construct the main amplifier.Through dedicated coiling and cooling of the LMA-TDF to manage the loss of the higher order mode and thermal effect,a maximum average power of 314 W with a slope efficiency of 52% and polarization extinction ratio of 20 dB is realized.The pulse duration is compressed to 283 fs with a grating pair,corresponding to a calculated peak power of 10.8 MW,considering the compression efficiency of 88% and the estimated Strehl ratio of 89%.Moreover,through characterizing the noise properties of the laser,an integrated relative intensity noise of 0.11% at 100 Hz-1 MHz is obtained at the maximum output power,whereas the laser timing jitter is degraded by the final amplifier from 318 to 410 fs at an integration frequency of 5 kHz to 1 MHz,owing to the self-phase modulation effect-induced spectrum broadening.The root-mean-square of long-term power fluctuation is tested to be0.6%,verifying the good stability of the laser operation.To the best of our knowledge,this is the highest average power of an ultrafast laser realized from an all-PM-fiber TDF-CPA system ever reported.

Monolithic tapered Yb‑doped fber chirped pulse amplifer delivering 126μJ and 207 MW femtosecond laser with near difraction‑limited beam quality

In this work,a high-energy and high peak power chirped pulse amplifcation system with near difraction-limited beam quality based on tapered confned-doped fber(TCF)is experimentally demonstrated.The TCF has a core numerical aperture of 0.07 with core/cladding diameter of 35/250µm at the thin end and 56/400μm at the thick end.With a backward-pumping confguration,a maximum single pulse energy of 177.9μJ at a repetition rate of 504 kHz is realized,corresponding to an average power of 89.7 W.Through partially compensating for the accumulated nonlinear phase during the amplifcation process via adjusting the high order dispersion of the stretching chirped fber Bragg grating,the duration of the amplifed pulse is compressed to 401 fs with a pulse energy of 126.3μJ and a peak power of 207 MW,which to the best of our knowledge represents the highest peak power ever reported from a monolithic ultrafast fber laser.At the highest energy,the polarization extinction ratio and the M2 factor were respectively measured to be~19 dB and 1.20.In addition,the corresponding intensity noise properties as well as the short-and long-term stability were also examined,verifying a stable operation of the system.It is believed that the demonstrated laser source could fnd important applications in,for example,advanced manufacturing and photomedicine.

High pulse energy fiber/solid-slab hybrid picosecond pulse system for material processing on polycrystalline diamonds

We demonstrate an all polarization-maintaining(PM) fiber mode-locked laser seeded, hybrid fiber/solid-slab picosecond pulse laser system which outputs 40 μJ, 10 ps pulses at the central wavelength of 1064 nm. The beam quality factors M2 in the unstable and stable directions are 1.35 and 1.31, respectively. 15 μJ picosecond pulses at the central wavelength of 355 nm are generated through third harmonic generation(THG) by using two Li B3 O5(LBO) crystals, in order to get better processing efficiency on polycrystalline diamonds. The high pulse energy and beam quality of these ultraviolet(UV) picosecond pulses are confirmed by latter experiments of material processing on polycrystalline diamonds. This scheme which combines the advantages of the all PM fiber mode-locked laser and the solid-slab amplifier enables compact, robust and chirped pulse amplification-free amplification with high power picosecond pulses.

Intense,wideband optical waveform generation by self-balanced amplification of fiber electro-optical sideband modulation

We demonstrate a simple method to obtain accurate optical waveforms with a gigahertz-level programmable modulation bandwidth and a watt-level output power for wideband optical control of free atoms and molecules.Arbitrary amplitude and phase modulations are transferred from microwave to light with a low-power fiber electro-optical modulator.The sub-milliwatt optical sideband is co-amplified with the optical carrier in a power-balanced fashion through a tapered semiconductor amplifier(TSA).By automatically keeping TSA near saturation in a quasi-continuous manner,typical noise channels associated with pulsed high-gain amplifications are efficiently suppressed.As an example application,we demonstrate interleaved cooling and trapping of two rubidium isotopes with coherent nanosecond pulses.

Photonic crystal rod-based high-performance ultrafast fiber laser system

In this paper,we innovatively conduct a Porro prism-based beam pointing stability promotion technique research and realize a high-performance rod-type photonic crystal fiber-based chirped pulse amplification(CPA)system,mainly including a frequency-reduced all-fiber pre-amplification stage,photonic crystal rod-based main amplification stage,and 1600 lines/mm transmission grating-pair compressor.Laser output with average power of 50 W,repetition rates of500 kHz,pulse energy of 100μJ,pulse duration of 830 fs,beam quality of M2<1.3,power fluctuation of 0.55%root mean square,and beam pointing drift of 19μrad/?C over 8 h is realized.The high-performance laser system has an enormous application potential in fundamental research and precision manufacturing fields.

Overview and specifications of laser and target areas at the Intense Laser Irradiation Laboratory

We present the main features of the ultrashort, high-intensity laser installation at the Intense Laser Irradiation Laboratory(ILIL) including laser, beam transport and target area specifications. The laboratory was designed to host laser–target interaction experiments of more than 220 TW peak power, in flexible focusing configurations, with ultrarelativistic intensity on the target. Specifications have been established via dedicated optical diagnostic assemblies and commissioning interaction experiments. In this paper we give a summary of laser specifications available to users,including spatial, spectral and temporal contrast features. The layout of the experimental target areas is presented, with attention to the available configurations of laser focusing geometries and diagnostics. Finally, we discuss radiation protection measures and mechanical stability of the laser focal spot on the target.

A route to enhanced performance for the petawatt beamlines of the Orion laser facility

The Orion laser facility at AWE provides multiple beams to target delivering synchronized pulses at both nanosecond and sub-picosecond duration.In the latter,the peak power approaches the petawatt level.This paper presents a conceptual design for potential development of these beamlines.This would deliver a significant enhancement of performance at the fundamental level.In addition,a new approach is described for the management of frequency conversion at high intensity,which may allow significantly enhanced performance at the second harmonic also.