Deep Ultraviolet Laser Research Articles

Ultrafast dynamics of uracil and thymine studied using a sub-10 fs deep ultraviolet laser

Single 9.6 fs deep ultraviolet pulses with a spectral range of 255-290 nm are generated by a chirped-pulse four-wave mixing technique for use as pump and probe pulses. The electronic excited state and vibrational dynamics are simultaneously observed for an aqueous solution of uracil and thymine over the full spectral range using a 128-channel lock-in amplifier detector. Two probe photon energy-dependent lifetimes gradually increasing with the probe photon energy are obtained from the decay dynamics data. Ultrafast decay dynamics through the conical intersection is assigned from the first excited ππ* to the final ground state involving the nπ* states. Vibrational modes of the electronic ground state and excited states can be observed, which are strongly coupled to the decay dynamics of the electronic excited state.

Three-Dimensional Quantum Confinement of Charge Carriers in Self-Organized AlGaN Nanowires: A Viable Route to Electrically Injected Deep Ultraviolet Lasers.

We report on the molecular beam epitaxial growth and structural characterization of self-organized AlGaN nanowire arrays on Si substrate with high luminescence efficiency emission in the deep ultraviolet (UV) wavelength range. It is found that, with increasing Al concentration, atomic-scale compositional modulations can be realized, leading to three-dimensional quantum confinement of charge carriers. By further exploiting the Anderson localization of light, we have demonstrated, for the first time, electrically injected AlGaN lasers in the deep UV band operating at room temperature. The laser operates at ∼289 nm and exhibits a threshold of 300 A/cm(2), which is significantly smaller compared to the previously reported electrically injected AlGaN multiple quantum well lasers.

Residual Stress Analysis of Indentation on 4H-SiC by Deep-Ultraviolet Excited Raman Spectroscopy

In this work, we analyze residual stress on 4H-SiC with Raman spectroscopy that excitation wavelength is deep ultraviolet (DUV) laser 266nm. The residual stress area is created by Vickers Hardness test technique and the area is measured by 2D DUV Raman map. The result is different from visible light excited Raman, because DUV light penetration is shallower than visible light. DUV Raman signal has exactly brings only the sample surface information. We present the advantage of DUV excited Raman to analyze sample surface.

Matrix and energy effects during in-situ determination of Cu isotope ratios by ultraviolet-femtosecond laser ablation multicollector inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry

Copper isotope compositions in Cu-bearing metals and minerals have been measured by deep (194nm) ultraviolet femtosecond laser ablation multi-collector inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (UV-fsLA-MC-ICP-MS). Pure Cu-metal, brass, and several Cu-rich minerals (chalcopyrite, enargite, covellite, malachite and cuprite) have been investigated. A long-term reproducibility of better than 0.08‰ at the 95% confidence limit on the NIST SRM 976 (National Institute of Standards and Technology) Cu-metal standard has been achieved with this technique. The δ65Cu values for all samples have been calculated by standard-sample-standard bracketing with NIST SRM 976. All analyses have been carried out using Ni as a mass discrimination monitor added by nebulization prior to entering the plasma torch. For further verification samples have been analysed by conventional solution nebulization MC-ICP-MS and the results obtained have been compared with those from UV-fsLA-MC-ICP-MS. Several potential matrix-induced molecular interferences on the mineral copper isotope ratio, such as (32S33S)+ and (32S-16O17O)+ do not affect the Cu isotope measurements on sulfides, while hydrides, such as Zn–H or doubly-charged Sn2+ that interfere Ni isotopes can be either neglected or stripped by calculation. Matrix independent Cu-isotope measurements are sensitive to the energy density (fluence) applied onto the sample and can produce artificial shifts in the obtained δ65Cu values which are on the order of 3‰ for Cu-metal, 0.5‰ for brass and 0.3‰ for malachite when using energy density of up to 2J/cm2 for ablation. A positive correlation between applied energy density and the magnitude of the isotope ratio shift has been found in the energy density range from 0.2 to 1.3J/cm2 which is below the ablation threshold for ns-laser ablation. The results demonstrate that by using appropriate low fluence it is possible to measure Cu isotopic ratios in native copper and Cu-bearing sulfides, carbonates and oxides in situ with a precision of better than 0.1‰ (2SD) without using a matrix-matched standard during laser ablation analyses. Thus, this is a suitable tool to resolve Cu isotopic zoning larger than 0.1‰ in Cu-sulfides, carbonates and oxides.

Deep ultraviolet laser direct write for patterning sol-gel InGaZnO semiconducting micro/nanowires and improving field-effect mobility.

Deep-UV (DUV) laser was used to directly write indium-gallium-zinc-oxide (IGZO) precursor solution and form micro and nanoscale patterns. The directional DUV laser beam avoids the substrate heating and suppresses the diffraction effect. A IGZO precursor solution was also developed to fulfill the requirements for direct photopatterning and for achieving semi-conducting properties with thermal annealing at moderate temperature. The DUV-induced crosslinking of the starting material allows direct write of semi-conducting channels in thin-film transistors but also it improves the field-effect mobility and surface roughness. Material analysis has been carried out by XPS, FTIR, spectroscopic ellipsometry and AFM and the effect of DUV on the final material structure is discussed. The DUV irradiation step results in photolysis and a partial condensation of the inorganic network that freezes the sol-gel layer in a homogeneous distribution, lowering possibilities of thermally induced reorganization at the atomic scale. Laser irradiation allows high-resolution photopatterning and high-enough field-effect mobility, which enables the easy fabrication of oxide nanowires for applications in solar cell, display, flexible electronics, and biomedical sensors.

Reflectance and transmittance model for multilayer optical coatings with roughness at oblique incidence

Surface roughness is really important to the ultra-low loss of multilayer optical coatings. Reflectance and transmittance model for multilayer optical coatings with surface roughness has been established at normal incidence by A. V. Tikhonravov et al. in 2003. However, under the condition of oblique incidence, no further model which is based on the model of Tikhonravov has ever been reported. In this paper, an approximate reflectance and transmittance model is established for the thin film system with roughness at oblique incidence by analogy and usage of the concept of equivalent refractive index. The small-scale roughness model's effectiveness has been theoretically demonstrated according to the effective medium theory. However, the large-scale roughness model's effectiveness needs other methods to be proved, as the scattering effect of different scale roughness is different. This model might play a significant role to research the scattering loss of oblique incident thin film systems, such as mirrors in ring lasers, deep ultraviolet lasers and interferometers with ultra long cavity length.

Sub-pm linewidth nanosecond Nd:GYSGG laser at 1336.6 nm.

We demonstrate a sub-pm linewidth acousto-optic (AO) Q-switched nanosecond Nd:GYSGG ring laser at 1336.6 nm side-pumped by 808-nm quasi-continuous wave (QCW) diode lasers for the first time. With incident pulse energy of 4.23 J at 10 Hz, a maximum output macropulse energy of 36.7 mJ at 1336.6 nm with linewidth of less than 0.85 pm and a micropulse width of 300 ns was obtained at a repetition rate of 80 Hz, corresponding to an average micropulse peak power of 15.3 kW. The M² factors were measured to be 1.42 and 1.10 in x and y directions, respectively. It can be tuned from 1336.576 to 1336.652 nm with a tuning resolution of 1 pm. The 1336.632 nm can be converted to deep ultraviolet (DUV) laser at 167.079 nm through its eighth harmonics, which is very useful for the ²⁷Al⁺ optical frequency standard.

Multi-mJ, kHz, ps deep-ultraviolet source.

We demonstrate a 0.56-GW, 1-kHz, 4.2-ps, 2.74-mJ deep-ultraviolet (DUV) laser at ∼257.7 nm with a beam propagation factor (M2) of ∼2.54 from a frequency-quadrupled cryogenic multi-stage Yb-doped chirped-pulse amplifier. The frequency quadrupling is achieved using LiB3O5 and β-BaB2O4 crystals for near-infrared (NIR)-to-green and green-to-DUV conversion, respectively. An overall NIR-to-DUV efficiency of ∼10% has been achieved, which is currently limited by the thermal-induced phase mismatching and the DUV-induced degradation of transmittance. To the best of our knowledge, this is the highest peak-power picosecond DUV source from a diode-pumped solid-state laser operating at kHz repetition rates.

Ultrahigh-spatial-resolution chemical and magnetic imaging by laser-based photoemission electron microscopy.

We report the first experiments carried out on a new chemical and magnetic imaging system, which combines the high spatial resolution of a photoemission electron microscope (PEEM) with a continuous-wave deep-ultraviolet laser. Threshold photoemission is sensitive to the chemical and magnetic structures of the surface of materials. The spatial resolution of PEEM is limited by space charging when using pulsed photon sources as well as aberrations in the electron optics. We show that the use of a continuous-wave laser enabled us to overcome such a limit by suppressing the space-charge effect, allowing us to obtain a resolution of approximately 2.6 nm. With this system, we demonstrated the imaging of surface reconstruction domains on Si(001) by linear dichroism with normal incidence of the laser beam. We also succeeded in magnetic imaging of thin films with the use of magnetic circular dichroism near the Fermi level. The unique features of the ultraviolet laser will give us fast switching of the incident angles and polarizations of the photon source, which will be useful for the characterization of antiferromagnetic materials as well as ferromagnetic materials.

Chirped Phase Mask Interferometer for Fiber Bragg Grating Array Inscription

We present a phase mask inscription technique with two beam interferometry using a lateral nonhomogeneous beam splitter to create gratings with nonhomogeneous periods, the so-called chirped fiber Bragg gratings. Inscription experiments with deep ultraviolet excimer and femtosecond laser sources reveal how this inscription method depends on the coherence properties of the inscription laser. Nonhomogeneous beam splitters are shown to provide a method to generate chirped fiber Bragg gratings with great wavelength versatility, even with the ultraviolet femtosecond laser.

Simulated pressure-induced blue-shift of phase-matching region and nonlinear optical mechanism for K3B6O10X (X = Cl, Br)

Birefringence plays a great role in phase matching of the nonlinear optical (NLO) crystals. Small birefringence restricts various crystals from achieving deep-ultraviolet laser output although they exhibit short UV cutoff edges and high second-harmonic generation (SHG) intensities. An access to achieve deeper coherent light output through external pressure on NLO crystal, K3B6O10Cl is proposed and demonstrated through computer experiment based on the first principles theory. The “hot spot” in structure that determine the SHG effects and birefringence were highlighted. The shortest achievable phase-matching wavelengths are predicted based on calculated refractive indices. It is found that the quasi-planar (B6O10)2− group is the dominant contributing unit to optical anisotropy. The pressure-induced increase of polarizability anisotropy of (B6O10)2− group can notably enlarge birefringence which extends the shortest achievable wavelength of K3B6O10Cl frequency conversion. The results show that pressure engineering may be a promising scheme to overcome the drawback of small birefringence of some NLO crystals.

Tunable deep ultraviolet femtosecond sum frequency laser based on Ba1-xB2-y-zO4SixAlyGaz crystal

Tunable coherent deep ultraviolet (DUV) light sources, especially ultrashort pulse DUV lasers have great applications in the fields of time-resolved, material processing, spectroscopy, laser spectroscopy and laser fusion. In the UV region, the best choice of generating the laser pulses in the femtosecond or picosecond regime is the frequency up-conversation technique based on second order nonlinearities. Over the past three decades, quite a lot of nonlinear crystals, such as LiB3O5, βup-BaB2O4, KBe2BO3F2 and Ba1-xB2-y- zO4SixAlyGaz have been developed and employed for generating the femtosecond pulses in the blue, ultraviolet, and even the deep-ultraviolet region. A tunable deep ultraviolet femtosecond laser is experimentally studied based on the new nonlinear crystal Ba1-xB2-y-zO4SixAlyGaz It is a kind of low-temperature phase barium metaborate single crystal belonging to a trigonal system, doped with one or more elements selected from Si, Al and Ga. As an optimized β-BaB2O4 crystal, Ba1-xB2-y-zO4SixAlyGaz completely overcomes the shortcomings of deliquescence compared with β-BaB2O4, and its nonlinear efficiency and optical damage threshold have also been greatly improved. Using two crystals as second harmonic generation is to compensate for the spatial walk-off effect and the light path walk-off due to refraction effect The optical axis of the second Ba1-xB2-y-zO4SixAlyGaz is twice the phase matching angle with respect to the first one. In a femtosecond regime, short pulse provides high efficient frequency conversation due to their high peak powers, but the group velocity mismatch is a cognitive factor to limit conversion efficiency. It is obvious that after the frequency doubling, the second harmonic pulse and fundamental pulse separate from each other. The second harmonic pulse lags behind the fundamental pulse as they propagate through the crystal and the second harmonic pulse is broadened into a longer pulse duration than the fundamental pulse The method to compensate for the group velocity mismatch is to adjust the path length between the fundamental and second harmonic pulse by means of time delay line. It consists of beam splitters and mirrors. Tunable deep ultraviolet pulse within a wavelength range from 192.5 to 210 nm is produced, with a maximum average power of 5.8 mW, under a 2.78 W fundamental power. The average power of second harmonic, third harmonic and fourth harmonic are 1.28 W, 194 mW and 5.8 mW at the fundamental wavelength of 800 nm, corresponding to conversion efficiencies of 46.14%, 15.16% and 3% from the previous stage, respectively. The duration of the third harmonic pulse is 640.4 fs at 266.7 nm as measured by the cross-correlation technique.

Comparative Study Between Extracavity and Intracavity Frequency-Doubled Laser at 532 nm: Application for the Deep Ultraviolet Generation at 266 nm

We construct a reliable actively Q-switched Nd:YVO4 laser to comparatively investigate the output performance of the second harmonic generation between the extracavity and intracavity configurations under a similar operated condition. It is experimentally found that the peak power at 532 nm obtained with the extracavity second harmonic generation is remarkably higher than that obtained with the intracavity configuration, even though the higher output power and larger pulse energy can be acquired with the intracavity second harmonic generation. We further perform the extracavity fourth harmonic generation to verify that the extracavity second harmonic generation is more advantageous in generating deep ultraviolet laser at 266 nm than the intracavity one, where the conversion efficiencies from 532 to 266 nm for each case are 37.1% and 7.2%, respectively. Moreover, under an incident pump power of 26 W at 808 nm and a pulse repetition rate of 40 kHz, the output power at 266 nm as high as 1.67 W is effectually generated with the combination of the extracavity second and fourth harmonic generations, corresponding to the conversion efficiency from 808 to 266 nm up to 6.4%.

ArF excimer laser microprocessing of polymer optical fibers for photonic sensor applications

A study of polymer optical fiber microstructuring by use of deep ultraviolet excimer laser radiation at 193 nm wavelength is performed. The ablation characteristics of the fiber cladding and core materials are analyzed comparatively. The laser irradiation effects are dynamically studied by on-line monitoring of the laser ablation induced waveguiding losses, the latter being correlated with the spatial structuring parameters. The fiber surface is modified to incorporate cavities, which are subsequently employed as sensitive material receptors for the development of customized photonic sensors. The sensing capability of the microstructured plastic optical fibers is demonstrated by ammonia and humidity detection.

Laser-induced behavior of BK7 mirror in a compound resonator on watt level DUV laser

We experimentally present an acousto-optic Q-switched, side-pumped laser generating the watt-level deep-ultraviolet (DUV) output at 266 nm. A quasi-enhanced cavity, containing a BBO crystal as the fourth harmonic generator, was employed in the compact DUV laser system. A DUV laser with the average power of 1.08 W was achieved after careful alignment of the resonator. Our experimental results demonstrated that the DUV power was very sensitive to the misalignment of a cavity mirror. It was attributed to the thermal effect in BK7 mirror induced by high green power, by which the beam radius of green light was compressed in the compound resonator.

Low-threshold stimulated emission at 249 nm and 256 nm from AlGaN-based multiple-quantum-well lasers grown on sapphire substrates

Optically pumped deep-ultraviolet (DUV) lasing with low threshold was demonstrated from AlGaN-based multiple-quantum-well (MQW) heterostructures grown on sapphire substrates. The epitaxial layers were grown pseudomorphically by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition on (0001) sapphire substrates. Stimulated emission was observed at wavelengths of 256 nm and 249 nm with thresholds of 61 kW/cm2 and 95 kW/cm2 at room temperature, respectively. The thresholds are comparable to the reported state-of-the-art AlGaN-based MQW DUV lasers grown on bulk AlN substrates emitting at 266 nm. These low thresholds are attributed to the optimization of active region and waveguide layer as well as the use of high-quality AlN/sapphire templates. The stimulated emission above threshold was dominated by transverse-electric polarization. This work demonstrates the potential candidacy of sapphire substrates for DUV diode lasers.

Fiber Bragg Gratings in the Visible Spectral Range With Ultraviolet Femtosecond Laser Inscription

In this letter, we investigate the inscription of fiber Bragg gratings in the visible spectral range using deep ultraviolet femtosecond laser exposure and two-beam interferometry. The properties of first-order reflection gratings and third-order gratings for use in the visible wavelength range are compared. Stronger gratings have been achieved for first-order reflecting Bragg gratings compared with third-order gratings. We demonstrate a fiber Bragg grating with a grating period of 226 nm and a filtering efficiency of more than 30 dB.

Accelerated lifetime testing of fused silica for deep ultraviolet laser applications revised

We report on the continuation of a comparative study of different fused silica materials for ArF laser applications. After selecting potentially suited fused silica materials from their laser-induced absorption and compaction obtained by a short-time testing procedure, accelerated lifetime tests have been undertaken by sample irradiating at liquid nitrogen temperature and subsequent direct absorption measurements were made using the laser-induced deflection technique. The obtained degradation acceleration strongly differs between fused silica materials, showing high and low oxygen hole (OH) contents, respectively. As a result, a difference in the absorption degradation mechanism between high and low OH-containing fused silica is proposed. Consequently, two different scenarios for an acceleration of the absorption degradation are derived.

A LD side-pumped deep ultraviolet laser at 266nm by using a Nd:YAG/Cr4+:YAG/YAG composite crystal

Abstract A stable and compact deep ultraviolet laser system operation at 266 nm with diode-side-pumped and passively Q-switched is reported. The Nd:YAG/Cr4+:YAG/YAG composite crystal is used in realizing fundamental laser output and passively Q-switched modulation and for achieving a high conversion efficiency from 532 nm to 266 nm; a multi-reflected cavity for 532 nm is used in the system. The performances of the average power, pulse width, and pulse repetition rate on pump power are measured. Under the green laser of 13.03 W, the deep ultraviolet laser average output power of 1.27 W is obtained, with a pulse width of 60 ns, the repetition rate of 12.5 kHz, and the corresponding conversion efficiency of 9.74%.

InGaN diode pumped actively Q-switched intracavity frequency doubling Pr:LiYF4 261 nm laser

We demonstrate actively Q-switched deep ultraviolet laser operation at 261 and 320 nm by intracavity frequency doubling of an InGaN laser diode-pumped Pr:LiYF₄ laser. We obtain a maximum peak power of 61.6 W (8.7 μJ/pulse at 7.7 kHz) and 594 W (19.0 μJ/pulse at 7.7 kHz) with a pulse width of 142 and 35 ns at 261 and 320 nm, respectively. The conversion efficiency from the fundamental laser energy at 639 nm to the second-harmonic generation is 88%. Good agreement is obtained with prediction by a rate equation model.