Femtosecond Amplifier Research Articles

Long-term stable passive synchronization of 50 µJ femtosecond Yb-doped fiber chirped-pulse amplifier with a mode-locked Ti:sapphire laser

We report long-term stable passive synchronization of a femtosecond Yb-doped fiber chirped-pulse amplifier (CPA) with a mode-locked Ti:sapphire laser for pump-seed synchronization of an optical parametric chirped-pulse amplification (OPCPA) system. The fiber CPA system delivers pulses with a wavelength of 1035 nm, energy of 50 µJ, and duration of 690 fs at a repetition rate of 0.4 MHz. The seed fiber oscillator is passively synchronized with a mode-locked Ti:sapphire laser by injection of the Ti:sapphire laser pulses into the cavity of the fiber oscillator. The second harmonic (SH) output with a wavelength of 518 nm, energy of 18 µJ, and duration of 1.2 ps was prepared for the OPCPA pump. The measured timing jitter between the pump (fiber SH) and the seed (Ti:sapphire) was 42 ± 14 fs, while the jitter between two oscillator outputs was 1.4 ± 0.5 fs. The robust synchronization technique allows long-term stable operation over 8 h.

Photonic bandgap fibre oscillators and amplifiers

In the search for ever higher output power or energy from fibre oscillators or amplifiers a nowadays mature technology relies on enlarging the fibre mode area. Broadening of the core diameter, all other things being equal, inevitably yields a multimode fibre, thereby dramatically limiting the device usefulness. Various strategies have been deployed to design and manufacture single transverse mode fibre oscillators and amplifiers, among which making use of the so-called photonic bandgap effect to restrict the modal population seems promising. Helped by efficient and reliable numerical tools the design of large mode area singlemode photonic bandgap fibres is presented. Two fibres with 20-μm and 40-μm core diameter, both of them heavily doped with Yb 3+ ions, have been fabricated by the widespread modified chemical vapour deposition process and are shown to behave properly when used as the core element of either continuous wave oscillators or femtosecond amplifiers. Good output beam quality (M 2 parameter spanning from 1.12 to 1.5 for the set of fibres studied) and high slope efficiency of 80% in cw oscillation regime are demonstrated. Furthermore the 40-μm core diameter fibre is shown to be resilient to tight bending down to 7.5-cm radius. The stack-and-draw process makes it easy to tailor the outer cladding so that a large numerical aperture can be reached. Subsequently, from this air-clad fibre, 500 fs 47 W pulses at 35 MHz are obtained from a two-stage chirped pulse amplification system.

Contrast enhancement in a Ti:sapphire chirped-pulse amplification laser system with a noncollinear femtosecond optical-parametric amplifier

We experimentally demonstrated the contrast enhancement in a Ti:sapphire chirped-pulse amplification (CPA) laser with a noncollinear femtosecond optical-parametric amplifier. A total gain of 3.4 × 10(4) and pulse energy of 26 μJ were achieved. With the clean high-energy seeding pulse, the contrast ratio of the main amplified laser pulse to the amplified spontaneous emission in the Ti: sapphire CPA laser system was improved to around 10(10) within the time scale of hundreds of picoseconds.

Synchronization and Relative Timing Jitter Measurement of Femtosecond and Picosecond Laser Regenerative Amplifiers

In this paper, precise synchronization of the femtosecond and picosecond laser regenerative amplifiers with different wavelengths and independent seed oscillators was achieved using the electronic phase-locked loop and global clock techniques. The root-mean-square relative timing jitter of the two regenerative amplifiers was measured as 0.66 ps using a modified statistical method based on the error propagation relation between the independent variables and the conventional optical cross-correlation technique. The results suggest that this method is more accurate and requires simple optical setups for low-pulse repetition rate lasers.

Distributed nonlinear fiber chirped-pulse amplifier system

A two-stage fiber-based femtosecond amplification system is presented, based on chirped-pulse amplification in highly nonlinear regime. The amount of self-phase modulation is separately adjusted in each stage selecting the proper stretching ratio in order to compensate gain narrowing. Analytical design rules are validated using numerical simulations. Our experimental implementation leads to the generation of high temporal quality 20 microJ 202 fs pulses at repetition rate of 200 kHz, a record duration at this energy level.

Regenerative thin disk amplifier with combined gain spectra producing 500 µJ sub 200 fs pulses

An Yb:KYW femtosecond regenerative amplifier with combination of two gain spectra from a single thin disk is presented. The amplifier generated an average power of 10 W after compression at a repetition rate of 20 kHz resulting in a pulse energy of 500 microJ. A bandwidth of 18.6 nm at -20 dB allowed a compression to nearly Fourier-limited pulses with a duration of 185 fs resulting in a peak power of 2.7 GW.

Compensation of Gain Narrowing by Self-Phase Modulation in High-Energy Ultrafast Fiber Chirped-Pulse Amplifiers

We propose a method to compensate gain narrowing by use of the self-phase modulation effect in a femtosecond fiber chirped-pulse amplifier (CPA). An engineering rule is derived to determine the stretched pulse duration that allows this compensation. Simulations are carried out to validate this idea. A tradeoff is found between achievable pulse duration and output energy, but we show that this technique allows the generation of 100 fs pulses even for high-gain systems, with output energies of the order of 100 ? J. An experimental proof of principle demonstrates the generation of 112 fs, 10 ?J pulses, the shortest high-energy pulse, to our knowledge, generated by a fiber CPA system.

Dispersion-compensating beam shaper for femtosecond optical vortex beams

A beam shaper suitable for sub-20 fs pulses based on a prism pair and a computer-generated hologram was developed to produce vortex beams. Comparatively high throughput and the ability to tune the group-velocity dispersion make this shaper suitable for pulses from femtosecond oscillators and amplifiers and where there is a need for additional postchirp or prechirp compensation.

Two-color two-photon excitation of indole using a femtosecond laser regenerative amplifier

The fluorescence emission from indole resulting from two-color two-photon (2C2P) excitation with 400 and 800nm wavelengths is observed, using the second harmonic and fundamental wavelength of a 800nm 40fs pulsed Ti:Sapphire femtosecond (fs) regenerative amplifier operating at a repetition rate of 1kHz. By delaying one fs laser pulse relative to the other, the cross correlation of fluorescence is observed, which indicates the generation of 2C2P fluorescence signal in the experiment. The strongest 2C2P fluorescence emission characterized by the peak of cross correlation curve suggests optimal temporal overlap of the two fs laser pulses. The 2C2P fluorescence signal is linearly dependent on the total excitation intensity. The fluorescence signals with 400nm and 800nm irradiation alone are also demonstrated and discussed in this paper.

Generation of high-power frequency combs from injection-locked femtosecond amplification cavities

We demonstrate a scalable approach for the generation of high average power femtosecond (fs) pulse trains from Ti:sapphire by optically injection locking a resonant amplification cavity. We generate up to 7 W average power with over 30% optical extraction efficiency in a 68 fs pulse train operating at 95 MHz. This master oscillator power amplifier approach allows independent optimization of the fs laser while enabling efficient amplification to high average powers. The technique also enables coherent synchronization among multiple fs laser sources.

Competing collinear and noncollinear interactions in chirped quasi-phase-matched optical parametric amplifiers

Chirped quasi-phase-matched optical parametric amplifiers (chirped QPM OPAs) are investigated experimentally. The measured collinear gain is constant over a broad bandwidth, which makes these devices attractive candidates for use in femtosecond amplifier systems. The experiment also shows that chirped QPM OPAs support noncollinear gain-guided modes. These modes can dominate the desired collinear gain and generate intense parametric fluorescence. Design guidelines to mitigate these parasitic processes are discussed.

Experimental study on low pulse energy processing with femtosecond lasers for glaucoma treatment

The feasibility of low energy processing in ocular tissues with femtosecond laser sources was investigated in this research. One laser source was a femtosecond amplifier, and the other was a femtosecond oscillator. The amplifier used in this experiment was a CPA-2001 (Clark-MXR, Inc), with 150 fs pulse duration and 1 kHz repetition rate. The femtosecond oscillator (model 900-B Mira) produced a 200 fs pulse duration and a 76 MHz repetition rate. Both these two laser systems operated at 800 nm wavelengths. Firstly, the pulse intensity thresholds in water produced by the two laser sources were compared. The optical breakdown probability analysis shows that the pulse energy threshold achieved by the oscillator was less than 10% of that achieved by the amplifier. Then, the non-linear propagation of the femtosecond pulses in the ocular tissues was studied with the femtosecond oscillator. The results showed a potential for pulse energy processing at the nanojoule level with a femtosecond oscillator in glaucoma treatment.

All-optical stabilization of carrier-envelope phase by use of difference frequency generation with seeded amplification of colored conical emission

We stabilized the carrier-envelope phase of pulses emitted by a femtosecond regenerative amplifier through difference frequency generation between pump and seeded amplification of colored conical emission. Seeded amplification of colored conical emission was induced by modulational instability in the second harmonic generation with a supercontinuum injected and amplified. As a consequence, it inherited the origin phase of the pump pulse. After difference frequency with the pump pulses, the generated tunable idler pulses were carrier-envelope phase stabilized, which was verified with a simple and robust spectral interference setup.

Femtosecond dispersion compensation with multilayer coatings: toward the optical octave

Dispersive multilayer coatings have found widespread use, particularly in the compensation of material dispersion in femtosecond oscillators and amplifiers. Other than prism or grating sequences, only chirped mirrors allow for the compensation of a much more general spectral dependence of the dispersion. The current state of the art in ultrabroadband mirror design for dispersion compensation is reviewed. Approaches to expand the utility of chirped-mirror coatings toward the coverage of an even-wider bandwidth beyond the optical octave are discussed.

Directly diode-pumped Colquiriite regenerative amplifiers

The Colquiriite crystals are attractive materials for directly diode-pumped femtosecond oscillators and amplifiers. Cr:LiSAF, Cr:LiSGAF and Cr:LiCAF are for the first time directly compared for their use in regenerative amplifiers both experimentally and theoretically. A maximum pulse energy of 10μJ was obtained at an absorbed pump power of 1.1W. A review of the work is given including a Cr:LiSAF seed oscillator, outlining specific needs for seeding.

Comparative performance of terahertz emitters in amplifier-laser-based systems

We give an overview of opto-electronic terahertz systems based on femtosecond amplifier lasers, and present a comparison of the relative performance and design issues of the various suitable downconversion photomixers employed for the generation of intense terahertz radiation pulses in such systems. The survey includes large-area biased semiconductor antennas, large-area nonlinear optical crystals and laser-generated gas plasmas as sources for terahertz radiation. The performance of these emitters is reviewed in terms of the terahertz pulse energies achieved and their associated spectral and signal-to-noise properties.

Absorption, emission spectrum properties, and efficient laser performances of Yb:Y3ScAl4O12 ceramics

We report on the continuous-wave laser performances of Yb3+-doped disordered Y3Al5O12∕Y3Sc2Al4O12(YAG∕YSAG) ceramics fabricated by sintering method. These materials exhibit relatively low minimum pump intensity (Imin) and broad emission bandwidth even in the yttrium aluminum garnet systems. The value of Imin in the Yb:Y3ScAl4O12 ceramics was found to be 2∕3 compared with the Yb:YAG single crystal under 970nm zero-line pumping. Efficient laser oscillation of 72% slope efficiency was obtained for input pump power. These materials attract great interest for high power femtosecond microchip lasers and amplifier applications.

Generation of high repetition rate femtosecond Ti:sapphire regenerative amplified pulse of high beam quality for ultra-precision machining

On the basis of calculation and analysis on femtosecond amplification gain saturation and femtosecond pulse stretching, we believe it is possible to achieve moderate energy femtosecond regenerative amplification without stretcher if the amplifying cavity parameters is optimized and the pumping pulse energy is changed. According to the conclusion, applying low pumping energy and Ti:sapphire off-focusing technique to the amplifier, we do the experiment about high repetition rate femtosecond Ti:sapphire regenerative amplification and compressing without the stretcher. The femtosecond amplified pulse of perfect beam quality is obtained. The energy of amplified pulse is more than 100μJ.The amplified pulse repetition is 1kHz. The spectrum FWHM is 7.7nm.After the compressing,the pulsewidth is 500fs.

Photonic Device Fabrication With Femtosecond Laser Oscillators

With Femtosecond Laser Oscillators High-repetition-rate femtosecond laser oscillators are powerful tools for device fabrication. Today, waveguides can be written at speeds much higher than those that are possible using femtosecond amplifiers.

Dispersion control in a 100-kHz-repetition-rate 35-fs Ti:sapphire regenerative amplifier system

Presents a 100-kHz femtosecond amplifier system delivering pulses with a duration of 35 fs and an energy of 7 /spl mu/J. The system does not include a stretcher, since the large amount of dispersion accumulated during the amplification process is sufficient to prevent self-focusing. Compensation in approximately all orders is achieved through a combination of a prism compressor, chirped mirrors, and a liquid-crystal modulator, allowing the amplified pulses to be shortened to nearly the bandwidth limit.