High Average Power Research Articles

The synergistic effect of hole co-doping on carrier transports and phonon tuning in Sb2Te3 flexible thermoelectric thin film

Sb2Te3 thermoelectric thin film is one of the best competitive candidates for preparing self-powered wearable micro-electronic devices. However, the interdependent relationship between Seebeck coefficient, electrical conductivity and thermal conductivity limits the improvement of thermoelectric properties. In this work, we demonstrate maximum power factor of 21.06 μWcm−1K−2 and a high average power factor of 18.77 μWcm−1K−2 in (Bi, In) co-doped Sb2Te3 flexible thin film. The high power factor is ascribed to the increase in effective mass and state density after Bi doping proved by first-principles calculations and experiments, which leads to an increase in the Seebeck coefficient. Further In co-doping can increase the carrier concentration, which not only improve the electrical conductivity, but also suppress the bipolar excitation and inhibit carrier migration in the opposite direction. Moreover, the estimated thermal conductivity for the prepared thin films is low due to the enhancement of phonon scattering caused by the introduction of interfaces and defects, resulting in high ZT. A flexible device prepared by co-doped thin film represents the competitive power density of ∼ 5.47 × 102 μWcm−2 at temperature difference of 36 K. All the results confirm that hole co-doping strategy can efficiently enhance the collaborative regulations of the carrier and phonon transportation to realize high thermoelectric performance in Sb2Te3 flexible thin film.

High average power (105 W) Fe:ZnSe laser pumped by radiation of laser diode side-pumped Er:YAG lasers.

A high average power re-frequency operation Fe:ZnSe laser using laser diode side-pumped free-running Er:YAG lasers as activating sources is presented. Two pieces of subsurface layer doped Fe:ZnSe polycrystal are adoptive in a reflective resonator configuration and face-cooled by liquid nitrogen. A maximal Fe:ZnSe laser power of 105 W at a wavelength of 4.1 μm is achieved upon pumping by ten home-made Er:YAG lasers with fiber coupled output working at a frequency of 250 Hz and a pulse duration of ∼420 μs. Corresponding to the maximum Fe:ZnSe laser power, the optical-optical efficiency and slope efficiency with respect to the absorbed pump power are 43% and 44% respectively. The beam quality factor M2 is measured to be 3.4. To the best of our knowledge, it is the highest output average power of an Fe:ZnSe laser reported.

Microstructured large-area photoconductive terahertz emitters driven at high average power

Emitters based on photoconductive materials excited by ultrafast lasers are well-established and popular devices for THz generation. However, so far, these emitters – both photoconductive antennas and large area emitters - were mostly explored using driving lasers with moderate average powers (either fiber lasers with up to hundreds of milliwatts or Ti:Sapphire systems up to few watts). In this paper, we explore the use of high-power, MHz repetition rate Ytterbium (Yb) based oscillator for THz emission using a microstructured large-area photoconductive emitter, consist of semi-insulating GaAs with a 10 × 10 mm2 active area. As a driving source, we use a frequency-doubled home-built high average power ultrafast Yb-oscillator, delivering 22 W of average power, 115 fs pulses with 91 MHz repetition rate at a central wavelength of 516 nm. When applying 9 W of average power (after an optical chopper with a duty cycle of 50%) on the structure without optimized heatsinking, we obtain 65 µW THz average power, 4 THz bandwidth; furthermore, we safely apply up to 18 W of power on the structure without observing damage. We investigate the impact of excitation power, bias voltage, optical fluence, and their interplay on the emitter performance and explore in detail the sources of thermal load originating from electrical and optical power. Optical power is found to have a more critical impact on large area photoconductive emitter saturation than electrical power, thus optimized heatsinking will allow us to improve the conversion efficiency in the near future towards much higher emitter power. This work paves the way towards achieving hundreds of MHz or even GHz repetition rates, high-power THz sources based on photoconductive emitters, that are of great interest for example for future THz imaging applications.

Highly efficient nonlinear compression of mJ pulses at 2 μm wavelength to 20 fs in a gas-filled multi-pass cell

Within this work we demonstrate the highly efficient nonlinear spectral broadening and subsequent temporal compression of 1.49 mJ pulses at 101 kHz repetition rate from an ultrafast thulium-doped fiber laser system employing a gas-filled multi-pass cell (MPC). To achieve spectral broadening, we use a krypton and helium-filled Herriott-type MPC with highly reflective broadband dielectric mirrors. The spectrally broadened pulses are subsequently compressed using fused-silica plates, resulting in a pulse duration of 20 fs and an overall excellent transmission of 96%. Furthermore, the beam quality is preserved up to the maximum output power of 144 W. It provides, to the best of our knowledge, the highest average power with few-cycle pulses at 2 µm wavelength with almost 10 times more pulse energy and 3 times more average power than previous 2 µm MPCs, enabling future secondary source experiments.

High average output power, dual-wavelength synchronously self-mode-locked Ho:LLF laser operating at 2068.5 and 2069.2 nm.

A dual-wavelength synchronously self-mode-locked Ho:LLF laser operating at 2068.5 and 2069.2 nm was demonstrated. The maximum average output power was as high as 2.6 W with a pulse repetition frequency of 3.03 GHz. Meanwhile, the output power ratio of the dual-wavelength lasers can be effectively controlled by varying the incident pump power. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first dual-wavelength synchronously self-mode-locked Ho-doped fluoride solid state laser; moreover, our current experimental results represent the highest average output power from a GHz self-mode-locked oscillator in the 2 µm wave band.

Charge Accumulation Effect Enabled by a Bioinspired Self‐lubricating Triboelectric Nanogenerator for Both High Average Power Density and Long Durability

AbstractRecently through the synergetic utilization of triboelectrification, electrostatic induction, and electrostatic discharge, a novel dual‐functional triboelectric nanogenerator (DF‐TENG) has been developed, which can not only generate a motion‐responsible alternating current/ direct current output but also provide a higher performance compared to traditional TENGs. However, further improvements in performance and lifespan are crucial and remain challenging for the future large‐scale application of this new‐type TENG. Herein, a novel bioinspired self‐lubricating prototype is presented (BS‐TENG), which employs a porous polyurethane (PU) matrix impregnated with a low‐viscosity dielectric lubricant. In response to external mechanical stimuli, the BS‐TENG can “secrete” pre‐stored lubricant to partially fill micro‐gaps between tribo‐layers, thus forming self‐lubrication. This self‐lubricating mechanism not only elevates the electrostatic discharge threshold between tribo‐layers to maximize charge accumulation, thereby facilitating efficient energy release through electrostatic discharge for enhanced power output, but also significantly reduces material abrasion and realizes superior output durability. Benefiting from this effect, the BS‐TENG delivers an average power density of up to 4.6 W m−2, with extraordinary stability to retain 99% of its initial output even after over 60 000 cycles. This work provides a straightforward and effective strategy for realizing high‐performance and long‐stability TENGs, paving the way for their practical applications.

Взаимосвязь окружной скорости и потерь энергии в проточной части центростремительной турбины с частичным облопачиванием рабочего колеса

Low-consumption turbomachines are devices that play an important role in the drive of various units in the field of shipbuilding, aircraft engineering and other branches of heavy engineering. They have some advantages over a high-average power turbine. The largest number of low-consumption turbomachines are made partial, i.e. with partial intake. The principle of a turbine with partial flapping of the impeller is considered as one of the types of partial turbomachines. The influence of the main velocity characteristic of the turbine stage on the loss of kinetic energy in the stage is investigated. The simulation of gas dynamic processes occurring in the turbine stage was carried out using the ANSYS Workbench software package. With the help of this complex, a three-dimensional geometric model of the turbine stage with varying degrees of impeller damping was created. By applying the finite element method, a computational grid, a computational model are generated, and boundary conditions of a numerical experiment are set. The result of the numerical experiment is graphs of the dependence of kinetic energy loss on the circumferential velocity (speed characteristics of the turbine stage). This dependence can be represented not only graphically, but also with the help of mathematical apparatus. An example of such an apparatus is the polynomial dependence. The considered mathematical design can be used in order to optimize mathematical models of gas flow in the flow part of a low-flow turbine. Cubic two-parameter polynomials of kinetic energy losses in the flow part of the nozzle and impeller are obtained, and an assessment of its applicability in the current mathematical model is given.

High power single crystal KTA optical parametric amplifier for efficient 1.4–3.5 µm mid-IR radiation generation

In this paper, we present a single crystal, KTA (potassium titanyl-arsenate, KTiOAsO4) based picosecond optical parametric amplifier pumped by an in-house built 1030 nm Yb:YAG thin-disk laser, capable of tunability from 1.46 to 3.5 µm, operating at 90 kHz, with high average power in the signal and idler beams. The highest output power of 8.9 W was reached for the 1750 nm signal beam with 19% conversion efficiency and the respective 2500 nm idler beam power was 6.2 W with 13% efficiency. The highest combined signal and idler mid-infrared power was 17 W at the 2060 nm wavelength degeneracy point.

Ultrahigh average zT realized in polycrystalline SnSe0.95 materials through Sn stabilizing and carrier modulation

The average zT determines the conversion efficiency, and the power factor plays an important role in average zT value. However, the inadequate electrical conductivity of SnSe materials seriously limits its application. Herein, the TaCl5-doped in polycrystalline SnSe0.95 materials synthesized using the melting method and combined with spark plasma sintering technology achieves a zT value of 1.64 at 773 K and a record zTave of 0.62 from 323 K to 773 K. The electrical conductivity increases due to the released electron carrier induced by effective TaCl5 doping. According to the DFT calculation, the energy band of TaCl5-doped samples is narrowed, which can enhance the electron transport. Besides, the Seebeck coefficient is maintained at an elevated level as a result of the incorporation of the heavy element Ta. Due to the significantly enhanced electrical conductivity and maintained high Seebeck coefficient, the power factor reaches to 622 μW·m−1·K−2 at 773 K for the SnSe0.95 + 1.75% (in mass) TaCl5 sample, which is almost 21 times higher than that of the pristine sample. Simultaneously, a high average power factor value of 334 μW·m−1·K−2 for the SnSe0.95 + 1.75% (in mass) TaCl5 sample from 323 to 773 K was obtained. It is surprisingly found that the Ta element plays another important role to improve the stability of SnSe0.95 by forming Ta2Sn3 and removing the low melting point Sn, which usually existed in n-type SnSe samples, resulting in the decreased lattice thermal conductivity. A low lattice thermal conductivity value of 0.24 W·m−1·K−1 was also obtained for the SnSe0.95 + 2.0% (in mass) TaCl5 sample at 773 K due to the multiscale defects. Consequently, the SnSe0.95 + 2.0% (in mass) TaCl5 sample obtains a peak zT value of 1.64 at 773 K and a record zTave of 0.62 from 323 to 773 K, and the theoretically calculated conversion efficiency reaches 11.2%, it can be utilized for power generation and/or cooling at a broad temperature range. This strategy of introducing high-valence halides with heavy element can optimize the thermoelectric performance for other material systems.

2D Materials‐Based Pulsed Solid‐State Laser: Status and Prospect

AbstractPulsed solid‐state lasers comprise 2D materials as saturable absorbers that contain transparent windows of the atmosphere and characteristic fingerprint spectra of several vital molecules that are significant in various applications and research. Over the past few decades, significant progress has been made in the development of narrow pulse width, high energy, high average output power, high efficiency, and simple construction of passively Q‐switched and mode‐locked lasers with 2D materials as saturable absorbers. This review summarizes the development of 2D materials, including graphene, transition metal dichalcogenides, black phosphorus, topological insulators, and MXenes, as modulator devices for solid‐state lasers owing to their broadband operation, excellent nonlinear optical response, low recovery time, ultrafast dynamic processing, and easy fabrication. Then, some new emerging and representative applications of pulsed solid‐state lasers are introduced and illustrated such as laser surgery, material processing, and lidar. Finally, future challenges and perspectives of pulsed solid‐state lasers with 2D materials‐based saturable absorbers are analyzed and addressed. The rapid development of pulsed solid‐state lasers with the continuous improvement of modulation technology is expected to expand opportunities for application in industry, scientific, medical, and other areas.

Model for designing process strategies in ultrafast laser micromachining at high average powers

The great potential to scale the productivity of laser micromachining processes offered by the development of ultrafast lasers with average powers exceeding 1 kW comes at the cost of new physical and technical challenges. The large number of adjustable parameters, the different physical process limits, and the various possible optimization strategies complicate the design of suitable laser micromachining processes that enable high quality and high throughput.In this contribution, a comprehensive model is proposed that helps to identify the optimization strategies and process parameters required for the scaling of laser micromachining to high throughput at high average laser power without exceeding the process limits to ensure high surface quality.The model was experimentally verified on the example of laser micromachining of pockets in metals and silicon using an ultrafast laser with an average power of 1.01 kW, a pulse duration of 600 fs, different pulse energies, pulse bursts, and beam diameters. As a result, high material removal rates exceeding 120 mm3/min were achieved for silicon, stainless steel, copper, and aluminum, which exceed previously achieved removal rates by one to two orders of magnitude. The machined surfaces exhibit high quality as confirmed by the low measured roughness of about 1 µm.

High repetition-rate pulse shaping of a spectrally broadened Yb femtosecond laser

We demonstrate compression and shaping of few cycle pulses from a high average power ytterbium laser system. The pulses from a commercial 20 W, 100 kHz Yb laser system are spectrally broadened in two-stages using cascaded, gas-filled, stretched hollow-core fibers and then compressed and shaped in an acousto-optic modulator-based pulse-shaper. The pulse-shaper allows for compression, characterization, and shaping all in one system, producing ∼10 fs pulses with 30 μJ of energy.

Dynamic thresholding logarithmic companding for PAPR reduction in MIMO-OFDM systems for 5G wireless communication

In order to advance 5G wireless communication technology, this paper presents a novel method for lowering the Peak-to-Average Power Ratio (PAPR) in Multiple-Input Multiple-Output Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiplexing (MIMO-OFDM) systems. It is called the Dynamic Thresholding-based μ-law (DT-μ-law) logarithmic companding technique, and it greatly improves the performance of the system by effectively broadcasting data streams on a single frequency across multiple channels. This technique's ability lies in compressing the amplitude of the transmitting signal beyond a specific threshold value before the parallel-to-serial conversion block in the MIMO-OFDM system. It employs the direct insertion of an offset value into the guard bits, rather than using a step function for the amplitude reduction process, which can reduce additional system complexity and data loss during signal expansion at the receiver end. This technique is more adequately suited for dynamic data rate shifting and interference within a limited threshold value. The dynamic thresholding value (α) is determined by calculating the median and standard deviation of the μ-law companding. This ensures the effective compression of higher amplitude signals at the transmitter, using μ-law log companding. To streamline the decompanding process at the receiver, an offset is introduced, facilitating a smoother transition and reducing complexity. The results demonstrate that the proposed DT- μ-law companding technique significantly improves PAPR reduction while maintaining low Bit Error Rates (BER) and high average spectral power efficiency. This efficiency is optimal when the μ value is maintained within the range of 4–4.5. Furthermore, it was observed that an increase in the μ value corresponds to a decrease in both PAPR value and BER. Specifically, at a signal-to-noise ratio of 15.2 dB, the BER stabilizes at 10−1. Compared to existing methods like the Max-Min Decomp-SLM approach, this technique offers lower Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) values, thereby enhancing spectral efficiency and maximizing data capacity.

High power self-Q-switched Tm:YAP laser

To the best of our knowledge, the output performance of a self-Q-switched Tm:YAP laser has been controlled by adjusting the cavity length for the first time. By using a concise concave-flat cavity, a pulsed laser emitting at 1993 nm is produced without any additional modulation device. Under a stable self-Q-switched mode, the maximum average output power of 9.76 W is achieved from the laser when the incident pump power is 28.78 W, corresponding to a slope efficiency of 36.9% and an optical-to-optical conversion efficacy of 33.9%. Also, the narrowest pulse width of 485 ns at 48.97 kHz is obtained from the laser with a single pulse energy of 199.3 µJ. As far as we know, this laser has the highest average power and narrowest pulse width compared to other self-Q-switched Tm:YAP lasers.

LMA fibers with increased higher-order mode loss for high average power, pulsed, diffraction-limited lasers

We demonstrate new, large-mode area (LMA) gain fibers with ∼25 µm mode-field diameter, and increased higher-order mode loss that enable diffraction limited, pulsed fiber lasers operating at high average power with high pulse energy. We achieved 1.6 mJ, ns pulses, with 1.2 kW average power and 370 kW peak power in one of the new Yb-doped gain fibers. In a second, higher absorption fiber, we demonstrate 2 mJ pulse energy with peak power of >420 kW at an average power of 660 W. To the best of our knowledge these are the highest demonstrated energies, powers and peak powers for any nanosecond diffraction-limited, all-fiber laser. The TMI thresholds of two of these fibers were measured to be 1.8 kW and 1 kW respectively.

Multi-mode stable, high peak power Nd:YAG laser device for laser cleaning

High average power and peak power solid-state lasers are of great interest in the field of laser cleaning. In this research, a high peak power laser with over 400 W average power using a multi-mode stable resonator in a diode-pumped Nd:YAG master oscillator power amplifier has been demonstrated. A maximum peak power over 1.08 MW was achieved at a repetition frequency of 5 kHz. Delivery fiber with a 400 µm core diameter was utilized for flexible laser transmission. A prototype of the laser cleaning system was developed and inspiring application effects for paint and mold cleaning were achieved.

Wide-aperture Faraday Cup for the High-Intensity Linear Proton Accelerator of the Project DARIA

One of the main problems for beam diagnostics in the projected linear proton accelerator for the DARIA compact neutron source is the high pulse and average beam power combined with a relatively low energy, that significantly limits the choice of possible diagnostic instruments and methods. For basic beam current measurements and tuning procedures in the low-energy part of the accelerator, a wide-aperture water-cooled Faraday cup was developed. This paper presents design features, estimations of thermal loads during typical operation and experimental results of the cup tests at a high-intensity proton beam, also the design features of such devices are described, considering the influence of the beam space charge on the measurement results.

Spectrally tunable phase-biased NALM mode-locked Yb:fiber laser with nJ-level pulse energy

Applications of mode-locked fiber lasers benefit from robust and self-starting mode-locking, spectral tuning, high pulse energy and high average power. All-polarization-maintaining (PM) fiber lasers mode-locked with a phase-biased nonlinear amplifying loop mirror (NALM) have been shown to be very robust and reliably self-starting, and provide either spectral tuning or high pulse energy, but not both. We report on a simple method for concurrent spectral tuning and nanojoule-level pulse energy scaling of an all-PM phase-biased NALM mode-locked Yb:fiber laser, which we demonstrate over a 54 nm tuning range, reaching up to 1.67 nJ pulse energy and 126 mW average power. Unlike other laser configurations, our results show that net normal dispersion is not necessary or optimal for scaling the pulse energy of this type of mode-locked fiber laser.

Hybrid air-bulk multi-pass cell compressor for high pulse energies with full spatio-temporal characterization

Multi-pass cell (MPC) compressors have proven to be the method of choice for compression of high average power long-pulse Yb lasers. Yet, generating sub-30 fs pulses at high pulse energy with compact and simple components remains a challenge. This work demonstrates an efficient and cost-effective approach for nonlinear pulse compression at high pulse energy using a hybrid air-bulk MPC. By carefully balancing the relative nonlinear contributions of ambient air and fused silica, we achieve strong spectral broadening without dispersion engineering or pressure-control inside the cell at 400-µJ pulse energy. In this way, we compress pulses from 220 fs to 27 fs at 40.3 W of average power (100 kHz repetition rate), enhancing the peak power from 1.6 GW to 10.2 GW while maintaining 78% of the energy within the main pulse. Our approach combines the strengths of gas-filled and bulk compression schemes and exhibits excellent overall optical transmission (91%) and spectral uniformity. Moreover, we utilize the INSIGHT technique to investigate spatio-temporal couplings and geometrical aberrations of the compressed pulse. Our results demonstrate remarkable temporal homogeneity, with an average Strehl ratio of 0.97 consistently observed throughout the entire spectral profile. Additionally, all spectrally-integrated Zernike coefficients for geometrical aberrations maintain values below 0.02λ.

Low Pole-Pair Ratio Integration Design of Permanent Magnet Vernier Machine With Improved Power Factor

Benefited from flux modulation effects, permanent magnet vernier machines (PMVMs) have the advantage of high torque. Generally, the higher pole-pair ratio ( <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">PR</i> ), i.e., PM pole-pair to armature winding pole-pair, the stronger flux modulation effects, as well as the higher torque. However, PMVMs with high <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">PR</i> suffer from low power factor due to the parasitic large inductance. This paper is devoted to propose a low <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">PR</i> integration design approach of PMVMs to achieve the high average torque and power factor simultaneously. According to exploit multiple working harmonics with low <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">PR</i> s, not only the high power factor and low inductance characteristic can be maintained, but also the average torque and flux modulation effects can be strengthened. Further, the stator flux barrier has been added to restrict the parasitic no-working harmonics with high <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">PR</i> s. Based on these, two PMVM design examples with different slot/pole combinations are constructed and analyzed to verify the effectiveness of the proposed design approach. Finally, a prototype is manufactured and experimented. It is showed that under electric loading 320 A/cm, the active volume torque density of proposed PMVM can be up to 33.4 Nm/L, which is comparable to regular PMVM with high <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">PR</i> 8, while power factor can be improved from 0.63 to 0.8.