Stokes Pulse Research Articles

Synchronization-free all-solid-state laser system for stimulated Raman scattering microscopy.

We introduce an extremely simple and highly stable system for stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) microscopy. An 8-W, 450-fs Yb:KGW bulk oscillator with 41 MHz repetition rate pumps an optical parametric amplifier, which is seeded by a cw tunable external cavity diode laser. The output radiation is frequency doubled in a long PPLN crystal and generates 1.5-ps long narrowband pump pulses that are tunable between 760 and 820 nm with >50 mW average power. Part of the oscillator output is sent through an etalon and creates Stokes pulses with 100 mW average power and 1.7 ps duration. We demonstrate SRS microscopy at a 30-μs pixel dwell time with high chemical contrast, signal-to-noise ratio in excess of 45 and no need for balanced detection, thanks to the favorable noise properties of the bulk solid-state system. Cw seeding intrinsically ensures low spectral drift. We discuss its application to chemical contrast microscopy of freshly prepared plant tissue sections at different vibrational bands.

Generation of Controllable High Energy Nanosecond Flat-Top Waveform Based on Brillouin Amplification

We propose a method based on Brillouin amplification, which reshapes the Gaussian pulse generated from a $Q$ -switched laser into the flat-top waveform. The numerical simulations show that the reshaped waveform depends on Stokes pulse width and energy, and optimum conditions for a flat waveform are also investigated. It is demonstrated experimentally by the independent two-cell filled with FC-40 liquid. In the experiment, the flat-top waveform pulses with width from 9.1 to 13.3 ns and continuously adjustable energy from 90 to 210 mJ are obtained at the wavelength of 1064 nm. The pulses with flat-top waveform and high energy are achieved by injecting a small Stokes seed into the Brillouin amplifier, which is a novel method to obtain high-energy flat-top laser pulses.

Characteristics of SBS dynamics in single-mode optical fibres

The characteristics of the gain of Stokes pulses in single-mode optical fibres by stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) of monochromatic and nonmonochromatic pump signals have been investigated by numerical simulation using a spectral approach. Conditions under which ‘slow light’ (caused by a group delay) can be implemented are found (it is reasonable to apply this term to a process in which a pulse is delayed with conservation of its shape). The plane-wave interaction model is shown to describe adequately the dynamics of this process in single-mode fibres. A number of gain modes are investigated for Stokes pulses with different time structures upon monochromatic and nonmonochromatic excitation. A new data transfer technique is proposed, which is based on the conversion of stepwise phase modulation of the input Stokes signal into amplitude modulation of the output signal.

What are the intensities and line-shapes of the twenty four polarization terms in coherent anti-Stokes Raman spectroscopy?

Coherent anti-Stokes Raman spectroscopy (CARS) is conventionally described by just one diagram/term where the three electric field interactions act on the ket side in a Feynman dual time-line diagram in a specific time order of pump, Stokes and probe pulses. In theory, however, any third-order nonlinear spectroscopy with three different electric fields interacting with a molecule can be described by forty eight diagrams/terms. They reduce to just 24 diagrams/terms if we treat the time ordering of the electric field interactions on the ket independently of those on the bra, i.e. the ket and bra wave packets evolve independently. The twenty four polarization terms can be calculated in the multidimensional, separable harmonic oscillator model to obtain the intensities and line-shapes. It is shown that in fs/ps CARS, for the two cases of off-resonance CARS in toluene and resonance CARS in rhodamine 6G, where we use a fs pump pulse, a fs Stokes pulse and a ps probe pulse, we obtain sharp vibrational lines in four of the polarization terms where the pump and Stokes pulses can create a vibrational coherence on the ground electronic state, while the spectral line-shapes of the other twenty terms are broad and featureless. The conventional CARS term with sharp vibrational lines is the dominant term, with intensity at least one order of magnitude larger than the other terms.

40-fs hydrogen Raman laser

first Stokes pulses at a wavelength of were generated in a hydrogen SRS-converter pumped by orthogonally polarised double chirped pulses of a Ti : sapphire laser. To obtain a Stokes pulse close to a transform-limited one, a programmed acousto-optic dispersive delay line was placed between the master oscillator and regenerative amplifier. The energy efficiency of Stokes radiation conversion reached 22 %.

Four-wave-mixing and nonlinear cavity dumping of 280 picosecond 2nd Stokes pulse at 1.3 μm from Nd:SrMoO4 self-Raman laser

The 280 picosecond 2nd Stokes Raman pulses at 1.3 μm were generated directly from the miniature diode-pumped Nd:SrMoO4 self-Raman laser. Using the 90° phase matching insensitive to the angular mismatch, the self-Raman laser allowed for the achievement of the four-wave-mixing generation of the 2nd Stokes Raman pulse directly in the active Nd:SrMoO4 crystal at stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) self-conversion of the laser radiation. The passive Cr:YAG Q-switching and nonlinear cavity dumping was used without any phase locking device.

Broadband stimulated Raman scattering with Fourier-transform detection.

We propose a new approach to broadband Stimulated Raman Scattering (SRS) spectroscopy and microscopy based on time-domain Fourier transform (FT) detection of the stimulated Raman gain (SRG) spectrum. We generate two phase-locked replicas of the Stokes pulse after the sample using a passive birefringent interferometer and measure by the FT technique both the Stokes and the SRG spectra. Our approach blends the very high sensitivity of single-channel lock-in balanced detection with the spectral coverage and resolution afforded by FT spectroscopy. We demonstrate our method by measuring the SRG spectra of different compounds and performing broadband SRS imaging on inorganic blends.

Tunable Stokes laser generation based on the stimulated polariton scattering in KTiOPO_4 crystal

The tunable Stokes laser characteristics based on the stimulated polariton scattering in KTiOPO4 (KTP) crystal and the intracavity frequency doubling properties for the Stokes laser are investigated for the first time. When the pumping laser wavelength is 1064.2 nm, and the angle between the pumping and Stokes beams outside the KTP crystal changes from 1.875° to 6.750°, the obtained tunable Stokes laser wavelength varies discontinuously from 1076.5 nm to 1091.4 nm with four gaps. When the pumping pulse energy is 120.0 mJ, the maximum Stokes pulse energy is 46.5 mJ obtained at the wavelength of 1086.6 nm. By inserting a LiB3O5 (LBO) crystal into the cavity, the obtained frequency-doubled laser wavelength is inconsecutive tunable from 538.5 nm to 543.8 nm. The maximum frequency-doubled laser pulse energy is 15.9 mJ at the wavelength of 543.5 nm.

Energy scaling of terahertz-wave parametric sources.

Terahertz-wave parametric oscillators (TPOs) have advantages of room temperature operation, wide tunable range, narrow line-width, good coherence. They have also disadvantage of small pulse energy. In this paper, several factors preventing TPOs from generating high-energy THz pulses and the corresponding solutions are analyzed. A scheme to generate high-energy THz pulses by using the combination of a TPO and a Stokes-pulse-injected terahertz-wave parametric generator (spi-TPG) is proposed and demonstrated. A TPO is used as a source to generate a seed pulse for the surface-emitted spi-TPG. The time delay between the pump and Stokes pulses is adjusted to guarantee they have good temporal overlap. The pump pulses have a large pulse energy and a large beam size. The Stokes beam is enlarged to make its size be larger than the pump beam size to have a large effective interaction volume. The experimental results show that the generated THz pulse energy from the spi-TPG is 1.8 times as large as that obtained from the TPO for the same pumping pulse energy density of 0.90 J/cm(2) and the same pumping beam size of 3.0 mm. When the pumping beam sizes are 5.0 and 7.0 mm, the enhancement times are 3.7 and 7.5, respectively. The spi-TPG here is similar to a difference frequency generator; it can also be used as a Stokes pulse amplifier.

Raman amplification of pure side-seeded higher-order modes in hydrogen-filled hollow-core PCF.

We use Raman amplification in hydrogen-filled hollow-core kagomé photonic crystal fiber to generate high energy pulses in pure single higher-order modes. The desired higher-order mode at the Stokes frequency is precisely seeded by injecting a pulse of light from the side, using a prism to select the required modal propagation constant. An intense pump pulse in the fundamental mode transfers its energy to the Stokes seed pulse with measured gains exceeding 60 dB and output pulse energies as high as 8 µJ. A pressure gradient is used to suppress stimulated Raman scattering into the fundamental mode at the Stokes frequency. The growth of the Stokes pulse energy is experimentally and theoretically investigated for six different higher-order modes. The technique has significant advantages over the use of spatial light modulators to synthesize higher-order mode patterns, since it is very difficult to perfectly match the actual eigenmode of the fiber core, especially for higher-order modes with complex multi-lobed transverse field profiles.

Dual-pump vibrational/rotational femtosecond/picosecond coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering temperature and species measurements.

A method for simultaneous ro-vibrational and pure-rotational hybrid femtosecond/picosecond coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering (fs/ps CARS) is presented for multi-species detection and improved temperature sensitivity from room temperature to flame conditions. N₂/CH₄ vibrational and N₂/O₂/H₂ rotational Raman coherences are excited simultaneously using fs pump pulses at 660 and 798 nm, respectively, and a common fs Stokes pulse at 798 nm. A fourth narrowband 798 nm ps pulse probes all coherence states at a time delay that minimizes nonresonant background and the effects of collisions. The transition strength is concentration dependent, while the distribution among observed transitions is related to temperature through the Boltzmann distribution. The broadband excitation pulses and multiplexed signal are demonstrated for accurate thermometry from 298 to 2400 K and concentration measurements of four key combustion species.

Q-switched mode-locking of second-Stokes pulses in a diode-pumped YVO4/Nd:YVO4/YVO4 self-Raman laser

A diode-end-pumped simultaneously Q-switched and mode-locked (QML) YVO4/Nd:YVO4/YVO4 self-Raman second-Stokes laser was demonstrated for the first time, to the best of the authors’ knowledge. The shortest mode-locked pulse width of the laser at 1313.4 nm was found to be ~5.7 ps. The maximum average output power, highest pulse energy and highest peak power were found to be 1.33 W, 14.63 μJ and 2.44 MW, respectively. The experimental results confirm that a nonlinear Raman process can greatly compress the QML Stokes pulse width.

Chirped pulse Raman amplification in Ba(NO3)2 crystals

Abstract In this study, 35.5% conversion efficiency is obtained at the first Stokes component frequency (873 nm) upon two-stage chirped pulse Raman amplification in a Ba(NO 3 ) 2 crystal by an 8 mJ, 620 ps, 800 nm pump laser. A maximum energy of 4.22 mJ with 3.82% rms stability at the first Stokes pulse can be obtained under 35 mJ pump energy. Moreover, the chirped first Stokes pulse can be compressed to 143 fs.

Spectral behavior of amplified back-scattered Stokes pulse in two-cell phase conjugating mirror

In this paper, the spectral behavior of two-cell phase conjugating mirror (PCM) with a two-pass Nd:YAG amplifier has been analyzed experimentally and theoretically. For this purpose, input intensity with single and multi-longitudinal modes has been investigated. The numerical model is based on focused geometry model (1+1 dimension) equations of Stokes back-scattered intensity and acoustic waves, for two-cell generator-amplifier phase conjugating mirror with proper boundary conditions that are solved simultaneously with the rate equations of Nd:YAG optical amplifier. Results of the Fourier analysis of the amplified intensity show considerable differences between Fourier amplitudes of the amplifier equipped with PCM and a two-pass amplifier with a conventional mirror under the same output energy. The amplifier with PCM has a completely filtered and different spectral behavior with clearly reduction of the beating between Fourier components of input optical field. Calculations show that the filtering of Fourier components by a PCM is done more effectively with lower pumping energy.

Generation of a high-temporal contrast ultrafast laser pulse near 1,053 nm through stimulated Raman frequency shift

A high-temporal contrast femtosecond Stokes pulse near 1,053 nm is obtained simply without polarizer extinction ratio limitation based on the stimulated Raman frequency shift process in ethanol with an 800-nm femtosecond Ti:sapphire laser as a pump source. By optimizing the incident pump pulse chirp and the ethanol Raman cell length, a clean Stokes pulse near 1,053 nm with a maximum energy of 0.24 mJ is obtained with ~7.5 % conversion efficiency and 0.8 % (rms) energy fluctuation. Compared with the incident pump pulse, the temporal contrast of the Stokes pulse is improved by at least approximately three orders of magnitude.

Peculiarities of the single and repetitive pulse threshold pump power for stimulated Brillouin scattering in long optical fibres

It is shown that in the undepleted pulsed pump regime of stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) the duration of a Stokes pulse in long optical fibres increases by the doubled time of flight for a pump pulse through a fibre. A consequence of this is up to three times difference between the SBS threshold power in a single pump pulse regime when the instant power or energy of the scattered radiation is measured. A distinguishing peculiarity of a repetitive pump pulse regime is a stepwise reduction of the threshold power with the decrease of an interpulse interval when the interval equals the doubled time of flight for a pump pulse through a fibre.

Creation of Coherent Superposition State by Stimulated Raman Adiabatic Passage in Serial Multi-Λ-Type System

We propose a scheme for creating coherent atomic superposition states via the technique of stimulated Raman adiabatic passage (STIRAP) in a Λ-type system where final states are composed of manifold of levels and the intermediate levels could be more than one level. If the pump pulses and Stokes pulses are kept in the same order of ordinary STIRAP, through the control the delay time between the Stokes pulses and pump pulse, we could create arbitrary superposition states in the manifold of levels.

Hundred picoseconds laser pulse amplification based on scalable two-cells Brillouin amplifier

AbstractHundred picoseconds laser pulse with high energy and high peak power has broad application prospects such as inertial confinement fusion shock ignition. But it is hard to get effective amplification through MOPA or chirped pulse amplification method. Through simulated Brillouin scattering method, 100 picoseconds laser pulse can be amplified efficiently. To be able to meet the need of high energy and high-intensity laser pulse amplification, scalable two cell structure and four different FC series liquid were used to fulfill this experiment. The results indicate that the magnification of Stokes energy and efficiency of energy extraction are closely related to medium parameters and energy parameters. The minimum width of 340 ps Stokes pulse was amplified by 13.5 times in this experiment.

Semiclassical theory of transient intracavity stimulated Raman scattering in compact lasers

We have developed a semiclassical theory of transient intracavity stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) of the fundamental (laser) wave into Stokes and anti-Stokes waves of several orders in compact lasers. From the analysis of the nonlinear wave equation for the field in the laser cavity and the constitutive equations for the Raman medium a hierarchy of rate equations for the amplitudes of the fundamental and Stokes/anti-Stokes waves, amplitudes of collective vibrations and populations of excited states of the Raman medium has been obtained. It has been shown that the known semiclassical and phenomenological models of intracavity SRS-conversion are special cases of the proposed theory. We have used the theory to calculate the output pulse parameters of a solid-state Raman microchip laser in which we obtained experimentally, along with high peak power first Stokes pulses, also first anti-Stokes and second Stokes radiation but only in the spectrum. The results of modelling agree well with the experimental data and show that anti-Stokes radiation is due to the multiwave mixing.

Chirped time-resolved CARS microscopy with square-pulse excitation.

Time-resolved coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering (T-CARS) microscopy is a technique known for suppressing non-resonant background by utilizing the different temporal responses of virtual electronic transitions and Raman transitions. However, the previous use of femtosecond excitations in T-CARS microscopy has led to low spectral resolution and difficulty in selectively exciting a single Raman band. Here, we report an improved T-CARS imaging technique with chirped pump and Stokes excitations, and the Stokes pulses were shaped into square pulses. Using a femtosecond probe, we acquired T-CARS images with a high spectral resolution, suppressed non-resonant background, and high resonant signal level. We experimentally demonstrated the selective excitation of two close Raman bands of polystyrene at 1005 cm(-1) and 1035 cm(-1) using our technique; conventional T-CARS would inevitably excite them both with little selectivity. Our novel technique could become an ideal method for high-sensitivity, background-free imaging of single Raman bands for a wide variety of samples.