Abstract:
The present invention provides systems and methods for producing short laser pulses that are amplified and spectrally broadened in a bulk gain media. The bulk material, having laser gain and nonlinear properties, is concurrently exposed to an optical pump input and a seed input, the pump power being sufficient to amplify and spectrally broaden the seed pulse.
Abstract:
A radial polarization disk laser, including a pumping source, a collimator lens, a focusing lens, a laser gain medium, a Brewster axial cone, and a output lens, which are sequentially arranged along a laser light path. An angle formed between the conical surface and the bottom surface of said Brewster axial cone is a Brewster's angle. Said laser gain medium is bonded with said bottom surface; said laser gain medium and said output lens form a laser harmonic oscillator cavity therebetween. The pumped laser light emitted by said pumping source passes through said collimator lens and said focusing lens, then is focused on the laser gain medium, and. the generated photons oscillate in said laser harmonic oscillator cavity, and then a radial polarized laser beam is finally output by said output lens.
Abstract:
A device includes a first sensor configured to generate a first output signal corresponding to an energy of a portion of a forward beam transmitted by a mirror of a laser resonator system. The device further includes a second sensor configured to generate a second output signal corresponding to an energy of a portion of a return beam transmitted by the mirror. A ratio of the energy of the portion of the forward beam and the energy of the portion of the return beam corresponds to a measurement of a feedback ratio of the laser resonator system.
Abstract:
The present invention describes a mode locking semiconductor disk laser (SDL). The laser comprises a resonator terminated by first and second mirrors (6,7) and folded by a third mirror. The third mirror or comprising a semiconductor disk laser (8) suitable for generating a resonator field comprising a predetermined central wavelength A0 while the second mirror comprising an intensity saturable mirror (7) suitable for mode locking the resonator field at the predetermined wavelength. The reflectivity of the of the resonator at the central wavelength A0 is reduced by shifting the reflectivity profiles of the first and or second mirrors to wavelength shorter than the predetermined wavelength so as to suppress gain at wavelengths longer than the central wavelength A0. By mismatching the reflectivity profile (32) of the second mirror (7) to that of the desired output wavelength (3) provides a stable mode locked laser with significantly reduced noise. The SDL may comprise a DBR with a reflectivity profile (1) having a peak wavelength corresponding to the laser emission (3). The gain medium comprises a RPG structure of the active region resulting in a Fabry-Perot with a FSR as indicated by the corresponding reflectivity profile (2). The peak reflection of the DBR of the saturable absorber mirror may be shifted towards shorter wavelengths with respect to the laser emission by an amount corresponding to one half to one FSR of said RPG active region.
Abstract:
A laser device (100), configured for generating laser pulses, has a laser resonator (10) with a gain disk medium (11) and a Kerr medium (12). The laser resonator (10) includes a first mode shaping section (13) which is adapted for shaping a circulating electric field coupled into the gain disk medium (11), and a second mode shaping section (14), which is adapted for shaping the circulating electric field coupled into the Kerr medium (12) independently of the electric field shaping in the first mode shaping section (13). Furthermore, a method of generating laser pulses (1) using a laser resonator (10) with a gain disk medium (11) and a Kerr medium (12) is described.
Abstract:
A distributed resonator laser system using retro-reflecting elements, in which spatially separated retroreflecting elements define respectively a power transmitting and a power receiving unit. The retroreflectors have no point of inversion, so that an incident beam is reflected back along a path essentially coincident with that of the incident beam. This enables the distributed laser to operate with the beams in a co-linear mode, instead of the ring mode described in the prior art. This feature allows the simple inclusion of elements having optical power within the distributed cavity, enabling such functions as focusing/defocusing, increasing the field of view of the system, and changing the Rayleigh length of the beam. The optical system can advantageously be constructed as a pupil imaging system, with the advantage that optical components, such as the gain medium or a photo-voltaic converter, can be positioned at such a pupil without physical limitations.
Abstract:
A solid-state MOPA includes a mode-locked laser delivering a train of pulses. The pulses are input to a fast E-O shutter, including polarization-rotating elements, polarizing beam-splitters, and a Pockels cell that can be driven alternatively by high voltage (HV) pulses of fixed long and short durations. A multi-pass amplifier follows the E-O shutter. The E-O shutter selects every Nth pulse from the input train and delivers the selected pulses to the multi-pass amplifier. The multi-pass amplifier returns amplified seed-pulses to the E-O shutter. The shutter rejects or transmits the amplified pulses depending on whether the HV-pulse duration is respectively short or long. Transmitted amplified pulses are delivered to a transient amplifier configured for separately suppressing first-pulse over-amplification and residual pulse leakage.
Abstract:
The present invention describes a self mode locking laser and a method for self mode locking a laser. The laser (1) comprises a resonator terminated by first (3) and second (4) mirrors and folded by a third mirror (5). The third mirror comprises a single distributed Bragg reflector (17) upon which is mounted a multilayer semiconductor gain medium (18) and which includes at least one quantum well layer and an optical Kerr lensing layer (22). Self mode locking may be achieved by configuring the laser resonator such that the lensing effect of the Kerr lensing layer acts to reduce an astigmatism deliberately introduced to the cavity mode. The self mode locking of the laser may be further enhanced by selecting the length of the resonator such that a round trip time of a cavity mode is matched with an upper-state lifetime of one or more semiconductor carriers located within the gain medium.
Abstract:
The use of reflecting surfaces that are inclined towards one another enables the multiple reflection of a beam path to be achieved in a laser structure. This permits the realization of compact laser assemblies. The introduction of beam-influencing media between the reflective surfaces or the configuration of said reflective surfaces from or using media of this type allows the use of the multiple reflection for influencing parameters of the radiation or radiation field.