The chirped-pulse inverse free-electron laser: A high-gradient vacuum laser accelerator

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hartemann, F.V.; Landahl, E.C.; Troha, A.L.; Van Meter, J.R.; Baldis, H.A.; Freeman, R.R.; Luhmann, N.C. Jr.; Song, L.; Kerman, A.K.; Yu, D.U.

1999-01-01

The inverse free-electron laser (IFEL) interaction is studied theoretically and computationally in the case where the drive laser intensity approaches the relativistic regime, and the pulse duration is only a few optical cycles long. The IFEL concept has been demonstrated as a viable vacuum laser acceleration process; it is shown here that by using an ultrashort, ultrahigh-intensity drive laser pulse, the IFEL interaction bandwidth and accelerating gradient are increased considerably, thus yielding large energy gains. Using a chirped pulse and negative dispersion focusing optics allows one to take further advantage of the laser optical bandwidth and produce a chromatic line focus maximizing the gradient. The combination of these novel ideas results in a compact vacuum laser accelerator capable of accelerating picosecond electron bunches with a high gradient (GeV/m) and very low energy spread. copyright 1999 American Institute of Physics

Digitally controlled chirped pulse laser for sub-terahertz-range fiber structure interrogation.

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Zhen; Hefferman, Gerald; Wei, Tao

2017-03-01

This Letter reports a sweep velocity-locked laser pulse generator controlled using a digital phase-locked loop (DPLL) circuit. This design is used for the interrogation of sub-terahertz-range fiber structures for sensing applications that require real-time data collection with millimeter-level spatial resolution. A distributed feedback laser was employed to generate chirped laser pulses via injection current modulation. A DPLL circuit was developed to lock the optical frequency sweep velocity. A high-quality linearly chirped laser pulse with a frequency excursion of 117.69 GHz at an optical communication band was demonstrated. The system was further adopted to interrogate a continuously distributed sub-terahertz-range fiber structure (sub-THz-fs) for sensing applications. A strain test was conducted in which the sub-THz-fs showed a linear response to longitudinal strain change with predicted sensitivity. Additionally, temperature testing was conducted in which a heat source was used to generate a temperature distribution along the fiber structure to demonstrate its distributed sensing capability. A Gaussian temperature profile was measured using the described system and tracked in real time, as the heat source was moved.

Analytical studies of constraints on the performance for EEHG FEL seed lasers

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Geloni, Gianluca [European XFEL GmbH, Hamburg (Germany); Kocharyan, Vitali; Saldin, Evgeni [Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY), Hamburg (Germany)

2011-11-15

Laser seeding technique have been envisioned to produce nearly transform-limited pulses at soft X-ray FELs. Echo-Enabled Harmonic Generation (EEHG) is a promising, recent technique for harmonic generation with an excellent up-conversion to very high harmonics, from the standpoint of electron beam physics. This paper explores the constraints on seed laser performance for reaching wavelengths of 1 nm. We show that the main challenge in implementing the EEHG scheme at extreme harmonic factors is the requirement for accurate control of temporal and spatial quality of the seed laser pulse. For example, if the phase of the laser pulse is chirped before conversion to an UV seed pulse, the chirp in the electron beam microbunch turns out to be roughly multiplied by the harmonic factor. In the case of a Ti:Sa seed laser, such factor is about 800. For such large harmonic numbers, generation of nearly transform-limited soft X-ray pulses results in challenging constraints on the Ti:Sa laser. In fact, the relative discrepancy of the time-bandwidth product of the seed-laser pulse from the ideal transform-limited performance should be no more than one in a million. The generated electron beam microbunching is also very sensitive to distortions of the seed laser wavefront, which are also multiplied by the harmonic factor. In order to have minimal reduction of the FEL input coupling factor, it is desirable that the size-angular bandwidth product of the UV seed laser beam be very close to the ideal i.e. diffraction-limited performance in the waist plane at the middle of the modulator undulator. (orig.)

Analytical studies of constraints on the performance for EEHG FEL seed lasers

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Geloni, Gianluca; Kocharyan, Vitali; Saldin, Evgeni

2011-11-01

Laser seeding technique have been envisioned to produce nearly transform-limited pulses at soft X-ray FELs. Echo-Enabled Harmonic Generation (EEHG) is a promising, recent technique for harmonic generation with an excellent up-conversion to very high harmonics, from the standpoint of electron beam physics. This paper explores the constraints on seed laser performance for reaching wavelengths of 1 nm. We show that the main challenge in implementing the EEHG scheme at extreme harmonic factors is the requirement for accurate control of temporal and spatial quality of the seed laser pulse. For example, if the phase of the laser pulse is chirped before conversion to an UV seed pulse, the chirp in the electron beam microbunch turns out to be roughly multiplied by the harmonic factor. In the case of a Ti:Sa seed laser, such factor is about 800. For such large harmonic numbers, generation of nearly transform-limited soft X-ray pulses results in challenging constraints on the Ti:Sa laser. In fact, the relative discrepancy of the time-bandwidth product of the seed-laser pulse from the ideal transform-limited performance should be no more than one in a million. The generated electron beam microbunching is also very sensitive to distortions of the seed laser wavefront, which are also multiplied by the harmonic factor. In order to have minimal reduction of the FEL input coupling factor, it is desirable that the size-angular bandwidth product of the UV seed laser beam be very close to the ideal i.e. diffraction-limited performance in the waist plane at the middle of the modulator undulator. (orig.)

Coherence limits and chirp control in long pulse free electron laser oscillator

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Y. Socol

2005-08-01

Full Text Available We report experimental studies of the spectral linewidth and chirp characteristics of the mm-wave rf radiation of the Israeli Electrostatic-Accelerator free electron laser (EA-FEL, along with theory and numerical simulations. The simulations, matching the experimental data, were carried out using a space-frequency-domain model. EA-FELs have the capacity to generate long pulses of tens microseconds and more, that in principle can be elongated indefinitely (cw operation. Since a cold beam FEL is by nature a “homogeneously broadened laser,” EA-FEL can operate, unlike other kinds of FELs, at a single longitudinal mode (single frequency. This allows the generation of very coherent radiation. The current status of the Israeli Tandem Electrostatic-Accelerator FEL, which is based on an electrostatic Van de Graaff accelerator, allows the generation of pulses of tens microseconds duration. It has been operated recently past saturation, and produced single-mode coherent radiation of record narrow inherent relative linewidth ∼Δf/f=10^{-6} at frequencies near 100 GHz. A frequency chirp was observed during the pulses of tens of microseconds (0.3–0.5  MHz/ms. This is essentially a drifting “frequency-pulling effect,” associated with the accelerator voltage drop during the pulse. Additionally, damped relaxation of the FEL oscillator was experimentally measured at the beginning and the end of the lasing pulse, in good correspondence to our theory and numerical simulations. We propose using the chirped signal of the pulsed EA-FEL for single pulse sweep spectroscopy of very fine resolution. The characteristics of this application are analyzed based on the experimental data.

Quantum state population transfer of lithium atoms induced by frequency-chirped laser pulses

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ma Huanqiang; Zhang Xianzhou; Jia Guangrui; Zhang Yonghui; Jiang Lijuan

2011-01-01

Using the time-dependent multilevel approach (TDMA) and B-splines function, we have calculated the five quantum state population transfer of rydberg lithium atoms. We also analyse the influence of the four major parameters of the frequency-chirped laser pulses field on transition. The result shows that the population can be completely transferred to the target state by changing the parameters of the laser pulse and achieve manual controls to a certain degree. (authors)

1-MHz high power femtosecond Yb-doped fiber chirped-pulse amplifier

Science.gov (United States)

Hu, Zhong-Qi; Yang, Pei-Long; Teng, Hao; Zhu, Jiang-Feng; Wei, Zhi-Yi

2018-01-01

A practical femtosecond polarization-maintaining Yb-doped fiber amplifier enabling 153 fs transform-limited pulse duration with 32 μJ pulse energy at 1 MHz repetition rate corresponding to a peak power of 0.21 GW is demonstrated. The laser system based on chirped-pulse amplification (CPA) technique is seeded by a dispersion managed, nonlinear polarization evolution (NPE) mode-locked oscillator with spectrum bandwidth of 31 nm at 1040 nm and amplified by three fiber pre-amplifying stages and a rod type fiber main amplifying stage. The laser works with beam quality of M2 of 1.3 and power stability of 0.63% (root mean square, RMS) over 24 hours will be stable sources for industrial micromachining, medical therapy and scientific research.

Combined Yb/Nd driver for optical parametric chirped pulse amplifiers.

Science.gov (United States)

Michailovas, Kirilas; Baltuska, Andrius; Pugzlys, Audrius; Smilgevicius, Valerijus; Michailovas, Andrejus; Zaukevicius, Audrius; Danilevicius, Rokas; Frankinas, Saulius; Rusteika, Nerijus

2016-09-19

We report on the developed front-end/pump system for optical parametric chirped pulse amplifiers. The system is based on a dual output fiber oscillator/power amplifier which seeds and assures all-optical synchronization of femtosecond Yb and picosecond Nd laser amplifiers operating at a central wavelength of 1030 nm and 1064 nm, respectively. At the central wavelength of 1030 nm, the fiber oscillator generates partially stretched 4 ps pulses with the spectrum supporting a scaling currently is prevented by limited dimensions of the diffraction gratings, which, because of the fast progress in MLD grating manufacturing technologies is only a temporary obstacle.

Preparing isolated vibrational wave packets with light-induced molecular potentials by chirped laser pulses

Science.gov (United States)

Vatasescu, Mihaela

2012-05-01

We consider a specific wave packet preparation arising from the control of tunneling in the 0g-(6s,6p3/2) double well potential of a Cs2 cold molecule with chirped laser pulses. Such a possibility to manipulate the population dynamics in the 0g-(6s,6p3/2) potential appears in a pump-dump scheme designed to form cold molecules by photoassociation of two cold cesium atoms. The initial population in the 0g-(6s,6p3/2) double well is a wave packet prepared in the outer well at large interatomic distances (94 a0) by a photoassociation step with a first chirped pulse, being a superposition of several vibrational states whose energies surround the energy of a tunneling resonance. Our present work is focused on a second delayed chirped pulse, coupling the 0g-(6s,6p3/2) surface with the a3Σu+(6s,6s) one in the zone of the double well barrier (15 a0) and creating deeply bound cold molecules in the a3Σu+(6s,6s) state. We explore the parameters choice (intensity, duration, chirp rate and sign) for this second pulse, showing that picoseconds pulses with a negative chirp can lead to trapping of population in the inner well in strongly bound vibrational states, out of the resonant tunneling able to transfer it back to the outer well.

Propagation of frequency-chirped laser pulses in a medium of atoms with a Λ-level scheme

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Demeter, G.; Dzsotjan, D.; Djotyan, G. P.

2007-01-01

We study the propagation of frequency-chirped laser pulses in optically thick media. We consider a medium of atoms with a Λ level-scheme (Lambda atoms) and also, for comparison, a medium of two-level atoms. Frequency-chirped laser pulses that induce adiabatic population transfer between the atomic levels are considered. They induce transitions between the two lower (metastable) levels of the Λ-atoms and between the ground and excited states of the two-level atoms. We show that associated with this adiabatic population transfer in Λ-atoms, there is a regime of enhanced transparency of the medium--the pulses are distorted much less than in the medium of two-level atoms and retain their ability to transfer the atomic population much longer during propagation

Frequency chirp of harmonic and attosecond pulses

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Varju, K.; Johansson, P; L'Huillier, A.L.; Mairesse, Y.; Salieres, P.

2005-01-01

Full text: We have explored in detail the first- and second-order variations of the atomic phase as a function of the laser intensity and harmonic order. This unravels the similitudes and differences existing between the chirp of individual harmonic pulses and the chirp of the attosecond pulses. We show that the two techniques XFROG and RABITT used to characterize the two chirps (respectively) converge to give the same information, namely the values of the mixed partial derivatives of the atomic phase. This underlines the common physical origin of all these phenomena and provides a unified frame for their description and understanding. Ref. 1 (author)

Mapping Rotational Wavepacket Dynamics with Chirped Probe Pulses

Science.gov (United States)

Romanov, Dmitri; Odhner, Johanan; Levis, Robert

2014-05-01

We develop an analytical model description of the strong-field pump-probe polarization spectroscopy of rotational transients in molecular gases in a situation when the probe pulse is considerably chirped: the frequency modulation over the pulse duration is comparable with the carrier frequency. In this scenario, a femtosecond pump laser pulse prepares a rotational wavepacket in a gas-phase sample at room temperature. The rotational revivals of the wavepacket are then mapped onto a chirped broadband probe pulse derived from a laser filament. The slow-varying envelope approximation being inapplicable, an alternative approach is proposed which is capable of incorporating the substantial chirp and the related temporal dispersion of refractive indices. Analytical expressions are obtained for the probe signal modulation over the interaction region and for the resulting heterodyned transient birefringence spectra. Dependencies of the outputs on the probe pulse parameters reveal the trade-offs and the ways to optimize the temporal-spectral imaging. The results are in good agreement with the experiments on snapshot imaging of rotational revival patterns in nitrogen gas. We gratefully acknowledge financial support through AFOSR MURI Grant No. FA9550-10-1-0561.

Photodissociation of H2+ by intense chirped pulses - beyond the effect of pulse duration and peak power

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lev, U; Prabhudesai, V; Natan, A; Bruner, B; Diner, A; Heber, O; Strasser, D; Schwalm, D; Silberberg, Y; Zajfman, D; Ben-Itzhak, I; Hua, J J; Esry, B D

2009-01-01

H 2 + photodissociation, induced by intense short laser pulses, was measured by a full 3D imaging system. We have conducted a series of experiments, in which we systematically changed the linear chirp, using a pulse shaper, and observed the kinetic energy release spectra(KER). Distinct differences in the KER spectra are observed both in peak positions and angular distribution for laser pulses with similar duration and intensity but opposite chirp sign.

Electron acceleration from rest to GeV energy by chirped axicon Gaussian laser pulse in vacuum in the presence of wiggler magnetic field

Science.gov (United States)

Kant, Niti; Rajput, Jyoti; Singh, Arvinder

2018-03-01

This paper presents a scheme of electron energy enhancement by employing frequency - chirped lowest order axicon focussed radially polarised (RP) laser pulse in vacuum under the influence of wiggler magnetic field. Terawatt RP laser can be focussed down to ∼5μm by an axicon optical element, which produces an intense longitudinal electric field. This unique property of axicon focused Gaussian RP laser pulse is employed for direct electron acceleration in vacuum. A linear frequency chirp increases the time duration of laser-electron interaction, whereas, the applied magnetic wiggler helps in improving the strength of ponderomotive force v→ ×B→ and periodically deflects electron in order to keep it traversing in the accelerating phase up to longer distance. Numerical simulations have been carried out to investigate the influence of laser, frequency chirp and magnetic field parameters on electron energy enhancement. It is noticed that an electron from rest can be accelerated up to GeV energy under optimized laser and magnetic field parameters. Significant enhancement in the electron energy gain of the order of 11.2 GeV is observed with intense chirped laser pulse in the presence of wiggler magnetic field of strength 96.2 kG.

Optimization of an Optical Parametric Chirped Pulse Amplification System for the OMEGA EP Laser System

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Begishev, I.; Bagnoud, V.; Guardalben, M.; Waxer, L.; Puth, J.; Zuegel, J.

2003-01-01

OAK B204 We report on the experimental achievements of the optical parametric chirped-pulse amplification (OPCPA) system, including 29% pump-to-signal conversion efficiency and 107 gain using two LBO crystals configured as a single amplification stage. Temporal and spatial shaping of the pump laser pulse is required to achieve both high-gain and high-conversion efficiency

Pulse Distortion in Saturated Fiber Optical Parametric Chirped Pulse Amplification

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Lali-Dastjerdi, Zohreh; Da Ros, Francesco; Rottwitt, Karsten

2012-01-01

Fiber optical parametric chirped pulse amplification is experimentally compared for different chirped pulses in the picosecond regime. The amplified chirped pulses show distortion appearing as pedestals after recompression when the amplifier is operated in saturation.......Fiber optical parametric chirped pulse amplification is experimentally compared for different chirped pulses in the picosecond regime. The amplified chirped pulses show distortion appearing as pedestals after recompression when the amplifier is operated in saturation....

Power scaling of supercontinuum seeded megahertz-repetition rate optical parametric chirped pulse amplifiers.

Science.gov (United States)

Riedel, R; Stephanides, A; Prandolini, M J; Gronloh, B; Jungbluth, B; Mans, T; Tavella, F

2014-03-15

Optical parametric chirped-pulse amplifiers with high average power are possible with novel high-power Yb:YAG amplifiers with kW-level output powers. We demonstrate a compact wavelength-tunable sub-30-fs amplifier with 11.4 W average power with 20.7% pump-to-signal conversion efficiency. For parametric amplification, a beta-barium borate crystal is pumped by a 140 W, 1 ps Yb:YAG InnoSlab amplifier at 3.25 MHz repetition rate. The broadband seed is generated via supercontinuum generation in a YAG crystal.

Frequency-chirp rates of harmonics driven by a few-cycle pulse

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Murakami, M.; Mauritsson, J.; Gaarde, M.B.

2005-01-01

We present numerical calculations of the time-frequency characteristics of cutoff harmonics generated by few-cycle laser pulses. We find that for driving pulses as short as three optical cycles, the adiabatic prediction for the harmonic chirp rate is very accurate. This negative chirp is so large that the resulting bandwidth causes substantial overlap between neighboring harmonics, and the harmonic phase therefore appears to not vary in time or frequency. By adding a compensating positive chirp to the driving pulse, which reduces the harmonic bandwidth and allows for the appearance of the negative chirp, we can measure the harmonic chirp rates. We also find that the positive chirp on the driving pulse causes the harmonics to shift down in frequency. We show that this counterintuitive result is caused by the change in the strong field continuum dynamics introduced by the variation of the driving frequency with time

Tunable Landau-Zener transitions using continuous- and chirped-pulse-laser couplings

Science.gov (United States)

Sarreshtedari, Farrokh; Hosseini, Mehdi

2017-03-01

The laser coupled Landau-Zener avoided crossing has been investigated with an aim towards obtaining the laser source parameters for precise controlling of the state dynamics in a two-level quantum system. The conventional Landau-Zener equation is modified for including the interaction of the system with a laser field during a bias energy sweep and the obtained Hamiltonian is numerically solved for the investigation of the two-state occupation probabilities. We have shown that in the Landau-Zener process, using an additional laser source with controlled amplitude, frequency, and phase, the system dynamics could be arbitrarily engineered. This is while, by synchronous frequency sweeping of a chirped-pulse laser, the system could be guided into a resonance condition, which again gives the remarkable possibility for precise tuning and controlling of the quantum system dynamics.

Dense monoenergetic proton beams from chirped laser-plasma interaction

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Galow, Benjamin J.; Keitel, Christoph H. [Max-Planck-Institut fuer Kernphysik, Saupfercheckweg 1, Heidelberg (Germany); Salamin, Yousef I. [Max-Planck-Institut fuer Kernphysik, Saupfercheckweg 1, Heidelberg (Germany); Department of Physics, American University of Sharjah, POB 26666, Sharjah (United Arab Emirates); Liseykina, Tatyana V. [Institut fuer Physik, Universitaet Rostock, 18051 Rostock (Germany); Harman, Zoltan [Max-Planck-Institut fuer Kernphysik, Saupfercheckweg 1, Heidelberg (Germany); ExtreMe Matter Institute EMMI, Planckstrasse 1, 64291 Darmstadt (Germany)

2012-07-01

Interaction of a frequency-chirped laser pulse with single protons and a hydrogen gas target is studied analytically and by means of particle-in-cell simulations, respectively. Feasibility of generating ultra-intense (10{sup 7} particles per bunch) and phase-space collimated beams of protons (energy spread of about 1%) is demonstrated. Phase synchronization of the protons and the laser field, guaranteed by the appropriate chirping of the laser pulse, allows the particles to gain sufficient kinetic energy (around 250 MeV) required for such applications as hadron cancer therapy, from state-of-the-art laser systems of intensities of the order of 10{sup 21} W/cm{sup 2}.

Dense monoenergetic proton beams from chirped laser-plasma interaction

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Li, Jianxing; Galow, Benjamin J.; Keitel, Christoph H. [Max-Planck-Institut fuer Kernphysik, Saupfercheckweg 1, Heidelberg (Germany); Salamin, Yousef I. [Max-Planck-Institut fuer Kernphysik, Saupfercheckweg 1, Heidelberg (Germany); Department of Physics, American University of Sharjah, POB 26666, Sharjah (United Arab Emirates); Harman, Zoltan [Max-Planck-Institut fuer Kernphysik, Saupfercheckweg 1, Heidelberg (Germany); ExtreMe Matter Institute EMMI, Planckstrasse 1, 64291 Darmstadt (Germany)

2013-07-01

Interactions of linearly and radially polarized frequency-chirped laser pulses with single protons and hydrogen gas targets are studied analytically and by means of particle-in-cell simulations, respectively. The feasibility of generating ultra-intense (10{sup 7} particles per bunch) and phase-space collimated beams of protons is demonstrated. Phase synchronization of the protons and the laser field, guaranteed by the appropriate chirping of the laser pulse, allows the particles to gain sufficient kinetic energy (around 250 MeV) required for such applications as hadron cancer therapy, from state-of-the-art laser systems of intensities of the order of 10{sup 21} W/cm{sup 2}.

Chirped pulse amplification: Present and future

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Maine, P.; Strickland, D.; Pessot, M.; Squier, J.; Bado, P.; Mourou, G.; Harter, D.

1988-01-01

Short pulses with ultrahigh peak powers have been generated in Nd: glass and Alexandrite using the Chirped Pulse Amplification (CPA) technique. This technique has been successful in producing picosecond terawatt pulses with a table-top laser system. In the near future, CPA will be applied to large laser systems such as NOVA to produce petawatt pulses (1 kJ in a 1 ps pulse) with focused intensities exceeding 10/sup /plus/21/ W/cm 2 . These pulses will be associated with electric fields in excess of 100 e/a/sub o/ 2 and blackbody energy densities equivalent to 3 /times/ 10 10 J/cm 3 . This petawatt source will have important applications in x-ray laser research and will lead to fundamentally new experiments in atomic, nuclear, solid-state, plasma, and high-energy density physics. A review of present and future designs are discussed. 17 refs., 5 figs

Photodissociation of H{sub 2}{sup +} by intense chirped pulses - beyond the effect of pulse duration and peak power

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Lev, U; Prabhudesai, V; Natan, A; Bruner, B; Diner, A; Heber, O; Strasser, D; Schwalm, D; Silberberg, Y; Zajfman, D [Faculty of Physics, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot 76100 (Israel); Ben-Itzhak, I; Hua, J J; Esry, B D, E-mail: uri.lev@Weizmann.ac.i [Department of Physics, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS 66506 (United States)

2009-11-01

H{sub 2}{sup +} photodissociation, induced by intense short laser pulses, was measured by a full 3D imaging system. We have conducted a series of experiments, in which we systematically changed the linear chirp, using a pulse shaper, and observed the kinetic energy release spectra(KER). Distinct differences in the KER spectra are observed both in peak positions and angular distribution for laser pulses with similar duration and intensity but opposite chirp sign.

Coherent chirped pulse laser network with Mickelson phase conjugator.

Science.gov (United States)

Okulov, A Yu

2014-04-10

The mechanisms of nonlinear phase-locking of a large fiber amplifier array are analyzed. The preference is given to the most suitable configuration for a coherent coupling of thousands of fundamental spatial mode fiber beams into a single smooth beam ready for chirped pulse compression. It is shown that a Michelson phase-conjugating configuration with double passage through an array of fiber amplifiers has the definite advantage compared to a one-way fiber array coupled in a Mach-Zehnder configuration. Regardless of the amount of synchronized fiber amplifiers, the Michelson phase-conjugating interferometer is expected to do a perfect compensation of the phase-piston errors and collimation of backwardly amplified fiber beams on an entrance/output beam splitter. In both configurations, the nonlinear transformation of the stretched pulse envelope, due to gain saturation, is capable of randomizing the position of chirp inside an envelope; thus it may reduce the visibility of the interference pattern at an output beam splitter. Certain advantages are inherent to the sech-form temporal envelope because of the exponential precursor and self-similar propagation in gain medium. The Gaussian envelope is significantly compressed in a deep gain saturation regime, and the frequency chirp position inside pulse envelope is more deformed.

Short-pulse optical parametric chirped-pulse amplification for the generation of high-power few-cycle pulses

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Major, Zs.; Osterhoff, J.; Hoerlein, R.; Karsch, S.; Fuoloep, J.A.; Krausz, F.; Ludwig-Maximilians Universitaet, Muenchen

2006-01-01

Complete test of publication follows. In the quest for a way to generate ultrashort, high-power, few-cycle laser pulses the discovery of optical parametric amplification (OPA) has opened up to the path towards a completely new regime, well beyond that of conventional laser amplification technology. The main advantage of this parametric amplification process is that it allows for an extremely broad amplification bandwidth compared to any known laser amplifier medium. When combined with the chirped-pulse amplification (CPA) principle (i.e. OPCPA), on one hand pulses of just 10 fs duration and 8 mJ pulse energy have been demonstrated. On the other hand, pulse energies of up to 30 J were also achieved on a different OPCPA system; the pulse duration in this case, however, was 100 fs. In order to combine ultrashort pulse durations (i.e. pulses in the few-cycle regime) with high pulse energies (i.e. in the Joule range) we propose tu pump on OPCPA chain with TW-scale short pulses (100 fs - 1 ps instead of > 100 ps of previous OPCPA systems) delivered by a conventional CPA system. This approach inherently improves the conditions for generating high-power ultrashort pulses using OPCPA in the following ways. Firstly, the short pump pulse duration reduces the necessary stretching factor for the seed pulse, thereby increasing stretching and compression fidelity. Secondly, also due to the shortened pump pulse duration, a much higher contrast is achieved. Finally, the significantly increased pump power makes the use of thinner OPCPA crystals possible, which implies an even broader amplification bandwidth, thereby allowing for even shorter pulses. We carried out theoretical investigations to show the feasibility of such a set-up. Alongside these studies we will also present preliminary experimental results of an OPCPA system pumped by the output of our Ti:Sapphire ATLAS laser, currently delivering 350 mJ in 43 fs. An insight into the planned scaling of this technique to petawatt

Extension of supercontinuum spectrum generated in photonic crystal fiber by using chirped femtosecond pulses

Science.gov (United States)

Vengelis, Julius; Jarutis, Vygandas; Sirutkaitis, Valdas

2017-08-01

We present results of experimental and numerical investigation of supercontinuum generation in polarization maintaining photonic crystal fiber (PCF) using chirped femtosecond pulses. The initial unchirped pump pulse source was a mode-locked Yb:KGW laser generating 52 nJ energy 110 fs duration pulses at 1030 nm with 76 MHz repetition rate. The nonlinear medium was a 32 cm long polarization maintaining PCF manufactured by NKT Photonics A/S. We demonstrated the influence of pump pulse chirp on spectral characteristics of supercontinuum. We showed that by chirping pump pulses positively or negatively one can obtain broader supercontinuum spectrum than in case of unchirped pump pulses at the same peak power. Moreover, the extension can be controlled by changing the amount of pump pulse chirp. In our case the supercontinuum spectrum width was extended by up to 115 nm (at maximum chirp value of +10500 fs2 that we could achieve in our setup) compared to the case of unchirped pump at the same peak power.

Picosecond chirped pulse compression in single-mode fibers

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wenhua Cao; Youwei Zhang

1995-01-01

In this paper, the nonlinear propagation of picosecond chirped pulses in single mode fibers has been investigated both analytically and numerically. Results show that downchirped pulses can be compressed owing to normal group-velocity dispersion. The compression ratio depends both on the initial peak power and on the initial frequency chirp of the input pulse. While the compression ratio depends both on the initial peak power and on the initial frequency chirp of the input pulse. While the compression ratio increases with the negative frequency chirp, it decreases with the initial peak power of the input pulse. This means that the self-phase modulation induced nonlinear frequency chirp which is linear and positive (up-chirp) over a large central region of the pulse and tends to cancel the initial negative chirp of the pulse. It is also shown that, as the negative chirped pulse compresses temporally, it synchronously experiences a spectral narrowing

Extension of supercontinuum spectrum, generated in polarization-maintaining photonic crystal fiber, using chirped femtosecond pulses

Science.gov (United States)

Vengelis, Julius; Jarutis, Vygandas; Sirutkaitis, Valdas

2018-01-01

We present results of experimental and numerical investigation of supercontinuum (SC) generation in polarization-maintaining photonic crystal fiber (PCF) using chirped femtosecond pulses. The initial unchirped pump pulse source was a mode-locked Yb:KGW laser generating 52-nJ energy, 110-fs duration pulses at 1030 nm with a 76-MHz repetition rate. The nonlinear medium was a 32-cm-long polarization-maintaining PCF manufactured by NKT Photonics A/S. We demonstrated the influence of pump pulse chirp on spectral characteristics of a SC. We showed that by chirping pump pulses positively or negatively one can obtain a broader SC spectrum than in the case of unchirped pump pulses at the same peak power. Moreover, the extension can be controlled by changing the amount of pump pulse chirp. Numerical simulation results also indicated that pump pulse chirp yields an extension of SC spectrum.

Variable pattern of high-order harmonic spectra from a laser-produced plasma by using the chirped pulses of narrow-bandwidth radiation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ganeev, R. A.; Suzuki, M.; Baba, M.; Kuroda, H.; Redkin, P. V.

2007-01-01

Various plasmas prepared by laser ablation of the surfaces of solid targets were examined by the narrow-bandwidth radiation of different chirp and pulse durations. The high-order harmonics generated during laser-plasma interaction showed different brightness, wavelength shift, harmonic cutoff, and efficiency by using variable chirps of pump radiation. An analysis of harmonic optimization at these conditions is presented. The blueshifted and redshifted harmonics observed in this case were analyzed and attributed to the abundance of free electrons and self-phase modulation of the driving pulse. The resonance-induced enhancement of the 15th harmonic from GaN-nanoparticle-containing plasma caused by the tuning of harmonic wavelength close to the ionic transition was demonstrated

Control of tunneling in a double-well potential with chirped laser pulses

Science.gov (United States)

Vatasescu, Mihaela

2012-11-01

We investigate the use of chirped laser pulses to control the tunneling dynamics in the 0g-(6s,6p3/2) double well of Cs2 coupled with other electronic surfaces. The possibility to manipulate the tunneling dynamics appears in a pump-dump scheme designed to form deeply bound cold molecules by photoassociation of two cold cesium atoms in the 0g-(6s,6p3/2) electronic state coupled with a3Σu+ (6s,6s) electronic state. The dump pulse is acting on the 0g-(6s,6p3/2) barrier and can be used to control the tunneling and to capture population in the inner well in deep vibrational levels out of tunneling resonances.

Control of tunneling in a double-well potential with chirped laser pulses

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Vatasescu, Mihaela

2012-01-01

We investigate the use of chirped laser pulses to control the tunneling dynamics in the 0 g − (6s,6p 3/2 ) double well of Cs 2 coupled with other electronic surfaces. The possibility to manipulate the tunneling dynamics appears in a pump-dump scheme designed to form deeply bound cold molecules by photoassociation of two cold cesium atoms in the 0 g − (6s,6p 3/2 ) electronic state coupled with a 3 Σ u + (6s,6s) electronic state. The dump pulse is acting on the 0g − (6s,6p3/2) barrier and can be used to control the tunneling and to capture population in the inner well in deep vibrational levels out of tunneling resonances.

Effects of moderate pump and Stokes chirp on chirped-probe pulse femtosecond coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering thermometry

KAUST Repository

Gu, Mingming

2018-01-08

The effects of moderate levels of chirp in the pump and Stokes pulses on chirped-probe-pulse femtosecond coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering (CPP fs CARS) were investigated. The frequency chirp in the pump and Stokes pulses was introduced by placing SF11 glass disks with thicknesses of 10 mm or 20 mm in the optical path for these beams. The magnitude of the chirp in the probe beam was much greater and was induced by placing a 30-cm rod of SF10 glass in the beam path. The temperature measurements were performed in hydrogen/air non-premixed flames stabilized on a Hencken burner at equivalence ratios of 0.3, 0.5, 0.7, and 1.0. We performed measurements with no disks in pump and Stokes beam paths, and then with disks of 10 mm and 20 mm placed in both beam paths. The spectrum of the nonresonant background four-wave mixing signal narrowed considerably with increasing pump and Stokes chirp, while the resonant CARS signal was relatively unaffected. Consequently, the interference of the nonresonant background with the resonant CARS signal in the frequency-spread dephasing region of the spectrum was minimized. The increased rate of decay of the resonant CARS signal with increasing temperature was thus readily apparent. We have started to analyze the CPP fs CARS thermometry data and initial results indicate improved accuracy and precision are obtained due to moderate chirp in the pump and Stokes laser pulses.

Characteristics of temporal modulation in nonlinear propagation of broad-band lasers stacked by chirped pulses

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wang Youwen; Chen Liezun; Zhang Lifu; Deng Jianqin; Zhang Jin; Wen Shuangchun; Fu Xiquan; Fan Dianyuan

2010-01-01

Characteristics of the temporal modulation riding on broad-band lasers stacked by chirped pulses are numerically investigated in nonlinear propagation. For the case of normal dispersion, the temporal modulations induced by interference among pulses and added artificially to simulate the noise weaken gradually with the increase of the propagation distance. For the case of anomalous dispersion, the temporal modulations induced by interference among pulses grow slowly at first, and start to grow rapidly after a long propagation distance; in contrast, the temporal modulations added artificially grow rapidly from the begin, indicating that the temporal peak of damage risk to the optics can be formed easily. (authors)

High-power pre-chirp managed amplification of femtosecond pulses at high repetition rates

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Liu, Yang; Li, Wenxue; Zhao, Jian; Bai, Dongbi; Luo, Daping; Zeng, Heping

2015-01-01

Femtosecond pulses at 250 MHz repetition rate from a mode-locked fiber laser are amplified to high power in a pre-chirp managed amplifier. The experimental strategy offers a potential towards high-power ultrashort laser pulses at high repetition rates. By investigating the laser pulse evolution in the amplification processes, we show that self-similar evolution, finite gain bandwidth and mode instabilities determine pulse characteristics in different regimes. Further average power scaling is limited by the mode instabilities. Nevertheless, this laser system enables us to achieve sub-50 fs pulses with an average power of 93 W. (letter)

Research for robust femtosecond chirped-pulse amplification laser with an identical positive dispersive media as pulse stretcher and compressor

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Akahane, Yutaka; Ogawa, Kanade; Tsuji, Koichi; Aoyama, Makoto; Yamakawa, Koichi

2011-01-01

We have proposed and demonstrated a simple and robust femtosecond optical-parametric chirped-pulse amplification scheme in which an even order dispersion of an idler pulse is compensated by passing through an identical positive dispersive material used for temporal stretching a signal pulse. By compressing the idler pulses having a negatively chirp in this manner, high power sub-100 fs pulses were successfully obtained with only a transparent glass block used for the stretcher and compressor. (author)

Narrowband pulse-enhanced upconversion of chirped broadband pulses

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zhao, Kun; Yuan, Peng; Zhong, Haizhe; Zhang, Dongfang; Zhu, Heyuan; Qian, Liejia; Chen, Liezun; Wen, Shuangchun

2010-01-01

We propose and demonstrate an efficient sum-frequency mixing scheme based on narrowband and chirped broadband pulses. It combines the advantages of wider spectral acceptance bandwidth and of alleviating the temporal walk-off, which are both beneficial to higher conversion efficiency. Chirped sum-frequency pulses at 455 nm with energy up to 360 µJ, corresponding to a conversion efficiency of ∼ 40%, are obtained and the pulses can be compressed to ∼ 110 fs. The sum-frequency mixing scheme may provide a promising route to the efficient generation of deep-ultraviolet femtosecond pulses

Fiber transmission and generation of ultrawideband pulses by direct current modulation of semi-conductor lasers and chirp-to-intensity conversion

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Company Torres, Victor; Prince, Kamau; Tafur Monroy, Idelfonso

2008-01-01

Optical pulses generated by current modulation of semiconductor lasers are strongly frequency chirped. This effect has been considered pernicious for optical communications. We take advantage of this effect for the generation of ultrawideband microwave signals by using an optical filter to achieve...... chirp-to-intensity conversion. We also experimentally achieve propagation through a 20 km nonzero dispersion shifted fiber with no degradation of the signal at the receiver. Our method constitutes a prospective low-cost solution and offers integration capabilities with fiber...

An injection seeded single frequency Nd:YAG Q-switched laser with precisely controllable laser pulse firing time

Science.gov (United States)

Wu, Frank F.; Khizhnyak, Anatoliy; Markov, Vladimir

2010-02-01

We have realized a single frequency Q-switched Nd:YAG laser with precisely controllable lasing time and thus enabled synchronization of multi-laser systems. The use of injection seeding to the slave ring oscillator results in unidirectional Q-switched laser oscillation with suppression of bidirectional Q-switched oscillation that otherwise would be initiated from spontaneous emission if the seeding laser is not present. Under normal condition, the cavity is high in loss during the pumping period; then a Pockels cell opens the cavity to form the pulse build up, with a second Pockels cell to perform cavity dumping, generating the Q-switched pulse output with optimized characteristics. The two Pockels cells can be replaced by a single unit if an adjustable gated electrical pulse is applied to the Pockels cell in which the pulse front is used to open the cavity and the falling edge to dump the laser pulse. Proper selection of the pump parameters and Pockels-cell gating enables operation of the system in a mode in which the Q-switched pulse can be formed only under the seeding condition. The advantage of the realized regime is in stable laser operation with no need in adjustment of the seeded light wavelength and the mode of the cavity. It is found that the frequency of the Q-switched laser radiation matches well to the injected seeded laser mode. By using two-stage amplifiers, an output energy better than 300 mJ has been achieved in MOPA configuration without active control of the cavity length and with pulse width adjustability from several nanoseconds to 20 ns. The Q-switched oscillator operates not only at precisely controlled firing time but also can be tuned over wide range. This will enable multi-laser systems synchronization and frequency locking down each other if necessary.

Interaction of free charged particles with a chirped electromagnetic pulse

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Khachatryan, A.G.; Goor, F.A. van; Boller, K.-J.

2004-01-01

We study the effect of chirp on electromagnetic (EM) pulse interaction with a charged particle. Both the one-dimensional (1D) and 3D cases are considered. It is found that, in contrast to the case of a nonchirped pulse, the charged particle energy can be changed after the interaction with a 1D EM chirped pulse. Different types of chirp and pulse envelopes are considered. In the case of small chirp, an analytical expression is found for arbitrary temporal profiles of the chirp and the pulse envelope. In the 3D case, the interaction with a chirped pulse results in a polarization-dependent scattering of charged particles

Effects of Energy Chirp on Echo-Enabled Harmonic Generation Free-Electron Lasers

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Huang, Z.

2009-01-01

We study effects of energy chirp on echo-enabled harmonic generation (EEHG). Analytical expressions are compared with numerical simulations for both harmonic and bunching factors. We also discuss the EEHG free-electron laser bandwidth increase due to an energy-modulated beam and its pulse length dependence on the electron energy chirp

Ultra-short pulse, ultra-high intensity laser improvement techniques for laser-driven quantum beam science

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kiriyama, Hiromitsu; Kando, Masaki

2014-01-01

Recent development activities of the Quantum Beam Research Team in JAEA are reported. The downsized, petawatt and femtosecond pulse laser is described at first. The process of the system development and utilization effort of so-called J-KAREN is explained with its time and space control system. For high contrast, OPCPA (Optical Parametric Chirped Pulse Amplification) preamplifier is adopted by using the titanium-sapphire laser system in which only the seed light pulses can be amplified. In addition, high contrast is obtained by adopting the high energy seed light to the amplifier. The system configuration of J-KAREN laser is illustrated. Typical spectra with and without OPCPA, as well as the spectra with OPCPA adjustment and without one are shown. The result of the recompressed pulses is shown in which the pulse width of 29.5 femtoseconds is close to the theoretical limit. Considering the throughput of the pulse compressor is 64 percent it is possible to generate high power laser beam of about 600 terawatts. In the supplementary budget of 2012, it has been approved to cope with the aging or obsoleteness of the system and at the same time to further sophisticate the laser using system. The upgraded laser system is named as J-KAREN-P in which the repetition rate is improved and another booster amplifier is added to increase the power. The system configuration of J-KAREN-P after the upgrading is illustrated. (S. Funahashi)

Optimizing pulse compressibility in completely all-fibered Ytterbium chirped pulse amplifiers for in vivo two photon laser scanning microscopy.

Science.gov (United States)

Fernández, A; Grüner-Nielsen, L; Andreana, M; Stadler, M; Kirchberger, S; Sturtzel, C; Distel, M; Zhu, L; Kautek, W; Leitgeb, R; Baltuska, A; Jespersen, K; Verhoef, A

2017-08-01

A simple and completely all-fiber Yb chirped pulse amplifier that uses a dispersion matched fiber stretcher and a spliced-on hollow core photonic bandgap fiber compressor is applied in nonlinear optical microscopy. This stretching-compression approach improves compressibility and helps to maximize the fluorescence signal in two-photon laser scanning microscopy as compared with approaches that use standard single mode fibers as stretcher. We also show that in femtosecond all-fiber systems, compensation of higher order dispersion terms is relevant even for pulses with relatively narrow bandwidths for applications relying on nonlinear optical effects. The completely all-fiber system was applied to image green fluorescent beads, a stained lily-of-the-valley root and rat-tail tendon. We also demonstrated in vivo imaging in zebrafish larvae, where we simultaneously measure second harmonic and fluorescence from two-photon excited red-fluorescent protein. Since the pulses are compressed in a fiber, this source is especially suited for upgrading existing laser scanning (confocal) microscopes with multiphoton imaging capabilities in space restricted settings or for incorporation in endoscope-based microscopy.

Fiber Optical Parametric Chirped Pulse Amplification of Sub-Picosecond Pulses

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Cristofori, Valentina; Lali-Dastjerdi, Zohreh; Da Ros, Francesco

2013-01-01

We demonstrate experimentally, for the first time to our knowledge, fiber optical parametric chirped pulse amplification of 400-fs pulses. The 400-fs signal is stretched, amplified by 26 dB and compressed back to 500 fs.......We demonstrate experimentally, for the first time to our knowledge, fiber optical parametric chirped pulse amplification of 400-fs pulses. The 400-fs signal is stretched, amplified by 26 dB and compressed back to 500 fs....

A Front End for Multipetawatt Lasers Based on a High-Energy, High-Average-Power Optical Parametric Chirped-Pulse Amplifier

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bagnoud, V.

2004-01-01

We report on a high-energy, high-average-power optical parametric chirped-pulse amplifier developed as the front end for the OMEGA EP laser. The amplifier provides a gain larger than 109 in two stages leading to a total energy of 400 mJ with a pump-to-signal conversion efficiency higher than 25%

Generation of frequency-chirped optical pulses with felix

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Knippels, G.M.H.; Meer, A.F.G. van der; Mols, R.F.X.A.M. [FOM-Institute for Plasma Physics, Nieuwegein (Netherlands)] [and others

1995-12-31

Frequency-chirped optical pulses have been produced in the picosecond regime by varying the energy of the electron beam on a microsecond time scale. These pulses were then compressed close to their bandwidth limit by an external pulse compressor. The amount of chirp can be controlled by varying the sweep rate on the electron beam energy and by cavity desynchronisation. To examine the generated chirp we used the following diagnostics: a pulse compressor, a crossed beam autocorrelator, a multichannel electron spectrometer and multichannel optical spectrometer. The compressor is build entirely using reflective optics to permit broad band operation. The autocorrelator is currently operating from 6 {mu}m to 30 {mu}m with one single crystal. It has been used to measure pulses as short as 500 fs. All diagnostics are evacuated to prevent pulse shape distortion or pulse lengthening caused by absorption in ambient water vapour. Pulse length measurements and optical spectra will be presented for different electron beam sweep rates, showing the presence of a frequency chirp. Results on the compression of the optical pulses to their bandwidth limit are given for different electron sweep rates. More experimental results showing the dependence of the amount of chirp on cavity desynchronisation will be presented.

Ultrashort pulse shaping by optical parametric chirped amplification

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nelet, Ambre

2007-01-01

The aim of this work is to propose new laser architectures based on optical parametric chirped pulse amplification (OPCPA). Common goals of OPCPA pre-amplifiers are to reach high energy level while maintaining the spectrum width and to adapt geometry of the amplified beam to the high power laser chain optics. We consider OPCPA as a way to control and to sculpt ultrashort pulses. Our first set-up aims at thwarting possible time recovery default between pump and signal pulses, which lower the energy extraction. A regenerative OPCPA, idler resonant, is a way to produce a high-intensity and high-repetition rate train of amplified signal replicas. Our second laser system pre-compensates the spectral gain narrowing by sculpting pulses directly within the OPCPA section, where a temporal shaping of the pump beam permits a spectro-spectral shaping of the amplified signal. Finally, we propose an OPCPA based on spatial coding and uniform amplification of spectral signal components by using a fan-out periodically poled crystal and a zero dispersion line. (author) [fr

Development and applications of femtosecond monolithic Yb-doped fiber chirped-pulse amplifiers

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zhu, L.

2011-01-01

In the past few years, compact and environmentally stable high-energy ultrashort pulse laser sources have been broadly utilized in many different applications. Fiber lasers offer big practical advantages over bulk solid-state laser systems in terms of flexibility, compactness, reliability, cost effectiveness and turn-key operability. Moreover, thermal effects are dramatically reduced due to the large surface-to-volume ratio of an optical fiber, and good spatial mode quality can be ensured by its waveguiding property. Therefore, a fiber-based laser system is considered to be the preferred laser architecture. The main theme of this thesis is the development of various femtosecond monolithic Yb-doped fiber chirped-pulse-amplification (FCPA) system and their applications. We demonstrate an ultrafast high-energy monolithic Yb-doped FCPA system in which the pulse fidelity is preserved by weakening the nonlinear effects via a substantial level of temporal stretching of the seed pulses and by using highly doped active fibers as amplifying media. The presented monolithic FCPA delivers up to ∼ 25 μJ diffraction-limited pulses that can be recompressed to sub-200 fs duration, and the pulse quality has been confirmed through the second-harmonic-generation (SHG) conversion efficiency of over 52%. Improved dispersion and nonlinearity management schemes of the FCPA system allowing substantial pulse energy scaling in the monolithic format as well as methods for overcoming a series of technological challenges are reported. Three different types of Yb-doped fiber oscillators have been developed and built in the course of this PhD work. First, we compare two oscillator types that are based on the all-normal-dispersion (ANDi) regime and the dispersion-managed (DM) regime. Both of them have been tested as the seed-pulse source of the monolithic Yb-doped FCPA system. Then we introduce another novel design based on higher-order-mode (HOM) dispersion management that competes with a

Effects of moderate pump and Stokes chirp on chirped-probe pulse femtosecond coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering thermometry

KAUST Repository

Gu, Mingming; Satija, Aman; Lucht, Robert P.

2018-01-01

The effects of moderate levels of chirp in the pump and Stokes pulses on chirped-probe-pulse femtosecond coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering (CPP fs CARS) were investigated. The frequency chirp in the pump and Stokes pulses was introduced

Spectral Phase Modulation and chirped pulse amplification in High Gain Harmonic Generation

CERN Document Server

Wu, Zilu; Krinsky, Sam; Loos, Henrik; Murphy, James; Shaftan, Timur; Sheehy, Brian; Shen, Yuzhen; Wang, Xijie; Yu Li Hua

2004-01-01

High Gain Harmonic Generation (HGHG), because it produces longitudinally coherent pulses derived from a coherent seed, presents remarkable possibilities for manipulating FEL pulses. If spectral phase modulation imposed on the seed modulates the spectral phase of the HGHG in a deterministic fashion, then chirped pulse amplification, pulse shaping, and coherent control experiments at short wavelengths become possible. In addition, the details of the transfer function will likely depend on electron beam and radiator dynamics and so prove to be a useful tool for studying these. Using the DUVFEL at the National Synchrotron Light Source at Brookhaven National Laboratory, we present spectral phase analyses of both coherent HGHG and incoherent SASE ultraviolet FEL radiation, applying Spectral Interferometry for Direct Electric Field Reconstruction (SPIDER), and assess the potential for employing compression and shaping techniques.

Dynamic Characterization of Fiber Optical Chirped Pulse Amplification for Sub-ps Pulses

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Cristofori, Valentina; Lali-Dastjerdi, Zohreh; Rishøj, Lars Søgaard

2013-01-01

We investigate experimentally the propagation of sub-picosecond pulses in fiber optical parametric chirped pulse amplifiers, showing a significant broadening of the pulses from 450 fs up to 720 fs due to dispersion and self-phase modulation.......We investigate experimentally the propagation of sub-picosecond pulses in fiber optical parametric chirped pulse amplifiers, showing a significant broadening of the pulses from 450 fs up to 720 fs due to dispersion and self-phase modulation....

Reconfiguration of spectral absorption features using a frequency-chirped laser pulse.

Science.gov (United States)

Tian, Mingzhen; Chang, Tiejun; Merkel, Kristian D; Babbitt, W Randall

2011-12-20

A technique is proposed to manipulate atomic population in an inhomogeneously broadened medium, which can set an arbitrary absorption spectrum to a uniform transparency (erasure) or to a nearly complete inversion. These reconfigurations of atomic spectral distribution are achieved through excitation of electronic transitions using a laser pulse with chirped frequency, which precisely affects selected spectral regions while leaving the rest of the spectrum unperturbed. An erasure operation sets the final atomic population inversion to zero and the inversion operation flips the population between the ground and the excited states, regardless of the previously existing population distribution. This technique finds important applications both in optical signal processing, where fast, recursive processing and high dynamic range are desirable and in quantum memory and quantum computing, which both require high efficiency and high fidelity in quantum state preparation of atomic ensembles. Proof-of-concept demonstrations were performed in a rare-earth doped crystal.

High power ultrashort pulse lasers

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Perry, M.D.

1994-01-01

Small scale terawatt and soon even petawatt (1000 terawatt) class laser systems are made possible by application of the chirped-pulse amplification technique to solid-state lasers combined with the availability of broad bandwidth materials. These lasers make possible a new class of high gradient accelerators based on the large electric fields associated with intense laser-plasma interactions or from the intense laser field directly. Here, we concentrate on the laser technology to produce these intense pulses. Application of the smallest of these systems to the production of high brightness electron sources is also introduced

Excess quantum noise in optical parametric chirped-pulse amplification

OpenAIRE

Manzoni, C.; Moses, J.; Kärtner, F. X.; Cerullo, G.

2011-01-01

Noise evolution in an optical parametric chirped-pulse amplifier (OPCPA) differs essentially from that of an optical parametric or a conventional laser amplifier, in that an incoherent pedestal is produced by superfluorescence that can overwhelm the signal under strong saturation. Using a model for the nonlinear dynamics consistent with quantum mechanics, we numerically study the evolution of excess noise in an OPCPA. The observed dynamics explain the macroscopic characteristics seen previous...

Self-compression of intense short laser pulses in relativistic magnetized plasma

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Olumi, M.; Maraghechi, B., E-mail: behrouz@aut.ac.ir [Department of Physics, Amirkabir University of Technology, Post code 15916-34311 Tehran (Iran, Islamic Republic of)

2014-11-15

The compression of a relativistic Gaussian laser pulse in a magnetized plasma is investigated. By considering relativistic nonlinearity and using non-linear Schrödinger equation with paraxial approximation, a second-order differential equation is obtained for the pulse width parameter (in time) to demonstrate the longitudinal pulse compression. The compression of laser pulse in a magnetized plasma can be observed by the numerical solution of the equation for the pulse width parameter. The effects of magnetic field and chirping are investigated. It is shown that in the presence of magnetic field and negative initial chirp, compression of pulse is significantly enhanced.

Phase-stable, multi-µJ femtosecond pulses from a repetition-rate tunable Ti:Sa-oscillator-seeded Yb-fiber amplifier

Science.gov (United States)

Saule, T.; Holzberger, S.; De Vries, O.; Plötner, M.; Limpert, J.; Tünnermann, A.; Pupeza, I.

2017-01-01

We present a high-power, MHz-repetition-rate, phase-stable femtosecond laser system based on a phase-stabilized Ti:Sa oscillator and a multi-stage Yb-fiber chirped-pulse power amplifier. A 10-nm band around 1030 nm is split from the 7-fs oscillator output and serves as the seed for subsequent amplification by 54 dB to 80 W of average power. The µJ-level output is spectrally broadened in a solid-core fiber and compressed to 30 fs with chirped mirrors. A pulse picker prior to power amplification allows for decreasing the repetition rate from 74 MHz by a factor of up to 4 without affecting the pulse parameters. To compensate for phase jitter added by the amplifier to the feed-forward phase-stabilized seeding pulses, a self-referencing feed-back loop is implemented at the system output. An integrated out-of-loop phase noise of less than 100 mrad was measured in the band from 0.4 Hz to 400 kHz, which to the best of our knowledge corresponds to the highest phase stability ever demonstrated for high-power, multi-MHz-repetition-rate ultrafast lasers. This system will enable experiments in attosecond physics at unprecedented repetition rates, it offers ideal prerequisites for the generation and field-resolved electro-optical sampling of high-power, broadband infrared pulses, and it is suitable for phase-stable white light generation.

High Average Power, High Energy Short Pulse Fiber Laser System

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Messerly, M J

2007-11-13

Recently continuous wave fiber laser systems with output powers in excess of 500W with good beam quality have been demonstrated [1]. High energy, ultrafast, chirped pulsed fiber laser systems have achieved record output energies of 1mJ [2]. However, these high-energy systems have not been scaled beyond a few watts of average output power. Fiber laser systems are attractive for many applications because they offer the promise of high efficiency, compact, robust systems that are turn key. Applications such as cutting, drilling and materials processing, front end systems for high energy pulsed lasers (such as petawatts) and laser based sources of high spatial coherence, high flux x-rays all require high energy short pulses and two of the three of these applications also require high average power. The challenge in creating a high energy chirped pulse fiber laser system is to find a way to scale the output energy while avoiding nonlinear effects and maintaining good beam quality in the amplifier fiber. To this end, our 3-year LDRD program sought to demonstrate a high energy, high average power fiber laser system. This work included exploring designs of large mode area optical fiber amplifiers for high energy systems as well as understanding the issues associated chirped pulse amplification in optical fiber amplifier systems.

Pulse-shaping mechanism in colliding-pulse mode-locked laser diodes

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bischoff, Svend; Sørensen, Mads Peter; Mørk, J.

1995-01-01

The large signal dynamics of passively colliding pulse mode-locked laser diodes is studied. We derive a model which explains modelocking via the interplay of gain and loss dynamics; no bandwidth limiting element is necessary for pulse formation. It is found necessary to have both fast and slow...... absorber dynamics to achieve mode-locking. Significant chirp is predicted for pulses emitted from long lasers, in agreement with experiment. The pulse width shows a strong dependence on both cavity and saturable absorber length. (C) 1995 American Institute of Physics....

Effects of chirping on the dissociation dynamics of H2 in a two-frequency laser field

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Datta, Avijit; Bhattacharyya, S.S.; Kim, Bongsoo

2002-01-01

We present the effects of frequency chirping of laser pulses on (1+1)-photon resonance-enhanced dissociation dynamics of H 2 . The dissociation occurs via two closely spaced nonadiabatically coupled intermediate levels which are in one-photon resonance or near resonance with the initial level. Predissociating levels embedded into continua are considered. When the first laser field is sufficiently intense and suitably chirped, the dissociation probability is enhanced by adiabatic rapid passage through the avoided crossing arising from the frequency swept radiative interaction. The whole population of the ground level can be effectively transferred to the intermediate levels by this technique facilitating the dissociation process by the second field. We also report the effect of frequency detuning and chirp width on the dissociation probability. Widths of the two peaks of the dissociation line shape increase with an increase in chirp width, resulting in the possibility of control in the dissociation yield. When the first field is a laser pulse of low intensity and constant frequency and the second laser frequency is chirped, predissociating levels take important parts in the dissociation dynamics and we obtain a signature of the nonadiabatic effect of the first step on the second step of photodissociation dynamics. This feature is due to the presence of the predissociating levels and the nonadiabatic mixing of two intermediate levels. All these results can be explained in terms of the adiabatic dressed levels

High-energy infrared femtosecond pulses generated by dual-chirped optical parametric amplification.

Science.gov (United States)

Fu, Yuxi; Takahashi, Eiji J; Midorikawa, Katsumi

2015-11-01

We demonstrate high-energy infrared femtosecond pulse generation by a dual-chirped optical parametric amplification (DC-OPA) scheme [Opt. Express19, 7190 (2011)]. By employing a 100 mJ pump laser, a signal pulse energy exceeding 20 mJ at a wavelength of 1.4 μm was achieved before dispersion compensation. A total output energy of 33 mJ was recorded. Under a further energy scaling condition, the signal pulse was compressed to an almost transform-limited duration of 27 fs using a fused silica prism compressor. Since the DC-OPA scheme is efficient and energy scalable, design parameters for obtaining 100 mJ level infrared pulses are presented, which are suitable as driver lasers for the energy scaling of high-order harmonic generation with sub-keV photon energy.

Next generation Chirped Pulse Amplification

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Nees, J; Biswal, S; Mourou, G [Univ. Michigan, Center for Ultrafast Optical Science, Ann Arbor, MI (United States); Nishimura, Akihiko; Takuma, Hiroshi

1998-03-01

The limiting factors of Chirped Pulse Amplification (CPA) are discussed and experimental results of CPA in Yb:glass regenerative amplifier are given. Scaling of Yb:glass to the petawatt level is briefly discussed. (author)

SBS pulse compression for excimer inertial fusion energy drivers

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Linford, G.J.

1994-01-01

A key requirement for the development of commercial fusion power plants utilizing inertial confinement fusion (ICF) as a source of thermonuclear power is the availability of reliable, efficient laser drivers. These laser drivers must be capable of delivering UV optical pulses having energies of the order of 5MJ to cryogenic deuterium-tritium (D/T) ICF targets. The current requirements for laser ICF target irradiation specify the laser wavelength, λ ca. 250 nm, pulse duration, τ p ca. 6 ns, bandwidth, Δλ ca. 0.1 nm, polarization state, etc. Excimer lasers are a leading candidate to fill these demanding ICF driver requirements. However, since excimer lasers are not storage lasers, the excimer laser pulse duration, τ pp , is determined primarily by the length of the excitation pulse delivered to the excimer laser amplifier. Pulsed power associated with efficiently generating excimer laser pulses has a time constant, τ pp which falls in the range, 30 τ p pp p . As a consequence, pulse compression is needed to convert the long excimer laser pulses to pulses of duration τ p . These main ICF driver pulses require, in addition, longer, lower power precursor pulses delivered to the ICF target before the arrival of the main pulse. Although both linear and non-linear optical (NLO) pulse compression techniques have been developed, computer simulations have shown that a ''chirped,'' self-seeded, stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) pulse compressor cell using SF 6 at a density, ρ ca. 1 amagat can efficiently compress krypton fluoride (KrF) laser pulses at λ=248 nm. In order to avoid the generation of output pulses substantially shorter than τ p , the optical power in the chirped input SBS ''seed'' beams was ramped. Compressed pulse conversion efficiencies of up to 68% were calculated for output pulse durations of τ p ca. ns

SBS management in Yb-fiber-amplifiers using multimode seeds and pulse-shaping

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jolly, Alain; Fikri Serdar Gokhan; Bello, Ramatou; Dupriez, Pascal

2014-01-01

We present a comprehensive analysis of the technique of Longitudinal-Mode-Filling (LMF) to reduce Stimulated Brillouin Scattering (SBS) limitations in Ytterbium Doped Fibre Amplifiers (YDFA), for the generation of nanosecond, temporally shaped pulses. A basic Master-Oscillator-Power-Amplifier (MOPA) system, comprising an output YDFA with 10 μm-core active fibre, is experienced for benchmarking purposes. Input pulse-shaping is operated thanks to direct current modulation in highly multimode laser-diode seeds, either based on the use of Distributed Feed-Back (DFB) or of a Fibre Bragg Grating (FBG). These seeds enable wavelength control. We verify the effectiveness of the combination of LMF, with appropriate mode spacing, in combination with natural chirp effects from the seed to control the SBS threshold in a broad range of output energies, from a few to some tens of μJ. These variations are discussed versus all the parameters of the laser system. In accordance with the proposal of a couple of basic principles and with the addition of gain saturation effects along the active fibre, we develop a full-vectorial numerical model. Fine fits between experimental results and theoretical expectations are demonstrated. The only limitation of the technique arises from broadband beating noise, which is analysed thanks to a simplified, but fully representative description to discuss the signal-to-noise ratio of the amplified pulses. This provides efficient tools for application to the design of robust and cost-effective MOPAs, aiming to the generation of finely shaped and energetic nanosecond pulses without the need for any additional electro-optics. (authors)

Measurement and control of the frequency chirp rate of high-order harmonic pulses

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mauritsson, J.; Johnsson, P.; Lopez-Martens, R.; Varju, K.; L'Huillier, A.; Kornelis, W.; Biegert, J.; Keller, U.; Gaarde, M.B.; Schafer, K.J.

2004-01-01

We measure the chirp rate of harmonics 13 to 23 in argon by cross correlation with a 12 femtosecond probe pulse. Under low ionization conditions, we directly measure the negative chirp due to the atomic dipole phase, and show that an additional chirp on the pump pulse is transferred to the qth harmonic as q times the fundamental chirp. Our results are in accord with simulations using the experimentally measured 815 nm pump and probe pulses. The ability to measure and manipulate the harmonic chirp rate is essential for the characterization and optimization of attosecond pulse trains

Helium in chirped laser fields as a time-asymmetric atomic switch

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Kaprálová-Žďánská, Petra Ruth; Moiseyev, N.

2014-01-01

Roč. 141, č. 1 (2014), "014307-1"-"014307-14" ISSN 0021-9606 R&D Projects: GA ČR GAP205/11/0571 Institutional support: RVO:68378271 Keywords : laser excitation * chirped pulses * non-hermitian quantum mechanics * time-asymmetry Subject RIV: BG - Nuclear, Atomic and Molecular Physics, Colliders Impact factor: 2.952, year: 2014

Propagation and reflection of chirped pulses in the nonuniform ionospheric plasma

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Levitsky, S.M.

2009-01-01

By passing of a chirped pulse in a inhomogeneous ionospheric plasma this pulses due to the dispersion futures of the plasma becomes deformed and can be strongly compressed. The chirped pulse can be compressed also being reflected by the ionosphere. This can give some advantage using such pulses in the experiments of ionospheric zoning.

Components for monolithic fiber chirped pulse amplification laser systems

Science.gov (United States)

Swan, Michael Craig

The first portion of this work develops techniques for generating femtosecond-pulses from conventional fabry-perot laser diodes using nonlinear-spectral-broadening techniques in Yb-doped positive dispersion fiber ampliers. The approach employed an injection-locked fabry-perot laser diode followed by two stages of nonlinear-spectral-broadening to generate sub-200fs pulses. This thesis demonstrated that a 60ps gain-switched fabry-perot laser-diode can be injection-locked to generate a single-longitudinal-mode pulse and compressed by nonlinear spectral broadening to 4ps. Two problems have been identified that must be resolved before moving forward with this approach. First, gain-switched pulses from a standard diode-laser have a number of characteristics not well suited for producing clean self-phase-modulation-broadened pulses, such as an asymmetric temporal shape, which has a long pulse tail. Second, though parabolic pulse formation occurs for any arbitrary temporal input pulse profile, deviation from the optimum parabolic input results in extensively spectrally modulated self-phase-modulation-broadened pulses. In conclusion, the approach of generating self-phase-modulation-broadened pulses from pulsed laser diodes has to be modified from the initial approach explored in this thesis. The first Yb-doped chirally-coupled-core ber based systems are demonstrated and characterized in the second portion of this work. Robust single-mode performance independent of excitation or any other external mode management techniques have been demonstrated in Yb-doped chirally-coupled-core fibers. Gain and power efficiency characteristics are not compromised in any way in this novel fiber structure up to the 87W maximum power achieved. Both the small signal gain at 1064nm of 30.3dB, and the wavelength dependence of the small signal gain were comparable to currently deployed large-mode-area-fiber technology. The efficiencies of the laser and amplifier were measured to be 75% and 54

Effective temporal resolution in pump-probe spectroscopy with strongly chirped pulses

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Polli, D.; Lanzani, G.; Brida, D.; Cerullo, G.; Mukamel, S.

2010-01-01

This paper introduces a general theoretical description of femtosecond pump-probe spectroscopy with chirped pulses whose joint spectral and temporal profile is expressed by Wigner spectrograms. We demonstrate that the actual experimental time resolution intimately depends on the pulse-sample interaction and that the commonly used instrumental response function needs to be replaced by a sample-dependent effective response function. We also show that, using the proper configurations in excitation and/or detection, it is possible to overcome the temporal smearing of the measured dynamics due to chirp-induced pulse broadening and recover the temporal resolution that would be afforded by the transform-limited pulses. We verify these predictions with experiments using broadband chirped pump and probe pulses. Our results allow optimization of the temporal resolution in the common case when the chirp of the pump and/or probe pulse is not corrected and may be extended to a broad range of time-resolved experiments.

Role of third-order dispersion in chirped Airy pulse propagation in single-mode fibers

Science.gov (United States)

Cai, Wangyang; Wang, Lei; Wen, Shuangchun

2018-04-01

The dynamic propagation of the initial chirped Airy pulse in single-mode fibers is studied numerically, special attention being paid to the role of the third-order dispersion (TOD). It is shown that for the positive TOD, the Airy pulse experiences inversion irrespective of the sign of initial chirp. The role of TOD in the dynamic propagation of the initial chirped Airy pulse depends on the combined sign of the group-velocity dispersion (GVD) and the initial chirp. If the GVD and chirp have the opposite signs, the chirped Airy pulse compresses first and passes through a breakdown area, then reconstructs a new Airy pattern with opposite acceleration, with the breakdown area becoming small and the main peak of the new Airy pattern becoming asymmetric with an oscillatory structure due to the positive TOD. If the GVD and chirp have the same signs, the finite-energy Airy pulse compresses to a focal point and then inverses its acceleration, in the case of positive TOD, the distance to the focal point becoming smaller. At zero-dispersion point, the finite-energy Airy pulse inverses to the opposite acceleration at a focal point, with the tight-focusing effect being reduced by initial chirp. Under the effect of negative TOD, the initial chirped Airy pulse disperses and the lobes split. In addition, in the anomalous dispersion region, for strong nonlinearity, the initial chirped Airy pulse splits and enters a soliton shedding regime.

Chirped Pulse Spectrometer Operating at 200 GHz

Science.gov (United States)

Hindle, Francis; Bray, Cédric; Hickson, Kevin; Fontanari, Daniele; Mouelhi, Meriem; Cuisset, Arnaud; Mouret, Gaël; Bocquet, Robin

2018-01-01

The combination of electronic sources operating at high frequencies and modern microwave instrumentation has enabled the recent development of chirped pulse spectrometers for the millimetre and THz bands. This type of instrument can operate at high resolution which is particularly suited to gas-phase rotational spectroscopy. The construction of a chirped pulse spectrometer operating at 200 GHz is described in detail while attention is paid to the phase stability and the data accumulation over many cycles. Validation using carbonyl sulphide has allowed the detection limit of the instrument to be established as function of the accumulation. A large number of OCS transitions were identified using a 10-GHz chirped pulse and include the six most abundant isotopologues, the weakest line corresponding to the fundamental R(17) transition of 16O13C33S with a line strength of 4.3 × 10-26 cm-1/(molecule cm-2). The linearity of the system response for different degrees of data accumulation and transition line strength was confirmed over four orders of magnitudes. A simple analysis of the time-domain data was demonstrated to provide the line-broadening coefficient without the need for conversion by a Fourier transform. Finally, the pulse duration is discussed and optimal values are given for both Doppler-limited and collisional regimes.

Shaping of pulses in optical grating-based laser systems for optimal control of electrons in laser plasma wake-field accelerator

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Toth, Cs.; Faure, J.; Geddes, C.G.R.; Tilborg, J. van; Leemans, W.P.

2003-01-01

In typical chirped pulse amplification (CPA) laser systems, scanning the grating separation in the optical compressor causes the well know generation of linear chirp of frequency vs. time in a laser pulse, as well as a modification of all the higher order phase terms. By setting the compressor angle slightly different from the optimum value to generate the shortest pulse, a typical scan around this value will produce significant changes to the pulse shape. Such pulse shape changes can lead to significant differences in the interaction with plasmas such as used in laser wake-field accelerators. Strong electron yield dependence on laser pulse shape in laser plasma wake-field electron acceleration experiments have been observed in the L'OASIS Lab of LBNL [1]. These experiments show the importance of pulse skewness parameter, S, defined here on the basis of the ratio of the ''head-width-half-max'' (HWHM) and the ''tail-width-halfmax'' (TWHM), respectively

Charged particle interaction with a chirped electromagnetic pulse

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Khachatryan, A.G.; Boller, Klaus J.; van Goor, F.A.

2003-01-01

It is found that a charged particle can get a net energy gain from the interaction with an electromagnetic chirped pulse. Theoretically, the energy gain increases with the pulse amplitude and with the relative frequency variation in the pulse.

Design of a Highly Stable, High-Conversion-Efficiency, Optical Parametric Chirped-Pulse Amplification System with Good Beam Quality

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Guardalben, M.J.; Keegan, J.; Waxer, L.J.; Bagnoud, V.; Begishev, I.A.; Puth, J.; Zuegel, J.D.

2003-01-01

OAK B204 An optical parametric chirped-pulse amplifier (OPCPA) design that provides 40% pump-to-signal conversion efficiency and over-500-mJ signal energy at 1054 nm for front-end injection into a Nd:glass amplifier chain is presented. This OPCPA system is currently being built as the prototype front end for the OMEGA EP (extended performance) laser system at the University of Rochester's Laboratory for Laser Energetics. Using a three-dimensional spatial and temporal numerical model, several design considerations necessary to achieve high conversion efficiency, good output stability, and good beam quality are discussed. The dependence of OPCPA output on the pump beam's spatiotemporal shape and the relative size of seed and pump beams is described. This includes the effects of pump intensity modulation and pump-signal walk-off. The trade-off among efficiency, stability, and low output beam intensity modulation is discussed

Efficient terahertz wave generation from GaP crystals pumped by chirp-controlled pulses from femtosecond photonic crystal fiber amplifier

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Li, Jiang; Shi, Junkai; Xu, Baozhong; Xing, Qirong; Wang, Chingyue; Chai, Lu; Liu, Bowen; Hu, Minglie; Li, Yanfeng; Fedotov, Andrey B.; Zheltikov, Aleksei M.

2014-01-01

A chirp-tunable femtosecond 10 W, 42 MHz photonic-crystal-fiber oscillator-amplifier system that is capable of delivering sub-60 fs light pulses at 1040 nm is used to demonstrate high-efficiency terahertz radiation generation via optical rectification in GaP crystals only a few millimeters in length. The optimization of the chirp of the fiber-laser pulses is shown to radically enhance the terahertz output, indicating one possible way to more efficiently use these extended nonlinear crystals in compact fiber-pumped terahertz radiation sources

Population Transfer between Two Quantum States by Piecewise Chirping of Femtosecond Pulses: Theory and Experiment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zhdanovich, S.; Shapiro, E. A.; Shapiro, M.; Hepburn, J. W.; Milner, V.

2008-01-01

We propose and experimentally demonstrate the method of population transfer by piecewise adiabatic passage between two quantum states. Coherent excitation of a two-level system with a train of ultrashort laser pulses is shown to reproduce the effect of an adiabatic passage, conventionally achieved with a single frequency-chirped pulse. By properly adjusting the amplitudes and phases of the pulses in the excitation pulse train, we achieve complete and robust population transfer to the target state. The piecewise nature of the process suggests a possibility for the selective population transfer in complex quantum systems

SBS pulse compression for excimer inertial fusion energy drivers

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Linford, G.J. [TRW Space and Electronics Group, Redondo Beach, CA (United States). Space and Technology Div.

1994-12-31

A key requirement for the development of commercial fusion power plants utilizing inertial confinement fusion (ICF) as a source of thermonuclear power is the availability of reliable, efficient laser drivers. These laser drivers must be capable of delivering UV optical pulses having energies of the order of 5MJ to cryogenic deuterium-tritium (D/T) ICF targets. The current requirements for laser ICF target irradiation specify the laser wavelength, {lambda} ca. 250 nm, pulse duration, {tau}{sub p} ca. 6 ns, bandwidth, {Delta}{lambda} ca. 0.1 nm, polarization state, etc. Excimer lasers are a leading candidate to fill these demanding ICF driver requirements. However, since excimer lasers are not storage lasers, the excimer laser pulse duration, {tau}{sub pp}, is determined primarily by the length of the excitation pulse delivered to the excimer laser amplifier. Pulsed power associated with efficiently generating excimer laser pulses has a time constant, {tau}{sub pp} which falls in the range, 30 {tau}{sub p}<{tau}{sub pp}<100{tau}{sub p}. As a consequence, pulse compression is needed to convert the long excimer laser pulses to pulses of duration {tau}{sub p}. These main ICF driver pulses require, in addition, longer, lower power precursor pulses delivered to the ICF target before the arrival of the main pulse. Although both linear and non-linear optical (NLO) pulse compression techniques have been developed, computer simulations have shown that a ``chirped,`` self-seeded, stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) pulse compressor cell using SF{sub 6} at a density, {rho} ca. 1 amagat can efficiently compress krypton fluoride (KrF) laser pulses at {lambda}=248 nm. In order to avoid the generation of output pulses substantially shorter than {tau}{sub p}, the optical power in the chirped input SBS ``seed`` beams was ramped. Compressed pulse conversion efficiencies of up to 68% were calculated for output pulse durations of {tau}{sub p} ca. ns.

Hyper dispersion pulse compressor for chirped pulse amplification systems

Science.gov (United States)

Barty, Christopher P. J.

2011-11-29

A grating pulse compressor configuration is introduced for increasing the optical dispersion for a given footprint and to make practical the application for chirped pulse amplification (CPA) to quasi-narrow bandwidth materials, such as Nd:YAG. The grating configurations often use cascaded pairs of gratings to increase angular dispersion an order of magnitude or more. Increased angular dispersion allows for decreased grating separation and a smaller compressor footprint.

Photoacoustic simulation study of chirp excitation response from different size absorbers

Science.gov (United States)

Jnawali, K.; Chinni, B.; Dogra, V.; Rao, N.

2017-03-01

Photoacoustic (PA) imaging is a hybrid imaging modality that integrates the strength of optical and ultrasound imaging. Nanosecond (ns) pulsed lasers used in current PA imaging systems are expensive, bulky and they often waste energy. We propose and evaluate, through simulations, the use of a continuous wave (CW) laser whose amplitude is linear frequency modulated (chirp) for PA imaging. The chirp signal provides signal-to-side-lobe ratio (SSR) improvement potential and full control over PA signal frequencies excited in the sample. The PA signal spectrum is a function of absorber size and the time frequencies present in the chirp. A mismatch between the input chirp spectrum and the output PA signal spectrum can affect the compressed pulse that is recovered from cross-correlating the two. We have quantitatively characterized this effect. The k-wave Matlab tool box was used to simulate PA signals in three dimensions for absorbers ranging in size from 0.1 mm to 0.6 mm, in response to laser excitation amplitude that is linearly swept from 0.5 MHz to 4 MHz. This sweep frequency range was chosen based on the spectrum analysis of a PA signal generated from ex-vivo human prostate tissue samples. In comparison, the energy wastage by a ns laser pulse was also estimated. For the chirp methodology, the compressed pulse peak amplitude, pulse width and side lobe structure parameters were extracted for different size absorbers. While the SSR increased 6 fold with absorber size, the pulse width decreased by 25%.

Numerical simulation of extremely chirped pulse formation with an optical fiber

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Itoh, Tamitake; Nishimura, Akihiko; Tei, Kazuyoku; Matoba, Tohru; Takuma, Hiroshi [Japan Atomic Energy Research Inst., Tokai, Ibaraki (Japan). Tokai Research Establishment; Yamashita, Mikio; Morita, Ryuji

1998-03-01

A nonlinear propagation code which used a symmetric split-step Fourier method as an algorithm was improved to simulate a propagation behavior of extremely chirped pulse in a long fiber. The performances of pulse propagation in noble gases cored hollow fibers and a pulse stretcher using a nonlinear and normal silicate fibers have been simulated by the code. The calculation results in the case of the hollow fiber are consistent with their experimental results. We estimated that this pulse stretcher could give a extremely chirped pulse whose spectral width was 84.2 nm and temporal duration was 1.5 ns. (author)

Chirped-pulse manipulated carrier dynamics in low-temperature molecular-beam-epitaxy grown GaAs

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lee, Chao-Kuei; Lin, Yuan-Yao; Lin, Sung-Hui; Lin, Gong-Ru; Pan, Ci-Ling

2014-01-01

Chirped pulse controlled carrier dynamics in low-temperature molecular-beam-epitaxy grown GaAs are investigated by degenerate pump-probe technique. Varying the chirped condition of excited pulse from negative to positive increases the carrier relaxation time so as to modify the dispersion and reshape current pulse in time domain. The spectral dependence of carrier dynamics is analytically derived and explained by Shockley-Read Hall model. This observation enables the new feasibility of controlling carrier dynamics in ultrafast optical devices via the chirped pulse excitations

Compact sub-nanosecond pulse seed source with diode laser driven by a high-speed circuit

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Xiaoqian; Wang, Bo; Wang, Junhua; Cheng, Wenyong

2018-06-01

A compact sub-nanosecond pulse seed source with 1550 nm diode laser (DL) was obtained by employing a high-speed circuit. The circuit mainly consisted of a short pulse generator and a short pulse driver. The short pulse generator, making up of a complex programmable logic device (CPLD), a level translator, two programmable delay chips and an AND gate chip, output a triggering signal to control metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET) switch of the short pulse driver. The MOSFET switch with fast rising time and falling time both shorter than 1 ns drove the DL to emit short optical pulses. Performances of the pulse seed source were tested. The results showed that continuously adjustable repetition frequency ranging from 500 kHz to 100 MHz and pulse duration in the range of 538 ps to 10 ns were obtained, respectively. 537 μW output was obtained at the highest repetition frequency of 100 MHz with the shortest pulse duration of 538 ps. These seed pulses were injected into an fiber amplifier, and no optical pulse distortions were found.

Generation of Ultra-high Intensity Laser Pulses

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fisch, N.J.; Malkin, V.M.

2003-01-01

Mainly due to the method of chirped pulse amplification, laser intensities have grown remarkably during recent years. However, the attaining of very much higher powers is limited by the material properties of gratings. These limitations might be overcome through the use of plasma, which is an ideal medium for processing very high power and very high total energy. A plasma can be irradiated by a long pump laser pulse, carrying significant energy, which is then quickly depleted in the plasma by a short counterpropagating pulse. This counterpropagating wave effect has already been employed in Raman amplifiers using gases or plasmas at low laser power. Of particular interest here are the new effects which enter in high power regimes. These new effects can be employed so that one high-energy optical system can be used like a flashlamp in what amounts to pumping the plasma, and a second low-power optical system can be used to extract quickly the energy from the plasma and focus it precisely. The combined system can be very compact. Thus, focused intensities more than 10 25 W/cm 2 can be contemplated using existing optical elements. These intensities are several orders of magnitude higher than what is currently available through chirped pump amplifiers

Effect of linear chirp on strong field photodissociation of H+2

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Prabhudesai, Vaibhav; Natan, Adi; Bruner, Barry; Silberberg, Yaron; Lev, Uri; Heber, Oded; Strasser, Daniel; Schwalm, Dirk; Zajfman, Daniel; Ben-Itzhak, Itzik

2011-01-01

We report the experimental findings of a systematic study of the effect of linear chirp on strong field photodissociation of H + 2 . For vibrational levels around or above the one photon crossing, the effect manifests itself in terms of a shift in the kinetic energy release (KER) peaks. The peaks shift up for negative chirp whereas they shift down for positive chirp. The measurements are carried out by varying two of the three laser pulse characteristics, energy, pulse peak intensity and linear chirp, while keeping the third constant. The shifts in the KER peaks are found to be intensity dependent for a given value of chirp. However, in the last two cases (i.e., fixed pulsed energy and fixed pulse peak intensity), they are found to be independent of the chirp magnitude. The results are understood on the basis of saturation of photodissociation probabilities for these levels.

Broadband excitation by chirped pulses: application to single electron spins in diamond

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Niemeyer, I; Shim, J H; Zhang, J; Suter, D; Taniguchi, T; Teraji, T; Abe, H; Onoda, S; Yamamoto, T; Ohshima, T; Isoya, J; Jelezko, F

2013-01-01

Pulsed excitation of broad spectra requires very high field strengths if monochromatic pulses are used. If the corresponding high power is not available or not desirable, the pulses can be replaced by suitable low-power pulses that distribute the power over a wider bandwidth. As a simple case, we use microwave pulses with a linear frequency chirp. We use these pulses to excite spectra of single nitrogen–vacancy centres in a Ramsey experiment. Compared to the conventional Ramsey experiment, our approach increases the bandwidth by at least an order of magnitude. Compared to the conventional continuous wave-ODMR experiment, the chirped Ramsey experiment does not suffer from power broadening and increases the resolution by at least an order of magnitude. As an additional benefit, the chirped Ramsey spectrum contains not only ‘allowed’ single quantum transitions, but also ‘forbidden’ zero- and double quantum transitions, which can be distinguished from the single quantum transitions by phase-shifting the readout pulse with respect to the excitation pulse or by variation of the external magnetic field strength. (paper)

Chirped pulse digital holography for measuring the sequence of ultrafast optical wavefronts

Science.gov (United States)

Karasawa, Naoki

2018-04-01

Optical setups for measuring the sequence of ultrafast optical wavefronts using a chirped pulse as a reference wave in digital holography are proposed and analyzed. In this method, multiple ultrafast object pulses are used to probe the temporal evolution of ultrafast phenomena and they are interfered with a chirped reference wave to record a digital hologram. Wavefronts at different times can be reconstructed separately from the recorded hologram when the reference pulse can be treated as a quasi-monochromatic wave during the pulse width of each object pulse. The feasibility of this method is demonstrated by numerical simulation.

50-fs pulse generation directly from a colliding-pulse mode-locked Ti:sapphire laser using an antiresonant ring mirror

Science.gov (United States)

Naganuma, Kazunori; Mogi, Kazuo

1991-05-01

50-fs pulses were directly generated from a colliding-pulse mode-locked Ti:sapphire laser. To achieve the colliding-pulse mode locking, a miniature antiresonant ring containing an organic saturable dye jet was employed as the end mirror for the linear cavity laser. Based on measured dispersion of intracavity elements, a prism pair was implemented to control the cavity dispersion. The generated pulses have no linear chirp but do exhibit parabolic instantaneous frequency owing to third-order dispersion introduced by the prism pair.

QCL seeded, ns-pulse, multi-line, CO2 laser oscillator for laser-produced-plasma extreme-UV source

Science.gov (United States)

Nowak, Krzysztof Michał; Suganuma, Takashi; Kurosawa, Yoshiaki; Ohta, Takeshi; Kawasuji, Yasufumi; Nakarai, Hiroaki; Saitou, Takashi; Fujimoto, Junichi; Mizoguchi, Hakaru; Sumitani, Akira; Endo, Akira

2017-01-01

Successful merger of state-of-the-art, semiconductor quantum-cascade lasers (QCL), with the mature CO2 laser technology, resulted in a delivery of highly-desired qualities of CO2 laser output that were not available previously without much effort. These qualities, such as multi-line operation, excellent spectro-temporal stability and pulse waveform control, became available from a single device of moderate complexity. This paper describes the operation principle and the unique properties of the solid{state seeded CO2 laser, invented for an application in laser-produced-plasma (LPP), extreme-UV (EUV) light source.

Cpuf: Chirped-Pulse Microwave Spectroscopy in Pulsed Uniform Supersonic Flows

Science.gov (United States)

Suits, Arthur; Abeysekera, Chamara; Zack, Lindsay N.; Joalland, Baptiste; Ariyasingha, Nuwandi M.; Park, Barratt; Field, Robert W.; Sims, Ian

2015-06-01

Chirped-pulse Fourier-transform microwave spectroscopy has stimulated a resurgence of interest in rotational spectroscopy owing to the dramatic reduction in spectral acquisition time it enjoys when compared to cavity-based instruments. This suggests that it might be possible to adapt the method to study chemical reaction dynamics and even chemical kinetics using rotational spectroscopy. The great advantage of this would be clear, quantifiable spectroscopic signatures for polyatomic products as well as the possibility to identify and characterize new radical reaction products and transient intermediates. To achieve this, however, several conditions must be met: 1) products must be thermalized at low temperature to maximize the population difference needed to achieve adequate signal levels and to permit product quantification based on the rotational line strength; 2) a large density and volume of reaction products is also needed to achieve adequate signal levels; and 3) for kinetics studies, a uniform density and temperature is needed throughout the course of the reaction. These conditions are all happily met by the uniform supersonic flow produced from a Laval nozzle expansion. In collaboration with the Field group at MIT we have developed a new instrument we term a CPUF (Chirped-pulse/Uniform Flow) spectrometer in which we can study reaction dynamics, photochemistry and kinetics using broadband microwave and millimeter wave spectroscopy as a product probe. We will illustrate the performance of the system with a few examples of photodissociation and reaction dynamics, and also discuss a number of challenges unique to the application of chirped-pulse microwave spectroscopy in the collisional environment of the flow. Future directions and opportunities for application of CPUF will also be explored.

'J-KAREN' - high intensity, high contrast laser

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kiriyama, Hiromitsu; Mori, Michiaki; Nakai, Yoshiki; Okada, Hajime; Sasao, Hajime; Sagisaka, Akito; Ochi, Yoshihiro; Tanaka, Momoko; Kondo, Kiminori; Tateno, Ryo; Sugiyama, Akira; Daido, Hiroyuki; Koike, Masato; Kawanishi, Syunichi; Shimomura, Takuya; Tanoue, Manabu; Wakai, Daisuke; Kondo, Shuji; Kanazawa, Shuhei

2010-01-01

We report on the high intensity, high contrast double chirped-pulse amplification (CPA) Ti:sapphire laser system (named J-KAREN). By use of an optical parametric chirped-pulse amplification (OPCPA) preamplifier that is seeded by a cleaned high-energy pulse, a background amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) level of 10 -10 relative to the peak main femtosecond pulse on the picosecond timescales demonstrated with an output energy of 1.7 J and a pulse duration of 30 fs, corresponding to a peak power of 60TW at a 10 Hz repetition rate. This system which uses a cryogenically-cooled Ti:sapphire final amplifier generates focused peak intensity in excess of 10 20 W/cm 2 at a 10 Hz repetition rate. (author)

Prepulse effect on intense femtosecond laser pulse propagation in gas

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Giulietti, Antonio; Tomassini, Paolo; Galimberti, Marco; Giulietti, Danilo; Gizzi, Leonida A.; Koester, Petra; Labate, Luca; Ceccotti, Tiberio; D'Oliveira, Pascal; Auguste, Thierry; Monot, Pascal; Martin, Philippe

2006-01-01

The propagation of an ultrashort laser pulse can be affected by the light reaching the medium before the pulse. This can cause a serious drawback to possible applications. The propagation in He of an intense 60-fs pulse delivered by a Ti:sapphire laser in the chirped pulse amplification (CPA) mode has been investigated in conditions of interest for laser-plasma acceleration of electrons. The effects of both nanosecond amplified spontaneous emission and picosecond pedestals have been clearly identified. There is evidence that such effects are basically of refractive nature and that they are not detrimental for the propagation of a CPA pulse focused to moderately relativistic intensity. The observations are fully consistent with numerical simulations and can contribute to the search of a stable regime for laser acceleration

Shaping of few-cycle laser pulses via a subwavelength structure

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Guo Liang; Xie Xiao-Tao; Zhan Zhi-Ming

2013-01-01

We theoretically investigate the propagation of few-cycle laser pulses in resonant two-level dense media with a subwavelength structure, which is described by the full Maxwell—Bloch equations without the frame of slowly varying envelope and rotating wave approximations. The input pulses can be shaped into shorter ones with a single or less than one optical cycle. The effect of the parameters of the subwavelength structure and laser pulses is studied. Our study shows that the media with a subwavelength structure can significantly shape the few-cycle pulses into a subcycle pulse, even for the case of chirp pulses as input fields. This suggests that such subwavelength structures have potential application in the shaping of few-cycle laser pulses. (electromagnetism, optics, acoustics, heat transfer, classical mechanics, and fluid dynamics)

Single-shot spectro-temporal characterization of XUV pulses from a seeded free-electron laser

Science.gov (United States)

de Ninno, Giovanni; Gauthier, David; Mahieu, Benoît; Ribič, Primož Rebernik; Allaria, Enrico; Cinquegrana, Paolo; Danailov, Miltcho Bojanov; Demidovich, Alexander; Ferrari, Eugenio; Giannessi, Luca; Penco, Giuseppe; Sigalotti, Paolo; Stupar, Matija

2015-08-01

Intense ultrashort X-ray pulses produced by modern free-electron lasers (FELs) allow one to probe biological systems, inorganic materials and molecular reaction dynamics with nanoscale spatial and femtoscale temporal resolution. These experiments require the knowledge, and possibly the control, of the spectro-temporal content of individual pulses. FELs relying on seeding have the potential to produce spatially and temporally fully coherent pulses. Here we propose and implement an interferometric method, which allows us to carry out the first complete single-shot spectro-temporal characterization of the pulses, generated by an FEL in the extreme ultraviolet spectral range. Moreover, we provide the first direct evidence of the temporal coherence of a seeded FEL working in the extreme ultraviolet spectral range and show the way to control the light generation process to produce Fourier-limited pulses. Experiments are carried out at the FERMI FEL in Trieste.

Active stabilization of a rapidly chirped laser by an optoelectronic digital servo-loop control.

Science.gov (United States)

Gorju, G; Jucha, A; Jain, A; Crozatier, V; Lorgeré, I; Le Gouët, J-L; Bretenaker, F; Colice, M

2007-03-01

We propose and demonstrate a novel active stabilization scheme for wide and fast frequency chirps. The system measures the laser instantaneous frequency deviation from a perfectly linear chirp, thanks to a digital phase detection process, and provides an error signal that is used to servo-loop control the chirped laser. This way, the frequency errors affecting a laser scan over 10 GHz on the millisecond timescale are drastically reduced below 100 kHz. This active optoelectronic digital servo-loop control opens new and interesting perspectives in fields where rapidly chirped lasers are crucial.

The optimal input optical pulse shape for the self-phase modulation based chirp generator

Science.gov (United States)

Zachinyaev, Yuriy; Rumyantsev, Konstantin

2018-04-01

The work is aimed to obtain the optimal shape of the input optical pulse for the proper functioning of the self-phase modulation based chirp generator allowing to achieve high values of chirp frequency deviation. During the research, the structure of the device based on self-phase modulation effect using has been analyzed. The influence of the input optical pulse shape of the transmitting optical module on the chirp frequency deviation has been studied. The relationship between the frequency deviation of the generated chirp and frequency linearity for the three options for implementation of the pulse shape has been also estimated. The results of research are related to the development of the theory of radio processors based on fiber-optic structures and can be used in radars, secure communications, geolocation and tomography.

Towards a petawatt-class few-cycle infrared laser system via dual-chirped optical parametric amplification.

Science.gov (United States)

Fu, Yuxi; Midorikawa, Katsumi; Takahashi, Eiji J

2018-05-16

Expansion of the wavelength range for an ultrafast laser is an important ingredient for extending its range of applications. Conventionally, optical parametric amplification (OPA) has been employed to expand the laser wavelength to the infrared (IR) region. However, the achievable pulse energy and peak power have been limited to the mJ and the GW level, respectively. A major difficulty in the further energy scaling of OPA results from a lack of suitable large nonlinear crystals. Here, we circumvent this difficulty by employing a dual-chirped optical parametric amplification (DC-OPA) scheme. We successfully generate a multi-TW IR femtosecond laser pulse with an energy of 100 mJ order, which is higher than that reported in previous works. We also obtain excellent energy scaling ability, ultrashort pulses, flexiable wavelength tunability, and high-energy stability, which prove that DC-OPA is a superior method for the energy scaling of IR pulses to the 10 J/PW level.

Study on high gain broadband optical parametric chirped pulse amplification

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zhang, S.K.; Fujita, M.; Yamanaka, C.; Yoshida, H.; Kodama, R.; Fujita, H.; Nakatsuka, M.; Izawa, Y.

2000-01-01

Optical parametric chirped pulse amplification has apparent advantages over the current schemes for high energy ultrashort pulse amplification. High gain in a single pass amplification, small B-integral, low heat deposition, high contrast ratio and, especially the extremely broad gain bandwidth with large-size crystals available bring people new hope for over multi-PW level at which the existing Nd:glass systems suffered difficulties. In this paper we present simulation and experimental studies for a high gain optical parametric chirped pulse amplification system which may be used as a preamplifier to replace the current complicated regenerative system or multi-pass Ti:sapphire amplifiers. Investigations on the amplification bandwidth and gain with BBO are performed. Analysis and discussions are also given. (author)

Effect of linear chirp on strong field photodissociation of H{sup +}{sub 2}

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Prabhudesai, Vaibhav; Natan, Adi; Bruner, Barry; Silberberg, Yaron; Lev, Uri; Heber, Oded; Strasser, Daniel; Schwalm, Dirk; Zajfman, Daniel [Weizmann Institute of Science, 76100 (Israel); Ben-Itzhak, Itzik [Kansas State University, Kansas (United States)

2011-10-15

We report the experimental findings of a systematic study of the effect of linear chirp on strong field photodissociation of H{sup +}{sub 2}. For vibrational levels around or above the one photon crossing, the effect manifests itself in terms of a shift in the kinetic energy release (KER) peaks. The peaks shift up for negative chirp whereas they shift down for positive chirp. The measurements are carried out by varying two of the three laser pulse characteristics, energy, pulse peak intensity and linear chirp, while keeping the third constant. The shifts in the KER peaks are found to be intensity dependent for a given value of chirp. However, in the last two cases (i.e., fixed pulsed energy and fixed pulse peak intensity), they are found to be independent of the chirp magnitude. The results are understood on the basis of saturation of photodissociation probabilities for these levels.

Superimposed chirped pulse parameter estimation based on the extended Kalman filter (EKF)

CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

Olivier, JC

2009-05-01

Full Text Available An extended Kalman filter (EKF) is proposed to estimate the frequencies and chirp rate of multiple superimposed chirped pulses. The estimation problem is a difficult one, where maximum likelyhood methods are very complex especially if more than two...

Characterization and modulation of femtosecond laser pulse

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dorrer, Christophe

1999-01-01

This work brings some solutions to the characterization and control of femtosecond laser pulses. Spectral interferometry has been extensively studied; whereas this is a rather old technique, it has found new specific applications to short pulses. Several important points concerning the experimental implementation of this technique are treated. Sources of errors have been tracked and simple solutions have been found to enhance its reliability. A recently demonstrated technique for the complete characterization of short pulses has been used to characterize short pulses from Chirped Pulse Amplification Systems. This transposition of shearing interferometry to the optical frequency domain, known as Spectral Phase Interferometry for Direct Electric-field Reconstruction (SPlDER), is conceptually very interesting: for example, the inversion from the experimental data to the electric field to be characterized is completely algebraic. A reliable tool for the characterization and optimization of Chirped pulse amplification systems has been built on this principle. This is the first single-shot real-time characterization implementation of this technique. An improvement of the method has also allowed the first single-shot real-time characterization of a short pulse using a single mono-dimensional integrative detector and an algebraic inversion of the experimental data. The control of these pulses is also of prior interest. Through a collaboration with Thomson CSF-LCR, the demonstration of the use of an optically addressed light valve at the Fourier plane of a zero-dispersion line for spectral phase modulation has been made. This device allows a high-resolution control of the spectral phase of a short pulse. It is a well-adapted tool for the correction of the residual spectral phase, at the output of Chirped Pulse Amplification systems and the temporal synthesis of shaped pulses for specific experiments. (author) [fr

Self-channeling of high-power laser pulses through strong atmospheric turbulence

Science.gov (United States)

Peñano, J.; Palastro, J. P.; Hafizi, B.; Helle, M. H.; DiComo, G. P.

2017-07-01

We present an unusual example of truly long-range propagation of high-power laser pulses through strong atmospheric turbulence. A form of nonlinear self-channeling is achieved when the laser power is close to the self-focusing power of air and the transverse dimensions of the pulse are smaller than the coherence diameter of turbulence. In this mode, nonlinear self-focusing counteracts diffraction, and turbulence-induced spreading is greatly reduced. Furthermore, the laser intensity is below the ionization threshold so that multiphoton absorption and plasma defocusing are avoided. Simulations show that the pulse can propagate many Rayleigh lengths (several kilometers) while maintaining a high intensity. In the presence of aerosols, or other extinction mechanisms that deplete laser energy, the pulse can be chirped to maintain the channeling.

Sensitive detection of acrolein and acrylonitrile with a pulsed quantum-cascade laser

Science.gov (United States)

Manne, J.; Lim, A.; Tulip, J.; Jäger, W.

2012-05-01

We report on spectroscopic measurements of acrolein and acrylonitrile at atmospheric pressure using a pulsed distributed feedback quantum-cascade laser in combination with intra- and inter-pulse techniques and compare the results. The measurements were done in the frequency region around 957 cm-1. In the inter-pulse technique, the laser is excited with short current pulses (5-10 ns), and the pulse amplitude is modulated with an external current ramp resulting in a ˜2.3 cm-1 frequency scan. In the intra-pulse technique, a linear frequency down-chirp during the pulse is used for sweeping across the absorption line. Long current pulses up to 500 ns were used for these measurements which resulted in a spectral window of ˜2.2 cm-1 during the down-chirp. These comparatively wide spectral windows facilitated the measurements of the relatively broad absorption lines (˜1 cm-1) of acrolein and acrylonitrile. The use of a room-temperature mercury-cadmium-telluride detector resulted in a completely cryogen-free spectrometer. We demonstrate ppb level detection limits within a data acquisition time of ˜10 s with these methodologies.

Photoionization of atoms and molecules by intense EUV-FEL pulses and FEL seeded by high-order harmonic of ultrashort laser pulses

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Iwasaki, Atsushi; Owada, Shigeki; Yamanouchi, Kaoru; Sato, Takahiro; Nagasono, Mitsuru; Yabashi, Makina; Ishikawa, Tetsuya; Togashi, Tadashi; Takahashi, Eiji J.; Midorikawa, Katsumi; Aoyama, Makoto; Yamakawa, Koichi; Kannari, Fumihiko; Yagishita, Akira

2012-01-01

The advantages of SPring-8 Compact SASE Source as a light source for spectroscopic measurements in the extreme ultraviolet (EUV) wavelength region are introduced by referring to our recent study of non-linear photoionization processes of He, in which the absolute two-photon ionization cross sections of He at four different wavelengths in the 54 - 62 nm region were determined using intense pulses of the free-election laser (FEL). In addition, our recent effort to generate intense full-coherent EUV light pulses are introduced, in which significant amplification of the 13th harmonic of ultrashort laser pulses at 800 nm was achieved by FEL seeded with the 13th harmonic. (author)

Few-cycle Optical Parametric Chirped Pulse Amplification

Science.gov (United States)

2007-01-08

silicon - 150mm suprasi1300 Figure 10. Stretcher-compressor unit: group delay 5 -45mm TeO2 (ordinary) (GD) of 30mm silicon, 150mm suprasil300, 45mm CL 0...cycle pulse characterization: 840 -Measured raw 2DSI 20 °OA- traces for pulse (a) before 02. -and (b) after dispersion D 0 by glass plate; (c) so...fused silica plateJ19] see Fig. 15(a), along with the extracted spectral group delays. The chirp introduced by the glass plate is reflected in the

Short-wavelength soft-x-ray laser pumped in double-pulse single-beam non-normal incidence

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zimmer, D.; Ros, D.; Guilbaud, O.; Habib, J.; Kazamias, S.; Zielbauer, B.; Bagnoud, V.; Ecker, B.; Aurand, B.; Kuehl, T.; Hochhaus, D. C.; Neumayer, P.

2010-01-01

We demonstrated a 7.36 nm Ni-like samarium soft-x-ray laser, pumped by 36 J of a neodymium:glass chirped-pulse amplification laser. Double-pulse single-beam non-normal-incidence pumping was applied for efficient soft-x-ray laser generation. In this case, the applied technique included a single-optic focusing geometry for large beam diameters, a single-pass grating compressor, traveling-wave tuning capability, and an optimized high-energy laser double pulse. This scheme has the potential for even shorter-wavelength soft-x-ray laser pumping.

MATLAB simulation of a Distributed Feedback (DFB) laser with chirp effects

Science.gov (United States)

Espe, Burt L.

1994-12-01

A model of a distributed feedback (DFB) laser was implemented in MATLAB and SIMULINK. Using the laser rate equation, the model was simulated to obtain general characteristics of the chirp of the lasers frequency. The simulations were controlled by using different drive current waveforms, based on various bit patterns, data rates, and drive current values (threshold current and the extinction ratio). Once created, the laser drive current was passed to the SIMULINK DFB laser model. The output of a simulation provided frequency chirp, laser power emitted, photon density, and carrier density data. Two sets of simulations were conducted. The first set of simulations focused on the data rates and bit patterns. From these simulations it was determined that the transition from a ZERO bit to a ONE bit caused the greatest frequency excursions. Also, as the data rate increases the maximum frequency excursion increases. Finally, the first set of simulations revealed that the predictability of the chirp decreases as the data rate increases and as the complexity of the bit pattern increases. The second set of simulations examined the effect of the extinction ratio on frequency chirp. By plotting the maximum frequency excursion against its respective extinction ratio, it was determined that in some cases the maximum frequency excursions in a system could be minimized.

Ultrashort pulse chirp measurement via transverse second-harmonic generation in strontium barium niobate crystal

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Trull, J.; Wang, B.; Parra, A.; Vilaseca, R.; Cojocaru, C. [Departament de Física i Enginyeria Nuclear, Universitat Politècnica Catalunya, Terrassa 08222 (Spain); Sola, I. [Grupo de Investigación en Óptica Extrema (GIOE), Departamento de Física Aplicada, Universidad de Salamanca, Plaza de la Merced s/n, 37008 Salamanca (Spain); Krolikowski, W. [Laser Physics Centre, Research School of Physics and Engineering, Australian National University, Canberra ACT 0200 (Australia); Science Program, Texas A and M University at Qatar, Doha (Qatar); Sheng, Y. [Laser Physics Centre, Research School of Physics and Engineering, Australian National University, Canberra ACT 0200 (Australia)

2015-06-01

Pulse compression in dispersive strontium barium niobate crystal with a random size and distribution of the anti-parallel orientated nonlinear domains is observed via transverse second harmonic generation. The dependence of the transverse width of the second harmonic trace along the propagation direction allows for the determination of the initial chirp and duration of pulses in the femtosecond regime. This technique permits a real-time analysis of the pulse evolution and facilitates fast in-situ correction of pulse chirp acquired in the propagation through an optical system.

Ultrashort pulse chirp measurement via transverse second-harmonic generation in strontium barium niobate crystal

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Trull, J.; Wang, B.; Parra, A.; Vilaseca, R.; Cojocaru, C.; Sola, I.; Krolikowski, W.; Sheng, Y.

2015-01-01

Pulse compression in dispersive strontium barium niobate crystal with a random size and distribution of the anti-parallel orientated nonlinear domains is observed via transverse second harmonic generation. The dependence of the transverse width of the second harmonic trace along the propagation direction allows for the determination of the initial chirp and duration of pulses in the femtosecond regime. This technique permits a real-time analysis of the pulse evolution and facilitates fast in-situ correction of pulse chirp acquired in the propagation through an optical system

High-order harmonic and attosecond pulse generation for a few-cycle laser pulse in modulated hollow fibres

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zhang Xiangyun; Sun Zhenrong; Wang Yufeng; Chen Guoliang; Wang Zugeng; Li Ruxin; Zeng Zhinan; Xu Zhizhan

2007-01-01

High harmonic generation from Ar and He atoms by a few-cycle laser pulse in periodic and chirped hollow fibres is investigated theoretically by a self-consistent model. Based on enhanced high harmonics in a periodic hollow fibre, a chirped hollow fibre is proposed to improve quasi-phase matching for the generated harmonics near the cutoff. The results show that the extended and enhanced harmonics near the cutoff are well phase-matched, and a single x-ray pulse with a duration of 279 as in Ar gas and 255 as in He gas can be achieved by frequency synthesizing of high harmonics in the well-selected cutoff bandwidth. The results show that this technique is a potential candidate to generate an intense isolated attosecond pulse in the 'water window' spectrum

Dispersion management for a sub-10-fs, 10 TW optical parametric chirped-pulse amplifier.

Science.gov (United States)

Tavella, Franz; Nomura, Yutaka; Veisz, Laszlo; Pervak, Vladimir; Marcinkevicius, Andrius; Krausz, Ferenc

2007-08-01

We report the amplification of three-cycle, 8.5 fs optical pulses in a near-infrared noncollinear optical parametric chirped-pulse amplifier (OPCPA) up to energies of 80 mJ. Improved dispersion management in the amplifier by means of a combination of reflection grisms and a chirped-mirror stretcher allowed us to recompress the amplified pulses to within 6% of their Fourier limit. The novel ultrabroad, ultraprecise dispersion control technology presented in this work opens the way to scaling multiterawatt technology to even shorter pulses by optimizing the OPCPA bandwidth.

Chirped InAs/InP quantum-dash laser with enhanced broad spectrum of stimulated emission

KAUST Repository

Khan, Mohammed Zahed Mustafa

2013-03-01

We report on the demonstration of 50 nm (full-width at half-maximum) broadband stimulated emission from a chirped AlGaInAs barrier thickness multi-stack InAs/InP quantum dash (Qdash) laser. The 2 ?m wide uncoated Fabry-Perot (FP) ridge-waveguide laser exhibits a total power of 0.18 W, corresponding to an average spectral power density of 3.5 mW/nm, under pulsed current conditions. Intentional extended inhomogeneity across the Qdash stacks have been attributed to the enhancement of broadband emission. © 2013 American Institute of Physics.

Chirped InAs/InP quantum-dash laser with enhanced broad spectrum of stimulated emission

KAUST Repository

Khan, Mohammed Zahed Mustafa; Bhattacharya, Pallab K.; Lee, Chi-Sen; Ng, Tien Khee; Ooi, Boon S.

2013-01-01

We report on the demonstration of 50 nm (full-width at half-maximum) broadband stimulated emission from a chirped AlGaInAs barrier thickness multi-stack InAs/InP quantum dash (Qdash) laser. The 2 ?m wide uncoated Fabry-Perot (FP) ridge-waveguide laser exhibits a total power of 0.18 W, corresponding to an average spectral power density of 3.5 mW/nm, under pulsed current conditions. Intentional extended inhomogeneity across the Qdash stacks have been attributed to the enhancement of broadband emission. © 2013 American Institute of Physics.

Dependence of Parameters of Laser-Produced Au Plasmas on the Incident Laser Energy of Sub-Nanosecond and Picosecond Laser Pulses

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Woryna, E.; Badziak, J.; Makowski, J.; Parys, P.; Vankov, A.B.; Wolowski, J.; Krasa, J.; Laska, L.; Rohlena, K.

2001-01-01

The parameters of Au plasma as functions of laser energy for ps pulses are presented and compared with the ones for sub-ns pulses at nearly the same densities of laser energy. The experiments were performed at the IPPLM with the use of CPA (chirped pulse amplification) Nd:glass laser system. Thick Au foil targets were irradiated by normally incident focused laser beams with maximum intensities of 8x10 16 and 2x10 14 W/cm 2 for ps and sub-ns laser pulses, respectively. The characteristics of ion streams were investigated with the use of ion diagnostics methods based on the time-of flight technique. In these experiments the laser energies were changed in the range from 90 to 700 mJ and the measurements were performed at a given focus position FP = 0 and along the target normal for both the laser pulses. The charge carried by the ions, the maximum ion velocities of fast and thermal ion groups, the maximum ion current density as well as the area of photopeak in dependence on the incident laser energy for sub-ns and ps pulses were investigated and discussed. (author)

Pulse-amplitude modulation of optical injection-locked quantum-dot lasers

Science.gov (United States)

Zhou, Yue-Guang; Wang, Cheng

2018-02-01

This work theoretically investigates the four-level pulse-amplitude modulation characteristics of quantum dot lasers subject to optical injection. The rate equation model takes into account carrier dynamics in the carrier reservoir, in the excited state, and in the ground state, as well as photon dynamics and phase dynamics of the electric field. It is found that the optical injection significantly improves the eye diagram quality through suppressing the relaxation oscillation, while the extinction ratio is reduced as well. In addition, both the adiabatic chirp and the transient chirp of the signal are substantially suppressed.

Interaction of free charged particles with a chirped electromagnetic pulse

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Khachatryan, A.G.; van Goor, F.A.; Boller, Klaus J.

2004-01-01

We study the effect of chirp on electromagnetic (EM) pulse interaction with a charged particle. Both the one-dimensional (1D) and 3D cases are considered. It is found that, in contrast to the case of a nonchirped pulse, the charged particle energy can be changed after the interaction with a 1D EM

Erbium:ytterbium fiber-laser system delivering watt-level femtosecond pulses using divided pulse amplification

Science.gov (United States)

Herda, Robert; Zach, Armin

2015-03-01

We present an Erbium:Ytterbium codoped fiber-amplifer system based on Divided-Pulses-Amplification (DPA) for ultrashort pulses. The output from a saturable-absorber mode-locked polarization-maintaining (PM) fiber oscillator is amplified in a PM normal-dispersion Erbium-doped fiber. After this stage the pulses are positively chirped and have a duration of 2.0 ps at an average power of 93 mW. A stack of 5 birefringent Yttrium-Vanadate crystals divides these pulses 32 times. We amplify these pulses using a double-clad Erbium:Ytterbium codoped fiber pumped through a multimode fiber combiner. The pulses double pass the amplifier and recombine in the crystals using non-reciprocal polarization 90° rotation by a Faraday rotating mirror. Pulses with a duration of 144 fs are obtained after separation from the input beam using a polarizing beam splitter cube. These pulses have an average power of 1.85 W at a repetition rate of 80 MHz. The generation of femtosecond pulses directly from the amplifier was enabled by a positively chirped seed pulse, normally dispersive Yttrium-Vanadate crystals, and anomalously dispersive amplifier fibers. Efficient frequency doubling to 780 nm with an average power of 725 mW and a pulse duration of 156 fs is demonstrated. In summary we show a DPA setup that enables the generation of femtosecond pulses at watt-level at 1560 nm without the need for further external dechirping and demonstrate a good pulse quality by efficient frequency doubling. Due to the use of PM fiber components and a Faraday rotator the setup is environmentally stable.

Longitudinal space charge assisted echo seeding of a free-electron laser with laser-spoiler noise suppression

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kirsten Hacker

2014-09-01

Full Text Available Seed lasers are employed to improve the temporal coherence of free-electron laser (FEL light. However, when these seed pulses are short relative to the particle bunch, the noisy, temporally incoherent radiation from the unseeded electrons can overwhelm the coherent, seeded radiation. In this paper, a technique to seed a particle bunch with an external laser is presented in which a new mechanism to improve the contrast between coherent and incoherent free electron laser radiation is employed together with a novel, simplified echo-seeding method. The concept relies on a combination of longitudinal space charge wakes and an echo-seeding technique to make a short, coherent pulse of FEL light together with noise background suppression. Several different simulation codes are used to illustrate the concept with conditions at the soft x-ray free-electron laser in Hamburg, FLASH.

Amplification and focusing of a picosecond chirped pulse to 20TW and 5x1017W/cm2

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sauteret, C.; Husson, D.; Rouyer, C.; Seznec, S.; Gary, S.

1991-01-01

Pulses of 20 TW power have been generated at 1064 nm using the Chirped Pulse Amplification technique coupled to a 90 mm output aperture powerful Nd:silicate glass amplification line. This system delivers 60 J in a chirped pulse of 600 ps duration with a capacity of maintaining 3.5 nm output bandwidth. These chirped pulses have been compressed to 1.2 ps with an energy of 24J using large holographic diffraction gratings. After presenting the results we discuss the expected applications in atomic and plasma physics

Numerical investigations of non-collinear optical parametric chirped pulse amplification for Laguerre-Gaussian vortex beam

Science.gov (United States)

Xu, Lu; Yu, Lianghong; Liang, Xiaoyan

2016-04-01

We present for the first time a scheme to amplify a Laguerre-Gaussian vortex beam based on non-collinear optical parametric chirped pulse amplification (OPCPA). In addition, a three-dimensional numerical model of non-collinear optical parametric amplification was deduced in the frequency domain, in which the effects of non-collinear configuration, temporal and spatial walk-off, group-velocity dispersion and diffraction were also taken into account, to trace the dynamics of the Laguerre-Gaussian vortex beam and investigate its critical parameters in the non-collinear OPCPA process. Based on the numerical simulation results, the scheme shows promise for implementation in a relativistic twisted laser pulse system, which will diversify the light-matter interaction field.

Femtosecond X-ray Pulses from a Spatially Chirped Electron Bunch in a SASE FEL

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Emma, P.

2003-01-14

We propose a simple method to produce short x-ray pulses using a spatially chirped electron bunch in a SASE FEL. The spatial chirp is generated using an rf deflector which produces a transverse offset (in y and/or y') correlated with the longitudinal bunch position. Since the FEL gain is very sensitive to an initial offset in the transverse phase space at the entrance of the undulator, only a small portion of the electron bunch with relatively small transverse offset will interact significantly with the radiation, resulting in an x-ray pulse length much shorter than the electron bunch length. The x-ray pulse is also naturally phase locked to the rf deflector and so allows high precision timing synchronization. We discuss the generation and transport of such a spatially chirped electron beam and show that tens of femtosecond long pulse can be generated for the linac coherent light source (LCLS).

Attosecond time-energy structure of X-ray free-electron laser pulses

Science.gov (United States)

Hartmann, N.; Hartmann, G.; Heider, R.; Wagner, M. S.; Ilchen, M.; Buck, J.; Lindahl, A. O.; Benko, C.; Grünert, J.; Krzywinski, J.; Liu, J.; Lutman, A. A.; Marinelli, A.; Maxwell, T.; Miahnahri, A. A.; Moeller, S. P.; Planas, M.; Robinson, J.; Kazansky, A. K.; Kabachnik, N. M.; Viefhaus, J.; Feurer, T.; Kienberger, R.; Coffee, R. N.; Helml, W.

2018-04-01

The time-energy information of ultrashort X-ray free-electron laser pulses generated by the Linac Coherent Light Source is measured with attosecond resolution via angular streaking of neon 1s photoelectrons. The X-ray pulses promote electrons from the neon core level into an ionization continuum, where they are dressed with the electric field of a circularly polarized infrared laser. This induces characteristic modulations of the resulting photoelectron energy and angular distribution. From these modulations we recover the single-shot attosecond intensity structure and chirp of arbitrary X-ray pulses based on self-amplified spontaneous emission, which have eluded direct measurement so far. We characterize individual attosecond pulses, including their instantaneous frequency, and identify double pulses with well-defined delays and spectral properties, thus paving the way for X-ray pump/X-ray probe attosecond free-electron laser science.

Injection-seeded tunable mid-infrared pulses generated by difference frequency mixing

Science.gov (United States)

Miyamoto, Yuki; Hara, Hideaki; Masuda, Takahiko; Hiraki, Takahiro; Sasao, Noboru; Uetake, Satoshi

2017-03-01

We report on the generation of nanosecond mid-infrared pulses having frequency tunability, a narrow linewidth, and a high pulse energy. These pulses are obtained by frequency mixing between injection-seeded near-infrared pulses in potassium titanyl arsenate crystals. A continuous-wave external cavity laser diode or a Ti:sapphire ring laser is used as a tunable seeding source for the near-infrared pulses. The typical energy of the generated mid-infrared pulses is in the range of 0.4-1 mJ/pulse. The tuning wavelength ranges from 3142 to 4806 nm. A narrow linewidth of 1.4 GHz and good frequency reproducibility of the mid-infrared pulses are confirmed by observing a rovibrational absorption line of gaseous carbon monoxide at 4587 nm.

Difference-frequency generation in the field of a few-cycle laser pulse propagating in a GaAs crystal with a domain structure

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Oganesyan, David L; Vardanyan, Aleksandr O; Oganesyan, G D

2013-01-01

Difference-frequency generation in a GaAs crystal with a periodic domain structure in the field of a few-cycle laser pulse is considered for the case of weakly pronounced material dispersion. The straight-line method is used to solve numerically the system of coupled nonlinear partial differential equations describing the evolution of the electric field of this laser pulse in GaAs crystals with periodic and chirped domain structures. It is shown that application of a GaAs crystal with a chirped domain structure makes it possible to control the frequency-modulation law for a broadband differencefrequency pulse. (nonlinear optical phenomena)

On the use of a chirped Bragg grating as a cavity mirror of a picosecond Nd : YAG laser

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Zubko, A E; Shashkov, E V; Smirnov, A V; Vorob' ev, N S [A M Prokhorov General Physics Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow (Russian Federation); Smirnov, V I [OptiGrate Corp., 562 South Econ Circle, Oviedo, Florida 32765-4311 (United States)

2016-02-28

The first experimental evidence is presented that the use of a chirped volume Bragg grating (CVBG) as a cavity mirror of a Q-switched picosecond Nd : YAG laser with self-mode-locking leads to significant changes in the temporal parameters of the laser output. Measurements have been performed at two positions of the CVBG: with the grating placed so that shorter wavelengths reflected from its front part lead longer wavelengths or with the grating rotated through 180°, so that longer wavelengths are reflected first. In the former case, the duration of individual pulses in a train increased from ∼35 to ∼300 ps, whereas the pulse train shape and duration remained the same as in the case of a conventional laser with a mirror cavity. In the latter case, the full width at half maximum of pulse trains increased from ∼70 ns (Nd : YAG laser with a mirror cavity) to ∼1 ms, and the duration of individual pulses increased from 35 ps to ∼1.2 ns, respectively, which is more typical of free-running laser operation. (laser crystals and braggg ratings)

Making ultracold molecules in a two-color pump-dump photoassociation scheme using chirped pulses

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Koch, Christiane P.; Luc-Koenig, Eliane; Masnou-Seeuws, Francoise

2006-01-01

This theoretical paper investigates the formation of ground state molecules from ultracold cesium atoms in a two-color scheme. Following previous work on photoassociation with chirped picosecond pulses [Luc-Koenig et al., Phys. Rev. A, 70, 033414 (2004)], we investigate stabilization by a second (dump) pulse. By appropriately choosing the dump pulse parameters and time delay with respect to the photoassociation pulse, we show that a large number of deeply bound molecules are created in the ground triplet state. We discuss (i) broad-bandwidth dump pulses which maximize the probability to form molecules while creating a broad vibrational distribution as well as (ii) narrow-bandwidth pulses populating a single vibrational ground state level, bound by 113 cm -1 . The use of chirped pulses makes the two-color scheme robust, simple, and efficient

Theory and Modeling of Petawatt Laser Pulse Propagation in Low Density Plasmas

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Shadwick, Bradley A.; Kalmykov, S. Y.

2016-01-01

Report describing accomplishments in all-optical control of self-injection in laser-plasma accelerators and in developing advanced numerical models of laser-plasma interactions. All-optical approaches to controlling electron self-injection and beam formation in laser-plasma accelerators (LPAs) were explored. It was demonstrated that control over the laser pulse evolution is the key ingredient in the generation of low-background, low-phase-space-volume electron beams. To this end, preserving a smooth laser pulse envelope throughout the acceleration process can be achieved through tuning the phase and amplitude of the incident pulse. A negative frequency chirp compensates the frequency red-shift accumulated due to wake excitation, preventing evolution of the pulse into a relativistic optical shock. This reduces the ponderomotive force exerted on quiescent plasma electrons, suppressing expansion of the bubble and continuous injection of background electrons, thereby reducing the charge in the low-energy tail by an order of magnitude. Slowly raising the density in the pulse propagation direction locks electrons in the accelerating phase, boosting their energy, keeping continuous injection at a low level, tripling the brightness of the quasi-monoenergetic component. Additionally, propagating the negatively chirped pulse in a plasma channel suppresses diffraction of the pulse leading edge, further reducing continuous injection. As a side effect, oscillations of the pulse tail may be enhanced, leading to production of low-background, polychromatic electron beams. Such beams, consisting of quasi-monoenergetic components with controllable energy and energy separation, may be useful as drivers of polychromatic x-rays based on Thomson backscattering. These all-optical methods of electron beam quality control are critically important for the development of future compact, high-repetition-rate, GeV-scale LPA using 10 TW-class, ultra-high bandwidth pulses and mm-scale, dense

Theory and Modeling of Petawatt Laser Pulse Propagation in Low Density Plasmas

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Shadwick, Bradley A. [Univ. of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE (United States). Dept. of Physics and Astronomy; Kalmykov, S. Y. [Univ. of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE (United States). Dept. of Physics and Astronomy

2016-12-08

Report describing accomplishments in all-optical control of self-injection in laser-plasma accelerators and in developing advanced numerical models of laser-plasma interactions. All-optical approaches to controlling electron self-injection and beam formation in laser-plasma accelerators (LPAs) were explored. It was demonstrated that control over the laser pulse evolution is the key ingredient in the generation of low-background, low-phase-space-volume electron beams. To this end, preserving a smooth laser pulse envelope throughout the acceleration process can be achieved through tuning the phase and amplitude of the incident pulse. A negative frequency chirp compensates the frequency red-shift accumulated due to wake excitation, preventing evolution of the pulse into a relativistic optical shock. This reduces the ponderomotive force exerted on quiescent plasma electrons, suppressing expansion of the bubble and continuous injection of background electrons, thereby reducing the charge in the low-energy tail by an order of magnitude. Slowly raising the density in the pulse propagation direction locks electrons in the accelerating phase, boosting their energy, keeping continuous injection at a low level, tripling the brightness of the quasi-monoenergetic component. Additionally, propagating the negatively chirped pulse in a plasma channel suppresses diffraction of the pulse leading edge, further reducing continuous injection. As a side effect, oscillations of the pulse tail may be enhanced, leading to production of low-background, polychromatic electron beams. Such beams, consisting of quasi-monoenergetic components with controllable energy and energy separation, may be useful as drivers of polychromatic x-rays based on Thomson backscattering. These all-optical methods of electron beam quality control are critically important for the development of future compact, high-repetition-rate, GeV-scale LPA using 10 TW-class, ultra-high bandwidth pulses and mm-scale, dense

PROCEEDING OF THE SEEDED X-RAY FREE ELECTRON LASER WORKSHOP.

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

WANG,X.J.; MURPHY,J.B.; YU,L.H.; FAATZ,B.; HUANG,Z.; REICHE,S.; ZOLOTOREV,M.

2002-12-13

The underlying theory of a high gain free electron laser (FEL) has existed for two decades [1-2], but it is only in the last few years that these novel radiation sources have been realized experimentally. Several high gain FELs have successfully reached saturation in the infrared, visible and the VUV portion of the spectrum: the High Gain Harmonic Generation (HGHG) free electron lasers [3] at BNL and the Self Amplified Spontaneous Emission (SASE) FELs at LEUTL, VISA and TTF [4-6]. The outstanding challenges for future FELs are to extend high gain FELs to the X-ray regime, improve the longitudinal coherence of the radiation using seeded FEL schemes and generate ultrashort pulses (<100 fs). The National Synchrotron Light Source (NSLS) of the Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) sponsored a Seeded X-ray Free Electron Laser Workshop on December 13-14, 2002 to explore these challenging issues. Representatives from BNL, DESY, LBNL, SLAC and UCLA made presentations on the novel schemes under consideration at their laboratories. Workshop participants had a lively discussion on the feasibility, performance and R&D issues associated with the seeded XFEL schemes. An improvement of the electron beam quality will certainly be necessary to drive the XFEL. Self-seeding SASE, cascaded HGHG, and SASE pulse compression FELs show the most promise for producing short pulse X-rays. Of these, only the self-seeded and HGHG schemes generate longitudinally coherent radiation. While the pulse length in the self-seeded scheme is determined by the electron bunch length ({approx}100 fs), the pulse length in the HGHG scheme is determined by the short pulse seed laser, and so can be much shorter ({approx} 20 fs).

Propagation of femtosecond laser pulses through water in the linear absorption regime.

Science.gov (United States)

Naveira, Lucas M; Strycker, Benjamin D; Wang, Jieyu; Ariunbold, Gombojav O; Sokolov, Alexei V; Kattawar, George W

2009-04-01

We investigate the controversy regarding violations of the Bouguer-Lambert-Beer (BLB) law for ultrashort laser pulses propagating through water. By working at sufficiently low incident laser intensities, we make sure that any nonlinear component in the response of the medium is negligible. We measure the transmitted power and spectrum as functions of water cell length in an effort to confirm or disprove alleged deviations from the BLB law. We perform experiments at two different laser pulse repetition rates and explore the dependence of transmission on pulse duration. Specifically, we vary the laser pulse duration either by cutting its spectrum while keeping the pulse shape near transform-limited or by adjusting the pulses chirp while keeping the spectral intensities fixed. Over a wide range of parameters, we find no deviations from the BLB law and conclude that recent claims of BLB law violations are inconsistent with our experimental data. We present a simple linear theory (based on the BLB law) for propagation of ultrashort laser pulses through an absorbing medium and find our experimental results to be in excellent agreement with this theory.

Ultrashort-pulse laser machining system employing a parametric amplifier

Science.gov (United States)

Perry, Michael D.

2004-04-27

A method and apparatus are provided for increasing the energy of chirped laser pulses to an output in the range 0.001 to over 10 millijoules at a repetition rate 0.010 to 100 kHz by using a two stage optical parametric amplifier utilizing a bulk nonlinear crystal wherein the pump and signal beam size can be independently adjusted in each stage.

Effect of initial chirp on near-infrared supercontinuum generation by a nanosecond pulse in a nonlinear fiber amplifier

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Song Rui; Hou Jing; Wang Ze-Feng; Lu Qi-Sheng; Xiao Rui

2013-01-01

Theoretical and experimental research on the effect of initial chirp on near-infrared supercontinuum generation by a nanosecond pulse in a nonlinear fiber amplifier is carried out. The complex Ginzburg—Landau equation is used to simulate the propagation of the pulse in the fiber amplifier and the results show that pulses with negative initial chirp produce the widest supercontinuum and pulses with positive initial chirp produce the narrowest supercontinuum when the central wavelength of the pump lies in the normal dispersion region of the gain fiber. A self-made line width narrowing system is utilized to control the initial chirp of the nanosecond pump pulse and a four-stage master oscillator power amplifier configuration is adopted to produce a high power near-infrared suppercontinuum. The experimental results are in good agreement with simulations which can provide some guidance on further optimization of the system in future work. (electromagnetism, optics, acoustics, heat transfer, classical mechanics, and fluid dynamics)

Duobinary pulse shaping for frequency chirp enabled complex modulation.

Science.gov (United States)

Che, Di; Yuan, Feng; Khodakarami, Hamid; Shieh, William

2016-09-01

The frequency chirp of optical direct modulation (DM) used to be a performance barrier of optical transmission system, because it broadens the signal optical spectrum, which becomes more susceptible to chromatic dispersion induced inter-symbol interference (ISI). However, by considering the chirp as frequency modulation, the single DM simultaneously generates a 2-D signal containing the intensity and phase (namely, the time integral of frequency). This complex modulation concept significantly increases the optical signal to noise ratio (OSNR) sensitivity of DM systems. This Letter studies the duobinary pulse shaping (DB-PS) for chirp enabled DM and its impact on the optical bandwidth and system OSNR sensitivity. DB-PS relieves the bandwidth requirement, at the sacrifice of system OSNR sensitivity. As DB-PS induces a controlled ISI, the receiver requires one more tap for maximum likelihood sequence estimation (MLSE). We verify this modified MLSE with a 10-Gbaud duobinary PAM-4 transmission experiment.

Laser and Plasma Parameters for Laser Pulse Amplification by Stimulated Brillouin Backscattering in the Strong Coupling Regime

Science.gov (United States)

Gangolf, Thomas; Blecher, Marius; Bolanos, Simon; Lancia, Livia; Marques, Jean-Raphael; Cerchez, Mirela; Prasad, Rajendra; Aurand, Bastian; Loiseau, Pascal; Fuchs, Julien; Willi, Oswald

2017-10-01

In the ongoing quest for novel techniques to obtain ever higher laser powers, plasma amplification has drawn much attention, benefiting from the fact that a plasma can sustain much higher energy densities than a solid state amplifier. As a plasma process, Stimulated Brillouin Backscattering in the strong coupling regime (sc-SBS) can be used to transfer energy from one laser pulse (pump) to another (seed), by a nonlinear ion oscillation forced by the pump laser. Here, we report on experimental results on amplification by sc-SBS using the ARCTURUS Ti:Sapphire multi-beam laser system at the University of Duesseldorf, Germany. Counter-propagating in a supersonic Hydrogen gas jet target, an ultrashort seed pulse with a pulse duration between 30 and 160 fs and an energy between 1 and 12 mJ was amplified by a high-energy pump pulse (1.7 ps, 700 mJ). For some of the measurements, the gas was pre-ionized with a separate laser pulse (780 fs, 460 mJ). Preliminary analysis shows that the amplification was larger for the longer seed pulses, consistent with theoretical predictions.

A High-Energy, 100 Hz, Picosecond Laser for OPCPA Pumping

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hongpeng Su

2017-09-01

Full Text Available A high-energy diode-pumped picosecond laser system centered at 1064 nm for optical parametric chirped pulse amplifier (OPCPA pumping was demonstrated. The laser system was based on a master oscillator power amplifier configuration, which contained an Nd:YVO4 mode-locked seed laser, an LD-pumped Nd:YAG regenerative amplifier, and two double-pass amplifiers. A reflecting volume Bragg grating with a 0.1 nm reflective bandwidth was used in the regenerative amplifier for spectrum narrowing and pulse broadening to suit the pulse duration of the optical parametric amplifier (OPA process. Laser pulses with an energy of 316.5 mJ and a pulse duration of 50 ps were obtained at a 100 Hz repetition rate. A top-hat beam distribution and a 0.53% energy stability (RMS were achieved in this system.

Cluster explosion investigated by linearly chirped spectral scattering of an expanding plasma sphere

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Liu Jiansheng; Wang Cheng; Liu Bingchen; Shuai Bin; Wang Wentao; Cai Yi; Li Hongyu; Ni Guoquan; Li Ruxin; Xu Zhizhan

2006-01-01

Femtosecond explosive processes of argon clusters irradiated by linearly chirped ultraintense laser pulses have been investigated by 90 deg. side spectral scattering. The spectral redshift and blueshift, which correlate with the cluster explosion processes have been measured for negatively and positively chirped driving laser pulses, respectively. The evolution of the heated-cluster polarizability indicates that the core of the cluster is shielded from the laser field in the beginning of the explosion and enhanced scattering occurs after the fast explosion initiates. Evidence of resonant heating is found from the coincidence of enhanced scattering with enhanced absorption measured using the transmitted spectra. Anomalously large-size clusters with very low gas density have been observed in this way and can be used as clean and important cluster targets

Spectral broadening of 25 fs laser pulses via self-phase modulation in a neon filled hollow core fibre

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Weichert, Stefan

2017-05-15

The goal of this work was the realisation of a setup for spectral broadening and subsequent compression of 25 fs laser pulses provided by a commercial Ti:Sapphire based CPA laser system by means of the hollow core fibre chirped mirror compressor technique. For the spectral broadening a vessel containing the hollow waveguide filled with a noble gas serving as the nonlinear medium was set up and an alignment procedure was developed. Neon was chosen as the nonlinear medium for the self-phase modulation of the pulses. With this setup spectral broadening, sufficient for supporting sub 5 fs pulses, was observed. The spectra at different input energies and neon gas pressures were measured and the stability of these and their respective Fourier transform-limited pulses determined in order to find an operating point. For the compression of the self-phase modulated pulses a chirped mirror compressor was designed and set up, but not tested yet. The layout of a single-shot intensity autocorrelator capable of estimating the pulse duration of sub 10 fs pulses was given.

Spectral broadening of 25 fs laser pulses via self-phase modulation in a neon filled hollow core fibre

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Weichert, Stefan

2017-05-01

The goal of this work was the realisation of a setup for spectral broadening and subsequent compression of 25 fs laser pulses provided by a commercial Ti:Sapphire based CPA laser system by means of the hollow core fibre chirped mirror compressor technique. For the spectral broadening a vessel containing the hollow waveguide filled with a noble gas serving as the nonlinear medium was set up and an alignment procedure was developed. Neon was chosen as the nonlinear medium for the self-phase modulation of the pulses. With this setup spectral broadening, sufficient for supporting sub 5 fs pulses, was observed. The spectra at different input energies and neon gas pressures were measured and the stability of these and their respective Fourier transform-limited pulses determined in order to find an operating point. For the compression of the self-phase modulated pulses a chirped mirror compressor was designed and set up, but not tested yet. The layout of a single-shot intensity autocorrelator capable of estimating the pulse duration of sub 10 fs pulses was given.

Stretchers and compressors for ultra-high power laser systems

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Yakovlev, I V [Institute of Applied Physics, Russian Academy of Sciences, Nizhnii Novgorod (Russian Federation)

2014-05-30

This review is concerned with pulse stretchers and compressors as key components of ultra-high power laser facilities that take advantage of chirped-pulse amplification. The potentialities, characteristics, configurations and methods for the matching and alignment of these devices are examined, with particular attention to the history of the optics of ultra-short, ultra-intense pulses before and after 1985, when the chirped-pulse amplification method was proposed, which drastically changed the view of the feasibility of creating ultra-high power laser sources. The review is intended primarily for young scientists and experts who begin to address the amplification and compression of chirped pulses, experts in laser optics and all who are interested in scientific achievements in the field of ultra-high power laser systems. (review)

Clinical Comparison of Pulse and Chirp Excitation

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Pedersen, Morten Høgholm; Misaridis, T.; Jensen, Jørgen Arendt

2002-01-01

Coded excitation (CE) using frequency modulated signals (chirps) combined with modified matched filtering has earlier been presented showing promising results in simulations and in-vitro. In this study an experimental ultrasound system is evaluated in a clinical setting, where image sequences...... and short pulse excitation to simultaneously produce identical image sequences using both techniques. Nine healthy male volunteers were scanned in abdominal locations. All sequences were evaluated by 3 skilled medical doctors, blinded to each other and to the technique used. They assessed the depth (1...

Accurate offline dispersion measurement of Petawatt-class chirped pulse amplification compressor and stretcher systems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Haefner, C.; Crane, J.; Halpin, J.; Heebner, J.; Kanz, V.; Phan, H.; Nissen, J.; Shverdin, M.; Hackel, R.; Dawson, J.; Messerly, M.; Siders, C.W.

2010-01-01

Complete text of publication follows. The Advanced Radiographic Capability (ARC) on the National Ignition Facility (NIF) is designed to produce energetic x-rays in the range of 10-100 keV for backlighting NIF targets. ARC will convert 4 of the 192 NIF beamlines into 8 split beams, delivering laser pulses with adjustable pulse durations from 1 ps to 50 ps at the kilo-Joule level. Adjustable time delays between the 8 beams enable X-ray 'motion-picture' capture with tens-of-picosecond resolution during the critical phases of an ICF shot. The precise alignment of stretcher-compressor pairs in energetic chirped pulse amplification (CPA) systems is tedious and requires several iterations using advanced temporal diagnostics until the shortest pulse durations and highest peak intensities are achieved. For large, energetic Petawatt laser systems with beam sizes up to 40 cm, diffraction gratings in the compressor reach meter-scale size and are difficult to precisely align. We developed a group delay diagnostic which enables accurate, offline measurements of highly dispersive components such as stretchers or compressors with sub-picosecond accuracy. This diagnostic tool enables us to simply measure each dispersive component offline, and balance the dispersion in each beamline. Furthermore it allows exactly matching the dispersion of ARC's eight, independent four-grating compressors, which is critical for producing eight identical pulses. ARC utilizes a unique, folded compressor design for maximum compactness; two 5.5 m long vacuum vessels house 8 compressors with 91 cm x 45 cm multilayer, dielectric gratings. The group delay diagnostic utilizes the phase-shift technique for measuring the dispersion characteristics of each individual element, e.g. grating stretcher, chirped fiber Bragg grating, grating compressor, material dispersion, or an entire laser system. The system uses an amplitude modulated, highly-stable, single-frequency laser, which is scanned over the spectral

High efficiency, monolithic fiber chirped pulse amplification system for high energy femtosecond pulse generation.

Science.gov (United States)

Peng, Xiang; Kim, Kyungbum; Mielke, Michael; Jennings, Stephen; Masor, Gordon; Stohl, Dave; Chavez-Pirson, Arturo; Nguyen, Dan T; Rhonehouse, Dan; Zong, Jie; Churin, Dmitriy; Peyghambarian, N

2013-10-21

A novel monolithic fiber-optic chirped pulse amplification (CPA) system for high energy, femtosecond pulse generation is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. By employing a high gain amplifier comprising merely 20 cm of high efficiency media (HEM) gain fiber, an optimal balance of output pulse energy, optical efficiency, and B-integral is achieved. The HEM amplifier is fabricated from erbium-doped phosphate glass fiber and yields gain of 1.443 dB/cm with slope efficiency >45%. We experimentally demonstrate near diffraction-limited beam quality and near transform-limited femtosecond pulse quality at 1.55 µm wavelength. With pulse energy >100 µJ and pulse duration of 636 fs (FWHM), the peak power is estimated to be ~160 MW. NAVAIR Public Release Distribution Statement A-"Approved for Public release; distribution is unlimited".

Effect of optical waveguiding mechanism on the lasing action of chirped InAs/AlGaInAs/InP quantum dash lasers

KAUST Repository

Khan, Mohammed Zahed Mustafa

2013-03-04

We report on the atypical emission dynamics of InAs/AlGaInAs/InP quantum dash (Qdash) lasers employing varying AlGaInAs barrier thickness (multilayer-chirped structure). The analysis is carried out via fabry-perot (FP) ridge (RW) and stripe waveguide (SW) laser characterization corresponding to the index and gain guided waveguiding mechanisms, respectively, and at different current pulse width operations. The laser emissions are found to emerge from the size dispersion of the Qdash ensembles across the four Qdash-barrier stacks, and governed by their overlapping quasi-zero dimensional density of states (DOS). The spectral characteristics demonstrated prominent dependence on the waveguiding mechanism at quasi-continuous wave (QCW) operation (long pulse width). The RW geometry showed unusual spectral split in the emission spectra on increasing current injection while the SW geometry showed typical broadening of lasing spectra. These effects were attributed to the highly inhomogeneous active region, the nonequilibrium carrier distribution and the energy exchange between Qdash groups across the Qdash-barrier stacks. Furthermore, QCW operation showed a progressive red shift of emission spectra with injection current, resulted from active region heating and carrier depopulation, which was observed to be minimal in the short pulse width (SPW) operation. Our investigation sheds light on the device physics of chirped Qdash laser structure and provides guidelines for further optimization in obtaining broad-gain laser diodes. © (2013) COPYRIGHT Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE). Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.

500 MW peak power degenerated optical parametric amplifier delivering 52 fs pulses at 97 kHz repetition rate.

Science.gov (United States)

Rothhardt, J; Hädrich, S; Röser, F; Limpert, J; Tünnermann, A

2008-06-09

We present a high peak power degenerated parametric amplifier operating at 1030 nm and 97 kHz repetition rate. Pulses of a state-of-the art fiber chirped-pulse amplification (FCPA) system with 840 fs pulse duration and 410 microJ pulse energy are used as pump and seed source for a two stage optical parametric amplifier. Additional spectral broadening of the seed signal in a photonic crystal fiber creates enough bandwidth for ultrashort pulse generation. Subsequent amplification of the broadband seed signal in two 1 mm BBO crystals results in 41 microJ output pulse energy. Compression in a SF 11 prism compressor yields 37 microJ pulses as short as 52 fs. Thus, pulse shortening of more than one order of magnitude is achieved. Further scaling in terms of average power and pulse energy seems possible and will be discussed, since both concepts involved, the fiber laser and the parametric amplifier have the reputation to be immune against thermo-optical effects.

Temporal characterization of ultrashort linearly chirped electron bunches generated from a laser wakefield accelerator

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

C. J. Zhang

2016-06-01

Full Text Available A new method for diagnosing the temporal characteristics of ultrashort electron bunches with linear energy chirp generated from a laser wakefield accelerator is described. When the ionization-injected bunch interacts with the back of the drive laser, it is deflected and stretched along the direction of the electric field of the laser. Upon exiting the plasma, if the bunch goes through a narrow slit in front of the dipole magnet that disperses the electrons in the plane of the laser polarization, it can form a series of bunchlets that have different energies but are separated by half a laser wavelength. Since only the electrons that are undeflected by the laser go through the slit, the energy spectrum of the bunch is modulated. By analyzing the modulated energy spectrum, the shots where the bunch has a linear energy chirp can be recognized. Consequently, the energy chirp and beam current profile of those bunches can be reconstructed. This method is demonstrated through particle-in-cell simulations and experiment.

Combining multi-pulse excitation and chirp coding in contrast-enhanced ultrasound imaging

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Crocco, M; Sciallero, C; Trucco, A; Pellegretti, P

2009-01-01

The development of techniques to separate the response of the contrast agent from that of the biological tissues is of great importance in ultrasound medical imaging. In the literature, one can find various solutions involving the use of multiple transmitted signals and the weighted sum of related echoes. In this paper, the combination of one of these multi-pulse techniques with a coded excitation is proposed and assessed. Coded excitation has been used mainly to increase the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and the penetration depth, provided that a matched filtering is applied in the reception chain. However, it has been shown that a signal with a long duration time also increases the backscattered echoes produced by the microbubbles and, consequently, the contrast-to-tissue ratio. Therefore, the implementation of a multi-pulse technique using a long coded pulse can yield a better contrast-to-tissue ratio and SNR. This paper investigates the combination of the linear chirp pulse with a multi-pulse technique based on the transmission of three pulses. The performance was evaluated using both simulated and real signals, assessing the improvement in the contrast-to-tissue ratio and SNR, the visual quality of the images obtained and the axial accuracy. A comparison with the same multi-pulse technique implemented using a traditional amplitude-modulated pulse revealed that the deployment of a chirp pulse produces several noticeable advantages and only a minor drawback

Ultra-intense, short pulse laser-plasma interactions with applications to the fast ignitor

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wilks, S.C.; Kruer, W.L.; Young, P.E.; Hammer, J.; Tabak, M.

1995-04-01

Due to the advent of chirped pulse amplification (CPA) as an efficient means of creating ultra-high intensity laser light (I > 5x10 17 W/cm 2 ) in pulses less than a few picoseconds, new ideas for achieving ignition and gain in DT targets with less than 1 megajoule of input energy are currently being pursued. Two types of powerful lasers are employed in this scheme: (1) channeling beams and (2) ignition beams. The current state of laser-plasma interactions relating to this fusion scheme will be discussed. In particular, plasma physics issues in the ultra-intense regime are crucial to the success of this scheme. We compare simulation and experimental results in this highly nonlinear regime

Ultrafast geometric control of a single qubit using chirped pulses

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hawkins, Patrick E; Malinovskaya, Svetlana A; Malinovsky, Vladimir S

2012-01-01

We propose a control strategy to perform arbitrary unitary operations on a single qubit based solely on the geometrical phase that the qubit state acquires after cyclic evolution in the parameter space. The scheme uses ultrafast linearly chirped pulses and provides the possibility of reducing the duration of a single-qubit operation to a few picoseconds.

The Application of Cryogenic Laser Physics to the Development of High Average Power Ultra-Short Pulse Lasers

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

David C. Brown

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Ultrafast laser physics continues to advance at a rapid pace, driven primarily by the development of more powerful and sophisticated diode-pumping sources, the development of new laser materials, and new laser and amplification approaches such as optical parametric chirped-pulse amplification. The rapid development of high average power cryogenic laser sources seems likely to play a crucial role in realizing the long-sought goal of powerful ultrafast sources that offer concomitant high peak and average powers. In this paper, we review the optical, thermal, thermo-optic and laser parameters important to cryogenic laser technology, recently achieved laser and laser materials progress, the progression of cryogenic laser technology, discuss the importance of cryogenic laser technology in ultrafast laser science, and what advances are likely to be achieved in the near-future.

Attosecond pulse trains from long laser-gas interaction targets

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hauri, C.P.; Lopez-Martens, R.; Varju, K.; Ruchon, T.; Gustafsson, E.; L'Huillier, A.

2006-01-01

Complete test of publication follows. Many experiments in attosecond physics require high XUV photon flux as well as a clean attosecond pulse train (APT) temporal structure. Temporal characterization of high-order harmonic generation (HHG) in long interaction targets is thus of high interest. HHG being a very inefficient process, a large effort has been made to increase the amount of XUV photons emitted per infrared laser pulse. Besides quasi phase-matching in a modulated capillary, loose driving laser focusing conditions and subsequent self-channeling have shown to significantly increase the conversion efficiency. We characterized the temporal structure of APTs generated during the self-channeling of an intense IR driving laser pulse. Our first results indicate, however, that the temporal structure of the APT generated during the HHG process might be affected by quantum path interference and spectral phase distortion due to the self-channeling process itself. In particular, our measurements show that the relative spectral phase between consecutive harmonics can strongly vary depending on the target length and the position of the laser focus with respect to the target. In general for short gas targets, no clean APT structure can be expected since the individual attosecond pulses carry significant chirp. For longer targets, however, we observe a flattening of the harmonic spectral phase, resulting in near-transform-limited attosecond pulse trains. A complete analysis of the process is complex and involves detailed knowledge of the spatial and temporal evolution of the self-channeling driver laser pulse throughout the gas target.

Nearly fully compressed 1053 nm pulses directly obtained from 800 nm laser-seeded photonic crystal fiber below zero dispersion point

Science.gov (United States)

Refaeli, Zaharit; Shamir, Yariv; Ofir, Atara; Marcus, Gilad

2018-02-01

We report a simple robust and broadly spectral-adjustable source generating near fully compressed 1053 nm 62 fs pulses directly out of a highly-nonlinear photonic crystal fiber. A dispersion-nonlinearity balance of 800 nm Ti:Sa 20 fs pulses was obtained initially by negative pre-chirping and then launching the pulses into the fibers' normal dispersion regime. Following a self-phase modulation spectral broadening, some energy that leaked below the zero dispersion point formed a soliton whose central wavelength could be tuned by Self-Frequency-Raman-Shift effect. Contrary to a common approach of power, or, fiber-length control over the shift, here we continuously varied the state of polarization, exploiting the Raman and Kerr nonlinearities responsivity for state of polarization. We obtained soliton pulses with central wavelength tuned over 150 nm, spanning from well below 1000 to over 1150 nm, of which we could select stable pulses around the 1 μm vicinity. With linewidth of > 20 nm FWHM Gaussian-like temporal-shape pulses with 62 fs duration and near flat phase structure we confirmed high quality pulse source. We believe such scheme can be used for high energy or high power glass lasers systems, such as Nd or Yb ion-doped amplifiers and systems.

Chirped laser dispersion spectroscopy using a directly modulated quantum cascade laser

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hangauer, Andreas; Nikodem, Michal; Wysocki, Gerard; Spinner, Georg

2013-01-01

Chirped laser dispersion spectroscopy (CLaDS) utilizing direct modulation of a quantum cascade laser (QCL) is presented. By controlling the laser bias nearly single- and dual-sideband CLaDS operation can be realized in an extremely simplified optical setup with no external optical modulators. Capability of direct single-sideband modulation is a unique feature of QCLs that exhibit a low linewidth enhancement factor. The developed analytical model shows excellent agreement with the experimental, directly modulated CLaDS spectra. This method overcomes major technical limitations of mid-infrared CLaDS systems by allowing significantly higher modulation frequencies and eliminating optical fringes introduced by external modulators

Spatial chirp in Ti:sapphire multipass amplifier

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Li Wenkai; Lu Jun; Li Yanyan; Guo Xiaoyang; Wu Fenxiang; Yu Linpeng; Wang Pengfei; Xu Yi; Leng Yuxin

2017-01-01

The spatial chirp generated in the Ti:sapphire multipass amplifier is numerically investigated based on the one-dimensional (1D) and two-dimensional (2D) Frantz–Nodvik equations. The simulation indicates that the spatial chirp is induced by the spatially inhomogeneous gain, and it can be almost eliminated by utilization of proper beam profiles and spot sizes of the signal and pump pulses, for example, the pump pulse has a top-hatted beam profile and the signal pulse has a super-Gaussian beam profile with a relatively larger spot size. In this way, a clear understanding of spatial chirp mechanisms in the Ti:sapphire multipass amplifier is proposed, therefore we can effectively almost eliminate the spatial chirp and improve the beam quality of a high-power Ti:sapphire chirped pulse amplifier system. (paper)

Ultra-intense, short pulse laser-plasma interactions with applications to the fast ignitor

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Wilks, S.C.; Kruer, W.L.; Young, P.E.; Hammer, J.; Tabak, M.

1995-04-01

Due to the advent of chirped pulse amplification (CPA) as an efficient means of creating ultra-high intensity laser light (I > 5{times}10{sup 17} W/cm{sup 2}) in pulses less than a few picoseconds, new ideas for achieving ignition and gain in DT targets with less than 1 megajoule of input energy are currently being pursued. Two types of powerful lasers are employed in this scheme: (1) channeling beams and (2) ignition beams. The current state of laser-plasma interactions relating to this fusion scheme will be discussed. In particular, plasma physics issues in the ultra-intense regime are crucial to the success of this scheme. We compare simulation and experimental results in this highly nonlinear regime.

Detection of acrolein and acrylonitrile with a pulsed room temperature quantum cascade laser

Science.gov (United States)

Manne, J.; Jäger, W.; Tulip, J.

2010-06-01

We investigated the use of a pulsed, distributed feedback quantum cascade laser centered at 957 cm-1 in combination with an astigmatic Herriot cell with 250 m path length for the detection of acrolein and acrylonitrile. These molecules have been identified as hazardous air-pollutants because of their adverse health effects. The spectrometer utilizes the intra-pulse method, where a linear frequency down-chirp, that is induced when a top-hat current pulse is applied to the laser, is used for sweeping across the absorption line. Up to 450 ns long pulses were used for these measurements which resulted in a spectral window of ~2.2 cm-1. A room temperature mercury-cadmium-telluride detector was used, resulting in a completely cryogen free spectrometer. We demonstrated detection limits of ~3 ppb for acrylonitrile and ~6 ppb for acrolein with ~10 s averaging time. Laser characterization and optimization of the operational parameters for sensitivity improvement are discussed.

Distinct Lasing Operation From Chirped InAs/InP Quantum-Dash Laser

KAUST Repository

Khan, Mohammed Zahed Mustafa; Ng, Tien Khee; Lee, Chi-Sen; Anjum, Dalaver H.; Cha, Dong Kyu; Bhattacharya, Pallab K.; Ooi, Boon S.

2013-01-01

We study the enhanced inhomogeneity across the InAs quantum-dash (Qdash) layers by incorporating a chirped AlGaInAs barrier thickness in the InAs/InP laser structure. The lasing operation is investigated via Fabry-Pérot ridge-waveguide laser

First observation of multi-pulse X-ray train via multi-collision laser Compton scattering

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kuroda, R.; Toyokawa, H.; Yasumoto, M.; Ikeura-Sekiguchi, H.; Koike, M.; Yamada, K.; Yanagida, T.; Nakajyo, T.; Sakai, F.

2009-01-01

A compact hard X-ray source via laser Compton scattering (LCS) has been developed for biological and medical applications at the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) in Japan. The multi-collision LCS has been investigated in order to enhance the X-ray yields. The first observation of multi-pulse X-ray train with 6 pulses via the multi-collision LCS has been successfully demonstrated between the multi-bunch electron train with 6 bunches and the multi-pulse Ti:Sa laser train with 6 pulses. The 32 MeV electron train was generated from a Cs 2 Te photocathode rf gun with a multi-pulse UV laser and the S-band linac. The Ti:Sa laser train was obtained with the chirp pulse amplification (CPA) including the modified regenerative amplifier. The X-ray train with 6 pulses with 12.6 ns spacing was observed with the micro-channel plate (MCP). The maximum energy of the X-ray is analytically estimated to be about 24 keV and the total number of generated photons was calculated to be about 1.8x10 6 photons/train.

2 ~ 5 times tunable repetition-rate multiplication of a 10 GHz pulse source using a linearly tunable, chirped fiber Bragg grating.

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, Ju Han; Chang, You; Han, Young-Geun; Kim, Sang; Lee, Sang

2004-08-23

We experimentally demonstrate a simple scheme for the tunable pulse repetition-rate multiplication based on the fractional Talbot effect in a linearly tunable, chirped fiber Bragg grating (FBG). The key component in this scheme is our linearly tunable, chirped FBG with no center wavelength shift, which was fabricated with the S-bending method using a uniform FBG. By simply tuning the group velocity dispersion of the chirped FBG, we readily multiply an original 8.5 ps, 10 GHz soliton pulse train by a factor of 2 ~ 5 to obtain high quality pulses at repetition-rates of 20 ~ 50 GHz without significantly changing the system configuration.

Making ultracold molecules in a two color pump-dump photoassociation scheme using chirped pulses

OpenAIRE

Koch, Christiane P.; Luc-Koenig, Eliane; Masnou-Seeuws, Françoise

2005-01-01

This theoretical paper investigates the formation of ground state molecules from ultracold cesium atoms in a two-color scheme. Following previous work on photoassociation with chirped picosecond pulses [Luc-Koenig et al., Phys. Rev. A {\\bf 70}, 033414 (2004)], we investigate stabilization by a second (dump) pulse. By appropriately choosing the dump pulse parameters and time delay with respect to the photoassociation pulse, we show that a large number of deeply bound molecules are created in t...

Arbitrary temporal shape pulsed fiber laser based on SPGD algorithm

Science.gov (United States)

Jiang, Min; Su, Rongtao; Zhang, Pengfei; Zhou, Pu

2018-06-01

A novel adaptive pulse shaping method for a pulsed master oscillator power amplifier fiber laser to deliver an arbitrary pulse shape is demonstrated. Numerical simulation has been performed to validate the feasibility of the scheme and provide meaningful guidance for the design of the algorithm control parameters. In the proof-of-concept experiment, information on the temporal property of the laser is exchanged and evaluated through a local area network, and the laser adjusted the parameters of the seed laser according to the monitored output of the system automatically. Various pulse shapes, including a rectangular shape, ‘M’ shape, and elliptical shape are achieved through experimental iterations.

Chirped or time modulated excitation compared to short pulses for photoacoustic imaging in acoustic attenuating media

Science.gov (United States)

Burgholzer, P.; Motz, C.; Lang, O.; Berer, T.; Huemer, M.

2018-02-01

In photoacoustic imaging, optically generated acoustic waves transport the information about embedded structures to the sample surface. Usually, short laser pulses are used for the acoustic excitation. Acoustic attenuation increases for higher frequencies, which reduces the bandwidth and limits the spatial resolution. One could think of more efficient waveforms than single short pulses, such as pseudo noise codes, chirped, or harmonic excitation, which could enable a higher information-transfer from the samples interior to its surface by acoustic waves. We used a linear state space model to discretize the wave equation, such as the Stoke's equation, but this method could be used for any other linear wave equation. Linear estimators and a non-linear function inversion were applied to the measured surface data, for onedimensional image reconstruction. The proposed estimation method allows optimizing the temporal modulation of the excitation laser such that the accuracy and spatial resolution of the reconstructed image is maximized. We have restricted ourselves to one-dimensional models, as for higher dimensions the one-dimensional reconstruction, which corresponds to the acoustic wave without attenuation, can be used as input for any ultrasound imaging method, such as back-projection or time-reversal method.

High Energy, Short Pulse Fiber Injection Lasers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Dawson, J W; Messerly, M J; Phan, H H; Crane, J K; Beach, R J; Siders, C W; Barty, C J

2008-09-10

A short pulse fiber injection laser for the Advanced Radiographic Capability (ARC) on the National Ignition Facility (NIF) has been developed at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL). This system produces 100 {micro}J pulses with 5 nm of bandwidth centered at 1053 nm. The pulses are stretched to 2.5 ns and have been recompressed to sub-ps pulse widths. A key feature of the system is that the pre-pulse power contrast ratio exceeds 80 dB. The system can also precisely adjust the final recompressed pulse width and timing and has been designed for reliable, hands free operation. The key challenges in constructing this system were control of the signal to noise ratio, dispersion management and managing the impact of self phase modulation on the chirped pulse.

Improvement of chirped pulse contrast using electro-optic birefringence scanning filter method

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zeng Shuguang; Wang Xianglin; Wang Qishan; Zhang Bin; Sun Nianchun; Wang Fei

2013-01-01

A method using scanning filter to improve the contrast of chirped pulse is proposed, and the principle of this method is analyzed. The scanning filter is compared with the existing pulse-picking technique and nonlinear filtering technique. The scanning filter is a temporal gate that is independent on the intensity of the pulses, but on the instantaneous wavelengths of light. Taking the electro-optic birefringence scanning filter as an example, the application of scanning filter methods is illustrated. Based on numerical simulation and experimental research, it is found that the electro-optic birefringence scanning filter can eliminate a prepulse which is several hundred picoseconds before the main pulse, and the main pulse can maintain a high transmissivity. (authors)

Limiting effects on laser compression by resonant backward Raman scattering in modern experiments

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yampolsky, Nikolai A.; Fisch, Nathaniel J.

2011-01-01

Through resonant backward Raman scattering, the plasma wave mediates the energy transfer between long pump and short seed laser pulses. These mediations can result in pulse compression at extraordinarily high powers. However, both the overall efficiency of the energy transfer and the duration of the amplified pulse depend upon the persistence of the plasma wave excitation. At least with respect to the recent state-of-the-art experiments, it is possible to deduce that at present the experimentally realized efficiency of the amplifier is likely constrained mainly by two effects, namely, the pump chirp and the plasma wave wavebreaking.

MeV electron acceleration at 1kHz with <10 mJ laser pulses

Science.gov (United States)

Salehi, Fatholah; Goers, Andy; Hine, George; Feder, Linus; Kuk, Donghoon; Kim, Ki-Yong; Milchberg, Howard

2016-10-01

We demonstrate laser driven acceleration of electrons at 1 kHz repetition rate with pC charge above 1MeV per shot using required for relativistic self-focusing low enough for mJ scale laser pulses to self- focus and drive strong wakefields. Experiments and particle-in-cell simulations show that optimal drive pulse duration and chirp for maximum electron bunch charge and energy depends on the target gas species. High repetition rate, high charge, and short duration electron bunches driven by very modest pulse energies constitutes an ideal portable electron source for applications such as ultrafast electron diffraction experiments and high rep. rate γ-ray production. This work is supported by the US Department of Energy, the National Science Foundation, and the Air Force Office of Scientific Research.

A higher-order-mode fiber delivery for Ti:Sapphire femtosecond lasers

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jespersen, Kim Giessmann; Le, Tuan; Grüner-Nielsen, Lars Erik

2010-01-01

We report the first higher-order-mode fiber with anomalous dispersion at 800nm and demonstrate its potential in femtosecond pulse delivery for Ti:Sapphire femtosecond lasers. We obtain 125fs pulses after propagating a distance of 3.6 meters in solid-silica fiber. The pulses could be further...... compressed in a quartz rod to nearly chirp-free 110fs pulses. Femtosecond pulse delivery is achieved by launching the laser output directly into the delivery fiber without any pre-chirping of the input pulse. The demonstrated pulse delivery scheme suggests scaling to >20meters for pulse delivery in harsh...

Highly stable ultrabroadband mid-IR optical parametric chirped-pulse amplifier optimized for superfluorescence suppression.

Science.gov (United States)

Moses, J; Huang, S-W; Hong, K-H; Mücke, O D; Falcão-Filho, E L; Benedick, A; Ilday, F O; Dergachev, A; Bolger, J A; Eggleton, B J; Kärtner, F X

2009-06-01

We present a 9 GW peak power, three-cycle, 2.2 microm optical parametric chirped-pulse amplification source with 1.5% rms energy and 150 mrad carrier envelope phase fluctuations. These characteristics, in addition to excellent beam, wavefront, and pulse quality, make the source suitable for long-wavelength-driven high-harmonic generation. High stability is achieved by careful optimization of superfluorescence suppression, enabling energy scaling.

Coherent control of bond making: the performance of rationally phase-shaped femtosecond laser pulses

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Levin, Liat; Amitay, Zohar; Skomorowski, Wojciech; Koch, Christiane P; Kosloff, Ronnie

2015-01-01

The first step in the coherent control of a photoinduced binary reaction is bond making or photoassociation. We have recently demonstrated coherent control of bond making in multi-photon femtosecond photoassociation of hot magnesium atoms, using linearly chirped pulses (Levin et al 2015 Phys. Rev. Lett. 114 233003). The detected yield of photoassociated magnesium dimers was enhanced by positively chirped pulses which is explained theoretically by a combination of purification and chirp-dependent Raman transitions. The yield could be further enhanced by pulse optimization resulting in pulses with an effective linear chirp and a sub-pulse structure, where the latter allows for exploiting vibrational coherences. Here, we systematically explore the efficiency of phase-shaped pulses for the coherent control of bond making, employing a parametrization of the spectral phases in the form of cosine functions. We find up to an order of magnitude enhancement of the yield compared to the unshaped transform-limited pulse. The highly performing pulses all display an overall temporally increasing instantaneous frequency and are composed of several overlapping sub-pulses. The time delay between the first two sub-pulses fits very well the vibrational frequency of the generated intermediate wavepacket. These findings are in agreement with chirp-dependent Raman transitions and exploitation of vibrational dynamics as underlying control mechanisms. (paper)

Efficient chirped-pulse amplification of sub-20 fs laser pulses

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Matsuoka, Shinichi; Yamakawa, Koichi [Japan Atomic Energy Research Inst., Tokai, Ibaraki (Japan). Tokai Research Establishment

1998-03-01

We have developed a model for ultrabroadband and ultrashort pulse amplification including the effects of a pulse shaper for regenerative pulse shaping, gain narrowing and gain saturation in the amplifiers. Thin solid etalons are used to control both gain narrowing and gain saturation during amplification. This model has been used to design an optimized Ti:sapphire amplifier system for producing efficiently pulses of < 20-fs duration with approaching peak and average powers of 100 TW and 20 W. (author)

Current Status and Future Prospects of "J-KAREN" — High Contrast, High Intensity Laser for Studying Relativistic Laser-Matter Interactions

Science.gov (United States)

Kiriyama, Hiromitsu; Mori, Michiaki; Okada, Hajime; Shimomura, Takuya; Nakai, Yoshiki; Tanoue, Manabu; Kondo, Shuji; Kanazawa, Shuhei; Yogo, Akifumi; Sagisaka, Akito; Ogura, Koichi; Hayashi, Yukio; Sakaki, Hironao; Pirozhkov, Alexander S.; Kotaki, Hideyuki; Fukuda, Yuji; Nishiuchi, Mamiko; Kando, Masaki; Bulanov, Sergei V.; Yamagiwa, Mitsuru; Kondo, Kiminori; Sugiyama, Akira; Bolton, Paul R.

We present the design and characterization of a high-contrast, petawatt-class Ti:sapphire chirped-pulse amplification (CPA) laser system. Two saturable absorbers and low-gain optical parametric chirped-pulse amplification (OPCPA) preamplifier in the double CPA laser chain have improved the temporal contrast to 1.4 × 1012 on the subnanosecond time scale at 70 terawatt level. Final uncompressed broadband pulse energy is 28 J, indicating the potential for reaching peak power near 600 terawatt. We also discuss the going upgrade to over petawatt level at a 0.1 Hz repetition rate briefly.

Chirp investigation in EMLs towards frequency shift keying modulation

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Iglesias Olmedo, Miguel; Vegas Olmos, Juan José; Westergren, Urban

2014-01-01

This paper presents a chirp modeling and experimental results that support our vision of enabling frequency shift keying (FSK) exploiting the chirp effect in externally modulated lasers (EMLs).......This paper presents a chirp modeling and experimental results that support our vision of enabling frequency shift keying (FSK) exploiting the chirp effect in externally modulated lasers (EMLs)....

Intra-pulse laser absorption sensor with cavity enhancement for oxidation experiments in a rapid compression machine

KAUST Repository

Nasir, Ehson Fawad

2018-05-23

A sensor based on a mid-IR pulsed quantum cascade laser (QCL) and off-axis cavity enhanced absorption spectroscopy (OA-CEAS) has been developed for highly sensitive concentration measurements of carbon monoxide (CO) in a rapid compression machine. The duty cycle and the pulse repetition rate of the laser were optimized for increased tuning range, high chirp rate, and small line width to achieve effective laser-cavity coupling. This enabled spectrally resolved CO line-shape measurements at high pressures (P ~10 bar). A gain factor of 133 and a time resolution of 10 μs were demonstrated. CO concentration-time profiles during the oxidation of highly dilute n-octane/air mixtures were recorded, illustrating new opportunities in RCM experiments for chemical kinetics.

A Hybrid Fiber/Solid-State Regenerative Amplifier with Tunable Pulse Widths for Satellite Laser Ranging

Science.gov (United States)

Coyle, Barry; Poulios, Demetrios

2013-01-01

A fiber/solid-state hybrid seeded regenerative amplifier, capable of achieving high output energy with tunable pulse widths, has been developed for satellite laser ranging applications. The regenerative amplifier cavity uses a pair of Nd:YAG zigzag slabs oriented orthogonally to one another in order to make thermal lensing effects symmetrical and simplify optical correction schemes. The seed laser used is a fiber-coupled 1,064-nm narrowband (pumped by a single 120-W, pulsed 808-nm laser diode array. In this configuration, the average pump beam distribution in the slabs had a 1-D Gaussian shape, which matches the estimated cavity mode size. A half-wave plate between the slabs reduces losses from Fresnel reflections due to the orthogonal slabs Brewster-cut end faces. Successful "temporal" seeding of the regenerative amplifier cavity results in a cavity Q-switch pulse envelope segmenting into shorter pulses, each having the width of the input seed, and having a uniform temporal separation corresponding to the cavity round-trip time of approx. =10 ns. The pulse energy is allowed to build on successive passes in the regenerative amplifier cavity until a maximum is reached, (when cavity gains and losses are equal), after which the pulse is electro- optically switched out on the next round trip The overall gain of the amplifier is approx. =82 dB (or a factor of 1.26 million). After directing the amplified output through a LBO frequency doubling crystal, approx. = 2.1 W of 532-nm output (>1 mJ) was measured. This corresponds to a nonlinear conversion efficiency of >60%. Furthermore, by pulse pumping this system, a single pulse per laser shot can be created for the SLR (satellite laser ranging) measurement, and this can be ejected into the instrument. This is operated at the precise frequency needed by the measurement, as opposed to commercial short-pulsed, mode-locked systems that need to operate in a continuous fashion, or CW (continuous wave), and create pulses at many

Using a cover layer to improve the damage resistance of gold-coated gratings induced by a picosecond pulsed laser

Science.gov (United States)

Xia, Zhilin; Wu, Yihan; Kong, Fanyu; Jin, Yunxia

2018-04-01

The chirped pulse amplification (CPA) technology is the main approach to achieve high-intensity short-pulse laser. Diffraction gratings are good candidates for stretching and compressing laser pulses in CPA. In this paper, a kind of gold-coated grating has been prepared and its laser damage experiment has been performed. The results reflect that the gratings laser damage was dominated by thermal ablation due to gold films or inclusions absorption and involved the deformation or eruption of the gold film. Based on these damage phenomena, a method of using a cover layer to prevent gold films from deforming and erupting has been adopted to improve the gold-coated gratings laser damage threshold. Since the addition of a cover layer changes the gratings diffraction efficiency, the gratings structure has been re-optimized. Furthermore, according to the calculated thermal stress distributions in gratings with optimized structures, the cover layer was demonstrated to be helpful for improving the gratings laser damage resistance if it is thick enough.

A phase stabilized and pulse shaped Ti:Sapphire oscillator-amplifier laser system for the LCLS rf photoinjector

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kotseroglou, T.; Alley, R.; Clendenin, J.; Fisher, A.; Frisch, J.

1998-04-01

The authors have designed a laser system for the Linac Coherent Light Source rf photoinjector consisting of a Ti:Sapphire oscillator and 2 amplifiers using Chirped Pulse Amplification. The output after tripling will be 0.5 mJ tunable UV pulses at 120 Hz, with wavelength around 260 nm, pulsewidth of 10 ps FWHM and 200 fs rise and fall times. Amplitude stability is expected to be 1% rms in the UV and timing jitter better than 500 fs rms

Femtosecond-Laser-Pulse Characterization and Optimization for CARS Microscopy.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Vincenzo Piazza

Full Text Available We present a simple method and its experimental implementation to determine the pulse durations and linear chirps of the pump-and-probe pulse and the Stokes pulse in a coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering microscope at sample level without additional autocorrelators. Our approach exploits the delay line, ubiquitous in such microscopes, to perform a convolution of the pump-and-probe and Stokes pulses as a function of their relative delay and it is based on the detection of the photons emitted from an appropriate non-linear sample. The analysis of the non-resonant four-wave-mixing and sum-frequency-generation signals allows for the direct retrieval of the pulse duration on the sample and the linear chirp of each pulse. This knowledge is crucial in maximizing the spectral-resolution and contrast in CARS imaging.

High pulse energy sub-nanosecond Tm-doped fiber laser

Science.gov (United States)

Cserteg, Andras; Guillemet, Sebastien; Hernandez, Yves; Giannone, Domenico

2012-02-01

We report a core pumped thulium-doped fiber amplifier that generates 1.4 μJ pulses at 1980 nm with a repetition rate of 3.6 MHz preserving the original spectral bandwidth of the oscillator. The amplifier chain is seeded by a passively modelocked fiber laser with 5 mW output power and the pulses are stretched to 800 picoseconds. The amplifier is core pumped by a single mode erbium fiber laser. The slope efficiency is 35%. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first demonstration of sub nanosecond pulses with energies higher than 1 μJ coming out of a thulium-doped fiber amplifier.

Frequency conversion of high-intensity, femtosecond laser pulses

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Banks, P S

1997-06-01

Almost since the invention of the laser, frequency conversion of optical pulses via non- linear processes has been an area of active interest. However, third harmonic generation using ~(~1 (THG) in solids is an area that has not received much attention because of ma- terial damage limits. Recently, the short, high-intensity pulses possible with chirped-pulse amplification (CPA) laser systems allow the use of intensities on the order of 1 TW/cm2 in thin solids without damage. As a light source to examine single-crystal THG in solids and other high field inter- actions, the design and construction of a Ti:sapphire-based CPA laser system capable of ultimately producing peak powers of 100 TW is presented. Of special interest is a novel, all-reflective pulse stretcher design which can stretch a pulse temporally by a factor of 20,000. The stretcher design can also compensate for the added material dispersion due to propagation through the amplifier chain and produce transform-limited 45 fs pulses upon compression. A series of laser-pumped amplifiers brings the peak power up to the terawatt level at 10 Hz, and the design calls for additional amplifiers to bring the power level to the 100 TW level for single shot operation. The theory for frequency conversion of these short pulses is presented, focusing on conversion to the third harmonic in single crystals of BBO, KD*P, and d-LAP (deuterated I-arginine phosphate). Conversion efficiencies of up to 6% are obtained with 500 fs pulses at 1053 nm in a 3 mm thick BBO crystal at 200 GW/cm 2. Contributions to this process by unphasematched, cascaded second harmonic generation and sum frequency generation are shown to be very significant. The angular relationship between the two orders is used to measure the tensor elements of C = xt3)/4 with Crs = -1.8 x 1O-23 m2/V2 and .15Cri + .54Crs = 4.0 x 1O-23 m2/V2. Conversion efficiency in d-LAP is about 20% that in BBO and conversion efficiency in KD*P is 1% that of BBO. It is calculated

Study of Coherence Limits and Chirp Control in Long Pulse FEL Oscillator

CERN Document Server

Gover, Avraham; Socol, Yehoshua; Volshonok, Mark

2004-01-01

Electrostatic Accelerator FELs have the capacity to generate long pulses of tens microseconds and more, that in principle can be elongated indefinitely (CW operation). This allows the generation of very coherent radiation. The fundamental linewidth is extremely narrow [1], and in practice the spectral width is limited by the pulse duration (Fourier transform limit) and e-beam stability. Practical problems such as the accelerator terminal voltage drop due to a non-ideal electron beam transport may reduce the length of the radiation pulse and hence create a limiting factor for coherence measurement. The current status of the Israeli Tandem Electrostatic Accelerator FEL allows the generation of pulses of tens microseconds duration. It has been operated recently past saturation, and produces single mode coherent radiation of relative linewidth ~Δf/f=10-5 at frequencies near 100GHz. A clear frequency chirp is observed during pulses of tens of microseconds (0.1-1 MHz/mS), and is directly proportional to th...

Coherent Control of Lithium Atom by Adiabatic Rapid Passage with Chirped Microwave Pulses

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jiang Li-Juan; Zhang Xian-Zhou; Ma Huan-Qiang; Xia Li-Hua; Jia Guang-Rui

2012-01-01

Using the time-dependent multilevel approach and the B-spline technique, populations of Rydberg lithium atoms in chirped microwave pulses are demonstrated. Firstly the populations of two energy levels are controlled by the microwave pulse parameters. Secondly the atoms experience the consequence 70s-71p-72s-73p-74s in a microwave field using optimized microwave field parameters. It is shown that the coherent control of the population transfer in the microwave field from the initial to the target states can be accomplished by optimizing the microwave field parameters. (atomic and molecular physics)

Laser System for Photoelectron and X-Ray Production in the PLEIADES Compton Light Source

CERN Document Server

Gibson, David J; Betts, S; Crane, John; Jovanovic, Igor

2005-01-01

The PLEIADES (Picosecond Laser-Electron Interaction for the Dynamic Evaluation of Structures) facility provides tunable short x-ray pulses with energies of 30-140 keV and pulse durations of 0.3 - 5 ps by scattering an intense, ultrashort laser pulse off a 35-75 MeV electron beam. Synchronization of the laser and electron beam is obtained by using a photoinjector gun, and using the same laser system to generate the electrons and the scattering laser. The Ti:Sapphire, chirped pulse amplification based 500 mJ, 50 fs, 810 nm scattering laser and the similar 300 μJ, 5 ps, 266 nm photoinjector laser systems are detailed. Additionally, an optical parametric chirped pulse amplification (OPCPA) system is studied as a replacement for part of the scattering laser front end. Such a change would significantly simplify the set-up the laser system by removing the need for active switching optics, as well as increase the pre-pulse contrast ratio which will be important when part of the scattering laser is used as a...

Broadband and short (10-ps) pulse generation on Nova

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Perry, M.D.; Browning, D.; Bibeau, C.; Patterson, F.G.; Wilcox, R.; Henesian, M.

1990-01-01

The ability to produce high power broadband pulses for purposes of focal spot beam smoothing has recently become an important issue in inertial confinement fusion (ICF). As the first step toward the generation and propagation of such pulses on Nova, the authors have performed a series of experiments with 10-ps pulses. Aside from the inherently broad bandwidth, these short pulses have important applications in ICF experiments and x-ray laser research. The author's experimental results are discussed. The short pulses were produced by diffraction grating pulse compression of chirped pulses formed from self-phase modulation in a single-mode 10-m fused silica fiber. Use of such a short fiber produces a nonlinearly chirped spectrum of 0.74 nm. The central nearly linearly chirped 0.26 nm is selected by polarization discrimination and compressed using 1800-line/mm diffraction gratings to a nearly Gaussian pulse of 10 ps FWHM with an energy contrast ratio of 20:1. This 1-nJ pulse is injected into a Nova amplifier chain with selected amplifiers unfired

Electromagnetically induced guiding and superradiant amplification of counter-propagating lasers in plasma

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Shvets, G.; Fisch, N.J.; Pukhov, A.

1999-01-01

The interaction of counter-propagating laser pulses in a plasma is considered. When the frequencies of the two lasers are close, nonlinear modification of the refraction index results in the mutual focusing of the two beams. A short (of order the plasma period) laser pulse can be nonlinearly focused by a long counter-propagating beam which extends over the entire guiding length. It is also demonstrated that a short ( p ) laser pulse can be superradiantly amplified by a counter-propagating long low-intensity pump while remaining ultra-short. Particle-in-Cell simulations indicate that pump depletion can be as high as 40%. This implies that the long pump is efficiently compressed in time without frequency chirping and pulse stretching, making the superradiant amplification an interesting alternative to the conventional method of producing ultra-intense pulses by the chirped-pulse amplification. copyright 1999 American Institute of Physics

High-performance OPCPA laser system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zuegel, J.D.; Bagnoud, V.; Bromage, J.; Begishev, I.A.; Puth, J.

2006-01-01

Optical parametric chirped-pulse amplification (OPCPA) is ideally suited for amplifying ultra-fast laser pulses since it provides broadband gain across a wide range of wavelengths without many of the disadvantages of regenerative amplification. A high-performance OPCPA system has been demonstrated as a prototype for the front end of the OMEGA Extended Performance (EP) Laser System. (authors)

High-performance OPCPA laser system

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Zuegel, J.D.; Bagnoud, V.; Bromage, J.; Begishev, I.A.; Puth, J. [Rochester Univ., Lab. for Laser Energetics, NY (United States)

2006-06-15

Optical parametric chirped-pulse amplification (OPCPA) is ideally suited for amplifying ultra-fast laser pulses since it provides broadband gain across a wide range of wavelengths without many of the disadvantages of regenerative amplification. A high-performance OPCPA system has been demonstrated as a prototype for the front end of the OMEGA Extended Performance (EP) Laser System. (authors)

Intensity Correlation Analysis on Blue-Violet FemtosecondPulses from a Dispersion-Compensated GaInN Mode-LockedSemiconductor Laser Diode

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Shunsuke Kono

2015-09-01

Full Text Available We investigated the spectral and temporal characteristics of blue-violetfemtosecond optical pulses generated by a passively mode-locked GaInN laser diode ina dispersion-compensated external cavity. The output optical pulses at 400 nm wereanalyzed in detail by intensity auto- and cross-correlation measurements using secondharmonic generation on the surface of a β-BaB2O4 crystal. The obtained results clarifiedwavelength-dependent chirp characteristics of the optical pulses. The analysis suggestedthat a large frequency shift due to saturation in the saturable absorber and gain sectionsplayed an important role in the generation of femtosecond optical pulses.

Experimental photonic generation of chirped pulses using nonlinear dispersion-based incoherent processing.

Science.gov (United States)

Rius, Manuel; Bolea, Mario; Mora, José; Ortega, Beatriz; Capmany, José

2015-05-18

We experimentally demonstrate, for the first time, a chirped microwave pulses generator based on the processing of an incoherent optical signal by means of a nonlinear dispersive element. Different capabilities have been demonstrated such as the control of the time-bandwidth product and the frequency tuning increasing the flexibility of the generated waveform compared to coherent techniques. Moreover, the use of differential detection improves considerably the limitation over the signal-to-noise ratio related to incoherent processing.

Few-cycle high energy mid-infrared pulse from Ho:YLF laser

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Murari, Krishna

2017-04-01

, constraints on the pump and seed source and proper phase-matching conditions requirement for efficient amplification are discussed. In particular, starting from the challenge of developing a Ho:YLF oscillator, pulse amplification and the problem of gain narrowing are addressed. In the second part, various nonlinear compression schemes are discussed in general and specifically, inhibited-coupling Kagome fiber based compression is discussed. The experimental results for the generation of few-cycle, μJ-level 2-μm laser pulses in a two-stage compression scheme are then presented. In the third part, the seed pulse generation for the MIR OPA by utilizing supercontinuum (SC) are presented. The theoretical background of SC generation and the constraints on the pulse duration are discussed. Finally, in the last part, the results obtained are summarized in conclusion and the outlook in presented. The front-end source developed here can be used to generate few-cycle MIR pulses by employing nonoxide based nonlinear crystals. Moreover, as both the pump and seed pulses are derived from the same laser source, it offers the possibility of generating a passively carrier-envelope phase (CEP) stable idler.

Few-cycle high energy mid-infrared pulse from Ho:YLF laser

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Murari, Krishna

2017-04-15

, constraints on the pump and seed source and proper phase-matching conditions requirement for efficient amplification are discussed. In particular, starting from the challenge of developing a Ho:YLF oscillator, pulse amplification and the problem of gain narrowing are addressed. In the second part, various nonlinear compression schemes are discussed in general and specifically, inhibited-coupling Kagome fiber based compression is discussed. The experimental results for the generation of few-cycle, μJ-level 2-μm laser pulses in a two-stage compression scheme are then presented. In the third part, the seed pulse generation for the MIR OPA by utilizing supercontinuum (SC) are presented. The theoretical background of SC generation and the constraints on the pulse duration are discussed. Finally, in the last part, the results obtained are summarized in conclusion and the outlook in presented. The front-end source developed here can be used to generate few-cycle MIR pulses by employing nonoxide based nonlinear crystals. Moreover, as both the pump and seed pulses are derived from the same laser source, it offers the possibility of generating a passively carrier-envelope phase (CEP) stable idler.

Low jitter and high power all-active mode-locked lasers

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Yvind, Kresten; Larsson, David; Christiansen, Lotte Jin

2003-01-01

A novel epitaxial design leading to low loss and low gain saturation improves the properties of 40 GHz mode-locked lasers. We obtain 2.8 ps nearly chirp free pulses with 228 fs jitter and fiber-coupled power of 7 mW.......A novel epitaxial design leading to low loss and low gain saturation improves the properties of 40 GHz mode-locked lasers. We obtain 2.8 ps nearly chirp free pulses with 228 fs jitter and fiber-coupled power of 7 mW....

40-fs hydrogen Raman laser

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Didenko, N V; Konyashchenko, A V; Kostryukov, P V; Losev, L L; Pazyuk, V S [P N Lebedev Physics Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow (Russian Federation); Tenyakov, S Yu [Avesta Ltd., Troitsk, Moscow (Russian Federation); Molchanov, V Ya; Chizhikov, S I; Yushkov, K B [National University of Science and Technology ' MISIS' , Acoustooptical Research Center, Moscow (Russian Federation)

2015-12-31

40-fs first Stokes pulses at a wavelength of 1.2 μm 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%. (lasers)

40-fs hydrogen Raman laser

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Didenko, N V; Konyashchenko, A V; Kostryukov, P V; Losev, L L; Pazyuk, V S; Tenyakov, S Yu; Molchanov, V Ya; Chizhikov, S I; Yushkov, K B

2015-01-01

40-fs first Stokes pulses at a wavelength of 1.2 μm 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%. (lasers)

Asymmetry of light absorption upon propagation of focused femtosecond laser pulses with spatiotemporal coupling through glass materials

Science.gov (United States)

Zhukov, Vladimir P.; Bulgakova, Nadezhda M.

2017-05-01

Ultrashort laser pulses are usually described in terms of temporal and spatial dependences of their electric field, assuming that the spatial dependence is separable from time dependence. However, in most situations this assumption is incorrect as generation of ultrashort pulses and their manipulation lead to couplings between spatial and temporal coordinates resulting in various effects such as pulse front tilt and spatial chirp. One of the most intriguing spatiotemporal coupling effects is the so-called "lighthouse effect", the phase front rotation with the beam propagation distance [Akturk et al., Opt. Express 13, 8642 (2005)]. The interaction of spatiotemporally coupled laser pulses with transparent materials have interesting peculiarities, such as the effect of nonreciprocal writing, which can be used to facilitate microfabrication of photonic structures inside optical glasses. In this work, we make an attempt to numerically investigate the influence of the pulse front tilt and the lighthouse effect on the absorption of laser energy inside fused silica glass. The model, which is based on nonlinear Maxwell's equations supplemented by the hydrodynamic equations for free electron plasma, is applied. As three-dimensional solution of such a problem would require huge computational resources, a simplified two-dimensional model has been proposed. It has enabled to gain a qualitative insight into the features of propagation of ultrashort laser pulses with the tilted front in the regimes of volumetric laser modification of transparent materials, including directional asymmetry upon direct laser writing in glass materials.

Laser system using ultra-short laser pulses

Science.gov (United States)

Dantus, Marcos [Okemos, MI; Lozovoy, Vadim V [Okemos, MI; Comstock, Matthew [Milford, MI

2009-10-27

A laser system using ultrashort laser pulses is provided. In another aspect of the present invention, the system includes a laser, pulse shaper and detection device. A further aspect of the present invention employs a femtosecond laser and binary pulse shaping (BPS). Still another aspect of the present invention uses a laser beam pulse, a pulse shaper and a SHG crystal.

Pulsed laser deposition of YBCO coated conductor using Y2O3 as the seed and cap layer

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Barnes, P N; Nekkanti, R M; Haugan, T J; Campbell, T A; Yust, N A; Evans, J M

2004-01-01

Although a variety of buffer layers have been routinely reported, a standard architecture commonly used for the Y Ba 2 Cu 3 O 7-x (YBCO) coated conductor is Y BCO/CeO 2 /Y SZ/CeO 2 /substrate or Y BCO/CeO 2 /Y SZ/Y 2 O 3 /substrate where ceria is typically the cap layer. CeO 2 is generally used as only a seed (or cap layer) since cracking within the film occurs in thicker CeO 2 layers due to the stress of lattice mismatching. Y 2 O 3 has been proposed as a seed and as a cap layer but usually not for both in a given architecture, especially with all layers deposited in situ. Yttrium oxide films grown on nickel by electron beam evaporation processes were found to be dense and crack free with good epitaxy. In this report, pulsed laser deposition (PLD) of Y 2 O 3 is given where Y 2 O 3 serves as both the seed and cap layer in the YBCO architecture. A comparison to PLD CeO 2 is provided. Deposited layers of the YBCO coated conductor are also grown by laser ablation. Initial deposition resulted in specimens on textured Ni substrates with current densities of more than 1 MA cm -2 at 77 K, self-field

Attosecond pulse generation in noble gases in the presence of extreme high intensity THz pulses

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Balogh, E.; Varju, K.

2010-01-01

Complete text of publication follows. The shortest - attosecond - light pulses available today are produced by high harmonic generation (HHG) of near-infrared (NIR) laser pulses in noble gas jets, providing a broad spectral plateau of XUV radiation ending in a cutoff. The minimum pulse duration is determined by the achievable bandwidth (i.e. the position of the cutoff), and the chirp of the produced pulses. The extension of the cutoff by increasing the laser intensity is limited by the depletion and phase matching problems of the medium. An alternative method demonstrated to produce higher harmonic orders is by using longer pump pulse wavelength, with the disadvantage of decreased efficiency. Recently it was shown that application of a quasi-DC high strength electric field results in an increase of more than a factor of two in the order of efficiently generated high harmonics. However, the possibility to implement the method proposed in [3] of using a CO 2 laser to create a quasi-DC field for assisting HHG of the NIR laser is questionable, because it's technically very challenging to synchronize pulses from different laser sources. Alternatively, synchronous production of THz pulses with the NIR laser pulse offers a more promising route. The first numerical test of this idea has been reported in [4]. In this contribution we further investigate the method for realistic THz field strengths and short driving pulses, exploring the effect of longer pump laser wavelength on the process. We assume the presence of high intensity THz pulses for supplying the high-strength quasi-DC electric field. The spectrum as well as the chirp of the produced radiation is calculated. We use the non-adiabatic saddle point method to determine the generated radiation described in [6]. We simulate harmonic generation in noble gas atoms, with few cycle NIR pulses of peak intensity at and above 2 x 10 14 W/cm 2 (388 MV/cm) and wavelengths 800 nm and 1560 nm. The THz field strength is varied

Magnetic field effects on ultrafast lattice compression dynamics of Si(111) crystal when excited by linearly-polarized femtosecond laser pulses

Science.gov (United States)

Hatanaka, Koji; Odaka, Hideho; Ono, Kimitoshi; Fukumura, Hiroshi

2007-03-01

Time-resolved X-ray diffraction measurements of Si (111) single crystal are performed when excited by linearly-polarized femtosecond laser pulses (780 nm, 260 fs, negatively-chirped, 1 kHz) under a magnetic field (0.47 T). Laser fluence on the sample surface is 40 mJ/cm^2, which is enough lower than the ablation threshold at 200 mJ/cm^2. Probing X-ray pulses of iron characteristic X-ray lines at 0.193604 and 0.193998 nm are generated by focusing femtosecond laser pulses onto audio-cassette tapes in air. Linearly-polarized femtosecond laser pulse irradiation onto Si(111) crystal surface induces transient lattice compression in the picosecond time range, which is confirmed by transient angle shift of X-ray diffraction to higher angles. Little difference of compression dynamics is observed when the laser polarization is changed from p to s-pol. without a magnetic field. On the other hand, under a magnetic field, the lattice compression dynamics changes when the laser is p-polarized which is vertical to the magnetic field vector. These results may be assigned to photo-carrier formation and energy-band distortion.

Chirp effects on impulsive vibrational spectroscopy: a multimode perspective.

Science.gov (United States)

Wand, Amir; Kallush, Shimshon; Shoshanim, Ofir; Bismuth, Oshrat; Kosloff, Ronnie; Ruhman, Sanford

2010-03-07

The well-documented propensity of negatively-chirped pulses to enhance resonant impulsive Raman scattering has been rationalized in terms of a one pulse pump-dump sequence which "follows" the evolution of the excited molecules and dumps them back at highly displaced configurations. The aim of this study was to extend the understanding of this effect to molecules with many displaced vibrational modes in the presence of condensed surroundings. In particular, to define an optimally chirped pulse, to investigate what exactly it "follows" and to discover how this depends on the molecule under study. To this end, linear chirp effects on vibrational coherences in poly-atomics are investigated experimentally and theoretically. Chirped pump-impulsive probe experiments are reported for Sulforhodamine-B ("Kiton Red"), Betaine-30 and Oxazine-1 in ethanol solutions with <10 fs resolution. Numerical simulations, including numerous displaced modes and electronic dephasing, are conducted to reproduce experimental results. Through semi-quantitative reproduction of experimental results in all three systems we show that the effect of group velocity dispersion (GVD) on the buildup of ground state wave-packets depends on the pulse spectrum, on the displacements of vibrational modes upon excitation, on the detuning of the excitation pulses from resonance, and on electronic dephasing rates. Akin to scenarios described for frequency-domain resonance Raman, within the small-displacement regime each mode responds to excitation chirp independently and the optimal GVD is mode-specific. Highly-displaced modes entangle the dynamics of excitation in different modes, requiring a multi-dimensional description of the response. Rapid photochemistry and ultrafast electronic dephasing narrow the window of opportunity for coherent manipulations, leading to a reduced and similar optimal chirp for different modes. Finally, non-intuitive coherent aspects of chirp "following" are predicted in the small

Chirped laser dispersion spectroscopy for remote open-path trace-gas sensing.

Science.gov (United States)

Nikodem, Michal; Wysocki, Gerard

2012-11-28

In this paper we present a prototype instrument for remote open-path detection of nitrous oxide. The sensor is based on a 4.53 μm quantum cascade laser and uses the chirped laser dispersion spectroscopy (CLaDS) technique for molecular concentration measurements. To the best of our knowledge this is the first demonstration of open-path laser-based trace-gas detection using a molecular dispersion measurement. The prototype sensor achieves a detection limit down to the single-ppbv level and exhibits excellent stability and robustness. The instrument characterization, field deployment performance, and the advantages of applying dispersion sensing to sensitive trace-gas detection in a remote open-path configuration are presented.

UV-laser treatment of nanodiamond seeds - a valuable tool for modification of nanocrystalline diamond films properties

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Vlček, J; Fitl, P; Vrňata, M; Fekete, L; Taylor, A; Fendrych, F

2013-01-01

This work aimed to study the UV-laser treatment of precursor (i.e. nanodiamond (ND) seeds on silicon substrates) and its influence on the properties of grown nanocrystalline diamond (NCD) films. Pulsed Nd:YAG laser operating at the fourth harmonic frequency (laser fluence E L = 250 mJ cm -2 , pulse duration 5 ns) was used as a source, equipped with an optical system for focusing laser beam onto the sample, allowing exposure of a local spot and horizontal patterning. The variable parameters were: number of pulses (from 5 to 400) and the working atmosphere (He, Ar and O 2 ). Ablation and/or graphitization of seeded nanodiamond particles were observed. Further the microwave plasma-enhanced chemical vapour deposition was employed to grow NCD films on exposed and non-exposed areas of silicon substrates. The size, shape and density distribution of laser-treated nanodiamond seeds were observed by atomic force microscopy (AFM) and their chemical composition by x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analysis. The resulting NCD films (uniform thickness of 400 nm) were characterized by: Raman spectroscopy to analyse occurrence of graphitic phase, and AFM to observe morphology and surface roughness. The highest RMS roughness (∼85 nm) was achieved when treating the precursor in He atmosphere. Horizontal microstructures of diamond films were fabricated.

Producing High Intense Attosecond Pulse Train by Interaction of Three-Color Pulse and Overdense Plasma

Science.gov (United States)

Salehi, M.; Mirzanejad, S.

2017-05-01

Amplifying the attosecond pulse by the chirp pulse amplification method is impossible. Furthermore, the intensity of attosecond pulse is low in the interaction of laser pulse and underdense plasma. This motivates us to propose using a multi-color pulse to produce the high intense attosecond pulse. In the present study, the relativistic interaction of a three-color linearly-polarized laser-pulse with highly overdense plasma is studied. We show that the combination of {{ω }}1, {{ω }}2 and {{ω }}3 frequencies decreases the instance full width at half maximum reflected attosecond pulse train from the overdense plasma surface. Moreover, we show that the three-color pulse increases the intensity of generated harmonics, which is explained by the relativistic oscillating mirror model. The obtained results demonstrate that if the three-color laser pulse interacts with overdense plasma, it will enhance two orders of magnitude of intensity of ultra short attosecond pulses in comparison with monochromatic pulse.

Isolated sub-100-as pulse generation via controlling electron dynamics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lan Pengfei; Lu Peixiang; Cao Wei; Li Yuhua; Wang Xinlin

2007-01-01

A method to coherently control electron dynamics is proposed using a few-cycle laser pulse in combination with a controlling field. It is shown that this method not only broadens the attosecond pulse bandwidth, but also reduces the chirp; thus an isolated 80-as pulse is straightforwardly obtained, and even shorter pulses are achievable by increasing the intensity of the controlling field. Such ultrashort pulses allow one to investigate ultrafast electronic processes. In addition, the few-cycle synthesized pulse is expected to be useful for manipulating a wide range of laser-atom interactions

Generation and subsequent amplification of few-cycle femtosecond pulses from a picosecond pump laser

Science.gov (United States)

Mukhin, I. B.; Kuznetsov, I. I.; Palashov, O. V.

2018-04-01

Using a new approach, in which generation of femtosecond pulses as short as a few field cycles is implemented directly from the radiation of a picosecond pump laser, pulses with the microjoule energy, the repetition rate 10 kHz, and the duration less than 26 fs are generated in the spectral range 1.3 ‑ 1.4 μm. In the process of generating this radiation, use was made of a method providing passive phase stabilisation of the carrier oscillation of the electromagnetic field and its slow envelope. The radiation spectrum was converted into the range of parametric amplification in the BBO crystal by the broadband second harmonic generation; the pulse was parametrically amplified up to the microjoule level and compressed by chirped mirrors to a duration of 28 fs.

Narrow linewidth picosecond UV pulsed laser with mega-watt peak power.

Science.gov (United States)

Huang, Chunning; Deibele, Craig; Liu, Yun

2013-04-08

We demonstrate a master oscillator power amplifier (MOPA) burst mode laser system that generates 66 ps/402.5 MHz pulses with mega-watt peak power at 355 nm. The seed laser consists of a single frequency fiber laser (linewidth laser is operating in a 5-μs/10-Hz macropulse mode. The laser output has a transform-limited spectrum with a very narrow linewidth of individual longitudinal modes. The immediate application of the laser system is the laser-assisted hydrogen ion beam stripping for the Spallation Neutron Source (SNS).

Laboratory transferability of optimally shaped laser pulses for quantum control

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Moore Tibbetts, Katharine; Xing, Xi; Rabitz, Herschel

2014-01-01

Optimal control experiments can readily identify effective shaped laser pulses, or “photonic reagents,” that achieve a wide variety of objectives. An important additional practical desire is for photonic reagent prescriptions to produce good, if not optimal, objective yields when transferred to a different system or laboratory. Building on general experience in chemistry, the hope is that transferred photonic reagent prescriptions may remain functional even though all features of a shaped pulse profile at the sample typically cannot be reproduced exactly. As a specific example, we assess the potential for transferring optimal photonic reagents for the objective of optimizing a ratio of photoproduct ions from a family of halomethanes through three related experiments. First, applying the same set of photonic reagents with systematically varying second- and third-order chirp on both laser systems generated similar shapes of the associated control landscape (i.e., relation between the objective yield and the variables describing the photonic reagents). Second, optimal photonic reagents obtained from the first laser system were found to still produce near optimal yields on the second laser system. Third, transferring a collection of photonic reagents optimized on the first laser system to the second laser system reproduced systematic trends in photoproduct yields upon interaction with the homologous chemical family. These three transfers of photonic reagents are demonstrated to be successful upon paying reasonable attention to overall laser system characteristics. The ability to transfer photonic reagents from one laser system to another is analogous to well-established utilitarian operating procedures with traditional chemical reagents. The practical implications of the present results for experimental quantum control are discussed

Petawatt laser system for fast ignitor studies at ILE, Osaka University

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Izawa, Y.; Kitagawa, Y.; Fujita, H.

2003-01-01

A petawatt laser system has been developed for the fast ignitor studies. Three new technologies were introduced; an optical parametric chirped pulse amplifier (OPCPA) in the front end for suppression of prepulse below 10 -8 the main pulse, a deformable mirror for correction of wave front distortion and the chirped pulse amplification in the GEKKO-XII. The system delivered successfully the output energy of 420 J in 470 fs on target, which corresponds to the focal intensity of more than 10 20 W/cm 2 . By using the PW laser, the heating experiments of the high density plasma imploded by GEKKO-XII started. (author)

Ultrafast, laser-based, x-ray science: the dawn of atomic-scale cinematography

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Barty, C.P.J.

2000-01-01

The characteristics of ultrafast chirped pulse amplification systems are reviewed. Application of ultrafast chirped pulse amplification to the generation of femtosecond, incoherent, 8-keV line radiation is outlined and the use of femtosecond laser-based, x-rays for novel time-resolved diffraction studies of crystalline dynamics with sub-picosecond temporal resolution and sub-picometer spatial resolution is reviewed in detail. Possible extensions of laser-based, x-ray technology and evaluation of alternative x-ray approaches for time-resolved studies of the atomic scale dynamics are given. (author)

Ultrafast, laser-based, x-ray science: the dawn of atomic-scale cinematography

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Barty, C.P.J. [University of California, Department of Applied Mechanics and Engineering Science, Urey Hall, Mali Code 0339, San Diego, La Jolla, CA (United States)

2000-03-01

The characteristics of ultrafast chirped pulse amplification systems are reviewed. Application of ultrafast chirped pulse amplification to the generation of femtosecond, incoherent, 8-keV line radiation is outlined and the use of femtosecond laser-based, x-rays for novel time-resolved diffraction studies of crystalline dynamics with sub-picosecond temporal resolution and sub-picometer spatial resolution is reviewed in detail. Possible extensions of laser-based, x-ray technology and evaluation of alternative x-ray approaches for time-resolved studies of the atomic scale dynamics are given. (author)

Generating high-brightness and coherent soft x-ray pulses in the water window with a seeded free-electron laser

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kaishang Zhou

2017-01-01

Full Text Available We propose a new scheme to generate high-brightness and temporal coherent soft x-ray radiation in a seeded free-electron laser. The proposed scheme is based on the coherent harmonic generation (CHG and superradiant principles. A CHG scheme is first used to generate a coherent signal at ultrahigh harmonics of the seed. This coherent signal is then amplified by a series of chicane-undulator modules via the fresh bunch and superradiant processes in the following radiator. Using a representative of a realistic set of parameters, three-dimensional simulations have been carried out and the simulations results demonstrated that 10 GW-level ultrashort (∼20  fs coherent radiation pulses in the water window can be achieved by using a 1.6 GeV electron beam based on the proposed technique.

Seeding magnetic fields for laser-driven flux compression in high-energy-density plasmas.

Science.gov (United States)

Gotchev, O V; Knauer, J P; Chang, P Y; Jang, N W; Shoup, M J; Meyerhofer, D D; Betti, R

2009-04-01

A compact, self-contained magnetic-seed-field generator (5 to 16 T) is the enabling technology for a novel laser-driven flux-compression scheme in laser-driven targets. A magnetized target is directly irradiated by a kilojoule or megajoule laser to compress the preseeded magnetic field to thousands of teslas. A fast (300 ns), 80 kA current pulse delivered by a portable pulsed-power system is discharged into a low-mass coil that surrounds the laser target. A >15 T target field has been demonstrated using a hot spot of a compressed target. This can lead to the ignition of massive shells imploded with low velocity-a way of reaching higher gains than is possible with conventional ICF.

Optimal initiation of electronic excited state mediated intramolecular H-transfer in malonaldehyde by UV-laser pulses

Science.gov (United States)

Nandipati, K. R.; Singh, H.; Nagaprasad Reddy, S.; Kumar, K. A.; Mahapatra, S.

2014-12-01

Optimally controlled initiation of intramolecular H-transfer in malonaldehyde is accomplished by designing a sequence of ultrashort (~80 fs) down-chirped pump-dump ultra violet (UV)-laser pulses through an optically bright electronic excited [ S 2 ( π π ∗)] state as a mediator. The sequence of such laser pulses is theoretically synthesized within the framework of optimal control theory (OCT) and employing the well-known pump-dump scheme of Tannor and Rice [D.J. Tannor, S.A. Rice, J. Chem. Phys. 83, 5013 (1985)]. In the OCT, the control task is framed as the maximization of cost functional defined in terms of an objective function along with the constraints on the field intensity and system dynamics. The latter is monitored by solving the time-dependent Schrödinger equation. The initial guess, laser driven dynamics and the optimized pulse structure (i.e., the spectral content and temporal profile) followed by associated mechanism involved in fulfilling the control task are examined in detail and discussed. A comparative account of the dynamical outcomes within the Condon approximation for the transition dipole moment versus its more realistic value calculated ab initio is also presented.

Femtosecond pulse laser notch shaping via fiber Bragg grating for the excitation source on the coherent anti-Stokes Raman spectroscopy

Science.gov (United States)

Oh, Seung Ryeol; Kwon, Won Sik; Kim, Jin Hwan; Kim, Kyung-Soo; Kim, Soohyun

2015-03-01

Single-pulse coherently controlled nonlinear Raman spectroscopy is the simplest method among the coherent anti-Stokes Raman spectroscopy systems. In recent research, it has been proven that notch-shaped femtosecond pulse laser can be used to collect the coherent anti-Stokes Raman signals. In this study, we applied a fiber Bragg grating to the notch filtering component on the femtosecond pulse lasers. The experiment was performed incorporating a titanium sapphire femtosecond pulse laser source with a 100 mm length of 780-HP fiber which is inscribed 30 mm of Bragg grating. The fiber Bragg grating has 785 nm Bragg wavelength with 0.9 nm bandwidth. We proved that if the pulse lasers have above a certain level of positive group delay dispersion, it is sufficient to propagate in the fiber Bragg grating without any spectral distortion. After passing through the fiber Bragg grating, the pulse laser is reflected on the chirped mirror for 40 times to make the transform-limited pulse. Finally, the pulse time duration was 37 fs, average power was 50mW, and showed an adequate notch shape. Furthermore, the simulation of third order polarization signal is performed using MATLAB tools and the simulation result shows that spectral characteristic and time duration of the pulse is sufficient to use as an excitation source for single-pulse coherent anti-Stokes Raman spectroscopy. In conclusion, the proposed method is more simple and cost-effective than the methods of previous research which use grating pairs and resonant photonic crystal slab.

Time-dependent Bloch-Maxwell modelling of 1 mJ, 200 fs seeded soft x-ray laser

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zeitoun, Ph.; Oliva, E.; Fajardo, M.; Velarde, P.; Ros, D.; Sebban, S.

2010-01-01

Complete text of publication follows. Seeding of high harmonic generation in a soft x-ray plasma amplifier has been first proposed and tested by T. Ditmire and collaborators. The experiment demonstrated low amplification (*2), with a very strong background coming from the soft x-ray laser ASE. Later seeding experiments reached very high amplification factors (up to 600) in both gas (Ph. Zeitoun et al.) and solid amplifiers (Wang et at.). Surprisingly, solid amplifiers extracted less energy (90 nJ) than gas amplifier (∼ 1 μJ) with equivalent pump energy. We recently demonstrated that 50-100 μJ is achievable with adequate plasma tailoring. However, this energy is still low as compared to the 10 mJ per pulse demonstrated on the ASE soft x-ray laser running at PALS facility (Czech Republic). In order to model the seeding process of PALS soft x-ray laser, we developed a time-dependent Bloch-Maxwell model that solves coherently the pumping, amplification and saturation processes. We demonstrated that direct seeding, with femtosecond pulse, a soft x-ray plasma amplifier having gain duration of several 100s of picosecond cannot extract the stored energy keeping the output beam energy in the 100 μJ range. We proposed and fully modelled a new seeding scheme that allows to achieve 10 mJ, 200 fs soft x-ray laser.

Effect of laser pulse energies in laser induced breakdown spectroscopy in double-pulse configuration

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Benedetti, P.A.; Cristoforetti, G.; Legnaioli, S.; Palleschi, V.; Pardini, L.; Salvetti, A.; Tognoni, E.

2005-01-01

In this paper, the effect of laser pulse energy on double-pulse laser induced breakdown spectroscopy signal is studied. In particular, the energy of the first pulse has been changed, while the second pulse energy is held fixed. A systematic study of the laser induced breakdown spectroscopy signal dependence on the interpulse delay is performed, and the results are compared with the ones obtained with a single laser pulse of energy corresponding to the sum of the two pulses. At the same time, the crater formed at the target surface is studied by video-confocal microscopy, and the variation in crater dimensions is correlated to the enhancement of the laser induced breakdown spectroscopy signal. The results obtained are consistent with the interpretation of the double-pulse laser induced breakdown spectroscopy signal enhancement in terms of the changes in ambient gas pressure produced by the shock wave induced by the first laser pulse

Dispersion measurement on chirped mirrors at arbitrary incidence angle and polarization state (Conference Presentation)

Science.gov (United States)

Kovacs, Mate; Somoskoi, Tamas; Seres, Imre; Borzsonyi, Adam; Sipos, Aron; Osvay, Károly

2017-05-01

The optical elements of femtosecond high peak power lasers have to fulfill more and more strict requirements in order to support pulses with high intensity and broad spectrum. In most cases chirped pulse amplification scheme is used to generate high peak power ultrashort laser pulses, where a very precise control of spectral intensity and spectral phase is required in reaching transform-limited temporal shape at the output. In the case of few cycle regime, the conventional bulk glass, prism-, grating- and their combination based compressors are not sufficient anymore, due to undesirable nonlinear effects in their material and proneness to optical damages. The chirped mirrors are also commonly used to complete the compression after a beam transport system just before the target. Moreover, the manufacturing technology requires quality checks right after production and over the lifetime of the mirror as well, since undesired deposition on the surface can lead alteration from the designed value over a large part of the aperture. For the high harmonic generation, polarization gating technology is used to generate single attosecond pulses [1]. In this case the pulse to be compressed has various polarization state falling to the chirped mirrors. For this reason, it is crucial to measure the dispersion of the mirrors for the different polarization states. In this presentation we demonstrate a simple technique to measure the dispersion of arbitrary mirror at angles of incidence from 0 to 55 degree, even for a 12" optics. A large aperture 4" mirror has been scanned over with micrometer accuracy and the dispersion property through the surface has been investigated with a stable interference fringes in that robust geometry. We used Spectrally Resolved Interferometry, which is based on a Michaelson interferometer and a combined visible and infrared spectrometer. Tungsten halogen lamp with 10 mW coupled optical power was used as a white-light source so with the selected

Intra-pulse Cavity Enhanced Measurements of Carbon Monoxide in a Rapid Compression Machine

KAUST Repository

Nasir, Ehson Fawad

2018-05-07

A laser absorption sensor for carbon monoxide concentration was developed for combustion studies in a rapid compression machine using a pulsed quantum cascade laser near 4.89 μm. Cavity enhancement reduced minimum detection limit down to 2.4 ppm at combustion relevant conditions. Off-axis alignment and rapid intra-pulse down-chirp resulted in effective suppression of cavity noise.

Research of narrow pulse width, high repetition rate, high output power fiber lasers for deep space exploration

Science.gov (United States)

Tang, Yan-feng; Li, Hong-zuo; Wang, Yan; Hao, Zi-qiang; Xiao, Dong-Ya

2013-08-01

As human beings expand the research in unknown areas constantly, the deep space exploration has become a hot research topic all over the world. According to the long distance and large amount of information transmission characteristics of deep space exploration, the space laser communication is the preferred mode because it has the advantages of concentrated energy, good security, and large information capacity and interference immunity. In a variety of laser source, fibre-optical pulse laser has become an important communication source in deep space laser communication system because of its small size, light weight and large power. For fiber lasers, to solve the contradiction between the high repetition rate and the peak value power is an important scientific problem. General Q technology is difficult to obtain a shorter pulse widths, This paper presents a DFB semiconductor laser integrated with Electro-absorption modulator to realize the narrow pulse width, high repetition rate of the seed source, and then using a two-cascaded high gain fiber amplifier as amplification mean, to realize the fibre-optical pulse laser with pulse width 3ns, pulse frequency 200kHz and peak power 1kW. According to the space laser atmospheric transmission window, the wavelength selects for 1.06um. It is adopted that full fibre technology to make seed source and amplification, pumping source and amplification of free-space coupled into fiber-coupled way. It can overcome that fibre lasers are vulnerable to changes in external conditions such as vibration, temperature drift and other factors affect, improving long-term stability. The fiber lasers can be modulated by PPM mode, to realize high rate modulation, because of its peak power, high transmission rate, narrow pulse width, high frequency stability, all technical indexes meet the requirements of the exploration of deep space communication technology.

SAR processing with stepped chirps and phased array antennas.

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Doerry, Armin Walter

2006-09-01

Wideband radar signals are problematic for phased array antennas. Wideband radar signals can be generated from series or groups of narrow-band signals centered at different frequencies. An equivalent wideband LFM chirp can be assembled from lesser-bandwidth chirp segments in the data processing. The chirp segments can be transmitted as separate narrow-band pulses, each with their own steering phase operation. This overcomes the problematic dilemma of steering wideband chirps with phase shifters alone, that is, without true time-delay elements.

The dynamics of pulse compression in synchronously pumped fiber Raman lasers

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Band, Y.B.; Ackerhalt, J.R.; Heller, D.F.

1990-01-01

Dynamical equations describing the amplification and propagation of an initial Stokes seed pulse in a synchronously pumped fiber Raman laser configuration are formulated and analytic solutions are derived. A train of Stokes shifted pulses are produced, whose individual characteristics eventually evolve on successive round-trips through the fiber into subpicosecond pulses having constant fluence and decreasing temporal duration. Raman pulse compression stops when it is counterbalanced by the effects of group velocity dispersion and phase modulation in the normal dispersion regime. Pulse breakup due to soliton formation can occur in the anomalous dispersion regime. Simple expressions for the rate of pulse compression, steady-state pulse fluence, and for the minimum steady-state pulse duration are obtained

A high repetition rate XUV seeding source for FLASH2

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Willner, Arik

2012-05-01

Improved performance of free-electron laser (FEL) light sources in terms of timing stability, pulse shape and spectral properties of the amplified FEL pulses is of interest in material science, the fields of ultrafast dynamics, biology, chemistry and even special branches in industry. A promising scheme for such an improvement is direct seeding with high harmonic generation (HHG) in a noble gas target. A free-electron laser seeded by an external extreme ultraviolet (XUV) source is planned for FLASH2 at DESY in Hamburg. The requirements for the XUV/soft X-ray source can be summarized as follows: A repetition rate of at least 100 kHz in a 10 Hz burst is needed at variable wavelengths from 10 to 40 nm and pulse energies of several nJ within a single laser harmonic. This application requires a laser amplifier system with exceptional parameters, mJ-level pulse energy, 10-15 fs pulse duration at 100 kHz (1 MHz) burst repetition rate. A new optical parametric chirped-pulse amplification (OPCPA) system is under development in order to meet these requirements, and very promising results have been achieved in the last three years. In parallel to this development, a new HHG concept is necessary to sustain high average power of the driving laser system and to generate harmonics with high conversion efficiencies. Currently, the highest conversion efficiency with HHG has been demonstrated using gas-filled capillary targets. For our application, only a free-jet target can be used for HHG, in order to overcome damage threshold limitations of HHG target optics at a high repetition rate. A novel dual-gas multijet gas target has been developed and first experiments show remarkable control of the degree of phase matching forming the basis for improved control of the harmonic photon flux and the XUV pulse characteristics. The basic idea behind the dual-gas concept is the insertion of matching zones in between multiple HHG sources. These matching sections are filled with hydrogen which

A high repetition rate XUV seeding source for FLASH2

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Willner, Arik

2012-05-15

Improved performance of free-electron laser (FEL) light sources in terms of timing stability, pulse shape and spectral properties of the amplified FEL pulses is of interest in material science, the fields of ultrafast dynamics, biology, chemistry and even special branches in industry. A promising scheme for such an improvement is direct seeding with high harmonic generation (HHG) in a noble gas target. A free-electron laser seeded by an external extreme ultraviolet (XUV) source is planned for FLASH2 at DESY in Hamburg. The requirements for the XUV/soft X-ray source can be summarized as follows: A repetition rate of at least 100 kHz in a 10 Hz burst is needed at variable wavelengths from 10 to 40 nm and pulse energies of several nJ within a single laser harmonic. This application requires a laser amplifier system with exceptional parameters, mJ-level pulse energy, 10-15 fs pulse duration at 100 kHz (1 MHz) burst repetition rate. A new optical parametric chirped-pulse amplification (OPCPA) system is under development in order to meet these requirements, and very promising results have been achieved in the last three years. In parallel to this development, a new HHG concept is necessary to sustain high average power of the driving laser system and to generate harmonics with high conversion efficiencies. Currently, the highest conversion efficiency with HHG has been demonstrated using gas-filled capillary targets. For our application, only a free-jet target can be used for HHG, in order to overcome damage threshold limitations of HHG target optics at a high repetition rate. A novel dual-gas multijet gas target has been developed and first experiments show remarkable control of the degree of phase matching forming the basis for improved control of the harmonic photon flux and the XUV pulse characteristics. The basic idea behind the dual-gas concept is the insertion of matching zones in between multiple HHG sources. These matching sections are filled with hydrogen which

Generation of 25-TW Femtosecond Laser Pulses at 515 nm with Extremely High Temporal Contrast

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Marco Hornung

2015-12-01

Full Text Available We report on the frequency doubling of femtosecond laser pulses at 1030 nm center wavelength generated from the fully diode-pumped laser system POLARIS. The newly generated pulses at a center wavelength of 515 nm have a pulse energy of 3 J with a pulse duration of 120 fs. On the basis of initially ultra-high contrast seed pulses we expect a temporal intensity contrast better 10 17 200 ps before the peak of the main pulse. We analyzed the temporal intensity contrast from milliseconds to femtoseconds with a dynamic range covering more than 20 orders of magnitude. The pulses were focussed with a f/2-focussing parabola resulting in a peak intensity exceeding 10 20 W / cm 2 . The peak power and intensity are to the best of our knowledge the highest values for 515 nm-laser-pulses achieved so far.

ORION laser target diagnostics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bentley, C. D.; Edwards, R. D.; Andrew, J. E.; James, S. F.; Gardner, M. D.; Comley, A. J.; Vaughan, K.; Horsfield, C. J.; Rubery, M. S.; Rothman, S. D.; Daykin, S.; Masoero, S. J.; Palmer, J. B.; Meadowcroft, A. L.; Williams, B. M.; Gumbrell, E. T.; Fyrth, J. D.; Brown, C. R. D.; Hill, M. P.; Oades, K.

2012-01-01

The ORION laser facility is one of the UK's premier laser facilities which became operational at AWE in 2010. Its primary mission is one of stockpile stewardship, ORION will extend the UK's experimental plasma physics capability to the high temperature, high density regime relevant to Atomic Weapons Establishment's (AWE) program. The ORION laser combines ten laser beams operating in the ns regime with two sub ps short pulse chirped pulse amplification beams. This gives the UK a unique combined long pulse/short pulse laser capability which is not only available to AWE personnel but also gives access to our international partners and visiting UK academia. The ORION laser facility is equipped with a comprehensive suite of some 45 diagnostics covering optical, particle, and x-ray diagnostics all able to image the laser target interaction point. This paper focuses on a small selection of these diagnostics.

ORION laser target diagnostics.

Science.gov (United States)

Bentley, C D; Edwards, R D; Andrew, J E; James, S F; Gardner, M D; Comley, A J; Vaughan, K; Horsfield, C J; Rubery, M S; Rothman, S D; Daykin, S; Masoero, S J; Palmer, J B; Meadowcroft, A L; Williams, B M; Gumbrell, E T; Fyrth, J D; Brown, C R D; Hill, M P; Oades, K; Wright, M J; Hood, B A; Kemshall, P

2012-10-01

The ORION laser facility is one of the UK's premier laser facilities which became operational at AWE in 2010. Its primary mission is one of stockpile stewardship, ORION will extend the UK's experimental plasma physics capability to the high temperature, high density regime relevant to Atomic Weapons Establishment's (AWE) program. The ORION laser combines ten laser beams operating in the ns regime with two sub ps short pulse chirped pulse amplification beams. This gives the UK a unique combined long pulse/short pulse laser capability which is not only available to AWE personnel but also gives access to our international partners and visiting UK academia. The ORION laser facility is equipped with a comprehensive suite of some 45 diagnostics covering optical, particle, and x-ray diagnostics all able to image the laser target interaction point. This paper focuses on a small selection of these diagnostics.

Nondegenerate parametric generation of 2.2-mJ, few-cycle 2.05-μm pulses using a mixed phase matching scheme

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Xu, Guibao; Wandel, Scott F.; Jovanovic, Igor

2014-01-01

We describe the production of 2.2-mJ, ∼6 optical-cycle-long mid-infrared laser pulses with a carrier wavelength of 2.05 μm in a two-stage β-BaB 2 O 4 nondegenerate optical parametric amplifier design with a mixed phase matching scheme, which is pumped by a standard Ti:sapphire chirped-pulse amplification system. It is demonstrated that relatively high pulse energies, short pulse durations, high stability, and excellent beam profiles can be obtained using this simple approach, even without the use of optical parametric chirped-pulse amplification

Fabrication of highly conductive Ta-doped SnO2 polycrystalline films on glass using seed-layer technique by pulse laser deposition

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nakao, Shoichiro; Yamada, Naoomi; Hitosugi, Taro; Hirose, Yasushi; Shimada, Toshihiro; Hasegawa, Tetsuya

2010-01-01

We discuss the fabrication of highly conductive Ta-doped SnO 2 (Sn 1-x Ta x O 2 ; TTO) thin films on glass by pulse laser deposition. On the basis of the comparison of X-ray diffraction patterns and resistivity (ρ) values between epitaxial films and polycrystalline films deposited on bare glass, we proposed the use of seed-layers for improving the conductivity of the TTO polycrystalline films. We investigated the use of rutile TiO 2 and NbO 2 as seed-layers; these are isostructural materials of SnO 2, which are expected to promote epitaxial-like growth of the TTO films. The films prepared on the 10-nm-thick seed-layers exhibited preferential growth of the TTO (110) plane. The TTO film with x = 0.05 on rutile TiO 2 exhibited ρ = 3.5 x 10 -4 Ω cm, which is similar to those of the epitaxial films grown on Al 2 O 3 (0001).

Broadband pulsed difference frequency generation laser source centered 3326 nm based on ring fiber lasers

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Guangwei; Li, Wenlei

2018-03-01

A broadband pulsed mid-infrared difference frequency generation (DFG) laser source based on MgO-doped congruent LiNbO3 bulk is experimentally demonstrated, which employs a homemade pulsed ytterbium-doped ring fiber laser and a continuous wave erbium-doped ring fiber laser to act as seed sources. The experimental results indicate that the perfect phase match crystal temperature is about 74.5∘C. The maximum spectrum bandwidth of idler is about 60 nm with suitable polarization states of fundamental lights. The central wavelength of idlers varies from 3293 nm to 3333 nm over the crystal temperature ranges of 70.4-76∘C. A jump of central wavelength exists around crystal temperature of 72∘C with variation of about 30 nm. The conversion efficiency of DFG can be tuned with the crystal temperature and polarization states of fundamental lights.

Dynamic Time-Resolved Chirped-Pulse Rotational Spectroscopy of Vinyl Cyanide Photoproducts in a Room Temperature Flow Reactor

Science.gov (United States)

Zaleski, Daniel P.; Prozument, Kirill

2017-06-01

Chirped-pulsed (CP) Fourier transform rotational spectroscopy invented by Brooks Pate and coworkers a decade ago is an attractive tool for gas phase chemical dynamics and kinetics studies. A good reactor for such a purpose would have well-defined (and variable) temperature and pressure conditions to be amenable to accurate kinetic modeling. Furthermore, in low pressure samples with large enough number of molecular emitters, reaction dynamics can be observable directly, rather than mediated by supersonic expansion. In the present work, we are evaluating feasibility of in situ time-resolved CP spectroscopy in a room temperature flow tube reactor. Vinyl cyanide (CH_2CHCN), neat or mixed with inert gasses, flows through the reactor at pressures 1-50 μbar (0.76-38 mTorr) where it is photodissociated by a 193 nm laser. Millimeter-wave beam of the CP spectrometer co-propagates with the laser beam along the reactor tube and interacts with nascent photoproducts. Rotational transitions of HCN, HNC, and HCCCN are detected, with ≥10 μs time-steps for 500 ms following photolysis of CH_2CHCN. The post-photolysis evolution of the photoproducts' rotational line intensities is investigated for the effects of rotational and vibrational thermalization of energized photoproducts. Possible contributions from bimolecular and wall-mediated chemistry are evaluated as well.

Distinct Lasing Operation From Chirped InAs/InP Quantum-Dash Laser

KAUST Repository

Khan, Mohammed Zahed Mustafa

2013-08-01

We study the enhanced inhomogeneity across the InAs quantum-dash (Qdash) layers by incorporating a chirped AlGaInAs barrier thickness in the InAs/InP laser structure. The lasing operation is investigated via Fabry-Pérot ridge-waveguide laser characterization, which shows a peculiar behavior under quasi-continuous-wave (QCW) operation. Continuous energy transfer between different dash ensembles initiated quenching of lasing action among certain dash groups, causing a reduced intensity gap in the lasing spectra. We discuss these characteristics in terms of the quasi-zero-dimensional density of states (DOS) of dashes and the active region inhomogeneity. © 2009-2012 IEEE.

EFFECT OF OPTICAL FIBER HYDROGEN LOADING ON THE INSCRIPTION EFFICIENCY OF CHIRPED BRAGG GRATINGS BY MEANS OF KrF EXCIMER LASER RADIATION

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sergey V. Varzhel

2016-11-01

Full Text Available Subject of Research.We present comparative results of the chirped Bragg gratings inscription efficiency in optical fiber of domestic production with and without low-temperature hydrogen loading. Method. Chirped fiber Bragg gratings inscription was made by the Talbot interferometer with chirped phase mask having a chirp rate of 2.3 nm/cm used for the laser beam amplitude separation. The excimer laser system Coherent COMPexPro 150T, working with the gas mixture KrF (248 nm, was used as the radiation source. In order to increase the UV photosensitivity, the optical fiber was placed in a chamber with hydrogen under a pressure of 10 MPa and kept there for 14 days at 40 °C. Main Results. The usage of the chirped phase mask in a Talbot interferometer scheme has made it possible to get a full width at half-maximum of the fiber Bragg grating reflection spectrum of 3.5 nm with induced diffraction structure length of 5 mm. By preliminary hydrogen loading of optical fiber the broad reflection spectrum fiber Bragg gratings with a reflectivity close to 100% has been inscribed. Practical Relevance. The resulting chirped fiber Bragg gratings can be used as dispersion compensators in optical fiber communications, as well as the reflective elements of distributed fiber-optic phase interferometric sensors.

Intense isolated attosecond pulse generation from relativistic laser plasmas using few-cycle laser pulses

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ma, Guangjin; Dallari, William; Borot, Antonin; Tsakiris, George D.; Veisz, Laszlo; Krausz, Ferenc; Yu, Wei

2015-01-01

We have performed a systematic study through particle-in-cell simulations to investigate the generation of attosecond pulse from relativistic laser plasmas when laser pulse duration approaches the few-cycle regime. A significant enhancement of attosecond pulse energy has been found to depend on laser pulse duration, carrier envelope phase, and plasma scale length. Based on the results obtained in this work, the potential of attaining isolated attosecond pulses with ∼100 μJ energy for photons >16 eV using state-of-the-art laser technology appears to be within reach

High pressure gas laser technology for atmospheric remote sensing

Science.gov (United States)

Javan, A.

1980-01-01

The development of a fixed frequency chirp-free and highly stable intense pulsed laser made for Doppler wind velocity measurements with accurate ranging is described. Energy extraction from a high pressure CO2 laser at a tunable single mode frequency is also examined.

Comparative study of femtosecond and nanosecond laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy of depleted uranium

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Emmert, Luke A.; Chinni, Rosemarie C.; Cremers, David A.; Jones, C. Randy; Rudolph, Wolfgang

2011-01-01

We present spectra of depleted uranium metal from laser plasmas generated by nanosecond Nd:YAG (1064 nm) and femtosecond Ti:sapphire (800 nm) laser pulses. The latter pulses produce short-lived and relatively cool plasmas in comparison to the longer pulses, and the spectra of neutral uranium atoms appear immediately after excitation. Evidence for nonequilibrium excitation with femtosecond pulses is found in the dependence of spectral line intensities on the pulse chirp.

Isolated sub-100-attosecond pulse generation via controlling electron dynamics

OpenAIRE

Lan, Pengfei; Lu, Peixiang; Cao, Wei; Li, Yuhua; Wang, Xinlin

2007-01-01

A new method to coherently control the electron dynamics is proposed using a few-cycle laser pulse in combination with a controlling field. It is shown that this method not only broadens the attosecond pulse bandwidth, but also reduces the chirp, then an isolated 80-as pulse is straightforwardly obtained and even shorter pulse is achievable by increasing the intensity of the controlling field. Such ultrashort pulses allow one to investigate ultrafast electronic processes which have never be a...

High-Average-Power Diffraction Pulse-Compression Gratings Enabling Next-Generation Ultrafast Laser Systems

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Alessi, D. [Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)

2016-11-01

Pulse compressors for ultrafast lasers have been identified as a technology gap in the push towards high peak power systems with high average powers for industrial and scientific applications. Gratings for ultrashort (sub-150fs) pulse compressors are metallic and can absorb a significant percentage of laser energy resulting in up to 40% loss as well as thermal issues which degrade on-target performance. We have developed a next generation gold grating technology which we have scaled to the petawatt-size. This resulted in improvements in efficiency, uniformity and processing as compared to previous substrate etched gratings for high average power. This new design has a deposited dielectric material for the grating ridge rather than etching directly into the glass substrate. It has been observed that average powers as low as 1W in a compressor can cause distortions in the on-target beam. We have developed and tested a method of actively cooling diffraction gratings which, in the case of gold gratings, can support a petawatt peak power laser with up to 600W average power. We demonstrated thermo-mechanical modeling of a grating in its use environment and benchmarked with experimental measurement. Multilayer dielectric (MLD) gratings are not yet used for these high peak power, ultrashort pulse durations due to their design challenges. We have designed and fabricated broad bandwidth, low dispersion MLD gratings suitable for delivering 30 fs pulses at high average power. This new grating design requires the use of a novel Out Of Plane (OOP) compressor, which we have modeled, designed, built and tested. This prototype compressor yielded a transmission of 90% for a pulse with 45 nm bandwidth, and free of spatial and angular chirp. In order to evaluate gratings and compressors built in this project we have commissioned a joule-class ultrafast Ti:Sapphire laser system. Combining the grating cooling and MLD technologies developed here could enable petawatt laser systems to

Chirp-free direct modulation of 550 nm emission in Er3+ -Doped Fluoroindate glass by nonlinear feedback control

Science.gov (United States)

Cai, Runyu; Thitsa, Makhin; Bluiett, Althea; Brown, Ei; Hommerich, Uwe

2017-06-01

We propose a direct modulation method with nonlinear feedback controller which can produce chirp-free modulation of the output pulse without bulky external modulators. This work reports the design of the controller which, via a feedback loop, varies and controls the pump rate in real time by automatically adjusting the pump power to precisely modulate the emission of 550 nm in Er3+ -doped Fluoroindate glass under 1.48 μm pumping. In this interdisciplinary paper, well established theoretical tools from nonlinear control theory are applied to the dynamical system of the laser material in order to produce the desired output of the laser. The controller is simulated in MATLAB Simulink and the simulation results show that our technique yields precise modulation of the output intensity without frequency chirping. Results on both theoretical analysis of the control methodology and simulation are presented.

New solid laser: Ceramic laser. From ultra stable laser to ultra high output laser

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ueda, Kenichi

2006-01-01

An epoch-making solid laser is developed. It is ceramic laser, polycrystal, which is produced as same as glass and shows ultra high output. Ti 3+ :Al 2 O 3 laser crystal and the CPA (chirped pulse amplification) technique realized new ultra high output lasers. Japan has developed various kinds of ceramic lasers, from 10 -2 to 67 x 10 3 w average output, since 1995. These ceramic lasers were studied by gravitational radiation astronomy. The scattering coefficient of ceramic laser is smaller than single crystals. The new fast ignition method is proposed by Institute of Laser Engineering of Osaka University, Japan. Ultra-intense short pulse laser can inject the required energy to the high-density imploded core plasma within the core disassembling time. Ti 3+ :Al 2 O 3 crystal for laser, ceramic YAG of large caliber for 100 kW, transparent laser ceramic from nano-crystals, crystal grain and boundary layer between grains, the scattering coefficient of single crystal and ceramic, and the derived release cross section of Yb:YAG ceramic are described. (S.Y.)

Ultrashort Laser Pulse Phenomena

CERN Document Server

Diels, Jean-Claude

2006-01-01

Ultrashort Laser Pulse Phenomena, 2e serves as an introduction to the phenomena of ultra short laser pulses and describes how this technology can be used to examine problems in areas such as electromagnetism, optics, and quantum mechanics. Ultrashort Laser Pulse Phenomena combines theoretical backgrounds and experimental techniques and will serve as a manual on designing and constructing femtosecond (""faster than electronics"") systems or experiments from scratch. Beyond the simple optical system, the various sources of ultrashort pulses are presented, again with emphasis on the basic

Chirped Auger electron emission due to field-assisted post-collision interaction

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Bonitz M.

2013-03-01

Full Text Available We have investigated the Auger decay in the temporal domain by applying a terahertz streaking light field. Xenon and krypton atoms were studied by implementing the free-electron laser in Hamburg (FLASH as well as a source of high-order harmonic radiation combined with terahertz pulses from an optical rectification source. The observed linewidth asymmetries in the streaked spectra suggest a chirped Auger electron emission which is understood in terms of field-assisted post-collision interaction. The experimentally obtained results agree well with model calculations.

A novel method for length of chirped fiber Bragg grating sensor

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Zhenwei; Wei, Peng; Liu, Taolin

2018-03-01

Length of chirped fiber Bragg grating sensor is very important for detonation velocity. Different from other ways, we proposed a novel method based on the optical frequency domain reflection theory to measure the length of chirped fiber grating sensor in non-contact condition. This method adopts a tunable laser source to provide wavelength scanning laser, which covers the Full Width at Half Maximum of spectrum of the chirped fiber Bragg grating sensor. A Michelson interferometer is used to produce optical interference signal. Finally, the grating's length is attainable by distance domain signal. In theory, length resolution of chirped fiber Bragg grating sensor could be 0.02 mm. We perform a series of length measurement experiments for chirped fiber grating sensor, including comparison experiments with hot-tip method. And the experiment results show that the novel method could accurately measure the length of chirped fiber Bragg grating sensors, and the length differences between the optical frequency domain reflection method and the hot-tip probe method are very small.

Gain saturation of nickel-like silver and tin x-ray lasers by use of a tabletop pumping laser system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kawachi, Tetsuya; Kado, Masataka; Tanaka, Momoko; Sasaki, Akira; Hasegawa, Noboru; Namba, Sinichi; Nagashima, Keisuke; Lu Peixiang; Takahashi, Kenjiro; Tai Renzhong; Kishimoto, Maki; Koike, Masato; Daido, Hiroyuki; Kato, Yoshiaki; Kilpio, Alexander V.; Tang Huajing

2002-01-01

Silver and tin slab targets were irradiated by line-focused chirped pulse amplification glass laser light. In this experiment, the laser pulses consisted of two pulses with 4 ps duration, separated by 1.2 ns. Strong amplification in the nickel-like silver and tin x-ray lasers at the wavelengths of 13.9 and 12.0 nm was demonstrated with pumping energy of 12 and 14 J, respectively, and gain-saturation behavior could be seen. A hydrodynamics simulation coupled with a collisional-radiative model was performed under the present experimental conditions, and the calculated result was compared with the experimental results

Injection seeded, diode pumped regenerative ring Nd:YAG amplifier for spaceborne laser ranging technology development

Science.gov (United States)

Coyle, D. Barry; Kay, Richard B.; Degnan, John J.; Krebs, Danny J.; Seery, Bernard D.

1992-01-01

A small, all solid state, regenerative ring amplifier designed as a prototype for space application is discussed. Novel features include dual side pumping of the Nd:YAG crystal and a triangular ring cavity design which minimizes the number of optical components and losses. The amplifier is relatively small (3 ns round trip time) even though standard optical elements are employed. The ring regeneratively amplifies a 100 ps single pulse by approximately 10(exp 5) at a repetition rate of 10 to 100 Hz. The amplifier is designed to be injection seeded with a pulsed, 100 ps laser diode at 1.06 microns, but another Nd:YAG laser system supplying higher pulse energies was employed for laboratory experiment. This system is a prototype laser oscillator for the Geoscience Laser Ranging System (GLRS) platform. Results on measurements of beam quality, astigmatism, and gain are given.

Continuously tunable pulsed Ti:Sa laser self-seeded by an extended grating cavity

CERN Document Server

Li, Ruohong; Rothe, Sebastian; Teigelhöfer, Andrea; Mostamand, Maryam

2016-01-01

A continuously tunable titanium:sapphire (Ti:Sa) laser self-seeded by an extended grating cavity was demonstrated and characterized. By inserting a partially reflecting mirror inside the cavity of a classic single-cavity grating laser, two oscillators are created: a broadband power oscillator, and a narrowband oscillator with a prism beam expander and a diffraction grating in Littrow configuration. By coupling the grating cavity oscillation into the power oscillator, a power-enhanced narrow-linewidth laser oscillation is achieved. Compared to the classic grating laser, this simple modification significantly increases the laser output power without considerably broadening the linewidth. With most of the oscillating laser power confined inside the broadband power cavity and lower power incident onto the grating, the new configuration also allows higher pump power, which is typically limited by the thermal deformation of the grating coating at high oscillation power.

High-average-power 2 μm few-cycle optical parametric chirped pulse amplifier at 100 kHz repetition rate.

Science.gov (United States)

Shamir, Yariv; Rothhardt, Jan; Hädrich, Steffen; Demmler, Stefan; Tschernajew, Maxim; Limpert, Jens; Tünnermann, Andreas

2015-12-01

Sources of long wavelengths few-cycle high repetition rate pulses are becoming increasingly important for a plethora of applications, e.g., in high-field physics. Here, we report on the realization of a tunable optical parametric chirped pulse amplifier at 100 kHz repetition rate. At a central wavelength of 2 μm, the system delivered 33 fs pulses and a 6 W average power corresponding to 60 μJ pulse energy with gigawatt-level peak powers. Idler absorption and its crystal heating is experimentally investigated for a BBO. Strategies for further power scaling to several tens of watts of average power are discussed.

Ultrashort pulse laser technology laser sources and applications

CERN Document Server

Schrempel, Frank; Dausinger, Friedrich

2016-01-01

Ultrashort laser pulses with durations in the femtosecond range up to a few picoseconds provide a unique method for precise materials processing or medical applications. Paired with the recent developments in ultrashort pulse lasers, this technology is finding its way into various application fields. The book gives a comprehensive overview of the principles and applications of ultrashort pulse lasers, especially applied to medicine and production technology. Recent advances in laser technology are discussed in detail. This covers the development of reliable and cheap low power laser sources as well as high average power ultrashort pulse lasers for large scale manufacturing. The fundamentals of laser-matter-interaction as well as processing strategies and the required system technology are discussed for these laser sources with respect to precise materials processing. Finally, different applications within medicine, measurement technology or materials processing are highlighted.

Guiding of laser pulses in plasma waveguides created by linearly-polarized femtosecond laser pulses

OpenAIRE

Lemos, N.; Cardoso, L.; Geada, J.; Figueira, G.; Albert, F.; Dias, J. M.

2018-01-01

We experimentally demonstrate that plasma waveguides produced with ultra-short laser pulses (sub-picosecond) in gas jets are capable of guiding high intensity laser pulses. This scheme has the unique ability of guiding a high-intensity laser pulse in a plasma waveguide created by the same laser system in the very simple and stable experimental setup. A hot plasma column was created by a femtosecond class laser that expands into an on-axis parabolic low density profile suitable to act as a wav...

Dynamic properties of quantum dot distributed feedback lasers: high speed, linewidth and chirp

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Su Hui; Lester, Luke F

2005-01-01

The dynamic properties of distributed feedback lasers (DFBs) based on InAs/InGaAs quantum dots (QDs) are studied. The response function of QD DFBs under external modulation is measured, and the gain compression with photon density is identified to be the limiting factor of the modulation bandwidth. The enhancement of the gain compression by the gain saturation with the carrier density in QDs is also analysed for the first time. The linewidth of the QD DFBs is found to be more than one order of magnitude narrower than that of conventional quantum well (QW) DFBs at comparable output powers. The figure of merit for the narrow linewidth is compared between different semiconductor materials, including bulk, QWs and QDs. Linewidth re-broadening and the effects of gain offset are also investigated. Finally, the chirp of QD DFBs is studied by time-resolved-chirp measurements. The wavelength chirping of the QD DFBs under 2.5 Gbps modulation is characterized. The strong dependence of the linewidth enhancement factor on the photon density is explained by the enhancement of gain compression by the gain saturation with the carrier density, which is related to the inhomogeneous broadening and spectral hole burning in QDs

Pulsed single-photon spectrometer by frequency-to-time mapping using chirped fiber Bragg gratings.

Science.gov (United States)

Davis, Alex O C; Saulnier, Paul M; Karpiński, Michał; Smith, Brian J

2017-05-29

A fiber-integrated spectrometer for single-photon pulses outside the telecommunications wavelength range based upon frequency-to-time mapping, implemented by chromatic group delay dispersion (GDD), and precise temporally-resolved single-photon counting, is presented. A chirped fiber Bragg grating provides low-loss GDD, mapping the frequency distribution of an input pulse onto the temporal envelope of the output pulse. Time-resolved detection with fast single-photon-counting modules enables monitoring of a wavelength range from 825 nm to 835 nm with nearly uniform efficiency at 55 pm resolution (24 GHz at 830 nm). To demonstrate the versatility of this technique, spectral interference of heralded single photons and the joint spectral intensity distribution of a photon-pair source are measured. This approach to single-photon-level spectral measurements provides a route to realize applications of time-frequency quantum optics at visible and near-infrared wavelengths, where multiple spectral channels must be simultaneously monitored.

Self-pulsing in a 2 km single-mode fiber with the seed source broadened via WNS phase modulation

Science.gov (United States)

Zha, Congwen; Sun, Yinhong; Wang, Yanshan; Li, Tenglong; Peng, Wanjing; Ma, Yi; Zhang, Kai

2018-03-01

The seed source with spectral linewidth broadening via phase modulation is potential to achieve the higher output power with effective SBS suppression. However, self-pulsing from the amplifier output is harmful. In this work, we study the self-pulsing characteristics in a long single-mode fiber with lower self-pulsing threshold instead of the high power amplifier. We provide a powerful experimental support for the self-pulsing mechanism in high-power narrow-linewidth fiber lasers, which is important for further output power scaling.

100 TW CPA Nd: Glass laser for fast ignition research

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fujita, H.; Daido, H.; Jitsuno, T.

2001-01-01

A 100 TW chirped pulse amplification (CPA) Nd:glass laser has been developed to investigate the fast ignition concept. The ultrashort-pulse (60 TW, 42 J, 0.7 ps) was focused on plane targets, plane targets with preformed plasma, and high density compressed plasmas produced by the GEKKO-XII (12 beam, 20 kJ) laser. Focus intensity of >10 19 W/cm 2 has been achieved. (author)

Frequency-chirped readout of spatial-spectral absorption features

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chang, Tiejun; Mohan, R. Krishna; Harris, Todd L.; Merkel, Kristian D.; Tian Mingzhen; Babbitt, Wm. Randall

2004-01-01

This paper examines the physical mechanisms of reading out spatial-spectral absorption features in an inhomogeneously broadened medium using linear frequency-chirped electric fields. A Maxwell-Bloch model using numerical calculation for angled beams with arbitrary phase modulation is used to simulate the chirped field readout process. The simulation results indicate that any spatial-spectral absorption feature can be read out with a chirped field with the appropriate bandwidth, duration, and intensity. Mapping spectral absorption features into temporal intensity modulations depends on the chirp rate of the field. However, when probing a spatial-spectral grating with a chirped field, a beat signal representing the grating period can be created by interfering the emitted photon echo chirped field with a reference chirped field, regardless of the chirp rate. Comparisons are made between collinear and angled readout configurations. Readout signal strength and spurious signal distortions are investigated as functions of the grating strength and the Rabi frequency of the readout pulse. Using a collinear readout geometry, distortions from optical nutation on the transmitted field and higher-order harmonics are observed, both of which are avoided in an angled beam geometry

Laser pulse stacking method

Science.gov (United States)

Moses, E.I.

1992-12-01

A laser pulse stacking method is disclosed. A problem with the prior art has been the generation of a series of laser beam pulses where the outer and inner regions of the beams are generated so as to form radially non-synchronous pulses. Such pulses thus have a non-uniform cross-sectional area with respect to the outer and inner edges of the pulses. The present invention provides a solution by combining the temporally non-uniform pulses in a stacking effect to thus provide a more uniform temporal synchronism over the beam diameter. 2 figs.

Extremely short light pulses: generation; diagnostics, and application in attosecond spectroscopy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Iakovlev, V.

2003-06-01

The scope of the thesis includes the design of chirped mirrors, as well as theoretical investigations in the fields of high-harmonic generation and laser-dressed Auger decay, the unifying aspect being the presence of extremely short light pulses and physical processes taking place on a femtosecond scale. The main results of the research are the following: 1) It was shown that efficient global optimization of chirped mirrors is possible with an adapted version of the memetic algorithm (also known as hybrid genetic algorithm). 2) The analysis of high-harmonic spectra generated by a few-cycle laser pulse can reveal the electric field of the pulse in the vicinity of its envelope peak. The method developed for this purpose can also be regarded as a method to measure the carrier-envelope phase of laser pulses, which is more robust and has a larger range of applicability compared to the simple analysis of the cut-off region of high-harmonic spectra. 3) A quantum theory of time-resolved Auger spectroscopy was developed. Based on the essential states method, closed-form expressions for probability amplitudes were derived. The theory lays the foundation for the interpretation of experiments that probe electronic motion during atomic excitation, deexcitation, and ionization. (author)

Thin-Film Polarizers for the OMEGA EP Laser System

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Oliver, J.B.; Rigatti, A.L.; Howe, J.D.; Keck, J.; Szczepanski, J.; Schmid, A.W.; Papernov, S.; Kozlov, A.; Kosc, T.Z.

2006-01-01

Thin-film polarizers are essential components of large laser systems such as OMEGA EP and the NIF because of the need to switch the beam out of the primary laser cavity (in conjunction with a plasma-electrode Pockels cell) as well as providing a well-defined linear polarization for frequency conversion and protecting the system from back-reflected light. The design and fabrication of polarizers for pulse-compressed laser systems is especially challenging because of the spectral bandwidth necessary for chirped-pulse amplification

Multiharmonic Frequency-Chirped Transducers for Surface-Acoustic-Wave Optomechanics

Science.gov (United States)

Weiß, Matthias; Hörner, Andreas L.; Zallo, Eugenio; Atkinson, Paola; Rastelli, Armando; Schmidt, Oliver G.; Wixforth, Achim; Krenner, Hubert J.

2018-01-01

Wide-passband interdigital transducers are employed to establish a stable phase lock between a train of laser pulses emitted by a mode-locked laser and a surface acoustic wave generated electrically by the transducer. The transducer design is based on a multiharmonic split-finger architecture for the excitation of a fundamental surface acoustic wave and a discrete number of its overtones. Simply by introducing a variation of the transducer's periodicity p , a frequency chirp is added. This combination results in wide frequency bands for each harmonic. The transducer's conversion efficiency from the electrical to the acoustic domain is characterized optomechanically using single quantum dots acting as nanoscale pressure sensors. The ability to generate surface acoustic waves over a wide band of frequencies enables advanced acousto-optic spectroscopy using mode-locked lasers with fixed repetition rate. Stable phase locking between the electrically generated acoustic wave and the train of laser pulses is confirmed by performing stroboscopic spectroscopy on a single quantum dot at a frequency of 320 MHz. Finally, the dynamic spectral modulation of the quantum dot is directly monitored in the time domain combining stable phase-locked optical excitation and time-correlated single-photon counting. The demonstrated scheme will be particularly useful for the experimental implementation of surface-acoustic-wave-driven quantum gates of optically addressable qubits or collective quantum states or for multicomponent Fourier synthesis of tailored nanomechanical waveforms.

Laser treatment of radish seed

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kartalov, P.; Nidal, T.

1987-01-01

Trials were conducted in unheated plastic greenhouses in 1985-1986 to test the effect of laser treatment on radish seed. Seed of cv Saxia was irradiated with helio-neon laser of 632.8 Nm wave length at: 2-, 4- and 6-fold irradiation. Results showed that plants of all variants emerged almost simultaneously. The root mass was greatest for plants obtained from 4-fold irradiated seed. Treatment enhanced root production in 1985, and in 1986 4-fold irradiation boosted yield by 15%

Parametric generation of high-energy 14.5-fs light pulses at 1.5 mum.

Science.gov (United States)

Nisoli, M; Stagira, S; De Silvestri, S; Svelto, O; Valiulis, G; Varanavicius, A

1998-04-15

High-energy light pulses that are tunable from 1.1 to 2.6 mum, with a duration as short as 14.5 fs were generated in a type II phase-matching beta-BaB(2)O(4) traveling-wave parametric converter pumped by 18-fs pulses obtained from a Ti:sapphire laser with chirped-pulse amplification, followed by a hollow-fiber compressor.

Investigation of Chirped InAs/InGaAlAs/InP Quantum Dash Lasers as Broadband Emitters

KAUST Repository

Khan, Mohammed Zahed Mustafa

2014-02-01

In this paper, we assessed the effect of additionally broadened quantum dash (Qdash) optical transitions in the multi-stack dash-in-a-well laser structure at both, material and device level. A broad photoluminescence linewidth of ?150 nm demonstrates the formation of highly inhomogeneous InAs-dashes across the stacks. The transmission electron microscopy revealed small (large) average dash height from the Qdash stack with thick (thin) over grown barrier layer. The Fabry-Perot laser diodes fabricated from this chirped structure exhibits unique device physics under the short pulsewidth (SPW) and quasi-continuous wave (QCW) operation. Varying the ridge-width W from 2 to 4 ?rm showed quenching of ultrabroad lasing signature in the SPW operation, and consistent even for a wide 15 ?rm oxide strip laser diode. A lasing spectral split with reduced intensity gap in the center is observed in the QCW operation with the gap decreasing with increasing ridge-width. Such atypical lasing operation, influenced by the waveguiding mechanism is qualitatively realized by associating to the reduced vertical coupling effect of the Qdash stacks in the operation of small ridge-width lasers compared with large ridge-width and oxide stripe lasers, and leading to varying non-uniform distribution of carriers among the inhomogeneously broadened Qdash stacks in each case. Our chirped 2 × 830 ?rm ridge laser demonstrated marked improvement in the internal quantum efficiency (?80) and -3 dB lasing bandwidth, >50 nm centered at ?1.61 ?m. © 2013 IEEE.

Seeded free-electron and inverse free-electron laser techniques for radiation amplification and electron microbunching in the terahertz range

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

C. Sung

2006-12-01

Full Text Available A comprehensive analysis is presented that describes amplification of a seed THz pulse in a single-pass free-electron laser (FEL driven by a photoinjector. The dynamics of the radiation pulse and the modulated electron beam are modeled using the time-dependent FEL code, GENESIS 1.3. A 10-ps (FWHM electron beam with a peak current of 50–100 A allows amplification of a ∼1  kW seed pulse in the frequency range 0.5–3 THz up to 10–100 MW power in a relatively compact 2-m long planar undulator. The electron beam driving the FEL is strongly modulated, with some inhomogeneity due to the slippage effect. It is shown that THz microbunching of the electron beam is homogeneous over the entire electron pulse when saturated FEL amplification is utilized at the very entrance of an undulator. This requires seeding of a 30-cm long undulator buncher with a 1–3 MW of pump power with radiation at the resonant frequency. A narrow-band seed pulse in the THz range needed for these experiments can be generated by frequency mixing of CO_{2} laser lines in a GaAs nonlinear crystal. Two schemes for producing MW power pulses in seeded FELs are considered in some detail for the beam parameters achievable at the Neptune Laboratory at UCLA: the first uses a waveguide to transport radiation in the 0.5–3 THz range through a 2-m long FEL amplifier and the second employs high-gain third harmonic generation using the FEL process at 3–9 THz.

Demonstration of Detuning and Wavebreaking Effects on Raman Amplification Efficiency in Plasma

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

N.A. Yampolsky; N.J. Fisch; V.M. Malkin; E.J. Valeo; R. Lindberg; J. Wurtele; J. Ren; S. Li; A. Morozov; S. Suckewer

2008-01-01

A plasma-based resonant backward Raman amplifier/compressor for high power amplification of short laser pulses might, under ideal conditions, convert as much as 90% of the pump energy to the seed pulse. While the theoretical highest possible efficiency of this scheme has not yet been achieved, larger efficiencies than ever before obtained experimentally (6.4%) are now being reported, and these efficiencies are accompanied by strong pulse compression. Based on these recent extensive experiments, it is now possible to deduce that the experimentally realized efficiency of the amplifier is likely constrained by two factors, namely the pump chirp and the plasma wavebreaking, and that these experimental observations may likely involve favorable compensation between the chirp of the laser and the density variation of the mediating plasma. Several methods for further improvement of the amplifier efficiency in current experiments are suggested

Fabrication of highly conductive Ta-doped SnO{sub 2} polycrystalline films on glass using seed-layer technique by pulse laser deposition

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Nakao, Shoichiro, E-mail: tg-s-nakao@newkast.or.j [Kanagawa Academy of Science and Technology (KAST), Kawasaki 213-0012 (Japan); Department of Chemistry, University of Tokyo, Tokyo 113-0033 (Japan); Yamada, Naoomi [Kanagawa Academy of Science and Technology (KAST), Kawasaki 213-0012 (Japan); Hitosugi, Taro [Kanagawa Academy of Science and Technology (KAST), Kawasaki 213-0012 (Japan); Advanced Institute for Materials Research, Tohoku University, Sendai 980-8577 (Japan); Hirose, Yasushi; Shimada, Toshihiro; Hasegawa, Tetsuya [Kanagawa Academy of Science and Technology (KAST), Kawasaki 213-0012 (Japan); Department of Chemistry, University of Tokyo, Tokyo 113-0033 (Japan)

2010-03-31

We discuss the fabrication of highly conductive Ta-doped SnO{sub 2} (Sn{sub 1-x}Ta{sub x}O{sub 2}; TTO) thin films on glass by pulse laser deposition. On the basis of the comparison of X-ray diffraction patterns and resistivity ({rho}) values between epitaxial films and polycrystalline films deposited on bare glass, we proposed the use of seed-layers for improving the conductivity of the TTO polycrystalline films. We investigated the use of rutile TiO{sub 2} and NbO{sub 2} as seed-layers; these are isostructural materials of SnO{sub 2,} which are expected to promote epitaxial-like growth of the TTO films. The films prepared on the 10-nm-thick seed-layers exhibited preferential growth of the TTO (110) plane. The TTO film with x = 0.05 on rutile TiO{sub 2} exhibited {rho} = 3.5 x 10{sup -4} {Omega} cm, which is similar to those of the epitaxial films grown on Al{sub 2}O{sub 3} (0001).

Thermal Changes of Maize Seed by Laser Irradiation

Science.gov (United States)

Hernandez-Aguilar, C.; Dominguez-Pacheco, A.; Cruz-Orea, A.

2015-09-01

In this research, the thermal evolution in maize seeds ( Zea mays L.) was studied when low-intensity laser irradiation was applied during 60 s. The seeds were irradiated in three different conditions: suspended in air, placed on an aluminum surface, and finally placed on a cardboard; the evolution of the seed temperature was measured by an infrared camera. Photoacoustic spectroscopy and the Rosencwaig and Gersho model were used to determine the optical absorption coefficient (β ) of the seeds. The results indicate that using 650 nm laser light and 27.4 mW, it is possible to produce temperature changes (up to 9.06°C after 1 min) on the seeds. Comparing the mean temperature of the seeds, during and after the incidence of light from a laser, it was found that there were statistically significant differences (P≤ 0.05) from time t1 to time t_{16} (t1 to t_{16}) and t3 to t_{16}, for the laser turned on and off, respectively. The seed condition that had the highest temperature variation, relative to the initial temperature (during the irradiation laser exposure), involved the seeds suspended in air. With regard to the stage of decay of the temperature, it was found that the seed condition that decays more slowly was the seed placed on the cardboard. It was also found that black-dyed maize seeds are optically opaque in the 300 nm to 700 nm range Also, the thermal diffusion length is smaller than the optical penetration length. In the present investigation, it was shown that there is a thermal component associated with the mechanisms of laser biostimulation, which is also a function of the container materials of the seed. In this way, the effects of laser treatment on maize seeds involve at least a temperature effect. It is important to know the temperature changes in the seeds that have been irradiated with a laser beam since they could have substantial practical and theoretical importance.

Laser beam diagnostics for kilowatt power pulsed YAG laser

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Liu, Yi; Leong, Keng H.

1992-01-01

There is a growing need for high power YAG laser beam diagnostics with the recent introduction of such lasers in laser material processing. In this paper, we will describe the use of a commercially available laser beam analyzer (Prometec) to profile the laser beam from a 1600 W pulsed Nd:YAG laser that has a 1 mm fiber optic beam delivery system. The selection of laser pulse frequency and pulse width for the measurement is discussed. Laser beam propagation parameters by various optical components such as fibers and lenses can be determined from measurements using this device. The importance of such measurements will be discussed

Characterization of ultrashort laser pulses employing self-phase modulation dispersion-scan technique

Science.gov (United States)

Sharba, A. B.; Chekhlov, O.; Wyatt, A. S.; Pattathil, R.; Borghesi, M.; Sarri, G.

2018-03-01

We present a new phase characterization technique for ultrashort laser pulses that employs self-phase modulation (SPM) in the dispersion scan approach. The method can be implemented by recording a set of nonlinearly modulated spectra generated with a set of known chirp values. The unknown phase of the pulse is retrieved by linking the recorded spectra to the initial spectrum of the pulse via a phase function guessed by a function minimization iterative algorithm. This technique has many advantages over the dispersion scan techniques that use frequency conversion processes. Mainly, the use of SPM cancels out the phase and group velocity mismatch errors and dramatically widens the spectral acceptance of the nonlinear medium and the range of working wavelength. The robustness of the technique is demonstrated with smooth and complex phase retrievals using numerical examples. The method is shown to be not affected by the spatial distribution of the beam or the presence of nonlinear absorption process. In addition, we present an efficient method for phase representation based on a summation of a set of Gaussian functions. The independence of the functions from each other prevents phase coupling of any kind and facilitates a flexible phase representation.

Pulsed inductive HF laser

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Razhev, A M; Kargapol' tsev, E S [Institute of Laser Physics, Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, Novosibirsk (Russian Federation); Churkin, D S; Demchuk, S V [Novosibirsk State University, Novosibirsk (Russian Federation)

2016-03-31

We report the results of experimentally investigated dependences of temporal, spectral and spatial characteristics of an inductive HF-laser generation on the pump conditions. Gas mixtures H{sub 2} – F{sub 2}(NF{sub 3} or SF6{sub 6}) and He(Ne) – H{sub 2} – F{sub 2}(NF{sub 3} or SF{sub 6}) were used as active media. The FWHM pulse duration reached 0.42 μs. This value corresponded to a pulsed power of 45 kW. For the first time, the emission spectrum of an inductive HF laser was investigated, which consisted of seven groups of bands with centres around the wavelengths of 2732, 2736, 2739, 2835, 2837, 2893 and 2913 nm. The cross section profile of the laser beam was a ring with a diameter of about 20 mm and width of about 5 mm. Parameters of laser operation in the repetitively pulsed regime were sufficiently stable. The amplitude instability of light pulses was no greater than 5% – 6%. (lasers)

Feasibility analysis for attosecond X-ray pulses at FERMI@ELETTRA free electron laser

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Zholents, Alexander

2004-09-01

We present preliminary analysis for the feasibility of the attosecond x-ray pulses at a proposed FERMI@ELETTRA free electron laser (FEL) [1]. In part 1 we restrict ourselves to minimal modifications to the proposed FEL and consider a scheme for attosecond x-ray production which can be qualified as a small add-on to a primary facility. We demonstrate that at 5-nm wavelength our scheme is capable for production of pulses with an approximate duration of 100 attoseconds at approximately 2 MW peak power and with an absolute temporal synchronization to a pump laser pulse. In part 2 we propose to use an FEL amplifier seeded by a VUV signal and to follow it by the scheme for attosecond x-ray production described in part 1.

Ultrabroadband optical chirp linearization for precision metrology applications.

Science.gov (United States)

Roos, Peter A; Reibel, Randy R; Berg, Trenton; Kaylor, Brant; Barber, Zeb W; Babbitt, Wm Randall

2009-12-01

We demonstrate precise linearization of ultrabroadband laser frequency chirps via a fiber-based self-heterodyne technique to enable extremely high-resolution, frequency-modulated cw laser-radar (LADAR) and a wide range of other metrology applications. Our frequency chirps cover bandwidths up to nearly 5 THz with frequency errors as low as 170 kHz, relative to linearity. We show that this performance enables 31-mum transform-limited LADAR range resolution (FWHM) and 86 nm range precisions over a 1.5 m range baseline. Much longer range baselines are possible but are limited by atmospheric turbulence and fiber dispersion.

Process Control of Pre-Sowing Seed Treatment by Pulsed Electric Field

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Starodubtseva Galina Petrovna

2018-03-01

Full Text Available Presented paper investigates the application of a line voltage changer to an installation for pre-sowing seed treatment by pulsed electric field (PEF in order to increase the sowing quality of seeds and to suppress pathogenic microflora. The installation comprises an AC voltage regulator, a high voltage source, a voltage inverter, a working chamber for seed treatment, a control unit, and current and voltage sensors. The proposed installation differs from the existing apparatuses as it automatically provides the transformation of the pulsed electric field parameters by constant monitoring of power processes in a layer of treated seeds and feedback sending to the control unit. Seed treatment efficiency depends on the dose being determined by the parameters of electric field, namely, intensity in the seed layer, pulse duration, pulse repetition frequency, and seed treatment time. The parameters of rational treatment were determined, and the minimum treatment dose was calculated on the basis of results from the laboratory tests on the effect of pulsed electric field on sowing qualities of winter wheat seeds. It was experimentally confirmed that the proposed installation provides automatic transformation of electric field parameters depending on the changes taking place in the seed layer on the example of seeds with different moisture content maintaining the necessary treatment dose, ensuring the stability and repeatability of results.

Pulse-shaping strategies in short-pulse fiber amplifiers

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Schimpf, Damian Nikolaus

2010-02-09

Ultrashort pulse lasers are an important tool in scientific and industrial applications. However, many applications are demanding higher average powers from these ultrashort pulse sources. This can be achieved by combining direct diode pumping with novel gain media designs. In particular, ultrashort pulse fiber lasers are now delivering average powers in the kW range. However, the design of fiber lasers, producing pulses with high peak-powers, is challenging due to the impact of nonlinear effects. To significantly reduce these detrimental effects in ultrashort pulse fiber amplifers, the combination of chirped pulse amplification (CPA) and large mode area fibers is employed. Using these methods, the pulse energy of fiber lasers has been steadily increasing for the past few years. Recently, a fiber-based CPA-system has been demonstrated which produces pulse energies of around 1 mJ. However, both the stretching and the enlargement of the mode area are limited, and therefore, the impact of nonlinearity is still noticed in systems employing such devices. The aim of this thesis is the analysis of CPA-systems operated beyond the conventional nonlinear limit, which corresponds to accumulated nonlinear phase-shifts around 1 rad. This includes a detailed discussion of the influence of the nonlinear effect self-phase modulation on the output pulse of CPA-systems. An analytical model is presented. Emphasis is placed on the design of novel concepts to control the impact of self-phase modulation. Pulse-shaping is regarded as a powerful tool to accomplish this goal. Novel methods to control the impact of SPM are experimentally demonstrated. The design of these concepts is based on the theoretical findings. Both amplitude- and phase-shaping are studied. Model-based phase-shaping is implemented in a state-of-the-art fiber CPA-system. The influence of the polarization state is also highlighted. Additionally, existing techniques and recent advances are put into context. (orig.)

Pulse-shaping strategies in short-pulse fiber amplifiers

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Schimpf, Damian Nikolaus

2010-01-01

Ultrashort pulse lasers are an important tool in scientific and industrial applications. However, many applications are demanding higher average powers from these ultrashort pulse sources. This can be achieved by combining direct diode pumping with novel gain media designs. In particular, ultrashort pulse fiber lasers are now delivering average powers in the kW range. However, the design of fiber lasers, producing pulses with high peak-powers, is challenging due to the impact of nonlinear effects. To significantly reduce these detrimental effects in ultrashort pulse fiber amplifers, the combination of chirped pulse amplification (CPA) and large mode area fibers is employed. Using these methods, the pulse energy of fiber lasers has been steadily increasing for the past few years. Recently, a fiber-based CPA-system has been demonstrated which produces pulse energies of around 1 mJ. However, both the stretching and the enlargement of the mode area are limited, and therefore, the impact of nonlinearity is still noticed in systems employing such devices. The aim of this thesis is the analysis of CPA-systems operated beyond the conventional nonlinear limit, which corresponds to accumulated nonlinear phase-shifts around 1 rad. This includes a detailed discussion of the influence of the nonlinear effect self-phase modulation on the output pulse of CPA-systems. An analytical model is presented. Emphasis is placed on the design of novel concepts to control the impact of self-phase modulation. Pulse-shaping is regarded as a powerful tool to accomplish this goal. Novel methods to control the impact of SPM are experimentally demonstrated. The design of these concepts is based on the theoretical findings. Both amplitude- and phase-shaping are studied. Model-based phase-shaping is implemented in a state-of-the-art fiber CPA-system. The influence of the polarization state is also highlighted. Additionally, existing techniques and recent advances are put into context. (orig.)

High-power parametric amplification of 11.8-fs laser pulses with carrier-envelope phase control

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Zinkstok, R.T.; Witte, S.; Hogervorst, W.; Eikema, K.S.E.

2005-01-01

Phase-stable parametric chirped-pulse amplification of ultrashort pulses from a carrier-envelope phase-stabilized mode-locked Ti:sapphire oscillator (11.0 fs) to 0.25 mJ/pulse at 1 kHz is demonstrated. Compression with a grating compressor and a LCD shaper yields near-Fourier-limited 11.8-fs pulses

Application of nonlinear pulse shaping of femtosecond pulse generation in a fiber amplifier at 500 MHz repetition rate

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Yang; Luo, Daping; Wang, Chao; Zhu, Zhiwei; Li, Wenxue

2018-03-01

We numerically and experimentally demonstrate that a nonlinear pulse shaping technique based on pre-chirping management in a short gain fiber can be exploited to improve the quality of a compressed pulse. With prior tuning of the pulse chirp, the amplified pulse express different nonlinear propagating processes. A spectrum with s flat top and more smooth wings, showing a similariton feature, generates with the optimal initial pulse chirp, and the shortest pulses with minimal pulse pedestals are obtained. Experimental results show the ability of nonlinear pulse shaping to enhance the quality of compressed pulses, as theoretically expected.

Lasers, extreme UV and soft X-ray

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Nilsen, Joseph [Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)

2015-09-20

Three decades ago, large ICF lasers that occupied entire buildings were used as the energy sources to drive the first X-ray lasers. Today X-ray lasers are tabletop, spatially coherent, high-repetition rate lasers that enable many of the standard optical techniques such as interferometry to be extended to the soft X-ray regime between wavelengths of 10 and 50 nm. Over the last decade X-ray laser performance has been improved by the use of the grazing incidence geometry, diode-pumped solid-state lasers, and seeding techniques. The dominant X-ray laser schemes are the monopole collisional excitation lasers either driven by chirped pulse amplification (CPA) laser systems or capillary discharge. The CPA systems drive lasing in neon-like or nickel-like ions, typically in the 10 – 30 nm range, while the capillary system works best for neon-like argon at 46.9 nm. Most researchers use nickel-like ion lasers near 14 nm because they are well matched to the Mo:Si multilayer mirrors that have peak reflectivity near 13 nm and are used in many applications. As a result, the last decade has seen the birth of the X-ray free electron laser (XFEL) that can reach wavelengths down to 0.15 nm and the inner-shell Ne laser at 1.46 nm.

Acousto-optic replication of ultrashort laser pulses

Science.gov (United States)

Yushkov, Konstantin B.; Molchanov, Vladimir Ya.; Ovchinnikov, Andrey V.; Chefonov, Oleg V.

2017-10-01

Precisely controlled sequences of ultrashort laser pulses are required in various scientific and engineering applications. We developed a phase-only acousto-optic pulse shaping method for replication of ultrashort laser pulses in a TW laser system. A sequence of several Fourier-transform-limited pulses is generated from a single femtosecond laser pulse by means of applying a piecewise linear phase modulation over the whole emission spectrum. Analysis demonstrates that the main factor which limits maximum delay between the pulse replicas is spectral resolution of the acousto-optic dispersive delay line used for pulse shaping. In experiments with a Cr:forsterite laser system, we obtained delays from 0.3 to 3.5 ps between two replicas of 190 fs transform-limited pulses at the central wavelength of laser emission, 1230 nm.

Laser imprint reduction with a shaping pulse, oscillatory Richtmyer-Meshkov to Rayleigh-Taylor transition and other coherent effects in plastic-foam targets

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Metzler, N.; Velikovich, A.L.; Schmitt, A.J.; Karasik, M.; Serlin, V.; Mostovych, A.N.; Obenschain, S.P.; Gardner, J.H.; Aglitskiy, Y.

2003-01-01

A substantial reduction of the laser imprint with a short, low-energy 'shaping' laser pulse incident upon a foam-plastic sandwich target prior to the main laser pulse has been demonstrated to be possible [Metzler et al., Phys. Plasmas 9, 5050 (2002)]. Nonuniformity of this shaping pulse, however, produces standing sonic waves in the target. Laser-imprinted seeds for the Rayleigh-Taylor (RT) instability growth then emerge from the interaction of these waves with the strong shock wave launched by the drive laser pulse. Such coherent interaction between different waves and modes perturbed at the same wavelength is shown to be important in a variety of situations relevant to the inertial confinement fusion studies. As an example, an oscillatory transition from the classical Richtmyer-Meshkov shock-interface instability development to the RT growth exhibiting a characteristic phase reversal in a target of finite thickness is described. Another example refers to the feedout mechanism of seeding the perturbations that come from the nonuniformities of the rear (inner) surface of the laser target. The coherent interaction between the strong shock wave from the main laser pulse and the rippled rarefaction wave produced by a low-intensity foot of the pulse produces observable effects, such as an extra phase reversal compared to the case of no foot. Some of these predictions are shown to be consistent with our new experimental results obtained in the feedout geometry on the Nike laser facility [S. P. Obenschain et al. Phys. Plasmas 3, 2098 (1996)

High repetition rate tunable femtosecond pulses and broadband amplification from fiber laser pumped parametric amplifier.

Science.gov (United States)

Andersen, T V; Schmidt, O; Bruchmann, C; Limpert, J; Aguergaray, C; Cormier, E; Tünnermann, A

2006-05-29

We report on the generation of high energy femtosecond pulses at 1 MHz repetition rate from a fiber laser pumped optical parametric amplifier (OPA). Nonlinear bandwidth enhancement in fibers provides the intrinsically synchronized signal for the parametric amplifier. We demonstrate large tunability extending from 700 nm to 1500 nm of femtosecond pulses with pulse energies as high as 1.2 muJ when the OPA is seeded by a supercontinuum generated in a photonic crystal fiber. Broadband amplification over more than 85 nm is achieved at a fixed wavelength. Subsequent compression in a prism sequence resulted in 46 fs pulses. With an average power of 0.5 W these pulses have a peak-power above 10 MW. In particular, the average power and pulse energy scalability of both involved concepts, the fiber laser and the parametric amplifier, will enable easy up-scaling to higher powers.

Thermal properties of borate crystals for high power optical parametric chirped-pulse amplification.

Science.gov (United States)

Riedel, R; Rothhardt, J; Beil, K; Gronloh, B; Klenke, A; Höppner, H; Schulz, M; Teubner, U; Kränkel, C; Limpert, J; Tünnermann, A; Prandolini, M J; Tavella, F

2014-07-28

The potential of borate crystals, BBO, LBO and BiBO, for high average power scaling of optical parametric chirped-pulse amplifiers is investigated. Up-to-date measurements of the absorption coefficients at 515 nm and the thermal conductivities are presented. The measured absorption coefficients are a factor of 10-100 lower than reported by the literature for BBO and LBO. For BBO, a large variation of the absorption coefficients was found between crystals from different manufacturers. The linear and nonlinear absorption coefficients at 515 nm as well as thermal conductivities were determined for the first time for BiBO. Further, different crystal cooling methods are presented. In addition, the limits to power scaling of OPCPAs are discussed.

Generation of sub-100-fs Stokes pulses upon SRS in a barium nitrate crystal

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Konyashchenko, Aleksandr V; Losev, Leonid L; Tenyakov, S Yu

2010-01-01

72-fs pulses are generated at the first Stokes component frequency upon stimulated Raman scattering in a barium nitrate crystal for the radiation of the Ti 3+ :Al 2 O 3 laser with the pulse duration of 50 fs. The energy efficiency of conversion is 20%. The barium nitrate crystal was optically pumped by two consecutive orthogonally polarised chirped pulses with the following time compression of the Stokes radiation pulse. (nonlinear optical phenomena)

Laser-pulsed relativistic electron gun

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sherman, N.K.

1986-01-01

A relativistic (β ≅ 0.8) electron gun with good emittance and subnanosecond pulse duration which can be synchronized to picosecond laser pulses is being developed at NRC for use in studies of particle acceleration by lasers. Bursts of electron pulses exceeding 280 keV in energy have been extracted into air form a laser-driven vacuum photodiode. Trains of 5 ps pulses of ultraviolet UV light illuminate a magnesium cathode. Photoelectrons emitted from the cathode are accelerated in a graded electrostatic potential set up by a 360 kV Marx-generator. The UV pulses are obtained by doubling the frequency of a 606 nm dye laser modelocked at 160 MHz. Electron energies were measured by residual range in an echelon of Al foils. Total charge per burst was measured by picoammeter. Time structure of the bursts has been examined with plastic scintillator and a fast photomultiplier. Tests on a low voltage photodiode achieved a current density of 180 A/cm/sup 2/ from an Mg cathode, with quantum efficiency of 2.4 x 10/sup -6/ electron per UV photon. The brevity and intensity of the laser pulses cause the electric charge collected per pulse to increase linearly with bias voltage rather than according to the Langmuir-Child law. Gun emittance is about 150 mm-msr and beam brightness is about 1A/cm/sup 2/-sr. Estimated duration of individual electron pulses of a burst is about 400 ps with instantaneous current of about 0.1 mA. Energy spread within one pulse is expected to be about 15%. This gun has the potential to be a useful source of relativistic electrons for laser acceleration studies

Transverse beam diagnostics for the XUV seeding experiment at FLASH

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Boedewadt, Joern

2011-12-15

High-gain free-electron lasers (FEL) offer intense, transversely coherent, and ultra short radiation pulses in the extreme ultraviolet, the soft- and the hard-X-ray spectral range. Undulator radiation from spontaneous emission is amplified. Due to the stochastic emission process, the radiation exhibits a low temporal coherence, and the structure of the amplified radiation in the temporal and in the spectral domain shows large shot-to-shot fluctuations. In order to improve the temporal coherence, an external radiation pulse is used to induce (or seed) the FEL process. With this, only a defined wavelength range within the FEL bandwidth is amplified provided that the irradiance of the external radiation exceeds the noise level of the FEL amplifier. In addition to the improved longitudinal coherence, a seeded FEL provides the possibility to perform pump-probe experiments with an expected temporal resolution of the order of the pulse durations. In order to experimentally proof this statement, a test experiment for direct HHG-seeding at wavelength below 40 nm was installed at the free-electron laser facility FLASH at DESY. Crucial for the seeded operation of an FEL is the six-dimensional laser-electron overlap of the seed laser pulses with the electron bunches. Hence, dedicated diagnostics to measure and mechanisms to control the overlap are essential. Within this thesis, a transport beamline for the seed laser beam and the transverse diagnostics for seed laser- and the electron-beam were developed and commissioned. Results of the performance of the seed injection beamline are presented, and first measurements of the seeded operation of the FEL are analyzed and evaluated. (orig.)

Double nanosecond pulses generation in ytterbium fiber laser

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Veiko, V. P.; Samokhvalov, A. A., E-mail: samokhvalov.itmo@gmail.com; Yakovlev, E. B.; Zhitenev, I. Yu.; Kliushin, A. N. [Saint-Petersburg State University of Information Technologies, Mechanics and Optics, Kronverksky Pr. 49, Saint Petersburg (Russian Federation); Lednev, V. N. [Prokhorov General Physics Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Vavilov Str., 38, Moscow (Russian Federation); National University of Science and Technology MISiS, Leninskyave., 4, Moscow (Russian Federation); Pershin, S. M. [Prokhorov General Physics Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Vavilov Str., 38, Moscow (Russian Federation)

2016-06-15

Double pulse generation mode for nanosecond ytterbium fiber laser was developed. Two sequential 60-200 ns laser pulses with variable delay between them were generated by acousto-optic modulator opening with continuous diode pumping. A custom radio frequency generator was developed to produce two sequential “opening” radio pulses with a delay of 0.2–1 μs. It was demonstrated that double pulse generation did not decrease the average laser power while providing the control over the laser pulse power profile. Surprisingly, a greater peak power in the double pulse mode was observed for the second laser pulse. Laser crater studies and plasma emission measurements revealed an improved efficiency of laser ablation in the double pulse mode.

Reconstruction of Attosecond Pulse Trains Using an Adiabatic Phase Expansion

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Varju, K.; Gustafsson, E.; Johnsson, P.; Mauritsson, J.; L'Huillier, A.; Mairesse, Y.; Agostini, P.; Breger, P.; Carre, B.; Merdji, H.; Monchicourt, P.; Salieres, P.; Frasinski, L.J.

2005-01-01

We propose a new method to reconstruct the electric field of attosecond pulse trains. The phase of the high-order harmonic emission electric field is Taylor expanded around the maximum of the laser pulse envelope in the time domain and around the central harmonic in the frequency domain. Experimental measurements allow us to determine the coefficients of this expansion and to characterize the radiation with attosecond accuracy over a femtosecond time scale. The method gives access to pulse-to-pulse variations along the train, including the timing, the chirp, and the attosecond carrier envelope phase

Influence of the laser pulse duration on laser-produced plasma properties

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Drogoff, B Le; Margot, J; Vidal, F; Laville, S; Chaker, M; Sabsabi, M; Johnston, T W; Barthelemy, O

2004-01-01

In the framework of laser-induced plasma spectroscopy (LIPS) applications, time-resolved characteristics of laser-produced aluminium plasmas in air at atmospheric pressure are investigated for laser pulse durations ranging from 100 fs to 270 ps. Measurements show that for delays after the laser pulse longer than ∼100 ns, the plasma temperature increases slightly with the laser pulse duration, while the electron density is independent of it. In addition, as the pulse duration increases, the plasma radiation emission lasts longer and the spectral lines arise later from the continuum emission. The time dependence of the continuum emission appears to be similar whatever the duration of the laser pulse is, while the temporal evolution of the line emission seems to be affected mainly by the plasma temperature. Finally, as far as spectrochemical applications (such as LIPS) of laser-produced plasmas are concerned, this study highlights the importance of the choice of appropriate temporal gating parameters for each laser pulse duration

Contrast enhancement in an optical time-domain reflectometer via self-phase modulation compensation by chirped probe pulses

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Alekseev, A E; Potapov, V T; Vdovenko, V S; Simikin, D E; Gorshkov, B G

2016-01-01

In the present paper we propose a novel method for optical time-domain reflectometer (OTDR)–reflectogram contrast enhancement via compensation of nonlinear distortions of propagating probe pulse, which arise due to the self-phase modulation (SPM) effect in optical fiber. The compensation is performed via preliminary frequency modulation (chirp) of the initial probe pulse according to the specific law. As a result the OTDR contrast at some distant predefined fiber point is fully restored to the value of non-distorted probe pulse at the beginning of the fiber line. As a result, the performance of the phase OTDR increases. The point of full SPM compensation could be shifted to any other point of the fiber line via preliminary frequency modulation index change. The feasibility of the proposed method is theoretically proved and experimentally demonstrated. (paper)

Decoherence control in quantum computing with simple chirped ...

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

We show how the use of optimally shaped pulses to guide the time evolution of a system ('coherent control') can be an effective approach towards quantum computation logic. We demonstrate this with selective control of decoherence for a multilevel system with a simple linearly chirped pulse. We use a multiphoton ...

CO2 laser pulse shortening by laser ablation of a metal target

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Donnelly, T.; Mazoyer, M.; Lynch, A.; O'Sullivan, G.; O'Reilly, F.; Dunne, P.; Cummins, T.

2012-01-01

A repeatable and flexible technique for pulse shortening of laser pulses has been applied to transversely excited atmospheric (TEA) CO 2 laser pulses. The technique involves focusing the laser output onto a highly reflective metal target so that plasma is formed, which then operates as a shutter due to strong laser absorption and scattering. Precise control of the focused laser intensity allows for timing of the shutter so that different temporal portions of the pulse can be reflected from the target surface before plasma formation occurs. This type of shutter enables one to reduce the pulse duration down to ∼2 ns and to remove the low power, long duration tails that are present in TEA CO 2 pulses. The transmitted energy is reduced as the pulse duration is decreased but the reflected power is ∼10 MW for all pulse durations. A simple laser heating model verifies that the pulse shortening depends directly on the plasma formation time, which in turn is dependent on the applied laser intensity. It is envisaged that this plasma shutter will be used as a tool for pulse shaping in the search for laser pulse conditions to optimize conversion efficiency from laser energy to useable extreme ultraviolet (EUV) radiation for EUV source development.

Stimulated Brillouin Scattering (SBS) Suppression and Long Delivery Fibers at the Multikilowatt Level with Chirped Seed Lasers

Science.gov (United States)

2017-03-16

an amplifier with 0.6 dB/m shows that the threshold could be raised to 2 kW in this fashion without requiring an increase in chirp (Fig. 12...characterization in optical fibres from 1 to 1000 K. 16th International Conference on Optical Fiber Sensors; 2003 Oct 13–17; Nara, Japan . 18

Laser ablation comparison by picosecond pulses train and nanosecond pulse

Science.gov (United States)

Lednev, V. N.; Filippov, M. N.; Bunkin, A. F.; Pershin, S. M.

2015-12-01

A comparison of laser ablation by a train of picosecond pulses and nanosecond pulses revealed a difference in laser craters, ablation thresholds, plasma sizes and spectral line intensities. Laser ablation with a train of picosecond pulses resulted in improved crater quality while ablated mass decreased up to 30%. A reduction in laser plasma dimensions for picosecond train ablation was observed while the intensity of atomic/ionic lines in the plasma spectra was greater by a factor of 2-4 indicating an improved excitation and atomization in the plasma.

Emission dynamics of InAs/InP quantum-dash laser

KAUST Repository

Khan, Mohammed Zahed Mustafa

2012-01-01

The effect of current pulse width on the lasing spectra of chirp InAs/InP quantum-dash laser is presented. The spectra shows unusual splitting with increasing current injection which is correlated to the active region inhomogeneity.

Applications of ultra-short pulsed laser ablation: thin films deposition and fs/ns dual-pulse laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Teghil, R; De Bonis, A; Galasso, A; Santagata, A; Albano, G; Villani, P; Spera, D; Parisi, G P

2008-01-01

In this paper, we report a survey of two of the large number of possible practical applications of the laser ablation performed by an ultra-short pulse laser, namely pulsed laser deposition (PLD) and fs/ns dual-pulse laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (DP-LIBS). These applications differ from those using just longer pulsed lasers as a consequence of the distinctive characteristics of the plasma produced by ultra-short laser beams. The most important feature of this plasma is the large presence of particles with nanometric size which plays a fundamental role in both applications.

Dispersion engineering of mode-locked fibre lasers

Science.gov (United States)

Woodward, R. I.

2018-03-01

Mode-locked fibre lasers are important sources of ultrashort pulses, where stable pulse generation is achieved through a balance of periodic amplitude and phase evolutions. A range of distinct cavity pulse dynamics have been revealed, arising from the interplay between dispersion and nonlinearity in addition to dissipative processes such as filtering. This has led to the discovery of numerous novel operating regimes, offering significantly improved laser performance. In this Topical Review, we summarise the main steady-state pulse dynamics reported to date through cavity dispersion engineering, including average solitons, dispersion-managed solitons, dissipative solitons, giant-chirped pulses and similaritons. Characteristic features and the stabilisation mechanism of each regime are described, supported by numerical modelling, in addition to the typical performance and limitations. Opportunities for further pulse energy scaling are discussed, in addition to considering other recent advances including automated self-tuning cavities and fluoride-fibre-based mid-infrared mode-locked lasers.

Double pulse laser ablation and plasma: Laser induced breakdown spectroscopy signal enhancement

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Babushok, V.I.; DeLucia, F.C.; Gottfried, J.L.; Munson, C.A.; Miziolek, A.W.

2006-01-01

A review of recent results of the studies of double laser pulse plasma and ablation for laser induced breakdown spectroscopy applications is presented. The double pulse laser induced breakdown spectroscopy configuration was suggested with the aim of overcoming the sensitivity shortcomings of the conventional single pulse laser induced breakdown spectroscopy technique. Several configurations have been suggested for the realization of the double pulse laser induced breakdown spectroscopy technique: collinear, orthogonal pre-spark, orthogonal pre-heating and dual pulse crossed beam modes. In addition, combinations of laser pulses with different wavelengths, different energies and durations were studied, thus providing flexibility in the choice of wavelength, pulse width, energy and pulse sequence. The double pulse laser induced breakdown spectroscopy approach provides a significant enhancement in the intensity of laser induced breakdown spectroscopy emission lines up to two orders of magnitude greater than a conventional single pulse laser induced breakdown spectroscopy. The double pulse technique leads to a better coupling of the laser beam with the plasma plume and target material, thus providing a more temporally effective energy delivery to the plasma and target. The experimental results demonstrate that the maximum effect is obtained at some optimum separation delay time between pulses. The optimum value of the interpulse delay depends on several factors, such as the target material, the energy level of excited states responsible for the emission, and the type of enhancement process considered. Depending on the specified parameter, the enhancement effects were observed on different time scales ranging from the picosecond time level (e.g., ion yield, ablation mass) up to the hundred microsecond level (e.g., increased emission intensity for laser induced breakdown spectroscopy of submerged metal target in water). Several suggestions have been proposed to explain

Broadband demonstrations of true-time delay using linear sideband chirped programming and optical coherent transients

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Reibel, R.R.; Barber, Z.W.; Fischer, J.A.; Tian, M.; Babbitt, W.R.

2004-01-01

Linear sideband chirped (LSC) programming is introduced as a means of configuring spatial-spectral holographic gratings for optical coherent transient processors. Similar to linear frequency chirped programming, LSC programming allows the use of broadband integrated electro-optic phase modulators to produce chirps instead of using elaborate broadband chirped lasers. This approach has several advantages including the ability to use a stabilized laser for the optical carrier as well as stable, reproducible chirped optical signals when the modulator is driven digitally. Using LSC programming, we experimentally demonstrate broadband true-time delay as a proof of principle for the optical control of phased array radars. Here both cw phase modulated and binary phase shift keyed probe signals are true-time delayed with bandwidths of 1 GHz and delay resolutions better than 60 ps

Extending Femtosecond Filamentation of High Power Laser Propagating in the Atmosphere

Science.gov (United States)

Eisenmann, Shmuel; Sivan, Yonatan; Fibich, Gadi; Zigler, Arie

2008-06-01

We show experimentally for ultrashort laser pulses propagating in air, that the filamentation distance of intense laser pulses in the atmosphere can be extended and controlled with a simple double-lens setup. Using this method we were able to achieve a 20-fold delay of the filamentation distance of non-chirped 120 fs pulses propagating in air, from 16 m to 330 m. At 330 m, the collapsing pulse is sufficiently powerful to create plasma filaments. We also show that the scatter of the filaments at 330 m can be significantly reduced by tilting the second lens. We derive a simple formula for the filamentation distance, and confirm its agreement with the experimental results. We also observe that delaying the onset of filamentation increases the filament length. To the best of our knowledge, this is the longest distance reported in the literature at which plasma filaments were created and controlled. Finally, we show that the peak power at the onset of collapse is significantly higher with the double-lens setup, compared with the standard negative chirping approach.

Chirp echo Fourier transform EPR-detected NMR.

Science.gov (United States)

Wili, Nino; Jeschke, Gunnar

2018-04-01

A new ultra-wide band (UWB) pulse EPR method is introduced for observing all nuclear frequencies of a paramagnetic center in a single shot. It is based on burning spectral holes with a high turning angle (HTA) pulse that excites forbidden transitions and subsequent detection of the hole pattern by a chirp echo. We term this method Chirp Echo Epr SpectroscopY (CHEESY)-detected NMR. The approach is a revival of FT EPR-detected NMR. It yields similar spectra and the same type of information as electron-electron double resonance (ELDOR)-detected NMR, but with a multiplex advantage. We apply CHEESY-detected NMR in Q band to nitroxides and correlate the hyperfine spectrum to the EPR spectrum by varying the frequency of the HTA pulse. Furthermore, a selective π pulse before the HTA pulse allows for detecting hyperfine sublevel correlations between transitions of one nucleus and for elucidating the coupling regime, the same information as revealed by the HYSCORE experiment. This is demonstrated on hexaaquamanganese(II). We expect that CHEESY-detected NMR is generally applicable to disordered systems and that our results further motivate the development of EPR spectrometers capable of coherent UWB excitation and detection, especially at higher fields and frequencies. Copyright © 2018 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Chirp echo Fourier transform EPR-detected NMR

Science.gov (United States)

Wili, Nino; Jeschke, Gunnar

2018-04-01

A new ultra-wide band (UWB) pulse EPR method is introduced for observing all nuclear frequencies of a paramagnetic center in a single shot. It is based on burning spectral holes with a high turning angle (HTA) pulse that excites forbidden transitions and subsequent detection of the hole pattern by a chirp echo. We term this method Chirp Echo Epr SpectroscopY (CHEESY)-detected NMR. The approach is a revival of FT EPR-detected NMR. It yields similar spectra and the same type of information as electron-electron double resonance (ELDOR)-detected NMR, but with a multiplex advantage. We apply CHEESY-detected NMR in Q band to nitroxides and correlate the hyperfine spectrum to the EPR spectrum by varying the frequency of the HTA pulse. Furthermore, a selective π pulse before the HTA pulse allows for detecting hyperfine sublevel correlations between transitions of one nucleus and for elucidating the coupling regime, the same information as revealed by the HYSCORE experiment. This is demonstrated on hexaaquamanganese(II). We expect that CHEESY-detected NMR is generally applicable to disordered systems and that our results further motivate the development of EPR spectrometers capable of coherent UWB excitation and detection, especially at higher fields and frequencies.

Laser Wakefield Acceleration Driven by a CO2 Laser (STELLA-LW) - Final Report

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kimura, Wayne D

2008-06-27

The original goals of the Staged Electron Laser Acceleration – Laser Wakefield (STELLA-LW) program were to investigate two new methods for laser wakefield acceleration (LWFA). In pseudo-resonant LWFA (PR-LWFA), a laser pulse experiences nonlinear pulse steepening while traveling through the plasma. This steepening allows the laser pulse to generate wakefields even though the laser pulse length is too long for resonant LWFA to occur. For the conditions of this program, PR-LWFA requires a minimum laser peak power of 3 TW and a low plasma density (10^16 cm^-3). Seeded self-modulated LWFA (seeded SM-LWFA) combines LWFA with plasma wakefield acceleration (PWFA). An ultrashort (~100 fs) electron beam bunch acts as a seed in a plasma to form a wakefield via PWFA. This wakefield is subsequently amplified by the laser pulse through a self-modulated LWFA process. At least 1 TW laser power and, for a ~100-fs bunch, a plasma density ~10^17 cm^-3 are required. STELLA-LW was located on Beamline #1 at the Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) Accelerator Test Facility (ATF). The ATF TW CO2 laser served as the driving laser beam for both methods. For PR-LWFA, a single bunch was to probe the wakefield produced by the laser beam. For seeded SM-LWFA, the ATF linac would produce two bunches, where the first would be the seed and the second would be the witness. A chicane would compress the first bunch to enable it to generate wakefields via PWFA. The plasma source was a short-length, gas-filled capillary discharge with the laser beam tightly focused in the center of the capillary, i.e., no laser guiding was used, in order to obtain the needed laser intensity. During the course of the program, several major changes had to be made. First, the ATF could not complete the upgrade of the CO2 laser to the 3 TW peak power needed for the PR-LWFA experiment. Therefore, the PR-LWFA experiment had to be abandoned leaving only the seeded SM-LWFA experiment. Second, the ATF discovered that the

Ultrashort laser pulses and electromagnetic pulse generation in air and on dielectric surfaces

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sprangle, P.; Penano, J.R.; Hafizi, B.; Kapetanakos, C.A.

2004-01-01

Intense, ultrashort laser pulses propagating in the atmosphere have been observed to emit sub-THz electromagnetic pulses (EMPS). The purpose of this paper is to analyze EMP generation from the interaction of ultrashort laser pulses with air and with dielectric surfaces and to determine the efficiency of conversion of laser energy to EMP energy. In our self-consistent model the laser pulse partially ionizes the medium, forms a plasma filament, and through the ponderomotive forces associated with the laser pulse, drives plasma currents which are the source of the EMP. The propagating laser pulse evolves under the influence of diffraction, Kerr focusing, plasma defocusing, and energy depletion due to electron collisions and ionization. Collective effects and recombination processes are also included in the model. The duration of the EMP in air, at a fixed point, is found to be a few hundred femtoseconds, i.e., on the order of the laser pulse duration plus the electron collision time. For steady state laser pulse propagation the flux of EMP energy is nonradiative and axially directed. Radiative EMP energy is present only for nonsteady state or transient laser pulse propagation. The analysis also considers the generation of EMP on the surface of a dielectric on which an ultrashort laser pulse is incident. For typical laser parameters, the power and energy conversion efficiency from laser radiation to EMP radiation in both air and from dielectric surfaces is found to be extremely small, -8 . Results of full-scale, self-consistent, numerical simulations of atmospheric and dielectric surface EMP generation are presented. A recent experiment on atmospheric EMP generation is also simulated

Multi-channel, fiber-based seed pulse distribution system for femtosecond-level synchronized chirped pulse amplifiers

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Horáček, Martin; Indra, Lukáš; Green, Jonathan T.; Naylon, Jack A.; Tykalewicz, Boguslav; Novák, Jakub; Batysta, František; Mazanec, Tomáš; Horáček, Jakub; Antipenkov, Roman; Hubka, Zbyněk; Boge, Robert; Bakule, Pavel; Rus, Bedřich

2017-01-01

Roč. 88, č. 1 (2017), s. 1-6, č. článku 013109. ISSN 0034-6748 R&D Projects: GA MŠk LQ1606; GA MŠk EF15_008/0000162 Grant - others:ELI Beamlines(XE) CZ.02.1.01/0.0/0.0/15_008/0000162 Institutional support: RVO:68378271 Keywords : disk amplifier * timing jitter * 1 khz * amplification Subject RIV: BH - Optics, Masers, Lasers OBOR OECD: Optics (including laser optics and quantum optics) Impact factor: 1.515, year: 2016

Analysis of picosecond pulsed laser melted graphite

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Steinbeck, J.; Braunstein, G.; Speck, J.; Dresselhaus, M.S.; Huang, C.Y.; Malvezzi, A.M.; Bloembergen, N.

1986-01-01

A Raman microprobe and high resolution TEM have been used to analyze the resolidified region of liquid carbon generated by picosecond pulse laser radiation. From the relative intensities of the zone center Raman-allowed mode for graphite at 1582 cm -1 and the disorder-induced mode at 1360 cm -1 , the average graphite crystallite size in the resolidified region is determined as a function of position. By comparison with Rutherford backscattering spectra and Raman spectra from nonosecond pulsed laser melting experiments, the disorder depth for picosecond pulsed laser melted graphite is determined as a function of irradiating energy density. Comparisons of TEM micrographs for nanosecond and picosecond pulsed laser melting experiments show that the structure of the laser disordered regions in graphite are similar and exhibit similar behavior with increasing laser pulse fluence

Single-mode pulsed dye laser pumped by using a diode-pumped Nd:YAG laser with a long pulse width

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yi, Jong Hoon; Kim, Jin Tae; Moon, Hee Jong; Rho, Si Pyo; Han, Jae Min; Rhee, Yong Joo; Lee, Jong Min

1999-01-01

The lasing characteristics of a single-mode dye laser pumped by using a diode-pumped solid-state laser (DPSSL) with a high repetition rate is described. A 45-mm-long Nd:YAG rod was pumped by three CW diode arrays and it was acousto-optically Q-switched. A KTP crystal was used for intracavity frequency doubling. The pulse width of the laser ranged from 90 ns to 200 ns, depending on the diode current and the Q-switching frequency. The single-mode dye laser had a grazing incidence configuration. The pulse width of the dye laser was reduced to about 1/8 of the pumping laser pulse width. The effects of the DPSSL Q-switching frequency, the driving current, and the cavity loss on the dye laser pulse width were investigated by using a simple plane-parallel cavity. From the measured pulse width of the dye laser as a function of the reflectivity of the dye laser output coupler, we found that the cavity loss due to the frequency selection elements and the output coupler should be less than 70 % in order to avoid a drastically reduced pulse width

Passive mode locking in a multisegment laser diode with an external cavity

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Andreeva, E V; Magnitskiy, Sergey A; Koroteev, Nikolai I; Salik, E; Feinberg, J; Starodubov, D S; Shramenko, M V; Yakubovich, S D

1999-01-01

The structure and operating conditions of multisegment laser (GaAl)As diodes with passive locking of the modes of an external cavity (bulk and fibre) were optimised. Regular trains of optical single pulses of picosecond duration were generated in a spectral range 850 - 860 nm. The peak power of these pulses was several watts and the repetition rate was near 1 GHz. Under certain conditions these output pulses were linearly chirped, i.e. they were suitable for subpicosecond time compression. Laboratory prototypes were made of miniature light-emitting modules with these characteristics. (lasers)

Self-seeded single-frequency laser peening method

Science.gov (United States)

DAne, C Brent; Hackey, Lloyd A; Harris, Fritz B

2012-06-26

A method of operating a laser to obtain an output pulse having a single wavelength, comprises inducing an intracavity loss into a laser resonator having an amount that prevents oscillation during a time that energy from the pump source is being stored in the gain medium. Gain is built up in the gain medium with energy from the pump source until formation of a single-frequency relaxation oscillation pulse in the resonator. Upon detection of the onset of the relaxation oscillation pulse, the intracavity loss is reduced, such as by Q-switching, so that the built-up gain stored in the gain medium is output from the resonator in the form of an output pulse at a single frequency. An electronically controllable output coupler is controlled to affect output pulse characteristics. The laser acts a master oscillator in a master oscillator power amplifier configuration. The laser is used for laser peening.

Laser cleaning of pulsed laser deposited rhodium films for fusion diagnostic mirrors

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Uccello, A.; Maffini, A.; Dellasega, D.; Passoni, M.

2013-01-01

Highlights: ► Pulsed laser deposition is exploited to produce Rh films for first mirrors. ► Pulsed laser deposition is exploited to produce tokamak-like C contaminants. ► Rh laser damage threshold has been evaluated for infrared pulses. ► Laser cleaning of C contaminated Rh films gives promising results. -- Abstract: In this paper an experimental investigation on the laser cleaning process of rhodium films, potentially candidates to be used as tokamak first mirrors (FMs), from redeposited carbon contaminants is presented. A relevant issue that lowers mirror's performance during tokamak operations is the redeposition of sputtered material from the first wall on their surface. Among all the possible techniques, laser cleaning, in which a train of laser pulses is launched to the surface that has to be treated, is a method to potentially mitigate this problem. The same laser system (Q-switched Nd:YAG laser with a fundamental wavelength of 1064-nm and 7-ns pulses) has been employed with three aims: (i) production by pulsed laser deposition (PLD) of Rh film mirrors, (ii) production by PLD of C deposits with controlled morphology, and (iii) investigation of the laser cleaning method onto C contaminated Rh samples. The evaluation of Rh films laser damage threshold, as a function of fluence and number of pulses, is discussed. Then, the C/Rh films have been cleaned by the laser beam. The exposed zones have been characterized by visual inspection and scanning electron microscopy (SEM), showing promising results

Electroabsorption modulator laser for cost-effective 40 Gbit/s networks with low drive voltage, chirp and temperature dependence

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Aubin, G.; Seoane, Jorge; Merghem, K.

2009-01-01

The performances of a novel low-chirp electroabsorption modulator laser module are presented. Transmission is analysed in standard singlermode fibre at 40 Gbit/s. Propagation without chromatic dispersion compensation up to 2 km exhibits a low penalty variation over a wide temperature range. A pro....... A propagation scheme with compensation leads to negligible impairment at 88 km....

Metal processing with ultrashort laser pulses

Science.gov (United States)

Banks, Paul S.; Felt, M. D.; Komashko, Aleksey M.; Perry, Michael D.; Rubenchik, Alexander M.; Stuart, Brent C.

2000-08-01

Femtosecond laser ablation has been shown to produce well-defined cuts and holes in metals with minimal heat effect to the remaining material. Ultrashort laser pulse processing shows promise as an important technique for materials processing. We will discuss the physical effects associated with processing based experimental and modeling results. Intense ultra-short laser pulse (USLP) generates high pressures and temperatures in a subsurface layer during the pulse, which can strongly modify the absorption. We carried out simulations of USLP absorption versus material and pulse parameters. The ablation rate as function of the laser parameters has been estimated. Since every laser pulse removes only a small amount of material, a practical laser processing system must have high repetition rate. We will demonstrate that planar ablation is unstable and the initially smooth crater bottom develops a corrugated pattern after many tens of shots. The corrugation growth rate, angle of incidence and the polarization of laser electric field dependence will be discussed. In the nonlinear stage, the formation of coherent structures with scales much larger than the laser wavelength was observed. Also, there appears to be a threshold fluence above which a narrow, nearly perfectly circular channel forms after a few hundred shots. Subsequent shots deepen this channel without significantly increasing its diameter. The role of light absorption in the hole walls will be discussed.

Diode-pumped solid state laser. (Part V). ; Short pulse laser oscillation. Handotai laser reiki kotai laser. 5. ; Tan pulse hasshin

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kuwabara, M.; Bando, N. (Asahi Glass Co. Ltd., Tokyo (Japan))

1991-12-25

A semiconductor laser (LD) excited solid state laser using an LD as an excited light source is under discussion for its practical applications to measurements, processing, communications, office automation, and medical areas. This paper describes the discussions given on the short pulse transmission using AOQ switching elements in the LD excited solid state laser with a long wave length band (1.3{mu}m), which is expected of its application in the communications and measurements area. Based on a possibility of raising a measurements resolution by making the pluses in the LD excited solid state laser, and experiments were performed using Nd:YLF as a laser host. as a results, it was found that the smaller the effective mode volume V {sub eff},the smaller the pulse width, and that the ratio of number of initial inversion distribution (N{sub i}/N{sub t}), an important parameter to determine pulse widths, can be obtained from the ratio of the LD exciting light to the input power (P{sub in}/P{sub t}). 7 refs., 14 figs., 2 tabs.

Cubic phase control of ultrashort laser pulses

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mecseki, K.; Erdelyi, M.; Kovacs, A.P.; Szabo, G.

2006-01-01

Complete test of publication follows. The temporal shape of an ultrashort laser pulse may change upon propagating through a linear dispersive medium having a phase shift ψω. The change can be characterized by the Taylor-coefficients of the phase shift which are calculated around the central frequency ω 0 of the pulse. Measurements and independent control of the group delay dispersion (GDD, ψ'(ω 0 )) and the third order dispersion (TOD, ψ'(ω 0 )) are important in several research fields, particularly in the generation of ultrashort laser pulses by chirped pulse amplification (CPA) and pulse shaping for molecular control. The GDD and the TOD of an ideal pulse compressor are equal to the negative of the corresponding dispersion coefficients of the medium. However, in the case of prism-pair and grating-pair compressor is different from the ratio of the coefficients of the medium to be compensated for. Therefore it is necessary to develop so-called cubic compressors that are able to control the TOD of the pulse, yet, do not affect the GDD. In this paper a new cubic compressor setup is investigated theoretically and experimentally, which resembles the set-up proposed by White, however, we control the GDD and the TOD by the position of a birefringent, semi-cylinder crystal place around the focal point of an achromatic lens. For the evaluation of the phase shift introduced by the proposed cubic compressor, a ray tracing program was written. The program allows optimizing the compressor parameters, such as the radius of the crystal, magnification of the lens etc. Calcite was applied because it is a strong birefringent material. Calculations showed that there is a trajectory, along which shifting the crystal the TOD can be tuned independently of the GDD. The value of the TOD changed in a relatively wide range between -3.15 x 10 5 fs 3 and -1.67 x 10 5 fs 3 . Although the defocus also affects the angular dispersion of the pulse leaving the compressor, if does not exceed

High-power ultrashort fiber laser for solar cells micromachining

Science.gov (United States)

Lecourt, J.-B.; Duterte, C.; Liegeois, F.; Lekime, D.; Hernandez, Y.; Giannone, D.

2012-02-01

We report on a high-power ultra-short fiber laser for thin film solar cells micromachining. The laser is based on Chirped Pulse Amplification (CPA) scheme. The pulses are stretched to hundreds of picoseconds prior to amplification and can be compressed down to picosecond at high energy. The repetition rate is adjustable from 100 kHz to 1 MHz and the optical average output power is close to 13 W (before compression). The whole setup is fully fibred, except the compressor achieved with bulk gratings, resulting on a compact and reliable solution for cold ablation.

Laser induced nuclear reactions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ledingham, Ken; McCanny, Tom; Graham, Paul; Fang Xiao; Singhal, Ravi; Magill, Joe; Creswell, Alan; Sanderson, David; Allott, Ric; Neely, David; Norreys, Peter; Santala, Marko; Zepf, Matthew; Watts, Ian; Clark, Eugene; Krushelnick, Karl; Tatarakis, Michael; Dangor, Bucker; Machecek, Antonin; Wark, Justin

1998-01-01

Dramatic improvements in laser technology since 1984 have revolutionised high power laser technology. Application of chirped-pulse amplification techniques has resulted in laser intensities in excess of 10 19 W/cm 2 . In the mid to late eighties, C. K. Rhodes and K. Boyer discussed the possibility of shining laser light of this intensity onto solid surfaces and to cause nuclear transitions. In particular, irradiation of a uranium target could induce electro- and photofission in the focal region of the laser. In this paper it is shown that μCi of 62 Cu can be generated via the (γ,n) reaction by a laser with an intensity of about 10 19 Wcm -2

Laser Ablation of Biological Tissue Using Pulsed CO2 Laser

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hashishin, Yuichi; Sano, Shu; Nakayama, Takeyoshi

2010-01-01

Laser scalpels are currently used as a form of laser treatment. However, their ablation mechanism has not been clarified because laser excision of biological tissue occurs over a short time scale. Biological tissue ablation generates sound (laser-induced sound). This study seeks to clarify the ablation mechanism. The state of the gelatin ablation was determined using a high-speed video camera and the power reduction of a He-Ne laser beam. The aim of this study was to clarify the laser ablation mechanism by observing laser excision using the high-speed video camera and monitoring the power reduction of the He-Ne laser beam. We simulated laser excision of a biological tissue by irradiating gelatin (10 wt%) with radiation from a pulsed CO 2 laser (wavelength: 10.6 μm; pulse width: 80 ns). In addition, a microphone was used to measure the laser-induced sound. The first pulse caused ablation particles to be emitted in all directions; these particles were subsequently damped so that they formed a mushroom cloud. Furthermore, water was initially evaporated by laser irradiation and then tissue was ejected.

Transverse-to-longitudinal Emittance-exchange with an Energy Chirped Beam

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Thangaraj, J.; Ruan, J.; Johnson, A.S.; Thurman-Keup, R.; Lumpkin, A.H.; Santucci, J.; Sun, Y.-E; Maxwell, T.; Edwards, H.; /Fermilab

2012-05-01

Emittance exchange has been proposed to increase the performance of free electron lasers by tailoring the phase space of an electron beam. The principle of emittance exchange - where the transverse phase space of the electron beam is exchanged with the longitudinal phase space - has been demonstrated recently at the A0 photoinjector. The experiment used a low charge bunch (250 pC) with no energy chirp. Theory predicts an improvement in the emittance exchange scheme when the incoming beam has an energy chirp imparted on it. The energy chirp helps to overcome the thick lens effect of the deflecting mode cavity and other second order effects that might lead to an incomplete emittance exchange at higher charges. In this work, we report experimental and simulation results from operating the emittance exchange beam line using an energy chirped beam with higher charge (500 pC) at different RF-chirp settings.

Femtosecond laser surface texturing of titanium as a method to reduce the adhesion of Staphylococcus aureus and biofilm formation

Science.gov (United States)

Cunha, Alexandre; Elie, Anne-Marie; Plawinski, Laurent; Serro, Ana Paula; Botelho do Rego, Ana Maria; Almeida, Amélia; Urdaci, Maria C.; Durrieu, Marie-Christine; Vilar, Rui

2016-01-01

The aim of the present work was to investigate the possibility of using femtosecond laser surface texturing as a method to reduce the colonization of Grade 2 Titanium alloy surfaces by Staphylococcus aureus and the subsequent formation of biofilm. The laser treatments were carried out with a Yb:KYW chirped-pulse-regenerative amplification laser system with a central wavelength of 1030 nm and a pulse duration of 500 fs. Two types of surface textures, consisting of laser-induced periodic surface structures (LIPSS) and nanopillars, were produced. The topography, chemical composition and phase constitution of these surfaces were investigated by atomic force microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, micro-Raman spectroscopy, and X-ray diffraction. Surface wettability was assessed by the sessile drop method using water and diiodomethane as testing liquids. The response of S. aureus put into contact with the laser treated surfaces in controlled conditions was investigated by epifluorescence microscopy and scanning electron microscopy 48 h after cell seeding. The results achieved show that the laser treatment reduces significantly the bacterial adhesion to the surface as well as biofilm formation as compared to a reference polished surfaces and suggest that femtosecond laser texturing is a simple and promising method for endowing dental and orthopedic titanium implants with antibacterial properties, reducing the risk of implant-associated infections without requiring immobilized antibacterial substances, nanoparticles or coatings.

Single-mode pulsed dye laser pumped by using a diode-pumped Nd:YAG laser with a long pulse width

CERN Document Server

Yi, J H; Moon, H J; Rho, S P; Han, J M; Rhee, Y J; Lee, J M

1999-01-01

The lasing characteristics of a single-mode dye laser pumped by using a diode-pumped solid-state laser (DPSSL) with a high repetition rate is described. A 45-mm-long Nd:YAG rod was pumped by three CW diode arrays and it was acousto-optically Q-switched. A KTP crystal was used for intracavity frequency doubling. The pulse width of the laser ranged from 90 ns to 200 ns, depending on the diode current and the Q-switching frequency. The single-mode dye laser had a grazing incidence configuration. The pulse width of the dye laser was reduced to about 1/8 of the pumping laser pulse width. The effects of the DPSSL Q-switching frequency, the driving current, and the cavity loss on the dye laser pulse width were investigated by using a simple plane-parallel cavity. From the measured pulse width of the dye laser as a function of the reflectivity of the dye laser output coupler, we found that the cavity loss due to the frequency selection elements and the output coupler should be less than 70 % in order to avoid a drast...

Femtosecond pulsed laser ablation of GaAs

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Trelenberg, T.W.; Dinh, L.N.; Saw, C.K.; Stuart, B.C.; Balooch, M.

2004-01-01

The properties of femtosecond-pulsed laser deposited GaAs nanoclusters were investigated. Nanoclusters of GaAs were produced by laser ablating a single crystal GaAs target in vacuum or in a buffer gas using a Ti-sapphire laser with a 150 fs minimum pulse length. For in-vacuum deposition, X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and atomic force microscopy (AFM) revealed that the average cluster size was approximately 7 nm for laser pulse lengths between 150 fs and 25 ps. The average cluster size dropped to approximately 1.5 nm at a pulse length of 500 ps. It was also observed that film thickness decreased with increasing laser pulse length. A reflective coating, which accumulated on the laser admission window during ablation, reduced the amount of laser energy reaching the target for subsequent laser shots and developed more rapidly at longer pulse lengths. This observation indicates that non-stoichiometric (metallic) ablatants were produced more readily at longer pulse lengths. The angular distribution of ejected material about the target normal was well fitted to a bi-cosine distribution of cos 47 θ+ cos 4 θ for ablation in vacuum using 150 fs pulses. XPS and AES revealed that the vacuum-deposited films contained excess amorphous Ga or As in addition to the stoichiometric GaAs nanocrystals seen with XRD. However, films containing only the GaAs nanocrystals were produced when ablation was carried out in the presence of a buffer gas with a pressure in excess of 6.67 Pa. At buffer gas pressure on the order of 1 Torr, it was found that the stoichiometry of the ablated target was also preserved. These experiments indicate that both laser pulse length and buffer gas pressure play important roles in the formation of multi-element nanocrystals by laser ablation. The effects of gas pressure on the target's morphology and the size of the GaAs nanocrystals formed will also be discussed

Laser-plasma acceleration with multi-color pulse stacks: Designer electron beams for advanced radiation sources

Science.gov (United States)

Kalmykov, Serge; Shadwick, Bradley; Ghebregziabher, Isaac; Davoine, Xavier

2015-11-01

Photon engineering offers new avenues to coherently control electron beam phase space on a femtosecond time scale. It enables generation of high-quality beams at a kHz-scale repetition rate. Reducing the peak pulse power (and thus the average laser power) is the key to effectively exercise such control. A stepwise negative chirp, synthesized by incoherently stacking collinear sub-Joule pulses from conventional CPA, affords a micron-scale bandwidth. It is sufficient to prevent rapid compression of the pulse into an optical shock, while delaying electron dephasing. This extends electron energy far beyond the limits suggested by accepted scalings (beyond 1 GeV in a 3 mm plasma), without compromising beam quality. In addition, acceleration with a stacked pulse in a channel favorably modifies electron beam on a femtosecond time scale, controllably producing synchronized sequences of 100 kA-scale, quasi-monoenergetic bunches. These comb-like, designer GeV electron beams are ideal drivers of polychromatic, tunable inverse Thomson γ-ray sources. The work of SYK and BAS is supported by the US DOE Grant DE-SC0008382 and NSF Grant PHY-1104683. Inverse Thomson scattering simulations were completed utilizing the Holland Computing Center of the University of Nebraska.

Optically controlled seeding of Raman forward scattering and injection of electrons in a self-modulated laser-wakefield accelerator

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chen, W.-T.; Chien, T.-Y.; Lee, C.-H.; Lin, J.-Y.; Wang, J.; Chen, S.-Y.

2004-01-01

Optical seeding of plasma waves and the injection of electrons are key issues in self-modulated laser-wakefield accelerators. By implementing a copropagating laser prepulse with proper timing, we are able to control the growth of Raman forward scattering and the production of accelerated electrons. The dependence of the Raman intensity on prepulse timing indicates that the seeding of Raman forward scattering is dominated by the ionization-induced wakefield, and the dependence of the divergence and number of accelerated electrons further reveals that the stimulated Raman backward scattering of the prepulse plays the essential role of injecting hot electrons into the fast plasma wave driven by the main pulse

Compression of realistic laser pulses in hollow-core photonic bandgap fibers

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Lægsgaard, Jesper; Roberts, John

2009-01-01

Dispersive compression of chirped few-picosecond pulses at the microjoule level in a hollow-core photonic bandgap fiber is studied numerically. The performance of ideal parabolic input pulses is compared to pulses from a narrowband picosecond oscillator broadened by self-phase modulation during...... amplification. It is shown that the parabolic pulses are superior for compression of high-quality femtosecond pulses up to the few-megawatts level. With peak powers of 5-10 MW or higher, there is no significant difference in power scaling and pulse quality between the two pulse types for comparable values...... of power, duration, and bandwidth. The same conclusion is found for the peak power and energy of solitons formed beyond the point of maximal compression. Long-pass filtering of these solitons is shown to be a promising route to clean solitonlike output pulses with peak powers of several MW....

Chirping the LCLS Electron Beam

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Emma, P.

2005-01-01

We explore scenarios for generating a linear time-correlated energy spread in the LCLS electron bunch, prior to the undulator, that is needed for optical (x-ray) pulse compression. The correlated energy spread (''chirp'') is formed by generating an energy gradient along the length of the electron bunch using RF phasing and/or longitudinal wakefields of the accelerating structures. The sign of the correlation is an important limitation. Excluding a complete re-design of the compression systems, the best possibility is to use ''over-compression'' to effect the required energy chirp. This is easily done with only a slight strength increase (∼10%) in the chicane bends of the second compressor. In this case, the bend-plane emittance dilution associated with the increased coherent synchrotron radiation (CSR) in the bunch compressor may, however, significantly compromise the electron beam density. The CSR calculations for the momentary extremely short (∼1 (micro)m) electron bunch during over-compression are quite subtle and an adequate confidence level may not be achievable. A practical limit in this short-pulse scenario may be to use spontaneous rather than FEL radiation. Ignoring the potential emittance growth, a FWHM electron energy spread of 2% is possible

Influence of laser pulse frequency on the microstructure of aluminum nitride thin films synthesized by pulsed laser deposition

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Antonova, K., E-mail: krasa@issp.bas.bg [Institute of Solid State Physics, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Tzarigradsko Chaussee 72, Sofia 1784 (Bulgaria); Duta, L. [National Institute for Lasers, Plasma, and Radiation Physics, 409 Atomistilor Street, 077125 Magurele (Romania); Szekeres, A. [Institute of Solid State Physics, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Tzarigradsko Chaussee 72, Sofia 1784 (Bulgaria); Stan, G.E. [National Institute of Materials Physics, 105 bis Atomistilor Street, 077125 Magurele (Romania); Mihailescu, I.N. [National Institute for Lasers, Plasma, and Radiation Physics, 409 Atomistilor Street, 077125 Magurele (Romania); Anastasescu, M.; Stroescu, H.; Gartner, M. [Institute of Physical Chemistry, “Ilie Murgulescu”, Romanian Academy, 202 Splaiul Independentei, 060021 Bucharest (Romania)

2017-02-01

Highlights: • Study of pulsed laser deposited AlN films at different laser pulse frequencies. • Higher laser pulse frequency promotes nanocrystallites formation at temperature 450 °C. • AFM and GIXRD detect randomly oriented wurtzite AlN structures. • Characterization of the nanocrystallites’ orientation by FTIR reflectance spectra. • Berreman effect is registered in p-polarised radiation at large incidence angles. - Abstract: Aluminum Nitride (AlN) thin films were synthesized on Si (100) wafers at 450 °C by pulsed laser deposition. A polycrystalline AlN target was multipulsed irradiated in a nitrogen ambient, at different laser pulse repetition rate. Grazing Incidence X-Ray Diffraction and Atomic Force Microscopy analyses evidenced nanocrystallites with a hexagonal lattice in the amorphous AlN matrix. The thickness and optical constants of the layers were determined by infrared spectroscopic ellipsometry. The optical properties were studied by Fourier Transform Infrared reflectance spectroscopy in polarised oblique incidence radiation. Berreman effect was observed around the longitudinal phonon modes of the crystalline AlN component. Angular dependence of the A{sub 1}LO mode frequency was analysed and connected to the orientation of the particles’ optical axis to the substrate surface normal. The role of the laser pulse frequency on the layers’ properties is discussed on this basis.

Propagating Characteristics of Pulsed Laser in Rain

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jing Guo

2015-01-01

Full Text Available To understand the performance of laser ranging system under the rain weather condition, we need to know the propagating characteristics of laser pulse in rain. In this paper, the absorption and attenuation coefficients were calculated based on the scattering theories in discrete stochastic media, and the propagating characteristics of laser pulse in rain were simulated and analyzed using Monte-Carlo method. Some simulation results were verified by experiments, and the simulation results are well matched with the experimental data, with the maximal deviation not less than 7.5%. The results indicated that the propagating laser beam would be attenuated and distorted due to the scattering and absorption of raindrops, and the energy attenuation and pulse shape distortion strongly depended on the laser pulse widths.

Short-pulse propagation in fiber optical parametric amplifiers

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Cristofori, Valentina

Fiber optical parametric amplifiers (FOPAs) are attractive because they can provide large gain over a broad range of central wavelengths, depending only on the availability of a suitable pump laser. In addition, FOPAs are suitable for the realization of all-optical signal processing functionalities...... transfer can be reduced in saturated F OPAs. In order to characterize propagation impairments such as dispersion and Kerr effect, affecting signals reaching multi-terabit per second per channel, short pulses on the order of 500 fs need to be considered. Therefore, a short pulses fiber laser source...... is implemented to obtain an all-fiber system. The advantages of all fiber-systems are related to their reliability, long-term stability and compactness. Fiber optical parametric chirped pulse amplification is promising for the amplification of such signals thanks to the inherent compatibility of FOPAs with fiber...

Helium in chirped laser fields as a time-asymmetric atomic switch

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Kaprálová-Žďánská, Petra Ruth; Moiseyev, N.

2014-01-01

Roč. 141, č. 1 (2014), 014307 ISSN 0021-9606 R&D Projects: GA ČR GAP205/11/0571 Institutional support: RVO:61388955 Keywords : Atom lasers * Laser pulses * Helium Subject RIV: CF - Physical ; Theoretical Chemistry Impact factor: 2.952, year: 2014

System Modeling of kJ-class Petawatt Lasers at LLNL

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Shverdin, M.Y.; Rushford, M.; Henesian, M.A.; Boley, C.; Haefner, C.; Heebner, J.E.; Crane, J.K.; Siders, C.W.; Barty, C.P.

2010-01-01

Advanced Radiographic Capability (ARC) project at the National Ignition Facility (NIF) is designed to produce energetic, ultrafast x-rays in the range of 70-100 keV for backlighting NIF targets. The chirped pulse amplification (CPA) laser system will deliver kilo-Joule pulses at an adjustable pulse duration from 1 ps to 50 ps. System complexity requires sophisticated simulation and modeling tools for design, performance prediction, and comprehension of experimental results. We provide a brief overview of ARC, present our main modeling tools, and describe important performance predictions. The laser system (Fig. 1) consists of an all-fiber front end, including chirped-fiber Bragg grating (CFBG) stretchers. The beam after the final fiber amplifier is split into two apertures and spatially shaped. The split beam first seeds a regenerative amplifier and is then amplified in a multi-pass Nd:glass amplifier. Next, the preamplified chirped pulse is split in time into four identical replicas and injected into one NIF Quad. At the output of the NIF beamline, each of the eight amplified pulses is compressed in an individual, folded, four-grating compressor. Compressor grating pairs have slightly different groove densities to enable compact folding geometry and eliminate adjacent beam cross-talk. Pulse duration is adjustable with a small, rack-mounted compressor in the front-end. We use non-sequential ray-tracing software, FRED for design and layout of the optical system. Currently, our FRED model includes all of the optical components from the output of the fiber front end to the target center (Fig. 2). CAD designed opto-mechanical components are imported into our FRED model to provide a complete system description. In addition to incoherent ray tracing and scattering analysis, FRED uses Gaussian beam decomposition to model coherent beam propagation. Neglecting nonlinear effects, we can obtain a nearly complete frequency domain description of the ARC beam at different stages

Pulse laser ablation at water-air interface

Science.gov (United States)

Utsunomiya, Yuji; Kajiwara, Takashi; Nishiyama, Takashi; Nagayama, Kunihito; Kubota, Shiro

2010-06-01

We studied a new pulse laser ablation phenomenon on a liquid surface layer, which is caused by the difference between the refractive indices of the two materials involved. The present study was motivated by our previous study, which showed that laser ablation can occur at the interface between a transparent material and a gas or liquid medium when the laser pulse is focused through the transparent material. In this case, the ablation threshold fluence is reduced remarkably. In the present study, experiments were conducted in water and air in order to confirm this phenomenon for a combination of two fluid media with different refractive indices. This phenomenon was observed in detail by pulse laser shadowgraphy. A high-resolution film was used to record the phenomenon with a Nd:YAG pulse laser with 10-ns duration as a light source. The laser ablation phenomenon on the liquid surface layer caused by a focused Nd:YAG laser pulse with 1064-nm wavelength was found to be followed by the splashing of the liquid surface, inducing a liquid jet with many ligaments. The liquid jet extension velocity was around 1000 m/s in a typical case. The liquid jet decelerated drastically due to rapid atomization at the tips of the ligaments. The liquid jet phenomenon was found to depend on the pulse laser parameters such as the laser fluence on the liquid surface, laser energy, and laser beam pattern. The threshold laser fluence for the generation of a liquid jet was 20 J/cm2. By increasing the incident laser energy with a fixed laser fluence, the laser focused area increased, which eventually led to an increase in the size of the plasma column. The larger the laser energy, the larger the jet size and the longer the temporal behavior. The laser beam pattern was found to have significant effects on the liquid jet’s velocity, shape, and history.

Realization of double-pulse laser irradiating scheme for laser ion sources

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Li Zhangmin; Jin Qianyu; Liu Wei; Zhang Junjie; Sha Shan; Zhao Huanyu; Sun Liangting; Zhang Xuezhen; Zhao Hongwei

2015-01-01

A double-pulse laser irradiating scheme has been designed and established for the production of highly charged ion beams at Institute of Modern Physics (IMP), Chinese Academy of Sciences. The laser beam output by a Nd : YAG laser is split and combined by a double of beam splitters, between which the split laser beams are transmitted along different optical paths to get certain time delay between each other. With the help of a quarter-wave plate before the first splitter, the energy ratio between the two laser pulses can be adjusted between 3 : 8 to 8 : 3. To testify its feasibility, a preliminary experiment was carried out with the new-developed double-pulse irradiating scheme to produce highly charged carbon ions. Comparing the results with those got from the previous single-pulse irradiating scheme, the differences in the time structure and Charge State Distribution (CSD) of the ion pulse were observed, but its mechanisms and optimization require further studies. (authors)

Wavefront measurement of single-mode quantum cascade laser beam for seed application in laser-produced plasma extreme ultraviolet system.

Science.gov (United States)

Nowak, Krzysztof M; Ohta, Takeshi; Suganuma, Takashi; Yokotsuka, Toshio; Fujimoto, Junichi; Mizoguchi, Hakaru

2012-12-01

Quantum cascade laser (QCL) is a very attractive seed source for a multikilowatt pulsed CO2 lasers applied for driving extreme ultraviolet emitting plasmas. In this Letter, we investigate output beam properties of a QCL designed to address P18 and P20 lines of 10.6 micron band of CO2 molecule. In particular, output beam quality and stability are investigated for the first time. A well-defined linear polarization and a single-mode operation enabled a use of phase retrieval method for full description of QCL output beam. A direct, multi-image numerical phase retrieval technique was developed and successfully applied to the measured intensity patterns of a QCL beam. Very good agreement between the measured and reconstructed beam profiles was observed at distances ranging from QCL aperture to infinity, proving a good understanding of the beam propagation. The results also confirm a high spatial coherence and high stability of the beam parameters, the features expected from an excellent seed source.

Phase Noise Comparision of Short Pulse Laser Systems

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

S. Zhang; S. V. Benson; J. Hansknecht; D. Hardy; G. Neil; Michelle D. Shinn

2006-12-01

This paper describes the phase noise measurement on several different mode-locked laser systems that have completely different gain media and configurations including a multi-kW free-electron laser. We will focus on the state of the art short pulse lasers, especially the drive lasers for photocathode injectors. A comparison between the phase noise of the drive laser pulses, electron bunches and FEL pulses will also be presented.

High-energy harmonic mode-locked 2 μm dissipative soliton fiber lasers

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yang, Nan; Tang, Yulong; Xu, Jianqiu

2015-01-01

High-pulse-energy harmonic mode-locking in 2 μm Tm-doped fiber lasers (TDFLs) is realized, for the first time, by using a short piece of anomalous dispersion gain fiber and the dissipative soliton mode-locking mechanism. Appropriately designing the cavity dispersion map and adjusting the cavity gain, stable harmonic mode-locking of the dissipative soliton TDFL from the 2nd to the 4th order is achieved, with the pulsing repetition rates and pulse energy being 43.4, 65.1, 86.8 MHz, and 6.27, 4.32 and 3.29 nJ, respectively. The harmonic laser pulse has a pulse width of ∼30 ps and a center wavelength of ∼1929 nm with a spectral bandwidth of ∼3.26 nm, giving a highly chirped laser pulse. Two types of soliton molecules are also observed in this laser system. (letter)

Ultrafast, ultrahigh-peak power Ti:sapphire laser system

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Yamakawa, Koichi; Aoyama, Makoto; Matsuoka, Shinichi; Akahane, Yutaka; Kase, Teiji; Nakano, Fumihiko; Sagisaka, Akito [Advanced Photon Research Center, Kansai Research Establishment, Japan Atomic Energy Research Inst., Kizu, Kyoto (Japan)

2001-01-01

We review progress in the generation of multiterawatt optical pulses in the 10-fs range. We describe a design, performance and characterization of a Ti:sapphire laser system based on chirped-pulse amplification, which has produced a peak power in excess of 100-TW with sub-20-fs pulse durations and an average power of 19-W at a 10-Hz repetition rate. We also discuss extension of this system to the petawatt power level and potential applications in the relativistic, ultrahigh intensity regimes. (author)

Advanced laser technologies for high-brightness photocathode electron gun

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tomizawa, Hiromitsu

2012-01-01

A laser-excited photocathode RF gun is one of the most reliable high-brightness electron beam sources for XFELs. Several 3D laser shaping methods have been developed as ideal photocathode illumination sources at SPring-8 since 2001. To suppress the emittance growth caused by nonlinear space-charge forces, the 3D cylindrical UV-pulse was optimized spatially as a flattop and temporally as squarely stacked chirped pulses. This shaping system is a serial combination of a deformable mirror that adaptively shapes the spatial profile with a genetic algorithm and a UV-pulse stacker that consists of four birefringent α-BBO crystal rods for temporal shaping. Using this 3D-shaped pulse, a normalized emittance of 1.4 πmm mrad was obtained in 2006. Utilizing laser's Z-polarization, Schottky-effect-gated photocathode gun was proposed in 2006. The cathode work functions are reduced by a laser-induced Schottky effect. As a result of focusing a radially polarized laser pulse with a hollow lens in vacuum, the Z-field (Z-polarization) is generated at the cathode. (author)

Advanced Laser Technologies for High-brightness Photocathode Electron Gun

Science.gov (United States)

Tomizawa, Hiromitsu

A laser-excited photocathode RF gun is one of the most reliable high-brightness electron beam sources for XFELs. Several 3D laser shaping methods have been developed as ideal photocathode illumination sources at SPring-8 since 2001. To suppress the emittance growth caused by nonlinear space-charge forces, the 3D cylindrical UV-pulse was optimized spatially as a flattop and temporally as squarely stacked chirped pulses. This shaping system is a serial combination of a deformable mirror that adaptively shapes the spatial profile with a genetic algorithm and a UV-pulse stacker that consists of four birefringent α-BBO crystal rods for temporal shaping. Using this 3D-shaped pulse, a normalized emittance of 1.4 π mm mrad was obtained in 2006. Utilizing laser's Z-polarization, Schottky-effect-gated photocathode gun was proposed in 2006. The cathode work functions are reduced by a laser-induced Schottky effect. As a result of focusing a radially polarized laser pulse with a hollow lens in vacuum, the Z-field (Z-polarization) is generated at the cathode.

Concave pulse shaping of a circularly polarized laser pulse from non-uniform overdense plasmas

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hur, Min Sup [School of Natural Science, UNIST, BanYeon-Ri 100, Ulju-gun, Ulsan, 689-798 (Korea, Republic of); Kulagin, Victor V. [Sternberg Astronomical Institute, Moscow State University, Universitetsky prosp. 13, Moscow, 119992 (Russian Federation); Suk, Hyyong, E-mail: hysuk@gist.ac.kr [Department of Physics and Photon Science, GIST, 123 Cheomdan-gwangiro, Buk-gu, Gwangju, 500-712 (Korea, Republic of)

2015-03-20

Pulse shaping of circularly polarized laser pulses in nonuniform overdense plasmas are investigated numerically. Specifically we show by two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations the generation of a concave pulse front of a circularly polarized, a few tens of petawatt laser pulse from a density-tapered, overdense plasma slab. The concept used for the transverse-directional shaping is the differential transmittance depending on the plasma density, and the laser intensity. For suitable selection of the slab parameters for the concave pulse shaping, we studied numerically the pulse transmittance, which can be used for further parameter design of the pulse shaping. The concavely shaped circularly polarized pulse is expected to add more freedom in controlling the ion-beam characteristics in the RPDA regime. - Highlights: • Laser pulse shaping for a concave front by non-uniform overdense plasma was studied. • Particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations were used for the investigation. • A laser pulse can be shaped by a density-tapered overdense plasma. • The concave and sharp pulse front are useful in many laser–plasma applications. • They are important for ion acceleration, especially in the radiation pressure dominant regime.

Laser acceleration

Science.gov (United States)

Tajima, T.; Nakajima, K.; Mourou, G.

2017-02-01

The fundamental idea of Laser Wakefield Acceleration (LWFA) is reviewed. An ultrafast intense laser pulse drives coherent wakefield with a relativistic amplitude robustly supported by the plasma. While the large amplitude of wakefields involves collective resonant oscillations of the eigenmode of the entire plasma electrons, the wake phase velocity ˜ c and ultrafastness of the laser pulse introduce the wake stability and rigidity. A large number of worldwide experiments show a rapid progress of this concept realization toward both the high-energy accelerator prospect and broad applications. The strong interest in this has been spurring and stimulating novel laser technologies, including the Chirped Pulse Amplification, the Thin Film Compression, the Coherent Amplification Network, and the Relativistic Mirror Compression. These in turn have created a conglomerate of novel science and technology with LWFA to form a new genre of high field science with many parameters of merit in this field increasing exponentially lately. This science has triggered a number of worldwide research centers and initiatives. Associated physics of ion acceleration, X-ray generation, and astrophysical processes of ultrahigh energy cosmic rays are reviewed. Applications such as X-ray free electron laser, cancer therapy, and radioisotope production etc. are considered. A new avenue of LWFA using nanomaterials is also emerging.

Laser acceleration

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tajima, T.; Nakajima, K.; Mourou, G.

2017-01-01

The fundamental idea of LaserWakefield Acceleration (LWFA) is reviewed. An ultrafast intense laser pulse drives coherent wakefield with a relativistic amplitude robustly supported by the plasma. While the large amplitude of wake fields involves collective resonant oscillations of the eigenmode of the entire plasma electrons, the wake phase velocity ∼ c and ultra fastness of the laser pulse introduce the wake stability and rigidity. A large number of worldwide experiments show a rapid progress of this concept realization toward both the high-energy accelerator prospect and broad applications. The strong interest in this has been spurring and stimulating novel laser technologies, including the Chirped Pulse Amplification, the Thin Film Compression, the Coherent Amplification Network, and the Relativistic Mirror Compression. These in turn have created a conglomerate of novel science and technology with LWFA to form a new genre of high field science with many parameters of merit in this field increasing exponentially lately. This science has triggered a number of worldwide research centers and initiatives. Associated physics of ion acceleration, X-ray generation, and astrophysical processes of ultrahigh energy cosmic rays are reviewed. Applications such as X-ray free electron laser, cancer therapy, and radioisotope production etc. are considered. A new avenue of LWFA using nano materials is also emerging.

Experimental validation of a linear model for data reduction in chirp-pulse microwave CT.

Science.gov (United States)

Miyakawa, M; Orikasa, K; Bertero, M; Boccacci, P; Conte, F; Piana, M

2002-04-01

Chirp-pulse microwave computerized tomography (CP-MCT) is an imaging modality developed at the Department of Biocybernetics, University of Niigata (Niigata, Japan), which intends to reduce the microwave-tomography problem to an X-ray-like situation. We have recently shown that data acquisition in CP-MCT can be described in terms of a linear model derived from scattering theory. In this paper, we validate this model by showing that the theoretically computed response function is in good agreement with the one obtained from a regularized multiple deconvolution of three data sets measured with the prototype of CP-MCT. Furthermore, the reliability of the model as far as image restoration in concerned, is tested in the case of space-invariant conditions by considering the reconstruction of simple on-axis cylindrical phantoms.

Channeling and stability of laser pulses in plasmas

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sprangle, P.; Krall, J.; Esarey, E.

1995-01-01

A laser pulse propagating in a plasma is found to undergo a combination of hose and modulation instabilities. The coupled equations for the laser beam envelope and centroid are derived and solved for a laser pulse of finite length propagating through either a uniform plasma or preformed plasma density channel. The laser envelope equation describes the pulse self-focusing and optical guiding in plasmas and is used to analyze the self-modulation instability. The laser centroid equation describes the transverse motion of the laser pulse (hosing) in plasmas. Significant coupling between the centroid and envelope motion as well as harmonic generation in the envelope can occur. In addition, the transverse profile of the generated wake field is strongly affected by the laser hose instability. Methods to reduce the laser hose instability are demonstrated. copyright 1995 American Institute of Physics

Molecular dynamics study of lubricant depletion by pulsed laser heating

Science.gov (United States)

Seo, Young Woo; Rosenkranz, Andreas; Talke, Frank E.

2018-05-01

In this study, molecular dynamics simulations were performed to numerically investigate the effect of pulsed laser heating on lubricant depletion. The maximum temperature, the lubricant depletion width, the number of evaporated lubricant beads and the number of fragmented lubricant chains were studied as a function of laser peak power, pulse duration and repetition rate. A continuous-wave laser and a square pulse laser were simulated and compared to a Gaussian pulse laser. With increasing repetition rate, pulsed laser heating was found to approach continuous-wave laser heating.

Regimes of self-pulsing in photonic crystal Fano lasers

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Rasmussen, Thorsten Svend; Yu, Yi; Mørk, Jesper

2017-01-01

Laser self-pulsing was a property exclusive to macroscopic laser systems until recently, where self-pulsing laser operation was demonstrated experimentally and theoretically in a microscopic photonic crystal Fano laser [1]. We now provide a detailed theoretical analysis of the self......-pulsing mechanism and laser characteristics with numerical simulations to demonstrate the parameter dependence of the self-pulsing regime and its limitations, indicating how the design may be optimised for applications in e.g. integrated on-chip communication systems....

High energy HF pulsed lasers

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Patterson, E.L.; Gerber, R.A.

1976-01-01

Recent experiments show that pulsed HF lasers are capable of producing high energy with good efficiency. Preliminary experiments show that the laser radiation from the high-gain medium can be controlled with a low-power probe laser beam or with low-level feedback. These results indicate that the HF laser may have potential for second-generation laser fusion experiments

Control of laser pulse waveform in longitudinally excited CO2 laser by adjustment of excitation circuit

Science.gov (United States)

Uno, Kazuyuki; Jitsuno, Takahisa

2018-05-01

In a longitudinally excited CO2 laser that had a 45 cm-long discharge tube with a 1:1:2 mixture of CO2/N2/He gas at a pressure of 3.0 kPa, we realized the generation of a short laser pulse with a spike pulse width of about 200 ns and a pulse tail length of several tens of microseconds, control of the energy ratio of the spike pulse part to the pulse tail part in the short laser pulse, the generation of a long laser pulse with a pulse width of several tens of microseconds, and control of the pulse width in the long laser pulse, by using four types of excitation circuits in which the capacitance was adjusted. In the short laser pulse, the energy ratio was in the range 1:14-1:112. In the long laser pulse, the pulse width was in the range 25.7-82.7 μs.

All-fiber nonlinearity- and dispersion-managed dissipative soliton nanotube mode-locked laser

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Zhang, Z. [Department of Physics, Bilkent University, 06800 Ankara (Turkey); Nanjing University of Posts and Communications, Nanjing 210003 (China); Popa, D., E-mail: dp387@cam.ac.uk; Wittwer, V. J.; Milana, S.; Hasan, T.; Jiang, Z.; Ferrari, A. C. [Cambridge Graphene Centre, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB3 0FA (United Kingdom); Ilday, F. Ö. [Department of Physics, Bilkent University, 06800 Ankara (Turkey); Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Bilkent University, 06800 Ankara (Turkey)

2015-12-14

We report dissipative soliton generation from an Yb-doped all-fiber nonlinearity- and dispersion-managed nanotube mode-locked laser. A simple all-fiber ring cavity exploits a photonic crystal fiber for both nonlinearity enhancement and dispersion compensation. The laser generates stable dissipative solitons with large linear chirp in the net normal dispersion regime. Pulses that are 8.7 ps long are externally compressed to 118 fs, outperforming current nanotube-based Yb-doped fiber laser designs.

High speed and high resolution interrogation of a fiber Bragg grating sensor based on microwave photonic filtering and chirped microwave pulse compression.

Science.gov (United States)

Xu, Ou; Zhang, Jiejun; Yao, Jianping

2016-11-01

High speed and high resolution interrogation of a fiber Bragg grating (FBG) sensor based on microwave photonic filtering and chirped microwave pulse compression is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. In the proposed sensor, a broadband linearly chirped microwave waveform (LCMW) is applied to a single-passband microwave photonic filter (MPF) which is implemented based on phase modulation and phase modulation to intensity modulation conversion using a phase modulator (PM) and a phase-shifted FBG (PS-FBG). Since the center frequency of the MPF is a function of the central wavelength of the PS-FBG, when the PS-FBG experiences a strain or temperature change, the wavelength is shifted, which leads to the change in the center frequency of the MPF. At the output of the MPF, a filtered chirped waveform with the center frequency corresponding to the applied strain or temperature is obtained. By compressing the filtered LCMW in a digital signal processor, the resolution is improved. The proposed interrogation technique is experimentally demonstrated. The experimental results show that interrogation sensitivity and resolution as high as 1.25 ns/με and 0.8 με are achieved.

Effects of laser wavelengths and pulse energy ratio on the emission enhancement in dual pulse LIBS

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)