Direct generation of vortex beams from a double-end polarized pumped Yb:KYW laser.

Double-end polarized pumping scheme combined with off-axis pumping technique has been first introduced to generate vortex beams in a z-type cavity. By employing double-end pumping, two different transverse modes can be excited simultaneously. The phase delay between these two modes can be finely tuned by manipulating the cavity structure. Direct emission of a chirality controllable Laguerre Gaussian LG01 vortex beam with slope efficiency of more than 40% has been realized by a double-end polarized pumped Yb:KYW laser. Other modes, such as dual-LG01 mode, cross-shaped mode, and LG10 mode, have also been demonstrated from our laser setup.

Generation of wavelength- and OAM-tunable vortex beam at low threshold.

Wavelength- and OAM- tunable laser with large tunable range is the key source for the application in large capacity optical communications. In this paper, we demonstrate a wavelength- and OAM-tunable vortex laser in a 1.2 W single mode fiber coupled LD pumped Yb:phosphate laser. A z-type cavity has been used to precisely control the laser mode diameter. A thin film polarizer (TFP) is inserted to finely control the intra-cavity loss and tune the wavelength. Corresponding laser fundamental mode to pump beam ratio has been optimized to decrease the pump threshold for high order HG mode running. A pair of cylindrical lenses has been used to convert the HG mode to vortex output. The vortex beam with OAM-tunable range from 1h to 14 h with wavelength tuning range of ~36.2 nm for LG0,1 vortex beam, and ~14.5 nm for LG0,14 vortex beam at pump power of only 1.2 W have been realized, which is the largest tuning range of both OAM and wavelength at ~1 W pump power range to the best of our knowledge.

Harmonically mode-locked Yb:CALGO laser pumped by a single-mode 1.2 W laser diode.

We present a SESAM mode locked Yb:CALGO laser with a harmonic repetition rate to the 300th order pumped by a single-mode fiber coupled laser diode. By fine tuning the internal angle between the laser beam and the normal axis through the gain medium, at pump power of 1.2 W, an average output power of 132 mW is achieved with a pulse duration of 777.6 fs and a repetition rate of 22.4 GHz. The amplification effect over several tens of roundtrips induced Fabry-Perot filtering of the anti-reflection (AR) coated gain medium is analyzed. The modulation depth increases and the FWHM of a passband Δυcrystal decreases with increasing roundtrip numbers in the laser crystal. The intra-cavity pulse shaping mechanism with a comb filter caused by the amplified etalon effect of the AR coated laser crystal leads to the overall mode spacing equal to the free spectral range of the gain medium other than the laser cavity and results in the high repetition rate running.

Displacement and acoustic vibration sensor based on gold nanobipyramids doped PDMS micro-fiber.

We propose and demonstrate a novel flexible and elastic vibration-displacement fiber sensor with a doped polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) micro-fiber based on model interference. High resolution three-dimensional displacement measurement is achieved through monitoring the output pattern and variation of power. The sensor with a length of about 200 µm reveals frequency range from 50 Hz to 14 kHz, covering all the human voice frequency, with greatly enhanced high signal to noise ratio (SNR) reaching up to 66 dB. This work suggests a simple structure, small size and low cost fiber-based convenient way to achieve a multifunctional sensing applications including human motion detection.

Generation of double-scale pulses in a LD-pumped Yb:phosphate solid-state laser.

We have demonstrated a generation of double-scale in a laser diode (LD)-pumped Yb:phosphate solid-state laser. The double-scale pulse with a spectrum bandwidth of 4.6 nm is obtained at a central wavelength of 1030 nm with maximum output power of 377 mW and 80 MHz repetition rate. The autocorrelation function of the double-scale pulse contained a 510 fs short peak and 12.51 ps long pedestal. To our best knowledge, this is the first demonstration of a double-scale pulse mode-locked solid-state laser.

Pump polarization insensitive and efficient laser-diode pumped Yb:KYW ultrafast oscillator.

We theoretically and experimentally report and evaluate a novel split laser-diode (LD) double-end pumped Yb:KYW ultrafast oscillator aimed at improving the performance of an ultrafast laser. Compared to a conventional unpolarized single-LD end-pumped ultrafast laser system, we improve the laser performance such as absorption efficiency, slope efficiency, cw mode-locking threshold, and output power by this new structure LD-pumped Yb:KYW ultrafast laser. Experiments were carried out with a 1 W output fiber-coupled LD. Experimental results show that the absorption increases from 38.7% to 48.4%, laser slope efficiency increases from 18.3% to 24.2%, cw mode-locking threshold decreases 12.7% from 630 to 550 mW in cw mode-locking threshold, and maximum output-power increases 28.5% from 158.4 to 221.5 mW when we switch the pump scheme from an unpolarized single-end pumping structure to a split LD double-end pumping structure.

[Characterization of Nd Doped Films Prepared by Femtosecond Pulsed Laser Deposition].

Thin films of Nd:YAG and Nd:Glass were prepared on Si(100) substrate by pulsed laser deposition technology. The morphology of film surface and cross section, composition, absorption spectrum and photoluminescence (PL) spectra of films were investigated by scanning electron microscope (SEM), energy disperse spectroscopy (EDS), Fourier transform infrared spectrometer (FTIR), optical parametric oscillator (OPO) and grating spectrometer. The results show that both Nd:YAG films and Nd:Glass films grown on the substrates at room temperature are amorphous. Nd:YAG films grown by PLD contain Nd element with 0.15 at. % stoichiometric proportion. The absorption spectrum of bulk Nd:YAG target rather than deposited films exhibit two absorption peaks at 750 and 808 nm. There are no evident peaks in the photoluminescence spectra curve of Nd:YAG films. However, the photoluminescence spectra of Nd:Glass films with two sharp peaks at the wavelength of 877 and 1064 nm are observed. It indicates that Nd is doped into glass host as optically active Nd(3+) ions when Nd:Glass films grow at room temperature. But for Nd:YAG films, Nd don't incorporate into YAG host as Nd(3+) ions.

High-efficiency microchip laser with self-injection seeding.

In this paper, we use a small bandwidth 808 nm cw Ti:sapphire laser as a pump source to pump a picosecond microchip laser. Different focal length pump focus lenses have been tested to improve laser efficiency. A maximum slope efficiency of around 20% is obtained by a 30 mm focal length lens. The pump threshold is only 13 mW. In order to reduce the timing jitter, we explored the self-injection seeding method by adding a seeding cavity to the microchip laser. A reduction factor in the timing jitter of up to a factor of 23 relative to the unseeded laser is obtained. From the experiments, we also found that higher seeding pulse energy will help to reduce the jitter more.

[Double cladding ytterbium doped superfluorescence fiber source with 3 dB bandwidth reaching up to 80 nm].

The present paper reports a double pass forward superfluorescent fiber source (SFS), which uses a length of large mode area double cladding ytterbium doped fiber as gain medium. The maximum output power of this SFS is 341 mW. With the output power between 201 and 341 mW, the 3dB bandwidth of this SFS was more than 80 nm. This is the widest 3 dB bandwidth obtained from ytterbium doped SFS. The output power of the SFS linearly increased with the increment of the pump source injected current. It's output power is not very high, but under normal circumstances, it could meet the needs of the SFS. From the energy level structure of ytterbium ions and the absorption cross-section/emission cross section of ytterbium ions in quartz substrate, the physical mechanisms responsible for superfluorescence were analyzed. This double-cladding ytterbium-doped superfluorescent fiber laser benefits from the superfluorescence radiation near 1 025 and 1 075 nm, so the superfluorescence with 3 dB bandwidth reaching up to 80 nm could be obtained.

[Spatial localized distribution of modes in two-dimension random medium].

Based on the time dependent theory, FDTD algorithm was used to numerically solve Maxwell's equations and rate equations. By dividing the two-dimension random medium, the emission spectra of different region under different pumping intensities were obtained. The calculated results show that the emission spectra of different region are different, the energy of emission is mainly distributed in some certain region, and the pumping efficiency is different. Also spatial extent overlap of modes is reproduced. With this method, the dependence of random distribution on lasing can be analyzed and it should be useful for the preparation of pseudo-random medium.

Accurate retrieval algorithm of amplitude from radial-shearing interferogram.

We propose a mathematic formula that can be applied to work out the amplitude distribution of a tested laser beam from its radial-shearing interferogram accurately, even if the amplitude distribution is extremely uneven. Provided that the background irradiance distribution of a tested beam is extracted from its cyclic radial-shearing (CRS) interferogram first, then using the radial-shearing ratio of the CRS interferometer, the amount of lateral shear along the orthogonal directions and the irradiance ratio, the amplitude distribution of a tested beam can be reconstructed accurately by the proposed formula. The simulation computation and experimental results show that the formula allows any amount of lateral shear to happen, as long as the contracted beam maintains its location inside its corresponding expanded version.

[Fluorescence lifetime measurement based on different pump waveform].

The present paper analyzes the different pump wave theory under the fluorescence decay law, and presents a different pump wave measured fluorescence lifetime of the new method-double-pulse detection method, namely the use of pump pulse and probe pulse for the fluorescence decay methods to measure fluorescence lifetime. By measuring the sample neodymium glass and Cr:ZnSe crystal fluorescence lifetime, results showed that: using this method can be achieved under different pump wave in visible and near-infrared to the mid-infrared laser medium of the fluorescence lifetime measurement. Therefore, using the measurement method can be convenient and effective to avoid seeking samples by deconvolution for fluorescence lifetime with the cumbersome process of measuring laser medium at different pump wave under the fluorescence lifetime with a reference value.

[Study on the damage of SiO2 thin films on LiNbO3 crystal in optical parametric oscillator by XRD spectrometry].

In an attempt to elucidate the damage in high transmission thin films on LiNbO3 crystal in optical parametric oscillator, the authors employed XRD spectrometry to investigate the spectrum of laser-induced damage in thin film as well as the morphology of the damage. The authors observed that the damage of thin film was characterized by the depressions/craters in the surface of the films, which were surrounded by a deposition layer with the deceasing thickness from the center of the craters. The XRD measurements indicate that the film was crystallized. The authors analyzed the causes of morphologies and the mechanism of crystallization with the aid of the model for impurity-induced damage in thin solid films. The crystallization was due to the solidification of liquid and gaseous mixtures that result from the strong absorbing to the incident laser. The crater was generated because the mixtures were ejected under the extensive pressure of the laser plasma shock wave. During the process that the mixtures deposit around the craters, the density of the mixtures will decrease and crystallization takes place. As a result, the color of the deposition layer becomes lighter from inside to outside, and the crystallization of the thin film materials was observed by XRD spectrometry.

[Study of supercontinuum in nanofiber].

Using split-step Fourier transform method, the authors performed the simulation on supercontinuum generation (SCG) of femtosecond laser in nanofiber. The effects of diameter of the nanofiber, peak power and input pulse duration on the supercontinuum generation were analyzed. The results show that the higher the peak power of the input pulse, the easier the supercontinuum generation could be observed; the narrower the input pulse, the wider the light spectrum width. The dimension of the nanofiber plays an very important role in supercontinuum generaion of femtosecond laser pulse, the supercontinuum generation is not inversely proportional to the diameter of nanofiber, and there is a optimum diameter of nanofiber for the certain input laser pulse, so that the supercontinuum generation can be noteworthy. The obtained results in this paper would be helpful for further research on and making use of the supercontinuum generation in nanofiber.

Resonantly pumped high power flat L-band erbium-doped superfluorescent fiber source.

An all-single-mode-fiber L-band superfluorescent fiber source (SFS) with 1 W output power, 34.3 nm bandwidth (FWHM) and 54% optical conversion efficiency is constructed by seeding a high power erbium-doped fiber amplifier (EDFA) with a low power L-band ASE seed source to avoid parasitic lasing. The source is resonantly pumped by a high power C-band SFS peaked at 1545 nm.