We present a comprehensive simulative and experimental investigation of how period-chirped pulse compression gratings affect the compressed pulses. A specifically developed ray-tracing tool was used for the simulative investigations. It is shown that the chirp creates a characteristic spatio-spectral error pattern, which leads to a degradation of the beam quality and an increase of the pulse duration. The experimental investigations, for which both a narrow-bandwidth continuous-wave and a pulsed laser beam were guided through a Treacy-compressor comprised of period-chirped gratings, confirm the simulation results and present methods on how to identify the chirp's characteristic error pattern in practice.
Morphine is the opioid most commonly used for neonatal pain management. In intravenous form, it is administered as continuous infusions and intermittent injections, mostly based on empirically established protocols. Inadequate pain control in neonates can cause long-term adverse consequences; however, providing appropriate individualized morphine dosing is particularly challenging due to the interplay of rapid natural physiological changes and multiple life-sustaining procedures in patients who cannot describe their symptoms. At most institutions, morphine dosing in neonates is largely carried out as an iterative process using a wide range of starting doses and then titrating to effect based on clinical response and side effects using pain scores and levels of sedation. Our background data show that neonates exhibit large variability in morphine clearance resulting in a wide range of exposures, which are poorly predicted by dose alone. Here, we describe the development and implementation of an electronic health record-integrated, model-informed decision support platform for the precision dosing of morphine in the management of neonatal pain. The platform supports pharmacokinetic model-informed dosing guidance and has functionality to incorporate real-time drug concentration information. The feedback is inserted directly into prescribers' workflows so that they can make data-informed decisions. The expected outcomes are better clinical efficacy and safety with fewer side effects in the neonatal population.
Analgesics, Opioid/administration & dosage , Decision Support Techniques , Electronic Health Records , Morphine/administration & dosage , Pain/drug therapy , Dose-Response Relationship, Drug , Female , Humans , Infant, Newborn , Male , Models, Biological , Pain Measurement , Precision Medicine/methods , Retrospective Studies
We report on the generation of kW-class, continuous-wave, radially polarized laser radiation in an Yb:LuAG thin-disk laser (TDL). Output powers of up to 980 W were achieved with optical efficiency of 50.5% with respect to the incident pump power of the TDL. The degree of radial polarization was measured to be 95.5% at maximum output power. This was achieved by the integration of a new generation of broadband, large-area grating-waveguide mirror with unprecedented high polarization discrimination as the end-mirror in the TDL resonator.
We report on a high-power passively mode-locked radially polarized Yb:YAG thin-disk oscillator providing 125 W of average output power. To the best of our knowledge, this is the highest average power ever reported from a mode-locked radially polarized oscillator without subsequent amplification stages. Mode-locking was achieved by implementing a SESAM as the cavity end mirror and the radial polarization of the LG*01 mode was obtained by means of a circular Grating Waveguide Output Coupler. The repetition rate was 78 MHz. A pulse duration of 0.97 ps and a spectral bandwidth of 1.4 nm (FWHM) were measured at the maximum output power. This corresponds to a pulse energy of 1.6 µJ and a pulse peak power of 1.45 MW. A high degree of radial polarization of 97.3 ± 1% and an M2-value of 2.16 which is close to the theoretical value for the LG*01 doughnut mode were measured.
Wavefront distortions caused by the convection of heated ambient air in front of the laser crystal induce severe pump-power-dependent misalignment in thin-disk laser (TDL) resonators. This effect is particularly pronounced in fundamental mode operation and limits the output power when no realignment of the resonator is possible during operation. In this Letter, we present a new approach to passively compensate for this misalignment instability by exploiting the spectral dispersion of a highly efficient grating-waveguide mirror used as a cavity end-mirror in a Littrow configuration. By this, it was possible to almost triple the output power of a fundamental mode Yb:LuAG TDL pumped at 969 nm.
We report on the generation of continuous-wave, intra-cavity frequency-doubled, multi-mode laser radiation in an Yb:LuAG thin-disk laser. Output powers of up to 1 kW at a wavelength of 515 nm were achieved at an unprecedented optical efficiency of 51.6% with respect to the pumping power of the thin-disk laser. The wavelength stabilization and spectral narrowing as well as the polarization selection, which is necessary for a stable and efficient second-harmonic generation, was achieved by the integration of a diffraction grating into the dielectric end mirror of the cavity, which exhibits a diffraction efficiency of 99.8%. At a frequency-doubled output power of 820 W the peak-to-valley power fluctuations measured during 100 minutes of laser operation amounted to only 8.2 W (1.0%). The beam parameter product of the frequency-doubled output was 3.4 mm·mrad (M2 ≈ 20), which is suitable for standard beam delivery using fibers with a core diameter of 100 µm and a NA of 0.2.
We present deformable mirrors for the intra-cavity use in high-power thin-disk laser resonators. The refractive power of these mirrors is continuously adaptable from -0.7 m-1 to 0.3 m-1, corresponding to radii of curvature ranging between 2.86 m (convex) and 6.67 m (concave). The optimized shape of the mirror membrane enables a very low peak-to-valley deviation from a paraboloid deformation over a large area. With the optical performance of our mirrors being equal to that of standard HR mirrors, we were able to demonstrate the tuning of the beam quality of a thin-disk laser in a range of M2 = 3 to M2 = 1 during laser operation at output powers as high as 1.1 kW.
We report on the first demonstration of a radially polarized passively mode-locked thin-disk oscillator. Radial polarization was achieved by the use of a novel circular grating waveguide output coupler. We showed mode-locked operation up to a maximum average output power of 13.3 W with an optical efficiency of 21.8%. The degree of radial polarization of the emitted beam was measured to be 97±1%. The laser system generated pulses with a duration of 907 fs and an energy of 316 nJ corresponding to a peak power of 0.35 MW. To the best of our knowledge, these values exceed the performance of previously reported radially polarized mode-locked oscillator systems.
We report on the efficient generation of continuous-wave, high-brightness green laser radiation. Green lasers are particularly interesting for reliable and reproducible deep-penetration welding of copper or for pumping Ti:Sa oscillators. By intracavity second-harmonic generation in a thin-disk laser resonator designed for fundamental-mode operation, an output power of up to 403 W is demonstrated at a wavelength of 515 nm with almost diffraction-limited beam quality. The unprecedented optical efficiency of 40.7% of green output power with respect to the pump power of the thin-disk laser is enabled by the intracavity use of a highly efficient grating waveguide mirror, which combines the functions of wavelength stabilization and spectral narrowing, as well as polarization selection in a single element.
We present experimental investigations on the generation of radially polarized laser beams excited by a ring-shaped pump intensity distribution in combination with polarizing grating waveguide mirrors in an Yb:YAG thin-disk laser resonator. Hollow optical fiber components were implemented in the pump beam path to transform the commonly used flattop pumping distribution into a ring-shaped distribution. The investigation was focused on finding the optimum mode overlap between the ring-shaped pump spot and the excited first order Laguerre-Gaussian (LG(01)) doughnut mode. The power, efficiency and polarization state of the emitted laser beam as well as the thermal behavior of the disk was compared to that obtained with a standard flattop pumping distribution. A maximum output power of 107 W with a high optical efficiency of 41.2% was achieved by implementing a 300 mm long specially manufactured hollow fiber into the pump beam path. Additionally it was found that at a pump power of 280 W the maximum temperature increase is about 21% below the one observed with standard homogeneous pumping.
