First Observation of Cross-Beam Energy Transfer Mitigation for Direct-Drive Inertial Confinement Fusion Implosions Using Wavelength Detuning at the National Ignition Facility.

Cross-beam energy transfer (CBET) results from two-beam energy exchange via seeded stimulated Brillouin scattering, which detrimentally reduces ablation pressure and implosion velocity in direct-drive inertial confinement fusion. Mitigating CBET is demonstrated for the first time in inertial-confinement implosions at the National Ignition Facility by detuning the laser-source wavelengths (±2.3 Å UV) of the interacting beams. We show that, in polar direct-drive, wavelength detuning increases the equatorial region velocity experimentally by 16% and alters the in-flight shell morphology. These experimental observations are consistent with design predictions of radiation-hydrodynamic simulations that indicate a 10% increase in the average ablation pressure.

Rear-side resonator architecture for the passive coherent combining of high-brightness laser diodes.

We describe a new coherent beam combining architecture based on passive phase locking of emitters in an extended cavity on the rear facet and their coherent combination on the front facet. This rear-side technique provides strong optical feedback for phase locking while maintaining a high electrical-to-optical efficiency. Two high-brightness high-power tapered laser diodes are coherently combined using a Michelson-based cavity. The combining efficiency is above 82% and results in an output power of 6.7 W in a nearly diffraction-limited beam with an M(4σ)(2)≤1.2. A semi-active automatic adjustment of the current enhances the long-term stability of the combination, while the short-term stability is passively ensured by the extended cavity. This new laser configuration exhibits the simplicity of passive self-organizing architectures while providing a power conversion efficiency of 27% that is comparable to master oscillator power amplifier architectures.

Concept for power scaling second harmonic generation using a cascade of nonlinear crystals.

Within the field of high-power second harmonic generation (SHG), power scaling is often hindered by adverse crystal effects such as thermal dephasing arising from the second harmonic (SH) light, which imposes limits on the power that can be generated in many crystals. Here we demonstrate a concept for efficient power scaling of single-pass SHG beyond such limits using a cascade of nonlinear crystals, in which the first crystal is chosen for high nonlinear efficiency and the subsequent crystal(s) are chosen for power handling ability. Using this highly efficient single-pass concept, we generate 3.7 W of continuous-wave diffraction-limited (M(2)=1.25) light at 532 nm from 9.5 W of non-diffraction-limited (M(2)=7.7) light from a tapered laser diode, while avoiding significant thermal effects. Besides constituting the highest SH power yet achieved using a laser diode, this demonstrates that the concept successfully combines the high efficiency of the first stage with the good power handling properties of the subsequent stages. The concept is generally applicable and can be expanded with more stages to obtain even higher efficiency, and extends also to other combinations of nonlinear media suitable for other wavelengths.

Single-pass UV generation at 222.5 nm based on high-power GaN external cavity diode laser.

We demonstrate a compact system for single-pass frequency doubling of high-power GaN diode laser radiation. The deep UV laser light at 222.5 nm is generated in a ß-BaB2O4 (BBO) crystal. A high-power GaN external cavity diode laser (ECDL) system in Littrow configuration with narrowband emission at 445 nm is used as pump source. At a pump power of 680 mW, a maximum UV power of 16 µW in continuous-wave operation at 222.5 nm is achieved. This concept enables a compact diode laser-based system emitting in the deep ultraviolet spectral range.

High-power diode lasers at 1178 nm with high beam quality and narrow spectra.

High-power distributed Bragg reflector tapered diode lasers (DBR-TPLs) at 1180 nm were developed based on highly strained InGaAs quantum wells. The lasers emit a nearly diffraction-limited beam with more than two watts with a narrow spectral width. These features are believed to make this type of diode laser a key component for the manufacturing of miniaturized laser modules in the yellow and orange spectral range by second-harmonic generation to cover a spectral region currently not accessible with direct emitting diode lasers. Future applications might be the laser-cooling of sodium, high-resolution glucose-content measurements, as well as spectroscopy on rare earth elements.

Generation of spectrally stable continuous-wave emission and ns pulses with a peak power of 4 W using a distributed Bragg reflector laser and a ridge-waveguide power amplifier.

We have developed a diode-laser based master oscillator power amplifier (MOPA) light source which emits high-power spectrally stabilized and nearly-diffraction limited optical pulses in the nanoseconds range as required by many applications. The MOPA consists of a distributed Bragg reflector (DBR) laser as master oscillator driven by a constant current and a ridge waveguide power amplifier (PA) which can be driven by a constant current (DC) or by rectangular current pulses with a width of 5 ns at a repetition frequency of 200 kHz. Under pulsed operation the amplifier acts as an optical gate, converting the CW input beam emitted by the DBR laser into a train of short amplified optical pulses. With this experimental MOPA arrangement no relaxation oscillations occur. A continuous wave power of 1 W under DC injection and a pulse power of 4 W under pulsed operation are reached. For both operational modes the optical spectrum of the emission of the amplifier exhibits a peak at a constant wavelength of 973.5 nm with a spectral width < 10 pm.

400 mW external cavity diode laser with narrowband emission at 445 nm.

A high-power external cavity diode laser (ECDL) system with narrowband emission is presented. The system is based on a commercially available high-power GaN laser diode. For the ECDL, a maximum optical output power of 400 mW in continuous-wave operation with narrowband emission is achieved. Longitudinal mode selection is realized by using a surface diffraction grating in Littrow configuration. A spectral width of 20 pm at 445 nm with a side-mode suppression ratio larger than 40 dB is achieved. This concept enables diode laser systems suitable for subsequent nonlinear frequency conversion into the UV spectral range.

Frequency doubling of a passively mode-locked monolithic distributed Bragg reflector diode laser.

In this work, frequency doubling of a passively mode-locked 3.5 mm long monolithic distributed Bragg reflector diode laser is investigated experimentally. At 1064 nm, optical pulses with a duration of 12.4 ps are generated at a repetition rate of 13 GHz and a peak power of 825 mW, resulting in an average power of 133 mW. Second-harmonic generation is carried out in a periodically poled MgO-doped LiNbO3 ridge waveguide at a normalized nonlinear conversion efficiency of 930%/W. A maximum average second-harmonic power of 40.9 mW, corresponding to a pulse energy of 3.15 pJ, is reached in the experiment at an opto-optical conversion efficiency of 30.8%. The normalized nonlinear conversion efficiency in mode-locked operation is more than 2 times larger compared to continuous-wave operation.

Laser cooling of beryllium ions using a frequency-doubled 626 nm diode laser.

We demonstrate laser cooling of trapped beryllium ions at 313 nm using a frequency-doubled extended cavity diode laser operated at 626 nm, obtained by cooling a ridge waveguide diode laser chip to -31°C. Up to 32 mW of narrowband 626 nm laser radiation is obtained. After passage through an optical isolator and beam shaping optics, 14 mW of 626 nm power remains of which 70% is coupled into an external enhancement cavity containing a nonlinear crystal for second-harmonic generation. We produce up to 35 µW of 313 nm radiation, which is subsequently used to laser cool and detect 6×10(2) beryllium ions, stored in a linear Paul trap, to a temperature of about 10 mK, as evidenced by the formation of Coulomb crystals. Our setup offers a simple and affordable alternative for Doppler cooling, optical pumping, and detection to presently used laser systems.

Dynamics of a gain-switched distributed feedback ridge waveguide laser in nanoseconds time scale under very high current injection conditions.

We present detailed experimental investigations of the temporal, spectral and spatial behavior of a gain-switched distributed feedback (DFB) laser emitting at a wavelength of 1064 nm. Gain-switching is achieved by injecting nearly rectangular shaped current pulses having a length of 50 ns and a very high amplitude up to 2.5 A. The repetition frequency is 200 kHz. The laser has a ridge waveguide (RW) for lateral waveguiding with a ridge width of 3 µm and a cavity length of 1.5 mm. Time resolved investigations show, depending on the amplitude of the current pulses, that the optical power exhibits different types of oscillatory behavior during the pulses, accompanied by changes in the lateral near field intensity profiles and optical spectra. Three different types of instabilities can be distinguished: mode beating with frequencies between 25 GHz and 30 GHz, switching between different lateral intensity profiles with a frequency of 0.4 GHz and self-sustained oscillations with a frequency of 4 GHz. The investigations are of great relevance for the utilization of gain-switched DFB-RW lasers as seed lasers for fiber laser systems and in other applications, which require a high optical power.

96 mW longitudinal single mode red-emitting distributed Bragg reflector ridge waveguide laser with tenth order surface gratings.

Red-emitting ridge waveguide lasers with integrated tenth order surface distributed Bragg reflector gratings were developed. The grating was implemented by the use of a BCl3-Ar-plasma, while the shape of the grating trench was controlled by additional He-backside cooling of the wafer. The devices exhibit longitudinal single mode operation up to 96 mW at 635.3 nm with a side mode suppression ratio of 18 dB and a good beam quality of M2<3. The spectrum is free of mode hops for a span of more than 55 pm.

High power laser pulses with voltage controlled durations of 400 - 1000 ps.

We report on the generation and amplification of pulses with pulse widths of 400 - 1000 ps at 1064 nm. For pulse generation an ultra-fast semiconductor modulator is used that modulates a cw-beam of a DFB diode laser. The pulse lengths could be adjusted by the use of a voltage control. The pulses were amplified in a solid state Nd:YVO4 regenerative amplifier to an average power of up to 47.7 W at 100 - 816 kHz.

Tunable high-power narrow-spectrum external-cavity diode laser based on tapered amplifier at 668 nm.

A 668 nm tunable high-power narrow-spectrum diode laser system based on a tapered semiconductor optical amplifier in external cavity is demonstrated. The laser system is tunable from 659to675 nm. As high as 1.38 W output power is obtained at 668.35 nm. The emission spectral bandwidth is less than 0.07 nm throughout the tuning range, and the beam quality factor M(2) is 2.0 with the output power of 1.27 W.

High-power distributed Bragg reflector ridge-waveguide diode laser with very small spectral linewidth.

We manufactured and investigated distributed Bragg reflector ridge-waveguide diode lasers having sixth-order surface gratings and an emission wavelength around 974 nm. The single-mode output power of the lasers with a total length of 4 mm exceeded 1 W. A very small spectral linewidth of 1.4 MHz (3 dB) consisting of a Lorentzian part of 146 kHz and a Gaussian part of 1308 MHz was measured using a self-delayed heterodyne measurement technique.

High-power 808 nm ridge-waveguide diode lasers with very small divergence, wavelength-stabilized by an external volume Bragg grating.

We present data on ridge-waveguide diode lasers having a vertical far-field divergence of only 11.5 degrees (FWHM) owing to an appropriate waveguide design. The lasers emitted an optical power of more than 1 W into the spatial fundamental mode from a ridge width of 5 microm. The emission wavelength was stabilized to a narrow range around 808 nm by placing a volume Bragg grating in front of the outcoupling facet.

Demonstration of high-energy 2 omega (526.5 nm) operation on the National Ignition Facility Laser System.

A single beamline of the National Ignition Facility (NIF) has been operated at a wavelength of 526.5 nm (2 omega) by frequency converting the fundamental 1053 nm (1 omega) wavelength with an 18.2 mm thick type-I potassium dihydrogen phosphate (KDP) second-harmonic generator (SHG) crystal. Second-harmonic energies of up to 17.9 kJ were measured at the final optics focal plane with a conversion efficiency of 82%. For a similarly configured 192-beam NIF, this scales to a total 2 omega energy of 3.4 MJ full NIF equivalent (FNE).

Directly diode-pumped holmium fiber lasers.

Sensitizer-free holmium-doped silica and fluoride mid-infrared fiber lasers are pumped using a high-power diode laser operating at 1148 nm. A maximum output power of 162 mW at 2.86 microm was produced at a slope efficiency of 24% using Ho(3+), Pr(3+)-doped fluoride fiber. Using Ho(3+)-doped silica fiber, a maximum output power of 55 mW at 2.1 microm was generated at a slope efficiency of 27%, a value limited by the presence of pump excited state absorption.

National Ignition Facility laser performance status.

The National Ignition Facility (NIF) is the world's largest laser system. It contains a 192 beam neodymium glass laser that is designed to deliver 1.8 MJ at 500 TW at 351 nm in order to achieve energy gain (ignition) in a deuterium-tritium nuclear fusion target. To meet this goal, laser design criteria include the ability to generate pulses of up to 1.8 MJ total energy, with peak power of 500 TW and temporal pulse shapes spanning 2 orders of magnitude at the third harmonic (351 nm or 3omega) of the laser wavelength. The focal-spot fluence distribution of these pulses is carefully controlled, through a combination of special optics in the 1omega (1053 nm) portion of the laser (continuous phase plates), smoothing by spectral dispersion, and the overlapping of multiple beams with orthogonal polarization (polarization smoothing). We report performance qualification tests of the first eight beams of the NIF laser. Measurements are reported at both 1omega and 3omega, both with and without focal-spot conditioning. When scaled to full 192 beam operation, these results demonstrate, to the best of our knowledge for the first time, that the NIF will meet its laser performance design criteria, and that the NIF can simultaneously meet the temporal pulse shaping, focal-spot conditioning, and peak power requirements for two candidate indirect drive ignition designs.

High-power 894 nm monolithic distributed-feedback laser.

A ridge-waveguide InGaAs/GaAsP laser, emitting up to 250 mW in a single lateral and longitudinal mode at a wavelength of 894 nm, is presented. The distributed feedback is provided by a second order grating, formed into an InGaP/GaAs/InGaP multilayer structure. Owing to the stable lasing frequency, the large side mode suppression ratio (> 40 dB) and small spectral line width (< 200 kHz) the diode laser is well suited for caesium D1 spectroscopy. This was verified by the measurement of the hyperfine structure of the D1 line.

Passively mode-locked Yb:KLu(WO4)2 oscillators.

We demonstrate passive mode locking based on the novel monoclinic double tungstate crystal Yb:KLu(WO4)2. We report the shortest pulses ever produced with an Yb-doped tungstate laser using a semiconductor saturable absorber. A pulse duration of 81 fs has been achieved for an average power of 70 mW at 1046 nm. We compare the performance of the polarization oriented parallel to the Nm- and Np-crystallo-optic axes. Results in the femtosecond and picosecond regime are presented applying either Ti:sapphire or diode laser pumping. The great potential of Yb:KLu(WO4)2 as an active medium for ultrashort pulses is demonstrated for the first time, to our knowledge.