RESUMO
Luminescent concentrators (LC) enable breaking the limit of geometrical concentration imposed by the brightness theorem. They enable increasing the brightness of Lambertian light sources such as (organic) light-emitting diodes. However, for illumination applications, light emitted in the high-index material needs to be outcoupled to free space, raising important light extraction issues. Supported by an intuitive graphical representation, we propose a simple design for light extraction: a wedged output side facet, breaking the symmetry of the traditional rectangular slab design. Angular emission patterns as well as ray-tracing simulations are reported on Ce:YAG single crystal concentrators cut with different wedge angles, and are compared with devices having flat or roughened exit facets. The wedge output provides a simple and versatile way to simultaneously enhance the extracted power (up to a factor of 2) and the light directivity (radiant intensity increased by up to 2.2.).
RESUMO
In the past, there were limited efforts to use light-emitting diodes (LEDs) for pumping solid-state lasers. However, these attempts were overshadowed by the introduction of laser diodes, which offered more favourable pumping conditions. Nevertheless, recent advancements in high-power LEDs, coupled with the utilization of luminescent concentrators (LC), have paved the way for a novel approach to pump solid-state lasers. The combination of LEDs and LC in this LED-LC system presents several advantages, including enhanced ruggedness, stability, and cost-effectiveness compared to other laser pumping methods. This review explores the various techniques employed to pump solid-state lasers using LED-LC as a pump source, along with improvements made to enhance the brightness of LEDs in this context.
RESUMO
The Streaked Optical Pyrometer (SOP) is a visible diagnostic widely used to study the warm dense matter regime at high energy laser facilities, gas guns, or ion accelerators. It is usually coupled with a Velocity Interferometer System for Any Reflector (VISAR) diagnostic for simultaneous shock wave velocity, reflectivity, and temperature measurements to study the Equation of State (EOS) of materials. While VISAR is a well-mastered technology that provides velocity measurements with low relative uncertainties (close to percent), SOP diagnostics still suffer from high imprecision. In this article, we present a new calibration method in order to obtain absolute temperature measurements with reduced uncertainties. This approach is based on a novel light source: a Ce:YAG luminescent concentrator pumped by LEDs. This device produces enough optical power for calibration at the nanosecond sweep duration of the streak camera. As a demonstration, it has first been installed at the LULI facility and tested on quartz samples shocked at temperatures above 4000 K.
RESUMO
High-power diode-pumped laser operation at 992-993 nm under a pumping wavelength of 981 of 986 nm is demonstrated with Yb:CaF2 operating at cryogenic temperature (77 K), leading to extremely low quantum defects of 1.2% and 0.7%, respectively. An average output power of 33 W has been produced with an optical efficiency of 35%. This represents, to the best of our knowledge, the best laser performance ever obtained at such low quantum defects on intense laser lines.
RESUMO
We report an in situ thermal study of Yb-doped fluorite crystals Yb:CaF(2) and Yb:SrF(2) under high power pumping, with or without laser operation. The experiment combines simultaneously thermography and measurement of the thermal aberrations. This setup allows us to measure temperature gradients, thermal lens, and absorption coefficients. From these measurements, we evaluate the thermal conductivity, fractional thermal load, and thermo-optic coefficient. Great differences are observed between the lasing and non lasing regimes. Our measured thermal lenses are greater than what are expected from the thermo-optic parameters found in previous work. Based on this thermal study, we design a laser cavity operating with large output power and TEM(00), leading to better performances for Yb:CaF(2) than Yb:SrF(2).
RESUMO
We present what we believe to be the first true three-level laser based on a Nd-doped crystal. From the 4F3/24I9/2 laser transition, the lower laser level being the ground state, emission at 879 nm in NdGdVO4 has been obtained with diode pumping. Up to 0.8 W of power has been achieved in cw operation and 24 microJ per pulse (35 ns) in the Q-switched regime. Intracavity second-harmonic generation in the pulsed regime is also demonstrated with 17 8 mW of average output power at 439.5 nm, corresponding to an energy of 17microJ per pulse.
RESUMO
We demonstrate, for the first time, to our knowledge, a diode-pumped passively mode-locked Nd:YVO4 laser, operating on the 4F(3/2)-4I(9/2) transition of the neodymium ion at 914 nm. We obtained 8.8 ps pulses at approximately 914 nm at a repetition rate of 94 MHz, and an averaged output power of 87 mW by using a semiconductor saturable absorber mirror.
RESUMO
The experimental demonstration of a diode-pumped passively mode-locked femtosecond laser based on an Yb3+:CaGdAlO4 single crystal is reported. The oscillator is directly diode pumped by a high-brightness 5 W fiber coupled laser diode, and pulses are produced by use of a semiconductor saturable-absorber mirror. It permits the production of pulses as short as 47 fs at 1050 nm, which are to our knowledge the shortest laser pulses obtained from an oscillator based on Yb3+-doped bulk materials. The average power is 38 mW, and the repetition rate is 109 MHz.
RESUMO
We report a wide-field fluorescence lifetime imaging microscope based on a low-repetition-rate (3.7-MHz) passively mode-locked diode-pumped laser source. This inexpensive and compact laser source operating in the visible and UV range can excite a wide range of fluorophores of biological interest. We demonstrate that the power of this laser source is highly sufficient for studying biological systems with low quantum yields (autofluorescence of tissues and stained living cells). The maximum measurable lifetime is also strongly increased with this laser source, as fluorescence intensity measurement can occur 250 ns after the excitation pulse.
Assuntos
Lasers , Próstata/citologia , Espectrometria de Fluorescência/instrumentação , Urotélio/citologia , Células Cultivadas , Desenho de Equipamento , Análise de Falha de Equipamento , Feminino , Células HeLa , Humanos , Masculino , Semicondutores , Espectrometria de Fluorescência/métodosRESUMO
We report cw and femtosecond laser operations under diode pumping of a diffusion-bonding heterocomposite Yb-doped crystal: Yb3+:SrY4(SiO4)3O parallel Y2Al5O12(YAG paralell SYS:Yb). To show the advantages of this heterocomposite crystal over classical Yb:SYS crystal, we first investigate the high-power cw regime. A cw power of 4.3 W is demonstrated. The femtosecond regime is also investigated, and 1-W-average-power, 130-fs pulses at 1070 nm are produced, which represents, to our knowledge, the first demonstration of an Yb-doped heterocomposite mode-locked laser.
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We have developed a 500-mW cw diode-pumped Cr(3+):LiSrAlF(6) laser that produces 72-mW, quasi-continuous-wave output at 850 nm. In actively mode-locked operation, we obtained 100-ps pulses at 860 nm with 30 mW of average power. Pulses with durations of less than 130 ps have been measured between 820 and 880 nm.
RESUMO
We describe a diode-pumped Kerr-lens mode-locked Cr(3+):LiSrAlF(6) laser that produces 50 mW of 70-fs pulses in the 820-890-nm range when pumped by two red diodes of 400 mW each. By using a lower-transmission output coupler we have demonstrated for the first time to our knowledge a self-starting regime with an output power of 10 mW and 55-fs pulses.
RESUMO
We have developed a cw krypton-ion-laser-pumped Cr(3+):LiSrAlF(6) regenerative amplifier for femtosecond pulses operating at a 5-kHz repetition rate. After recompression, we obtained 3.6-microJ, 170-fs pulses at 825 nm. By focusing these pulses in a cell of water, we generated a white-light continuum.
RESUMO
We demonstrate a new kind of picosecond laser source in the UV at a high repetition rate of -45 kHz , using only passive, compact, and simple elements. This system is based on a microchip laser and a very efficient multipass amplifier, both pumped with recently developed high-brightness laser diodes. The system has been optimized to deliver, at a high repetition rate, subnanosecond pulses at the wavelength 355 nm with an energy per pulse of close to 1 muJ (38-mW average power). This source is to our knowledge the first totally passive 300-ps UV laser source at this high repetition rate.
RESUMO
Efficient operation of a diode-pumped Nd:YAlO(3) laser on low-gain 1378- and 1385-nm transitions is reported for the first time, to our knowledge. A three-mirror folded cavity with a prism yielded a cw laser output power of 800 mW for an absorbed pump power of 11 W. The laser beam was TEM(00). We managed to eliminate the instabilities in the output power by purging the cavity of water vapor with nitrogen.
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We describe a diode-pumped cw Cr(3+):LiSrAlF(6) laser that produces 190-mW cw output at 860 nm. By frequency doubling in a KNbO(3) crystal we generate 13 mW of second-harmonic light tunable from 427 to 443 nm.
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We demonstrate the operation of an ultralow-repetition-rate, high-peak-power, picosecond diode-pumped Nd:YVO4 passively mode-locked laser oscillator. Repetition rates lower than 1 MHz were achieved with the use of a new design for a multiple-pass cavity and a semiconductor saturable absorber. Long-term stable operation at 1.2 MHz with a pulse duration of 16.3 ps and an average output power of 470 mW, corresponding to 24-kW peak-power pulses, is reported. These are to our knowledge the lowest-repetition-rate high-peak-power pulses ever generated directly from apicosecond laser resonator without cavity dumping.
RESUMO
We measured small-signal gain in a cw diode-pumped Cr:LiSAF and showed that upconversion and thermal quenching of fluorescence strongly limit small-signal gain. Then we optimized the gain in a Cr:LiSAF laser pumped by two 400-mW red diodes. In Q-switched operation, this laser produced tunable nanosecond pulses between 800 and 900 nm. At 850 nm, we obtained 230-ns pulses with an energy of 6.5 microJ at a repetition rate of 10 kHz.
RESUMO
Picosecond pulses emitted from a gain-switched laser diode have been amplified in a Ti:sapphire regenerative amplifier indirectly pumped by a 4-W laser diode. This all-solid-state system produced microjoule pulses tunable from 803 to 840 nm at repetition rates up to 25 kHz with durations of 70-100 ps. By frequency doubling and tripling the output, we generated blue and UV pulses tunable from 401 to 420 nm and from 268 to 280 nm, respectively. Average powers larger than 4 mW were reached in these two wavelength regions.
RESUMO
We have developed a Cr:LiSrGaF(6) laser that produces, in Q -switched operation, four times as much energy (12 microJ at 10 kHz) as a Cr:LiSrAlF(6) laser under the same conditions of pumping (four red diodes emitting 400 mW). By using a theoretical model for small-signal gain calculations, we show that these better performances are mainly attributable to the fact that thermal quenching of fluorescence is lower in Cr:LiSrGaF(6) than in Cr:LiSrAlF(6).