Low-loss GaOx-core/SiO2-cladding planar waveguides on Si substrate.

The unique properties of gallium oxide (GaOx) have drawn increasing interest as a material suitable for high-power electronic and optical applications. Herein, we report the demonstration of low-loss GaOx-core/SiO2-cladding waveguides on Si substrate. We present the fabrication process and annealing treatments of the waveguide devices, and we characterize the corresponding effects on optical transmission for 3 common wavelengths: 633 nm, 1064 nm, and 1550 nm. The best propagation loss achieved for these wavelengths is measured to be -0.4±0.1dB/cm, -0.3±0.2dB/cm, and -2.4±0.5dB/cm, respectively. We discuss the major waveguide loss mechanisms, followed by results of pump and probe experiments using visible/IR wavelengths for waveguides treated under various post-fabrication annealing conditions. We also show nonlinear measurements for a 250 fs laser beam to offer additional insights into the loss mechanisms, which are consistent with the linear optical transmission performances. High waveguide laser-induced damage threshold (LIDT) of >2.5J/cm2 is measured at this pulse width, making GaOx a potential candidate for high-power integrated photonic devices.

Phase-dependent laser acceleration of electrons with symmetrically driven silicon dual pillar gratings.

We present the demonstration of phase-dependent laser acceleration and deflection of electrons using a symmetrically driven silicon dual pillar grating structure. We show that exciting an evanescent inverse Smith-Purcell mode on each side of a dual pillar grating can produce hyperbolic cosine acceleration and hyperbolic sine deflection modes, depending on the relative excitation phase of each side. Our devices accelerate sub-relativistic 99.0 keV kinetic energy electrons by 3.0 keV over a 15 µm distance with accelerating gradients of 200 MeV/m with 40 nJ, 300 fs, 1940 nm pulses from an optical parametric amplifier. These results represent a significant step towards making practical dielectric laser accelerators for ultrafast, medical, and high-energy applications.

Simple, picojoule-sensitive ultraviolet autocorrelator based on two-photon conductivity in sapphire.

We present a simple autocorrelator for ultraviolet pulses based on two-photon conductivity in a bench-top fabricatable sapphire sensor. We perform measurements on femtosecond 226-278 nm ultraviolet pulses from the third and fourth harmonics of a standard 76 MHz titanium sapphire oscillator and picosecond 266 nm pulses from the fourth harmonic of a 1064 nm 50 MHz neodymium vanadate oscillator. Our device is sensitive to 2.6 pJ ultraviolet pulses with peak powers below 20 W. These results represent the lowest measured autocorrelation peak powers by over one order of magnitude for a system with no reference pulse in the deep ultraviolet (<300 nm). The autocorrelator can potentially support UV pulse lengths from 50 fs-10s of picoseconds.

High-speed laser microsurgery of alert fruit flies for fluorescence imaging of neural activity.

Intravital microscopy is a key means of monitoring cellular function in live organisms, but surgical preparation of a live animal for microscopy often is time-consuming, requires considerable skill, and limits experimental throughput. Here we introduce a spatially precise (<1-µm edge precision), high-speed (<1 s), largely automated, and economical protocol for microsurgical preparation of live animals for optical imaging. Using a 193-nm pulsed excimer laser and the fruit fly as a model, we created observation windows (12- to 350-µm diameters) in the exoskeleton. Through these windows we used two-photon microscopy to image odor-evoked Ca(2+) signaling in projection neuron dendrites of the antennal lobe and Kenyon cells of the mushroom body. The impact of a laser-cut window on fly health appears to be substantially less than that of conventional manual dissection, for our imaging durations of up to 18 h were ∼5-20 times longer than prior in vivo microscopy studies of hand-dissected flies. This improvement will facilitate studies of numerous questions in neuroscience, such as those regarding neuronal plasticity or learning and memory. As a control, we used phototaxis as an exemplary complex behavior in flies and found that laser microsurgery is sufficiently gentle to leave it intact. To demonstrate that our techniques are applicable to other species, we created microsurgical openings in nematodes, ants, and the mouse cranium. In conjunction with emerging robotic methods for handling and mounting flies or other small organisms, our rapid, precisely controllable, and highly repeatable microsurgical techniques should enable automated, high-throughput preparation of live animals for optical experimentation.

Investigation of the suitability of silicate bonding for facet termination in active fiber devices.

We demonstrate that silicate bonding an optical flat to the output facet of an active fiber device can increase the reliability of high-peak power systems and subsantially reduce the effective feedback at the termination of a double-clad fiber. We determine the bonding parameters and conditions that maximize the optical damage threshold of the bond and minimize the Fresnel reflection from the bond. At 1-mum wavelength, damage thresholds greater than 70 J/cm(2) are demonstrated for 25-ns pulses. We also measured Fresnel reflections less than -63 dB off the bond. Finally, we determined that the strength of the bond is sufficient for most operating environments.

Linearly polarized, 3.35 W narrow-linewidth, 1150 nm fiber master oscillator power amplifier for frequency doubling to the yellow.

A high-power linearly polarized Yb-doped silica fiber master oscillator power amplifier at 1150 nm is reported. It produced 3.35 W cw and 2.33 W of average power in 1 micros pulses at a 100 kHz repetition rate, both with 8 pm linewidth. This is the first report, to the best of our knowledge, of a high-power Yb-doped fiber amplifier at a wavelength longer than 1135 nm. The pulsed output was frequency doubled in a bulk periodically poled near-stoichiometric LiTaO(3) chip to generate 976 mW of average power at 575 nm with an overall system optical-to-optical efficiency of 9.8% with respect to launched pump power.