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4 - 15 February 2013
L. Carra'
Bright Solutions, Pavia
Italy
February 5, 2013
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Outline
Introduction
Doping, inversion, gain, power model, CW operation
Materials
Geometries (pump schemes, resonators, active media shapes)
Fiber lasers
Pulsed operation: Q-switching
Pulsed operation: mode-locking
Non linear optics: harmonics generation
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Introduction (I)
Frequency shift
High quality
light source
Pulse generation
Low quality
light source
up to 10 kW
low M 2
up to 10s of kW
cw or pulsed (ms)
M 2 10 5000
flashlamps
FAPs
diode stacks
single diodes
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Introduction (II)
HR mirror
Active medium: crystal or glass material
doped with rare earth ions or transition metals
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photons
Laser transition
pumping
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Dopants:
Rare Earths or Lanthanides (narrow emission lines): Nd, Yb, Er, Tm, Gd, Pm, Sm, . . .
Transition Metals (tunable lasers): Ti, Cr, . . .
Hosts:
Oxides: Y3 Al5 O12 (YAG), YVO4 (Yttrium Vanadate), Al2 O3 (Sapphire), . . .
Fluorides: LiYF4 (YLF), LiSrAlF6 (LISAF), . . .
Glass: phosphate and silicate
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Pumping
active medium, doping density N0
pump rate
N0 Al
hP =
abs
Ppump
absorption efficiency
P /L
abs Ppump
quantum efficiency
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Population inversion
Population inversion: N = N2 N1
dN
N
= W (N0 N)
dt
N W N0 (1 exp(t/))
W N0
for
t
(t )
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Gain
dz
Area A
P(0)
P(l)
O
The interaction probability between photons
and ions defines an emission cross-section
z
dP = N Adz /A P
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Laser Medium
Absorption cross-section: A
g0 l, 0 l
Intensity I1 = I0 exp(g0 l 0 l)
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Some examples
L [m]
[1019 cm2 ]
[s]
IS [kW/cm2 ]
Nd:YAG
1.064
4.1
230
2.00
Nd:YVO4
1.064
15.0
100
1.26
Nd:YLF
1.047
1.8
480
2.15
Yb:YAG
1.03
0.21
970
9.50
Yb:KYW
1.03
0.3
300
21.58
Cr:LiSAF
0.85
0.5
67
70.25
Ti:Sapphire
0.79
2.8
3.2
160
Yb: SiO2
1.03
0.08
800
30.5
L ASER MEDIUM
High product low saturation intensity high gain and low laser threshold
Long upper-state lifetime high energy storage
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g0 l, 0 l
Intensity I1
Intensity I2
R
Round-trip steps
I1 = GVS I0
I2 = RI1 = RGVS I0
I3 = GVS I2 = G2 VS2 R I0
Lasing condition: I3 = I0
G2 VS2 R = 1
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Intensity I0
Intensity I3
Intensity I1
Intensity I2
HR mirror
G2 VS2 R = 1
1
I = IS
[g0 l | ln( RVS )|]
| ln( RVS )|
The average intensity I is the sum of the two counter-propagating intensities
Assuming that both waves carry the same intensity (low output coupling approximation):
1R
Pout = AB I1 (1 R) = AB I/2 (1 R) = AB IS
[g0 l | ln( RVS )|]
|2 ln( RVS )|
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g0 l, 0 l
Intensity I3
Intensity I1
Intensity I2
HR mirror
By taking into account the expression for the small signal gain:
g0 lAIS = P /L abs Ppump
and assuming a constant mode beam area AB , we get:
Pout =
AB
1R
[
/
AI
|
ln(
RVS )|] = (Ppump Ppump,th )
P L abs pump
S
A 2| ln( RVS )|
AIS
Ppump,th =
| ln( RVS )|
P /L abs
Slope efficiency
AB
1R
P /L abs
A 2| ln( RVS )|
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The output coupling ratio R can be chosen for maximum output power:
Optimum output coupling:
ln Ropt = 20 l
opt,max =
g0 l
1
0 l
Pout,max
Ppump
0 l
= P /L abs
g0 l
g0 l
1
0 l
The optimum output coupling depends on the small signal gain and losses
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Laser resonators
R1
R2
g1
g2
The mode size AB in the previous equations depends on the resonator design.
We consider resonators with two mirrors. Actual resonator might be way more complicated!
Mirrors have their own radius of curvature (R > 0 for convex mirrors)
We define g-parameters as follows:
gi = 1
L
Ri
i = 1, 2
Resonators define eigenmodes, E-field distributions which retain their profile after every round-trip
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Stable resonators
g1
2w1
g2
2w2
2w0
R1
R2
L
0 g1 g2 1
gj
L L
2
wi =
gi (1 g1 g2 )
w02 =
i, j = 1, 2; i = j
L L g1 g2 (1 g1 g2 )
|g1 + g2 2g1 g2 |
In multimode operation the beam area is M 2 larger than the fundamental mode area
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Fiber lasers
Resonator layout significantly simplified
Mode area and beam quality determined by the propagation condition inside of the optical fiber
The pump power needs to be coupled into the resonator through WDMs or pump combiners
The mirrors can be realized inside of the fiber (Fiber Bragg Gratings, FBG)
Easier management of thermal problems than in bulk materials
High brightness
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Pulsed operation
CW operation allows to achieve output power in the order of 10 kW (fiber lasers) or few kW (bulk
materials)
Lasers can also operate in pulsed regimes (e.g. by using a pulsed pump source)
Q-switching and mode-locking allows to redistribute the stored energy to get high peak powers
and pulse energies
High peak powers and pulse energies are required in a number of applications (material
processing and non-linear processes)
Q-switching allows to generate ns-long pulses with energies up to 100s of mJ and repetition rates
from a few Hz to a few 100s of kHz (peak power in the order of kWs)
Mode-locking operation allows to get J-level ps-long or fs-long pulses (ultrafast pulses) with
repetition rates ranging from 10s of MHz up to a 10s of GHz (peak power in the order of MWs)
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Q-factor
R1
R2
g1
g2
L
TR =
2L
c
round-trip time
c =
TR
= 20 l ln R
Q = 2
Est
Est
2c
= 2
= 20 c
Ed
Est [1 exp(T0 /c )]
T0
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Ppeak
Pulse energy
hL
ln(1/R)
AB
gi
EP
TR
P
= c
Ppeak
EP
Pulse duration
hL
ln(1/R)
AB
gi
TR
Build-up time
tb
20c
gi /gth 1
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Q-switching techniques
A CTIVE Q- SWITCHING
V
Electro-optic or acousto-optic
switches might me used
V =0
/4
PC
V = V/4
PASSIVE Q- SWITCHING
T
Tsat
T0
Fsat
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g()
A
ML
Ip = N 2 E02
ICW = NE02
Higher number of phase-locked modes means larger pulse spectra and shorter pulse durations
and higher peak powers: minimum pulse duration related to A
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Mode-locking techniques
g()
ML
Ip = N 2 E02
ICW = NE02
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Non-linear optics
2 E
1 2 E
=
z2 c2 t 2
1 2 P
0 t 2
(2)
1012 m/V
LBO
(3)
1020 m2 /V2
E NERGY CONSERVATION:
+ = 2
M OMENTUM CONSERVATION :
k + k = 2k
2
n() +
n() =
n(2) n() = n(2)
c
c
c
Polarized light is required!
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Parametric amplification
Kerr effect
Due to the typical values of (2) the required optical intensities for efficient frequency conversion
are 100 MW/cm2
New frequencies can be easily generated with Q-switched and mode-locked lasers
SHG (second harmonic generation) and THG (third harmonic generation) can be achieved also in
CW lasers by intra-cavity generation
Due to the typically low values for (3) it is usually more convenient to generate third order effects
by cascading two second order processes
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Further reading
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