Introduction to the issue on ultrafast phenomena and their applications (original) (raw)
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Picosecond pulses and applications
Applied Physics B Photophysics and Laser Chemistry, 1982
Generation of IR tunable subpicosecond pulses is stimulated by needs of high resolution time domain spectroscopy . It seems that parametric oscillators can be applied for the purpose especially in ir region [-3, 4]. In Kaiser's group [-3] even subpicosecond superluminescence optical parametric oscillator (OPO) has been developed. On the other hand synchronously pumped OPO with comparative parameters have been proposed [-4]. This paper concerns an investigation of pulse shortening phenomenon in synchronously pumped OPO. Our results of numerical simulation show that at the begining of pump depletion in OPO the signal pulse splitting occurs with drasticaldiscrimination of fragments following. This leads to the formation of an extremely short pulse. Pulse compression is limited by cavity and pump parameters. Our experimental set-up consists of picosecond high stable phosphate glass laser [5], second harmonic generator (SHG) and synchronously pumped OPO [-4] . Reflectivity of cavity mirrors was R1=90% in spectral region between 0.8 g and 1.07 and 15% for 2=0.53 ~ R2=4+80% at 1.061a. Crystal KDP l=4cm cut for 2nd phase matching type was placed inside OPO cavity. It was possible to change cavity length with accuracy better than 0.01 mm. Measured threshold pump intensity was
Ultrafast laser and amplifier sources
Applied Physics B: Lasers and Optics, 1997
There has been remarkable progress in the development of high peak-power ultrafast lasers in recent years. Lasers capable of generating terawatt peak powers with unprecedented short pulse durations can now be built on a single optical table in a small laboratory. The rapid technological progress has made possible a host of new scientific advances in high-field science, such as the generation of coherent femtosecond X-ray pulses, and the generation of MeV-energy electron beams and high-energy ions. In this paper, we review progress in the development and design of ultrafast highpower lasers based on Ti:sapphire, including the ultrafast laser oscillators that are a very important enabling technology for high-power ultrafast systems, and ultrafast amplified laser systems that generate 20 fs duration pulses with several watts average power at kilohertz repetition-rates. Ultrafast waveform measurements of these pulses demonstrate that such short pulses can be generated with high fidelity. Finally, we discuss applications of ultrafast high-power pulses, including the generation of femtosecond to attosecond X-ray pulses.
Ultrashort Laser Pulses and Applications
American Journal of Physics, 1989
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data. Ultrashort laser pulses and applications. (Topics in applied physics; v. 60) Includes bibliographies and index. 1. Laser pulses, Ultrashort. I.
Pulse-Shaping Techniques Theory and Experimental Implementations for Femtosecond Pulses
Advances in Solid State Lasers Development and Applications, 2010
Femtosecond pulses are used in many fields due to their specificities of extreme short duration, ultra high peak power or large spectral bandwidth. Since the early days of the laser in the 60s, there has been a continous quest to generate shorter and or higher peak power pulses. Reliable generation of pulses below 100fs occurred the first time in 1981 with the invention of the colliding pulse modelocked (CPM) ring dye laser . Despite relative low energy per pulses, the ultrashort pulse duration leads to peak power large enough for non linear pulse compression culminating in pulses as short as 6fs in the visible. Recent advances in laser technology as the use of solid-state gain media, laser diode pumping, fiber laser, have led to simple, reliable, turn key ultrashort laser oscillators with pulse duration ranging form few ps down to 5fs. Limitation to pulse energy in the range of a microJoule or less in the CPM laser has been overcomed by the Chirped Pulse Amplification (CPA) technique (Strickland D., Mourou G., (1985)). This technique is the optical transposition of a Radar technique developped during the second world war. The basic principle is to spread in time i.e to stretch the ultrashort pulse before amplification. Indeed limitation of the pulse amplification because of the damage threshold of the optics is mainly due to the pulse peak power. A stretch ratio of a million gives the ability to amplify the stretched pulse, without optical damage, by a factor of a million from less than a microJoule to more than a Joule per pulse. After amplification, recompression of the pulse is achieved by an optical set-up that has a very high damage threshold. To obtain the highest peak power, the pulse duration has to be "Fourier transform limited", ie its spectral phase is purely linear. The compensation of the chirp and higher spectral phase order is highly simplified by the ability to introduced an arbitrarly shaped spectral phase. Application of these ultrashort pulses requires to control of optimize their temporal shape. Dispersion of materials and optical devices has been used to compress, stretch or replicate the pulses. Limitations on the ability to control the pulse temporal shape by classical optical devices have lead to the development of arbitrary pulse shapers. These devices are linear Source: Advances in Solid-State Lasers: Development and Applications, Book edited by: Mikhail Grishin, ISBN 978-953-7619-80-0, pp. 630, February 2010, INTECH, Croatia, downloaded from SCIYO.COM
Femtosecond Laser Pulses: Generation, Measurement and Propagation
2021
In this contribution some basic properties of femtosecond laser pulse are summarized. In sections 2.1-2.5 the generation of femtosecond laser pulses via mode locking is described in simple physical terms. In section 2.6 we deal with measurement of ultrashort laser pulses. The characterization of ultrashort pulses with respect to amplitude and phase is therefore based on optical correlation techniques that make of the short pulse itself. In section 3 we start with the linear properties of ultrashort light pulses. However, due to the large bandwidth, the linear dispersion is responsible for dramatic effects. To describe and manage such dispersion effects a mathematical description of an ultrashort laser pulse is given first before we continue with methods how to change the temporal shape via the frequency domain. The chapter ends with a paragraph of the wavelet representation of an ultrashort laser pulse.
Prospects of ultrafast pulse shaping
Curr. Sci, 2002
Availability of femtosecond solid-state lasers around the world has spurred a lot of technological activity in the femtosecond timescale and has also given us a tool to probe and gain more insight into the fundamentals of physics, chemistry and biology. An eventual prospect of controlling and manipulating some of the hitherto impossible tasks, can perhaps now be dreamt of. In this review we give a brief account of some of the promising techniques for ultrafast laser pulse shaping and then list some of the exciting prospects.