Franck Morin

Femtosecond fiber chirped- and divided-pulse amplification system

We implement both chirped pulse amplification and divided pulse amplification in the same femtosecond fiber amplifier setup. This scheme allows an equivalent stretched pulse duration of 2.4 ns in a compact tabletop system. The generation of 77 W of compressed average power at 4.8 MHz, together with 320 fs and 430 μJ pulses at a repetition rate of 96 kHz, is demonstrated using a distributed mode-filtering, rod-type, ytterbium-doped fiber. Limitations in the temporal recombining efficiency due to gain saturation inside the fiber amplifier are identified.

Microjoule femtosecond fiber laser at 1.6 μm for corneal surgery applications

We report on chirped-pulse amplification in a large-mode-area erbium-doped fiber emitting in a water transparency window. 1.5 μJ 605 fs pulses are generated at 1.6 μm with a repetition rate of 300 kHz; this corresponds to an average power of 460 mW. Nonlinearities are adjusted on the global system to compensate for the dispersion mismatch between the fiber stretcher and the grating compressor. This new compact and robust source targets medical applications such as surgery in highly scattering corneas.

Ultrashort pulse laser surgery of the cornea and the sclera

The strongly localized interaction process of ultrashort laser pulses with tissue makes femtosecond lasers a powerful tool for eye surgery. These lasers are now routinely used in refractive surgery and other forms of surgery of the anterior segment of the eye. Several clinical laser systems also offer options for corneal grafting and the potential use of ultrashort pulse lasers in glaucoma surgery has been the object of several recent studies which have shown promising results. While devices aimed for interventions in clear tissue may be based on available solid state or fibre laser technology, the development of tools for surgery in more strongly scattering tissue has to account for the compromised tissular transparency and requires the development of optimized laser sources. The present paper focuses on surgery of clear and pathological cornea as well as sclera. It aims to give an overview over typical medical indications for ultrashort pulse laser surgery, the optics of the tissues involved, the available laser technology, the laser–tissue interaction process, and possible future developments.

Passive coherent combination of two ultrafast rod type fiber chirped pulse amplifiers

Using passive coherent beam combining of two ultrafast fiber amplifiers, we demonstrate the generation of high temporal quality 300 fs and 650 μJ pulses corresponding to 60 W of average power at a repetition rate of 92 kHz. Furthermore, at 2 MHz of repetition rate record coherent combining average powers of 135 W before and 105 W after compression are measured. A combining efficiency higher than 90% is maintained over the whole range of output powers and repetition rates investigated demonstrating the efficiency and robustness of the passive combining technique. The measured pulse-to-pulse relative power fluctuation at high energy is 2%, indicating that the system is essentially immune to environmental phase noise. We believe the passive combining method to be an attractive approach for compact multi-GW peak power femtosecond fiber-based sources.

Energy scaling of a nonlinear compression setup using passive coherent combining

Passive spatial and temporal coherent combining schemes are implemented to scale the output energy of a nonlinear temporal compression setup. By generating 32 replicas of the incident femtosecond pulses, the output of a high-energy fiber chirped-pulse amplifier can be compressed using self-phase modulation in a large-mode-area rod-type fiber at peak-power levels well beyond the self-focusing power. We demonstrate the generation of 71 fs 7.5 μJ pulses at 100 kHz repetition rate, corresponding to a peak power of 86 MW.

Two-channel pulse synthesis to overcome gain narrowing in femtosecond fiber amplifiers

We demonstrate spectral coherent beam combining of two femtosecond fiber chirped-pulse amplifiers seeded by a common oscillator. Using active phase stabilization based on an electro-optic phase modulator, an average power of 10 W before compression and a high gain factor of 30 dB are obtained. At this gain value, 130 fs pulses with a spectral width of 19 nm can be generated, highlighting the strong potential of pulse synthesis for the reduction of the minimum duration of ultrashort pulses in fiber chirped-pulse amplifiers.

Frequency conversion from near-infrared to mid-infrared in highly nonlinear optical fibres

Chalcogenide or heavy metal oxide glasses are well known for their good transparency in the mid-infrared (MIR) domain as well as their high nonlinear refractive index (n2) tens to hundreds times higher than that of silica. We have investigated the nonlinear frequency conversion processes, based upon either stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) or soliton fission and soliton self-frequency shift (SSFS) in fibres made up with such highly nonlinear infrared transmitting glasses. First, SRS has been investigated in a chalcogenide As2S3 step index fibre. In the single pass configuration, under quasi continuous wave 1550 nm pumping, Raman cascade up to the forth Stokes order has been obtained in a 3 m long piece of fibre. The possibility to build a Raman laser thanks to in-fibre written Bragg gratings has also been investigated. A 5 dB Bragg grating has been written successfully in the core. Then, nonlinear frequency conversion in ultra-short pulse regime has been studied in a heavy metal oxide (lead-bismuth-gallium ternary system) glass photonic crystal fibre. Broadband radiation, from 800 nm up to 2.8 μm, has been obtained by pumping an 8 cm long piece of fibre at 1600 nm in sub-picosecond pulsed regime. The nonlinear frequency conversion process was assessed by numerical modelling taking into account the actual fibre cross-section as well as the measured linear and nonlinear parameters and was found to be due to soliton fission and Raman-induced SSFS.

Metal deep engraving with high average power femtosecond lasers

Deep engraving of 3D textures is a very demanding process for the creation of master tool e. g molds, forming tools or coining dies. As these masters are uses for reproduction of 3D patterns the materials for the tools are typically hard and brittle and thus difficult to machine. The new generation of industrial femtosecond lasers provides both high accuracy engraving results and high ablation rates at the same time. Operation at pulse energies of typically 40 μJ and repetition rates in the Mhz range the detrimental effect of heat accumulation has to be avoided. Therefore high scanning speeds are required to reduce the pulse overlap below 90%. As a consequence scan speeds in the range of 25-50 m/s a needed, which is beyond the capability of galvo scanners. In this paper we present results using a combination of a polygon scanner with a high average power femtosecond laser and compare this to results with conventional scanners. The effects of pulse energy and scan speed of the head on geometrical accuracy are discussed. The quality of the obtained structures is analyzed by means of 3D surface metrology microscope as well as SEM images.

CPA-free picosecond fiber amplifier with 25µJ pulse energy and <500kW peak power

We demonstrate a compact and robust picosecond fiber amplifier system that produces >25-μJ pulse energy and average powers exceeding 25W while maintaining a narrow spectral bandwidth. This simple and compact CPA-free fiber amplifier system is well suited for micro-machining applications as well as for scientific applications that require narrow optical spectra as e.g. CARS spectroscopy.

10μJ ultrashort sub-100 fs FCPA synthesizer

We report the generation of 10 μJ, ultrashort 97 fs pulses at 1 MHz by implementing a two-arm spectral coherent combining scheme in a fiber chirped-pulse amplifier (FCPA), allowing both gain-narrowing mitigation and large stretching ratio for energy extraction. Such architecture is able to support the amplification of large-bandwidth (>15 nm) together with high gain factor (>30 dB), allowing the generation of ultrashort sub-100 fs pulses at the output of a FCPA for the first time.