P. H. Tuan

A cryogenically cooled Nd:YAG monolithic laser for efficient dual-wavelength operation at 1061 and 1064 nm

We experimentally explore the fluorescence spectra of the Nd:YAG (YAG: yttrium aluminum garnet) crystal at cryogenic temperatures to confirm the feasibility of dual-wavelength operation at 1061 and 1064?nm. Furthermore, a cryogenically cooled Nd:YAG crystal with coating to form a monolithic cavity is employed to investigate the performance of the dual-wavelength operation. At an incident pump power of 20?W, the output powers for each wavelength can simultaneously reach 6.0?W at the optimally balanced temperature of 152?K. The optimal temperature for balancing the output powers of the two wavelengths is experimentally determined as a function of the incident pump power intensity.

24-W cryogenically cooled Nd:YAG monolithic 946-nm laser with a slope efficiency >70%

A high-power efficient monolithic Nd:YAG 946-nm laser is demonstrated at the cryogenic temperature. By exploring the absorption and the fluorescence spectra of the Nd:YAG crystal, it reveals the fact that the absorption bandwidth at 808 nm is narrowing and the fluorescence intensity at 1061 nm is significant enhanced when the temperature is decreased. The temperature dependence of the lasing threshold at 946 nm is found to display a minimum value near a temperature of 170 K. At an incident pump power of 34.5 W, the local heating leads the optimum temperature to be approximately 120 K and the maximum output power can reach 24.4 W with the conversion efficiency of 71% as well as the slope efficiency up to 75%.

Cryogenically monolithic self-Raman lasers: observation of single-longitudinal-mode operation

A cryogenically monolithic Nd:YVO4 self-Raman laser is experimentally explored and theoretically analyzed. The variation of the stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) threshold on the temperature is found to be nonlinear because the reduction of thermal lensing enlarges the cavity mode size. In spite of the nonlinear variation of the SRS threshold on the temperature, the overall SRS output power can be efficiently increased from 0.78 to 1.36 W for temperature decreasing from 285 to 80 K at an absorbed power of 17.2 W. More interestingly, the single-longitudinal-mode operation is experimentally achieved when temperature is lower than 125 K.

Exploring lasing modes and polarization characteristics in broad-area square-shaped vertical-cavity surface emitting lasers with frequency detuning

We experimentally explore the polarization characteristics of broad-area square-shaped vertical-cavity surface emitting lasers with the cryogenic cooling to achieve a wide range of frequency detuning. At room temperature the lasing modes are subject to thermal effects and exhibit the phenomenon of polarization switching. For operating temperatures below 260 K, the transverse modes are confirmed to be mainly controlled by the lateral oxide boundary and usually do not display polarization switching. Near the maximum frequency detuning, the lasing modes are well localized on the ray trajectories and display a remarkable frequency-locking phenomenon from single-frequency to multi-frequency operation for the injected current changing from near to far above lasing threshold.

Exploiting concave-convex linear resonators to design end-pumped solid-state lasers with flexible cavity lengths: Application for exploring the self-mode-locked operation

The characteristics of a convex-concave linear resonator under the thermal lensing effect are theoretically analyzed to find an analytical model for designing end-pumped solid-state lasers with flexible cavity lengths. By exploiting the design model, the power scaling for continuous-wave operation under strong thermal lensing can be easily achieved in the proposed resonator with different cavity lengths. Furthermore, the proposed resonator is applied to explore the exclusive influence of cavity length on the self-mode-locked (SML) operation. It is discovered that the lasing longitudinal modes will split into multiple groups in optical spectrum to lead to a multi-pulse mode-locked temporal state when the cavity length increases. Finally, a theoretical model is derived to reconstruct the experimental results of SML operation to deduce a simple relationship between the group number of lasing modes and the cavity length.

High-peak-power optically-pumped AlGaInAs eye-safe laser with a silicon wafer as an output coupler: comparison between the stack cavity and the separate cavity

An intrinsic silicon wafer is exploited as an output coupler to develop a high-peak-power optically-pumped AlGaInAs laser at 1.52 μm. The gain chip is sandwiched with the diamond heat spreader and the silicon wafer to a stack cavity. It is experimentally confirmed that not only the output stability but also the conversion efficiency are considerably enhanced in comparison with the separate cavity in which the silicon wafer is separated from other components. The average output power obtained with the stack cavity was 2.02 W under 11.5 W average pump power, corresponding to an overall optical-to-optical efficiency of 17.5%; the slope efficiency was 18.6%. The laser operated at 100 kHz repetition rate and the pulse peak power was 0.4 kW.

Generation of Higher Order Vortex Beams From a YVO 4 /Nd:YVO 4 Self-Raman Laser via Off-Axis Pumping With Mode Converter

The generation of high-order Hermite-Gaussian (HG) beams at the Stokes wavelength in a YVO4/Nd:YVO4 self-Raman laser with off-axis pumping is demonstrated. The high-order vortex beams at the Stokes field are successfully created by transforming these HG modes via an extra-cavity mode converter. The stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) threshold pump power for the diode-end-pumped laser is theoretically analyzed to verify the feasibility of generating high-order HG modes by off-axis pumping. At a pump power of 18.6 W, the SRS output powers can be higher than 1.0 W for the HG modes from TEM0,0 to TEM3,0. Under the same pump power, the maximum order can be up to TEM28,0.

Resolving the formation of modern Chladni figures

The resonant spectrum of a thin plate driven with a mechanical oscillator is precisely measured to distinguish modern Chladni figures (CFs) observed at the resonant frequencies from classical CFs observed at the non-resonant frequencies. Experimental results reveal that modern CFs generally display an important characteristic of avoided crossings of nodal lines, whereas the nodal lines of classical CFs form a regular grid. The formation of modern CFs and the resonant frequency spectrum are resolved with a theoretical model that characterizes the interaction between the plate and the driving source into the inhomogeneous Kirchhoff-Love equation. The derived formula for determining resonant frequencies is shown to be exactly identical to the meromorphic function given in singular billiards that deals with the coupling strength on the transition between integrable and chaotic features. The good agreement between experimental results and theoretical predictions verifies the significant role of the strong-coupling effect in the formation of modern CFs. More importantly, it is confirmed that the apparatus for generating modern CFs can be developed to serve as an expedient system for exploring the nodal domains of chaotic wave functions as well as the physics of the strong coupling with a point scatterer.

Exploring the influence of boundary shapes on emission angular distributions and polarization states of broad-area vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers

We design the stadium-shaped and rectangular vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) to investigate the influence of boundary shapes on the emission angular distributions and polarization states. For the stadium-shaped VCSELs, the emission angular distribution prefers to be almost omnidirectional because the lasing mode with purely scarred structure is seldom to be excited. On the contrary, the rectangular VCSELs usually generate dominant lasing modes with the morphology of quasi-periodic linear ridges, which can make emission angular distribution to be concentrated on the certain direction. From the polarization-resolved light-current curves, the stadium-shaped VCSEL is quite prone to exhibit numerous abrupt changes (kinks) associated with polarization switching with increasing current, whereas for rectangular VCSEL there is no conspicuous kink to be seen during a wide range of current changing from near to far above lasing threshold.

Exploiting birefringent thermal lensing effect to manipulate polarization states of an Nd:YVO 4 self-mode-locked laser

An Nd:YVO4 laser with a convex-plano cavity is systematically studied to demonstrate the manipulation of output polarization state by using the birefringent thermal lensing effect of the gain crystal. Based on the theoretical analysis of the cavity stability under the influence of thermal lens, the polarization state of output emission is experimentally confirmed that can be controlled to switch from pure π- to pure σ-polarization by simply varying the pump focus position from the tight-focusing to defocusing conditions. More importantly, it is found that there exists an adequate pump focus position within the switching region to lead the π- and σ-polarization to have balanced gain for achieving a stable self-mode-locked laser with orthogonally polarized components. Under the orthogonally polarized mode-locked operation, the pulse repetition rates are found to be 2.23 and 2.33 GHz for the π- and σ-polarization with pulse duration to be 16.1 and 15.1 ps, respectively.