Quanxin Na

Measuring OAM states of light beams with gradually-changing-period gratings

A method to measure orbital angular momentum (OAM) states of light beams by using gradually-changing-period gratings is reported. Two kinds of gradually-changing-period gratings were used for the measurement of OAM states. The OAM states of the incident beam can be measured easily from the Hermite-Gaussian-like diffraction patterns. The simulation results agree well with the experiments.

34 mJ Ho:YAG ceramic master oscillator and power amplifier laser at 2097 nm.

We demonstrated a 2097 nm Ho:YAG ceramic master oscillator and power amplifier system pumped by Tm:YLF lasers. Laser characteristics of 0.6 at.% and 0.4 at.% Ho:YAG ceramics were studied in CW and Q-switched modes. An output energy of 20.6 mJ at a pulse repetition frequency of 200 Hz was achieved from the master oscillator. The pulse energy was amplified to 34 mJ by the Ho:YAG ceramic amplifier with a pulse duration of 54 ns.

Generation of optical vortices by using spiral phase plates made of polarization dependent devices.

A method to construct spiral phase plates (SPPs) from quarter-wave plates and spatially variable half-wave plates (SVHWPs) is proposed. Optical vortices were experimentally generated by using SPPs made of polarization-dependent devices. The topological charge of the optical vortex can be also determined by the structure of the SVHWP and the polarization of the incident beam.

Single-frequency, injection-seeded Q-switched Ho:YAG ceramic laser pumped by a 1.91μm fiber-coupled LD.

A 2090 nm injection-seeded Q-switched Ho:YAG ceramic laser pumped by a 1.91 μm fiber-coupled LD is demonstrated in this paper. Single-frequency operation of Q-switched Ho:YAG ceramic laser is achieved by injection seeding technique. The maximum output energy of the single-frequency Q-switched Ho:YAG ceramic laser is 14.76 mJ, with a pulse width of 121.6 ns and a repetition rate of 200 Hz. The half-width of the pulse spectrum measured by heterodyne technique is 3.84 MHz. The fluctuation of the center frequency of the pulsed laser is 1.49 MHz (RMS) in 1 hour. As far as we know, this is the first time to report a single-frequency, injection-seeded Ho:YAG ceramic pulsed laser.

Simulation study on detection performance of eye-safe coherent Doppler wind lidar operating near 1.6 μm

Coherent Doppler wind lidars (CDWL) are widely used in aerospace, atmospheric monitoring and other fields. The parameters of laser source such as the wavelength, pulse energy, pulse duration and pulse repetition rate (PRR) have significant influences on the detection performance of wind lidar. We established a simulation model which takes into account the effects of atmospheric transmission, backscatter, atmospheric turbulence and parameters of laser source. The maximum detection range is also calculated under the condition that the velocity estimation accuracy is 0.1 m/s by using this model. We analyzed the differences of the detection performance between two operation systems, which show the high pulse energy-low pulse repetition rate (HPE-LPRR) and low pulse energy-high repetition rate (LPE-HPRR), respectively. We proved our simulation model reliable by using the parameters of two commercial lidar products. This research has important theoretical and practical values for the design of eye-safe coherent Doppler wind lidar.

Analysis of the thermal effect in diode end-pumped Er:YAG lasers by using Finite Element Method

A new method for combining Finite Element Method (FEM) thermal analysis and thermo-mechanical coupling method for calculating the thermal lensing values in diode end-pumped Er:YAG lasers is proposed. A finite-element model is used to simulate the thermal effects in different Er:YAG crystals with pumping scenarios. The influences of pump powers, crystal absorption coefficients and crystal sizes on the Er:YAG thermal effects are discussed, and the relationship between the thermal effects and thermal lensing effects is analysed. A thermo-mechanical coupling model is also constituted for finite-element analysis based on the above results, and the focal length of the Er:YAG crystal with different pump powers are obtained by using this thermo-mechanical coupling model. The predicted thermal lensing values are compared with experimental results, which agree well with the simulated results.