Shigeki Tokita

Liquid-cooled 24 W mid-infrared Er:ZBLAN fiber laser

A 24 W liquid-cooled CW 3 microm fiber laser with a multimode-core Er-doped ZBLAN fiber has been developed. The output power of 24 W and an optical-to-optical efficiency of 14.5% (with respect to incident pump power) were obtained with 975 nm diode pumping. Efficient cooling was implemented by a combination of fluid cooling over the entire length of the fiber and conductive cooling at both end faces of the fiber. Consequently, stable high-power operation was demonstrated. To our knowledge, this is the highest output power obtained by a 3 microm fiber laser. Furthermore, the high power can be further scaled up, since the output power in the present work is limited only by the available pump power.

Cryogenic temperature characteristics of Verdet constant on terbium gallium garnet ceramics

As the first demonstration of Faraday effect in a TGG ceramics, its Verdet constant at 1053 nm is evaluated to be 36.4 rad/Tm at room temperature which is same as that of the single crystal. In addition, the temperature dependence of Verdet constant is obtained experimentally. At liquid helium temperature, it is 87 times greater than that at room temperature.

12 WQ-switched Er:ZBLAN fiber laser at 28 μm

A diode-pumped, actively Q-switched 2.8 μm fiber laser oscillator with an average output power of more than 12 W has been realized through the use of a 35 μm core erbium-doped ZBLAN fiber and an acousto-optic modulator; to our knowledge, this is the first 3 μm pulsed fiber laser in the 10 W class. Pulse energy up to 100 μJ and pulse duration down to 90 ns, corresponding to a peak power of 0.9 kW, were achieved at a repetition rate of 120 kHz.

Stable 10 W Er:ZBLAN fiber laser operating at 2.71-2.88 μm.

We have developed a diode-pumped tunable 3 μm fiber laser with a cw output power of the order of 10 W with the use of an erbium-doped ZBLAN fiber. A tunability range of 110 nm (2770 to 2880 nm) with an output power between 8 and 11 W was demonstrated. As the pump power was increased, the center of the wavelength range was shifted toward longer wavelengths, but the width of the wavelength range was largely unaffected. The total tunability range for various pump power levels was 170 nm (2710 to 2880 nm). To our knowledge, this is the highest performance (output power and tunability) obtained from a tunable 3 μm fiber laser.

High-energy, diode-pumped, picosecond Yb:YAG chirped-pulse regenerative amplifier for pumping optical parametric chirped-pulse amplification.

A diode-pumped, cryogenic-cooled Yb:YAG regenerative amplifier utilizing gain-narrowing has been developed. A 1.2-ns chirped-seed pulse was simultaneously amplified and compressed in the regenerative amplifier, which generated a 35-ps pulse with ~8-mJ of energy without a pulse compressor. Second-harmonics of the amplified pulse was used to pump picosecond two-color optical parametric amplification.

Quantum-Defect-Limited Operation of Diode-Pumped Yb:YAG Laser at Low Temperature

We have demonstrated a quantum-defect-limited operation in a diode-pumped Yb:YAG oscillator at low temperature. The highest slope efficiency of 90% at the crystal temperature of 70 K was obtained, which was close to the quantum efficiency of 91.2%. An optical-to-optical efficiency and a laser gain were 74% and 8 cm-1, respectively at a low pump intensity of 2.3 kW/cm2.

23.7-W picosecond cryogenic-Yb:YAG multipass amplifier

A diode-pumped picosecond 8-pass amplifier with a liquid-nitrogen-cooled Yb:YAG crystal has been developed. An average output power of 23.7 W with a near-diffraction-limited beam quality (M(2) < 1.2) was obtained at a pulse repetition rate of 80 kHz and a pulse duration of 11.7 ps. Average powers above 20 W were also obtained in the 30-80 kHz repetition rate range. The pulse energy reached almost 1 mJ at the 20 kHz repetition rate.

Simple formula for the interspaces of periodic grating structures self-organized on metal surfaces by femtosecond laser ablation

Self-organized grating structures formed on Mo and Ti metal surfaces irradiated with femtosecond laser pulses at wavelengths of 800 and 400 nm are investigated by electron microscopy. We observe the formation of the self-organized grating structures on the metals irradiated with 400-nm laser pulses at low laser fluence in narrow fluence ranges. The interspaces of the grating structure depend on the wavelength and fluence of the laser. We find that the dependence of the grating interspaces on laser fluence can be explained by a simple formula for induction of a surface-plasma wave through the parametric decay of laser light.

Non-thermal ablation of expanded polytetrafluoroethylene with an intense femtosecond-pulse laser

Ablation of expanded polytetrafluoroethylene without disruption of the fine porous structure is demonstrated using an intense femtosecond-pulse laser. As a result of laser-matter interactions near ablation threshold fluence, high-energy ions are emitted, which cannot be produced by thermal dissociation of the molecules. The ion energy is produced by Coulomb explosion of the elements of (-CF(2)-CF(2)-)(n) and the energy spectra of the ions show contributions from the Coulomb explosions of the ions rather than those of thermal expansion to generate high-energy ions. The dependence of ion energy on the laser fluence of a 180-fs pulse, compared with that of a 400-ps pulse, also suggests that the high-energy ions are accelerated by Coulomb explosion.

0.3% energy stability, 100-millijoule-class, Ti:sapphire chirped-pulse eight-pass amplification system

Highly stable operation of a two-stage multipass Ti:sapphire amplifier (a four-pass pre-amplifier and a four-pass power amplifier) for a 100-mJ-class chirped-pulse amplification system has been demonstrated by passive stabilization. By optimizing the ratio of pump energies to the two amplifiers and the optical losses artificially inserted into the second power amplifier, a root-mean-square fluctuation in pulse energy of 0.3% was achieved, which was 5 times lower than that of the pump laser. This is the lowest pulse-to-pulse fluctuation, to the best of our knowledge, obtained by the 100-mJ-class Ti:sapphire amplifiers.