Takayo Ogawa

Thermal conductivity/diffusivity of Nd3+ doped GdVO4, YVO4, LuVO4, and Y3Al5O12 by temperature wave analysis

Thermal diffusivity and thermal conductivity of single crystals of Nd3+ doped GdVO4, YVO4, LuVO4, and Y3Al5O12 are precisely measured over a wide range of doping concentration from 0.5to15at.% by temperature wave analysis. Thermal diffusivity serves as the most sensitive parameter to detect the effect of doping on thermal properties, where Nd3+ doped GdVO4 exhibits a decrease in thermal diffusivity (it has changed about 20% in their values in the c axis) but an increase in heat capacity (only 1.7%). It has long been understood that the thermal conductivity of YVO4 is inferior to that of Y3Al5O12; however, the thermal conductivity of YVO4 in the c axis shows the highest value in all four crystals compared at 1at.% of Nd3+ doping concentration. Thermal conductivity exhibits a decrease (∝e−1∕2, e: mass variance) with an increase of doping concentration, that is characteristic of Klemens’ point defect model for the phonon scattering. In the numerical fitting, the anisotropic decrease of thermal conductivity i...

Efficient laser performance of N:dGdVO 4 crystals grown by the floating zone method

Efficient laser performance is demonstrated with Nd:GdVO4 crystals grown by the floating zone method. With a 2-at. % Nd-doped crystal a slope efficiency of 67% is achieved with pumping at 808 nm. We also find that pumping at 879 nm with a bandwidth of 1.8 nm is practical for laser diode pumping. With this pumping level the slope efficiency reaches 78%. High-quality Nd:GdVO4 crystals are successfully grown with as much as 15-at.% Nd concentration by the floating zone method without inclusions or macroscopic defects. Homogeneity and high reproducibility of crystal growth are confirmed.

Dual-wavelength mode-locked Yb: YAG ceramic laser in single cavity

We demonstrated a 380 fs dual-wavelength independently mode-locked Yb∶YAG ceramic laser at 1033.6 and 1047.6 nm. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first dual-wavelength mode locking achieved in Yb-doped solid-state lasers.

Diode-pumped mode-locked Yb:YAG ceramic laser.

A diode-pumped passively mode-locked Yb:YAG ceramic laser was demonstrated. 417 and 286 fs pulses with average powers of 250 and 25 mW were obtained at 1030 nm using 1 and 0.1% output couplers, respectively. 233 fs pulses with an average power of 20 mW were also obtained at a center wavelength of 1048.3 nm using a 0.1% output coupler. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first demonstration of a diode-pumped mode-locked Yb:YAG ceramic laser.

High-Power High-Efficiency Yb3+-Doped Y3Al5O12 Ceramic Laser at Room Temperature

A diode-end-pumped Yb3+:Y3Al5O12 (Yb:YAG) ceramic laser with high efficiency and high power was demonstrated. A 5.5 W cw output power was obtained with a slope efficiency of 52%. To the best of our knowledge, this is the highest reported efficiency for >5 W Yb:YAG ceramic lasers.

Study on thermally induced depolarization of a probe beam by considering the thermal lens effect

In this paper, we present an accurate theoretical description of the birefringence characteristics in a Nd : YAG rod by taking the thermal lens effect into account. Considering that the birefringence is strongly dependent on the distance away from the centre of a birefringent rod, the convergent features of an incident probe beam were first evaluated for a side-pumped laser rod. A segmental accumulation method was then employed to calculate the total phase shift between the radial and the tangential components of polarization of a converged probe beam. The theoretical conclusions were compared with the measured results in both the degree of depolarization and the spatial birefringent distribution of a transmitted He–Ne laser beam. The experimental results are in good agreement with the theoretical ones so that we believe the algorithm given in this paper should be effective for the construction of a high-powered laser or amplifier system.

Birefringence compensation of two tandem-set Nd:YAG rods with different thermally induced features

How to reduce the thermally induced effects in a solid-state rod is a critical assignment for the applications of high-powered diode-pumped solid-state lasers (DPSSLs). In this paper, we study the birefringence compensation in a solid-state laser system containing two tandem-set Nd:YAG rods with different thermally induced characteristics. By reason of the uneven emission wavelengths of the pump LDs, the thermal focal length of one Nd:YAG rod is about 1.3 times as much as that of the other in our study. Using a 90° quartz rotator and a pair of coupling lenses, we investigated the depolarization dependence on different laser structures. It has been found that the birefringence in two laser rods with such different thermally induced features can be excellently reduced by adopting an optimized lens configuration which is not a traditional telescope image system as usually adopted by many researchers. Both the theoretical analyses and the experimental results have demonstrated the performance of our approach. The conclusions have been thought to be useful for constructing a high-average-power laser oscillator with a near- TEM00 mode.

Optical and Thermal Characteristics of Nd:LuVO4 Grown by Floating Zone Method

High-quality Nd:LuVO4 crystals were successfully grown by the floating zone method. Broadband fluorescence with a full width at half maximum of 10 nm at approximately 1066 nm was observed upon σ-polarization. A maximum slope efficiency of 72% was achieved in the case of pumping at 880 nm for 1066 nm laser generation. Furthermore, we measured the thermal diffusivity of the Nd:LuVO4 crystal by temperature wave analysis. By applying this method, the variation of the measured results was improved from 10 to 2%. The thermal conductivity of a 1.0 at. % Nd-doped LuVO4 crystal was 6.1 W/mK in the [110] direction.

The Atmospheric Monitoring System of the JEM-EUSO space mission

An Atmospheric Monitoring System (AMS) is a mandatory and key device of a space-based mission which aims to detect Ultra-High Energy Cosmic Rays (UHECR) and Extremely-High Energy Cosmic Rays (EHECR) from Space. JEM-EUSO has a dedicated atmospheric monitoring system that plays a fundamental role in our understanding of the atmospheric conditions in the Field of View (FoV) of the telescope. Our AMS consists of a very challenging space infrared camera and a LIDAR device, that are being fully designed with space qualification to fulfil the scientific requirements of this space mission. The AMS will provide information of the cloud cover in the FoV of JEM-EUSO, as well as measurements of the cloud top altitudes with an accuracy of 500 m and the optical depth profile of the atmosphere transmittance in the direction of each air shower with an accuracy of 0.15 degree and a resolution of 500 m. This will ensure that the energy of the primary UHECR and the depth of maximum development of the EAS ( Extensive Air Shower) are measured with an accuracy better than 30% primary energy and 120 g=cm 2 depth of maximum development for EAS occurring either in clear sky or with the EAS depth of maximum development above optically thick cloud layers. Moreover a very novel radiometric retrieval technique considering the LIDAR shots as calibration points, that seems to be the most promising retrieval algorithm is under development to infer the Cloud Top Height (CTH) of all kind of clouds, thick and thin clouds in the FoV of the JEM-EUSO space telescope.

A MOPA with double-end pumped configuration using total internal reflection

We presented a Nd:YAG master oscillator power amplifier (MOPA) with the compact LD double-end pumped configuration. To acquire the homogenous absorption distribution, a composite short Nd:YAG rod has been employed as the amplification medium and the rod side was well polished to cause total internal reflection (TIR) at the internal wall of the rod. Because the axes of pump LDs and the seed laser occupy the same position, it is relatively easy to obtain both the satisfied mode-matching efficiency and the high absorption efficiency by using two stacked-LD modules. A seed laser, with the input energy of 15 mJ and the pulse width of 46 ns, was amplified through the MOPA structure with the one-pass gain of about 1.2. We have not found any parasitic oscillations from both ends of the amplifier rod until the total pump LD power reached 420 W. The proposed scheme is thought to be useful in a multiple-pass MOPA system for high-average-power applications.