Yixuan Zhang

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.

Robust calibration method for pure rotational Raman lidar temperature measurement.

A new calibration method for pure rotational Raman lidar temperature measurement is described in this work. The method forms a temperature-dependent term in the intensity ratio, which is calculable with the radiosonde data, and then derives a calibration factor, with which the temperature is retrievable from the lidar return. The method is demonstrated and compared with existing methods through simulations and experiments. Results of the comparison show that the proposed method could provide more accurate calibrations under low signal-to-noise ratio conditions and could thus reduce the lidar performance requirement for temperature retrieval.

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.

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.