Short pulse generation by use of an active multipass interferometer

The operation of a simple device that converts continuous-wave (CW) laser light into a short-pulse train is reported. The setup is based on a passive ring cavity in which an acoustooptic frequency shifter takes the place of one of the mirrors. Temporal filtering and pulse compression of laser light was demonstrated. The experimental results obtained by injecting a CW CO₂ laser light in such a device are in agreement with the theoretical analysis. The device's application in external pulse compression of mode-locked pulses is also demonstrated     

Scaling of laser power with N2 partial pressure in aconvective-cooled CW CO2 laser

Diffusion-cooled and convective-cooled CW CO₂ lasers have significantly different N₂ partial pressure in their optimum laser gas mixture. While in diffusion-cooled lasers the N₂ fractional concentration is normally within 20% of the total gas pressure, it ranges up to 60% in convective-cooled lasers. By considering various effects of N₂ and solving a simplified rate-equation model analytically, the large difference in the optimum N ₂ concentrations in these two types of CO₂ laser is explained     

Optical gain and saturation intensity in a transverse-flow CW CO2 laser

Simple expressions for the small-signal gain and the saturation intensity in a transverse-flow CW CO₂ laser have been derived considering the effect of gas flow and the finite time required for N ₂ molecule to transfer its energy to CO₂ molecules. These expressions provide estimates of these parameters fairly close to the experimentally measured values in high-power transverse-flow CW CO₂ lasers     

Subnanosecond multi-gigawatt CO2 laser

A semiconductor switching technique has been utilized to produce 30-300 ps variable duration CO₂ laser pulses of 0.5-MW peak power. Eight passes through a 1.2-m long, UV-preionized, 3-atm TE CO₂ amplifier raise the output laser peak power to the 10¹⁰ W level. Sampling the amplifier gain in linear and saturated regimes using CO₂ laser radiation ranging from CW to 30 ps pulse length permits comparison with computer modeling of picosecond CO₂ pulse amplification. The potential for further peak power scaling of picosecond molecular lasers is discussed     

Accurate gas diagnostics for sealed-off CO2 lasers usingnear-infrared DFB semiconductor lasers

The selective spectroscopic detection of CO₂ and H₂O in the gas mixture of a 400-W sealed-off CO₂ slab laser is reported. The detection is based on the acquisition of absorption Voigt profiles of two vibrational overtone transitions of CO ₂ and H₂O, obtained using two InGaAsP distributed feedback (DFB) semiconductor lasers. This spectroscopic method enables a direct absolute measurement of the temporal evolution for the concentrations inside the laser active volume. Monitoring takes place during laser operation without gas extraction. The experiments carried out on CO₂ and H₂O abundances confirm the paramount importance of wall desorbance phenomena in all-metal radio frequency (RF) excited lasers     

Higher order FM mode locking for pulse-repetition-rate enhancementin actively mode-locked lasers: theory and experiment

We present a novel higher order FM mode-locked technique for active mode-locked lasers which utilizes the higher order sidebands generated by an intracavity phase modulator to establish the mode locking. The resulting mode-locked output exhibits an enhancement of the pulse repetition rate over the modulation frequency by an integral multiple. The higher order FM mode locking is studied theoretically in a laser with a homogeneous gain medium, and simple analytical expressions are obtained to characterize the output pulses. It is shown that the scheme not only enhances the pulse repetition rate but also ensures chirp-free pulses and is effective in eliminating the output pulse phase-state instability, which are commonly observed in conventional FM mode-locked lasers. The effect of group velocity dispersion and cavity nonlinearity is also investigated through numerical solution of the self-consistency equation applied to a fiber ring laser. Finally, detailed experimental results on repetition rate enhancement in fiber lasers are presented and shown to be in good agreement with the theoretical results     

Similarity and scaling in diffusion-cooled RF-excited carbondioxide lasers

The theoretical and experimental study of alpha RF discharges presented in this paper has resulted in the formulation of a set of similarity and scaling laws for diffusion-cooled alpha RF discharge-excited CW waveguide CO₂ lasers. For the first time, the parametric dependencies of the voltage-current-power characteristics of a transverse alpha RF discharge have been investigated over a range of excitation frequencies 100-160 MHz, for gas pressures 40-100 torr and for interelectrode distances 1-3 mm in a typical waveguide CO₂ laser gas mixture (He:N₂Co ₂=3:1:1+5 percent Xe). Relative to dc discharges, the additional scaling law fD=constant is established, and the analysis indicates both high- and low-frequency limits to the operation of practical self-similar laser devices     

Spatially resolved measurement of the vibrational temperatures ofthe plasma in a DC-excited fast-axial-flow CO2 laser

Results of measurements of longitudinally-averaged vibrational and rotational temperatures of CO₂ for different radial positions in the active medium of a fast-axial-flow, dc-excited CO₂ laser are reported. The diagnostic technique which was implemented is high resolution absorption spectroscopy of the laser plasma, using a tunable diode laser (TDL). Two different gas inlet sections for the CO ₂ laser were tested: One with a single anode pin in front of a relatively large inlet nozzle, as still commonly used in industrial high-power lasers, and another with multiple anodes symmetrically spaced around the perimeter of the discharge tube, each in front of a small diameter inlet nozzle. It is shown that the latter design is capable of creating an essentially flat profile regarding rotational temperature T _R and combined bending mode (T₂) and symmetric stretch mode (T₁≈T₂) temperature, while the asymmetric stretch temperature T₃ exhibits a small central maximum. This type of gain pattern is considered to be beneficial for mode quality. The former, mostly used gas inlet design, fails to provide an adequate gain profile (i.e., flat or centered and symmetrical). The combination of the information provided by the spectroscopic technique and a previously developed theoretical model can prove to be a real design aid for developing compact, high-power, gaussian mode CO₂ lasers for materials processing applications     

Frequency chirp in a 10 ATM RF-excited CO2 waveguidelaser

Various mechanisms causing frequency chirping in multiatmospheric-pressure CO₂ lasers are discussed. The frequency chirp has been measured in a pulsed 10 atm CO₂ waveguide laser. It has been found that the dominating cause of the frequency chirp in this laser is heating of the gas by the RF discharge. The chirp increases with increasing RF input power. The chirp levels off at about 100-150 MHz/μs for 25 kW of input power. This leveling off the chirp is believed to be due to the negative lensing effect of the gas density perturbation. The effect of the anomalous dispersion on the chirp is observed when the laser is operated at the flanks of the CO₂ gain branches     

Sum frequency generation by intersubband transition in step quantumwells

Using two CO₂ lasers, sum frequency generation was achieved in step quantum wells via intersubband transition processes. The power from each continuous wave (CW) CO₂ lasers was kept low such that the total power onto the sample was below 2 W. The observed sum frequency signal obeyed the polarization selection rule predicted by the simple effective mass envelope function model. The experimentally determined and calculated second order susceptibility values are in reasonable agreement     

Electrooptically tuned external-cavity CW semiconductor laser and FM optical communications

We report the operation of an external-cavity CW double-heterojunction GaAs injection laser that can be electrooptically tuned rapidly over a large spectral range (∼ 50 Å) and experiments demonstrating the feasibility of FM optical communications using electronically tunable semiconductor lasers and CW and mode-locked dye lasers. An experiment on binary pulse-code FM optical communication is also reported and discussed.     

Narrow bandwidth emission from a mirrorless, far infrared, 13CH3F laser

Frequency tuning and linewidth measurements are reported for a pulsed, mirrorless, kilowatt-power-level, far-infrared (FIR) ¹³ CH₃F laser operating at 245 GHz. The pump laser is an etalon tunable, single-mode CO₂ TEA laser. The FIR frequency spectrum was measured with 2.5-MHz resolution on individual 100-ns laser output pulses using harmonic mixing techniques. The linewidth of the amplified spontaneous emission was found to be surprisingly narrow, about 15 MHz. Frequency tuning of the FIR laser, as the pump laser frequency is tuned, is nonlinear, possibly due to inhomogeneous broadening of the gain by the K-level substructure of the rotational states. These results indicate that heterodyne receivers capable of single-shot frequency measurements can be important tools for investigating the properties of Raman FIR lasers     

Self-phase modulation in hybridly mode-locked CW dye lasers

Largely asymmetric spectra are observed for ultrashort light pulses from a synchronously and passively mode-locked CW rhodamine 6G dye laser, with relatively high intra-cavity intensity. The spectral shape shows a broad wing on the long-wavelength side alone. When the asymmetric spectrum occurs, the conventional SHG intensity auto-correlation trace shows exponential-like long tails. Further, the temporal characteristics of the mode-locked pulses, including both the shape and phase, are also examined by a new method of SHG autocorrelation, where the SH output is spectrally resolved. These experimental results are explained with self-phase modulation (SPM) process due to the optical Kerr effect in a mixed dye jet stream inside the laser cavity. The main observed characteristics are in reasonable agreement with the theoretical expectation from the slow SPM mechanism, where the pulse width is much shorter than the relaxation time τrof refractive index. The measured nonlinear refractive index n2and τralso support the above interpretation.     

Hooting modes in a CO2 waveguide laser

CO₂ waveguide lasers `hoot' when, instead of the solitary resonator mode expected from a homogeneously broadened gas laser, two or more resonator transverse modes laser simultaneously on a common laser line. The unwanted mode or modes, even if very faint and present only occasionally, can impede heterodyne measurements where a clean frequency spectrum is required. The authors report measurements of transverse-mode beat frequencies from a small RF-excited CO₂ laser with a hybrid Al/Al₂O₃ square-bore waveguide and plane mirrors; these frequencies alter with mirror tilt by up to 70 MHz mrad^-1. A minimum beat frequency is seen when the laser is well assigned. The authors suggest that a model of the misaligned resonator may help to identify the faint modes responsible for hooting     

CW submillimeter laser action in ethyl chloride

We present ten new far-infrared (FIR) laser lines obtained by optically pumping ethyl chloride by means of a CW waveguide CO₂ laser with a tunability range of 300 MHz. By means of a heterodyne technique and using, as mixing element, a metal-insulator-metal (MIM) point contact diode or a new home built metal-semiconductor diode, we measured the frequency of all these new lines, as well as that of another line, previously reported in literature. With our new lines, the total number of FIR laser lines emitted by ethyl chloride rises to 14; for each of them we give the offset relative to the center frequency of the pumping radiation, the polarization relative to that of the pumping CO₂ laser, the relative intensity, and the optimum operation pressure. Seven of the new lines have frequencies in the 300-512-GHz range and four of them are strong enough to be used in high-field EPR spectroscopy     

RF excitation of a flowing gas CO2 waveguide laser

Investigation of an RF excited CO₂ waveguide laser in flowing gas operation is reported. Power extraction of 0.8 W/cm with an efficiency of 10.3% has been achieved. Using W.W. Rigrod's analysis (1965), values of the small-signal gain α₀ and saturation parameter I_s have been determined for different excitation levels and for different pressures of the amplifying medium. The parameters α₀ and I_s, have been determined as 0.6%/cm and 10.4 kW/cm ², respectively, at 125 torr and 100 W/cm³ RF loading power. These values are close to those reported for sealed-off RF CO₂ waveguide lasers with xenon added to the gas mixture     

New CO2 laser lines in the 11-μm wavelength region:new hot bands

Nineteen new laser lines in the 11-μm wavelength region have been observed in CW oscillation from a CO₂ laser with a high-Q, high-resolution cavity at a higher than usual current density. The frequency of each line has been measured using heterodyne frequency measurement techniques. Analysis of the frequencies shows that 15 lines are rotation-vibration transitions of the 01¹2-[11¹1,03¹1]_I band (the first sequence hot band) of the CO₂ molecule and four lines belong to the rotation-vibration transitions of the 02²1-[12 ²0, 04²0]_I band of CO₂     

Theory and experiments on the power modulation of CO2lasers

The operation of a pulsed transverse flow CO₂ laser system with RF excitation is studied theoretically by computer simulation. The calculations are supported by experimental results which confirm that the pulse repetition frequency of the system is restricted by the time delay between the electric and the laser pulse and by relaxation oscillations. The time delay is roughly inversely proportional to the gas pressure and not very sensitive to variations of the CO₂ fraction and the output coupling of laser radiation. A pulse repetition frequency over some 30 kHz can be attained only if the excitation pulse period is equal to the delay time, but this operation condition is very sensitive to changes of the duty cycle. The calculations show that full modulation depth should be attainable up to a repetition frequency of 360 kHz     

New short-wavelength laser emissions from optically pumped 13CD3OD

We report the discovery of 15 new laser emissions from ¹³ CD₃OD when optically pumped with a CW CO₂ laser. The wavelengths of these lines, ranging from 57.5 to 135.2 μm, are reported along with their polarization relative to the CO₂ pump laser, operating pressure and relative intensity. A three-laser heterodyne system was then used to measure the frequencies of 12 optically pumped laser emissions from this methanol isotope. These emissions range from 65.7 to 151.8 μm and are reported with fractional uncertainties up to 2·10^-7