GB2616156A - Compact high energy regenerative amplifier - Google Patents

Compact high energy regenerative amplifier Download PDF

Info

Publication number
GB2616156A
GB2616156A GB2307986.6A GB202307986A GB2616156A GB 2616156 A GB2616156 A GB 2616156A GB 202307986 A GB202307986 A GB 202307986A GB 2616156 A GB2616156 A GB 2616156A
Authority
GB
United Kingdom
Prior art keywords
pulse
wavelength
cavity
optical amplifier
regenerative
Prior art date
Legal status (The legal status is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the status listed.)
Pending
Application number
GB2307986.6A
Other versions
GB202307986D0 (en
Inventor
Mason Paul
Current Assignee (The listed assignees may be inaccurate. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation or warranty as to the accuracy of the list.)
United Kingdom Research and Innovation
Original Assignee
United Kingdom Research and Innovation
Priority date (The priority date is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the date listed.)
Filing date
Publication date
Application filed by United Kingdom Research and Innovation filed Critical United Kingdom Research and Innovation
Publication of GB202307986D0 publication Critical patent/GB202307986D0/en
Publication of GB2616156A publication Critical patent/GB2616156A/en
Pending legal-status Critical Current

Links

Classifications

    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H01—ELECTRIC ELEMENTS
    • H01S—DEVICES USING THE PROCESS OF LIGHT AMPLIFICATION BY STIMULATED EMISSION OF RADIATION [LASER] TO AMPLIFY OR GENERATE LIGHT; DEVICES USING STIMULATED EMISSION OF ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION IN WAVE RANGES OTHER THAN OPTICAL
    • H01S3/00—Lasers, i.e. devices using stimulated emission of electromagnetic radiation in the infrared, visible or ultraviolet wave range
    • H01S3/10—Controlling the intensity, frequency, phase, polarisation or direction of the emitted radiation, e.g. switching, gating, modulating or demodulating
    • H01S3/106—Controlling the intensity, frequency, phase, polarisation or direction of the emitted radiation, e.g. switching, gating, modulating or demodulating by controlling devices placed within the cavity
    • H01S3/108—Controlling the intensity, frequency, phase, polarisation or direction of the emitted radiation, e.g. switching, gating, modulating or demodulating by controlling devices placed within the cavity using non-linear optical devices, e.g. exhibiting Brillouin or Raman scattering
    • H01S3/109—Frequency multiplication, e.g. harmonic generation
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H01—ELECTRIC ELEMENTS
    • H01S—DEVICES USING THE PROCESS OF LIGHT AMPLIFICATION BY STIMULATED EMISSION OF RADIATION [LASER] TO AMPLIFY OR GENERATE LIGHT; DEVICES USING STIMULATED EMISSION OF ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION IN WAVE RANGES OTHER THAN OPTICAL
    • H01S3/00—Lasers, i.e. devices using stimulated emission of electromagnetic radiation in the infrared, visible or ultraviolet wave range
    • H01S3/14—Lasers, i.e. devices using stimulated emission of electromagnetic radiation in the infrared, visible or ultraviolet wave range characterised by the material used as the active medium
    • H01S3/16—Solid materials
    • H01S3/1601—Solid materials characterised by an active (lasing) ion
    • H01S3/1603—Solid materials characterised by an active (lasing) ion rare earth
    • H01S3/1618—Solid materials characterised by an active (lasing) ion rare earth ytterbium
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H01—ELECTRIC ELEMENTS
    • H01S—DEVICES USING THE PROCESS OF LIGHT AMPLIFICATION BY STIMULATED EMISSION OF RADIATION [LASER] TO AMPLIFY OR GENERATE LIGHT; DEVICES USING STIMULATED EMISSION OF ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION IN WAVE RANGES OTHER THAN OPTICAL
    • H01S3/00—Lasers, i.e. devices using stimulated emission of electromagnetic radiation in the infrared, visible or ultraviolet wave range
    • H01S3/14—Lasers, i.e. devices using stimulated emission of electromagnetic radiation in the infrared, visible or ultraviolet wave range characterised by the material used as the active medium
    • H01S3/16—Solid materials
    • H01S3/163—Solid materials characterised by a crystal matrix
    • H01S3/164—Solid materials characterised by a crystal matrix garnet
    • H01S3/1643—YAG
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H01—ELECTRIC ELEMENTS
    • H01S—DEVICES USING THE PROCESS OF LIGHT AMPLIFICATION BY STIMULATED EMISSION OF RADIATION [LASER] TO AMPLIFY OR GENERATE LIGHT; DEVICES USING STIMULATED EMISSION OF ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION IN WAVE RANGES OTHER THAN OPTICAL
    • H01S3/00—Lasers, i.e. devices using stimulated emission of electromagnetic radiation in the infrared, visible or ultraviolet wave range
    • H01S3/23—Arrangements of two or more lasers not provided for in groups H01S3/02 - H01S3/22, e.g. tandem arrangements of separate active media
    • H01S3/2308—Amplifier arrangements, e.g. MOPA
    • H01S3/2325—Multi-pass amplifiers, e.g. regenerative amplifiers
    • H01S3/235—Regenerative amplifiers

Landscapes

  • Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
  • Electromagnetism (AREA)
  • Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
  • Plasma & Fusion (AREA)
  • Optics & Photonics (AREA)
  • Chemical & Material Sciences (AREA)
  • Crystallography & Structural Chemistry (AREA)
  • Nonlinear Science (AREA)
  • Optical Modulation, Optical Deflection, Nonlinear Optics, Optical Demodulation, Optical Logic Elements (AREA)
  • Lasers (AREA)

Abstract

A regenerative optical amplifier with intracavity wavelength conversion is disclosed. The regenerative optical amplifier is configured for generating a burst of pulses, and comprises: pulse guiding optics arranged to form a cavity and guide a received pulse along an optical path within the cavity; an optical gain module disposed in the optical path and configured to amplify the pulse; a wavelength converter disposed in the optical path and configured to convert at least a portion of the amplified pulse from a first wavelength to a second wavelength; and a splitter configured to separate the portion of the amplified pulse having the second wavelength from the portion of the amplified pulse having the first wavelength and to output the portion of the pulse having the second wavelength from the cavity. The pulse guiding optics are arranged to guide the portion of the pulse having the first wavelength around or along the cavity a plurality of cycles so as to generate the burst of pulses at the second wavelength. The regenerative optical amplifier uses temporal spreading of pulses to scale to higher energies and includes conversion of infra-red pump light to visible light such as for pumping a titanium :sapphire laser.

Claims (36)

  1. CLAIMS:
    1 . A regenerative optical amplifier with intracavity wavelength conversion, the regenerative optical amplifier for generating a burst of pulses, and comprising: pulse guiding optics arranged to form a cavity and guide a received pulse along an optical path within the cavity; an optical gain module disposed in the optical path and configured to amplify the pulse; a wavelength converter disposed in the optical path and configured to convert at least a portion of the amplified pulse from a first wavelength to a second wavelength; and a splitter disposed in the optical path and configured to separate the portion of the amplified pulse having the second wavelength from the portion of the amplified pulse having the first wavelength and to output the portion of the pulse having the second wavelength from the cavity, wherein the pulse guiding optics are arranged to guide the portion of the pulse having the first wavelength around or along the cavity a plurality of cycles so as to generate the burst of pulses at the second wavelength.
  2. 2. The regenerative optical amplifier of claim 1 , wherein the splitter is arranged to output from the cavity the burst of pulses at the second wavelength.
  3. 3. The regenerative optical amplifier of any preceding claim, wherein the pulse guiding optics are arranged to direct the amplified pulse to the wavelength converter to convert the at least a portion of the amplified pulse to a second wavelength, and the pulse guiding optics further arranged to direct the remaining portion of the amplified pulse having the first wavelength to the optical gain medium for further amplification and subsequent wavelength conversion.
  4. 4. The regenerative optical amplifier of any preceding claim, wherein the number of round trips of the received pulse around the cavity pulses is at least the number of pulses in the burst of pulses.
  5. 5. The regenerative optical amplifier of any preceding claim, wherein the time period between pulses in the burst of pulses is the round trip time for a pulse around the cavity. - 35 -
  6. 6. The regenerative optical amplifier of any preceding claim, wherein the second wavelength is less than the first wavelength.
  7. 7. The regenerative optical amplifier of claim 6, wherein the wavelength converter is a second harmonic generation medium, a third harmonic generation medium or a parametric amplification medium.
  8. 8. The regenerative optical amplifier of claim 7, wherein the second wavelength is half the wavelength of the first wavelength and the wavelength converter is a second harmonic generation medium.
  9. 9. The regenerative optical amplifier of any preceding claim, wherein the splitter is a wavelength selective mirror.
  10. 10. The regenerative optical amplifier of claim 9, wherein the wavelength selective mirror is a dichroic and is arranged to reflect the portion of the amplified pulse having a second wavelength and transmit the portion of the amplified pulse having a first wavelength.
  11. 11 . The regenerative optical amplifier of any preceding claim, wherein the pulse guiding optics comprise: pulse size reduction optics to spatially reduce the extent of the pulse for input to the wavelength converter; and pulse expansion optics to spatially expand the extent of the pulse for input to the optical gain module.
  12. 12. The regenerative optical amplifier of any preceding claim, wherein the cavity is formed as a ring or is linear.
  13. 13. The regenerative optical amplifier of any preceding claim, further comprising a polarisation rotator arranged to rotate by 90° the plane of polarisation of a pulse input to the polarisation rotator.
  14. 14. The regenerative optical amplifier of claim 13, wherein the optical gain module comprises a plurality of slabs of optical gain medium and the polarisation rotator is disposed between a first group of one or more slabs of the plurality of slabs of optical gain medium and a second group of one or more slabs of the plurality of slabs of optical gain medium.
  15. 15. The regenerative optical amplifier of claim 13, comprising two or more optical gain modules, wherein the polarisation rotator is disposed between a first optical gain module of the two or more optical gain modules and a second optical gain module of the two or more optical gain modules.
  16. 16. The regenerative optical amplifier of claim 13, claim 14 or claim 15, further comprising a switchable polarisation controller switchable between two polarisation rotation modes, the polarisation rotator arranged in the cavity and configured to rotate the polarisation of a pulse passing through it by 90° in one of the modes.
  17. 17. The regenerative optical amplifier of claim 16 when dependent on claim 14 or claim 15, such that the net polarisation rotation provided to a pulse in a complete round trip around the cavity is zero, 90° or 180°.
  18. 18. The regenerative optical amplifier of claim 16 or 17, wherein the polarisation controller is configured to switch to change the polarisation rotation through the rotator by 90° after a first pulse has passed through the switchable polarisation rotator.
  19. 19. The regenerative optical amplifier of any of claims 16 to 18, wherein the polarisation controller is a Pockels cell.
  20. 20. The regenerative optical amplifier of any of claims 16 to 19, wherein the switchable polarisation rotator is configured to be switched a further time to end the cycling of the pulse or pulses around the cavity.
  21. 21 . The regenerative optical amplifier of any preceding claim, further comprising a first polariser arranged to receive a seed pulse at a first polarisation and transmit or reflect the seed pulse to the cavity, and wherein the first polariser is further arranged to receive the portion of the amplified pulse having the first wavelength that has passed through the wavelength converter and maintain said portion in the cavity.
  22. 22. The regenerative optical amplifier of claim 21 , further comprising a second polariser, wherein: the second polariser has a crossed polarising direction to the first polariser, or the first and second polarisers have the same polarising direction and a polarisation rotator is disposed in the optical path between the first and second polarisers.
  23. 23. The regenerative optical amplifier of any preceding claim, wherein the cavity is linear and the pulse guiding optics comprise a pair of mirrors defining the cavity there between such that pulses guided between the mirrors travel a linear path, and the optical gain module, the wavelength converter, and the splitter are disposed in the cavity.
  24. 24. The regenerative optical amplifier of any preceding claim, further comprising a controller for monitoring energies of pulses and adjusting the rotational position of the wavelength converter medium relative to the pulse polarisation to change the conversion efficiency of the wavelength conversion medium.
  25. 25. The regenerative optical amplifier of any preceding claim wherein the spatial crosssection of pulses passing through the gain medium is at least 0.5cm by 0.5cm and the repetition rate between bursts of pulses is less than 1000Hz.
  26. 26. The regenerative optical amplifier of any preceding claim, wherein the finesse of the cavity is less than around 15.
  27. 27. The regenerative optical amplifier of any preceding claim, wherein the maximum energy of a pulse in the burst of pulses is greater than 0.1 J.
  28. 28. A burst pulse laser system, comprising the regenerative optical amplifier of any preceding claim and a seed oscillator, wherein the seed oscillator is arranged to provide a seed pulse to the regenerative optical amplifier.
  29. 29. A titaniunrsapphire laser comprising, as a pump source, the regenerative optical amplifier of any of claims 1 to 27, or the burst pulse laser system of claim 28.
  30. 30. A method of regenerative optical amplification including wavelength conversion, the method comprising: - 38 - receiving, into an optical cavity having an optical path, a seed pulse of a first wavelength; amplifying, in the optical cavity, the seed pulse using optical gain medium; converting, in the optical cavity, a first portion of the amplified pulse to a second wavelength; separating the first portion at the second wavelength from the remaining portion of the pulse at the first wavelength and outputting the first portion from the optical cavity; and directing the remaining portion of the pulse at the first wavelength around the cavity a plurality of cycles so as to generate a burst of pulses at the second wavelength.
  31. 31 . The method of claim 30, comprising directing the remaining portion of the pulse at the first wavelength to the optical gain medium for further amplification and subsequently to for wavelength conversion to the second wavelength, and separating the first and second wavelengths.
  32. 32. The method of claim 30 or claim 31 , further comprising, after the step of separating, directing the portion of the pulse at the second wavelength at the gain medium of a titanium:sapphire laser to pump the gain medium.
  33. 33. The method of any of claims 30 to 32, wherein the wavelength conversion is second harmonic generation.
  34. 34. The method of claim 33, wherein the first wavelength is in the range 1010 to 1050nm, such as 1030 nm, and the second wavelength is in the range 505 to 525nm, such as at 515nm.
  35. 35. The method of any of claims 30 to 34, wherein the maximum energy of a pulse of the burst of pulses is greater than 0.1 J.
  36. 36. The method of any of claims 30 to 35, wherein the optical cavity is linear or a ring cavity.
GB2307986.6A 2020-12-01 2021-11-30 Compact high energy regenerative amplifier Pending GB2616156A (en)

Applications Claiming Priority (2)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
GBGB2018937.9A GB202018937D0 (en) 2020-12-01 2020-12-01 Compact high energy regenerative amplifier
PCT/EP2021/083625 WO2022117583A1 (en) 2020-12-01 2021-11-30 Compact high energy regenerative amplifier

Publications (2)

Publication Number Publication Date
GB202307986D0 GB202307986D0 (en) 2023-07-12
GB2616156A true GB2616156A (en) 2023-08-30

Family

ID=74099978

Family Applications (2)

Application Number Title Priority Date Filing Date
GBGB2018937.9A Ceased GB202018937D0 (en) 2020-12-01 2020-12-01 Compact high energy regenerative amplifier
GB2307986.6A Pending GB2616156A (en) 2020-12-01 2021-11-30 Compact high energy regenerative amplifier

Family Applications Before (1)

Application Number Title Priority Date Filing Date
GBGB2018937.9A Ceased GB202018937D0 (en) 2020-12-01 2020-12-01 Compact high energy regenerative amplifier

Country Status (2)

Country Link
GB (2) GB202018937D0 (en)
WO (1) WO2022117583A1 (en)

Citations (2)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US6130900A (en) * 1999-03-05 2000-10-10 Coherent, Inc. Pulsed intracavity frequency-converted solid-state laser with long-pulse simulation
WO2019120186A1 (en) * 2017-12-20 2019-06-27 中国科学院理化技术研究所 Optical parametric oscillator

Family Cites Families (1)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
GB201708315D0 (en) 2017-05-24 2017-07-05 Science And Tech Facilities Council Laser amplifer module

Patent Citations (2)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US6130900A (en) * 1999-03-05 2000-10-10 Coherent, Inc. Pulsed intracavity frequency-converted solid-state laser with long-pulse simulation
WO2019120186A1 (en) * 2017-12-20 2019-06-27 中国科学院理化技术研究所 Optical parametric oscillator

Also Published As

Publication number Publication date
GB202307986D0 (en) 2023-07-12
WO2022117583A1 (en) 2022-06-09
GB202018937D0 (en) 2021-01-13

Similar Documents

Publication Publication Date Title
US7386019B2 (en) Light pulse generating apparatus and method
CN106486882B (en) Novel high-efficiency high-power ring laser amplifier
WO1996042129A1 (en) Long-pulse-width narrow-bandwidth laser
CN101154789A (en) Optical parameter amplification system based on full optical fiber laser
CN114552360B (en) Mixed gas 4 mu m middle infrared band Raman laser output device
GB2616156A (en) Compact high energy regenerative amplifier
CN216598384U (en) Stimulated Brillouin scattering and stimulated Raman scattering combined compressed ultrashort pulse laser
McKay et al. Non-collinear beam combining of kilowatt beams in a diamond Raman amplifier
CN114498258B (en) Time domain optical separation amplification mode-locked laser
CN213660863U (en) Modular Raman beam combination laser
CN112987323A (en) High-energy solid pulse laser polarization beam combining device
CN114256729B (en) Mid-infrared Raman laser with narrow pulse width, high peak power and high average power
CN103928837A (en) Multi-pass amplifying system for high-power laser separation chirp pulses
CN114204395A (en) Stimulated Brillouin scattering and stimulated Raman scattering combined compressed ultrashort pulse laser
Edvardsen et al. Nanosecond-Pulsed Hybrid Thulium-Raman Fiber Amplifier at 2.1$\mu\mathrm {m} $
Morrill et al. A cryogenic Yb: YAG regenerative amplifier pumped, mJ-class, 1 kHz, 3 µm wavelength ultrafast OPCPA
CN201015020Y (en) Optical parametric amplification system based on full optical fiber laser
Sullivan et al. Multiterawatt Laser System Based on Ti: A1203
Zuegel et al. High-performance OPCPA laser system
Papadopoulos et al. High-contrast 10-fs OPCPA-based Front-End for the Apollon-10PW laser
Canova et al. Ultrashort pulses generation with the Mazzler active spectral broadening and the XPW pulse shortening technique
Kiriyama et al. Development of high-repetition-rate LD pumped Nd: YAG laser and its application
Jacobs et al. Steady-State Phase-Conjugation By Stimulated Brillouin Scattering
CN116316026A (en) Blue laser generating device with high conversion efficiency under negative pressure condition
Hornung et al. High-average power diode-pumped amplification of picosecond-pulses