Active tuning of temporal dispersion in an ultrashort pulse laser system
AssigneeRaydiance, Inc.
InventorsJames Francis Brennan, III, Laurent Vaissié, Michael Marshall Mielke
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Abstract
A chirped pulse amplification (CPA) system and method is described wherein the dispersion of the system is tuned by actively tuning one or more system components, for example, using a temperature or strain gradient, or using actinic radiation. In other embodiments, an additional element, such as a modulator, is added to the CPA system to actively to tune the pulse. A pulse monitor is added to the system to measure an output pulse and provide feedback to one or more active tuning elements.
Claims28
A chirped pulse amplification system, comprising:
- a pulse generator, configured to generate a laser pulse;
- a pulse stretcher, configured to generate a stretched pulse from the laser pulse by dispersing it temporally as a function of wavelength;
- a pulse amplifier, configured to generate an amplified pulse from the stretched pulse;
- and
- a pulse compressor comprising a Bragg fiber, configured to generate a compressed pulse from the amplified pulse, wherein the pulse stretcher or the pulse compressor is tunable to control a total group velocity dispersion of the chirped pulsed amplification system.
A method, comprising the steps of:
- generating a laser pulse;
- amplifying the laser pulse using an optical amplifier, to produce an amplified pulse;
- compressing the amplified pulse using a pulse compressor comprising a Bragg fiber, to produce a compressed pulse;
- measuring a temporal width of the compressed pulse;
- and
- dynamically tuning total group velocity dispersion of the system to control a temporal width of the compressed pulse responsive to the measured temporal width.
A system, comprising:
- a chirped pulse source configured to generate a chirped pulse;
- an amplifier configured to generate an amplified pulse from the chirped pulse;
- a compressor configured to generate a compressed pulse from the amplified pulse, the compressor comprising a Bragg fiber;
- an active tuning element configured to tune a temporal dispersion of the system and control a temporal width of the compressed pulse;
- and
- a pulse monitor configured to measure one or more characteristics of the compressed pulse, the active tuning element being responsive to an output of the pulse monitor.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.