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US 8,477,410 B2Granted
Optical parametric oscillator pumped by femtosecond thin-disk laser
AssigneeCoherent, Inc.
InventorsNorman Hodgson, Dmitri Simanovski, Andrei Starodoumov
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Abstract
Pulses from a mode-locked Yb-doped laser are spectrally broadened, and temporally compressed, then frequency-doubled and used to pump an optical parametric oscillator (OPO). The OPO output is tunable over a wavelength range from about 600 nm to about 1100 nm.
Claims20
Laser apparatus, comprising:
- a mode-locked laser including an ytterbium-doped solid state gain-medium and arranged to deliver mode-locked laser-radiation pulses having a fundamental wavelength, a first spectral bandwidth, and a first pulse-duration and a repetition period;
- a passive medium arranged to receive the mode-locked pulses from the mode-locked laser and broaden the spectral bandwidth of the pulses to a second spectral bandwidth;
- a pulse compressor arranged to compress the duration of the bandwidth-broadened pulses to a second duration shorter than the first duration;
- a first optically nonlinear crystal arranged to frequency-double the fundamental wavelength of the compressed pulses to provide frequency-doubled pump-pulses having a wavelength one-half that of the fundamental wavelength;
- and
- an optical parametric oscillator arranged to be optically pumped by the frequency-doubled pump-pulses, the optical parametric oscillator having a resonator including a second optically nonlinear crystal arranged to frequency-convert the frequency-doubled pump pulses to signal-pulses having a wavelength longer than that of the frequency-doubled pump-pulses and tunable within a predetermined range.
3 more elements
Laser apparatus, comprising:
- a mode-locked laser having a first resonator including an ytterbium-doped thin-disk state gain-medium having a reflective coating on one surface thereof and arranged to deliver mode-locked laser-radiation pulses having a fundamental wavelength between about 1024 nm and 1040 nm, a first spectral bandwidth, and a first pulse-duration, and a pulse-repetition period;
- a passive medium arranged to receive the mode-locked pulses from the mode-locked laser and broaden the spectral bandwidth of the pulses to a second spectral bandwidth;
- a pulse compressor arranged to compress the duration of the bandwidth-broadened pulses to a second duration shorter than the first duration;
- a first optically nonlinear crystal arranged to frequency-double the fundamental wavelength of the compressed pulses to provide frequency-doubled pump-pulses having a wavelength one-half that of the fundamental wavelength;
- an optical parametric oscillator having a traveling wave resonator including a second optically nonlinear crystal arranged to be optically pumped by the frequency-doubled pump-pulses, the second optically nonlinear crystal arranged to frequency-convert the frequency-doubled pump pulses to signal-pulses having a wavelength longer than that of the frequency-doubled pump-pulses and tunable within a range between about 600 nm and 1100 nm;
- and
- wherein the length of the traveling wave resonator of the optical parametric oscillator is selected such that the round trip time for signal pulses therein is an integer multiple of the pulse-repetition period of the mode-locked laser-radiation pulses.
4 more elements
Laser apparatus, comprising:
- a mode-locked laser including a ytterbium-doped gain-medium and arranged to deliver mode-locked laser-radiation pulses having a fundamental wavelength, a first spectral bandwidth, and a first pulse-duration and a repetition period;
- an optical element arranged to receive the mode-locked pulses from the mode-locked laser and broaden the spectral bandwidth of the pulses to a second spectral bandwidth;
- a pulse compressor arranged to compress the duration of the bandwidth-broadened pulses to a second duration shorter than the first duration;
- a first optically nonlinear crystal arranged to frequency convert the compressed pulses to provide frequency converted pump pulses;
- and
- an optical parametric oscillator arranged to be optically pumped by the frequency converted pump pulses, the optical parametric oscillator having a resonator including a second optically nonlinear crystal arranged to frequency-convert the compressed pulses to signal-pulses having a wavelength longer than that of the compressed pulses and tunable within a predetermined range.
3 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.