Propagation of light pulses in a chirped-pulse-amplification laser

Author

Chuang, Y.H. ; Zheng, L. ; Meyerhofer, D.D.

Author_Institution

Lab. for Laser Energetics, Rochester Univ., NY, USA

Volume

29

Issue

1

fYear

1993

fDate

1/1/1993 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

270

Lastpage

280

Abstract

The propagation and compression of a broadband pulse in a chirped-pulse-amplification (CPA) laser is studied. Gain narrowing and self-phase-modulation (SPM) are the main mechanisms that modulate the final compressed pulse temporally and spectrally. The effect of gain saturation is also investigated. Due to the large chirp of this type of laser pulse, the power gain of the amplifier can be treated as a function of instantaneous frequency to simplify the analysis. Experimental results from an Nd:glass CPA laser system are in good agreement with the theory. Both experimental and theoretical results show that SPM can play an important role in determining the final shape of the compressed pulse, even at relatively low values of the cumulative B-integral, B⩽2

Keywords

high-speed optical techniques; neodymium; solid lasers; ND:glass laser system; amplifier; broadband pulse; chirped-pulse-amplification laser; compressed pulse; compression; final shape; gain narrowing; gain saturation; instantaneous frequency; mechanisms; power gain; propagation; self-phase-modulation; theoretical results; Chirp modulation; Laser theory; Optical propagation; Optical pulses; Power amplifiers; Power lasers; Pulse amplifiers; Pulse compression methods; Pulse modulation; Scanning probe microscopy;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Quantum Electronics, IEEE Journal of

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9197

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/3.199268

Filename

199268