Within this work we demonstrate the efficient nonlinear temporal compression of mJ pulses emitted by an ultrafast thulium-doped fiber laser system. For spectral broadening, a krypton and helium filled Herriott-type multi-pass cell with broadband dielectric mirrors is employed. The input pulses with 1,78 mJ and 85 fs are spectrally broadened and subsequently compressed utilizing fused silica plates revealing a pulse duration below 29 fs while featuring an overall transmission of 91%. In addition to the preservation of the input beam quality, the system exhibits a shot-to-shot noise ratio of less than 1.2% as well as an excellent long-term power stability with fluctuations below 1% over a time span of 2 hours.
The presented results demonstrate the advantageous properties of the multi-pass cell approach: High efficiency and high transversal beam quality at high average power, not only for conventional ultrafast ytterbium-based laser systems at 1 µm wavelength, but also in the mid-infrared regime. We believe that this system, delivering an average power above 162 W and sub-5-cycle pulse duration, provides a promising working point for following secondary source experiments like THz- or high harmonic generation.
In the field of atmospheric research, lidar is a powerful technology that can measure gas or aerosol concentrations, wind speed, or temperature profiles remotely. To conduct such measurements globally, spaceborne systems are advantageous. Pulse energies in the 100-mJ range are required to achieve highly accurate, longitudinal resolved measurements. Measuring concentrations of specific gases, such as CH4 or CO2, requires output wavelengths in the IR-B, which can be addressed by optical-parametric frequency conversion. An OPO/OPA frequency conversion setup was designed and built as a demonstration module to address the 1.6-μm range. The pump laser is an Nd:YAG-MOPA system, consisting of a stable oscillator and two subsequent Innoslab-based amplifier stages that deliver up to 500 mJ of output pulse energy at 100 Hz repetition frequency. The OPO is inherited from the OPO design for the CH4 lidar instrument on the French–German climate satellite methane remote-sensing lidar mission (MERLIN). To address the 100-mJ regime, the OPO output beam is amplified in a subsequent multistage OPA. With potassium titanyl phosphate as nonlinear medium, the OPO/OPA delivered more than 100 mJ of output energy at 1645 nm from 450 mJ of the pump energy and a pump pulse duration of 30 ns. This corresponds to a quantum conversion efficiency of about 25%. In addition to demonstrating optical performance for future lidar systems, this laser will be part of a laser-induced damage thresholds test facility, which will be used to qualify optical components especially for the MERLIN.
In the field of atmospheric research, LIDAR is a powerful technology that can measure gas or aerosol concentrations, wind speed or temperature profiles remotely. To conduct such measurements globally, spaceborne systems are advantageous. Pulse energies in the 100 mJ range are required to achieve highly accurate, longitudinal resolved measurements. Measuring concentrations of specific gases, such as CH4 or CO2, requires output wavelengths in the IRB, which can be addressed by optical parametric frequency conversion.
An OPO/OPA frequency conversion setup was designed and built as a demonstration module to address the 1.6 μm range. The pump laser is an Nd:YAG-MOPA system, consisting of a stable oscillator and two subsequent Innoslab-based amplifier stages that deliver up to 500 mJ of output pulse energy at 100 Hz repetition frequency. The OPO is inherited from the OPO design for the CH4 lidar instrument on the French-German climate satellite MERLIN. In order to address the 100 mJ regime, the OPO output beam is amplified in a subsequent multistage OPA. With KTP as nonlinear medium, the OPO/OPA delivered more than 100 mJ of output energy at 1645 nm from 450 mJ of the pump energy and a pump pulse duration of 30 ns. This corresponds to a quantum conversion efficiency of about 25 %.
Besides demonstrating optical performance for future lidar systems, this laser will be part of a LIDT test facility, which will be used to qualify optical components especially for the MERLIN mission.
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