Femtosecond fiber CPA system based on picosecond master oscillator and power amplifier with CCC fiber

Monolithic tapered Yb-doped fiber chirped pulse amplifier delivering 126 μJ and 207 MW femtosecond laser with near diffraction-limited beam quality

In this work, a high-energy and high peak power chirped pulse amplification system with near diffraction-limited beam quality based on tapered confined-doped fiber (TCF) is experimentally demonstrated. The TCF has a core numerical aperture of 0.07 with core/cladding diameter of 35/250 µm at the thin end and 56/400 μm at the thick end. With a backward-pumping configuration, a maximum single pulse energy of 177.9 μJ at a repetition rate of 504 kHz is realized, corresponding to an average power of 89.7 W. Through partially compensating for the accumulated nonlinear phase during the amplification process via adjusting the high order dispersion of the stretching chirped fiber Bragg grating, the duration of the amplified pulse is compressed to 401 fs with a pulse energy of 126.3 μJ and a peak power of 207 MW, which to the best of our knowledge represents the highest peak power ever reported from a monolithic ultrafast fiber laser. At the highest energy, the polarization extinction ratio and the M2 factor were respectively measured to be ~ 19 dB and 1.20. In addition, the corresponding intensity noise properties as well as the short- and long-term stability were also examined, verifying a stable operation of the system. It is believed that the demonstrated laser source could find important applications in, for example, advanced manufacturing and photomedicine.

3D-Printed Poly (P-Dioxanone) Stent for Endovascular Application: In Vitro Evaluations

Rapid formation of innovative, inexpensive, personalized, and quickly reproducible artery bioresorbable stents (BRSs) is significantly important for treating dangerous and sometimes deadly cerebrovascular disorders. It is greatly challenging to give BRSs excellent mechanical properties, biocompatibility, and bioabsorbability. The current BRSs, which are mostly fabricated from poly-l-lactide (PLLA), are usually applied to coronary revascularization but may not be suitable for cerebrovascular revascularization. Here, novel 3D-printed BRSs for cerebrovascular disease enabling anti-stenosis and gradually disappearing after vessel endothelialization are designed and fabricated by combining biocompatible poly (p-dioxanone) (PPDO) and 3D printing technology for the first time. We can control the strut thickness and vessel coverage of BRSs by adjusting the printing parameters to make the size of BRSs suitable for small-diameter vascular use. We added bis-(2,6-diisopropylphenyl) carbodiimide (commercial name: stabaxol^®-1) to PPDO to improve its hydrolytic stability without affecting its mechanical properties and biocompatibility. In vitro cell experiments confirmed that endothelial cells can be conveniently seeded and attached to the BRSs and subsequently demonstrated good proliferation ability. Owing to the excellent mechanical properties of the monofilaments fabricated by the PPDO, the 3D-printed BRSs with PPDO monofilaments support desirable flexibility, therefore offering a novel BRS application in the vascular disorders field.

High-repetition-rate, 50-µJ-level, 1064-nm, CPA laser system based on a single-stage double-pass Yb-doped rod-type fiber amplifier

A 1064-nm femtosecond fiber chirped pulse amplification (FCPA) laser system based on a single-stage double-pass Yb-doped rod-type photonic crystal fiber (PCF) amplifier was demonstrated with a pulse repetition rate of 500 kHz, which was specially designed for expected conversion efficiency enhancement of a 10.8 eV source. With a series of Yb:fiber power amplifiers, the average output power was boosted to approximately 35 W. Further, using a transmission gratings-based pulse compressor, an average output power of 27.5 W was achieved, corresponding to a pulse energy of 55 µJ and a compression efficiency of 78.6%. The shortest pulse duration was optimized to be 204 fs, which was also accompanied by obvious pedestal. A pulse duration of 336 fs was also obtained when the pulse quality was at a top priority. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first demonstration of high-repetition-rate high-pulse-energy 1064-nm, instead of 1035-nm, femtosecond laser, based on commercially available Yb-doped rod-type PCF amplifier.

172-fs, 27-µJ, Yb-doped all-fiber-integrated chirped pulse amplification system based on parabolic evolution by passive spectral amplitude shaping

Parabolic pulses with linear self-phase-modulation-induced frequency chirp are attractive in ultrafast laser fiber amplification system for the functionality of nonlinearities suppression. In this paper, we present an effective way of parabolic pulse evolution by passive spectral amplitude shaping with a pair of chirped fiber Bragg gratings (CFBG). By this approach, a high-energy high-peak-power Yb-doped fiber chirped pulse amplification (CPA) system is demonstrated. The oscillator is a dispersion-managed passively mode-locked Yb-doped fiber laser with a broadband Gaussian-shaped spectrum which is evolved to parabola in a following preamplifier with pre-chirping management by a CFBG compressor. The pulses are then stretched with a CFBG stretcher, based on frequency-to-time mapping, the temporal profiles of the pulses show an identical parabolic envelope to the spectrum. The shaped pulses are further amplified with three stages of all-fiber amplifiers and compressed by a grating-pair compressor. The pulse duration is compressed to 172 fs with a pulse energy of 27 µJ. The central pulse encompasses 72% of total pulse energy, corresponding to a pulse peak power of 113 MW. No obvious pulse degeneration is noticed at nonlinearity accumulation B-integral as high as 12 rad. This configuration shows a significant potential for nonlinearity tolerance in high-energy operation compared with conventional CPA system.

Femtosecond laser pulse generation with self-similar amplification of picosecond laser pulses

Compressing picosecond laser pulses to the femtosecond level is an attractive shortcut for obtaining femtosecond laser pulses. However, dechirped pulses generated by nonlinear compression with self-phase modulation (SPM) show obvious pedestals, which are induced by nonlinear chirp accumulation in spectral broadening process and cannot be easily suppressed. Here, we report systematic numerical simulations and experimental studies on self-similar amplification of picosecond pulses in a short gain fiber for obtaining ~100-fs laser pulses with nearly transform-limited (TL) temporal quality. It is demonstrated that self-similar amplification with picosecond seed pulses is only sensitive to pulse duration and pulse energy. Based on this optimization guideline, we built a compact self-similar amplification fiber system with a picosecond fiber laser as the seed source. This system outputs 66-fs pulses with 6.1-W average power at a repetition rate of 30 MHz. Due to the linear chirp produced in self-similar evolution process, compressed pulses show nearly TL temporal quality. It promises an efficient way of obtaining high-quality femtosecond laser pulses from a picosecond laser source.

Limits of Femtosecond Fiber Amplification by Parabolic Pre-Shaping

We explore parabolic pre-shaping as a means of generating and amplifying ultrashort pulses. We develop a theoretical framework for modeling the technique and use its conclusions to design a femtosecond fiber amplifier. Starting from 9 ps pulses, we obtain 4.3 μJ, nearly transform-limited pulses 275 fs in duration, simultaneously achieving over 40 dB gain and 33-fold compression. Finally, we show that this amplification scheme is limited by Raman scattering, and outline a method by which the pulse duration and energy may be further improved and tailored for a given application.

34-fs, all-fiber all-polarization-maintaining single-mode pulse nonlinear amplifier

We present an all-fiber all-polarization-maintaining (PM) single mode (SM) fiber pulse nonlinear amplification system. The seed laser with a repetition rate of 200 MHz is amplified by two-section erbium-doped PM gain fibers with different peak-absorption rate. The amplified pulse duration can be compressed into 34-fs with 320-mW output power, which corresponds to 1.6-nJ pulse energy and approximate 23.5-kW peak power. In addition, the amplified and compressed pulse is further coupled into the high nonlinear fiber and an octave-spanning supercontinuum generation can be obtained. To the best of our knowledge, it is the highest peak power and the shortest pulse duration obtained in the field of all-fiber all-PM SM pulse-amplification systems.

Encapsulation process for diffraction gratings

Encapsulation of grating structures facilitates an improvement of the optical functionality and/or adds mechanical stability to the fragile structure. Here, we introduce novel encapsulation process of nanoscale patterns based on atomic layer deposition and micro structuring. The overall size of the encapsulated structured surface area is only restricted by the size of the available microstructuring and coating devices; thus, overcoming inherent limitations of existing bonding processes concerning cleanliness, roughness, and curvature of the components. Finally, the process is demonstrated for a transmission grating. The encapsulated grating has 97.5% transmission efficiency in the -1st diffraction order for TM-polarized light, and is being limited by the experimental grating parameters as confirmed by rigorous coupled wave analysis.

Monolithic fiber chirped pulse amplification system for millijoule femtosecond pulse generation at 1.55 µm

A monolithic fiber chirped pulse amplification system that generates sub-500 fs pulses with 913 µJ pulse energy and 4.4 W average power at 1.55 µm wavelength has recently been demonstrated. The estimated peak power for the system output approached 1.9 GW. The pulses were near diffraction-limited and near transform-limited, benefiting from the straight and short length of the booster amplifier as well as adaptive phase shaping for the overall mitigation of the nonlinear phase accumulation. The booster amplifier employs an Er(3+)-doped large mode area high efficiency media fiber just 28 cm in length with a fundamental mode (LP(01)) diameter of 54 µm and a corresponding effective mode area of 2290 µm(2).

Broadband pulse compression gratings with measured 99.7% diffraction efficiency

We present experimental investigations of grating mirrors with high diffraction efficiencies exceeding 99.7% in the -1st order for TE polarization at a wavelength of 1060 nm, and exceeding a diffraction efficiency of 99% in the wavelength range from 1025 nm to at least 1070 nm. The total efficiency of a four-pass compressor for chirped pulse amplification was >96%. The design, fabrication, and characterization of the fully dielectric grating mirrors are presented.

Higher-order mode fiber enables high energy chirped-pulse amplification

Energy scaling of femtosecond fiber lasers has been constrained by nonlinear impairments and optical fiber damage. Reducing the optical irradiance inside the fiber by increasing mode size lowers these effects. Using an erbium-doped higher-order mode fiber with 6000 µm(2) effective area and output fundamental mode re-conversion, we show a breakthrough in pulse energy from a monolithic fiber chirped pulse amplification system using higher-order mode propagation generating 300 µJ pulses with duration <500 fs (FWHM) and peak power >600 MW at 1.55 µm. The erbium-doped HOM fiber has both a record large effective mode area and excellent mode stability, even when coiled to reasonable diameter. This demonstration proves efficacy of a new path for high energy monolithic fiber-optic femtosecond laser systems.

High efficiency, monolithic fiber chirped pulse amplification system for high energy femtosecond pulse generation

A novel monolithic fiber-optic chirped pulse amplification (CPA) system for high energy, femtosecond pulse generation is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. By employing a high gain amplifier comprising merely 20 cm of high efficiency media (HEM) gain fiber, an optimal balance of output pulse energy, optical efficiency, and B-integral is achieved. The HEM amplifier is fabricated from erbium-doped phosphate glass fiber and yields gain of 1.443 dB/cm with slope efficiency >45%. We experimentally demonstrate near diffraction-limited beam quality and near transform-limited femtosecond pulse quality at 1.55 µm wavelength. With pulse energy >100 µJ and pulse duration of 636 fs (FWHM), the peak power is estimated to be ~160 MW. NAVAIR Public Release Distribution Statement A-"Approved for Public release; distribution is unlimited".