Utilization of Yb: and Nd: mode-locked oscillators in solid-state short pulse laser systems
First Claim
1. A laser apparatus, comprising:
- a laser pulse source comprising a mode-locked fiber laser;
a first pulse stretcher configured for stretching said laser pulses to produce one or more stretched laser pulses;
an amplifier configured to receive each of said stretched pulses to produce amplified stretched pulses, wherein said amplifier comprises at least a regenerative amplifier; and
a pulse compressor configured for producing one or more compressed amplified laser pulses obtained from stretched amplified laser pulses.
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Abstract
An optimized Yb: doped fiber mode-locked oscillator and fiber amplifier system for seeding Nd: or Yb: doped regenerative amplifiers. The pulses are generated in the Yb: or Nd: doped fiber mode-locked oscillator, and may undergo spectral narrowing or broadening, wavelength converting, temporal pulse compression or stretching, pulse attenuation and/or lowering the repetition rate of the pulse train. The conditioned pulses are subsequently coupled into an Yb: or Nd: fiber amplifier. The amplified pulses are stretched before amplification in the regenerative amplifier that is based on an Nd: or Yb: doped solid-state laser material, and then recompressed for output.
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Citations
61 Claims
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1. A laser apparatus, comprising:
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a laser pulse source comprising a mode-locked fiber laser;
a first pulse stretcher configured for stretching said laser pulses to produce one or more stretched laser pulses;
an amplifier configured to receive each of said stretched pulses to produce amplified stretched pulses, wherein said amplifier comprises at least a regenerative amplifier; and
a pulse compressor configured for producing one or more compressed amplified laser pulses obtained from stretched amplified laser pulses. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34)
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35. A laser apparatus, comprising:
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a laser pulse source comprising a mode-locked fiber laser;
dispersion compensating means receiving pulses from said laser pulse source;
a fiber amplifier coupled to said dispersion compensating means; and
an amplifier configured to receive pulses from said fiber amplifier, wherein said amplifier comprises at least a regenerative amplifier. - View Dependent Claims (36)
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37. A laser apparatus, comprising:
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a laser pulse source comprising a mode-locked fiber laser;
a first fiber grating having one sign of chirp and being coupled to said laser pulse source;
a fiber amplifier coupled to said first fiber grating;
a second fiber grating having a sign of chirp that is opposite to the chirp of said first fiber grating and being coupled to said fiber amplifier; and
an amplifier configured to receive from said second fiber grating, wherein said amplifier comprises at least a regenerative amplifier. - View Dependent Claims (38, 39, 40)
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41. A laser apparatus, comprising:
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a laser pulse source comprising a mode-locked fiber laser;
a first pulse stretcher configured for stretching said laser pulses to produce one or more stretched laser pulses;
an amplifier configured to receive each of said stretched pulses to produce amplified stretched pulses, wherein said amplifier comprises at least a regenerative amplifier; and
a pulse compressor configured for producing one or more compressed amplified laser pulses of about 1 picosecond obtained from stretched amplified laser pulses.
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42. A mode locked laser system for seeding a regenerative amplifier, comprising:
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a source of laser pulses;
a Nd;
or Yb;
fiber amplifier for amplifying said pulses; and
a regenerative amplifier based on Nd;
or Yb;
materials for receiving said amplified pulses as seed pulses.
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43. A mode locked laser system for seeding a regenerative amplifier, comprising:
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a source of laser pulses;
a Yb;
fiber amplifier for amplifying said pulses; and
a regenerative amplifier based on Nd;
or Yb;
or Ti;
Al2O3 materials for receiving said amplified pulses as seed pulses,wherein at least one of said pulse source and said Yb;
fiber amplifier includes means for controlling a bandwidth and a spectral center of its output to match that of said regenerative amplifier. - View Dependent Claims (44)
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45. A mode locked laser system for seeding a regenerative amplifier, comprising:
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a source of laser pulses;
a fiber amplifier for amplifying said pulses; and
a regenerative amplifier based on Nd;
or Yb;
materials for receiving said amplified pulses as seed pulses; and
feedback means for controlling a bandwidth and a spectral center of an output of said regenerative amplifier by actively controlling a wavelength of said pulse source.
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46. A mode locked laser system for seeding a regenerative amplifier, comprising:
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an oscillator serving as a source of laser pulses;
a fiber amplifier for amplifying said pulses; and
a regenerative amplifier based on Nd;
or Yb;
materials for receiving said amplified pulses as seed pulses, wherein said oscillator operates at a predefined wavelength, and said system comprises spectral narrowing means located prior to the input of said fiber amplifier.
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47. A mode locked laser system for seeding a regenerative amplifier, comprising:
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a source of laser pulses;
a fiber amplifier for amplifying said pulses; and
a regenerative amplifier based on Nd;
or Yb;
materials for receiving said amplified pulses as seed pulses; and
means for maintaining the output wavelength of the regenerative amplifier in the presence of spectral shifting in the amplification of the seed pulses, comprising means for increasing input energy of said seed pulses, or frequency-shifting said seed pulses.
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48. A mode locked laser system for seeding a regenerative amplifier, comprising:
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a source of laser pulses having a predetermined repetition rate;
an optical switch coupled to said source of laser pulses;
a fiber amplifier coupled to said optical switch; and
a regenerative amplifier configured to operate at 10% or lower of said repetition rate of said source of laser pulses, wherein said optical switch blocks at least one pulse preceding the pulse utilized for seeding said regenerative amplifier. - View Dependent Claims (49, 50)
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51. A mode locked laser system for seeding a regenerative amplifier, comprising:
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a source of laser pulses having a predetermined repetition rate;
an optical switch coupled to said source of laser pulses;
a fiber amplifier coupled to said optical switch; and
a regenerative amplifier configured to operate at said repetition rate of said source of laser pulses, wherein said optical switch blocks at least one pulse preceding the pulse utilized for seeding said regenerative amplifier. - View Dependent Claims (52, 53)
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54. A mode locked laser system for seeding a regenerative amplifier, comprising:
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a source of laser pulses having a predetermined repetition rate;
an optical switch coupled to said source of laser pulses;
a fiber amplifier coupled to said optical switch; and
a regenerative amplifier configured to operate at 10% or lower of said repetition rate of said source of laser pulses, wherein said optical switch blocks at least one pulse preceding the pulse utilized for seeding said regenerative amplifier, and a second optical switch, disposed in said regenerative amplifier and operating at said repetition rate, seeds said regenerative amplifier with more than one percent of the energy from pulses output by said source of laser pulses.
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55. A laser method for material processing, comprising:
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producing a plurality of laser pulses;
optically stretching said laser pulses;
amplifying a predetermined energy of each of said optically stretched laser pulses, wherein a fiber amplifier produces first amplified pulses;
optically stretching said first amplified pulses;
amplifying the energy of each of said first amplified laser pulses, wherein a regenerative amplifier produces second amplified pulses;
optically compressing said second amplified pulses to produce amplified compressed pulses; and
outputting said amplified compressed pulses. - View Dependent Claims (56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61)
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Specification