Extreme chirped/stretched pulsed amplification and laser

• US 7,561,605 B1
• Filed: 06/02/2006
• Issued: 07/14/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 05/22/2003
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: University of Central Florida Research Foundation Inc. (State University System of Florida)
• Original Assignee: University of Central Florida Research Foundation Inc. (State University System of Florida)
• Inventors: Resan, Bojan, Delfyett, Peter J., Kim, Kyungbum
• Primary Examiner(s): Parker; Kenneth A
• Assistant Examiner(s): SAYADIAN, HRAYR
• Application Number:
  US11/445,565
• Time in Patent Office: 1,138 Days
• Field of Search: 372/6, 372/25, 372/43.01, 372/102, 372/109, 359/337.5, 359/344
• US Class Current: 372/25
• CPC Class Codes: H01S 2301/02 ASE (amplified spontaneous emission), noise; Reduction thereof
• CPC Class Codes: H01S 3/0057 Temporal shaping, e.g. pulse compression, frequency chirping soliton generation and propagation G02F1/3513, H01S3/063 and H01S3/108
• CPC Class Codes: H01S 5/065 Mode locking; Mode suppression; Mode selection ; Self pulsating
• CPC Class Codes: H01S 5/0657 Mode locking, i.e. generation of pulses at a frequency corresponding to a roundtrip in the cavity
• CPC Class Codes: H01S 5/141 using a wavelength selective device, e.g. a grating or etalon H01S5/146 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H01S 5/50 Amplifier structures not provided for in groups H01S5/02 - H01S5/30
• CPC Class Codes: H01S 5/5027 Concatenated amplifiers, i.e. amplifiers in series or cascaded

Abstract

Methods, devices and systems for generating ultrashort optical linear chirped pulses with very high power by amplifying the pulses so that their temporal duration is longer than the storage time of the amplifying medium. The additional gain factor is related to the ratio of the storage time to the stretched pulse. A preferred embodiment connects a mode locked laser source that generates optical pulses whose duration is stretched with a chirped fiber Bragg grating. Embodiments include methods, devices and systems causing an extreme chirped pulse amplifier (XCPA) effect in an oscillator.

Claims

1. An extreme chirped pulse amplifier (XCPA) laser, comprising:

a mode-locked semiconductor laser as an oscillator for generating optical pulses;

a first chirped fiber Bragg grating for stretching temporal duration of the optical pulses so the duration becomes greater than storage time of an amplifying medium of an optical amplifier to generate stretched optical pulses;

a second chirped fiber Bragg grating for receiving and compressing the stretched optical pulses, wherein optical power of the compressed optical pulse is increased at least approximately 100 times; and

the optical amplifier operatively arranged to amplify the compressed optical pulses to generate higher power optical pulses.

2. The laser of claim 1, wherein the oscillator includes:

a gain-flattened mode-locked laser source.

3. The laser of claim 1, wherein the second chirped fiber Bragg grating includes:

a dual pass grating compressor.

4. The laser of claim 1, further comprising:

a modulator for modulating the optical pulse wherein the pulse is further shortened.

5. The laser of claim 4, wherein the modulator includes:

a passive modulator.

7. The laser of claim 1, wherein the first grating and the second grating are at different values to one another.

8. The laser of claim 7, wherein the first grating includes a chirped fiber Bragg grating, and the second grating includes a dual pass grating compressor.

11. A method of claim 5, wherein passive modulator is a multiple quantum well saturable absorber.

6. A method of generating an extreme chirped pulse amplification (XCPA) effect in an oscillator, comprising the steps of:

generating optical pulses from a mode locked laser with semiconductor gain medium as an oscillator;

stretching temporal duration of the optical pulses so the duration becomes greater than storage time of an amplifying medium of a semiconductor optical amplifier;

compressing the stretched optical pulses to increase the optical power of the compressed optical pulses, wherein optical power of the compressed optical pulses is increased at least approximately 100 times;

amplifying the compressed optical pulses by the amplifier; and

outputting optical pulses from the amplified pulses for the extreme chirped pulse amplification.

9. The method of claim 6, wherein the amount of stretching and the amount of compressing are not equal to one another.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising the steps of:

providing a chirped fiber Bragg grating for the stretching step; and

providing a dual pass grating compressor for the compressing step.

12. An extreme chirped pulse amplifier (XCPA) laser, consisting of:

a mode-locked semiconductor laser as an oscillator for generating optical pulses;

a first optical device for stretching temporal duration of the optical pulses so the duration becomes greater than storage time of semiconductor gain medium of an amplifier to generate stretched optical pulses;

a second optical device for receiving and compressing the stretched optical pulses, wherein optical power of the compressed optical pulse is increased at least approximately 100 times; and

the amplifier for amplifying the compressed optical pulses to generate high power optical pulses.