Yb: and Nd: mode-locked oscillators and fiber systems incorporated in solid-state short pulse laser systems
First Claim
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1. A pulse source for generating pulses in the picosecond to nanosecond range, comprising:
- a seed source emitting seed pulses with a spectral width;
a fiber amplifier chain comprising at least one fiber amplifier and receiving said seed pulses, wherein said fiber amplifier chain is configured for spectrally compressing pulses propagating in said fiber amplifier chain to a spectral width smaller than an injected spectral width of said seed pulses, wherein a spectral width of pulses emerging from said fiber amplifier chain is spectrally narrowed as compared to said spectral width of said seed pulses;
a monitor for one or more parameters of said pulse source, said monitor being operatively coupled to at least said seed source and responsive to one or more parameters of said seed source;
one or more pump laser diodes for pumping said seed source and said fiber amplifier chain; and
a bulk optical amplifier receiving amplified pulses from said fiber amplifier chain and producing output pulses having pulse widths in the picosecond to nanosecond range,wherein said spectrally narrowed pulses are matched to a gain bandwidth of said bulk optical amplifier.
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Abstract
The invention describes classes of robust fiber laser systems usable as pulse sources for Nd: or Yb: based regenerative amplifiers intended for industrial settings. The invention modifies adapts and incorporates several recent advances in FCPA systems to use as the input source for this new class of regenerative amplifier.
66 Citations
32 Claims
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1. A pulse source for generating pulses in the picosecond to nanosecond range, comprising:
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a seed source emitting seed pulses with a spectral width; a fiber amplifier chain comprising at least one fiber amplifier and receiving said seed pulses, wherein said fiber amplifier chain is configured for spectrally compressing pulses propagating in said fiber amplifier chain to a spectral width smaller than an injected spectral width of said seed pulses, wherein a spectral width of pulses emerging from said fiber amplifier chain is spectrally narrowed as compared to said spectral width of said seed pulses; a monitor for one or more parameters of said pulse source, said monitor being operatively coupled to at least said seed source and responsive to one or more parameters of said seed source; one or more pump laser diodes for pumping said seed source and said fiber amplifier chain; and a bulk optical amplifier receiving amplified pulses from said fiber amplifier chain and producing output pulses having pulse widths in the picosecond to nanosecond range, wherein said spectrally narrowed pulses are matched to a gain bandwidth of said bulk optical amplifier. - 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)
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31. A pulse source, comprising:
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a seed source generating seed pulses, said seed source comprising a mode-locked fiber oscillator; a monitor for one or more parameters of said pulse source, said monitor being operatively coupled to said pulse source and comprising a sensor and a controller, said monitor receiving a signal representative of said one or more parameters of said pulse source; a pulse stretcher comprising a first length of optical fiber, said pulse stretcher configured to receive and temporally stretch said seed pulses, wherein said pulse stretcher comprises at least one of optical fiber, dispersion shifted fiber, and chirped fiber Bragg grating; a bulk optical amplifier configured to receive and amplify said temporally stretched seed pulses and to produce temporally stretched and amplified pulses; a pulse compressor disposed downstream from said bulk optical amplifier, said pulse compressor configured to compress said temporally stretched and amplified pulses and to produce compressed output pulses; and one or more pump laser diodes for pumping said seed source and said bulk optical amplifier. - View Dependent Claims (32)
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Specification