This PDF file contains the front matter associated with SPIE Proceedings Volume 10254, including the Title Page, Copyright information, Table of Contents, Introduction (if any), and Conference Committee listing.

We describe the coherent combining techniques that can be used to scale up fiber laser power far above single fiber laser limitations, and manipulate their wavefronts. The major configurations and realizations of coherent combining are then presented and compared in terms of maximum achievable number of combined lasers.

High speed industrial laser transfer printing requires high power lasers that can deliver pulses on demand and having arbitrary pulse duration in range of few nanoseconds to milliseconds or more. A special kind of MOPA fiber laser is presented using wavelength multiplexing to achieve pulses on demand with minimal transients. The system is further tested in printing application.

The near and far field intensity distribution as well as the beam quality of the combination between the hollow beam generated by double axicons and the Gaussian beam were simulated in this paper. The simulation results revealed that several parameters like the interval between two axicons and the phase difference between the two beams would influence the intensity distribution of the combined beam, especially the phase difference between the hollow beam and Gaussian beam which could transforms the far-field intensity distribution into quasi-hollow distribution or peak shaped distribution and was of great potentiality in the industry application.

Beam combination of fiber laser array is an effective technique contributed to improve the brightness of fiber lasers. In order to realize high-efficiency CBC, challenges like phase distortion (mainly including piston and tilt phase aberrations) should be taken into consideration. Resent years, tilt phase aberrations control has been come true by adaptive fiber optics collimator using the stochastic parallel gradient descent (SPGD) algorithm. However, the convergence rate of tilt control system still cannot satisfy the needs of practical application. In order to increase the tilt control bandwidth, a new idea is put forward that applying the orthogonal single frequency dithering (OSFD) technique into tilt control, and numerical simulation has been completed. A hexagonal laser array with 7 elements has been simulated, and each element has a pair of initial tilt angles in horizontal and vertical direction. The initial tilt angles comply with normal distribution. In the same condition, tilt phase control has been realized through SPGD and OSFD individually, and the convergence steps (defined as the iteration steps that improve the normalized PIB above 0.9) with appropriate parameters are respectively about 20 (SPGD) and 7 (OSFD). Furthermore, tilt phase control of large number hexagonal array is simulated, and the results are as follows: for 19/37 elements, the least convergence steps are about 80/160(SPGD) and 19/55(OSFD). Comparing with SPGD algorithm, it is obvious that the OSFD has higher convergence rate and greater potential for tilt control application in large number coherent fiber laser array.

In this paper, we propose an asymmetric epitaxial layer structre for designing 808nm diode laser. In this asymmetric sructure, the p-waveguide is reduced in thickness and the p-cladding is doped for increasing the thermal conductivity and consequently better heat extraction. The main purpose of using such design is enhancing the laser gain by reduction of loss in laser cavity, and reduction of electrical and thermal resistivity of the diode laser.

The hollow beam has a variety of special physical properties and can be applied to the optical catheter, optical trap, generation of the light trap and many other important fields. In this paper the light-field conversion of the Gaussian beam passing through double axicons and generating the hollow beam is theoretical derived and simulated using the light-field propagation method. The influence of several parameters on the near and far field intensity distribution of the hollow beam is discussed. We find that the hollow beam with different light-field can be generated by controlling these parameters and this has a great potential in terms of micro manipulation, optical trap and other fields.

Recently, the concept of random fiber lasers has attracted a great deal of attention for its feature to generate incoherent light without a traditional laser resonator, which is free of mode competition and insure the stationary narrow-band continuous modeless spectrum. In this Letter, we reported the first, to the best of our knowledge, optical parametric oscillator (OPO) pumped by an amplified 1070 nm random fiber laser (RFL), in order to generate stationary mid-infrared (mid-IR) laser. The experiment realized a watt-level laser output in the mid-IR range and operated relatively stable. The use of the RFL seed source allowed us to take advantage of its respective stable time-domain characteristics. The beam profile, spectrum and time-domain properties of the signal light were measured to analyze the process of frequency down-conversion process under this new pumping condition. The results suggested that the near-infrared (near-IR) signal light ‘inherited’ good beam performances from the pump light. Those would be benefit for further develop about optical parametric process based on different pumping circumstances.

Optical solitons and their interaction with other solitons or with dispersive wave shed by solitons under modulation instabilities or perturbation constitute a versatile experimental and theoretical platform for studying the nature of complex dynamics occurring in laser cavities [1-3] in addition to common physical principles in terms with a range of other nonlinear, non-equilibrium, coupled systems outside of optics.

A soliton is energy localization of dissipative structures of electric field which evolves from noise in laser cavities. It is stationary solution of nonlinear Schrödinger equation that balances the effects of chromatic dispersion with nonlinearity during propagation in a medium. Strong pumping in soliton regime drives a laser system in to a multi pulsing self-organized system. Such a system in fiber medium is ubiquitous and always attracts research interest.

Multisoliton pulses or soliton bunches generated from different systems through a short and long range interaction due to acoustic waves generated from electrostriction and its perturbation induced refractive index change of the medium by a propagating pulse on the next pulse in the neighborhood [4]. A short range interaction can occur as a result of pulses overlapping, acoustoptic interaction or it can occur when dispersive waves at the tail of pulses interact with a back ground field or with solitons near to its [1, 4, 5].

The spread of the pump model, established based on MATLAB, simulates the distribution of the pump in End-Pumped single crystal fiber. Simulation results show that the pump in the rod single crystal fiber will converge again. By changing the crystal absorption coefficient, it can be found that smaller the absorption coefficient is, more uniform the pump distribution is; when it is greater, the pump will concentrate to the pump end more seriously. Establish End- Pumped Experimental platform in the experiment, the crystal is 1 mm in diameter and length of 30 mm, Nd³⁺ doping concentration is 1%. Change the position of the pump light's focus in the crystal, we can see different distribution of the pump light by different focus location in the crystal and find that the pump light has the most homogeneous distribution when the focus is on the crystal axis and has 1mm distance to the pump end face. At this time, the second convergence of the pump is clearly visible. By changing the pump wavelength, crystal absorption coefficient changes. It is found that under the same pump power, absorption coefficient is greater, the pump will concentrate to the pump end more seriously. And the temperature of crystal pump end rises, which is identical with the simulation results. The results indicate that for the single crystal fiber, the higher absorption coefficient is not better, low absorption coefficient leads to the uniform distribution of the pump, there will be a better absorption in a relatively long length of single crystal fiber. And due to the lower end face temperature, end pump power upper limit will also increase.

We present our recent advances in the field of Raman frequency conversion using high-optical quality CVD-diamond. Different diamond Raman lasers were developed for efficiently generating multi-Watt output at specific wavelengths from the visible to the eye-safe spectral range, while single-frequency operation was accomplished by exploiting an intrinsic mode stability mechanism.

SRS (Stimulated Raman Scattering) is a very effective method to expand the spectrum range of high power laser, especially in the regime of near IR and middle IR. In this paper SRS of high pressure H₂ and D₂ with MPC (multiple-pass cell) configuration were reported. Relation of (FS1) first forward Stokes and (BS1) first backward Stokes has been analysis. The process of gain of FS1 was explained. Experimental results also indicated the second Stokes was also generated. D₂ SRS of the fundamental output of Nd:YAG laser generates the second Stokes light of 2.92 m. The lasers with wavelength of 2.9 μm have broad applications. Finally, multiple-pass SRS was better for complete conversion of pump laser.

Stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) is a powerful tool for the extension of the spectral range of lasers. To obtain efficient Raman conversion in SRS, many researchers have studied different types of Raman laser configurations. Among these configurations, the intra-cavity type is particularly attractive. Intra-cavity SRS has the advantages of high intra-cavity laser intensity, low-SRS threshold, and high Raman conversion efficiency. In this paper, An Q-switched intra-cavity Nd: YAG/CH₄ frequency-doubled Raman lasers is reported. A negative branch confocal resonator with M= 1.25 is used for the frequency-doubling of Nd: YAG laser. The consequent 532nm light is confined in intra- cavity SRS with travelling wave resonator, and the focal of one mirror of cavity is overlap with the center of the other mirror of the cavity. We found this design is especially efficient to reduce the threshold of SRS, and increase conversion efficiency. The threshold is measured to be 0.62 MW, and at the pump energy of 16.1 mJ, the conversion efficiency is 34%. With the smaller magnification M, the threshold could further decrease, and the conversion efficiency could be improved further. This is a successful try to extend the spectral range of a laser to the shorter wavelength by SRS, and this design may play an important role in the fulfillment of high power red lasers.

We report a review on our recent developments in Yttebium and Neodymium doped laser ceramics, along two main research lines. The first is the design and development of Yb:YAG ceramics with non uniform doping distribution, for the management of thermo-mechanical stresses and for the mitigation of ASE: layered structures have been produced by solid state reactive sintering, using different forming processes (spray drying and cold press of the homogenized powders, tape cast of the slurry); samples have been characterized and compared to FEM analysis. The second is the investigation of Lutetium based ceramics (such as mixed garnets LuYAG and Lu₂O₃); this interest is mainly motivated by the favorable thermal properties of these hosts under high doping. We recently obtained for the first time high efficiency laser emission from Yb doped LuYAG ceramics. The investigation on sesquioxides has been focused on Nddoped Lu₂O₃ ceramics, fabricated with the Spark Plasma Sintering method (SPS). We recently achieved the first laser emission above 1 W from Nd doped Lu₂O₃ ceramics fabricated by SPS.

We have demonstrated an average output power of 10 W quasi-continuous-wave mid-infrared laser at 2.94 μm from a diode laser (LD) side-pumped Er-doped yttrium aluminum garnet (YAG) crystal. The Er:YAG crystal was composed of Er-doped (50% doped) (YAG) bonded to undoped YAG. The LD was operated at a repetition rate of 150Hz and a pulse-width of 300 μs. The optical-optical conversion efficiency and the slope efficiency were 5.6% and 9.1%, respectively. The slope efficiency was not saturation yet, a higher output power can be expected with a higher LD pump power and colder temperature of the Er:YAG crystal.

A concise overview of the history of chemical lasers is presented. From the vast amount of literature on this subject some highlights are presented. The paper concentrates on the unsuccessful efforts to obtain visible chemical lasers, rather than on the celebrated infrared lasers, aiming to get some insight into the reasons for the failure of the former and the success of the latter.

A novel optical pumping scheme considering a two-step irradiation by light at wavelengths near 500 nm and 1315 nm is proposed in this work. Radiation at 500 nm is used to dissociate about 1% of iodine molecules. The radiation at 1315 nm excites atomic iodine to the ²P_1/2 state. Singlet oxygen molecules are produced via the energy exchange process I(²P_1/2)+O₂(X³Σ)→ I(²P_3/2)+O₂(a¹Δ), while I(²P_1/2)+O₂(a¹Δ) energy pooling produces b¹Σ oxygen. I(²P_3/2) and O₂(¹Σ) then accelerate the dissociation of I₂. After gas dynamic cooling in supersonic nozzle, active medium may reach ~100 W cm^–2 and small signal gain of ~0.01 cm^-1.

Results of experiments on dissociation of iodine molecules in the presence of singlet oxygen molecules are presented for wide range of oxygen-iodine media composition. Rate constants values have been obtained: 4.3⋅10^-17cm³/s for the reaction O₂(¹Δ)+O₂(¹Δ)→O₂(¹Σ) +О₂(³Σ) − (1), 2.8⋅10^-13 cm³/s for the reactionO₂(¹Δ)+I(²P_1/2)→O₂(¹Σ)+I(²P_3/2) − (4) and 8.3⋅10-11 cm³/s for the reaction O₂(¹Σ) +I₂→О₂(³Σ)+2I − (2). Analysis of experiments shows that for the wide range of oxygen-iodine medium composition the dissociation occurs via the chain of reactions (1), (2), O₂(¹Δ)+I(²P_3/2)→О₂(³Σ)+I(²P_1/2), (4) and via cascade process I₂+I(²P_1/2)→I₂(v)+I(²P_3/2), I₂(v)+O₂(¹Δ)→2I+О₂(³Σ). Contributions of each mechanism in the dissociation of the iodine are comparable for the typical composition of the active medium of the supersonic chemical oxygen-iodine laser. The experiments did not reveal the contribution of vibrationally excited oxygen molecules in the dissociation of iodine. Thus, the experiments and the following conclusions are fully confirmed iodine dissociation mechanism previously proposed by Heidner et al. (J. Phys. Chem., 87, 2348 (1983)).

The BLAZE Multiphysics™ software simulation suite was specifically developed to model highly complex multiphysical systems in a computationally efficient and highly scalable manner. These capabilities are of particular use when applied to the complexities associated with high energy laser systems that combine subsonic/transonic/supersonic fluid dynamics, chemically reacting flows, laser electronics, heat transfer, optical physics, and in some cases plasma discharges. In this paper we present detailed cw and pulsed gas laser calculations using the BLAZE model with comparisons to data. Simulations of DPAL, XPAL, ElectricOIL (EOIL), and the optically pumped rare gas laser were found to be in good agreement with experimental data.

Kinetics of vibrationally-excited singlet oxygen O₂(a¹Δ,v) molecule have been examined using pulsed laser technique.O₂(a¹Δ,v) molecules were produced by the pulsed 266 nm laser photolysis of ozone. The kinetics of O₂(a¹Δ) quenching were followed by observing the 1268 nm fluorescence of the O₂ a¹Δ-X³Σ transition. It has been found that the loss of O₂(a¹Δ,v) in the O(³P)/O₃/N₂ mixture is carried out both in chemical and in V-T process. We observed that the vibrational excitation of singlet oxygen molecule enhances the rate of reaction between O₂(a¹Δ,v) and O³ molecules. The rate constant of this process was estimated to be in the range 10^-12-10^-11 cm³/s. Rate constant of O²(a,v=1) quenching by CO² was found to be (1.03±0.07)×10^-14 cm³/s.

The two-level generation model has been applied to analyze the dependence of power efficiency of chemical oxygen-iodine laser (COIL) and electric oxygen-iodine laser (EOIL) on three dimensionless similarity criteria: residence-to-extraction time ratio γ_d, gain-to-loss ratio Π and relaxation-to-excitation rate ratio Λ. Power efficiency is represented as the product of two factors – the medium extraction efficiency and the extraction efficiency of resonator – each being a function of the Π. The dependences of the similarity criteria γ_d and Π optimal values on the kinetic and optical losses have been found. At low kinetic and optical losses, it is expedient to work with high values of γ_d and Π respectively. It has been found that maximum power efficiency is achieved when Π=3–8 for COIL and Π=9–17 for EOIL at the typical γ_d and optical losses rate.

Results of experimental studies of the chemical HF laser with a non-chain reaction are presented. The possibility of the total laser efficiency of 5 % is shown when a traditional C-to-C pumping circuit with the charging voltage of 20-24 kV is used. It is experimentally shown that the specific radiation output energy of 21 J/l is reached at the specific pump energy of 350 J/l in SF₆/H₂ = 14/1 mixture at the total pressure of 0.27 bar.

The physics of high brightness, high-power lasers present a variety of challenges with respect to simulation. The Air Force Research Laboratory is developing high-fidelity models for Yb-doped, Tm-doped, and Raman fiber amplifiers, hollow-core optical fiber gas lasers, and diode pumped alkali lasers. The approach to simulation and the physics specific to each laser technology are described, along with highlights of results, and relevant modeling considerations and limitations.

Scaling-up flowing-gas diode pumped alkali lasers (DPALs) to megawatt class power is studied using accurate three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics model, taking into account the effects of temperature rise and losses of alkali atoms due to ionization. Both the maximum achievable power and laser beam quality are estimated for Cs and K lasers. We examined the influence of the flow velocity and Mach number M on the maximum achievable power of subsonic and supersonic lasers. For Cs DPAL devices with M = 0.2 - 3 the output power increases with increasing M by only ~20%, implying that supersonic operation mode has only small advantage over subsonic. In contrast, the power achievable in K DPALs strongly depends on M. The output power increases by ~100% when M increases from 0.2 to 4, showing a considerable advantage of supersonic device over subsonic. The reason for the increase of the power with M in both Cs and K DPALs is the decrease of the temperature due to the gas expansion in the flow system. However, the power increase for K lasers is much larger than for the Cs devices mainly due to the much smaller fine-structure splitting of the ²P states (~58 cm^-1 for K and ~554 cm^-1 for Cs), which results in a much stronger effect of the temperature decrease in K DPALs. For pumping by beams of the same rectangular cross section, comparison between end-pumping and transverse-pumping shows that the output power is not affected by the pump geometry. However, the intensity of the output laser beam in the case of transverse-pumped DPALs is strongly non-uniform in the laser beam cross section resulting in higher brightness and better beam quality in the far field for the end-pumping geometry where the intensity of the output beam is uniform.

We present the results of an experimental study of Ti:Sapphire pumped Cs laser and theoretical modeling of these results, where we focused on the influence of the pump-to-laser beam overlap, a crucial parameter for optimizing the output laser power. The dependence of the output laser power on the incident pump power was found for varying pump beam cross-section widths and for a constant laser beam. Maximum laser power > 370 mW with an optical-to-optical efficiency of 43% and slope efficiency ~55% was obtained. Non monotonic dependence of the laser power and threshold power on the pump beam radius (at a given pump power) was observed with a maximum laser power and minimum threshold power achieved at the ratio ~0.7 between the optimal pump beam and laser beam radius. A simple optical model of the laser, where Gaussian spatial shapes of the pump and laser intensities in any cross section of the beams were assumed, was compared to the experiments. Good agreement was obtained between the measured and calculated dependence of the laser power on the incident pump power at different pump beam radii and of the laser power, threshold power and optimal temperature on the pump beam radius. The model does not use empirical parameters such as mode overlap efficiency but rather the pump and laser beam spatial shapes as input parameters. This model can be applied to different optically pumped alkali lasers with arbitrary spatial distributions of the pump and laser beam widths.

Alternative wavelengths for optically pumped alkali vapor lasers have been developed using single photon excitation of higher lying P-states, stimulated Raman processes, two-photon excitation of S and D states, and electric quadruple excitation on S-D transitions. Two photon excitation of Cs 7²D leads to competing and cascade lasing producing red and infrared lasers operating on the D-P transitions, followed by ultraviolet, blue, the standard near infrared DPAL transitions operating on P-S transitions. The S-D pump transitions are fully bleached at pump intensities exceeding 1 MW/cm², allowing for lasing transitions that terminate on the ground state. The kinetics of these systems are complex due to competition for population inversion among the many optical transitions. An optically pumped mid-infrared rubidium pulsed, mirrorless laser has also been demonstrated in a heat pipe along both the 6²P_3/2 - 6²S_1/2 transition at 2.73 μm and the 6²P_1/2 - 6²S_1/2 transition at 2.79 μm with a maximum energy of ~100 nJ. Performance improves dramatically as the rubidium vapor density is increased, in direct contradiction with the prior work. No scaling limitations associated with energy pooling or ionization kinetics have been observed. Practical application for infrared counter measures depends on the further development of blue diode pump sources. Finally, stimulated electronic Raman scattering and hyper-Raman processes in potassium vapor near the D₁ and D₂ lines have been observed using a stable resonator and pulsed laser excitation. First and second order Stokes and anti-Stokes lines were observed simultaneously and independently for a pump laser tuning range exceeding 70 cm^-1. When the pump is tuned between the K D₁ and D₂ lines, an efficient hyper-Raman process dominates with a slope efficiency that exceeds 10%. Raman shifted laser may be useful as a target illuminator or atmospheric compensation beacon for a high power diode pumped alkali laser.

Diode lasers are now basic pump sources of crystal, glass fiber and other solid state lasers. Progress in the performance of all these lasers is related. Examples of recently developed diode pumped lasers and Raman frequency converters are described for applications in materials processing, Lidar and medical surgery.

We have developed a small-scale, diode-pumped alkali laser with a closed-loop gas circulation device and investigated the effect of gas circulation on the laser output power. The gain cell, with a 5 cm active length, is fitted with antireflection windows, and a cross-flow fan is incorporated inside it. The active medium is composed of cesium, hydrocarbon, and a buffer gas whose total pressure is approximately 2 atmospheres. The laser output power was measured as a function of the gas flow velocity for different buffer gases. In the case of argon, the laser power was strongly dependent on the gas flow velocity, whereas it was almost independent of the gas flow in the case of helium. The maximum output power of the argon buffer was close to that of the helium buffer when the gas velocity exceeded 6 m/s. The experimental results were in good agreement with the numerical simulations.

A theoretical study has been conducted for investigating the possibility of a diode-pumped alkali laser (DPAL) operating in repetitive pulsed mode. A one-dimensional, time-dependent rate-equation simulation of a Cs DPAL was developed to calculate the dynamic behavior of the active medium when Q-switching or cavity dumping was applied. The simulation modeled our small-scale experimental apparatus. In the continuous-wave (CW) mode, the calculated output power was in good agreement with the experimental value. Q-switching was shown to be ineffective because of the short spontaneous lifetime of the active medium, on the order of 10 ns. On the other hand, cavity dumping was proven to be effective. In typical operational conditions, a 54 times increase in peak power with respect to the CW power was predicted.

There is a 500 billion USD world market for packaging expected to grow to a trillion in 2030. Austria plays an important role world wide for high speed laser engraving applications — especially when it comes to high end solutions. Such high end solutions are fundamental for the production of print forms for the packaging and decorating industry (e. g. cans). They are additionally used for security applications (e. g. for printing banknotes), for the textile printing industry and for creating embossing forms (e. g. for the production of dashboards in the automotive industry). High speed, high precision laser engraving needs laser resonators with very stable laser beams (400 – 800W) especially in combination with AOMs. Based upon a unique carbon fiber structure – stable within the sub-micrometer range – a new resonator has been developed, accompanied by most recent thermo-mechanical FEM calculations. The resulting beam is evaluated on an automated optical bench using hexapods, allowing to optimize the complete beam path with collimators and AOM. The major steps related to laser engraving of dry offset printing plates during the full workflow from the artists design to the printed result on an aluminum can is presented in this paper as well as laser characteristics, AOM integration and correlative CLSM and SEM investigation of the results.

The authors have developed the computer simulation codes to analyze the effect of conditions on the performances of discharge excited high power gas flow CO laser. The six be analyzed. The simulation code described and executed by Macintosh computers consists of some modules to calculate the kinetic processes. The detailed conditions, kinetic processes, results and discussions are described in this paper below.

Successful merger of state-of-the-art, semiconductor quantum-cascade lasers (QCL), with the mature CO₂ laser technology, resulted in a delivery of highly-desired qualities of CO2 laser output that were not available previously without much effort. These qualities, such as multi-line operation, excellent spectro-temporal stability and pulse waveform control, became available from a single device of moderate complexity. This paper describes the operation principle and the unique properties of the solid{state seeded CO₂ laser, invented for an application in laser-produced-plasma (LPP), extreme-UV (EUV) light source.

The results of experiments with a dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) are presented, where the production of metastable argon atoms was studied. The recently proposed optically pumped all-rare-gas laser (OPRGL) utilizes metastable atoms of heavier rare gases as lasing species. The required number density of metastables for efficient laser operation is 10¹²÷10¹³ cm^-3 in an atmospheric pressure of He buffer gas. Recent experiments had shown that such densities are easily produced in a nanosecond pulsed discharge, even at pressures larger than atmospheric, but problems appear when one is trying to produce them in a CW regime. The reason for difficulties in the CW production of metastables at an atmospheric pressure seems to be the low value of the E/N parameter (<5-6 Td). In our experiments a 20 KHz DBD in 2-5% Ar mixture with He at an atmospheric pressure was studied. [Ar(1s₅)] number density of the order of 10¹² cm^-3 was readily achieved. Temporal behavior of [Ar(1s₅)] throughout the DBD cycle was obtained. The results demonstrate the feasibility of DBDs for OPRGL development.

This paper describes systematic measurements of pressure broadening coefficients for argon and krypton lines in an RF (radio-frequency) discharge plasma sustained in a mixture of inert gases. Using tunable diode laser spectroscopy we obtained experimental data for pressure broadening of argon and krypton lines. Pressure broadening coefficients were determined for Ar+Ne and Kr+Ne and Kr+Ar. For krypton, the isotopic structure of the line was taken into account and an appropriate fitting function was used to determine pressure broadening coefficients for the natural mixture of isotopes. These data may be used for diagnostics of the active medium of optically pumped all-rare-gas lasers.

Recently, the optically pumped rare gas lasers have been attracted extensive attention. Rare gas laser systems with Ne (2p⁵3p), Ar (3p⁵4p), and Kr (4p⁵5p) atoms have been investigated. However, there are sparse studies based on Xe. In this work, new phenomena, intensive mid-infrared amplified spontaneous emissions (ASEs), are found after two-photon excitation of Xe from the ground state to the 6p[1/2]₀ state. Simultaneously, substantial 6p[1/2]₁ atoms are populated. The thresholds of ASE peak 1 and the generation of 6p[1/2]₁ atoms are both about 1.5 mJ. It indicates that there should exist the relationship between these two phenomena. The ASE signals show broadband spectra. Therefore, it must be yielded by the superposition of Xe₂* excimer transitions. The mid-infrared ASEs lead to excimers correlating to the 6s’[1/2]₁ enormously generated. Then these excimers dissociate to produce substantial 6p[1/2]₁ atoms. Under some circumstance, the ratio of the 6p[1/2]₁ to 6p[1/2]₀ atoms reaches about 80%. It indicates that the 6p[1/2]₀ atoms strongly tend to decay through the emissions between the excimer states. Using these emissions, continuous-tunable mid-infrared laser with metastable Xe can be promisingly produced.

Limited by the thermal effects and the laser-induced damage characteristics of the non-linear crystals, mid-infrared (MIR) output power of single optical parametric oscillator (OPO) is hard to get further promoted with excellent beam quality. An alternative solution is the multiple-beams combination technology, which exactly provided an effective approach for decreasing the thermal effects and the damage risk of the OPO system under high power operation. In this letter, the experimental study on the spectral beam combination of three idler MIR lasers was carried out for the first time. An optical parametric system with MIR output power of 30 W at 3130nm, 3352nm, and 3670nm was finally obtained. Experimental results indicated that the beam quality M² factors of the combined laser were measured to be ~1.76 and ~2.42 in the horizontal and vertical directions, respectively, which confirmed the feasibility of the schematic design.

Laser action in run-away electron preionized discharge (REP DD) was studied. Efficient laser emission was obtained in wide spectral range from IR to VUV. It was shown that ultimate efficiency of non-chain chemical lasers on HF (DF) molecules and N₂ laser at 337.1 nm can be achieved in REP DD. New mode of N₂ laser operation with 2 or 3 peaks in successive REP DD current oscillations was found. Efficient lasing on KrF* and XeF* excimer molecules with parameter close to laser parameters of lasers pumped by conventional transverse discharge were demonstrated for the first time. Laser action on F₂* at 157 nm and rare gas fluorides under REP DD pumping was obtained for the first time, as well. The efficiency and pulse duration of VUV F₂* laser under REP DD excitation are comparable with those obtained in transverse discharges with preionization. VUV emission of REP DD in binary and ternary Ar-Xe-(He) and Ar-Kr-(He) mixtures at wavelength close to 147 nm was measured. Possibility of VUV lasing in mixtures of rare gases is considered.

The results of multiterawatt laser beam formation of a visible range in THL-100 hybrid laser system based on titanium-sapphire front-end and photochemical XeF(C-A) boosting amplifier is presented. The front-end delivers up to 20 mJ energy in 50 fs pulses at the second harmonic centered around 475 nm. The active medium of the XeF(C-A) amplifier is produced in a XeF₂/N₂ mixture irradiated by the VUV radiation from electron beam excited xenon. The laser system is described and the latest results are presented.

Excimer pumped sodium laser (XPNaL) can accurately achieve lasing at 589.16 nm without any complicated control system to reduce the wavelength error, so XPNaL will provide a novel technical system for sodium beacon laser. In this paper, we studied the Na-C₂H₆ system, which was an efficient excimer pair. We excited the Na-C₂H₆ system using a pulsed dye laser with wavelength of 553 nm, and measured lifetime of sodium D₂ line based on the fluorescence spectra. Meanwhile, we have also detected strong amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) signal in Na-C₂H₆ system, through the experimental study, the Na-C₂H₆ system is considered to own the potential to be utilized in high power XPNaL.

We have observed an optical gain at the wavelength of 126 nm in an Ar excimer (Ar₂ ^*) amplifier by utilizing a femtosecond vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) seed beam tuned at 126 nm. The maximum optical gain value of 1.1 cm^-1 with a spatial distribution in the optical-field-induced ionization (OFI) Ar plasma was observed. The plasma diagnosis revealed that the plasma contraction near the plasma amplifier axis together with the plasma expansion was a key issue to observe such a high optical gain value inside the Ar plasma filament. The center axis of the contracted plasma amplifier showed the high electron density more than 10¹⁸ cm^-3 even after 100 ns from the plasma production of Ar at 1 MPa. Our OFI plasma/excimer kinetics code reproduced the temporal progress of the optical gain distribution as well as the maximum gain value.

The results of the formation and amplification of positive chirped 0.1 ns laser pulse at a central wavelength of 470 nm in the laser system THL-100 are presented. It is shown that a front-end allows forming a radiation pulse with a Gaussian intensity profile and the energy up to 7 mJ. At amplification in XeF(C-A) amplifier of the pulse with 2-5 mJ energy a saturated mode is realized and 3.2 J output laser beam energy is reached.

Rheinmetall Waffe Munition has worked since 30 years in the area of High Energy Laser (HEL) for defence applications, starting from pulsed CO₂ to pulsed glass rods lasers. In the last decade Rheinmetall Waffe Munition changed to diode pumped solid state laser (DPSSL) technology and has successfully developed, realised and tested a variety of versatile HEL weapon demonstrators for air- and ground defence scenarios like countering rocket, artillery, mortar, missile (RAMM), unmanned aerial systems (UAS) and unexploded ordnances clearing. By employing beam superimposing technology and a modular laser weapon concept, the total optical power has been successively increased. Stationary weapon platforms, military vehicles and naval platforms have been equipped with high energy laser effectors. The contribution gives a summary of the most recent development stages of Rheinmetalls HEL weapon program. In addition to the stationary 30 kW laser weapon demonstrator, we present vehicle based HEL demonstrators: the 5 kW class Mobile HEL Effector Track V, the 20 kW class Mobile HEL Effector Wheel XX and the 50 kW class Mobile HEL Effector Container L and the latest 10 kW HEL effector integrated in the naval weapon platform MLG 27. We describe the capabilities of these demonstrators against different potential targets. Furthermore, we will show the capability of the 30 kW stationary Laser Weapon Demonstrator integrated into an existing ground based air defence system to defeat saturated attacks of RAMM and UAS targets.

A novel phase aberration correcting method based on combined deformable mirrors (DMs) in a slab MOPA (master oscillator and power amplifier) solid state laser system is proposed and validated experimentally. The adaptive optics(AO) system with combined deformable mirrors composed of a one-dimension (1D) DM with 11 actuators and a two-dimension (2D) DM with 67 valid actuators, has been designed to correct the phase aberrations, which doesn’t need the high voltage drivers and has an excellent correcting efficiency of the high order phase aberrations. The experimental results show that the wave front of the slab laser beam is compensated well and the residual wave front is less than 0.08 λ rms. The beam quality of the slab laser in the far field is improved to1.67x DL.

The work presents the experimental investigation of the laser welding of the aluminum-lithium alloys (system Al-Mg-Li) and aluminum alloy (system Al-Cu-Li) doped with Sc. The influence of the nano-structuring of the surface layer welded joint by the cold plastic deformation method on the strength properties of the welded joint is determined. It is founded that, regarding the deformation degree over the thickness, the varying value of the welded joint strength is different for these aluminum alloys.

Inner walls of microhole in a thin fused silica plate were observed after changing ablating laser pulse shots of a focused femtosecond laser at the wavelength of 400 nm with an energy of 20 μJ in a pulse width of 350 fs. Using an objective lens with an NA of 0.28, it was revealed that the inner surface of the microhole was melted with 10 laser pulse shots. By increasing the pulse numbers to 100, however, deposition of fused silica particles on the melted inner surface was observed. In order to minimize the inner surface roughness, the objective lens was changed. After 50 laser pulse shots, the inner surface structure was brought close to optical quality using an objective lens with NA of 0.65.

We have been developing a laser produced plasma extremely ultra violet (LPP-EUV) light source for a high volume manufacturing (HVM) semiconductor lithography. It has several unique technologies such as the high power short pulse carbon dioxide (CO2) laser, the short wavelength solid-state pre-pulse laser and the debris mitigation technology with the magnetic field. This paper presents the key technologies for a high power LPP-EUV light source. We also show the latest performance data which is 188W EUV power at intermediate focus (IF) point with 3.7% conversion efficiency (CE) at 100 kHz.

Two kinds of pulsed lasers in Japan and Czech Republic were used to irradiate various sample materials to investigate the surface erosion thresholds under very hazardous environments including nuclear fusion chambers. The first was ArF laser in ILT and the second was XUV laser in IPP. These data were in-cooperated with our former data to build up our material strength data for our succeeding applications of various materials to a variety of fields. As an example, we proposed surface erosion monitors to notice the fusion chamber maintenance times with which the facilities can be protected from the collapses under very severe operation conditions. These kinds of monitors are expected to be useful for future different kinds of mechanical structures not only for the fusion chambers but also various chambers for many purposes. Special upconversion phosphors are also newly proposed to be used as the candidate materials to measure the thermal inputs onto the front surfaces of the armor structures. Optical transparent SiC was also newly tested to enrich our data base for our future diagnostic and protection possibilities.

From their prior emergence in the military domain but also nowadays in the civilian area, unmanned air vehicles constitute a growing threat to the todays civilization. In this respect, novel laser weapons are considered to eradicate this menace and the vulnerability of typical aeronautic materials under 1.07μm-wavelength irradiations is also investigated. In this paper, Kubelka-Munk optical parameters of laminated glass fiber-reinforced plastic composites are first assessed to build up a basic analytical interaction model involving internal refraction and reflection as well as the scattering effect due to the presence of glass fibers. Moreover, a thermo-gravimetric analysis is carried out and the kinetic parameters of the decomposition reaction extracted from this test with the Friedman method are verified trough a comparison with experimental measurements.

The article presents an overview of what is possible nowadays in the field of laser materials processing. The state of the art in the complete process chain is shown, starting with the generation of a specific components CAD data and continuing with the automated motion path generation for the laser head carried by a CNC or robot system. Application examples from laser cladding and laser-based additive manufacturing are given.

In order to determine the concentrations of trace amount metastable species in chemical lasers, an off-axis cavity enhanced absorption spectrometer for the detection of weak absorption gases has been built with a noise equivalent absorption sensitivity of 1.6x10-8 cm-1. The absorption spectrum of trace amount gaseous ammonia and water vapor was obtained with a spectral resolution of about 78 MHz. A multiple-line absorption spectroscopic method to determine the temperature of gaseous ammonia has been developed by use of multiple lines of ammonia molecule absorption spectrum.

Experimental and theoretical study of the post-filamentation stage of focused high-power Ti:Sa laser pulses in air is presented. Angular divergence of the laser beam, as well as angular and spatial characteristics of specific spatially localized light structures, the post-filament channels (PFCs), under different initial focusing conditions and laser beam energy are investigated. We show that PFC angular divergence is always less than that of the whole laser beam and tends to decrease with laser pulse energy increase and beam focal length elongation.

In this paper we study the photoluminescence properties of colloidal silicon nanoparticles (Si NPs) in distilled water, with the aim of clarifying the role of surface characteristics on the emission properties. We will show that double-pulse ns laser ablation (DPLA) of a silicon target in water with different inter-pulse delay times of i.e. 5 and 10 ns can result in production of colloidal Si NPs with different PL emission intensities at the visible spectral range of 550-650 nm. The results reveal that DPLA process at the different delay times can induce different oxide related surface characteristics on the Si NPs through the direct surface engineering of the nanoparticles. A detailed analysis of the PL emissions using the stochastic quantum confinement model explained that the different emission behaviors of the colloids are associated with the oxide-related surface states which are contributed as radiative centers in the PL process.

In this research, we investigated the effect of inter-pulse delay times on production of colloidal alumina nanoparticles by collinear double pulse laser ablation. In comparison to single pulse laser ablation, collinear double pulse laser ablation with inter-pulse delay times of 5, 10, 15 and 20 ns results in production of colloidal nanoparticles with smaller mean size and lower variance size distribution. In the case of 5 ns inter-pulse delay time, the highest concentration of nanoparticles was obtained due to more rapid cooling time of the plasma as a result of higher rate of nuclei generation than particle growth. The results also showed that the main pulse and the pre-pulse with 5 ns delay time have significant overlap and consequently such condition leads to maximum influence on the ablation.

High precision orbit determination is required for the detection and removal of space debris. Knowledge of the distribution of debris objects in orbit is necessary for orbit determination by active or passive sensors. The results can be used to investigate the orbits on which objects of a certain size at a certain frequency can be found. The knowledge of the orbital distribution of the objects as well as their properties in accordance with sensor performance models provide the basis for estimating the expected detection rates. Comprehensive modeling of the space debris environment is required for this. This paper provides an overview of the current state of knowledge about the space debris environment. In particular non-cataloged small objects are evaluated. Furthermore, improvements concerning the update of the current space debris model are addressed. The model of the space debris environment is based on the simulation of historical events, such as fragmentations due to explosions and collisions that actually occurred in Earth orbits. The orbital distribution of debris is simulated by propagating the orbits considering all perturbing forces up to a reference epoch. The modeled object population is compared with measured data and validated. The model provides a statistical distribution of space objects, according to their size and number. This distribution is based on the correct consideration of orbital mechanics. This allows for a realistic description of the space debris environment. Subsequently, a realistic prediction can be provided concerning the question, how many pieces of debris can be expected on certain orbits. To validate the model, a software tool has been developed which allows the simulation of the observation behavior of ground-based or space-based sensors. Thus, it is possible to compare the results of published measurement data with simulated detections. This tool can also be used for the simulation of sensor measurement campaigns. It is therefore possible to provide an estimation of the detection rates of the non-cataloged population of space debris.