An ultrafast titanium sapphire (Ti:S) laser equipped with a compact and efficient pump laser is in high demand in many biomedical applications. Recently developed high power visible laser diodes are the cost-effective alternate option to commercial diode-pumped-solid-state lasers for pumping Ti:S. We used two spectrally combined direct laser diodes (LDs) to pump a Ti:S oscillator and demonstrated stable Kerr-lens mode-locking with an average output power of 190 mW. We have carefully studied and realized the beam shaping of both LDs to achieve the maximum pumping efficiency. Furthermore, we have analyzed the noise performance of the overall system.
High brightness diode laser beam combining techniques are in demand for efficient high power nonlinear conversion. Coherent beam combining (CBC) is the only method that has the potential for brightness scaling by maintaining one single narrow spectral linewidth. CBC in a master oscillator power amplifier (MOPA) configuration using a small number of efficiently cooled tapered amplifiers is a promising approach for efficient brightness scaling in a simple architecture. We present the application of such a source based on CBC of three tapered amplifiers seeded by a DFB laser at λ = 976 nm for second harmonic generation (SHG). A maximum power of 2.1 W at 488 nm was generated by SHG in a MgO:PPLN bulk crystal limited by thermal effects. A clear benefit of the beam clean-up resulting from the CBC setup was documented leading to an improved nonlinear efficiency. As part of our ongoing studies into further brightness scaling in CBC architectures, we present an experimental analysis of the phase dynamics of tapered amplifiers in quasi continuous operation (QCW) at high currents. Furthermore, we are investigating different amplifier designs for improved beam quality at high powers and therefore improved combining efficiency.
Unwanted optical feedback is a common problem in many optical setups of laser systems. To quantify the effect, the influence of a controlled external feedback on the emission properties of a low power distributed feedback ridge waveguide and a high power distributed Bragg reflector tapered diode laser are analyzed. The measured influence of the phase dependent feedback over several orders of magnitude in feedback power attenuation on emission wavelength is discussed and compared to theory.
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