Centre National De La Recherche Scientifique

Jds Uniphase Corporation

Universite Claude Bernard – Lyon1

Fibercryst

Nanolase S.a.

Francois Daniel Balembois

Patrick Georges

Pierre Jean Devilder

Frederic Druon

Alain Brun

Julien Didierjean

Damien Sangla

Laurent Lefort

Sebastien Forget

An optical amplifier for pulsed laser with short or ultra-short and energetic pulses includes an optical pumping source for generating a pump wave, an elongate amplifying medium including an input interface for receiving an optical signal to be amplified, the medium being able to amplify the optical signal propagating along the amplifying medium and to extract an amplified signal and an optical system for coupling the pump wave in the amplifying medium so as to pump the amplifying medium longitudinally. The amplifying medium has a minimum transverse dimension &#x3c6;and the optical system focuses the pump wave inside the gain medium, the focused pump wave having a transverse dimension &#x3c6;which is smaller than the dimension &#x3c6;of the medium and a smaller numerical aperture than the numerical aperture of the medium, so that the pump wave propagates freely over a part of the amplifying medium and then in a confined manner over a part of the amplifying medium.

Optical amplifier system for pulsed laser based on a guiding gain medium and pulsed laser comprising same

The present invention relates to a multi-pass three-dimensional amplifier structure in which a beam of light traverses an amplifier medium multiple times via distinct multiple paths. The distribution of the multiple paths being such that the volume occupied by the multiple paths inside the amplifier medium substantially overlaps with the volume of the amplifier medium being optically pumped by an optical pump beam. The distribution of the optical paths is such that no more than two of the multiple paths lie in a same plane. The astigmatism induced by anisotropic amplifying crystals is self-compensated by aligning the crystallographic axes of the amplifying crystal at a 45&#xb0; angle to the longitudinal axis of the redirecting means.

Three-dimensional optical amplifier structure

A sub-nanosecond passively Q-switched microchip laser is disclosed. It combines an optically pumped, passively Q-switched, high-frequency, microchip laser producing short pulses with an optically end-pumped amplifier producing high small-signal gain while pumped at low power. The microchip laser for emitting pulsed laser radiation is a monolithic body comprising two reflective elements defining an optical resonator for laser radiation, a laser gain medium, e.g., Nd:YAG, and a saturable absorber medium, e.g., Cr :YAG placed inside said resonator. The optical amplifier stage for amplifying the laser radiation comprises an amplifying medium, e.g., Nd:YVO . The microchip laser and the amplifier are optically end-pumped, preferably by high-brightness diodes. This entirely passive laser system directly produces &mgr;J pulses at repetition rates of about 45 kHz.

Sub-nanosecond passively q-switched microchip laser system

Growing community of inventors

Boissy le Sec, France

Francois Daniel Balembois