Enhancement of Amplified Spontaneous Emission Contrast With a Novel Front-End Based on NOPA and SHG Processes

Author

Xu, Yi ; Huang, Yansui ; Li, Yanyan ; Wang, Jianzhou ; Lu, Xiaoming ; Leng, Yuxin ; Li, Ruxin ; Xu, Zhizhan

Author_Institution

State Key Lab. of High Field Laser Phys., Shanghai Inst. of Opt. & Fine Mech, Shanghai, China

Volume

48

Issue

4

fYear

2012

fDate

4/1/2012 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

516

Lastpage

520

Abstract

Employing a novel front-end based on femtosecond noncollinear optical-parametric amplification and second-harmonic generation processes in a Ti:sapphire chirped pulse amplification laser system, we first demonstrate the efficient enhancement of amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) contrast. Cleaned seed pulses of 100-μJ energy generated by the front-end are amplified to 0.75 J before compressor. After compression and under pulse peak power of 7 TW, the ASE contrast is promoted from original ~ 10⁸ to ~ 10¹¹. The experimental results for nanometer film target interactions also demonstrate the improvement of the contrast. Finally, the evolution of the ASE contrast under different seed pulse energy is demonstrated experimentally, which can be used to design the higher power laser with higher ASE contrast.

Keywords

chirp modulation; high-speed optical techniques; optical harmonic generation; optical parametric amplifiers; sapphire; solid lasers; superradiance; titanium; Al₂O₃:Ti; NOPA; amplified spontaneous emission contrast; chirped pulse amplification laser system; energy 100 muJ; femtosecond noncollinear optical-parametric amplification; nanometer film target interactions; power 7 TW; second harmonic generation; seed pulse energy; Laser excitation; Laser theory; Measurement by laser beam; Optimized production technology; Physics; Ultrafast optics; Amplified spontaneous emission contrast; chirped pulse amplification; pulse-cleaning; seed pulse energy;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Quantum Electronics, IEEE Journal of

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9197

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/JQE.2012.2187045

Filename

6146398