Optical power limiter with picosecond response time

Author

Soileau, M.J. ; Williams, William E. ; Van Stryland, Eric W.

Author_Institution

Michelson Laboratory, Naval Weapons Center, China Lake, CA, USA

Volume

19

Issue

4

fYear

1983

fDate

4/1/1983 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

731

Lastpage

735

Abstract

Optical self-action in CS2and other liquids was used to make a power-limiting device having a picosecond response time. This device uses self-focusing in liquids to produce phase aberrations and laser-induced breakdown, which in turn limit the transmitted power. This device has near-unity transmission for input power below Pc, which is on the order of the critical power for self-focusing, and limits the transmitted power to a nearly constant value for input power greater than Pc. The onset of nonlinear transmission was adjusted by mixing various liquids to adjust the nonlinear refractive index. Experimental results using linearly and circularly polarized 40 ps (FWHM) pulses at 1.06 μm are presented.

Keywords

Carbon materials/devices; Dielectric breakdown; Laser radiation effects; Laser-beam focusing; Limiting; Optical propagation in nonlinear media; Optical switches; Delay; Electric breakdown; Liquids; Nonlinear optics; Optical devices; Optical mixing; Optical refraction; Optical variables control; Power lasers; Refractive index;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Quantum Electronics, IEEE Journal of

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9197

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/JQE.1983.1071921

Filename

1071921