An optical arrangement spectrally broadens laser pulses for nonlinear pulse compression. The optical arrangement has: a broadening section that is configured to guide a laser pulse repeatedly through at least one nonlinear broadening element. The nonlinear broadening element has a dispersion property that is selected such that the dispersion property compensates any self-focusing of the laser pulse in the nonlinear broadening element.

Apparatus and methods for producing ultrashort optical pulses are described. A high-power, solid-state, passively mode-locked laser can be manufactured in a compact module that can be incorporated into a portable instrument. The mode-locked laser can produce sub-50-ps optical pulses at a repetition rates between 200 MHz and 50 MHz, rates suitable for massively parallel data-acquisition. The optical pulses can be used to generate a reference clock signal for synchronizing data-acquisition and signal-processing electronics of the portable instrument.

A laser apparatus according to an aspect of the present disclosure includes a plurality of semiconductor lasers, a plurality of optical switches disposed in the optical paths of the plurality of respective semiconductor lasers, a wavelength conversion system configured to convert pulsed beams outputted from the plurality of optical switches in terms of wavelength to generate wavelength-converted beams, an ArF excimer laser amplifier configured to amplify the wavelength-converted beams, and a controller configured to control the operations of the plurality of semiconductor lasers and the plurality of optical switches, and the plurality of semiconductor lasers are each configured to output a laser beam so produced that wavelengths of the wavelength-converted beams are wavelengths at which the ArF excimer laser amplifier performs amplification and differ from the optical absorption lines of oxygen.

The disclosed laser system is configured with a laser source outputting light at a fundamental frequency. The output light is incident on a frequency converter operative to convert the fundamental frequency to a higher harmonic including at least one frequency converting stage. The frequency converter is based on a SrB.sub.4O.sub.7 (SBO) or PbB.sub.4O.sub.7 (PBO) nonlinear crystal configured with a plurality of domains. The domains have periodically alternating polarity of the crystal axis enabling a QPM use and formed with each with highly parallel walls which deviate from one another less than 1 micron over a 10 mm distance.

A multi-wavelength laser device equipped with a linear cavity along which a first direction and a second direction opposite to the first direction are defined is disclosed. The apparatus includes, along the first direction, a first optical component, a gain and Raman medium, a sum frequency generation crystal, a first second-harmonic generation crystal and a second optical component. The first optical component allows a pumping light to transmit therethrough and be incident in the first direction. The gain and Raman medium receives the pumping light from the first optical component and generates a first infrared base laser light having a first wavelength and a second infrared base laser light having a second wavelength. The first and second optical components form a laser cavity for oscillation of these two infrared base laser lights. The sum frequency generation crystal receives the first and second infrared base laser lights and generates a first visible laser light having a third wavelength. The first second-harmonic generation crystal receives the first infrared base laser light and generates a second visible laser light having a fourth wavelength. The second optical element allows the first and the second visible laser lights to emit out along the first direction.

A chip-scale mode-locked laser including a cavity including a gain medium for amplifying signal electromagnetic radiation (signal) through stimulated emission, the signal comprising a signal wavelength; and a passive or active mode-locking device to enforce pulse formation in the laser. The mode-locking device includes a thin-film waveguide having a thickness on the order of the signal wavelength so as to confine and guide the signal along the thin-film waveguide, and a material comprising a second-order nonlinear susceptibility to enable active or passive mode-locking of the signal. The mode-locking device leads to generation of pulses of the signal outputted from the mode-locked laser.

A laser head for a high power fiber laser system has a 5 to 10 mm high housing which is provided with a bottom. The housing encloses an input collimator assembly which collimates a single mode pump light at a fundamental frequency and maximum power of 2 kW. The housing further encases a multi-cascaded nonlinear frequency converter receiving the collimated pump light so as to convert the fundamental frequency into a higher harmonic thereof, wherein converted light at the higher frequency has a maximum power of 1 kW. Enclosed in the housing are electronic and light guiding optical components mounted in the housing. The bottom of the housing is an electro-optical printed circuit board (EO PCB) which directly supports the input collimator assembly, multi-cascaded nonlinear frequency converter, electronic and optical components at respective designated locations.

A laser system and method generate milliwatt-power pump light by a fiber-coupled laser diode with a single-mode integrated fiber housed in a pump enclosure. The milliwatt-power pump light is conveyed from the single-mode integrated fiber out of the first enclosure into one end of a single-mode fiber cable that is external to the pump enclosure. The milliwatt-power pump light is conveyed from an opposite end of the external single-mode fiber cable into one end of a single-mode resident fiber disposed internally within a laser-head enclosure. A crystal housed in the laser-head enclosure is pumped with the milliwatt-power pump light that exits into free space from an opposite end of the single-mode resident fiber onto a face of the crystal, to produce stable milliwatt-power single-mode laser light having a frequency stability of less than 3 MHz per minute. The stable milliwatt-power single-mode laser light is emitted from the laser-head enclosure.

Methods and apparatuses for manipulating and modulating of laser beams. The methods and apparatuses enable activating and deactivating of laser beams, while the laser systems maintain their operating power. Further, a hybrid pump module configured to be coupled to an optical fiber having a core and at least one clad, comprising: at least one focusing lens in optical with the optical fiber; plurality of diode modules, each configured to output a multi-mode beam in optical path with the clad; and at least one core associated module, in optical path with the core, configured to provide selected functions. Further, apparatus and methods configured for frequency doubling of optical radiation.

Provided is a laser device capable of realizing the increased output and increased repeatability even when the surface roughness of the gain medium is large. The laser device includes: an excitation light source; a condensing optical system that condenses excitation light outputted from the excitation light source; a gain medium that receives the excitation light condensed by the condensing optical system and outputs emission light; a transparent member that has a smaller surface roughness than the gain medium and transmits the emission light outputted from the gain medium; a supersaturated absorber having a transmittance that increases as the emission light transmitted through the transparent member is absorbed; and a resonator that causes the emission light to resonate between the gain medium and the supersaturated absorber with the transparent member being interposed therebetween, wherein a dielectric multilayer film that reflects the excitation light and transmits the emission light is coated on the surface of the transparent member on the gain medium side.