Disclosed here are methods, devices, and systems for generating an output light beam for a pulsed laser. An example method may comprise generating one or more pump optical beams comprising at least two photons having a pump wavelength. A first nonlinear stage may convert the at least two photons to a first photon having a first wavelength that is half of the pump wavelength. The first optical beam may be caused to spatially overlap with a seed optical beam. At least two second nonlinear stages separated by a gap may be used to convert, based on the seed optical beam, the first photon to a second photon having a second wavelength and a third photon having a target wavelength greater than the pump wavelength. A third nonlinear stage may convert the second photon to a fourth photon and a fifth photon each having the target wavelength or having a wavelength within an offset range of the target wavelength.

A system for multimodal nonlinear optical imaging is provided. Each mode uses a high NA objective to cause total internal reflection excitation at a sample-substrate interface. The system has a femtosecond oscillator to generate pulses used for two beams. The objective receives at least one beam, redirects the received at least one beam through a dielectric substrate to cause the TIR and produces corresponding evanescent waves in a portion of the sample adjacent to the sample-substrate interface, and collects a backward-propagating beam of pulses of responsive light. The portion of the sample illuminated by the evanescent waves emits responsive light. Different modes or combinations of the distinct modalities may be selected to access complementary chemical and structural information for various chemical species near the sample-substrate interface. Each mode may have mode-specific control such as selective beam blocking, power ratios and filtering.

Provided is a laser device in which: a laser medium doped with ytterbium emits light upon absorption of excitation light; the light emitted by the laser medium is amplified to obtain output light; and the output light is outputted in the form of a plurality of pulses. In the laser device, a spatial filter is disposed in the optical path of the light emitted by the laser medium or is disposed in the optical path of the output light outputted from an optical resonator, the spatial filter being configured to filter out a portion of the light or of the output light around the optical axis.

A femtosecond laser source according to an embodiment of the present invention includes: a pulse generator that converts a continuous wave laser into an optical pulse train; a burst generator that separates the optical pulse train into a plurality of burst pulses; a pulse amplification and spectral broadening unit that expands the spectrum by amplifying a plurality of burst pulses; and a pulse compressor that compresses a plurality of amplified burst pulses to generate a femtosecond laser with a pulse width of 1 picosecond (10.sup.−12 s) or less.

An optical processing apparatus, an optical processing method, and an optically-processed product production method. The optical processing apparatus and the optical processing method includes emitting a first process light to a focal point set inside an object to be processed, using a first light-emitting unit, and emitting a second process light during a period of time in which plasma or gas is generated inside the object to be processed, by the first process light, using a second light-emitting unit. The processed product production method includes emitting a first process light to a focal point set inside an object to be processed, using a first light-emitting unit, and emitting a second process light during a period in which plasma or gas is generated inside the object to be processed by the first process light, using a second light-emitting unit.

A supercontinuum source may include a seed source providing seed light, where the seed source includes one or more seed lasers to generate the seed light and a seed controller to adjust at least one of a temporal pulse profile or a wavelength of the seed light. The supercontinuum source may further include an optical fiber to receive the seed light, where the seed source pumps the optical fiber to induce the generation of supercontinuum output light, and where a spectrum of the supercontinuum output light is controllable by adjusting at least one of the temporal pulse profile or the wavelength of the seed light with the seed controller.

A laser system produces pulses having wavelengths between 2000 nm and 2100 nm, peak output powers greater than 1 kW, average powers greater than 10 W, pulse widths variable from 0.5 to 10 nsec, pulse repetition frequencies variable from 0.1 to over 2 MHz, and a pulse extinction of at least 60 dB. Pulses from a diode laser having a wavelength between 1000 nm and 1100 nm are amplified by at least one fiberoptic amplifier and applied as the pump input to an Optical Parametric Amplifier (OPA). A cw laser provides an OPA seed input at a wavelength between 2000 nm and 2200 nm. The idler output of the OPA having difference frequency wavelength between 2000 nm and 2100 nm is further amplified by a crystal amplifier. The fiberoptic amplifier can include Ytterbium-doped fiberoptic. The crystal amplifier can include a Ho:YAG, Ho:YLF, Ho:LuAG, and/or a Ho:Lu2O3 crystal.

A laser processing method of performing laser processing on a transparent material that is transparent to ultraviolet light by using a laser processing system includes: performing relative positioning of a transfer position of a transfer image and the transparent material in an optical axis direction of a pulse laser beam so that the transfer position is set at a position inside the transparent material at a predetermined depth ΔZsf from a surface of the transparent material in the optical axis direction; and irradiating the transparent material with the pulse laser beam having a pulse width of 1 ns to 100 ns inclusive and a beam diameter of 10 μm to 150 μm inclusive at the transfer position.

A narrow linewidth mid infrared laser, including a pumping laser diode with a fast-axis compressor and a pumping wavelength λ.sub.o; and an optical resonator arranged to receive the pumping wavelength λ.sub.o, the optical resonator including a laser crystal with a lasing wavelength λ.sub.p, a dichroic mirror, and a nonlinear crystal to generate an idler wavelength λ.sub.i.

A measurement system is provided with an array of laser diodes with one or more Bragg reflectors. At least a portion of the light generated by the array is configured to penetrate tissue comprising skin. A detection system configured to: measure a phase shift, and a time-of-flight, of at least a portion of the light from the array of laser diodes reflected from the tissue relative to the portion of the light generated by the array; generate one or more images of the tissue; detect oxy- or deoxy-hemoglobin in the tissue; non-invasively measure blood in blood vessels within or below a dermis layer within the skin; measure one or more physiological parameters based at least in part on the non-invasively measured blood; and measure a variation in the blood or physiological parameter over a period of time.