Examples of the present invention include integrated erbium-doped waveguide lasers designed for silicon photonic systems. In some examples, these lasers include laser cavities defined by distributed Bragg reflectors (DBRs) formed in silicon nitride-based waveguides. These DBRs may include grating features defined by wafer-scale immersion lithography, with an upper layer of erbium-doped aluminum oxide deposited as the final step in the fabrication process. The resulting inverted ridge-waveguide yields high optical intensity overlap with the active medium for both the 980 nm pump (89%) and 1.5 μm laser (87%) wavelengths with a pump-laser intensity overlap of over 93%. The output powers can be 5 mW or higher and show lasing at widely-spaced wavelengths within both the C- and L-bands of the erbium gain spectrum (1536, 1561 and 1596 nm).

This disclosure relates to pumping light systems and methods for using a disc laser. A focusing device with a reflecting surface focuses a pumping light beam onto a laser-active medium. A deflecting system deflects the pumping light beam between reflecting regions formed on the reflecting surface that are arranged in different angle regions around a central axis of the reflecting surface in at least a first annular region and a second annular region. The deflecting systems are configured to perform at least one deflection of the pumping light beam between two reflecting regions of the first annular region and at least one deflection between two reflecting regions of the second annular region.

This disclosure relates to pumping light systems and methods for using a disc laser. A focusing device with a reflecting surface focuses a pumping light beam onto a laser-active medium. A deflecting system deflects the pumping light beam between reflecting regions formed on the reflecting surface that are arranged in different angle regions around a central axis of the reflecting surface in at least a first annular region and a second annular region. The deflecting systems are configured to perform at least one deflection of the pumping light beam between two reflecting regions of the first annular region and at least one deflection between two reflecting regions of the second annular region.

A solid-state laser system may include first and second solid-state laser units, a wavelength conversion system, an optical shutter, and a controller. The first solid-state laser unit and the second solid-state laser unit may output first pulsed laser light with a first wavelength and second pulsed laser light with a second wavelength, respectively. The controller may perform first control and second control. The first control may cause the first and second pulsed laser light to enter the wavelength conversion system at a substantially coincidental timing, thereby causing the wavelength conversion system to output third pulsed laser light with a third wavelength converted from the first wavelength and the second wavelength, and the second control may prevent the first and second pulsed laser light from entering the wavelength conversion system at the coincidental timing, thereby preventing the wavelength conversion system from outputting the third pulsed laser light.

An intra-cavity doubled OPS-laser has a laser-resonator including a birefringent filter (BRF) for coarse wavelength-selection, and an optically nonlinear (ONL) crystal arranged for type-II frequency-doubling and fine wavelength-selection. Laser-radiation circulates in the laser-resonator at one of a range of fundamental wavelengths dependent on the resonator length. The ONL crystal has a transmission peak-wavelength dependent on the crystal temperature. Reflection of circulating radiation from the BRF is monitored. The reflection is at a minimum when the ONL crystal transmission-peak wavelength is at the circulating radiation wavelength. The temperature of the ONL crystal is selectively varied to maintain the monitored reflection at about a minimum.

An intra-cavity doubled OPS-laser has a laser-resonator including a birefringent filter (BRF) for coarse wavelength-selection, and an optically nonlinear (ONL) crystal arranged for type-II frequency-doubling and fine wavelength-selection. Laser-radiation circulates in the laser-resonator at one of a range of fundamental wavelengths dependent on the resonator length. The ONL crystal has a transmission peak-wavelength dependent on the crystal temperature. Reflection of circulating radiation from the BRF is monitored. The reflection is at a minimum when the ONL crystal transmission-peak wavelength is at the circulating radiation wavelength. The temperature of the ONL crystal is selectively varied to maintain the monitored reflection at about a minimum.

An optical system capable of routing primary and secondary high power lasers through a blocking switch is described.

An optical system capable of routing primary and secondary high power lasers through a blocking switch is described.

A cascade control system of an optical fiber amplifier includes a target setting parameter module, a primary controller, at least one controlled module and a secondary controller corresponding to the controlled module. The control system adopts two or more cascade control loops so that disturbance entering into the secondary loop can be overcome quickly, thereby the dynamic characteristics of the system may be improved. The primary controller aims to coarse adjustment and overall target control, and the secondary controller aims to fine adjustment and quick convergence of a short-term target, so that the control quality of the cascade control system may be further improved. The cascade control system may define the overall control target directly in the primary loop and avoid impact of aging characteristics of some special parameters on the application.

A laser that emits light at all available frequencies distributed throughout the spectral bandwidth or emission bandwidth of the laser in a single pulse or pulse train is disclosed. The laser is pumped or seeded with photons having frequencies distributed throughout the superunitary gain bandwidth of the gain medium. The source of photons is a frequency modulated photon source, and the frequency modulation is controlled to occur in one or more cycles timed to occur within a time scale for pulsing the laser.