A laser system including: A. a laser apparatus configured to output a pulse laser beam; B. an optical pulse stretcher including a delay optical path for expanding a pulse width of the pulse laser beam; and C. a phase optical element included in the delay optical path and having a function of spatially and randomly shifting a phase of the pulse laser beam. The phase optical element includes a plurality of types of cells providing different amounts of phase shift to the pulse laser beam and arranged irregularly in any direction.

A system includes a laser system having a master oscillator and a planar waveguide (PWG) amplifier having one or more laser diode pump arrays, a PWG pumphead, input optics, and output optics. The PWG pumphead is configured to receive a low-power optical beam from the master oscillator and generate a high-power optical beam. The PWG pumphead includes a laser gain medium, a cartridge, and a pumphead housing. The cartridge is configured to receive and retain the laser gain medium, and the cartridge includes one or more cooling channels configured to transport coolant in order to cool the laser gain medium. The pumphead housing is configured to receive and retain the cartridge, where the cartridge is removable from the housing.

An optoelectronic signal translating device having a region containing rare earth or transition metal ions for generation of radiation of a predetermined wavelength. Said region includes an organic complex comprising a ligand adapted to enhance the emission of radiation and a chromophore separately co-operable with a radiation source of wavelength not greater than that of said predetermined desired radiation. Said chromophore can be excited to cross-couple with the upper permitted energy state of said rare earth or transition metal ions, thereby generating said predetermined desired radiation by subsequent decay of said ions to the permitted lower energy state.

Apparatus and method for the amplification of a laser beam by pumping a homogenous composite source beam through an amplification medium. A slab crystalline active medium is side-pumped via a pump module having a laser diode bar and an optical assembly. The optical assembly has a fast axis collimator and a lens in the fast axis and an array of slow axis collimators and the lens in the slow axis. The lenses are spaced so that the individual source beams from the emitters are: imaged upon a first facet of the amplification medium; have a beam waist at or near the first facet; are sized to fill the first facet; substantially overlap on the first facet; and are directed so that peripheral source beams undergo total internal reflection on entering the amplification medium. Embodiments of multiple laser diode bars and optical assemblies are described together with double side pumping arrangements.

A laser device may include: a master oscillator including a first laser chamber, a first pair of discharge electrodes provided in the first laser chamber, and an optical resonator, the master oscillator being configured to output a laser beam; a first amplifier including a second laser chamber provided in an optical path of the laser beam outputted from the master oscillator and a second pair of discharge electrodes provided in the second laser chamber at a first gap distance, the first amplifier being configured to amplify the laser beam; and a first beam-adjusting optical system provided in an optical path of the laser beam between the master oscillator and the first amplifier, the first beam-adjusting optical system being configured to adjust the laser beam outputted from the master oscillator such that a beam width of the laser beam entering the first amplifier measured in a direction of electric discharge between the second pair of discharge electrodes is substantially equal to the first gap distance between the second pair of discharge electrodes.

An optical pulse generator arranged to generate an initial sequence of optical pulses having an initial inter-pulse period; and an optical pulse burst formation apparatus including: an interleaving stage to receive an initial sequence of optical pulses having an initial inter-pulse period, including: an optical splitter to power split received optical pulses, thereby generating a first and second replica sequences of optical pulses; a first optical arm to receive the first replica sequence, having a first optical path length; and a second optical arm to receive the second replica sequence, having a second optical path length, different to the first optical path length by a path length difference; and an optical combiner arranged to combine the first replica sequence of pulses and the second replica sequence of delayed pulses to form an output sequence of optical pulse bursts.

A laser apparatus may include a master oscillator, a plurality of amplifiers, a photodetector device configured to detect a light beam traveling back along a laser beam path, and a controller. The photodetector device may include a first photodetector configured to detect energy of a light beam traveling back along the laser beam path and a second photodetector configured to detect power of the light beam traveling back along the laser beam path. The controller may be configured to determine that a return beam is generated when the intensity of the energy detection signal exceeds a first threshold. The controller may be configured to determine that a self-oscillation beam is generated when the intensity of the power detection signal exceeds a second threshold.

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).

An optical oscillator according to an embodiment includes a first reflecting portion that transmits light having a first wavelength and reflects light having a second wavelength different from the first wavelength, a second reflecting portion that forms an unstable resonator together with the first reflecting portion and reflect light having the second wavelength, a laser medium that is disposed between the first reflecting portion and the second reflecting portion and emits light having the second wavelength due to incidence of light having the first wavelength, and a saturable absorption portion disposed on a side opposite to the first reflecting portion when viewed from the laser medium in the one direction, the first reflecting portion includes an incidence surface on which light having the first wavelength is incident, on a side opposite to the laser medium, a size of the second reflecting portion is smaller than a size of the first reflecting portion when viewed in the one direction, at least a part of a surface of the saturable absorption body on the side opposite to the laser medium includes a curved region curved toward the laser medium side, and the second reflecting portion is a dielectric multilayer film provided in the curved region.

An optical transmit system, including a direct modulator configured to generate an optical signal, an optical amplifier coupled to the direct modulator configured to amplify the optical signal output by the direct modulator, and a stimulated Brillouin scattering component coupled to the optical amplifier configured to limit optical power of the optical signal output by the optical amplifier, where a stimulated Brillouin scattering threshold of the stimulated Brillouin scattering component is equal to minimum optical power of a part, which needs to be limited, of the optical signal output by the optical amplifier, and the stimulated Brillouin scattering component reflects, using a stimulated Brillouin scattering frequency difference, a part, which has optical power higher than the minimum optical power, of the optical signal output by the optical amplifier in order to limit outputting of this part of the optical signal.