A lidar system comprising with a light source, an optical link, and a sensor head. The light source can include a seed laser to produce pulses of light and an optical preamplifier to amplify the pulses of light. The optical link can convey amplified pulses of light to the sensor head remotely located from the light source. The sensor head can include an optical booster amplifier, a scanner to scan amplified output pulses of light across a field of regard, and a receiver to detect pulses of light scattered by a target located a distance from the sensor head.

A laser oscillation device includes a laser oscillation unit, which is a laser oscillation part that generates multiple first laser beams having different wavelengths from one another, multiple sensors having different sensitivity characteristics from one another each representing light-receiving sensitivity for the wavelengths of the multiple first laser beams, to each output first voltages dependent on outputs of the multiple first laser beams. The laser oscillation device includes a computing unit that corrects the multiple first voltages using the sensitivity characteristics of the multiple sensors, and controls the laser oscillation unit based on multiple second voltages which correspond to multiple first voltages obtained after the correction.

A waveguide gas laser having a laser resonator cavity of a variable length is subjected to cyclical varying of the length of the cavity during generation of a laser beam a length variation amount sufficient to force a laser beam generated in the resonator cavity though a substantially complete optical longitudinal cavity mode at a rate operable to smooth at least one laser beam parameter variation. In this manner variation in the laser beam parameter is averaged by moving through at least a portion of an optical longitudinal cavity mode.

Exemplary apparatus can be provided which can include a laser arrangement that is configured to provide a laser radiation, and including an optical cavity. The optical cavity can include a dispersive optical waveguide first arrangement having first and second sides, and which is configured to (i) receive at least one first electro-magnetic radiation at the first side so as to provide at least one second electro-magnetic radiation, and (ii) to receive at least one third electro-magnetic radiation at the second side so as to provide at least one fourth electro-magnetic radiation. The first and second sides are different from one another, and the second and third radiations are related to one another. The optical cavity can also include an active optical modulator second arrangement which can be configured to receive and modulate the fourth radiation so as to provide the first electro-magnetic radiation to the first arrangement. The laser radiation can be associated with at least one of the first, second, third or fourth radiations.

In various embodiments, a beam-parameter adjustment system and focusing system alters a spatial power distribution of a radiation beams before the beam is coupled into an optical fiber or delivered to a workpiece.

The technology disclosed in this patent document allows mode locking of both selected longitudinal and transverse modes to produce laser pulses. The laser light produced based on such mode locking exhibits a 3-dimensional mode profile based on the locked longitudinal and transverse modes.

A laser light source apparatus includes a laser diode, a first optical assembly having one or more lenses for generating a collimated laser beam from light emitted by the laser diode, a doped microstructured glass block configured to generate laser emissions at at least a first wavelength and a second wavelength when pumped by the collimated laser beam, an input beam lens for focusing the collimated laser beam onto an input surface of the microstructured glass block, an optical alignment assembly, an output light guiding assembly, and a housing for containing and supporting the optical alignment assembly and the output light guiding assembly.

An EHz ultrafast modulated pulse scanning laser and a distributed fiber sensing system. A plurality of phase-shift gratings are engraved on a doped fiber, the phase-shift gratings having different central window wavelengths and a wavelength interval between the adjacent central window wavelengths being a preset fixed value. When a pump light emitted by a pump laser source is coupled by a wavelength division multiplexer and enters the doped fiber, a single-mode narrow-linewidth laser light having multiple wavelengths with a wavelength interval being a preset fixed value can be generated, by using the phase-shift gratings graved on the doped fiber. The ultrafast modulation is completed by using a time-domain control method based on an EOM. An internally frequency converted pulse light formed by splicing pulse lights whose frequencies linearly increase is obtained, thus forming the EHz ultrafast modulation of a distributed feedback fiber laser. In this way, a coherence length of an output laser light is increased while a frequency of the laser light is remained.

A ring optical resonator is formed on a substrate. An outer circumferential surface of the resonator substantially confines one or more circumferential resonant optical modes. The resonator is positioned above a void formed in the substrate and is supported above the void by a portion of a material layer on the substrate that extends radially inward above the void from an outer circumferential edge of the void to the outer circumferential surface of the resonator. An optical waveguide can be integrally formed on the substrate and traverses a portion of the material layer above the void. The optical waveguide and the ring optical resonator are arranged and positioned so as to establish evanescent optical coupling between them. Q-factors of 10.sup.8 or more have been achieved with a silica resonator and silicon nitride waveguide integrally formed on a silicon substrate.

The present invention provides systems and methods for optical frequency comb generation with self-generated optical harmonics in mode-locked lasers for detecting the carrier envelope offset frequency. The mode-locked laser outputs an optical frequency comb and a harmonic output. The harmonic output provides an optical heterodyne resulting in a detectable beat note. A carrier envelope offset frequency detector detects the beat note and generates an optical frequency comb signal. The signal can be used to stabilize the optical frequency comb output.