A method of fabricating an acousto-optic waveguide that includes a waveguide cladding surrounding an optical core is disclosed. The method comprises providing a wafer substrate; depositing an initial amount of a first material over an upper surface of the wafer substrate to form a partial cladding layer; depositing a second material over the partial cladding layer to form an optical layer; removing portions of the second material of the optical layer to expose portions of the partial cladding layer and form an optical core comprising the remaining second material; and depositing an additional amount of the first material over the optical core and the exposed portions of the partial cladding layer to form a full cladding layer that surrounds the optical core. A relative concentration of components of the first material is adjusted to provide Brillouin gain spectral position control of the waveguide cladding to tune the acousto-optic waveguide.

A femtosecond pulse laser apparatus includes a pump light source configured to provide a pump light, a gain medium configured to obtain a gain of a laser light using the pump light, a first curved mirror and a second curved mirror, which are provided at both sides of the gain medium, an output mirror configured to transmit a portion of the laser light and reflect the other portion of the laser light to the gain medium, a mode locking portion configured to generate a femtosecond pulse of the laser light, and an acoustic wave generator configured to provide an acoustic wave into the gain medium so as to adjust self-phase modulation of the laser light.

A laser resonator includes a gain medium that produces light from pump energy and a variable light attenuator, which receives light and emits either (i) a first light including a continuous series of micropulses, or (ii) a second light including a series of macropulses at spaced time intervals, where each macropulse includes a series of micropulses. Each micropulse has a duration of 0.1 to 10 microseconds, and a duration of each macropulse is less than the time interval between each macropulse, and the micropulses have a frequency of 5 kHz to 40 kHz.

A laser light-source apparatus includes a control unit configured to perform control in such a manner that a seed light source is driven in a pulse oscillation mode of oscillating pulse light based on gain switching in an output permitted state where output of pulse light from the apparatus is permitted, and is driven in a continuous oscillation mode of oscillating continuous light in an output stopped state in which the output of the pulse light from the apparatus is stopped, with power of excitation light for a solid state amplifier maintained, and adjusts power of laser light input to the solid state amplifier from the seed light source in the continuous oscillation mode in such a manner that the solid state amplifier outputs light with substantially same average power in the output stopped state and in the output permitted state.

A laser light-source apparatus includes: a fiber amplifier and a solid-state amplifier to amplify pulse light output from a seed light source serving as a first light source; a nonlinear optical element to perform wavelength conversion on the pulse light output from the solid-state amplifier; an optical switching element to permit or stop propagation of the pulse light from the fiber amplifier to the solid-state amplifier; a second light source disposed on an upstream side of the solid-state amplifier and is configured to output laser light able to be combined with the pulse light output from the seed light source; and a control unit to control the optical switching element in such a manner that the propagation of light is stopped and to perform control in such a manner that the second light source oscillates, at least in an output period of the pulse light from the seed light source.

A single arm laser system comprising a first in-phase quadrature modulator, IQM. The first IQM is configured to receive a single frequency fibred laser beam from a frequency locked laser seed, generate a first single side-band frequency based on a carrier frequency of the single frequency fibred laser beam and suppress the carrier frequency, and output a first fibre laser beam having a single side-band suppressed carrier frequency. The single arm laser system also comprises a second IQM in line with the first IQM. The second IQM is configured to receive the first fibre laser beam from the first IQM, generate a second single side-band frequency based on the first single side-band frequency and maintain the first single side-band frequency as the carrier frequency, and output a second fibre laser beam having the first and second single side band frequencies.

A semiconductor laser tuned with an acousto-optic modulator. The acousto-optic modulator may generate standing waves or traveling waves. When traveling waves are used, a second acousto-optic modulator may be used in a reverse orientation to cancel out a chirp created in the first acousto-optic modulator. The acousto-optic modulator may be used with standing-wave laser resonators or ring lasers.

A method of fabricating an acousto-optic waveguide that includes a waveguide cladding surrounding an optical core is disclosed. The method comprises providing a wafer substrate; depositing an initial amount of a first material over an upper surface of the wafer substrate to form a partial cladding layer; depositing a second material over the partial cladding layer to form an optical layer; removing portions of the second material of the optical layer to expose portions of the partial cladding layer and form an optical core comprising the remaining second material; and depositing an additional amount of the first material over the optical core and the exposed portions of the partial cladding layer to form a full cladding layer that surrounds the optical core. A relative concentration of components of the first material is adjusted to provide Brillouin gain spectral position control of the waveguide cladding to tune the acousto-optic waveguide.

Techniques for producing a Brillouin laser are provided. According to some aspects, techniques are based on forward Brillouin scattering and a multimode acousto-optic waveguide in which light is scattered between optical modes of the waveguide via the Brillouin scattering. This process may transfer energy from a waveguide mode of pump light to a waveguide mode of Stokes light. This process may be referred to herein as Stimulated Inter-Modal Brillouin Scattering (SIMS). Since SIMS is based on forward Brillouin scattering, laser (Stokes) light may be output in a different direction than back toward the input pump light, and as such there is no need for a circulator or other non-reciprocal device to protect the pump light as in conventional devices.

A laser light-source apparatus includes: a fiber amplifier and a solid-state amplifier to amplify pulse light output from a seed light source serving as a first light source; a nonlinear optical element to perform wavelength conversion on the pulse light output from the solid-state amplifier; an optical switching element to permit or stop propagation of the pulse light from the fiber amplifier to the solid-state amplifier; a second light source disposed on an upstream side of the solid-state amplifier and is configured to output laser light able to be combined with the pulse light output from the seed light source; and a control unit to control the optical switching element in such a manner that the propagation of light is stopped and to perform control in such a manner that the second light source oscillates, at least in an output period of the pulse light from the seed light source.