Disclosed is an injected laser including an optical amplifying medium arranged inside a triggered laser cavity, the optical amplifying medium having a spectral amplifying band. The injected laser includes an optical phase-modulation device, arranged between the injection source and the laser cavity, the optical phase-modulation device being configured to periodically modulate as a function of time a phase of the monochromatic continuous laser radiation at a modulation frequency equal to a natural integer multiple of the free spectral range of the laser cavity, so that the phase-modulated injection source generates a polychromatic injection radiation.

Ultrastable lasers serve as the backbone for advanced scientific experiments and enable atomic spectroscopy and laser interferometry at high levels of precision. But is not clear how to realize an ultrastable laser that is compact and portable for field use. An ultrastable laser source should be insensitive to both short- and long-term fluctuations in temperature, which ultimately broaden the laser linewidth and cause drift in the laser's center frequency. Fortunately, using a large mode-volume optical resonator, which suppresses the resonator's fast thermal fluctuations, together with the stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) optical nonlinearity presents a powerful combination that enables the ability to lase with an ultra-narrow linewidth of 20 Hz. The laser's long-term temperature drift is compensated by using the narrow Brillouin line to sense minute changes in the resonator's temperature (e.g., changes of 85 nK). The precision of this temperature measurement enables the stabilization of resonators against environmental perturbations.

A method and apparatus for characterizing an optical element. The optical element is part of a laser and is mounted on a translation stage to scan the optical element transverse to an intracavity laser beam. A performance characteristic of the laser is recorded as a function of position of the optical element.

Disclosed is a laser system including a first laser and a second laser. The first laser includes a laser cavity, and a gas phase molecular gain medium disposed in the laser cavity, the gain medium having an absorption band. The second laser is a solid state laser configured to be continuously tunable, with respect to an emission wavelength of the second laser, over the absorption band of the gain medium, and the second laser is tuned to pump rotational vibrational transitions in the gain medium to achieve a rotational population inversion.

A laser system may include a controller configured to direct a plurality of temporally spaced-apart electrical pulses to a device that optically pumps a lasing medium, and a lasing medium configured to output a quasi-continuous laser pulse in response to the optical pumping. The plurality of temporally spaced-apart electrical pulses may include (a) a first electrical pulse configured to excite the lasing medium to an energy level below a lasing threshold of the lasing medium, and (b) multiple second electrical pulses following the first electrical pulse. The quasi-continuous laser pulse is output in response to the multiple second electrical pulses.

A smart spool is configured to be optically coupled between a pumping light source and optical point-loss sources in an optical fiber transmission line. The smart spool comprises a probe signal transmitter that transmits an optical probe signal into the transmission line. An optical detector receives probe signals scattered in the transmission line. A loss-measuring device is coupled to the optical detector and operable to measure aggregate losses in the transmission line and report the aggregate losses to a network manager. The spool comprises a fiber of sufficient length to offset the aggregated losses to enable a distributed Raman amplifier to pump the transmission line. The smart spool prevents the distributed Raman amplifier from shutting down and allows the distributed Raman amplifier to achieve entitled gain by pumping the fiber in the spool.

A supercontinuum radiation source comprises: a radiation source, an optical amplifier and a non-linear optical medium. The radiation source is operable to produce a pulsed radiation beam. The optical amplifier is configured to receive the pulsed radiation beam and increase an intensity of the pulsed radiation beam. The non-linear optical medium is configured to receive the amplified pulsed radiation beam and to broaden its spectrum so as to generate a supercontinuum radiation beam. The optical amplifier may supply a pump radiation beam to a gain medium, an intensity of the pump radiation beam being periodic and having a pump frequency that is an integer multiple of the frequency of the pulsed radiation beam. The optical amplifier may supply pump energy to a gain medium only when the pulses of the pulsed radiation beam propagate through the gain medium.

A laser apparatus includes a heat transfer device having a cooling fin at a temperature lower than that of a heat radiation jacket, and a cooling fan. A controller controls the cooling fan so as to be stopped when temperature detected by a temperature sensor is lower than a temperature reference value and humidity detected by a humidity sensor is higher than a humidity reference value. The controller controls the cooling fan so as to be driven when temperature detected by the temperature sensor is higher than the temperature reference value and humidity detected by the humidity sensor is lower than the humidity reference value.

A laser apparatus includes a plurality of laser modules, and includes a function for preventing a defect arising when switching the number of laser modules to be driven. The laser apparatus includes the plurality of laser modules, a combiner configured to combine laser beams from the plurality of laser modules, an optical output command section configured to generate a first optical output command for a combined laser beam, and a laser module selection/command section configured to select a laser module to be driven from the plurality of laser modules, based on the first optical output command and to generate a second optical output command for each of the laser modules that have been selected. The laser module selection/command section is configured to set a threshold value for a first optical output command to be different between when increasing and reducing the number of laser modules to be driven.

A supercontinuum radiation source comprises: a radiation source, an optical amplifier and a non-linear optical medium. The radiation source is operable to produce a pulsed radiation beam. The optical amplifier is configured to receive the pulsed radiation beam and increase an intensity of the pulsed radiation beam. The non-linear optical medium is configured to receive the amplified pulsed radiation beam and to broaden its spectrum so as to generate a supercontinuum radiation beam. The optical amplifier may supply a pump radiation beam to a gain medium, an intensity of the pump radiation beam being periodic and having a pump frequency that is an integer multiple of the frequency of the pulsed radiation beam. The optical amplifier may supply pump energy to a gain medium only when the pulses of the pulsed radiation beam propagate through the gain medium.