A laser system comprising two phase-locked solid-state laser sources is described. The laser system can be phase-locked at a predetermined offset between the operating frequencies of the lasers. This is achieved with high precision while exhibiting both low noise and high agility around the predetermined offset frequency. A pulse generator can be employed to generate a series of optical pulses from the laser system, the number, duration and shape of which can all be selected by a user. A phase-lock feedback loop provides a means for predetermined frequency chirps and phase shifts to be introduced throughout a sequence of generated pulses. The laser system can be made highly automated. The above features render the laser system ideally suited for use within coherent control two-state quantum systems, for example atomic interferometry, gyroscopes, precision gravimeters gravity gradiometers and quantum information processing and in particular the generation and control of quantum bits.

To solve the problem that the power consumption of optical amplifiers is not optimized over the life time of an amplifier, the optical amplifier includes a gain medium for amplifying a plurality of optical channels, the gain medium including a plurality of cores through which the plurality of optical channels to propagate respectively and a cladding area surrounding the plurality of cores, a monitor that monitors the temperature of the optical amplifier and producing a monitoring result, a first light source that emits a first light beam to excite the cladding area, a second light source that emits a plurality of second light beams to excite each of the plurality of cores individually, and a controller that controls the first light source and the second light source based on the produced monitoring result.

Provided are a method and system for controlling a Raman fiber amplifier. The method comprises: according to a target gain and a tilt, calculating an expected output power of a pump by using a feedforward formula, and obtaining an actual output power of the pump through detection (201); locking the actual output power of the pump to the expected output power through first-stage feedback control (202); according to the target gain and the tilt, calculating an expected ASE power of the pump by using an ASE formula, and obtaining an actual out-of-band ASE power of the pump through detection (203); if the out-of-band ASE is not locked, determining gain compensation and tilt compensation of the pump through second-stage feedback control, and feeding the compensation back to the feedforward formula and the ASE formula for recalculation (204); and repeatedly performing the first-stage feedback control and the second-stage feedback control until the gain and the tilt are locked (205). In the system, a combination of feedforward and multi-closed loop feedback control is used to realize rapid locking of a pump power and locking of the gain and the tilt compensation, which improves the control precision of the gain and the tilt and accelerates a response speed.

A figure-8 laser is configured in which gain in the uni-directional loop can be removed while maintaining mode-locked operation with gain only in the bi-directional nonlinear amplifying loop. Simplified self-starting and control over pulse characteristics by controlling gain in the bi-directional loop is made possible.

A high-voltage pulse generation device configured to apply a pulsed high voltage to the space between a pair of discharge electrodes disposed in a laser chamber of a gas laser apparatus includes n transformer cores that form a transformer, where n is a natural number greater than or equal to two, n primary electric circuits of the transformer, the n primary electric circuits each having a first terminal connected to a reference potential and a second terminal connected to a charger, the n primary electric circuits each including one or more primary coils, one or more diodes connected in parallel to the one or more primary coils, and one or more pulse generators connected in parallel to the one or more primary coils, and a secondary electric circuit of the transformer, the secondary electric circuit including a secondary coil and connected to the pair of discharge electrodes.

A high voltage pulse generation device includes n transformer cores configuring a transformer, n being a natural number of 2 or more, each of the n transformer cores being configured to form a magnetic circuit along a first plane and to have a width in a first direction parallel to the first plane larger than a width in a second direction parallel to the first plane and perpendicular to the first direction; n primary electric circuits of the transformer connected in parallel to each other, each of the n primary electric circuits including at least one primary coil, and m pulse generation units connected in parallel to the at least one primary coil, m being a natural number equal to or more than 2; and a secondary electric circuit of the transformer including a secondary coil and connected to a pair of discharge electrodes.

Systems and methods for ring laser gyroscopes (RLGs) are provided. An RLG includes a traveling-wave resonator cavity with three or more mirrors and a gain medium positioned in the traveling-wave resonator cavity between two of the three or more mirrors. The gain medium is a solid-state gain medium or a nonlinear optical medium. The RLG further includes a first pump laser and a second pump laser to pump the gain medium in different directions and generate first and second lasing signals that traverse the traveling-wave resonator cavity in a opposite directions. The RLG further includes first and second photodetectors to measure levels of the first and second lasing signals. The RLG further includes at least one processor configured to adjust a power level of the first pump laser and/or a power level of the second pump laser based on the measured power levels of the first and second lasing signals.

The invention relates to a supercontinuum light source comprising a microstructured optical fiber and a pump light source. The microstructured optical fiber comprises a core and a cladding region surrounding the core, as well as a first fiber length section, a second fiber length section and an intermediate fiber length section between said first and second fiber length sections. The first fiber length section comprises a core with a first characteristic core diameter. The second fiber length section comprises a core with a second characteristic core diameter, smaller than said first characteristic core diameter, where said second characteristic core diameter is substantially constant along said second fiber length section. The intermediate length section of the optical fiber comprises a core which is tapered from said first characteristic core diameter to said second characteristic core diameter over a tapered length.

A pluggable bidirectional optical amplifier module may include preamp and booster optical amplifiers and a housing. The preamp optical amplifier may be configured to amplify optical signals traveling in a first direction. The booster optical amplifier may be configured to amplify optical signals traveling in a second direction. The housing may at least partially enclose the preamp optical amplifier and the booster optical amplifier. The pluggable bidirectional optical amplifier module may have a mechanical form factor that is compliant with a pluggable communication module form factor MSA. A colorless mux/demux cable assembly may be operated with the pluggable bidirectional optical amplifier. The colorless mux/demux cable assembly may include a 1:N optical splitter a N:1 optical combiner coupled side-by-side to the 1:N optical splitter, a first fiber optic cable optic cable, and a second fiber optic cable.

Apparatuses and methods are disclosed for applying laser energy having desired pulse characteristics, including a sufficiently short duration and/or a sufficiently high energy for the photomechanical treatment of skin pigmentations and pigmented lesions, both naturally-occurring (e.g., birthmarks), as well as artificial (e.g., tattoos). The laser energy may be generated with an apparatus having a resonator with a sub-nanosecond round trip time.