A laser amplification device includes a laser oscillator that includes a first laser active medium including a mixed gas containing carbon dioxide gas and emits pulsed laser light with the full width at half maximum of between 15 ns to 200 ns, and a laser amplifier that includes a second laser active medium including a mixed gas containing carbon dioxide gas through which the pulsed laser light emitted from the laser oscillator passes to be shortened to pulsed laser light with the full width at half maximum of between 5 ns and 30 ns to be output.

The light source contains a gas-filled chamber with a plasma sustained by a focused beam of a continuous wave laser. The means for plasma ignition is a solid-state laser system which generates two pulsed laser beams: in a free running mode and in a Q-switched mode. The solid-state laser system contains single active element and its optical cavity is equipped with a Q-switch overlapping only part of a cross section of the intracavity laser beam. One pulsed laser beam provides an optical breakdown after which another pulsed laser beam ignites the plasma, the volume and density of which are sufficient for stationary sustanance of the plasma by the focused beam of the continuous wave laser. EFFECT: simplification of the design of the light source, increase of its reliability and ease of use, creating on this basis of powerful electrode-free high-brightness broadband light sources with high spatial and energy stability.

The light source contains a gas-filled chamber with a plasma sustained by a focused beam of a continuous wave laser. The means for plasma ignition is a solid-state laser system which generates two pulsed laser beams: in a free running mode and in a Q-switched mode. The solid-state laser system contains single active element and its optical cavity is equipped with a Q-switch overlapping only part of a cross section of the intracavity laser beam. One pulsed laser beam provides an optical breakdown after which another pulsed laser beam ignites the plasma, the volume and density of which are sufficient for stationary sustanance of the plasma by the focused beam of the continuous wave laser. EFFECT: simplification of the design of the light source, increase of its reliability and ease of use, creating on this basis of powerful electrode-free high-brightness broadband light sources with high spatial and energy stability.

Systems and methods are provided for creating a sequence of turn-up processes for amplifiers. A method, according to one implementation, includes determining when a fiber span is initially installed in an optical line system or when an Optical Line Failure (OLF) in the fiber span has recovered. The optical line system includes a first set of amplifiers deployed at an upstream node and a second set of amplifiers deployed at a downstream node, the upstream node connected to the downstream node via the fiber span. In response to determining that the fiber span is initially installed in the optical line system or that an ORL in the fiber span has recovered, the method also includes sending a flag from the upstream node to the downstream node to allow the first set of amplifiers to perform a first turn-up process before the second set of amplifiers perform a second turn-up process.

An optical fiber amplification. system includes: a first optical fiber amplifier including a first optical amplifying fiber including a core portion doped with a first rare-earth. element, a first input unit configured to receive first signal light, an excitation-light source configured to output pump light, a pump light combiner configured to input the pump light to the first optical amplifying fiber, and a residual pump light recovery device configured to recover residual pump light; and a second optical fiber amplifier including a second optical amplifying fiber including a core portion doped with a second rare-earth. element, a second input unit configured to receive second signal light, and a residual pump light combiner configured to input, to the second optical amplifying fiber, the residual pump light recovered by the residual pump light recovery device.

A light source apparatus (200) includes a gas discharge stage (210) and a metal fluoride trap (300). The gas discharge stage includes an optical amplifier (206) and a set of optical elements (250, 260). The optical amplifier includes a chamber (211) configured to hold a gas discharge medium (213), the gas discharge medium outputting a light beam. The set of optical elements is configured to form an optical resonator around the optical amplifier. The metal fluoride trap is configured to trap metal fluoride dust generated from the gas discharge stage. The metal fluoride trap includes an electrostatic precipitator (320) and a packed-bed filter (400, 402, 404) disposed around the electrostatic precipitator. The packed-bed filter includes a plurality of beads configured (406, 408) to absorb metal fluoride dust (208).

An apparatus may include a diode-pumped solid-state laser oscillator configured to output a pulsed laser beam, a modulator configured to modify an energy and a temporal profile of the pulsed laser beam, and an amplifier configured to amplify an energy of the pulse laser beam. A modified and amplified beam to laser peen a target part may have an energy of about 5J to about 10 J, an average power (defined as energy (J) x frequency (Hz)) of from about 25 W to about 200 W, with a flattop beam uniformity of less than about 0.2. The diode-pumped solid-state oscillator may be configured to output a beam having both a single longitudinal mode and a single transverse mode, and to produce and output beams at a frequency of about 20 Hz.

The laser system may include a delay circuit unit, first and second trigger-correction units, and a clock generator. The delay circuit unit may receive a trigger signal, output a first delay signal obtained by delaying the trigger signal by a first delay time, and output a second delay signal obtained by delaying the trigger signal by a second delay time. The first trigger-correction unit may receive the first delay signal and output a first switch signal obtained by delaying the first delay signal by a first correction time. The second trigger-correction unit may receive the second delay signal and output a second switch signal obtained by delaying the second delay signal by a second correction time. The clock generator may generate a clock signal that is common to the delay circuit unit and the first and second trigger-correction units.

A system includes a master oscillator configured to generate a low-power optical beam. The system also includes a planar waveguide (PWG) amplifier configured to receive the low-power optical beam and generate a high-power optical beam having a power of at least about ten kilowatts. The PWG amplifier includes a single laser gain medium configured to generate the high-power optical beam. The single laser gain medium can reside within a single amplifier beamline of the system. The master oscillator and the PWG amplifier can be coupled to an optical bench assembly, and the optical bench assembly can include optics configured to route the low-power optical beam to the PWG amplifier and to route the high-power optical beam from the PWG amplifier. The PWG amplifier could include a cartridge that contains the single laser gain medium and a pumphead housing that retains the cartridge.

A laser irradiation method of irradiating, with a pulse laser beam, an irradiation object in which an impurity source film is formed on a semiconductor substrate includes: reading fluence per pulse of the pulse laser beam with which a rectangular irradiation region set on the irradiation object is irradiated and the number of irradiation pulses the irradiation region is irradiated, the fluence being equal to or larger than a threshold at or beyond which ablation potentially occurs to the impurity source film when the irradiation object is irradiated with pulses of the pulse laser beam in the irradiation pulse number and smaller than a threshold at or beyond which damage potentially occurs to the surface of the semiconductor substrate; calculating a scanning speed Vdx; and moving the irradiation object at the scanning speed Vdx relative to the irradiation region while irradiating the irradiation region with the pulse laser beam at the repetition frequency f.