Ultrafast Lasers: Science and Applications

A special issue of Photonics (ISSN 2304-6732).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 January 2023) | Viewed by 8701

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
Faculty of Physics, Lomonosov Moscow State University, 119991 Moscow, Russia
Interests: nonlinear optics; femtosecond lasers; optical parametric amplifiers; mid-IR; strong field physics; high harmonic generation

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Creation of the first femtosecond mode-locked laser in 1990 has opened up an explosion of scientific and industrial innovations which make ultrafast lasers an essential technology in many fields of science beyond the pale of physics, including biology, chemistry, medicine, communication, defense, and security. The emergence of practical applications has greatly accelerated the development of ultrafast lasers of many kinds. The recent advances in this field have pushed peak output power up to a multi-PW level, the pulse duration into a single cycle limit, crossing the 1 fs milestone, and extended the operation wavelength from extreme UV through near- and mid-IR to THz spectral region. The great progress is backed by the development of novel gain crystals, ceramics and fibers, broadband saturable absorbers, spatial light modulators and pulse shapers, radiation resistant ultrafast coatings, as well as efficient pumping architectures, pulse compression, and wavelength conversion techniques.

This Special Issue will highlight the most recent progress in ultrafast lasers, from new technologies to applications. It will also provide a better understanding on the state-of-the-art technologies, discuss current difficulties in ultrafast pulse generation and inspire new ideas for its applications in ultrafast science.

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • Advances in femtosecond pulse generation from solid state and fiber sources: novel lasers and amplifiers;
  • Ultrashort-pulse semiconductor lasers;
  • Wavelength tuning techniques and tunable lasers including ultrafast parametric amplifiers, parametric chirped pulse amplifiers, Raman lasers;
  • Pulse compression and shaping;
  • Ultrafast optoelectronic systems and devices;
  • Advanced laser architectures including hybrid systems;
  • High-power and high-energy lasers for large-scale facilities.

Dr. Ekaterina A. Migal
Guest Editor

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Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

6 pages, 5566 KiB  
Communication
Ultrabroadband OPA in YCOB with a sub-ps Pump Source
by Hugo Pires, Joana Alves, Victor Hariton, Mario Galletti, Celso João and Gonçalo Figueira
Photonics 2023, 10(3), 253; https://doi.org/10.3390/photonics10030253 - 28 Feb 2023
Viewed by 1792
Abstract
We demonstrate the broadband optical parametric amplification of near-infrared laser pulses using a single yttrium calcium oxyborate (YCOB) crystal pumped in a noncollinear geometry by a sub-picosecond, milijoule-level source. The crystal uses an optimized orientation for phase matching outside of the principal planes, [...] Read more.
We demonstrate the broadband optical parametric amplification of near-infrared laser pulses using a single yttrium calcium oxyborate (YCOB) crystal pumped in a noncollinear geometry by a sub-picosecond, milijoule-level source. The crystal uses an optimized orientation for phase matching outside of the principal planes, enabling ultrabroadband amplification (gain of ∼800) in the range of 750–950 nm and supporting down to 7 fs pulses. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Ultrafast Lasers: Science and Applications)
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8 pages, 12673 KiB  
Communication
Experimental Demonstration of Attoseconds-at-Harmonics at the SASE3 Undulator of the European XFEL
by Andrei Trebushinin, Gianluca Geloni, Svitozar Serkez, Giuseppe Mercurio, Natalia Gerasimova, Theophilos Maltezopoulos, Marc Guetg and Evgeny Schneidmiller
Photonics 2023, 10(2), 131; https://doi.org/10.3390/photonics10020131 - 27 Jan 2023
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1900
Abstract
We report on observations of single spike spectra (3–13% of events) upon employing a previously proposed method for single spike generation via harmonic conversion. The method was tested at the soft X-ray SASE3 undulator of the European XFEL. The first part of the [...] Read more.
We report on observations of single spike spectra (3–13% of events) upon employing a previously proposed method for single spike generation via harmonic conversion. The method was tested at the soft X-ray SASE3 undulator of the European XFEL. The first part of the undulator allows one to amplify bunching at the fundamental as well as the higher harmonics. The downstream undulator is tuned to a harmonic, the fourth in our case, to amplify pulses with a shorter duration. We estimate the generated pulse duration within such a subset of short pulses at a level of 650 as. Considering the demonstrated probability of single spike events, this method is attractive for high repetition-rate free electron lasers. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Ultrafast Lasers: Science and Applications)
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13 pages, 9502 KiB  
Article
Noise Measurements and Noise Statistical Properties Investigations in a Stimulated Raman Scattering Microscope Based on Three Femtoseconds Laser Sources
by Rajeev Ranjan, Giovanni Costa, Maria Antonietta Ferrara, Mario Sansone and Luigi Sirleto
Photonics 2022, 9(12), 910; https://doi.org/10.3390/photonics9120910 - 28 Nov 2022
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1374
Abstract
To induce a Raman-active transition in a material, stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) spectroscopy/microscopy implementations typically rely on two pulsed laser sources. One of their limitations is that not all of the regions of Raman spectra can be investigated, so only some applications can [...] Read more.
To induce a Raman-active transition in a material, stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) spectroscopy/microscopy implementations typically rely on two pulsed laser sources. One of their limitations is that not all of the regions of Raman spectra can be investigated, so only some applications can be exploited. In this paper, the noise characterizations of a stimulated Raman scattering spectroscopy/microscopy implementation, based on the insertion of a third pulsed laser source, are provided. The merit of this system is that it is able to explore the large variety of SRS applications. In order to characterize our system, an investigation of different kinds of noises due to the laser sources and electronics sources was carried out. Firstly, the relative intensity noises of three femtosecond laser sources were measured. Secondly, noise characterizations of the detection system were carried out and our findings prove that our SRS microscope is shot noise-limited, demonstrating that the third laser source introduction is well suited and satisfies our purpose. Finally, the statistical properties of the overall image noises are analyzed and discussed. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Ultrafast Lasers: Science and Applications)
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18 pages, 6970 KiB  
Article
First Principles Study and Experimental Investigation of Graphene-Molybdenum Disulphide Nanocomposites Based Passive Saturable Absorber
by Siti Nabilah Mohd Halim, Fauzan Ahmad, Muhammad Quisar Lokman, Husni Hani Jameela Sapingi, Mohamad Fariz Mohamad Taib, Wan Mohd Fazli Wan Nawawi, Hafizal Yahaya, Mohd Azizi Abdul Rahman, Suhaidi Shafie and Sulaiman Wadi Harun
Photonics 2022, 9(10), 704; https://doi.org/10.3390/photonics9100704 - 28 Sep 2022
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1535
Abstract
Research on hybrid graphene with other two-dimensional materials has gained considerable attention owing to their potential applications beyond single components. Through our first principles analysis via density functional theory, graphene-molybdenum disulphide (MoS2) demonstrated a band gap opening by 2 meV, from [...] Read more.
Research on hybrid graphene with other two-dimensional materials has gained considerable attention owing to their potential applications beyond single components. Through our first principles analysis via density functional theory, graphene-molybdenum disulphide (MoS2) demonstrated a band gap opening by 2 meV, from gapless graphene when MoS2 layer is introduced into the structure. The simulated graphene-MoS2 has a direct band gap situated at K point of Brillouin zone with preserved Dirac properties of graphene. The experimental studies on graphene-MoS2 also have been performed by preparing graphene-MoS2-chitin nanocomposite through facile liquid-phase exfoliation method. Apart from energy gap using Tauc relation, the physical morphology and nonlinear properties of the material were systematically characterized. Graphene-MoS2-chitin exhibits a modulation depth of 10.5%, which is lower than individual graphene but higher than individual MoS2. Further investigation on the material’s performance was done by integrating the fabricated film into Erbium-doped fiber laser. Stable nanosecond pulse laser operation was realized with graphene-MoS2-chitin hybrid saturable absorber. The pulse width was measured to be 156.4 ns with repetition rate of 1.89 MHz, corresponding to a peak power of 56.13 mW and pulse energy of 8.78 nJ. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Ultrafast Lasers: Science and Applications)
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11 pages, 3017 KiB  
Article
Ultralow Noise and Timing Jitter Semiconductor Quantum-Dot Passively Mode-Locked Laser for Terabit/s Optical Networks
by Youxin Mao, Guocheng Liu, Khan Zeb, Zhenguo Lu, Jiaren Liu, Philip J. Poole, Chun-Ying Song and Pedro Barrios
Photonics 2022, 9(10), 695; https://doi.org/10.3390/photonics9100695 - 27 Sep 2022
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 1516
Abstract
Diode optical frequency comb lasers are promising compact solutions to generate high-speed optical pulses for applications in high spectral efficiency wavelength division multiplexing transmission with advanced modulation formats. In this paper, an InAs/InP quantum dot (QDot) C-band single-section passively mode-locked laser (MLL) [...] Read more.
Diode optical frequency comb lasers are promising compact solutions to generate high-speed optical pulses for applications in high spectral efficiency wavelength division multiplexing transmission with advanced modulation formats. In this paper, an InAs/InP quantum dot (QDot) C-band single-section passively mode-locked laser (MLL) based broadband optical frequency comb source with a free spectral range of 28.4 GHz is presented. The device exhibits less than 1.5 MHz optical linewidth (phase noise) over 56 channels and 2.1 fs pulse-to-pulse timing jitter with a central wavelength of 1550 nm. Using this comb, we demonstrate an aggregate data transmission capacity of 12.5 Terabit/s over 100 km of standard single mode fiber by employing dual-polarization with 16 QAM modulation format. This investigation shows the viability for semiconductor QDot MLLs to be used as low-cost optical source in Terabit/s or higher optical networks. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Ultrafast Lasers: Science and Applications)
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