Novel, Middle and Long Wave Infrared Laser Sources For Accelerator Applications
Technical Report
·
OSTI ID:2482053
- Univ. of Alabama, Birmingham, AL (United States)
- Univ. of California, Los Angeles, CA (United States)
The main accomplishment during Years 2020-2024 of the DOE Accelerator Stewardship Program is proof-of-principle demonstration of amplification of an ultrashort 10 µm seed pulse in a multiatmosphere CO2 laser optically pumped by nanosecond pulses of either a ~4.3 µm Fe:ZnSe laser or a 2.8 µm electro-optically (EO) Q-switched Er: Laser. This has been accomplished at the UCLA Neptune Laboratory by using about 100 mJ, ~100 ns long pulses generated by the pump laser built for this purpose by the UAB team. Implementation of EO Q-switching regime in the solid-state Er:laser system made possible nanosecond synchronization between the pump pulse and the 0.5 ps seed pulse produced by a commercial Ti:sapphire laser based mid-IR OPA/DFG. The injection mode-locking regime realized in a compact Mult atmosphere 3 Hz CO2-He regenerative amplifier enabled generation of a train of ultrashort pulses separated by the cavity round-trip time of ~3.2 ns. The measured gain lifetime of ~1 µs at a total pressure of ~12-15 atm indicates that lifetime of the upper laser level is a critical limiting factor in designing high-pressure CO2 amplifiers. A single picosecond 10 mm pulse with an energy 0.1-0.2 mJ was extracted from the amplifier’s cavity using an ultrafast Ge semiconductor switch whose reflectivity was photo-induced by a femtosecond 800 nm pulse. For direct amplification regime, nonlinear absorption in Ge at 10 mm at GW/cm2 intensities limited the extracted energy. Therefore, the generated energy could be further increased by minimizing losses in the switch and optimizing the cavity mode size. Based on the obtained data in collaboration with BNL colleagues, we have designed a high-pressure CO2 amplifier to be used as a preamplifier for the future experiments at the ATF BNL. The latter work is the subject of funding availability.
- Research Organization:
- Univ. of Alabama, Birmingham, AL (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE
- Contributing Organization:
- Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), Upton, NY (United States)
- DOE Contract Number:
- SC0018378
- OSTI ID:
- 2482053
- Report Number(s):
- Final-report-DE--SC0018378
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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