Effect of bandwidth on beam smoothing and frequency conversion at the third harmonic of the Nova laser
We present the results of experiments performed on the Nova laser system to determine the effect of bandwidth on third harmonic (3{omega}) frequency conversion and beam smoothing by spectral dispersion (SSD). Our experiments utilized a wide bandwidth fiber optic cross-phase modulated (XPM) source and a narrower bandwidth microwave modulated (FM) source, each centered at 1053 nm (1{omega}). The FM source produced {approximately}2 cm{sup {minus}1} of bandwidth, modulated at 3 GHz; the XPM bandwidth was varied from 5 to 15 cm{sup {minus}1}, modulated by the temporally noisy output of a multimode Nd:glass laser ({le} 500 GHz). The FM beam showed no evidence of self-phase modulation in the laser chain produced by intensity fluctuations, and 1{omega} bandwidth was tripled upon conversion to 3{omega} (2--6 cm{sup {minus}1}). The 1{omega} XPM bandwidth increased by {ge} 25% due to self-phase modulation in the laser chain (16--22 cm{sup {minus}1}) due to it`s relative noisy temporal structure. Over 50% of the 1{omega} XPM bandwidth was transferred to the 3{omega} beam (22--36 cm{sup {minus}1}), yielding 0.13% bandwidth at 3{omega}. The maximum intrinsic narrowband 3{omega} frequency conversion obtained using a type-II/type-II KDP crystal array was 62%. The intrinsic efficiency obtained at the Nova 10-beam chamber is typically > 65%. We have developed broadband frequency conversion codes and broadband pulse simulations to model our results, and have obtained good agreement with experiment. Using a random phase plate without bandwidth, we obtained a smoothing level, {sigma}/I {approximately} 0.79, defined by the rms variance normalized with respect to the average intensity. This is less than the theoretically expected value of 1 for an ideal speckle pattern, and could be evidence of polarization smoothing as a result of focus lens birefringence. With spectral dispersion and RPP we demonstrated an excellent level of smoothing with the XPM source.
- Research Organization:
- Lawrence Livermore National Lab., CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
- DOE Contract Number:
- W-7405-ENG-48
- OSTI ID:
- 10183195
- Report Number(s):
- UCRL-JC-111593; CONF-930159-56; ON: DE93019917
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: OE/LASE `93: International Society for Optical Engineering (SPIE) conference,Los Angeles, CA (United States),13-23 Jan 1993; Other Information: PBD: May 1993
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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