Abstract
An introduction to the principle of SESAM and parameters such as saturation fluence, relaxation time, TPA-related effects and surface quality both before and after mounting is given inSect. 4.1. A table summarizing the different SESAMs used in this work is also presented there. Section4.2 describes thermal effects in dispersive mirrors, which are also crucial for the oscillator performance. This is followed by brief technical comments on the laser design. Experimental results and simulations are presented in Sect. 4.4. They show good agreement when TPA effects are included in the theoretical model. The SESAM damage issues are also discussed there. The chapter closes with concluding comments.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
It is interesting to compare this with a standard high-reflective dielectric mirror used inside the oscillator. Such a mirror typically consists of \(SiO_2/Ta_2O_5\) layers , in which case just 15 alternating pairs are enough to provide a reflectivity over 99.9 %.
- 2.
Defined at 1/e of reflectivity drop.
- 3.
Measurements of dynamic SESAM reflectivity and time response were made by Farina Schättiger and Dominik Bauer [16].
- 4.
The exact value is not available.
- 5.
The growing part in Fig. 4.2 can be caused by the scattered light at high incident fluences.
- 6.
This is Epo-Tek EK 1000 from Epoxy Technology.
- 7.
The measurements in Fig. 4.6 were done by Mikhail Larionov.
- 8.
More systematic investigation of the surface of epoxy-mounted chips was not performed.
- 9.
The measurements in Fig. 4.7 were done by Dominik Bauer.
- 10.
\(\lambda \) is 1000 nm
- 11.
High-quality Layertec mirrors for instance.
- 12.
Sometimes the term self-Q-switching also means passive Q-switching.
- 13.
By Vladimir Kalashnikov.
- 14.
The calculations were done by Vladimir Kalashnikov.
References
M. Islam, E. Sunderman, C. Soccolich, I. Bar-Joseph, N. Sauer, T. Chang, B. Miller, Color center lasers passively mode locked by quantum wells. IEEE J. Quantum Electron. (1989)
A.F. Gibson, M.F. Kimmitt, B. Norris, Generation of bandwidth-limited pulses from a TEA CO\(_2\) laser using p-type germanium. Appl. Phys. Lett. 24(7), 306–307 (1974)
C.L. Cesar, M.N. Islam, C.E. Soccolich, R.D. Feldman, R.F. Austin, K.R. German, Femtosecond KCl:Li and RbCl:Li color-center lasers near 2.8 \(\mu \)m with a HgCdTe multiple-quantum-well saturable absorber. Opt. Lett. 15(20), 1147–1149 (1990)
C.E. Soccolich, M.N. Islam, M.G. Young, B.I. Miller, Bulk semiconductor saturable absorber for a NaCl color center laser. Appl. Phys. Lett. 56(22), 2177–2179 (1990)
U. Keller, W. Knox, G. ’tHooft, Ultrafast solid-state mode-locked lasers using resonant nonlinearities. IEEE J. Quantum Electron. 28(10), 2123–2133 (1992)
U. Keller, K. Weingarten, F. Kärtner, D. Kopf, B. Braun, I. Jung, R. Fluck, C. Honninger, N. Matuschek, J. Aus der Au, Semiconductor saturable absorber mirrors (SESAM’s) for femtosecond to nanosecond pulse generation in solid-state lasers. IEEE J. Quantum Electron. 2(3), 435–453 (1996)
U. Keller, D.A.B. Miller, G.D. Boyd, T.H. Chiu, J.F. Ferguson, M.T. Asom, Solid-state low-loss intracavity saturable absorber for Nd:YLF lasers: an antiresonant semiconductor Fabry-Perot saturable absorber. Opt. Lett. 17(7), 505–507 (1992)
J.A. der Au, G.J. Spühler, T. Südmeyer, R. Paschotta, R. Hövel, M. Moser, S. Erhard, M. Karszewski, A. Giesen, U. Keller, 16.2-W average power from a diode-pumped femtosecond Yb:YAG thin disk laser. Opt. Lett. 25(11), 859–861 (2000)
B.C. Collings, J.B. Stark, S. Tsuda, W.H. Knox, J.E. Cunningham, W.Y. Jan, R. Pathak, K. Bergman, Saturable Bragg reflector self-starting passive mode locking of a Cr\(^{4+}\):YAG laser pumped with a diode-pumped Nd:YVO\(_4\) laser. Opt. Lett. 21(15), 1171–1173 (1996)
L. Brovelli, I. Jung, D. Kopf, M. Kamp, M. Moser, F. Kärtner, U. Keller, Self-starting soliton modelocked Ti-sapphire laser using a thin semiconductor saturable absorber. Electron. Lett. 31(4), 287–289 (1995)
S.V. Marchese, C.R. Baer, A.G. Engqvist, S. Hashimoto, D.J. Maas, M. Golling, T. Südmeyer, U. Keller, Femtosecond thin disk laser oscillator with pulse energy beyond the 10-microjoule level. Opt. Express 16(9), 6397–6407 (2008)
M.J. Lederer, V. Kolev, B. Luther-Davies, H.H. Tan, C. Jagadish, Ion-implanted InGaAs single quantum well semiconductor saturable absorber mirrors for passive mode-locking. J. Phys. D 34(16), 2455 (2001)
M. Lambsdorff, J. Kuhl, J. Rosenzweig, A. Axmann, J. Schneider, Subpicosecond carrier lifetimes in radiation-damaged GaAs. Appl. Phys. Lett. 58(17), 1881–1883 (1991)
M.J. Lederer, B. Luther-Davies, H.H. Tan, C. Jagadish, M. Haiml, U. Siegner, U. Keller, Nonlinear optical absorption and temporal response of arsenic- and oxygen-implanted GaAs. Appl. Phys. Lett. 74(14), 1993–1995 (1999)
E.S. Harmon, M.R. Melloch, J.M. Woodall, D.D. Nolte, N. Otsuka, C.L. Chang, Carrier lifetime versus anneal in low temperature growth GaAs. Appl. Phys. Lett. 63(16), 2248–2250 (1993)
F. Schättiger, D. Bauer, J. Demsar, T. Dekorsy, J. Kleinbauer, D. Sutter, J. Puustinen, M. Guina, Characterization of InGaAs and InGaAsN semiconductor saturable absorber mirrors for high-power mode-locked thin-disk lasers. Appl. Phys. B 106, 605–612 (2012)
M. Haiml, R. Grange, U. Keller, Optical characterization of semiconductor saturable absorbers. Appl. Phys. B 79, 331–339 (2004)
A. Saïssy, A. Azema, J. Botineau, F. Gires, Absolute measurement of the 1.06 \(\upmu \)m two-photon absorption coefficient in GaAs. Appl. Phys. A 15, 99–102 (1978)
C.J. Saraceno, O.H. Heckl, C.R.E. Baer, M. Golling, T. Südmeyer, K. Beil, C. Kränkel, K. Petermann, G. Huber, U. Keller, Sesams for high-power femtosecond modelocking: power scaling of an Yb:LuScO\(_3\) thin disk laser to 23 W and 235 fs. Opt. Express 19(21), 20288–20300 (2011)
C.J. Saraceno, C. Schriber, M. Mangold, M. Hoffmann, O.H. Heckl, C.R.E. Baer, M. Golling, T. Südmeyer, U. Keller, Sesams for high-power oscillators: design guidelines and damage thresholds. IEEE J. Quantum Electron. 18, 29–41 (2012)
E.R. Thoen, E.M. Koontz, M. Joschko, P. Langlois, T.R. Schibli, F.X. Kärtner, E.P. Ippen, L.A. Kolodziejski, Two-photon absorption in semiconductor saturable absorber mirrors. Appl. Phys. Let. 74(26), 3927–3929 (1999)
R. Grange, M. Haiml, R. Paschotta, G. Spühler, L. Krainer, M. Golling, O. Ostinelli, U. Keller, New regime of inverse saturable absorption for self-stabilizing passively mode-locked lasers. Appl. Phys. B 80, 151–158 (2005)
M. Larionov, Kontaktierung und Charakterisierung von Kristallen für Scheibenlaser (Herbert Utz Verlag, München, 2009)
J. Neuhaus, Passively mode-locked Yb:YAG thin-disk laser with active multipass geometry. PhD thesis, University Konstanz (2009)
V. Magni, Multielement stable resonators containing a variable lens. J. Opt. Soc. Am. A 4(10), 1962–1969 (1987)
V. Pervak, O. Pronin, O. Razskazovskaya, J. Brons, I.B. Angelov, M.K. Trubetskov, A.V. Tikhonravov, F. Krausz, High-dispersive mirrors for high power applications. Opt. Express 20(4), 4503–4508 (2012)
V. Pervak, C. Teisset, A. Sugita, S. Naumov, F. Krausz, A. Apolonski, High-dispersive mirrors for femtosecond lasers. Opt. Express 16(14), 10220–10233 (2008)
H. Stoehr, N. Rehbein, A. Douillet, J. Friebe, J. Keupp, T. Mehlstäubler, H. Wolff, E. Rasel, W. Ertmer, J. Gao, A. Giesen, Frequency-stabilized Nd:YVO4 thin-disk laser. Appl. Phys. B 91(1), 29–33 (2008)
C. Teisset, Few-cycle high-repetition-rate optical parametric amplifiers and their synchronisation schemes. PhD thesis, TU Berlin.
H. Fattahi, C.Y. Teisset, O. Pronin, A. Sugita, R. Graf, V. Pervak, X. Gu, T. Metzger, Z. Major, F. Krausz, A. Apolonski, Pump-seed synchronization for MHz repetition rate, high-power optical parametric chirped pulse amplification. Opt. Express 20(9), 9833–9840 (2012)
T. Udem, R. Holzwarth, T.W. Hänsch, Optical frequency metrology. Nature 416, 233–237 (2002)
O. Pronin, J. Brons, C. Grasse, V. Pervak, G. Boehm, M.-C. Amann, V.L. Kalashnikov, A. Apolonski, F. Krausz, High-power 200 fs Kerr-lens mode-locked Yb:YAG thin-disk oscillator. Opt. Lett. 36(24), 4746–4748 (2011)
V.L.Kalashnikov, Solid State Lasers, Chirped-pulse oscillators: Route to the energy-scalable femtosecond pulses pp. 145–184. InTech, (2012) http://www.intechopen.com/books/solid-state-laser/chirped-pulse-oscillators-a-route-to-the-energy-scalable-femtosecond-pulses
D.H. Sutter, G. Steinmeyer, L. Gallmann, N. Matuschek, F. Morier-Genoud, U. Keller, V. Scheuer, G. Angelow, T. Tschudi, Semiconductor saturable-absorber mirror assisted Kerr-lens mode-locked Ti:sapphire laser producing pulses in the two-cycle regime. Opt. Lett. 24(9), 631–633 (1999)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2014 Springer International Publishing Switzerland
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Pronin, O. (2014). SESAM Mode-Locked Thin-Disk Oscillator. In: Towards a Compact Thin-Disk-Based Femtosecond XUV Source. Springer Theses. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-01511-8_4
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-01511-8_4
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-01510-1
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-01511-8
eBook Packages: Physics and AstronomyPhysics and Astronomy (R0)