Short Pulse Mid IR Lasers and Amplifiers via Direct Inscription of Waveguide Devices in ZnSe
Abstract
Over the past two years a great amount of work has been done in this material resulting in the development of the first CW Ho3+:YAG waveguide laser with both multimode and single mode capabilities. These results were published in Applied Optics in April 2017. Furthermore, the first GHz repetition rate Ho3+:YAG laser ever was demonstrated using a waveguide set-up with graphene as a saturable absorber. The GHz pulses were emitted under a q-switch. These results were presented at CLEO 2017 and so published in the online journal and in turn they have been published in Optics Express in October 2017. The results are promising for modelocking HIP treated CrZnSe for the generation of short pulses. We believe that the choice of saturable will be paramount to doing this and so have 3 a major solutions to try. The first is simply to try a SESAM with better parameters which may be more suitable for this and also to include some dispersion compensation in the cavity. Initially, a new SESAM is going to be used to first establish pulsing ideally in the ps range, and then dispersion compensation to further shorten the pulses will be tried using methods such as; a prism pair, sapphire slab or other appropriate material. We will also attempt to cool the laser crystal and are at present in the process of designing a suitable Peltier cooling system. Another saturable asbsorber we plan to use is Graphene.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- May 13, 2019
- Accession Number
- AD1077575
Entities
People
- Ajoy K. Kar
- F. Thorburn
Organizations
- Heriot-Watt University