Assessment of the Link Between Environmental Exposure and Type-1 Diabetes Induction

This talk was given during the Southeastern Society of Toxicology Annual Meeting

Basic considerations on coherent combining of ultrafast CPA amplifiers

Coherent combining of ultra short pulses is a novel approach to scale the performance of laser systems. We report on the impact that effects such as dispersion and SPM have on the combining efficiency

The impact of spectral modulations of the contrast of pulses of nonlinear chirped-pulse amplification systems

A detrimental pulse distortion mechanism inherent to nonlinear chirped-pulse amplification systems is revealed and analyzed. When seeding the nonlinear amplification stage with pulses possessing weak side-pulses, the Kerr-nonlinearity causes a transfer of energy from the main pulse to side pulses. The resulting decrease in pulse contrast is determined by the accumulated nonlinear phase-shift (i.e., the B-integral) and the initial pulse-contrast. The energy transfer can be described by Bessel-functions. Thus, applications relying on a high pulse-contrast demand a low B-integral of the amplification system and a master-oscillator that exhibits an excellent pulse-contrast. In particular, nonlinear fiber CPA-systems operated at B-integrals far beyond p have to be revised in this context

Decrease of pulse-contrast in nonlinear chirped-pulse amplification systems due to high-frequency spectral phase ripples

It is analytically shown that weak initial spectral phase modulations cause a pulse-contrast degradation at the output of nonlinear chirped-pulse amplification systems. The Kerr-nonlinearity causes an energy-transfer from the main pulse to side-pulses during nonlinear amplification. The relative intensities of these side-pulses can be described in terms of Bessel-functions. It is shown that the intensities of the pulses are dependent on the magnitude of the accumulated nonlinear phase-shift (i.e., the B-integral), the depth and period of the initial spectral phase-modulation and the slope of the linear stretching chirp. The results are applicable to any type of laser amplifier that is based on the technique of chirped-pulse amplification. The analytical results presented in this paper are of particular importance for high peak-power laser applications requiring high pulse-contrasts, e. g. high field physics

88 W 0.5 mJ femtosecond laser pulses from two coherently combined fiber amplifiers

The generation of 0.5 mJ femtosecond laser pulses by coherent combining of two high power high energy fiber chirped-pulse amplifiers is reported. The system is running at a repetition frequency of 175 kHz producing 88 W of average power after the compressor unit. Polarizing beam splitters have been used to realize an amplifying Mach-Zehnder interferometer, which has been stabilized with a Hänsch-Couillaud measurement system. The stabilized system possesses a measured residual rms phase difference fluctuation between the two branches as low as ?/70 rad at the maximum power level. The experiment proves that coherent addition of femtosecond fiber lasers can be efficiently and reliably performed at high B-integral and considerable thermal load in the individual amplifiers

Transform-limited pulses from a mJ-class nonlinear fiber CPA-system by phase shaping

We experimentally demonstrate phase-shaping in fiber CPA-systems, providing pulse-energies at the mJ-level. The applied method is based on an analytical model describing the impact of SPM in CPA-systems. Using this phase-shaping technique nearly transform limited pulses are produced at B-integrals up to 10 rad. Compared to a nonlinear CPAsystem with the best performance being achieved by adjusting the compressor, operation of the same system using the phase-shaping method permits peak-power enhancement by a factor better than 2

Coherent combining of ultrashort fiber-amplified laser pulses

We report on a novel concept to scale the performance of ultra-fast lasers by means of coherent combination. Pulses from a single mode-locked laser are distributed to a number of spatially separated fiber amplifiers and coherently combined after amplification. The splitting and combination process is based on the polarization combining technique using polarization cubes. A Hänsch-Couillaud detector measures the polarization state of the combined beam. The error signal (deviation from linear polarization) is used to stabilize the optical path lengths in the different channels with a piezo mounted mirror. In a proof-of-principle experiment the combination of two femtosecond fiber-based amplifiers in a CPA systems is presented. A combining efficiency as high as 97% has been achieved. Additional measurements were carried out to investigate the stability of the system. The concept offers a unique scaling potential and can be applied to all ultrafast amplification schemes independent of the architecture of the gain medium

Advantage of circularly polarized light in nonlinear fiber-amplifiers

We experimentally demonstrate that circular polarization state is beneficial if the Kerr-nonlinearity has to be lowered during the amplification of laser pulses. It can be shown that in a fiber-based chirped pulse amplification (CPA) system, the use of circularly and linearly polarized light result in different B-integrals, which are measured using phase-only pulse-shaping. The theoretical value of 2/3 for the ratio of the B-integrals of circularly and linearly polarized light is experimentally confirmed. Circularly polarized light facilitates peak-power scaling, moreover, the self-focussing threshold can be enhanced

Model-Based Phase-Shaping for SPM-Compensation in mJ-Pulse-Energy Fiber CPA-systems

Based on an analytical model for the impact of SPM on stretched ultrashort pulses, the influence of SPM is experimentally controlled in a mJ-pulse-energy fiber-based CPA-system at B-integral as high as 8 rad