Open AccessNear diffraction-limited performance of an OPA pumped acetylene-filled hollow-core fiber laser in the mid-IR
Author(s) -
Neda Dadashzadeh,
M. P. Thirugnanasambandam,
H. W. Kushan Weerasinghe,
Benoît Debord,
Matthieu Chafer,
F. Gérôme,
Fetah Benabid,
Brian R. Washburn,
Kristan L. Corwin
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
optics express
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.394
H-Index - 271
ISSN - 1094-4087
DOI - 10.1364/oe.25.013351
Subject(s) - materials science , optics , laser , fiber laser , acetylene , core (optical fiber) , laser beam quality , optical fiber , diffraction , laser power scaling , fiber , saturation (graph theory) , optoelectronics , laser beams , chemistry , composite material , physics , organic chemistry , mathematics , combinatorics
We investigate the mid-IR laser beam characteristics from an acetylene-filled hollow-core optical fiber gas laser (HOFGLAS) system. The laser exhibits near-diffraction limited beam quality in the 3 μm region with M 2 = 1.15 ± 0.02 measured at high pulse energy, and the highest mid-IR pulse energy from a HOFGLAS system of 1.4 μJ is reported. Furthermore, the effects of output saturation with pump pulse energy are reduced through the use of longer fibers with low loss. Finally, the slope efficiency is shown to be nearly independent of gas pressure over a wide range, which is encouraging for further output power increase.