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Comparative study on the temporal contrast of femtosecond mode-locked laser oscillators

Nicholas Stuart, Timothy Robinson, David Hillier, Nick Hopps, Bryn Parry, Ian Musgrave, Gagik Nersisyan, Ahmed Sharba, Matthew Zepf, and Roland A. Smith

Open Access Open Access

Abstract

We have investigated the temporal intensity contrast characteristics from a broad range of mode-locked short-pulse oscillators used for seeding high-power terawatt and petawatt-class laser systems. Saturable absorber (SESAM), Kerr lens (KLM), nonlinear polarization evolution (NPE) in optical fibers and synchronously pumped optical parametric oscillator (OPO) mode-locked sources have been measured using a third-order autocorrelator with up to 1010 dynamic range. We restricted the temporal characterization to features <30 ps about the laser pulse that reflect fundamental mode-locking processes. We find additional nonlinear terms and residual higher-order dispersion limits the performance of KLM and NPE sources up to the 105 contrast level, while >108 contrast was observed from the SESAM and OPO laser pulse trains.

© 2016 Optical Society of America

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Figures (5)
Fig. 1.
Fig. 1. Optical layout of the TOAD for high-dynamic-range characterization of laser pulses. L1 and L2, focusing and recollimation optics used to maximize the intensity onto an SHG crystal, a 1.5 mm thick BBO (type I); BS1, a wedged dichroic beam splitter separates the fundamental and second-harmonic pulses; TS1, translation stage for temporal scanning; L3, an achromatic doublet lens used to focus the fundamental and second-harmonic beamlets and maximize the intensity onto the THG crystal, a 1 mm thick BBO (type II); A1 and A2, apertures used to spatially filter THG light from the residual fundamental and second harmonic; UVD, calibrated UV density filters; UVP, UV colored glass bandpass filter (UG11).

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Fig. 2.
Fig. 2. Measured third-order autocorrelation of ∼ 3   nJ pulses emitted from a SESAM mode-locked Nd:glass oscillator (Time-Bandwidth GLX200). Red dashes: an ideal 400 fs squared hyperbolic secant profile, which equates to a 310 fs FWHM pulse duration after deconvolution. DL, detection limit of the TOAD, which is ∼ 2 × 10 − 9 in this measurement.

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Fig. 3.
Fig. 3. Measured third-order autocorrelations of KLM laser sources. (a),(b) An AOM initiated KLM Ti:sapphire (Spectra Physics Tsunami). (c) A KLM Ti:sapphire (Coherent MIRA). All KLM sources were found to exhibit noise pedestals at ∼ 10 − 6 relative intensity. Red dashes: all sources are fitted against a 260 fs Gaussian intensity profile, corresponding to ∼ 210   fs FWHM duration after deconvolution, the TOAD resolution limit. DL, detection limit of the TOAD.

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Fig. 4.
Fig. 4. Measured third-order autocorrelation of the NPE mode-locked Yb-doped fiber laser (Coherent Fidelity 2). Red dashes: the ∼ 210   fs Gaussian FWHM TOAD resolution limit. DL, detection limit of the TOAD, which is ∼ 3 × 10 − 8 in this measurement.

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Fig. 5.
Fig. 5. Measured third-order autocorrelation of a Yb-fiber laser-pumped optical parametric oscillator (Spectra Physics Insight DS +). Red dashes: the ∼ 210   fs Gaussian FWHM TOAD resolution limit. DL, detection limit of the TOAD, which is ∼ 2 × 10 − 10 in this measurement.

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