Multipass amplifier for Terawatt Ti:sapphire laser system

Hein Teunissen Graduation committee: prof. dr. K.-J. Boller dr. ir. F.A Van Goor dr. ir. H.L. Offerhaus University of Twente Department of Science and Technology Laser Physics and Nonlinear Optics group Enschede, Oktober 12, 2007

Multipass amplifier for Terawatt Ti:sapphire laser system Theory, construction and characterization

Author: Hein J. Teunissen Graduation committee: prof. dr. K.-J. Boller dr. ir. F.A Van Goor dr. ir. H.L. Offerhaus University of Twente Department of Science and Technology Laser Physics and Nonlinear Optics group Enschede, Oktober 12, 2007

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Summary
This report describes the design, construction and characterization of a multipass amplifier for a Terawatt, femtosecond titanium:sapphire laser system. This laser is to fulfill an important role in the Laser Wakefield Accelerator setup that is under construction at the University of Twente. The principle- and the goal of laser wakefield acceleration is described in chapter 1 and the role of the laser is clarified. In chapter 2, the laser system itself is elaborated to see the position of the mentioned amplifier in the total system. Chapter 3 describes the theory of laser pulse amplification. Effects like gain saturation and gain narrowing are discussed, together with the effects of amplification on laser pulse shape. Chapter 4 gives an outline of important aspects in the design and construction of the amplifier. The techniques used in the setup to optimize the performance of the amplifier are described and a schematic drawing of the final setup is given. The final chapter of this report characterizes the performance of the setup as described in chapter 4. This characterization comprises measurements on energy-, spectral propertiesand propagation of the output pulse. This chapter also presents a simulation used to compare the performance of the amplifier to the theory as given in chapter 3. A summary of the performance of the amplifier is given in the Conclusions section.

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Table of contents
1. Introduction to Laser Wakefield Acceleration
- Particle accelerators - Laser wakefield acceleration

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2. Titanium:sapphire Laser System at the University of Twente

- Chirped pulse amplification - Kerr lens modelocked oscillator - Amplifiers - Regenerative amplifier - Multipass amplifier

3. Theory of Pulse Amplification

- Amplifier bandwidth - Stimulated emission and absorption - Laser pulse amplification: the Frantz-Nodvik model - Recurrence relation - Energy transfer from pump to pulse - Amplifier saturation

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4. Design and Construction of the 4-pass Amplifier

High-intensity nonlinear effects B-integral Vacuum relay imaging Low pass spatial filtering Minimizing pre-pulses in input signal Experimental setup - Enlarging pump beam of second pump laser - Vacuum spatial filtering after second- and third pass - Final setup of the 4-pass amplifier

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5. Amplifier Performance and Comparison with the theory

- Measurements - Amplification of pulse energy - Spectral properties - M 2 -beam propagation factor - Measuring M 2 values - Profile of the output pulse - Comparison with the theory

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6. Conclusions 7. References 8. Appendices

- Appendix 1: q-parameter - Appendix 2: Matlab-simulation code

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Acknowledgements
Before we go into the details of the project, I would like to say that I had a really pleasant time working on it. Looking back, it took quite long, altogether, to come to this point, but it was a really nice time. Nonetheless, I am happy that the project is completed now and I would like to express my gratitude to some people in specific that have helped me in so many ways. I would like to thank Professor Boller for giving me the opportunity to perform my graduation project in his group. Also because it is not just some project; I got to learn that the realisation of the Terawatt laser system is very important for the research group. So thanks for the confidence! For the same reason, I would like to thank Fred van Goor. But I also want to thank him for being my supervisor for the last 19 (!) months working on the laser. And, even more, Fred co-supervised my internship at Philips Lighting in Eindhoven in the months before I started in the group. So, thank you Fred! I have learned a lot in this period. Then there are two PhD students, Arie Irman and Rolf Loch, who have helped me in a very direct and practical way; in the lab, aligning stuff and with good ideas in very helpful discussions. I really could not have done without this help and also not without their enthusiasm. I would also like to thank Dimitri Geskus for his work on the laser. My project directly builds upon his work and he really helped me getting started in the lab. Thanks guys! But its not only because of the people I just mentioned that I had a pleasant time in the group. I always thought the office was a much nicer place than the lab, because of the nice company of Martijn, Olivier, Mark and Cees. Also the lunch breaks were always fun with the other (PhD-) students and we had a few great outings with the group. So, in the end, it comes down to: thanks to everyone in the Laser Physics group!

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1. Introduction to Laser Wakefield Acceleration

Particle accelerators In high-energy physics, energetic collisions of particles form the basis for sub-atomic particle research. This research demands for the attainment of continuously increasing collision-energies to verify the existence of the elementary particles predicted by the Standard Model. Energetic particles are also used in synchrotrons for the generation of monochromatic, high-intensity X-ray beams and in producing radioactive isotopes for medical use. A particle accelerator is an instrument that drives charged particles to high velocities using strong electric fields. The most basic form is a linear accelerator (linac), which accelerates bunches of electrons in a straight line through holes in an array of subsequent microwave cavities. To provide acceleration, the phase and thus the direction of the microwave fields is to be properly timed in each cell with regard to the arrival of the bunch in that cell.

Figure 1.1: Linear accelerator The same principle of acceleration based on resonantly enhanced RF fields in resonators, i.e. usually microwave fields in the named cells, is used in a circular accelerator. However, the bunch is now additionally held on a closed orbit with appropriate magnetic fields. The main advantage of this configuration over the RF-linac is that particles can be accelerated over more than one roundtrip. However, a disadvantage of circular accelerators is the deceleration of the bunch by the emission of synchrotron radiation resulting from the transverse acceleration of the particles to form a closed orbit. In both linear- and circular accelerators, the accelerating field has a maximum value determined by the threshold for dielectric breakdown of the acceleration tube. The world record acceleration field of a single cell is 53.5 MV/m [1]. Because the attainable kinetic energy is the integral over the field, this field limit means that the overall size of such standard RF-accelerators easily reaches several kilometers, making them extremely costly. The Large Hadron Collider located at CERN (Switzerland) will be the highest energy particle accelerator in the world when it starts running in 2008 and will ultimately collide beams of protons at an energy of 14 TeV. It is currently in the final stage of construction

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and is contained in an underground tunnel with a circumference of 27 km. The longest linear accelerator in the world is the Stanford Linear Accelerator (SLAC), which is 3 km long and attains electron energy of 50 GeV. A next generation linear accelerator of 40 km length is planned to be constructed between 2015 and 2020, which should attain collision energies of 500 GeV (the International Linear Collider). The investments necessary to realize these machines are enormous and this has led to a search for much more compact accelerators based on a different working principle. Laser wakefield acceleration Laser wakefield acceleration [2] is a completely different way of accelerating charged particles. This technique promises to greatly improve the efficiency of attaining highenergy particles, both in terms of the dimensions of the necessary equipment as well as concerning the overall costs. This promise is based on the observation that fields attainable within a plasma medium induced by a traveling, high-intensity laser pulse are several orders of magnitude higher than in conventional (RF) accelerators. To understand the working principle of a laser wakefield accelerator it is required to look at some properties of plasma, because this forms the accelerating medium. The plasma medium, or plasma channel, used in a laser wakefield accelerator is a capillary filled with hydrogen which is fully ionized by an electric discharge. The plasma thus consists of positively and negatively charged particles (ions and electrons) in equal proportions and is macroscopically neutral under normal (equilibrium) conditions. When an external electric field is applied, a charge separation is induced in the plasma. In the new equilibrium situation, the external field is internally counteracted by this charge separation; no net field is present inside the plasma, because this would automatically redistribute the charged particles. In laser wakefield acceleration (LWFA), a high-power laser pulse of extremely short duration induces charge separation. This is due to the so-called ponderomotive force of the laser pulse on the plasma-particles. This force pushes the plasma-electrons away from their original positions whereas heavier particles, such as protons remain much less effected. After the pulse has left, the shifted electrons are attracted back towards the positively charged area from which they were pushed away, but, due to their inertia, they overshoot their position before they return again. This way, the electrons perform several cycles of oscillation around their initial position, before they have lost their kinetic energy through collisions and the plasma returns to its equilibrium situation. The oscillation frequency is known as the plasma frequency. Though the plasma-electrons locally just oscillate around their initial position, the traveling nature of the laser pulse excites such oscillations at consecutive locations and thereby creates a wave of charge separation propagating with the laser pulse group velocity. The region directly behind the pulse is positively charged (reduced density of electrons), followed by a region of negative charge where the electrons have fallen back into the center of this region. This plasma-wave contains very strong electric fields that can be utilized for particle acceleration. Figure 1.2 illustrates the laser pulse and the electric field component of the plasma-wave pointing in the longitudinal direction z (as can be calculated with [3]). These fields E z can reach 10-100 GV/m.

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Figure 1.2: Laser pulse and plasma-wave When a charged test particle is somehow injected in this plasma-wave, it will experience a force in the longitudinal direction Fz = eE z . The goal of LWFA is to accelerate particles to high energies by making them surf the plasma-wave. Injecting particles into the plasma wave can be done in several ways [4]. The setup of the LWFA experiment at the UT is schematically depicted in figure 1.3. Though not illustrated in this figure, the laser system is the most space consuming part of the experimental setup.

Figure 1.3: Schematic setup of the LWFA experiment at the UT

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The laser pulse is guided through the plasma channel, in which plasma is created by an electric discharge just before the laser pulse arrives. The aim of the experiment is to capture electrons in the plasma wave by injecting a bunch of electrons in front of the laser pulse [3]. This method has the potential to produce electron bunches with low energy spread. To capture the electrons, the bunch has to be pre-accelerated. This is done by a 5.5 cell photocathode RF linear accelerator (illustrated in figure 1.1). To synchronize the arrival in the plasma channel of the pre-accelerated electron-beam and the laser pulse, the RF source of the linac is serves as a master oscillator. The repetition rate of the laser pulses is synchronized to the linac by slight adjustments of the length of the laser cavity using a Piezo crystal. Calculations show that the LWFA setup at the UT can be expected to produce electron bunches at an energy level of more than 1 GeV. This energy is attained over a plasmachannel length of few centimeters. Laser wakefield accelerators have several potential applications. Short particle bunches with energy on the GeV scale can be used for the efficient generation of femtosecond Xrays and coherent THz- and infrared radiation. In the long run, high-energy RF accelerators may even be entirely replaced when particles can be accelerated in multiple stages using the laser wakefield acceleration technique. Further information on the LWFA experiment at the UT can be found in [5]. A Terawatt femtosecond titanium:sapphire laser system is currently being developed at the Laser Physics and Nonlinear Optics group at the University of Twente. This laser system, which is the central device in the LWFA experiment, is elaborated in the next chapter of this report. Thereafter, the remainder of the report deals with the theory, construction and characterization of the first power amplifier of the laser system.

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2. Titanium:sapphire Laser System at the University of Twente

The subject of this chapter is the titanium:sapphire laser system, which is being developed at the LPNO group of the University of Twente. The name titanium:sapphire refers to the active laser medium, which is a crystal of sapphire ( Al 2 O3 ) doped with titanium ions ( Ti 3+ ) (usually at a concentration of about 0.1 to 0.15 % by weight). Ti:Sa lasers are particularly useful for generating ultra-short pulses, because of the very large amplification-bandwidth of the material of 128 THz or, equivalently, of about 300 nm [6]. Also, the damage threshold of the Ti:Sa crystal is very high, in the order of 5 GW/cm2, which makes it very suitable to generate and amplify high peak-power pulses. The material also has high thermal conductivity. The energy level diagram of titanium:sapphire is typical for a four level solid state laser material (see figure 2.1 below). The material has a very broad absorption band, with the peak absorption around 500 nm. The output of a Ti:Sa laser is most efficient at a wavelength of 800 nm. The absorption and emission bands are separated well, which has the advantage that losses due to re-absorption of laser radiation are minimized. Ti:sapphire has an upper state lifetime at room temperature of 3.2 s and the saturation fluence of Ti:Sa is 1 J/cm 2 .

Figure 2.1: Schematic energy level diagram of titanium:sapphire

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The laser system under construction at the UT consists of a number of stages, which will first be mentioned shortly. The separate stages will then be elaborated to some detail in the next few pages. The first stage of the laser system is the oscillator, which is a Kerr-lens modelocked Ti:Sa laser (K&M labs). The crystal in the oscillator is pumped at a wavelength of 532 nm by a cw frequency-doubled Nd:YVO 4 laser (Spectra Physics Millennia V). The oscillator produces short pulses of about 25 fs with a central wavelength of 800 nm, at a repetition rate of 81.25 MHz. (This repetition rate is chosen such that the pulses can be synchronized to the electron bunches of the linac; the RF source of the linac operates at a frequency of 1.3GHz, which is the 16th harmonic of 81.25 MHz). The output beam of the oscillator has a Gaussian-shaped transverse intensity distribution; the geometry of the cavity is such that it only sustains the fundamental transverse mode. The pulse energy of a single oscillator pulse is about 1 nJ. These pulses are to be amplified, but before that can be done the pulses need to be stretched in time to lower the peak power levels in the amplifiers. This is done in an ffner stretcher [7], which increases the pulse duration from the initial 25 fs to about 500 ps. After the stretcher, the pulses are amplified in three stages. The first amplifier is a regenerative amplifier, the second and final amplifiers are 4-pass amplifiers. Four Qswitched, frequency-doubled Nd:YAG lasers are used to pump the Ti:Sa crystals in the amplifier chain (Spectra Physics Quanta-Ray GCR-290 and GCR-270 for the regenerative amplifier and the first 4-pass amplifier, and two Thales SAGA 230/10 lasers for the final 4-pass amplifier). The repetition rate of the pulses in the amplifiers is 10 Hz. After the last amplifier, the pulses have their maximum energy content, but not yet their maximum peak power level. The pulses are now passed through a grating compressor to obtain a time-duration of about 30 to 50 fs. Calculations show that the pulses after the compressor can be expected to have an energy-content of about 1 J, which results in a peak power level of about 25 TW.

Chirped pulse amplification

At intensity levels in the order of a few Gigawatts per square centimeter, nonlinear effects can cause serious damage to the gain medium. The units watts per square centimeter show that there are two ways to further increase the energy of a pulse without exceeding this threshold; namely, by increasing the beam diameter, or by stretching the pulse in time. Increasing the beam diameter has the disadvantage that the gain medium and the optics must also be larger. This makes the setup more expensive, and will not enable reaching orders of magnitude higher pulse energies. The method of stretching the pulse in time prior to amplification and recompressing it afterwards is called Chirped Pulse Amplification (CPA) [8]. Stretching the pulse in time proportionately lowers the pulse power, after which the pulse can be amplified safely without damaging the gain medium. After amplification, the pulse is recompressed to (approximately) its original duration, resulting in achievable peak power levels orders of magnitude higher than could be attained without this technique. The setup of a general CPA laser system is schematically illustrated in figure 2.2.

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Figure 2.2: Schematic setup of a CPA laser system

In stretching and compressing, a controlled amount of dispersion is induced to the laser pulse; in passing a stretcher or compressor, different frequency-components of the pulse travel different distances. The stretcher usually induces positive dispersion (so that the lower frequencies form the leading part of the pulse and the higher frequencies lag behind) and the compressor is designed to give an equal amount of negative dispersion. The compressor also compensates for the extra dispersion the pulse experiences in the amplifier chain, so the pulselength after the compressor can approach the pulselength of the oscillator pulse. For the method to be effective however, the amount of dispersion must be quite large; for a stretched pulse-duration of 500 ps, the stretcher must induce a pathlength-difference of about 15 cm between the lowest- and highest frequency-components. There are different ways to stretch and compress a laser pulse. In the setup at the UT, stretching is done in an ffner stretcher [7], which also induces positive dispersion, and the pulse is compressed using a grating compressor (see figure 2.3).

Figure 2.3: Grating-based compressor (with negative dispersion)

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The first grating in the compressor sents the different frequency components in the input into different directions and the second grating makes the split beams parallel again. A retro reflector sends the beams back through the setup so that the frequency components overlap again, but have travelled different distances. The stretcher does basically the same thing as the compressor. In the stretcher however, an imaging telescope between the two gratings establishes a negative distance between the gratings (the telescope images the first grating behind the second grating). The effect of this is that the separation in time of the frequency components is now inverted in comparison to the compressor (with the same positive distance between the gratings). The setup of the ffner stretcher is slightly different; it uses two spherical mirrors to form the telescope and only one grating is used in the setup (the beam hits the grating four times). The setup of the ffner stretcher is illustrated in figure 2.4.

Figure 2.4: ffner stretcher

The result of passing an oscillator pulse through the stretcher is a linearly chirped pulse (the instantaneous frequency varies linearly with time).

Figure 2.5: Linearly chirped pulse

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Kerr lens modelocked oscillator

Any laser gain-medium has its specific amplification bandwidth, which determines the bandwidth of operation of the laser. The lasers resonant cavity however determines which specific frequencies are supported within this bandwidth, because only a discrete set of frequencies can exist in the cavity; all other frequencies are suppressed because of destructive interference. The supported frequencies can exist in the cavity as standing waves and form the set of longitudinal cavity modes. For a cavity made up of two plain mirrors placed a distance L apart, standing waves arise when the length of the cavity is an integer multiple of half-the-wavelength of the light, so when L = q / 2 (with the wavelength of the light and q an integer called the mode order). So, the frequency spacing between the modes q and q+1 for this type of c (with c the speed of light). Figure 2.6 depicts the combined effect resonator is = 2L of material gain-bandwidth and laser cavity modes on the output spectrum of the laser.

Figure 2.6: Composition of laser output spectrum If the cavity modes are free to oscillate independently, the laser operates in continuous wave (cw) mode. If the modes however have a fixed phase relationship between one another, the laser is mode-locked. In this case, interference between the longitudinal

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modes results in a pulsed output signal of the laser. The pulses are separated in time an interval = 2 L / c , which is the time it takes for a pulse to make a cavity roundtrip. The time duration t of each pulse depends on a number of factors, but primarily on the number of locked modes n, or, equivalently, on the modelocked bandwidth n ; a larger modelocked bandwidth results in shorter pulses. However, t also depends on the temporal pulse-shape produced in the laser (which follows from the exact phase- and amplitude relationship between the longitudinal modes). The product of minimum attainable pulse duration and modelocked bandwidth is known as the time-bandwidth product, which has a specific value for a particular temporal pulse-shape. For a Gaussian temporal-shape this product is 0.44, so the shortest-possible duration of a pulse with 0.44 Gaussian temporal shape is: t = . n For a modelocked Ti:sapphire laser with a full 128 THz modelocked bandwidth, the shortest attainable pulse (bandwidth-limited pulse) with a Gaussian temporal shape would thus be 3.4 fs. In practice however, the pulse duration is limited by a number of other factors such as the overall dispersion of the cavity. Modelocking techniques can be divided into active- and passive modelocking. In active modelocking methods, an external signal is used to modulate the light in the cavity. Passive modelocking is achieved by placing an element in the laser cavity, which causes self-modulation of the light. Information on different modelocking techniques can be found in reference [9]. The Ti:sapphire oscillator at the UT is modelocked passively by exploitation of the optical Kerr effect, also known as Kerr-lens modelocking. The Kerr effect describes the dependency of a materials refractive index n on the applied optical field intensity I. It can be described as: n( I ) = n0 + n2 I , where n0 is the low intensity refractive index and n2 is the second-order nonlinear refractive index (which is usually positive). Hence, in a Kerr medium, high intensity light (normally) experiences higher index of refraction than lower intensity light. This is also the case for titanium:sapphire. As a result, a beam with high power and Gaussian transverse intensity distribution passing the Ti:Sa crystal will be focused, because the central part of the beam experiences higher refractive index than the beam edges. This means that any higher-intensity pulses present in the cavity (which may arise from random interference effects between the longitudinal cavity modes) experience stronger focusing passing the Ti:Sa crystal than lower intensity light. By this mechanism, selective losses can be induced to the cw mode of operation, which leads to an encouragement of the higher intensity pulses. The longitudinal cavity modes eventually obtain a fixed phase relation, resulting in a purely pulsed output of the oscillator. Kerrlens modelocking can for instance be achieved by placing an aperture in the cavity.

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Figure 2.7: Kerr-lens modelocking principle Figure 2.7 pictures the selective focusing effect of the Kerr-medium on a free laser beam. In a laser cavity however, the laser beam adapts to the Kerr-lens effect. This leads to a smaller beam radius inside the Ti:Sa crystal of the stronger focused, higher-intensity pulses. In the oscillator used in the setup at the UT, the role of the aperture illustrated in figure 2.7 is fulfilled by the focus of the pump-beam in the Ti:sapphire crystal (soft aperture). The pulsed mode of operation is thereby favored over the cw mode through better overlap between the pump beam and the pulsed laser beam. The oscillator used at the UT is schematically illustrated in figure 2.8. The prism pair in the resonator compensates for the material dispersion of one roundtrip in the cavity and the output spectrum of the oscillator can be manipulated by means of the tuning slit, whose width and position can be adjusted via computer controlled actuators.

Figure 2.8: Illustration of a Kerr-lens modelocked oscillator

Amplifiers

The theory of pulse amplification is the subject of the next chapter, but the basic concept and general setup of laser amplifiers used in CPA systems are described below. Basically, the way to amplify a laser pulse is to let it make additional passes through a medium with a population inversion on a resonant transition. In CPA systems, the amplifiers are usually pumped with pulsed pump-lasers and the gain medium is generally the same as used in the oscillator of the laser system. The energy contained in the gain medium is extracted in a very short time, so the peak-power level of the amplified pulse can greatly exceed the peak-power of the pump-laser(s). The repetition rate of the pulses in the amplifiers is usually limited by the repetition rate of the pump-lasers.

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The energy that can be extracted from the gain medium is of course finite, so after a certain number of passes the pulse energy does not increase any further. This effect is called gain saturation. It is desirable to operate an amplifier in- or just below saturation. In this case, most of the pump power is extracted from the gain medium and saturation has a stabilizing effect on the output pulse-energy. Further, gain saturation can compensate gain narrowing effects. Gain narrowing occurs when the central frequencies of the pulse are amplified more than the spectral wings (which is the case when the active medium of the amplifier is the same as used in the oscillator). But these central frequencies will also start to saturate the amplifier sooner than the spectral wings. When this occurs, additional passes of the (narrowed) pulse through the amplifier now leads to a broadening of the bandwidth, because the spectral wings can be amplified still, because they have not reached the saturation level yet. This effect is called power broadening. There are however several consequences of (near-) saturation operation of the amplifier. For instance, when a beam with a Gaussian-shaped spatial profile is amplified by using top-hat shaped pump beams, the beam center may saturate the amplifier more than the edges of the beam. The output profile may as a result closely resemble the top-hat shape of the pump profiles. When seen in the temporal domain, the leading part of the pulse may experience less saturation than the latter part. When amplifying a positively chirped pulse, the lower frequencies are in this case amplified more than the higher frequencies, leading to a shift of the central frequency. The next chapter will deal with these issues more thoroughly. When high amplification factors are required, a sequence of amplifiers is often used in an amplifier chain. There are two types of laser pulse amplifiers used in CPA systems: a regenerative amplifier and a multi-pass amplifier. Regenerative amplifier In a regenerative amplifier (or regen) the gain medium is contained in a resonator. This type of amplifier is most commonly used as the first stage of amplification after the stretcher, which is also the case in the setup at the UT. A regenerative amplifier is particularly useful for this first step, because it can reach very high gain (as high as 10 6 ) and gives a stable output beam, with shape and direction primarily determined by the regen-resonator. In this setup, a single pulse from the oscillator pulse-train is coupled into the resonator just after the Ti:Sa crystal is pumped. Once the energy is extracted from the medium, the pulse is coupled out. The setup of the regenerative amplifier at the LPNO group is schematically given in figure 2.9.

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Figure 2.9: Regenerative amplifier A combination of a Pockels-cell, a quarter-lambda plate and a polarizing beamsplitter is used as a switch for in- and out-coupling of the pulse. The Pockels-cell acts as a variable waveplate, by exploitation of the Pockels-effect (application of an electric field changes the birefringent properties of a certain material, which affects the polarization of transmitted light). The polarization of the pulse at the moment it hits the polarizing beamsplitter (from the right side in figure 2.9) determines whether the pulse is reflected out- or transmitted into the left part of the regen-resonator (the polarizing beamsplitter reflects s- and transmits p-polarized light). The input pulses of the regenerative amplifier are s-polarized (entering figure 2.9 from below). When no voltage is applied over the Pockels-cell, the polarization of the pulse is not altered and passing the quarter-lambda plate twice rotates the polarization to p. This p-polarized pulse is transmitted through the polarizing beamsplitter and enters the resonator. After one roundtrip through the resonator the pulse will be coupled out in the same way, but it is captured in the resonator when, in the mean time, the Pockels-cell is switched to act as a quarter-lambda plate; when the pulse now passes the switch, it traverses four quarter-lambda plates, resulting in a full 180 degrees rotation in the polarization. The pulse now stays inside the resonator, where it can extract the energy stored in the Ti:Sa crystal. After that, the Pockels-cell is switched to act as a half-lambda plate; the pulse is now coupled out. The reason that the Pockels-cell is switched to half-lambda to couple out the pulse instead of just turning it back off is the rather slow response when the cell is switched off compared to the fast response when a voltage is applied. The regenerative amplifier has the asset that the number of passes through the gain medium can be chosen freely, which makes that this type of amplifier is very useful for the first stage of amplification. A weak input pulse will not saturate an amplifier in just a few passes, so the (weak) oscillator pulse must pass through the gain medium many times before it has extracted the available energy. In the case of a regenerative amplifier, this is just a matter of setting the timing when the pulse is coupled out. However, the electro-optical in- and out coupling limits the usability of a regen to preamplifier purposes (output pulse-energies in the millijoule level). This is because the switch induces high losses, which become very important in a later stadium of the amplifier chain (higher pulse-energies). The Pockels-cell material also induces higher order dispersion, which is hard to compensate for and thus limits the attainable final pulse duration. Further, the gain per pass must be sufficiently low to prevent the buildup of amplified spontaneous emission. - 20 -

Multipass amplifier The second- and final amplifiers in the laser system at the UT are multipass amplifiers. This is a setup in which the incoming laser pulse makes a fixed number of passes through the gain medium; it is often just called a 2- pass amplifier or 4-pass amplifier, etcetera. In a multipass amplifier, mirror arrays are used to direct the pulse through the gain medium with slightly different directions. Figure 2.10 pictures a general setup of a 4-pass amplifier. Because of its shape (see figure 2.10), the multipass amplifier is sometimes called a bow-tie amplifier.

Figure 2.10: Schematic setup of a multipass amplifier Multipass amplifiers are usually used as power amplifiers to boost the energy of preamplified pulses. With high enough input-pulse energy, saturation of the amplifier is reached within the chosen number of passes. The gain per pass is generally much higher than in the case of a regenerative amplifier and the pump power is used more efficiently. The attainable number of passes is however limited by the complexity of the resulting setup and the difficulty in aligning the amplifier. The overall gain of a multipass amplifier is therefore much lower than that of a regenerative amplifier. Also, the output beam shape and direction are not corrected by a resonator, with the result that the outputbeam is much affected by the spatial profile of the pump beams. Chapter 4 of this thesis is dedicated to the design- and construction aspects that play a role in setting up the first 4-pass power amplifier of the Ti:Sa laser system. A picture of this amplifier can be seen in figure 2.11. In the next chapter, the theory of pulse amplification is explained.

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Figure 2.11: Setup of the 4-pass amplifier at the LPNO group

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3. Theory of Pulse Amplification

In this chapter, the basic theory of pulse amplification is summarized. Some aspects of amplification in general are discussed, such as amplifier bandwidth and mechanisms that lead to a broadening- or narrowing of this bandwidth. Amplifier bandwidth The oscillatory motion of electron clouds in a laser medium can be modelled by microscopic classical oscillators [10]. A decay rate models the exponential energydecay of a single microscopic dipole oscillator, and if an oscillator undergoes an elastic collision (or in general a dephasing event) its phase is assumed to be completely randomized. It is assumed that elastic collisions occur randomly in time at a rate of 1 T2 collisions per atom per second. The microscopic dipoles give rise to a macroscopic polarization p ( t ) in the material. The polarizations of the collided dipoles (with random phases) add up to produce a macroscopic sum with mean value of zero. So p ( t ) arises entirely from the uncollided dipoles (which are all oscillating in-phase) and is also called the coherent polarization. With both the energy-decay and the dephasing of the oscillators taken into account, the macroscopic polarization p ( t ) will decay exponentially in time with decay rate
1 + 2 T . 2

( ) ( ) gives the polarization in an atomic medium P The electric susceptibility ( ) and is defined by: resulting from an externally applied electric field E

( )

( ) P ( ) 0E

(3.1)

The susceptibility for the collection of microscopic oscillators (near their resonance frequency) has a frequency dependence given by a complex lorentzian lineshape. This is a Fourier-transform effect resulting from the exponential time-decay of the macroscopic polarization. (An exponentially decaying signal of the form P ( t ) = exp ( 2 + ja ) t
for t > 0 has a complex lorentzian Fourier transform of the form P ( ) = 1 1 + 2 j ( w wa ) , with FWHM linewidth .)
~

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The absorbing- (or amplifying) part of the atomic response is given by the imaginary part of the susceptibility and is described by a lorentzian shaped curve, often referred to as the atomic lineshape:

( ) =

1+ 2 ( a ) a

(3.2)

This function describes the stimulated response of a collection of microscopic dipole oscillators near their resonance frequency a and has FWHM linewidth a . This atomic linewidth is thus directly linked to the exponential decay rate of the coherent polarization; a is given by: a = + 2 T2 (3.3)

The symbol 0 in equation 3.2 gives the magnitude of the atomic susceptibility at midband, which is negative for an absorbing transition. 0 is inversely proportional to a and proportional to the number of participating microscopic oscillators. Mechanisms that broaden the atomic lineshape and that act on the individual dipoles in the same way are referred to as homogeneous broadening mechanisms. The homogeneous broadening resulting from the energy decay of the dipoles is called lifetime broadening and elastic collisions between the active atoms cause collision broadening. In the case of a Ti:sapphire crystal, there are no collisions between the different atoms. The most important dephasing mechanism in this case is called phonon frequency modulation, or phonon broadening. The crystal lattice vibrates because of thermal agitation, so the spacing between the ions in the lattice will be changing slightly in a random way. The result is a random frequency modulation of the individual dipoles resonance frequencies. This mechanism can be described in the same way as is done with elastic collisions, by assuming that microscopic dipoles have their phases completely randomized after an average time T2 . In this case it is also more intuitively clear that the linewidth of the atomic susceptibility is broadened; the oscillators have a broader range of resonance frequencies, and that the midband value is lowered; less oscillators are available with the exact resonance frequency = a . Phonon broadening depends strongly on lattice temperature. Stimulated emission and -absorption A useful concept to describe the amount of stimulated emission and -absorption from active laser atoms is the stimulated-transition cross section . An atom in the lower energy level is thought to be perfectly absorbing over the area and an atom in the upper level is negatively absorbing (emitting).

- 24 -

Let us consider a non-degenerate transition and a pure two level system. In this case, the effect of an atom in the lower energy-level cancels the effect of an atom in the upper level (the absorption cross section of an atom in level 1 is equal to the stimulated emission cross section of an atom in level 2). The amount of absorbed- or emitted light is thus determined by the difference in the densities of atoms in the upper- and lower levels, which is given by the population inversion ( N 2 N1 ) , denoted by N (with units of atoms per unit volume). For a slab of laser material with infinitely small thickness dz and area A, the perfectly absorbing area corresponding to the active atoms is given by ( N Adz ) . A light field incident on the slab with intensity I (units of power per unit area) is then partially absorbed:
I abs = I ( Ndz ) = dI

(3.4)

This gives:

dI = NI dz

(3.5)

Equation 3.5 is also valid for the stimulated emission case (N > 0), so for an amplifier of length L and a constant population inversion N over the length of the amplifier:

I out = I in exp ( N ) L

(small-signal intensities)

(3.6)

However, the population inversion decreases when energy is transferred to the light field. Equation 3.6 is therefore valid only when the intensities are very small, such that the population inversion is nearly unaffected. For higher intensities, the amplifier (or absorber) saturates. We will come back to this point later on. Equation 3.6 is often written as:

G0
with:

I out = exp [ g0 L ] I in

(small signal total gain)

(3.7)

g0 = N (t = )

(small signal gain coefficient)

(3.8)

The t = in N (t ) indicates that this is the initial population inversion, before the arrival of any light field.

- 25 -

The stimulated-transition cross section gives a measure for the interaction between the light field and the laser medium. It is therefore perceivable that (as a function of frequency) can be related to the atomic susceptibility ( ) . It can be shown that: [11]

( ) =

2 ( ) N

(3.9)

The small signal gain as a function of frequency G ( ) = exp ( ) NL is thus also closely linked to the atomic susceptibility:

L G ( ) = exp ( ) c

(3.10)

In this equation, the susceptibility is taken as positive (so actually the absorption lineshape is used). Because the frequency dependence of ( ) appears in the exponent, the linewidth of the gain profile, or amplifier bandwidth, is smaller than the atomic linewidth. This dependence is illustrated in figure 3.1.

Figure 3.1: Gain narrowing

- 26 -

The bandwidth of the amplifier also decreases even more with increasing amplifier gain. When the gain G ( ) is written in decibels, the bandwidth of the amplifier is found to be: 3dB = a 3 (3.11)

GdB (a ) 3

(The half maximum points in the dB scale are given by the 3 dB down points.) Equation 3.11 shows the decreasing bandwidth of the amplifier for higher gains, which is known as gain narrowing.

Laser pulse amplification: the Frantz-Nodvik model

The theory most widely used to describe laser pulse amplification is the Frantz-Nodvik model [12] [13]. This theory is based on two approximations. First, it is assumed that the pulse duration is long enough, such that the rate equations are applicable. This is the case when the pulse is long compared to the period of oscillation of the electron clouds of the active laser atoms (which are driven at the light frequency). Second, the pulse is assumed to be sufficiently short, so that any upper-level relaxation can be neglected during the transit time of the pulse; the model assumes a pre-inverted medium, where the population inversion is entirely used to amplify the laser pulse. The intensity of the laser pulse I ( z , t ) in space and time can be described by a plane wave with a source term representing the amount of stimulated emission:

I 1 I + = NI z c t

(3.12)

The source term NI corresponds to the amount of energy per unit volume per unit time transferred to the light field. This equation for the pulse intensity can be simplified by integration over all of time. The trade-off for this simplification is that information about the temporal pulse-shape is lost, but amplification (by stimulated emission) does not increase the total pulse duration. The pulse fluence is a measure of the total energy-content of the laser pulse (measured in energy per unit area) and is defined as:

( z ) I ( z, t )dt

(3.13)

When equation 3.12 is now integrated over all of time, the differential equation for the fluence is found. The time-derivative of the intensity I t falls out of the equation, because, for a single laser pulse, the intensity I ( z , t ) is of course zero at times plus- and minus infinity. Equation 3.12 integrated over time becomes:
- 27 -

 = N ( z , t ) I ( z , t )dt z

(3.14)

As said before, the population inversion decreases when energy is transferred to the light field. Under the two approximations made in the beginning of this section, the energy balance between the population inversion in the amplifier material and the light field intensity of the laser pulse can be described by the following rate equation: N 2 = NI t h From this equation, N(z,t) can be solved as a function of I(z,t): 2 N ( z , t ) = N ( z, ) exp h (3.15)

I ( z, t ')dt '
t

(3.16)

with N ( z , ) the population inversion at position z before the pulse has arrived.

After the pulse has left, the population inversion is thus: 2 N ( z, ) = N ( z, ) exp ( z) h (3.17)

The fluence that saturates the population inversion down to 1 e of its initial value is called the saturation fluence sat :

sat h 2

(3.18)

The differential equation for the fluence (3.14) can be solved using (3.16), where the approximation is used that the small signal gain coefficient g0 is constant over the length of the amplifier (which is approximately true for a short rod of amplifying material that is pumped from both sides). The output fluence after a single pass through an amplifier of length L, made of a material with saturation fluence sat and with initial population inversion N (t = ) is then given by:

out = sat ln [1 + G0 ( exp(in / sat ) 1)]

This equation is often called the Frantz-Nodvik equation.

(3.19)

- 28 -

Recurrence relation The Frantz-Nodvik equation can be generalised to calculate the output fluence after multiple passes through the amplifier. The model remains valid when the overall time it takes to amplify the pulse is still short compared with the upper-state lifetime in the amplifier material. Equation 3.19 written for pass-number n is just:

out ,n = sat ln [1 + Gn ( exp(in ,n / sat ) 1)]

(3.20)

To estimate the input fluence for pass-number n+1, the output of pass-number n is simply multiplied by a loss factor to account for the losses in redirecting the pulse back to the crystal:

in ,n +1 = out ,n

( < 1)

(3.21)

It is convenient to express the gain for a certain pass number n ( Gn ) using the concept of stored fluence sto in the amplifier medium. The largest fluence that can be extracted from the amplifier is found by taking the limit in / sat >> 1 in equation 3.19. This gives:

out in + ( g0sat ) L = in +

Nh L 2

( in / sat >> 1 )

(3.22)

The stored fluence sto in the amplifying medium is therefore defined as:

sto

Nh L 2

(3.23)

After every pass through the amplifier, sto is just lowered the amount extracted by the pulse:

sto ,n +1 = sto ,n (out ,n in ,n )

The gain Gn for a certain pass number n can then be written as:

(3.24)

Gn = exp ( g n L ) = exp ( N n L ) = exp

sto ,n sat

(3.25)

where g n is the small-signal gain coefficient for pass number n and N n is the corresponding population inversion.

- 29 -

Energy transfer from pump to pulse Equation 3.23 expresses the stored fluence sto in the laser medium, with population inversion N and the frequency corresponding to the amplifying transition. This is the fluence that is available for the input signal (with same frequency ). But the stored fluence is of course effectuated by the absorption of pump energy. In the energy transfer from the pump beam to the laser pulse, there are however a few loss factors. First of all, the fluence of the pump beam pump is not entirely absorbed in the amplifying medium. The absorbed part abs of the pump fluence is given by:

abs = pump (1 exp [ L])

(3.26)

with the absorption coefficient- and L the length of the amplifying medium. Also, the absorbed fluence is not fully used to create population inversion in the medium. For instance, some of the pump energy will be dissipated in the medium as heat. This loss of energy is quantified by the coupling yield (< 1). Further, for every atom in the upper energy level of the amplifying transition, the medium has absorbed a photon at the pump frequency, which generally has higher energy than a signal-photon. The quantum defect is defined as the ratio of signal- to pump photonenergy, or equivalently, as the ratio of pump to signal wavelengths p s . The efficiency of the conversion to a larger wavelength thus has a maximum given by the quantum defect (for the case that every pump photon results in a signal photon). With these loss factors taken into account, the stored fluence in the laser medium is given by:

sto = abs

p s

(3.27)

Finally, the energy transfer from pump to pulse (signal) of course also depends on the overlap of the two beams in the amplifying medium. Amplifier saturation After every pass of the pulse through the gain medium, the stored fluence in the medium is lowered and the gain is therefore lower for every subsequent pass. After a finite number of passes, the gain is outweighed by the losses. Beyond this point, extra passes of the pulse through the medium will only slowly decrease the pulse energy; the amplifier is saturated. The growth of pulse energy in the amplifier is qualitatively illustrated in figure 3.2.

- 30 -

Figure 3.2: Build up of pulse energy and amplifier saturation Amplifier saturation gives rise to several effects. In the temporal domain, the first part of the pulse might see an amplifier that is less saturated than the latter part, so the first part of the pulse will be amplified more strongly than the latter part. In (saturated) CPAsystem amplifiers, this leads to a shift of the central frequency of the pulse. In amplifying a positively chirped pulse, this gain saturation effect causes a red-shift; the lower frequencies in the leading part of the pulse are amplified stronger. Another aspect of operating the amplifier in- or near saturation is power broadening (also called saturation broadening). When the amplifier saturates, the total frequency dependence of the gain coefficient must include both the normal frequency dependence of the gain related to the atomic susceptibility (given by equation 3.10) and the frequency dependence of the saturation behaviour. When the centre frequencies of the gain profile saturate the amplifier more than the frequencies in the spectral wings, the saturated gain coefficient would be relatively low at the centre frequencies and the lineshape describing the saturated gain is thus flattened at the centre frequencies. The resulting (larger) linewidth is power-broadened. In the spatial domain, amplifier saturation gives rise to a distortion of the input-beam intensity profile. When a laser beam passes through an amplifier with uniform gain over some finite region of its transverse area (top-hat shaped pump beams), the more intense parts of the input beam saturate the amplifier more rapidly than the weaker portions. As a result, the beam profile will change, with the higher-intensity parts being flattened out relative to the weaker parts. The Frantz-Nodvik model presented in this chapter is implemented in Matlab to illustrate these effects; spatial deformation of an arbitrary input profile can be observed for an arbitrary choice of pump profile. For this illustrative purpose, the spreading of the beam during the passes through the amplifier is neglected, so that the input profile of a particular pass has the same transverse size and shape as the output profile of the previous pass. Figure 3.3 illustrates (strong) saturation of a Gaussian shaped input profile with a top-hat shaped pump profile. In chapter 5 of this thesis, the Matlab model used here for illustration is applied to analyse the performance of the real amplifier setup. The validity of the model is discussed there to some more detail. The next chapter describes the design and construction of the Ti:Sa 4-pass amplifier at the LPNO group.

- 31 -

Figure 3.3: Saturation of a Gaussian beam (with top-hat pump profile) - 32 -

4. Design and Construction of the 4-pass Amplifier

This chapter is dedicated to the design- and construction aspects that play a role in setting up the (first) 4-pass power amplifier of the Ti:sapphire laser system. The basic idea of the amplifier is straightforward, as illustrated in figure 2.10, but there are several aspects that must be considered. For instance, the high intensities in the amplifier might damage the Ti:Sa crystal and the optics in the setup. Also, a few techniques used in the setup are described below. High-intensity nonlinear effects In designing an amplifier for a high-power laser system, the Kerr-effect is something to be careful with. This effect becomes significant at high intensities and has the potential to induce runaway effects, such as whole-beam self-focusing, small-scale self-focusing and self-phase modulation. At high intensities, the Kerr-effect in the Ti:Sa crystal leads to a self-induced focusing of the laser beam as a result of the intensity-dependent part of the refractive index of Ti:Sa. This effect, as illustrated in figure 2.7, is known as whole-beam self-focusing; a beam with smooth transverse intensity profile experiences higher refractive index in the center, as compared to the wings. When the focusing effect of a slice of material exceeds the diffraction spreading of the beam in the same length, the intensity in the center of the beam becomes larger. This then increases the focusing power of the self-induced lens in the next slice of material and the beam will be focused ever more strongly inward. Small intensity peaks in the input laser beam experience the same focusing effect, as if it were separate little beams. This effect is called small-scale self-focusing. If the intensitylevel is high enough, small variations in the transverse intensity profile will grow exponentially with distance propagating through a Kerr-medium. Self-phase modulation is a result of temporal changes in the intensity profile. The intensity-dependent part of the refractive index n2 induces an extra phase shift ( I ) given by: ( the wavelength in vacuum) ( I ) = 2

n2 I L

(4.1)

A temporal dependence of the intensity I thus induces a frequency shift ( t ) : ( t ) = d ( t ) 2 dI n = (t ) L dt 2 dt (4.2)

Self-phase modulation thus induces a lowering of the optical frequency of the leading edge of the pulse and an increase of the frequency during the trailing edge of the pulse

- 33 -

(for n2 > 0 ). As a consequence of this, the pulse will generally be compressed in time as it propagates, again in a runaway type of process. B-integral The B-integral is a measure for the cumulative nonlinear interaction of a light field with a Kerr-medium and is defined as: B 2

n2 ( z ) I ( z )dz

(4.3)

The value for n2 of Ti:Sa at 800 nm is taken to be 3.18 1016 cm 2 W (derived from [14]). As can be seen from equation 4.1, the value of B gives the cumulative phase retardance (in radians) as a result of the Kerr-effect, building up over a length L through the medium. The usual rule of thumb is to keep B below the value of about 2 to avoid damage. As a starting point for the amplifier setup, we use a laser amplifier reported by Walker et.al. as a design template [15]. From the reported data, the B-value for the 4-pass amplifier of this system is estimated at 0.5. Vacuum relay imaging The Ti:sapphire crystal in the 4-pass amplifier is pumped by two Q-switched, frequency doubled Nd:YAG lasers. The pump profile on the Ti:Sa crystal primarily determines the gain characteristics over the cross-section of the crystal. Therefore, it is important to pump the crystal with as good as possible profile to get optimum output-beam quality. Ordinary propagation of the pump beam from the pump laser to the Ti:Sa crystal does not result in the best attainable pump-profile on the crystal. An illustration of the effect of free space propagation on a top-hat shaped beam profile can be seen in figure 4.1 (simulated with LightPipes [16]).

Figure 4.1: Propagation of a top-hat profile

- 34 -

To enhance the beam profile at the position of the crystal, the beam profile just at the output of the pump-laser is imaged on the Ti:Sa crystal (Relay imaging [17][18]). The imaging properties of a telescope are used to relay the beam profile in an object plane to an image plane, together with certain magnification. The Ti:Sa crystal is chosen as the image plane and the object plane is selected for its optimum beam profile. The setup is illustrated in the figure below.

Figure 4.2: Relay imaging The imaging telescope consists of two positive lenses. The first lens is placed at its focal length f1 from the object plane, resulting in a Fourier transform of this plane a distance f1 behind the lens. The second lens is placed a distance f 2 further down the path; the image profile is created a distance f 2 behind this lens. The ratio of the focal lengths of these lenses determines the magnification between the object- and image beam profiles. The beam diameter d at the image plane is given by: d image _ plane = d object _ plane ( f 2 / f1 ) . The beam profile (of the 532 nm output) of the pump is at its best just after the doubling crystal in the laser. This plane is therefore selected to be Relay-imaged onto the Ti:Sa crystal. The pump beam diameter (in the object plane) is about 8 mm and the diameter of the pump on the Ti:Sa crystal is chosen to be 5.5 mm. With selected lenses of focal lengths f1 = 1443.8 mm and f 2 = 994.5 mm, the distances between the doubling crystals of the pumps and the Ti:Sa crystal must be 2.44 m. One of the reasons that these lenses are not chosen to have smaller focal lengths is that the second lens in the pump line cannot be placed at very short distance from the Ti:Sa crystal. It is desirable to place this lens outside the mirror arrays that direct the Ti:Sa pulse though the crystal, so the pulse can pass through the crystal at as small as possible angles, resulting in maximum overlap between the pulse and the pumped volume of the crystal (see figure 2.10). A practical downside of this technique is the focus in the pump lines. Vacuum tubes must be used in these sections, because the intensity in the focus is so high that optical breakdown occurs at atmospheric pressure. The minimum lengths of the tubes are determined by the damage threshold of the high power vacuum-windows.

- 35 -

Low pass spatial filtering The input pulse for the 4-pass amplifier (coming from the regenerative amplifier) has Gaussian transverse-shape, but it is not free of noise; scattering as a result of dust particles or irregularities in optics lead to small peaks in this signal. When this profile is amplified in the 4-pass amplifier, these peaks will however become larger, with possible damage to the crystal when a large peak is self-focused in the crystal. For this reason, and to obtain better output beam quality, the pulse is spatially filtered before it is sent through the 4-pass amplifier. Low pass spatial filtering is done by placing a small pinhole in the focal plane of a telescope made up of two positive lenses (see figure 4.3). The first positive lens creates a Fourier transform of the input pulse in its focal plane and the actual filtering is done in this plane, by blocking the off-axis components corresponding to higher spatial frequencies in the input signal. The pinhole must be chosen just large enough so that only the Gaussian shaped spot on axis is transmitted (the Fourier transform of the Gaussian shaped input pulse is also a Gaussian). The second positive lens then makes the inverse Fourier transform of the part of the pulse that is transmitted through the pinhole. The result is a clean pulse; the original Gaussian spatial profile is preserved, but the noisy spikes present in the input are filtered out.

Figure 4.3: Spatial filter The size of the Gaussian focus can be calculated by the so-called q-parameter of the input beam (see Appendix 1). With a known focal length f1 , the q-parameter can be calculated in the path behind the lens, which gives the size- and position of the focus. The result of spatial filtering of the input pulse can be seen in figure 4.4. (It must be said that a large part of the local irregularities in these pictures is due to dust particles on the neutral density filters installed in front of the CCD camera.)

- 36 -

Figure 4.4: Spatial filtering Minimizing pre-pulses in input signal The output pulse of the regenerative amplifier is preceded by a few pre-pulses, as can be seen in figure 4.5. This is a result of the in- and out-coupling switch of the regenerative amplifier (figure 2.9); during amplification in the regen, every time the pulse passes the switch a small fraction of the pulse is reflected out of the cavity (off the surface of the polarizing beamsplitter). These reflections occur as pre pulses in the output signal of the regenerative amplifier.

Figure 4.5: Output of regenerative amplifier If this signal would be coupled into the 4-pass amplifier, the pre-pulses are amplified even more than the big pulse, because they pass the inverted Ti:Sa crystal first. This of course negatively influences the efficiency of the amplifier and amplification of the prepulses also has a detrimental effect on the contrast of the output signal, which is often an important factor in experiments. A combination of polarizing optics and a Pockels-cell is used as an input switch for the 4-pass amplifier to minimize the amplification of pre-pulses. This setup is illustrated in figure 4.6 and is quite similar to the in- and out-coupling switch of the regenerative amplifier.

- 37 -

Figure 4.6: Input switch to minimize amplification of pre-pulses The output of the regenerative amplifier (entering figure 4.6 from the left) is s-polarized and the 2 -plate rotates the polarization to p. When the Pockels-cell is off, the ppolarized light is transmitted through the polarizing beamsplitter. But when the Pockelscell is switched on it acts as a 2 -plate, so that the (now) s-polarized beam reflects off the surface of the polarizing beamsplitter. The effect of this switch can be seen when the oscillator pulse train is taken as the input signal (figure 4.7a). Figure 4.7b gives the output of the setup for the case that multiple pulses can pass the Pockels-cell during the time it is switched on. In figure 4.7c, the Pockels-cell is only switched on during the passing of a single pulse. The pulses that pass the Pockels-cell when it is turned off are largely transmitted through the polarizing beamsplitter and are attenuated in the output signal by 91 %.

Figure 4.7: Effect of Pockels-cell (PC) input switch a. Oscillator pulse train b. PC time-window contains multiple pulses c. PC time-window contains single pulse

- 38 -

To minimize the pre-pulses in the input of the 4-pass amplifier, the Pockels-cell is switched on only for the short period that the big pulse from the regen passes. Any prepulses are thereby attenuated in the input of the amplifier. The result is given in figure 4.8, which, in comparison with figure 4.4, shows that the pre-pulses are effectively diminished.

Figure 4.8: Regen output after input switch

Experimental setup

The first experimental setup of the 4-pass amplifier at the LPNO group made use of the techniques described in this chapter and had approximately the characteristics of the amplifier reported by Walker [15] in terms of beam sizes and size of the Ti:Sa crystal. The first amplification measurements however revealed that some adjustments were necessary to obtain the desired output power and beam quality. Enlarging pump beam of second pump laser The Nd:YAG pump lasers used in the setup do not produce an ideal beam for pumping the Ti:Sa crystal. A good pump beam should at least be circularly symmetric, but especially the profile of the second pump has a rather oval shape (see figure 4.9). The pumped area of the crystal was as a result too small to amplify the entire pulse in the vertical direction. To solve this problem, the size of the second pump beam on the crystal is enlarged to 8 mm, again by using the relay imaging technique. Vacuum spatial filtering after second- and third pass The intensity distributions of both pump lasers are not very homogeneous as can be seen in figure 4.9 (the fringes in these pictures are not present in the real pump profile, but are a result of the beam samplers used to lower the power before the beam hits the CCD camera). - 39 -

Figure 4.9: Measured pump profiles at the Ti:Sa crystal These pump profiles make that the Ti:Sa pulse also becomes less smooth during amplification. To prevent the buildup of any large spikes in the pulse and to maintain as good as possible beam-quality through the amplifier, two more spatial filters are installed after the second- and the third pass. Because the intensity of the pulse is now much higher than that of the input-pulse, focusing the beam in air would result in optical breakdown. The extra spatial filters are therefore placed in vacuum tubes. It is also found that the Ti:Sa pulse becomes smaller with every pass through the crystal. The reason for this is probably the thermal lens effect of the Ti:Sa crystal. It is however important to maintain a beam radius of around 2 mm for the Ti:Sa pulse, to preserve a good overlap between the pulse and the pump beams and to prevent the scenario of exceeding the damage threshold of the crystal. The two extra spatial filters are therefore at the same time used to enlarge the beam after the second- and third pass. Final setup of the 4-pass amplifier In general, setting up the multipass amplifier asks for accurate placement of the optics. For instance, the distances between pump lasers and Ti:sapphire crystal are given by the focal lengths of the Relay-imaging lenses, and it is desirable that the Ti:Sa beam makes as small as possible angles through the crystal. The entire setup is drawn using a Mathcad program called SmartSketch to determine the positions of all optical components, including the positions of the pump lasers and of the two optical tables relative to each other. To accurately determine the positions of the optics in the design, all components are drawn to scale. This way, clipping of the laser beam by any component is immediately evident. The final setup, as described in this chapter, is illustrated in figure 4.10. This picture does not display the complete setup; the input switch (see figure 4.6) is placed on another optical table, together with the first Nd:YAG pump laser (and all the first stages of the laser system as described in chapter two).

- 40 -

In the next and final chapter of this thesis, the performance of the presented amplifier setup is reported. The measured data is compared with the theory of pulse amplification.

With figure 4.10: All lenses and mirrors in the setup halve diameters of 1 inch, except for the lenses in the pump-lines, whose diameters are 2 inch. The Ti:Sa crystal is placed at 2.5 inch height above the table. All laser beams propagate at this standard height, except for the first part of the pump beams, which initially have a height of about 7.5 inch (including the vacuum tube in the second pump line in figure 4.10).

- 41 -

Figure 4.10: Schematic setup of 4-pass amplifier

- 42 -

5. Amplifier Performance and Comparison with the Theory

This chapter presents the measurement results obtained with the final setup of the amplifier as described in chapter four. The theory presented in chapter 3 is used to simulate the experimental setup. The measured pump profiles are used in the simulation as well as the measured properties of the input beam.

Measurements
Amplification of pulse energy The setup, as illustrated in figure 4.10, gives stable output pulse energy of about 140 mJ. The output power of the amplifier is logged over a period of one hour; the result is given in figure 5.1.

Figure 5.1: Logged output power The pulse energy is measured per pass through the amplifier; the output of every pass is logged over a time period of 15 minutes. The results are given in figure 5.2; the error-bars indicate the measured standard deviation.

- 43 -

Figure 5.2: Pulse energy per pass From the shape of this curve, it seems that the amplifier is not saturated; the pulse gains most of its energy in the 4th pass. The spectral measurements given below support this observation. Spectral properties In chapter 3, some things are said about the spectral effects of amplification. To see the actual effect of amplification on the spectral content of the pulse, the spectrum is measured at the output of the 4-pass amplifier as well as after- and before the regenerative amplifier (the pulse before the regen is the oscillator pulse measured after the stretcher). The results are given in figure 5.3.

- 44 -

Figure 5.3: Spectral content Ti:Sa pulse This figure depicts that the main red-shift in the pulse spectrum is induced by the regenerative amplifier, which causes a shift of the central frequency of about 10 nm. This is because the regen is operated into saturation. The extra shift resulting from amplification in the 4-pass amplifier is negligible compared to the shift induced by the regen. This result also indicates that the 4-pass amplifier is not saturated. The narrowing of the pulse spectrum in the 4-pass amplifier is also negligible compared to the narrowing already induced by the regen. The oscillator pulse (after the stretcher) has FWHM spectral width of about 25 nm, which is reduced to about 16 nm after the regenerative amplifier. M 2 -Beam propagation factor The amplifier under consideration produces the input of another 4-pass power amplifier. It is therefore important to determine how the output beam propagates to enable reliable design of the next amplifier. This is done by measuring the so-called M-squared values of the output beam for both the horizontal- and vertical directions. These values are often said to specify the beam-quality, but it is better to speak of the beam propagation factor. The standard definition of laser beam width is based on the second moment of the intensity distribution of the beam (ISO/11146). This second moment width is chosen as the basis of the M-squared method for characterizing laser beams [19]. The second moment x2 of an intensity profile I(x,y) across the rectangular coordinate x is defined as:

- 45 -

2 x

(x x ) I (x, y )dxdy = I ( x, y)dxdy

2 0

(5.1)

where x 0 is the centre of gravity of the beam in this direction (the first-moment of the intensity profile around x 0 vanishes). The position of x 0 travels in a straight line as the
2 beam propagates and, more important, x obeys a free-space propagation rule that holds for any arbitrary beam:

x2 ( z ) = x20 + 2 ( z z 0 ) 2

(5.2)

Here x0 is the variance at the beam waist, is the variance of the angular spread of the beam departing from the waist and z 0 is the location of the beam waist along the zaxis. A Gaussian beam has transverse intensity profile I(r,z) given by: I ( r, z ) = P r2 exp 2 w ( z )2 2 (5.3)

w( z)

w(z) is called the beam radius or Gaussian spotsize. For this Gaussian profile, w is twice the variance: wx 2 x . The general beam width definition is therefore chosen as:

Wx 2 x
so that: Wx 2

(5.4)

(x x ) I (x, y )dxdy I ( x, y)dxdy

2

(5.5)

Similar definitions go for the rectangular coordinate y. For any arbitrary beam and any choice of transverse axes one can then find:

Wx ( z ) = W0, x 1 + M x2 ( z z0, x ) / z R , x and:

(5.6a)

- 46 -

2 W y ( z ) = W0, y 1 + M y ( z z0, y ) / z R , y

(5.6b)

with:

z R,x

W02,x

and:

z R, y

W02,y

(in free space)

(5.6c,d)

M x and M y are parameters characteristic of the particular beam. The beam widths W x and W y thus propagate with distance in free space exactly like w(z) of an ideal Gaussian beam (see equation A.1.3), except for an M 2 multiplication factor in the far-field spreading of the beam. The parameters zR in equations 5.6 correspond to the Rayleigh range in the Gaussian case. The propagation of an arbitrary (simple-astigmatic) laser beam can in this way be fully 2 2 described by six parameters: W0 x , W0 y , z 0 x , z 0 y , M x and M y . The parameters M x2 and
2 are 1, with the limit of M 2 1 for single-mode TEM 00 Gaussian beams. My

Measuring M 2 values

To determine the M 2 -values of the output beam, the second moments of the intensity distribution are measured at different positions after focusing the beam with a lens. To sufficiently reduce the power, three beam-samplers are used together with a variable amount of neutral-density filters. The second-moment widths of the beam are determined using a CCD camera. The numerical data of the measurement is imported in Matlab and a routine is written to determine the second moments of the distributions. The measurement results can be seen in figure 5.4. The measurement errors in determining the second moment become bigger when the measurement area gets larger. As can be seen from equation 5.1, the weight factor for measured pixel-intensities goes up with the square of the distance from the beam-centre so errors in measuring pixel intensities at large distances from the beam centre become more significant. It is therefore best to stop measuring at certain distance from the centre to ensure justifiable accuracy (in this case the size of the CCD array is 8.6 mm in horizontal- and 6.9 mm in vertical direction).

- 47 -

Figure 5.4: Beam propagation factors Profile of the output pulse:

As also follows from the measured M 2 -values, the output of the 4-pass amplifier is not a perfect Gaussian. The amplification process and propagation through the amplifier have their influence on the output beam shape. Figure 5.5 shows a picture of the measured output profile. The local irregularities in this picture are mainly due to dust particles and irregularities on the neutral density filters.

Figure 5.5: Picture of the output pulse

- 48 -

Comparison with the theory

The Frantz-Nodvik theory presented in chapter 3 is implemented in Matlab and this simulation can be used to account for transverse variations in the pump beams and in the input pulse. The amplifier is modelled as a matrix of small amplifiers; both the real input pulse and the real pump beams are measured and the intensity profiles of these beams are split-up into small overlapping areas. The loss of pulse energy in redirecting the pulse for the next pass (modelled by the factor ) is also measured for the real setup. In chapter 3, an illustration was given using this model for the case of a Gaussian input with top-hat shaped pump beams. A simplification used there was that the input profile of a certain pass has the same transverse size and -shape as the output profile of the previous pass. In the real setup however, the amplified beam spreads out during propagation between the passes. To simulate the real setup, the model is improved to take into account (part of-) the spreading of the beam. The astigmatic-Gaussian input beam of the 4-pass amplifier has certain propagation characteristics, which are conveniently given by the transformation of the q-parameters of the input beam (for the horizontal and vertical directions). The optical elements of the amplifier setup are placed accurately according to the design, so the distances between the elements are known. This is used to calculate the q-parameter of the input beam throughout the amplifier (without amplification). The radius w at the positions the beam passes the Ti:Sa crystal are calculated from the q-parameter values. This information is used to give the scaling factor of the beam profile between subsequent passes. The fluence profiles of the both pumps at the Ti:Sa crystal are reconstructed from bitmap files (see figure 4.9). The interference ripples in these pictures are diminished by averaging over a number of pixels. It was first tried to reduce interference ripples by spatial filtering of the bitmap images, but this also filters away the sharp edge of the pump profiles. The fluence profiles of the pumps as used in the Matlab simulation are given in figure 5.6 together with the combined fluence profile. Regarding the alignment of pump- and input beams, the simulation assumes that the first moments of the pump- and input beams overlap in the Ti:Sa crystal.

- 49 -

Figure 5.6: Reconstructed pump-profiles

The simulation calculates pulse energies per pass as depicted in figure 5.7. The measured values of the real setup are also given in this picture. The output profile produced by the simulation is given in figure 5.8. The Matlab code for this simulation is given in Appendix 2.

- 50 -

Figure 5.7: Simulated output pulse-energy and measurements

Figure 5.8: Simulated- and measured output pulse profile

The similarity between the simulated and the measured output beam-profiles is actually quite poor. However, experience with the amplifier has shown that the alignment of the amplifier largely determines the shape of the output beam (and of the pulse energy). The precise overlap of the pulse and the pumps is not known for the real setup and is also difficult to describe accurately, because the pulse passes the crystal at small angles. The overlap is therefore not constant over the distance of the crystal. Also, the effect of the amplification process on the pulse shape results in an M 2 -factor larger than 1, to describe the faster spreading of the amplified beam (compared to a perfect Gaussian). This M 2 -factor could (maybe) be determined theoretically with a full, field-description of the amplification process, but the used Frantz-Nodvik theory does not provide any information about the phase of the light in the amplification process. The described model propagates the beam through the amplifier assuming M 2 of 1. In - 51 -

reality the beam will diverge faster than is accounted for in this model and the beam shape will also deform during propagation. The measured output beam has shown to posses larger M 2 -value in the horizontal direction than in the vertical direction. Comparison of the simulated- and the measured output profiles in figure 5.8 indeed shows that the measured beam is relatively spread out more in the horizontal direction. The output fluence that could be expected from the amplifier was also calculated using a flat input for the input pulse and for the pump beams. The pump beams are modelled as flat-top beams with elliptical shape and the input (Gaussian) beam is given an effective area corresponding to the Gaussian spotsize w. The result of this calculation is given in figure 5.9, again together with the measured data and the results of the Matlab simulation.

Figure 5.9: Flat input calculation

Based on the calculations with a flat input profile, one would expect the 4-pass amplifier to operate into saturation. Information about whether or not an amplifier will saturate is very important in the design phase, because the pump energy in this kind of power amplifiers is very costly and must be used as efficiently as possible. Also, in scientific experiments it is often advantageous if one can rely on as-stable-as-possible output pulseenergy, which is achieved when the amplifier is driven into saturation. Contrary to the flat input calculation, the realised simulation in Matlab gives a clear indication that the amplifier with the used characteristics and pump-profiles will not saturate, as is confirmed by the real setup.

- 52 -

In this specific case however, it is not a problem that the amplifier does not saturate, because it is not the final amplifier of the laser system. Any gained performance of the amplifier under consideration (in terms of higher output pulse-energy and higher stability) is lost as the current output will also saturate the final amplifier (which requires minimum input pulse energy of about 70 mJ to reach the saturation level). In this case, the shape of the output pulse of the realised amplifier is a more important characteristic. The output has quite elliptic shape which is not an ideal input for the next amplifier. The output also contains some noise peaks. To perform both a correction of the ellipticity of the pulse as well as to reduce the noise, a low-pass spatial-filter setup is being realised that uses cylindrical lenses. The setup of the final amplifier of the laser system is currently under construction in the Laser Physics and Nonlinear Optics group. The design of the final amplifier builds upon the experience gained in the construction of the presented amplifier. For more information about the final power amplifier contact reference number [20].

- 53 -

6. Conclusions
The realised 4-pass amplifier of the Ti:sapphire laser system works on a stable, daily basis and delivers output pulse energy of about 140 mJ. Though the amplifier is not saturated, this output is sufficient to saturate the final power amplifier of the laser system, which requires minimum input energy of 70 mJ to reach saturation. The pulse spectrum is largely unaffected in the 4-pass amplifier, partly because the amplifier is not saturated, and also because the gain factor of about 100 preserves large enough bandwidth to amplify the full spectrum the regenerative amplifier output. It is found that the beam-profiles of the used pump lasers are not ideal in terms of symmetry and homogeneity and have large effect on the output beam profile. It is recommended to use better pump lasers that produce circular, smooth beam profiles. The simulation of the amplifier setup has shown to give quite good results and adds value to simple plane input calculations. In the design of an amplifier it is of great importance to predict the circumstances that will saturate the amplifier. The used simulation correctly indicates that the amplifier with the used characteristics and pump-profiles will not saturate. In this specific case however, it is not a problem that the amplifier does not reach saturation, because the output is further amplified in a final stage 4-pass amplifier. The M 2 -beam propagation factors of the output beam are measured to be 1.2 in the vertical direction and 1.75 in the horizontal direction. This asymmetry is likely due to the asymmetry of the pump profiles. The resulting output beam-profile shows similarities to the (combined) pump profile and has relatively spread out more in the horizontal direction, corresponding to the larger beam propagation factor in this direction. The result is a beam of elliptic shape. Before this beam is inserted in the final amplifier, the pulse shape is to be manipulated to a more circular profile by means of a telescope using cylindrical lenses. Because the output is also not free of noise, low pass spatial filtering is recommended before the beam is amplified in the final stage.

- 54 -

7. References
[1] T. Saeki et al., Series tests of high gradient single-cell superconducting cavity for the establishment of KEK recipe, Proceedings of EPAC, 2006. [2] D. Umstadter, Review of physics and applications of relativistic plasmas driven by ultra-intense lasers, Physics of Plasmas, vol. 8, no. 5, pp. 1774-1785, 2001. [3] A.G. Khachatryan, F.A van Goor, and K.-J. Boller, Extremely short relativisticelectron-bunch generation in the laser wakefield via novel bunch injection scheme, Physical Review Special Topics Accelerators and Beams, vol. 7, 121301, 2004. [4] M.J. van der Wiel et al., Laser wakefield acceleration: the injection issue. Overview and latest results, Phil. Trans. R. Soc. A, no. 364, pp. 679-687, 2006. [5] A.G. Khachatryan et al., Conceptual design of a laser wakefield acceleration experiment with external bunch injection, Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research A, vol. 266, pp. 244-249, 2006. [6] P.F. Moulton, Spectroscopic and laser characteristics of Ti : Al2O3 , J. Opt. Soc. Am. B, vol. 3, no. 1, 1986. [7] G. Cheriaux et al., Aberration-free stretcher design for ultrashort-pulse amplification, Opt. Lett., vol. 21, no. 414, 1996. [8] P. Maine et al., Generation of Ultrahigh Peak Power Pulses by Chirped Pulse Amplification, IEEE Journal of Quantum Electronics, vol. 24, no. 2, pp. 389-403, 1988. [9] A.E. Siegman, Lasers, pp. 1041-1128, University Science Books, 1986. [10] A.E. Siegman, Lasers, pp. 80-108, University Science Books, 1986. [11] A.E. Siegman, Lasers, pp. 266-291, University Science Books, 1986. [12] L.M. Frantz and J.S. Nodvik, Theory of Pulse Propagation in a Laser Amplifier, Journal of Applied Physics, vol. 34, no. 8, pp. 2346-2349, 1963. [13] P.W. Milonni and J.H. Eberly, Lasers, pp. 395-398, Wiley-Interscience, 1988. [14] A. Major et al., Broadband characterization of the nonlinear refractive index of sapphire, in IEEE LEOS Annual Meeting, paper TuAA3, p. 405, 2003.

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[15] B.C. Walker et al., A 50-EW/cm 2 Ti:sapphire laser system for studying relativistic light-matter interactions, Optics Express, vol. 5, no. 10, pp. 196-202, 1999. [16] F.A. Van Goor and G. Vdovin, LightPipes Beam Propagation Toolbox, version 1.3, University of Twente / TNW / LPNO and Flexible Optical B.V. Delft. [17] J.T. Hunt et al., Improved performance of fusion lasers using the imaging properties of multiple spatial filters, Applied Optics, vol. 16, no. 4, pp. 779-782, 1977. [18] J.T. Hunt et al., Suppression of self-focusing through low-pass spatial filtering and relay imaging, Applied Optics, vol. 17, no. 13, pp. 2053-2057, 1978. [19] A.E. Siegman, How to (maybe) Measure Laser Beam Quality, Optical Society of America Annual Meeting 1997, paper OSA TOPS, 1998. [20] Dr. Ir. Ing. F.A. Van Goor, University of Twente, Department of Science and Technology, Laser Physics and Nonlinear Optics group. [21] C. Le Blanc et al., Compact and efficient miltipass Ti:sapphire system for femtosecond chirped-pulse amplification at the terawatt level, Optics Letters, vol. 18, no. 2, pp. 140-142, 1993.

- 56 -

Appendix 1: q-parameter
The q-parameter, or complex beam parameter, is a complex number that completely describes a Gaussian beam at a particular point in space. Figure A.1.1. illustrates a Gaussian beam, where z = 0 gives the position of minimum beam radius. The beam radius (or Gaussian spot size) at any point z is denoted by w ( z ) , and is defined as the distance from the beam centre at which the intensity has dropped to 1 e 2 of the maximum intensity. The size of the minimum beam radius is called the beam waist w0 . The curved lines in the picture below illustrate the phase fronts of the beam, flat: R ( 0 ) = ).

which have radii of curvature R ( z ) (the phase fronts at the position of the beam waist are

Figure A.1.1: Gaussian beam

At a particular point in space z, the q-parameter is defined as:

q ( z ) = z + jb ,

(A.1.1)

where b is the Rayleigh range given by: ( the wavelength of the light and n the refractive index of the material in which the beam propagates)
b = nw0 2

(A.1.2)

For a Gaussian beam with known beam waist size and -position, the beam radius w ( z ) and radius of curvature R ( z ) of the phase fronts can be calculated for any position z along the path:

- 57 -

z2 2 + w2 ( z ) = w0 1 2 b b2 = R ( z ) z 1 + 2 z

(A.1.3) (A.1.4)

From equations A.1.1 to A.1.4, q ( z ) can be written in terms of R ( z ) and w ( z ) : 1 1 = j q( z ) R ( z ) nw( z )2 (A.1.5)

1 1 z jb = 2 (by using: ). The values of R ( z ) and w ( z ) thus follow from 2 q( z ) z + jb z + b respectively the real- and imaginary parts of q ( z ) .

Transformation of q-parameter

Any optical component has an associated ABCD-matrix and the change in the qparameter in passing the component can be expressed using a general notation:
q' = Aq + B Cq + D

(A.1.6)

where q ' refers to the point after passing the component. It is sometimes convenient to write A.1.6 in the form: 1 C+D q = q' A+ B q (A.1.7)

For instance, when q ( z ) is known, the q-value after a length d of free-space propagation is q ( z + d ) = ( z + d ) + jb = q ( z ) + d . So:

A B 1 d Free space propagation of length d: = C D 0 1

(A.1.8a)

In the case of a thin lens of focal length f, a beam with initially flat phase fronts ( R = ) passing the lens obtains a radius of curvature R = f . The beam radius w is assumed to 1 1 1 is transformed to = j . be unaffected for a thin lens, so = j 2 q q f w w2 Comparison with equation A.1.7 shows that: - 58 -

A B 1 Propagation through a thin lens of focal length f: = C D 1 f

0 1

(A.1.8b)

Equation A.1.2 for the Rayleigh range together with equations A.1.3 and A.1.4 for w ( z ) and R ( z ) shows that a Gaussian beam propagating in a medium with refractive index n evolves with distance z as if it were propagating in free space a distance z n . So:
Propagation through a slab of material with index of refraction n and thickness d:

A B 1 d n C D = 0 1

(A.1.8c)

The effect of a combination of optical elements can be described by a single ABCDmatrix, which is the product of the separate ABCD-matrices.

- 59 -

Appendix 2: Matlab-simulation code

clear; m=1; cm=1e-2*m; mm=1e-3*m; nm=1e-9*m; W=1; mW=1e-3*W; Hz=1; e=2.17828; J=1; pixels_x=100; % number of pixels in pixels_y=100; % number of pixels in size_x=12*mm; % grid size size_y=12*mm; pixelSize_x=size_x/pixels_x; % pixel size pixelSize_y=size_y/pixels_y; % pixel size pixelArea=pixelSize_y*pixelSize_x; lambda=800*nm; lambdaPump=532*nm; alphaTiSa=2.1/cm; L=18*mm; saturationFluence=1*J/cm^2; index=1.76; efficiency=0.90; [21]) gamma=0.93; pulse amplifier repRate=10*Hz; Ppump1=2.66*W; Ppump2=4.00*W; Pinput=20*mW; % % % % % % % horizontal direction (x) vertical direction (y)

in x-direction in [m] in y-direction in [m]

% pixel area

wavelength pump wavelength absorption coefficient of Ti:Sa length of Ti:Sa crystal saturation fluence of Ti:Sa index of refraction of Sapphire eta (see chapter 3; taken from

% measured loss redirecting the Ti:Sa % for the next pass through the % pulse repetition rate in amplifier % power of pump 1 % power of pump 2 % input power of Ti:Sa pulse

% Calculation of q-parameter throughout the amplifier: waistSize_y=0.76*mm; waistSize_x=0.73*mm; waistPosition_y=0*m; is taken waistPosition_x=23.118*cm; direction % size of waist in vertical direction % size of waist in horizontal direction % position of waist in vertical direction % as the starting position % different position in horizontal

- 60 -

q_waist_y=1/(-i*lambda/(pi*waistSize_y^2)); q_waist_x=1/(-i*lambda/(pi*waistSize_x^2));

% q-values at waist

f_lens1=1002*mm; f_lens2=1513*mm; lens in beam in figure 4.10 f_lens3=705*mm; f_lens4=1002*mm; f_lens5=705*mm; f_lens6=1002*mm; % Propagation distances: p_lens1=496.69*cm; 'waistPosition_y' d_lens2=280.69*cm; d_in1=264.51*cm; d_in2=136.09*cm; pass 1 d_lens3=99.51*cm; d_lens4=170.7*cm; d_in3=83.28*cm; d_lens5=107.02*cm; d_lens6=170.7*cm; d_in4=112.54*cm;

% focal length of lens 1 % focal length of lens 2; this is the first % the path of the input

% position of lens 1 measured from % distance to lens 2 measured from p_lens1 % distance to input pass 1 measured from p_lens2 % distance to input pass 2 measured from output % distance to lens 3 measured from output pass 2

% q-parameter transformation in vertical direction: q_y_lens1=q_waist_y+p_lens1; q_y_afterLens1=1/(1/q_y_lens1-1/f_lens1); q_y_lens2=q_y_afterLens1+d_lens2; q_y_afterLens2=1/(1/q_y_lens2-1/f_lens2); q_y_in1=q_y_afterLens2+d_in1; q_y_pass1=q_y_in1+(L/2)/index; q_y_out1=q_y_pass1+(L/2)/index; q_y_in2=q_y_out1+d_in2; q_y_pass2=q_y_in2+(L/2)/index; q_y_out2=q_y_pass2+(L/2)/index; q_y_lens3=q_y_out2+d_lens3; q_y_afterLens3=1/(1/q_y_lens3-1/f_lens3); q_y_lens4=q_y_afterLens3+d_lens4; q_y_afterLens4=1/(1/q_y_lens4-1/f_lens4); q_y_in3=q_y_afterLens4+d_in3; q_y_pass3=q_y_in3+(L/2)/index; q_y_out3=q_y_pass3+(L/2)/index; q_y_lens5=q_y_out3+d_lens5; % at lens 1 % after lens 1 % lens 2

% at input of first pass % middle of crystal % at output of crystal % second pass

% lens 3

% lens 4

% third pass

% lens 5

- 61 -

q_y_afterLens5=1/(1/q_y_lens5-1/f_lens5); q_y_lens6=q_y_afterLens5+d_lens6; q_y_afterLens6=1/(1/q_y_lens6-1/f_lens6); q_y_in4=q_y_afterLens6+d_in4; q_y_pass4=q_y_in4+(L/2)/index; % lens 6

% fourth pass

% q-parameter transformation in horizontal direction: q_x_lens1=q_waist_x+(p_lens1-waistPosition_x); % at lens 1 (different % waist-position in horizontal direction) q_x_afterLens1=1/(1/q_x_lens1-1/f_lens1); % after lens 1 q_x_lens2=q_x_afterLens1+d_lens2; q_x_afterLens2=1/(1/q_x_lens2-1/f_lens2); q_x_in1=q_x_afterLens2+d_in1; q_x_pass1=q_x_in1+(L/2)/index; q_x_out1=q_x_pass1+(L/2)/index; q_x_in2=q_x_out1+d_in2; q_x_pass2=q_x_in2+(L/2)/index; q_x_out2=q_x_pass2+(L/2)/index; q_x_lens3=q_x_out2+d_lens3; q_x_afterLens3=1/(1/q_x_lens3-1/f_lens3); q_x_lens4=q_x_afterLens3+d_lens4; q_x_afterLens4=1/(1/q_x_lens4-1/f_lens4); q_x_in3=q_x_afterLens4+d_in3; q_x_pass3=q_x_in3+(L/2)/index; q_x_out3=q_x_pass3+(L/2)/index; q_x_lens5=q_x_out3+d_lens5; q_x_afterLens5=1/(1/q_x_lens5-1/f_lens5); q_x_lens6=q_x_afterLens5+d_lens6; q_x_afterLens6=1/(1/q_x_lens6-1/f_lens6); q_x_in4=q_x_afterLens6+d_in4; q_x_pass4=q_x_in4+(L/2)/index; % lens 2

% at input of first pass % middle of crystal % at output of the crystal % second pass

% lens 3

% lens 4

% third pass

% lens 5

% lens 6

% fourth pass

% Calculate radii w from q-parameter at passes 1 to 4: w_y_pass1=sqrt((-pi/lambda*imag(1/q_y_pass1))^-1); w_x_pass1=sqrt((-pi/lambda*imag(1/q_x_pass1))^-1); w_y_pass2=sqrt((-pi/lambda*imag(1/q_y_pass2))^-1); w_x_pass2=sqrt((-pi/lambda*imag(1/q_x_pass2))^-1); w_y_pass3=sqrt((-pi/lambda*imag(1/q_y_pass3))^-1); % w in m

- 62 -

w_x_pass3=sqrt((-pi/lambda*imag(1/q_x_pass3))^-1); w_y_pass4=sqrt((-pi/lambda*imag(1/q_y_pass4))^-1); w_x_pass4=sqrt((-pi/lambda*imag(1/q_x_pass4))^-1);

w_y_pass=[w_y_pass1 w_y_pass2 w_y_pass3 w_y_pass4 w_y_pass4]; w_x_pass=[w_x_pass1 w_x_pass2 w_x_pass3 w_x_pass4 w_x_pass4];

% Astigmatic Gaussian input fluence profile for pass 1: x0=pixels_x/2; y0=pixels_y/2; % center in x direction % center in y direction

for i=1:pixels_y for j=1:pixels_x x=(j-x0)*pixelSize_x; % x value from the center (in meters) y=(y0-i)*pixelSize_y; % y value from the center (in meters) AstigGaussian(i,j)=(2*Pinput/(pi*w_x_pass1*w_y_pass1))*exp(2*(x^2/w_x_pass1^2+y^2/w_y_pass1^2)); % Astigmatic Gaussian with power P and radii w_x_pass1 and w_y_pass1 end end inputFluence=AstigGaussian./repRate; normalised % check power: powerDistr=AstigGaussian*pixelArea; inputPower_in_W=sum(sum(powerDistr)) % Input fluence profile % to pulse energy % input power levels per pixel % total input power

figure(1); mesh(inputFluence);axis([0 pixels_x 0 pixels_y 0 max(max(inputFluence))]); str=sprintf('Input-fluence profile');title(str);axis square; % Grid large enough?: inputPulseEnergy=Pinput/repRate;

% defined pulse energy in [J]

inputEnergyDistr=inputFluence*pixelArea; % array of energy levels Input_pulse_energy_in_J=sum(sum(inputEnergyDistr)); % total pulse energy Grid_size_factor=Input_pulse_energy_in_J./inputPulseEnergy % if Grid_size_factor < 1 the grid is too small

% Pump fluence profile (from bitmap): % pump 1:

- 63 -

bmp1_pixelSize_x=0.0132*mm; pattern bmp1_pixelSize_y=0.0149*mm;

% pixel size was found from a burn % (different in vertical direction)

pump1=imread('G:\Hein\pictures of the pulse\pump1 @ crystal/pump1.bmp'); bmp1_pixels_y=size(pump1,1); bmp1_pixels_x=size(pump1,2); % pixels in vertical direction % horizontal

pump1=double(pump1(1:bmp1_pixels_y,1:bmp1_pixels_x)); selectArea=pump1(101:700,101:900); % center pump profile % determine centerpoint (first moment) columnsum=sum(selectArea); rowsum=sum(selectArea,2); for j=1:size(columnsum,2) B(j)=j*columnsum(j); end for i=1:size(rowsum) C(i)=i*rowsum(i); end x_center=round(sum(B)/sum(sum(selectArea))); y_center=round(sum(C)/sum(sum(selectArea))); vert=size(selectArea,1); hor=size(selectArea,2); center_Pump=zeros(vert,hor); for i=1+abs(y_center-vert/2):vert positive for j=1+abs(x_center-hor/2):hor % make sure i,j are % center pixel in x % y % area of interest

center_Pump(vert/2-(y_center-i),hor/2+(jx_center))=selectArea(i,j); end end centeredPump=center_Pump(1:vert,1:hor); % Make square array of square area pixels=100; grid=12*mm; % new size of grid in pixels % new size of grid in mm.

pixelSize=grid/pixels;

- 64 -

squarePump=imresize(centeredPump,[pixels,pixels],'nearest'); % 'nearest-neighbor' interpolation to get square array y0=pixels/2; x0=pixels/2; % center in y direction % center in x direction

% Scale to new pixelSize and compensate for difference in pixel-sizes factor_y=vert*bmp1_pixelSize_y/grid; factors factor_x=bmp1_pixelSize_y/bmp1_pixelSize_x*factor_y; rescaledPump1=zeros(pixels); if factor_x>=1 % enlarge radius for i=1:pixels for j=1:pixels rescaledPump1(i,j)=squarePump(i,round((j-x0)/factor_x)+x0); end end else for i=1:pixels % reduce radius for j=1:pixels rescaledPump1(i,round((j-x0)*factor_x)+x0)=squarePump(i,j); end end end if factor_y>=1 % enlarge radius for i=1:pixels for j=1:pixels rescaledPump1(i,j)=squarePump(y0-round((y0-i)/factor_y),j); end end else for i=1:pixels % reduce radius for j=1:pixels rescaledPump1(round((i-y0)*factor_y)+y0,j)=squarePump(i,j); end end end % calculate / normalise power: powerDistr1=rescaledPump1*pixelSize^2; % 'power levels' of pump 1 per pixel power1=sum(sum(powerDistr1)); % total 'power' I_Pump1=rescaledPump1*Ppump1/power1; % intensity profile normalised to given Ppump1 pump1_Fluence=I_Pump1./repRate; % Fluence profile of pump 1 % normalized to pulse energy % rescale

checkPowerDistr=I_Pump1*pixelSize^2;

- 65 -

checkPower_1=sum(sum(checkPowerDistr)) figure(2); mesh(pump1_Fluence);axis([0 pixels_x 0 pixels_y 0 max(max(pump1_Fluence))]); str=sprintf('Pump1-fluence profile');title(str);axis square;

% Pump 2: bmp2_pixelSize_x=0.0197*mm; pattern bmp2_pixelSize_y=0.0195*mm; % pixel size was found from a burn % (different in vertical direction)

pump2=imread('G:\Hein\pictures of the pulse\pump 2 @ crystal/pump2.bmp'); bmp2_pixels_y=size(pump2,1); bmp2_pixels_x=size(pump2,2); % pixels in vertical direction % horizontal

pump2=double(pump2(1:bmp2_pixels_y,1:bmp2_pixels_x)); selectArea_2=pump2(101:700,101:900); % center pump profile: % determine centerpoint (first moment) columnsum=[]; rowsum=[]; columnsum=sum(selectArea_2); rowsum=sum(selectArea_2,2); for j=1:size(columnsum,2) D(j)=j*columnsum(j); end for i=1:size(rowsum) E(i)=i*rowsum(i); end x_center=round(sum(D)/sum(sum(selectArea_2))); y_center=round(sum(E)/sum(sum(selectArea_2))); center_Pump=[]; center_Pump=zeros(vert,hor); for i=1+abs(y_center-vert/2):vert positive for j=1+abs(x_center-hor/2):hor % make sure i,j are % center pixel in x % y % area of interest

center_Pump(vert/2-(y_center-i),hor/2+(jx_center))=selectArea_2(i,j); end end

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centeredPump2=center_Pump(1:vert,1:hor); % Make square array of square area squarePump2=imresize(centeredPump2,[pixels,pixels],'nearest'); % 'nearest-neighbor' interpolation to get square array % Scale to new pixelSize and compensate for difference in pixel-sizes factor_y=vert*bmp2_pixelSize_y/grid; factors factor_x=bmp2_pixelSize_y/bmp2_pixelSize_x*factor_y; rescaledPump2=zeros(pixels); if factor_x>=1 % enlarge radius for i=1:pixels for j=1:pixels rescaledPump2(i,j)=squarePump2(i,round((j-x0)/factor_x)+x0); end end else % reduce radius for i=1:pixels for j=1:pixels rescaledPump2(i,round((j-x0)*factor_x)+x0)=squarePump2(i,j); end end end if factor_y>=1 for i=1:newSize for j=1:newSize rescaledPump2(i,j)=squarePump2(y0-round((y0-i)/factor_y),j); end end else for i=1:pixels for j=1:pixels rescaledPump2(round((i-y0)*factor_y)+y0,j)=squarePump2(i,j); end end end % calculate / normalise power: powerDistr2=rescaledPump2*pixelSize^2; % 'power levels' of pump 2 per pixel power2=sum(sum(powerDistr2)); % total 'power' I_Pump2=rescaledPump2*Ppump2/power2; % intensity profile normalised to given Ppump2 pump2_Fluence=I_Pump2./repRate; % Fluence profile of pump 2 % normalized to pulse energy % rescale

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checkPowerDistr_2=I_Pump2*pixelSize^2; checkPower_2=sum(sum(checkPowerDistr_2)) figure(4); mesh(pump2_Fluence);axis([0 pixels_x 0 pixels_y 0 max(max(pump2_Fluence))]); str=sprintf('Pump2-fluence profile');title(str);axis square;

% Add the two pump profiles: pumpFluence=pump1_Fluence+pump2_Fluence; figure(6); mesh(pumpFluence);axis([0 pixels_x 0 pixels_y 0 max(max(pumpFluence))]); str=sprintf('Combined Pump-fluence profile');title(str);axis square;

% Creation of a 'stored fluence array': absorbedFluence=pumpFluence*(1-e^(-alphaTiSa*L)); % absorbed part of pump Fluence storedFluence=absorbedFluence*efficiency*(lambdaPump/lambda); % usable fluence stored in the amplifier

% Passes through the amplifier: n_pass=4; % number of passes

Pulse_energy=zeros(1,n_pass+1); % Array of pulse-energies: Pulse_energy(1)=Input_pulse_energy_in_J;% first element: input pulse energy for i=1:n_pass; G=exp(storedFluence./saturationFluence); array' % creation of a 'gain

outputFluence=saturationFluence*log(1+G.*(e.^(inputFluence/saturationFl uence)-1)); % Frantz-Nodvik equation figure; imagesc(outputFluence),axis('square'); str=sprintf('Output-fluence profile');title(str);axis square; outputEnergyDistr=outputFluence*pixelArea; % output energy levels per pixel Output_pulse_energy_in_J=sum(sum(outputEnergyDistr)); % output pulse energy Pulse_energy(i+1)=Output_pulse_energy_in_J; % put in pulse-energy array storedFluence=storedFluence-(outputFluence-inputFluence);

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% stored fluence is lowered by the extracted amount % input of next pass: scalingFactor_y=w_y_pass(i+1)/w_y_pass(i); propagation scalingFactor_x=w_x_pass(i+1)/w_x_pass(i); % rescale to model

if scalingFactor_x>=1 % enlarge radius for k=1:pixels for l=1:pixels inputFluence(k,l)=outputFluence(k,round((lx0)/scalingFactor_x)+x0)/scalingFactor_x; end end else % reduce radius for k=1:pixels for l=1:pixels inputFluence(k,round((lx0)*scalingFactor_x)+x0)=outputFluence(k,l)/scalingFactor_x; end end end if scalingFactor_y>=1 for k=1:pixels for l=1:pixels inputFluence(k,l)=outputFluence(y0-round((y0k)/scalingFactor_y),l)/scalingFactor_y; end end else for k=1:pixels for l=1:pixels inputFluence(round((ky0)*scalingFactor_y)+y0,l)=outputFluence(k,l)/scalingFactor_y; end end end inputFluence=gamma*inputFluence; end Pulse_energy_in_J=Pulse_energy figure; plot(Pulse_energy);axis('square'); str=sprintf('Build-up of pulse energy % loss in propagation

J');title(str);axis square;

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