Abstract:
Various embodiments described herein comprise a laser and/or an amplifier system including a doped gain fiber (1404) having ytterbium ions in a phosphosilicate glass. Various embodiments described herein increase pump absorption to at least about 1000 dB/m - 9000 dB/m. The use of these gain fibers provide for increased peak -powers and/or pulse energies. The various embodiments of the doped gain fiber (1404) having ytterbium ions in a phosphosilicate glass exhibit reduced photo-darkening levels compared to photo-darkening levels obtainable with equivalent doping levels of an ytterbium doped silica fiber.
Abstract:
Various embodiments may be used for laser-based modification of target material of a workpiece while advantageously achieving improvements in processing throughput and/or quality. Embodiments of a method of processing may include focusing and directing laser pulses to a region of the workpiece at a pulse repetition rate sufficiently high so that material is efficiently removed from the region and a quantity of unwanted material within the region, proximate to the region, or both is reduced relative to a quantity obtainable at a lower repetition rate In at least one embodiment, an ultrashort pulse laser system may include at least one of a fiber amplifier or fiber laser. Various embodiments are suitable for at least one of dicing, cutting, scribing, and forming features on or within a semiconductor substrate. Workpiece materials may also include metals, inorganic or organic dielectrics, or any material to be micromachined with femtosecond and/or picosecond pulses, and in some embodiments with pulse widths up to a few nanoseconds.
Abstract:
High power parallel fiber arrays for the amplification of high peak power pulses are described. Fiber arrays based on individual fiber amplifiers as well as fiber arrays based on multi-core fibers can be implemented. The optical phase between the individual fiber amplifier elements of the fiber array is measured and controlled using a variety of phase detection and compensation techniques. High power fiber array amplifiers can be used for EUV and X-ray generation as well as pumping of parametric amplifiers.
Abstract:
An alignment apparatus for optical components includes chemically co-etched parts which may be assembled with high tolerances and in a repeatable manner. The resulting construction, together with a translatable stage and/or a micrometer, allows for rapid and extremely precise alignment of the mounted optics.
Abstract:
Laser machining of material using a burst of laser pulses, tailoring the pulse width, pulse separation, wavelength, and polarization to maximize the positive effect of thermal and physical changes achieved by the previous pulse on the laser matter interaction. The first laser pulse (31) width has a duration longer than a second laser pulse (32) width. The first pulse (31) and the second pulse (32) may have the same pulse energy or differing pulse energy.
Abstract:
Various types of holey fiber provide optical propagation. In various embodiments, for example, a large core holey fiber comprises a cladding region formed by large holes arranged in few layers. The number of layers or rows of holes about the large core can be used to coarse tune the leakage losses of the fundamental and higher modes of a signal, thereby allowing the non-fundamental modes to be substantially eliminated by leakage over a given length of fiber. Fine tuning of leakage losses can be performed by adjusting the hole dimension and/or the hole spacing to yield a desired operation with a desired leakage loss of the fundamental mode. Resulting holely fibers have a large hole dimension and spacing, and thus a large core, when compared to traditional fibers and conventional fibers that propagate a single mode. Other loss mechanisms, such as bend loss and modal spacing can be utilized for selected modes of operation of holey fibers. Other embodiments are also provided.
Abstract:
Various embodiments include modelocked fiber laser resonators that may be coupled with optical amplifiers. An isolator may separate the laser resonator from the amplifier, although certain embodiments exclude such an isolator. A reflective optical element on one end of the resonator having a relatively low reflectivity may be employed to couple light from the laser resonator to the amplifier. Enhanced pulse-width control may be provided with concatenated sections of both polarization-maintaining and non-polarization-maintaining fibers. Apodized fiber Bragg gratings and integrated fiber polarizers may be also be included in the laser cavity to assist in linearly polarizing the output of the cavity. Very short pulses with a large optical bandwidth may be obtained by matching the dispersion value of the fiber Bragg grating to the inverse of the dispersion of the intra-cavity fiber. Frequency comb sources may be constructed from such modelocked fiber oscillators. In various exemplary embodiments, low dispersion and an in-line interferometer that provides feedback, assist in controlling the frequency components output from the comb source.
Abstract:
By writing non-linear chirp into fiber Bragg gratings, greater control over dispersion compensation in CPA systems is obtained, such that, for example, the dispersion profile of the fiber Bragg grating and a bulk compressor may be matched. An iterative method of writing the fiber grating can reduce the group delay ripple to very low levels; and adaptive control of the fiber grating dispersion profile can further reduce these levels, while in addition offering greater acceptable yield in the manufacture of such gratings. Fiber Bragg gratings may be designed so as to provide customized pulse shapes optimized for various end uses, such as micromachining, for example, and may also be used to counteract gain-narrowing in a downstream amplifier.
Abstract:
Apparatus and method to generate a stream of pulses having a pulse repetition rate of at least about 50000 pulses per second and a per-pulse length of less than one picosecond, and to scan and focus the stream to an output light pattern suitable to sculpt tissue for a surgical procedure (e.g., ophthalmologic) using at least a high number of pulses to complete the operation in a matter of a few seconds, e.g., 100000 pulses in less than ten seconds. Some embodiments create a preconditioning negative dispersion that compensates for positive dispersion in the scanning system, in some embodiments; a lenticule is cut using the laser and scanning system and is mechanically removed through a side slit formed through the cornea surface.
Abstract:
Provided is a novel electrode composition suitable for use in an electrochemical cell. The composition includes a polymeric binder material and a doped tungsten (IV) oxide active material. The active material includes a tungsten (IV) oxide host material and a metal dopant in the host material effective to increase the charge-discharge capacity per unit weight of the active material when used in an electrochemical cell. Also provided is a method for forming the electrode composition and an electrochemical cell comprising the composition. The invention results in an electrochemical cell having improved charge-discharge capacity per unit weight of the electrode active material, and is additionally chemically and electrochemically stable.