Physics 425 Modern Optics

Lecture Notes W. Andreas Schroeder

XII.

Lasers Temporal & Spectral Control

TEMPORAL AND SPECTRAL CONTROL OF LASER RESONATORS

The Uncertainty Principle

__

the fundamental limit on the time-bandwidth product in laser physics.

The Uncertainty Principle, Et h , when expressed in terms of the full-width half

maximum (FWHM) t of the temporal pulse shape I(t) and the FWHM v of the
spectral irradiance distribution I(v), defines the minimum transform-limited pulse
duration t that I(v) can support.
For example, for a Gaussian pulse shape;
I (t )

I (v )

Io

Io

Gaussian

Gaussian

Io
2

Io
2

v t 0.44
N.B.
i)

When evaluating the time-bandwidth product it is E(t) and E() that

are the Fourier transform pair. NOT I(t) and I() (or I(v)). BUT,
2

I(t) E (t ) and I() E () .

ii)

t
Ultrashort pulse lasers often produce sech 2 temporal pulse

shapes for which the time-bandwidth product reads

v t 0.32
E.g., for, t = 100fs, = 3.2x1012Hz so that at = 800nm we
require a bandwidth of = 6.8nm to support the 100fs sech2 pulse.

Physics 425 Modern Optics

Lecture Notes W. Andreas Schroeder

Lasers Temporal & Spectral Control

Homogeneous and Inhomogeneous Broadening

The detailed spectral characteristics of the gain medium greatly affects laser
performance.
a) A Homogeneous System:
If all the atoms in the gain medium have the same peak resonance frequency and have
the same gain bandwidth, the atomic system is said to be homogeneously broadened.
In this case, just as in the case of an absorptive resonance, the dielectric function is of
form
()

1
2

o2 i

so that the bandwidth g(), which is proportional to Im[()] , can be written as

g () =

g o 22

o2

+ 2 2
where g o is the peak gain at = o and
is proportional to the width of g () .

A homogeneously broadened system therefore has a Lorentzian gain bandwidth;

g ()

go

go
2

Physics 425 Modern Optics

Lecture Notes W. Andreas Schroeder

Lasers Temporal & Spectral Control

NOTE:
Because of all the atoms in the gain medium respond in the same manner to
EM radiation, only one axial mode will oscillate in a laser cavity.

single
lasing
mode

E
loss
line

vo

vo

the axial mode with initially the highest

gain wins out and extracts all the
energy stored in the gain medium.
N.B.
Many individual atomic transitions are homogeneously
broadened ( A 21 intrinsic homogeneous linewidth),
BUT few laser transitions are.
b) An Inhomogeneous System:
In an inhomogeneously broadened system, the atoms all have slightly
different resonant frequencies due to their environments. Statistically, this
produces a Gaussian gain bandwidth;
g ()

o
g o exp

go

1
g
e o

Examples of inhomogeneous broadening are

- doppler broadening (gas lasers)
- lattice/strain broadening (solid-state lasers)
-
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Physics 425 Modern Optics

Lecture Notes W. Andreas Schroeder

Lasers Temporal & Spectral Control

NOTE:
Since all atoms in the gain medium are essentially independent in their spectral
response, all axial modes above the loss line will oscillate.

lasing
modes

loss
line

vo

vo

the strongest lasing axial mode is the one closest to the

peak of the gain bandwidth.
N.B.
Many laser gain media are predominantly inhomogeneously
broadened. In fact, an inhomogeneous gain medium is needed in
order to generate short laser pulses since a large lasing
bandwidth is required; i.e. many axial modes must oscillate.
c) Real Gain Media:
A real laser gain medium is neither completely homogeneous or inhomogeneous; it is a
mixture, which may be represented as a set of narrow homogeneous lines at different
resonant frequencies that make up the overall gain bandwidth.

g (v )
overall gain profile
(a Voight profile).

go
individual
homogeneous
linewidths.

v h

vo

Physics 425 Modern Optics

Lecture Notes W. Andreas Schroeder

Lasers Temporal & Spectral Control

NOTE:
In a laser with a real gain medium, which axial modes oscillate is dependent
upon the ratio of the axial mode spacing, c , to the buried homogeneous
2L
linewidth, v h .
i)

If v h <<

c
, then all axial modes above the loss line oscillate in a
2L

laser.
[the inhomogeneous limit].
ii)

c
If v h ~
>
, then one axial mode can dominate.
2L
[the homogeneous limit].

In general, spectral holes with a width of ~ v h are burnt into the gain
bandwidth at each axial mode;

~ v h

lasing axial
mode.
loss
line

vo

2L
spectral hole burning.

N.B.
The efficiency with which a laser can extract the energy stored in a gain
medium is dependent upon how homogeneous the gain medium is and
the ratio of v h to c . The efficiency will increase if (i) the gain
2L
c
medium is predominantly homogeneous, or if (ii) v h ~
>
.
2L

Physics 425 Modern Optics

Lecture Notes W. Andreas Schroeder

Lasers Temporal & Spectral Control

Single Longitudinal Mode (SLM) Operation

__

important in laser spectroscopy when a pure near single frequency source

is required.

There are a number of techniques that are used to achieve SLM operation:
a) Use a homogeneous gain medium

single
lasing
mode

loss
line

vo

vo

axial mode with highest gain extracts all

the energy in the gain medium
(all excited atoms radiatively couple to
single axial mode wavelength).

b) Reduce the cavity length

__

ensure axial mode spacing v =

c

c
is greater than gain bandwidth.
2L

2L
E

loss line

vo

SLM operation

Physics 425 Modern Optics

Lecture Notes W. Andreas Schroeder

Lasers Temporal & Spectral Control

E.g., diode-pumped Nd:YAG microlasers

Nd:YAG crystal
Diode
Laser

= 1.064 m
L

For Nd:YAG gain bandwidth, B = 0.45nm

~
For SLM operation, L <

c
~ 1 mm
2v B

c) Use intracavity wavelength selective elements

E.g., the Fabry-Perot etalon
R = 100%
Gain Medium

SLM
output
Etalon

__

Output
Coupler

Fabry-Perot transmission function selects single lasing axial mode

gain profile

lasing
axial
mode

Etalon
transmission
function

loss line

vo

v FSR

Physics 425 Modern Optics

Lecture Notes W. Andreas Schroeder

Lasers Temporal & Spectral Control

N.B.
i) Need to ensure that v FSR is greater than the gain bandwidth.
ii) Can tune the wavelength of SLM operation by rotating the etalon, i.e.
changing the optical path length = 2ndcost.
iii) Other intracavity wavelength selective elements include;
- reflection gratings as mirrors
- birefringent plates at Brewsters angle (only one wavelength under
gain profile receives no net polarization rotation and hence less loss
per cavity roundtrip).
iv) The position of the gain medium in the cavity also helps SLM operation
by ensuring that axial gain depletion (known as spatial hole burning)
does not allow neighboring modes to oscillate;

gain
gain

go

neighboring
axial
mode

Gain medium
near mirror
means low gain
for neighboring
mode.

High gain for

neighboring
mode

Physics 425 Modern Optics

Lecture Notes W. Andreas Schroeder

Lasers Temporal & Spectral Control

Q-Switching
__

useful for the generation of high-energy nanosecond pulses by the efficient

extraction of stored energy in the gain medium.

Basic idea:

Use an optical switch (usually based on polarization or acoustic wave

diffraction) to stop the cavity lasing (i.e., spoil the quality of Q of the
cavity) and then switch cavity open. Rapid transient build-up of
radiation results in a Q-switched output pulse.

E.g., polarized, TEM00, SLM, Q-switched Nd:YAG

P ockels
cell
+

Polarizer

Aperture

Nd:YAG

Output
-

R=100%

Flashlamp

Etalon

R=50%

Q-switch

The voltage on the Pockels cell is initially set at the quarter-wave voltage, V , so
4

that the Pockels cell acts as a retarder two passes giving a plate so that the
4
2
cavity is closed by the polarizer. The voltage is then reduced to zero to open the cavity
for oscillation and produce the Q-switched pulse, i.e.

laser pulse

Energy ~ 10 mJ
Power ~ 2 MW
V

~ 5ns

Physics 425 Modern Optics

Lecture Notes W. Andreas Schroeder

Lasers Temporal & Spectral Control

N.B.
i) Q-switching requires a gain medium with a long (>1s) upper-state life
time, 21 , in order to store the energy in the flashlamp pumped (i.e., pulsepumped) gain medium.
ii) An alternative method is to cavity dump a laser with a Pockels cell;

Gain
Medium

R = 100%

R = 100%

Output

In this case,

Lasing
duration
V

2L
c

t
Q-switching

Dumping

10

Physics 425 Modern Optics

Lecture Notes W. Andreas Schroeder

Lasers Temporal & Spectral Control

Ultrashort Pulse Generation Modelocking

Basic idea:

Modulate the loss in the cavity at the cavity round-trip time so that only
radiation in-phase with the loss minimum oscillates.
short pulse formation.

[In frequency space, this corresponds to the locking of the phases of the axial modes;

qth mode

0
(q+1)th mode

for many
modes
gives

(q-1)th mode

a pulse with all axial modes

in-phase at t = 0,

Modelocking . ]

NOTE:
The current state-of-the-art for the shortest pulse directly from a laser is 510fs from a Ti:sapphire laser operating at 800nm; 5fs corresponds to
roughly 2 optical cycles.

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Physics 425 Modern Optics

Lecture Notes W. Andreas Schroeder

Lasers Temporal & Spectral Control

a) Active Modelocking:
E.g., a continuous wave (cw) modelocked Nd:YAG laser

AOM

Nd:YAG

Polarizer

light diffracted
by acoustic
wave

The acousto-optic modulator (AOM) is driven by a RF sine wave at v RF =

c
so
4L

that the amplitude of the diffracting acoustic wave is zero every round-trip;
Acoustic
wave
amplitude
2L
c

roundtrip =

2L
c

2L
c

2L
c

need to match cavity length and v RF very accurately.

Pulse duration is limited by gain bandwidth, B = 0.45 nm to 2-3ps; typically, one
achieves pulse durations of ~100ps as not all of g() is above the loss line and the
generated pulse is not transform limited.

12

Physics 425 Modern Optics

Lecture Notes W. Andreas Schroeder

Lasers Temporal & Spectral Control

b) Passive Modelocking:
__

Use a saturable absorber (e.g., a dye) whose transmission varies with the
irradiance, I (or fluence, F = I.dt);

Transmission

0.5

I sat

Basic idea:

A free lasing cavity has irradiance spikes in I(t), one of which per
round-trip begins to dominate since it has less loss propagating
through the saturable absorber.

E.g., colliding-pulse modelocked (CPM) dye laser

Ar+ Laser

. . . a ring laser

dye jets
(Brewster
angled)

__

Saturable
absorber
section

Gain
section

minimum loss will occur when two short pulses collide in the saturable
absorber (more irradiance higher transmission).

The CPM laser typically produces sub-picosecond pulses (~300fsec).

13

Physics 425 Modern Optics

Lecture Notes W. Andreas Schroeder

Lasers Temporal & Spectral Control

N.B.
i) An all solid-state saturable absorber has been developed the
saturable Bragg reflector: semiconductor growth techniques are used
to incorporate a quantum well(s) (the saturable absorber) and the
dielectric mirror into a single monolithic structure.
ii) Kerr-lens modelocking is a variant of passive modelocking in which
nonlinear lensing (i.e. f(Intensity)) perturbs the cavity mode in such a
manner that the losses for perturbed mode are less than those for the
unperturbed important in Ti:sapphire lasers, etc.
iii) Dispersion (lower refractive index for longer wavelengths shorter
cavity round-trip time) limits the shortest pulse duration that can be
obtained it broadens the pulse while the saturable absorber
shortens it.

c) Dispersion Compensation:
I. Brewster-angled prism pair

blue
part of
the
blue

disperse
d
spectru

red

red
part of
the

A
B

Compressed
pulse
__

the red light takes longer to propagate through the prism

sequence because it passes through more glass in prism B the
dispersion compensation can be controlled by moving prism B in
or out of the laser beam.
[Note: This is a group velocity, vg = d/dk, effect; not phase
velocity, vp = c/n, since the phase fronts are always perpendicular
to k for all colors propagating through the prism pair.]

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Physics 425 Modern Optics

Lecture Notes W. Andreas Schroeder

Lasers Temporal & Spectral Control

E.g., a synchronously-pumped, dispersion-compensated, hybridly

modelocked dye laser
Frequency doubling
crystal

CW Modelocked Nd:YAG

2
Pump:

Dispersion
compensator

Saturable
absorber jet

= 532 nm
Power ~ 1W
~ 60 ps pulses
@ ~ 80 MHz
Gain jet

Cavity length
matching

laser produces 50 100fs pulses over most of

the visible spectral range with choice of suitable
saturable absorber and gain dye pairs.
II. Chirped mirrors

blue

Dielectric stack with

gradient in layer thickness

red

__

the red light is reflected deeper in the dielectric stack

than the blue, producing compensation of normal
dispersion.

NOTE:
A commercial 8fs (3 optical cycles at 800nm) Ti:sapphire laser with
this technology is on the market.

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