Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Log inSign up
Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Blog
Job Board
Q3AS

© 2026 Aqora Quantum S.A.S.

TermsPrivacyLegal Notice

Journal of the Optical Society of America B

Energy extraction from pulsed amplified stimulated emission lasers operating under conditions of strong saturation

S. M. Hooker, David James Spence

Published Jun 1, 2006• 2 citations
Publisher

Abstract

The output of pulsed, homogeneously broadened amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) lasers operating under conditions of strong saturation is considered. An expression for the maximum power (energy) per unit volume that may be extracted from steady-state (pulsed) systems is derived and shown to be independent of the saturation intensity. Numerical calculations of the temporal evolution of the populations in the laser levels and the growth in the ASE fluence, peak intensity, and spectral width are presented for three types of laser system: quasi steady state, short pump pulses, and self-termination. In all cases the growth in the fluence of the ASE pulse is found to agree with an analytic solution derived for conditions of strong saturation. The calculated growth in intensity of the ASE pulse is compared with expressions derived by Pert [J. Opt. Soc. Am. B11, 1425 (1994)] for the steady-state case. As expected, good agreement is found for the quasi-steady-state system, but in the limit of strong saturation significant differences occur for the short pump pulse and self-terminating laser systems considered. For all cases considered, the variation of the spectral width of the ASE pulse is found to be in reasonable agreement with that predicted by Pert for steady-state conditions.

DOI
10.1364/josab.23.001057

Related papers

Bidirectional description of amplified spontaneous emission induced by three-photon absorption

Alexander S. Baev, Viktor Kimberg, Sergey P. Polyutov +2 more

A semiclassical dynamic theory of the nonlinear propagation of a few interacting intense light pulses is applied to study the nonlinear counterpropagation of amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) induced by three-photon absorption of short intense laser pulses in a chromophore solution. Several important results from the modeling are reached for the ASE process developing in the regime of strong saturation. Accounting for ASE in both forward and backward directions with respect to the pump pulse results in a smaller efficiency of nonlinear conversion for the forward ASE compared with the case in which forward emission is considered alone, something that results from the partial repump of the absorbed energy to the backward ASE component; the overall efficiency is nevertheless higher than for the forward emission considered alone. The efficiency of nonlinear conversion of the pump energy to the counterpropagating ASE pulses is strongly dependent on the concentration of active molecules so that a particular combination of concentration versus cell length optimizes the conversion coefficient. Under certain specified conditions, the ASE effect is found to be oscillatory; the origin of oscillations is dynamical competition between stimulated emission and off-resonant absorption. This result can be considered one of the possible explanations of the temporal fluctuations of the forward ASE pulse [Nature 415, 767 (2002)].

Journal of the Optical Society of America B•Feb 1, 2005•8 citations

Amplified spontaneous emission and maximum gain–length product revised for general line shapes

Riccardo Tommasini, Juerg E. Balmer

The theory of amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) and the gain–length product at saturation is revised. Formulas valid for both peak and integrated lines are given. In the latter case the solution for a general Voigt stimulated-emission line shape is presented, whereas in the two limiting cases of Gaussian and Lorentzian line shapes an approximation better than the one obtained by the steepest-descent method is successfully achieved. Various parameters that take into account the ratio of spontaneous to stimulated linewidths, the form factor depending on the linewidths of the inhomogeneous and homogeneous convoluted line shapes, and the population inversion fraction arise from the theory, giving the complete functional dependence for both the ASE photon flux and the gain–length product.

Journal of the Optical Society of America B•Apr 1, 1999•12 citations

Amplified spontaneous emission in spherical and disk-shaped laser media

Amos A. Hardy, D. Treves

Amplified spontaneous emission of laser media having a spherical or disk shape is numerically analyzed. Some properties are discussed and a comparison with linear systems is made. Analytical approximations, for the case of high pumping rates and high efficiency, are obtained. Energy level schemes of dye systems are used in the analysis and in the numerical calculations. A coupled set of radiative transfer and rate equations is solved under quasi-steady-state conditions. The model takes into account the fluorescence spectrum and gain saturation effects with radially symmetric distributions of the active dye molecular densities. As a comparison, the numerical examples also include an H2O system which is relevant in astrophysics.

IEEE Journal of Quantum Electronics•Sep 1, 1979•10 citations

Some remarks on saturation of amplified spontaneous emission

Roberto Coisson, Maria Rita Perrone

Analytical (approximate) solution of rate equations for amplified spontaneous emission in a two-level system, in the case of ’’fast’’ pumping, shows the mutual dependence of some parameters characterizing amplification and saturation, such as critical time (or critical length), saturation (or peak) time, and peak power. The spontaneous emission can be accounted for by an equivalent number of initial photons. These results are compared with numerical computer solutions for the N2 laser.

Journal of Applied Physics•Mar 1, 1976•0 citations

Nonsaturable absorption due to stimulated emission of radiation

C. K. Hong, Howard Nathel, Roger W. Minich +2 more

We report an observation of nonsaturable absorption of light. When a laser medium in a small aspect ratio geometry is uniformly and transversely pumped, amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) builds up along the longitudinal axis. The higher ASE intensity at the ends of the cell repopulates the ground state through the stimulated emission process more rapidly than at the center of the cell. Therefore, the absorption of the pump light is enhanced at the ends and the transmitted pump beam shows a nonuniform profile with a peak at the center. When the occupation of the states other than the upper lasing state and the ground state can be ignored, the normalized profile of the transmitted pump beam becomes identical to that of the fluorescence depicting the upper state population distribution. This fact has been confirmed experimentally with a R6G dye cell pumped with various intensities of frequency doubled Nd:YAG laser (λ = 532 nm, 10-ns pulse duration). The percentage of the absorbed pump energy at the ends of the cell remains the same, virtually nonsaturable, whereas at the center it decreases as the pump intensity increases.

Annual Meeting Optical Society of America•Jan 1, 1989•0 citations

Flashlamp Pumped Dye Amplifiers

Thomas Efthimiopoulos

The major purpose of the work described in this thesis is the experimental and theoretical study of the amplification of the spontaneous emission in dye amplifiers. This work falls into three distinct sections: (a) the study of high-current short-pulse flashtubes operating in (or near) the ablation regime; (b) the study of the amplification process of the spontaneous emission in a homogeneously broadened medium, such as a dye material, in the thin cell case, where there is no variation of the pumping across the cell; and, (c) the study of the amplification of the spontaneous emission in the thick cell case, where gain and index of refraction inhomogeneities exist across the cell thickness. In each case, we have developed theoretical models and compared their predictions with the experimental results. In particular, for the ablation-type flashlamps, it is shown that their behaviour is well represented by an analysis in which the discharge plasma is supposed to radiate as a blackbody at the temperature of the plasma. This model accounts for the fact that the light output from a flashlamp saturates whereas the current does not, provides a more accurate value for the plasma resistivity as a function of temperatures and gives a useful design criterion for determining the physical dimensions of an ablation-type flashlamp. With respect to the amplification of the spontaneous emission in a thin cell, it is mainly shown that (i) the spontaneous emission propagating along the gain medium is subject to narrowing along with shifting of its peak wavelength; (ii) even at moderate pumping the population of the excited singlet state, which determines the gain of the system, is non-uniform along the cell; (iii) it is possible to calculate the unsaturated gain by calculating the intensity of a particular wave-length and its spectral narrowing both as a function of the exciation and compare them with the same quantities measured experimentally; (iv) it is also possible to develop a semianalytic system independent method to measure the gain approximately. The theory developed to account for the propagation of the amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) has been partly extended to cover the case of the propagation and spectral narrowing of the ASE in a thick cell, where non-uniformities of the index of refraction and the gain are important along with the diffraction losses. In this particular case, it is shown that a model, which assumes an index step variation across the cell, and solves the Maxwell's equation for the field propagation along the cell, can account for the spatial distribution of the field across the cell and its manifestation at the far field. Most of the predictions of the model are verified experimentally. In particular, it is shown that (i) in a thick cell, part of the ASE propagates outside the gain medium, because of the lensing effect caused by heating of the lasing material; (ii) the field across the cell can exhibit stable spatial modes, which can produce a far field far from the amplifying cell axis; (iii) it is possible to improve the spectral narrowing of the ASE since saturation can be delayed to higher pumping than before and most of the narrowing occurs below saturation of the gain; (iv) it is also possible to measure the temperature and the index of refraction change due to heating by measuring the far field angle, and estimate the diffraction losses involved in the propagation of the ASE in a thick cell. Finally, a number of suggestions on further research are proposed.

•Oct 1, 1978•0 citations
The output of pulsed, homogeneously broadened amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) lasers operating under conditions of strong saturation is considered. An expression for the maximum power (energy) per unit volume that may be extracted from steady-state (pulsed) systems is derived and shown to be independent of the saturation intensity. Numerical calculations of the temporal evolution of the populations in the laser levels and the growth in the ASE fluence, peak intensity, and spectral width are presented for three types of laser system: quasi steady state, short pump pulses, and self-termination. In all cases the growth in the fluence of the ASE pulse is found to agree with an analytic solution derived for conditions of strong saturation. The calculated growth in intensity of the ASE pulse is compared with expressions derived by Pert [J. Opt. Soc. Am. B11, 1425 (1994)] for the steady-state case. As expected, good agreement is found for the quasi-steady-state system, but in the limit of strong saturation significant differences occur for the short pump pulse and self-terminating laser systems considered. For all cases considered, the variation of the spectral width of the ASE pulse is found to be in reasonable agreement with that predicted by Pert for steady-state conditions.
A semiclassical dynamic theory of the nonlinear propagation of a few interacting intense light pulses is applied to study the nonlinear counterpropagation of amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) induced by three-photon absorption of short intense laser pulses in a chromophore solution. Several important results from the modeling are reached for the ASE process developing in the regime of strong saturation. Accounting for ASE in both forward and backward directions with respect to the pump pulse results in a smaller efficiency of nonlinear conversion for the forward ASE compared with the case in which forward emission is considered alone, something that results from the partial repump of the absorbed energy to the backward ASE component; the overall efficiency is nevertheless higher than for the forward emission considered alone. The efficiency of nonlinear conversion of the pump energy to the counterpropagating ASE pulses is strongly dependent on the concentration of active molecules so that a particular combination of concentration versus cell length optimizes the conversion coefficient. Under certain specified conditions, the ASE effect is found to be oscillatory; the origin of oscillations is dynamical competition between stimulated emission and off-resonant absorption. This result can be considered one of the possible explanations of the temporal fluctuations of the forward ASE pulse [Nature 415, 767 (2002)].
The theory of amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) and the gain–length product at saturation is revised. Formulas valid for both peak and integrated lines are given. In the latter case the solution for a general Voigt stimulated-emission line shape is presented, whereas in the two limiting cases of Gaussian and Lorentzian line shapes an approximation better than the one obtained by the steepest-descent method is successfully achieved. Various parameters that take into account the ratio of spontaneous to stimulated linewidths, the form factor depending on the linewidths of the inhomogeneous and homogeneous convoluted line shapes, and the population inversion fraction arise from the theory, giving the complete functional dependence for both the ASE photon flux and the gain–length product.
Amplified spontaneous emission of laser media having a spherical or disk shape is numerically analyzed. Some properties are discussed and a comparison with linear systems is made. Analytical approximations, for the case of high pumping rates and high efficiency, are obtained. Energy level schemes of dye systems are used in the analysis and in the numerical calculations. A coupled set of radiative transfer and rate equations is solved under quasi-steady-state conditions. The model takes into account the fluorescence spectrum and gain saturation effects with radially symmetric distributions of the active dye molecular densities. As a comparison, the numerical examples also include an H2O system which is relevant in astrophysics.
We report an observation of nonsaturable absorption of light. When a laser medium in a small aspect ratio geometry is uniformly and transversely pumped, amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) builds up along the longitudinal axis. The higher ASE intensity at the ends of the cell repopulates the ground state through the stimulated emission process more rapidly than at the center of the cell. Therefore, the absorption of the pump light is enhanced at the ends and the transmitted pump beam shows a nonuniform profile with a peak at the center. When the occupation of the states other than the upper lasing state and the ground state can be ignored, the normalized profile of the transmitted pump beam becomes identical to that of the fluorescence depicting the upper state population distribution. This fact has been confirmed experimentally with a R6G dye cell pumped with various intensities of frequency doubled Nd:YAG laser (λ = 532 nm, 10-ns pulse duration). The percentage of the absorbed pump energy at the ends of the cell remains the same, virtually nonsaturable, whereas at the center it decreases as the pump intensity increases.
The major purpose of the work described in this thesis is the experimental and theoretical study of the amplification of the spontaneous emission in dye amplifiers. This work falls into three distinct sections: (a) the study of high-current short-pulse flashtubes operating in (or near) the ablation regime; (b) the study of the amplification process of the spontaneous emission in a homogeneously broadened medium, such as a dye material, in the thin cell case, where there is no variation of the pumping across the cell; and, (c) the study of the amplification of the spontaneous emission in the thick cell case, where gain and index of refraction inhomogeneities exist across the cell thickness. In each case, we have developed theoretical models and compared their predictions with the experimental results. In particular, for the ablation-type flashlamps, it is shown that their behaviour is well represented by an analysis in which the discharge plasma is supposed to radiate as a blackbody at the temperature of the plasma. This model accounts for the fact that the light output from a flashlamp saturates whereas the current does not, provides a more accurate value for the plasma resistivity as a function of temperatures and gives a useful design criterion for determining the physical dimensions of an ablation-type flashlamp. With respect to the amplification of the spontaneous emission in a thin cell, it is mainly shown that (i) the spontaneous emission propagating along the gain medium is subject to narrowing along with shifting of its peak wavelength; (ii) even at moderate pumping the population of the excited singlet state, which determines the gain of the system, is non-uniform along the cell; (iii) it is possible to calculate the unsaturated gain by calculating the intensity of a particular wave-length and its spectral narrowing both as a function of the exciation and compare them with the same quantities measured experimentally; (iv) it is also possible to develop a semianalytic system independent method to measure the gain approximately. The theory developed to account for the propagation of the amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) has been partly extended to cover the case of the propagation and spectral narrowing of the ASE in a thick cell, where non-uniformities of the index of refraction and the gain are important along with the diffraction losses. In this particular case, it is shown that a model, which assumes an index step variation across the cell, and solves the Maxwell's equation for the field propagation along the cell, can account for the spatial distribution of the field across the cell and its manifestation at the far field. Most of the predictions of the model are verified experimentally. In particular, it is shown that (i) in a thick cell, part of the ASE propagates outside the gain medium, because of the lensing effect caused by heating of the lasing material; (ii) the field across the cell can exhibit stable spatial modes, which can produce a far field far from the amplifying cell axis; (iii) it is possible to improve the spectral narrowing of the ASE since saturation can be delayed to higher pumping than before and most of the narrowing occurs below saturation of the gain; (iv) it is also possible to measure the temperature and the index of refraction change due to heating by measuring the far field angle, and estimate the diffraction losses involved in the propagation of the ASE in a thick cell. Finally, a number of suggestions on further research are proposed.