Keywords

mode-locked laser, semiconductor laser, optical pulse compression, chirped fiber Bragg grating, ultrafast laser, semiconductor optical amplifier, chirped pulse amplification

Abstract

The objective of this dissertation is to generate high power ultrashort optical pulses from an all-semiconductor mode-locked laser system. The limitations of semiconductor optical amplifier in high energy, ultrashort pulse amplification are reviewed. A method to overcome the fundamental limit of small stored energy inside semiconductor optical amplifier called "eXtreme Chirped Pulse Amplification (X-CPA)" is proposed and studied theoretically and experimentally. The key benefits of the concept of X-CPA are addressed. Based on theoretical and experimental study, an all-semiconductor mode-locked X-CPA system consisting of a mode-locked master oscillator, an optical pulse pre-stretcher, a semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) pulse picker, an extreme pulse stretcher/compressor, cascaded optical amplifiers, and a bulk grating compressor is successfully demonstrated and generates >kW record peak power. A potential candidate for generating high average power from an X-CPA system, novel grating coupled surface emitting semiconductor laser (GCSEL) devices, are studied experimentally. The first demonstration of mode-locking with GCSELs and associated amplification characteristics of grating coupled surface emitting SOAs will be presented. In an effort to go beyond the record setting results of the X-CPA system, a passive optical cavity amplification technique in conjunction with the X-CPA system is constructed, and studied experimentally and theoretically.

Notes

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Graduation Date

2006

Semester

Spring

Advisor

Delfyett, Peter

Degree

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)

College

College of Optics and Photonics

Degree Program

Optics

Format

application/pdf

Identifier

CFE0001069

URL

http://purl.fcla.edu/fcla/etd/CFE0001069

Language

English

Length of Campus-only Access

None

Access Status

Doctoral Dissertation (Open Access)

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