Pulsed light source

US8238386B2 · kind B2 · utility

Assignee

• Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft zur förderung der angewandten Forschung e.V. · DE

Inventors

• Jens Limpert · Jena, DE
• Andreas Tuennermann · Jena, DE

Key dates

• Filing date: May 21, 2010
• Grant date: Aug 7, 2012
• Expiry date: Nov 1, 2030

Classification

• Technology area (CPC H): Electricity
• CPC primary: H01S3/2308
• WIPO field: Optics
• WIPO sector: Instruments

Abstract

It is an object of the present invention to provide a compact and low-cost system for generating ultra short high energy laser light pulses that does not use the known CPA scheme. The proposed approach is based on spectral filtering of laser light pulses of a mode locked laser source. The used mode locked laser source can be of any kind as long as its filtered residual pulse bandwidth supports pulse durations longer than 20 ps and up to 1 ns. After filtering the laser light pulses are directly amplified in an amplification element consisting of one or more amplification stages. At the same time or just after amplification the light pulses are spectrally broadened through a spectral broadening element, for example a fiber of suitably chosen core diameter and length to achieve a spectral bandwidth that is wide enough to support sub 10 ps pulses. Finally, the spectrally broadened laser light pulses are compressed by a compact dispersive element consisting of one or more Bragg gratings or a grating pair.