Faming Xu, Ph.D. will present a poster entitled “All Diode-pumped 10 Hz 7 Joule Nanosecond Optical Parametric Chirped Pulse Amplifier (OPCPA) Pump Laser” at the 2024 International Conference on Ultrahigh Intensity Lasers (ICUIL) later this year.
Dr. Faming Xu is a Senior Principal Laser Scientist focused on Diode Pumped Solid-State (DPSS) Lasers with Cutting Edge Optronics (CEO). With over 16 years of experience at CEO, Dr. Xu has made significant contributions to the field, notably leading the development of the Patara laser and custom, high-energy Gigashot laser product lines. His most recent achievement at CEO is discussed in the poster – this 7J, 527nm DPSS laser has the highest green pulse energy output of any high-energy lasers (HELs) manufactured and installed to date by CEO. It has a 4ns pulse width with a square temporal profile at 10Hz, and will be used for OPCPA pumping in the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory’s petawatt laser at the Extreme Photonics Applications Center (EPAC) in the United Kingdom.
This poster describes the design of this laser, which is a classic master oscillator, power amplifier (MOPA) layout. The laser pulse was temporally tailored from a CW single mode 1053nm fiber laser by an Arbitrary Waveform Generator (AWG). A serrated aperture was used to generate flat-top beam profile, which was relay-imaged and amplified through six amplifiers with rod diameters of 12mm to 25.4mm. The output is nearly diffraction limited with a diameter of 22mm and full angle divergence of ~0.1 mrad at 1053nm. The beam uniformity over an aperture capturing 90% of the energy was measured at 7.2% rms. The second harmonic output conversion efficiency was 78% from a 9.1J, 1053nm laser. The repetition rate of 10Hz was achieved with a timing jitter of less than 25ps rms.
ICUIL brings together researchers focusing on ultrahigh-intensity laser science and technology and will be held on the island of Cozumel, Mexico, from September 9th to 13th, 2024. The Comité Territorial de Óptica de México, A. C., the Mexican Territorial Committee within the International Commission for Optics, organizes the conference. CEO’s Donna Berns will also be in attendance at ICUIL.
Approved for Public Release: NG24-1703 © 2024, Northrop Grumman.
