International Journal of Optics

The fluorescence radiation property at the edge of the thin disk crystal is very important to the design of thin disk lasers. In order to study this effect, in this paper, we established a theoretical model to describe the edge fluorescence radiation process in thin disk lasers. Subsequently, we used a thin disk crystal with indium absorption cladding to quantitatively test the edge fluorescence intensity. The significant difference between measured and simulated data can be described as P (probability value) < 0.1 at the edge when the measured temperature is lower than the melting point of the metal cladding, and at the pump area. Finally, we analyze the influence of the edge fluorescence radiation on the thin disk laser operation, and the results show that the edge thermal effect will reduce the conversion efficiency of the disk laser by 20%. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first quantitative study on the edge radiation intensity of disk lasers. The research can provide theoretical guidance for the designing and packaging process of crystal elements in thin disk lasers.

Ceramic is promising for use as a solid-laser material pumped with solar or lamp light. We developed a Cr³⁺ ion doped Nd : YAG ceramic laser that converts white light into near-infrared laser light more efficiently. Investigation of its optical properties has revealed that large gain can be realized with excitation power that is one order of magnitude less than that in the case of Nd : YAG. Ce³⁺ ion doping also makes it possible to utilize the excitation light components with wavelengths of 350 nm or less, preventing generation of color centers. A rod-type Ce³⁺/Cr³⁺/Nd : YAG ceramic pumped by white light such as solar light or flash lamp light was developed. Fluorescence lifetime of ceramic was measured. Laser oscillations at free running mode were observed. Also, numerical calculation for output laser power and gain at lasing threshold was performed. Fluorescence lifetime increased as temperature rose, which was observed in Cr/Nd : YAG ceramic. This increase suggests the existence of a cross-relaxation effect. Maximum output laser energy of 73 mJ with the peak power of 330 W was obtained. Obtained output laser energy was around twice more than that in case of Cr³⁺/Nd : YAG ceramic with the same Nd and Cr ion concentration.

Efforts have been made to enhance the surface sensitivity of the conventional surface plasmon resonance biosensor. To improve the sensitivity, a unique two-dimensional heterostructure layer of titanium disilicide and black phosphorus layer has been deposited over the metal surface. The titanium disilicide (TiSi₂) nanosheet is placed in between silver (Ag) and black phosphorus (BP) films in the Kretschmann arrangement. This biosensor executes better over a wide range of refractive index variations, including biological cell distribution in individual blood. It may become a fast method of detecting cancerous cells and the several variants of corona and other viruses that become pandemic. Using the finite element method-based simulation technique, the sensitivity obtained as 195.4 degree/RIU, 167.6 degree/RIU, 212.4 degree/RIU, 168.4 degree/RIU, 212.4 degree/RIU, 186.6 degree/RIU, 218.6 degree/RIU, 195.4 degree/RIU, 203.6 degree/RIU, 202.6 degree/RIU 203.6 degree/RIU, and 202.6 for basal (skin cancer), basal (normal cell), HeLa (cervical cancer), MCF-7 (breast cancer), HeLa (normal cell), Jurkat (blood cancer), Jurkat (normal cell), PCI-2 (adrenal gland cancer), PCI-2 (normal cell), MDA-MB-231 (breast cancer), MDA-MB-231 (normal cell), MCF-7 (breast cancer), and MCF-7 (normal cell), respectively, and other performance parameters such as detection accuracy, figure of merit, and full width and half maximum (FWHM) are also evaluated.

The propagation properties of partially coherent circular flat-topped (FT) vortex hollow/nonvortex beams are studied in anisotropic turbulent plasma. The analytical expression of the optical intensity of these beams is obtained by employing the extended Huygens–Fresnel integral. The effects of the source and turbulent plasma parameters on the intensity distribution of partially coherent circular FT vortex hollow/nonvortex beams are analyzed numerically. The results show that partially coherent circular FT vortex hollow/nonvortex beams will finally converge into a Gaussian intensity profile at increasing propagation distances. The results also showed that the partially coherent FT vortex hollow/nonvortex beams with higher coherence are less affected by anisotropic turbulent plasma than the less coherent beams.

This paper investigates a novel compensation technique of dispersion effect mitigation using a combination of three- and four-stage-apodized fiber Bragg gratings (FBG) and dispersion compensating fiber (DCF) designs. Two designs using three-stage and four-stage FBG and DCF in combination have been proposed and compared for their performance in mitigating chromatic dispersion effects at 100 km SMF. The performance of each design has been evaluated using Q-factor results using linear Gaussian- and tanh-apodized fiber Bragg gratings. Each profile manifested different Q-factor results over a range of 5 dBm, 7.5 dBm, and 10 dBm of CW laser power over FBG grating lengths from 4 mm to 8 mm. The results obtained using the three-stage and four-stage FBG and DCF designs showed that an apodization profile using a tanh function can be used successfully with FBG lengths from 4 mm to 8 mm, regardless of the CW launched power. In contrast, the results using a Gaussian apodization profile for three- and four-stage FBG and DCF designs are applicable to FBG lengths from 5 mm to 8 mm. Designs using three-stage FBG and DCF generated higher Q-factor results than designs using only four-stage FBG and DCF, regardless of the launched power. The highest Q-factor of 18.58 was obtained for three-stage tanh-apodized FBG and DCF used in combination for an FBG length of 6 mm. The highest result obtained for a three-stage Gaussian-apodized FBG and DCF design was a Q factor of 17.13 using an FBG length of 8 mm. The proposed method was also compared to current similar works and can be successfully implemented in long-haul optical communication.

Based on the simplified model of the tunable fiber laser system, the tuning performance of the laser was analyzed. Two kinds of tunable setups were established, which are the configurations with an external cavity and the configuration of the Littrow cavity. The tuning output characteristics experimentally were analyzed by means of setups. The simulation gives the output efficiency of two tunable lasers as 40% and 30%. In the experiment, the measured slope efficiency of the two lasers was 24% and 18.3%, and the tunable range of the two lasers was 32 nm and 40 nm, respectively. Both lasers could achieve laser output with good beam quality.