Method and apparatus for pulsed harmonic ultraviolet lasers
An apparatus for producing coherent, pulsed ultraviolet light with pulse durations that range between 1 ps and 1 μs includes one or more source lasers in the visible or near-infrared frequency range. The apparatus also includes one or more FC stages, at least one of the one or more FC stages including a nonlinear FC device and one or more optical elements. The optical elements include a reflector, a focusing element, a polarization-controlling optic, a wavelength separator, or a fiber optic component. The FC device includes a huntite-type aluminum double borate nonlinear optical material configured to produce FC light having a wavelength between 190 and 350 nm and a composition given by RAl 3 B 4 O 12 , where R comprises one or a plurality of elements {Sc, La, Y, Lu}. The nonlinear optical material is characterized by an optical transmission greater than 70% over the wavelength range of 190 to 350 nm.
1. An apparatus for producing coherent, pulsed ultraviolet light with pulse durations that range between 1 ps and 1 μs, the apparatus comprising:
one or more source lasers with light output in the visible or near-infrared frequency range; and
one or more frequency conversion stages, at least one of the one or more frequency conversion stages including a nonlinear critically phase-matched frequency conversion device and one or more optical elements including: a reflector, a focusing element, a polarization-controlling optic, a wavelength separator, or a fiber optic component;
wherein the nonlinear critically phase-matched frequency conversion device includes a huntite-type aluminum double borate nonlinear optical material configured to produce frequency-converted light having a wavelength between 190 and 350 nm, the huntite-type aluminum double borate nonlinear optical material having a composition given by RAl 3 B 4 O 12 , where R comprises one or a plurality of elements {Sc, La, Y, Lu}, and is characterized by an optical transmission greater than 75% over the wavelength range of 190 to 350 nm.
2. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the pulse durations range between 1 ps and 300 ps.
3. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the frequency converted light is output light of the apparatus.
4. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein a pulse rate of the pulsed ultraviolet light is greater than or equal to 10 MHz.
5. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the composition is given by Y (1-x) La x Al 3 B 4 O 12 , with 0≦x≦0.4.
6. The apparatus of claim 5 wherein x is about 0.25.
7. The apparatus of claim 5 wherein x=0.
8. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the composition is given by Lu (1-x) La x Al 3 B 4 O 12 , with 0≦x≦0.4.
9. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the one or more frequency conversion stages comprises a single frequency conversion stage.
10. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the one or more source lasers comprises a single source laser having a nominal angular frequency ω and wherein an output of the apparatus includes one or more of nominal angular frequencies: 2ω, 3ω, 4ω, 5ω, 6ω, 7ω, or 8ω.
11. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the huntite-type aluminum double borate nonlinear optical material comprises a single crystal oriented at Brewster's angle and configured to receive light in a nominal p-polarization.
12. The apparatus of claim 1 further comprising an optical antireflection coating on at least one of an entrance facet or an exit facet of the huntite-type aluminum double borate nonlinear optical material.
13. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein at least one of the one or more source lasers comprises a fiber laser.
14. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein at least one of the one or more source lasers comprises a diode-pumped solid-state laser.
15. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the one or more source lasers comprise a master oscillator power amplifier architecture containing a pre-power amplifier modulator that gates pulse packets to envelop a plurality of mode-locked oscillator pulses of duration 1 ps to 300 ps, wherein each of the pulse packets has a duration between 1 ns and 1 μs, thereby delivering 100 thousand to 100 million pulse packets per second.