Fiber based seed laser for ultrafast CO2 laser systems

A fiber based high performance 10-micron femtosecond seed laser is an ideal front end of ultrafast CO2 laser systems, which requires a near IR mode-locked fiber laser and a high energy pulsed pump fiber laser synchronized with the mode-locked fiber laser for frequency conversion and power amplification. Efficiently generating stable and reliable mode-locked near IR fiber laser is the primary issue and will be addressed in Phase I. The objective of Phase I is to generate femtosecond laser pulses at the specially designed near IR wavelength for the frequency conversion of10-micron femtosecond seed laser. Recently, all-fiber mode-locked laser was demonstrated in our lab can generate very stable mode-locked laser with pulse duration ~100 fs. This technology will be used to generate the required near IR femtosecond laser pulses. An all-fiber mode-locked near IR laser operating at the designed wavelength with ~100fs and the required 100Hz will be developed in Phase I, whereby the bench top laser system will be fabricated to demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed OPA/OPCPA 10 m femtosecond laser. Commercial Applications and Other Benefits: The near IR and Mid IR femtosecond lasers in the proposed 10-micron seed laser will be beneficial in areas ranging from atomic and molecular sciences to chemical, materials, and biological studies. Also they have wildly applications in welding, cutting, medical treatment, gas sensing and free space optical communication.