Pulse Compressor for Long Stretch Factor in High-Energy Ultrafast Fiber Lasers at Eye-Safer Wavelengths

Ultrashort pulse lasers have unique interactions with matter that include the ability to athermally ablate materials, create micron resolution texturing of surfaces, and provide diagnostic, sensing, and imaging capabilities. Of particular interest to the Navy is the potential use of ultrafast lasers for aircraft self-defense applications. One key component in the generation of laser pulses with sub-picosecond durations is the optical compressor. Compression systems used in commercially available ultrashort pulse lasers are typically bulky as they are an array of mirrors that form a path length of up to several meters. In this Phase II SBIR, Raydiance proposes to enhance a proven alternative technology known as a Chirped Bragg Grating such that they will compress 3 ns pulses down to 500 fs. In addition to a greatly reduced package size (where the beam path is just several centimeters), these devices have the benefit of stability as the beam path is largely through a solid state device. Key tasks in the base and option phases will demonstrate progressively capable gratings. In addition, architectures will be designed, built and environmentally tested to ultimately provide as a deliverable a proven, ruggedized compressor module that will greatly improve the USP lasers SWaP characteristics.