We present in this contribution a Yb:YAG thin-disk multipass amplifier delivering sub-2 ps pulses with kilowatt of average output power at a highly flexible repetition rates ranging from MHz to several GHz. The system, developed within the european project kW-Flexiburst, delivers laser pulses from single pulse to bursts of pulses with arbitrary number of pulses (1, 3, 5, …, 1000) at up to 7.5 GHz of intra-burst repetition rate. A seed laser delivering stretched pulses at an average output power of 50 W for a single pulse configuration and up to 230 W for GHz-bursts with more than 3 pulses/burst was used. In a single pulse configuration, an average output power of up to 655 W whereas up to 1090 W were extracted in burst operation at an intra-burst repetition-rate of 1GHz. During the talk, few examples of applications using our laser will be presented.
To open up new opportunities in laser material processing, combining multiple processes in parallel or fast sequence schemes is a promising concept. A single laser source with dynamic and flexible operation modes is highly demanded for these tasks. In this contribution, we will present a versatile laser system which is the first step toward the Universal Laser Machine capable of being used for a broad range of laser-based manufacturing tasks. The laser system presented here consists of a single thin-disk multipass amplifier capable of sequentially or simultaneously amplifying both Continuous Wave (CW) and Ultra-Short Pulsed (USP) laser radiation and delivering kW-class average output power. The approach uses a polarization-multiplexing scheme to amplify two seeds (CW and sub-10 picoseconds) within a common amplifier. This allows for the generation of a single, nearly diffraction-limited output beam composed of CW or USP or both CW and USP radiation at a wavelength of 1030 nm. High versatility of the system is achieved by the implementation of multiple acousto-optic modulators, which enables fast (on a microsecond timescale) switching capabilities between different powers and operation modes. A quick change between the operation state of sole CW, sole USP, and combined output radiation with arbitrary power ratio can thus be realized. Furthermore, our system includes the possibility of a seamless adjustment of the absolute average output power values of each CW and USP fraction of the generated beam.
The European Space Agency (ESA), in collaboration with the European Commission (EC) and EUMETSAT, is developing a space-borne observing system for quantification of anthropogenic carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. Forming part of the EC's Copernicus programme, the CO2 monitoring (CO2M) mission will be implemented as a constellation of identical satellites, to be operated over a period > 7 years and measuring CO2 concentration in terms of column-averaged mole fraction (denoted as XCO2). Each satellite will continuously image XCO2 along the satellite track on the sun-illuminated part of the orbit, with a swath width of >250 km. Observations will be provided at a spatial resolution < 2 x 2 km2 near the swath center, with high precision (<0.7 ppm) and accuracy (bias <0.5 ppm). To this end, the payload comprises a suite of instruments addressing the various aspects of the challenging observation requirements: A push-broom imaging spectrometer will perform co-located measurements of top-of-atmosphere radiances in the Near Infrared (NIR) and Short-Wave Infrared (SWIR) at high to moderate spectral resolution (NIR: 747-773nm@0.1nm, SWIR-1: 1595-1675nm@0.3nm, SWIR-2: 1990-2095nm@0.35nm). These observations are complemented by measurements in the visible spectral range (405-490 nm@0.6nm), providing vertical column measurements of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) that serve as a tracer to assist the detection of fossil-fuel emission plumes (e.g. from coal-fired power plants and cities). High quality retrievals of XCO2 will be ensured even over polluted industrial regions, thanks to co-located measurements of aerosols performed by a Multiple-Angle Polarimeter (MAP). Finally, measurements of a three-band Cloud Imager, co-registered with the CO2 observations, will provide the required cloud-flagging capacity at sub-sample level (<200m resolution).
The presentation will review the results of the Phase A/B1 instrument studies carried out in 2018-2019, including technology pre-development activities, and highlight the identified engineering challenges. The preliminary design of the CO2M mission’s instruments at the beginning of the implementation phase will be presented, along with an outlook on the development activities under the Phase B2CD programme.
We report on an approach for a compact ultrafast thin-disk multipass laser amplifier making use of a highly compact geometric folding scheme. The setup is also suitable to minimize the effects caused by natural convection of hot air in front of the thin-disk on the amplified laser beam as it facilitates to orient the laser disk with its axis in the vertical direction. The efficacy of this approach is analyzed with finite-element method simulations of the heated laser crystal in ambient air with different orientations of the thin laser disk. The experiments confirm a significant improvement of the amplifier performance in terms of stability and an increase of the output power with nearly diffraction-limited beam quality (M2 ≤ 1.4) by a factor of 3 with respect to the conventional orientation of the laser disk.
CarbonSat was a candidate satellite mission in the frame of ESA’s Living Planet Programme, which targeted high-precision measurements of carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4) concentrations from space.
We present our latest achievements on the amplification of ultrafast beams with radial polarization using a thin-disk multipass amplifier. Starting with a seed laser (TruMikro5050 provided by the company TRUMPF laser GmbH) delivering a linearly polarized beam with 115 W of average output power, 6.5 ps pulse duration at a repetition rate of 300 kHz, we could extract radially polarized laser pulses with an average output power of 635 W and a pulse energy of 2.1 mJ. The radial polarization was obtained by using a segmented wave-plate placed in front of the amplifier. This is, to the best of our knowledge, the highest average output power and pulse energy reported so far for radially polarized ultrafast lasers. A scheme for direct amplification of such ring-shaped radially polarized laser beams is presented together with a possible solution to compensate for the depolarizing phase shift introduced by the optical components in the amplifier.
In recent years, there has been a growing interest in increasing the output power of ultrafast lasers to the kW-range. This allows higher productivity for laser material processing, e.g. for cutting of carbon-fiber reinforced plastics (CFRP) or for micro-machining. We developed an Yb:YAG thin-disk multipass amplifier delivering sub-8 ps pulses with 1.4 kW average power which is – to the best of our knowledge – the highest output power reported for a sub-100 ps ultrafast laser system so far. The amplifier is seeded by a regenerative amplifier with 6.5 ps pulses and 115 W of average power at a repetition rate of 300 kHz. Taking this repetition rate into account, the energy of the amplified pulses is as high as 4.7 mJ. This was achieved using a scheme with 40 mirrors in an array to geometrically fold the seed beam 40 times over the thin-disk. The beam quality was measured to be better than M2=1.4. This system was used in first experiments to cut CFRP with very good quality and with unprecedented efficiency. Additionally, the output beam of the amplifier was frequency-doubled in an LBO crystal to 820 W (70 % conversion efficiency) output power at the second harmonic wavelength (515 nm) and 106 W (26.5 % conversion efficiency) at the third harmonic wavelength (343 nm). Both results are record output powers for ultrafast laser systems at the respective wavelengths. In the presentation, we will show concepts on further power scaling of the system.
Laser processing of carbon fiber reinforce plastic (CFRP) is a very promising method to solve a lot of the challenges for large-volume production of lightweight constructions in automotive and airplane industries. However, the laser process is actual limited by two main issues. First the quality might be reduced due to thermal damage and second the high process energy needed for sublimation of the carbon fibers requires laser sources with high average power for productive processing. To achieve thermal damage of the CFRP of less than 10μm intensities above 108 W/cm² are needed. To reach these high intensities in the processing area ultra-short pulse laser systems are favored. Unfortunately the average power of commercially available laser systems is up to now in the range of several tens to a few hundred Watt. To sublimate the carbon fibers a large volume specific enthalpy of 85 J/mm³ is necessary. This means for example that cutting of 2 mm thick material with a kerf width of 0.2 mm with industry-typical 100 mm/sec requires several kilowatts of average power. At the IFSW a thin-disk multipass amplifier yielding a maximum average output power of 1100 W (300 kHz, 8 ps, 3.7 mJ) allowed for the first time to process CFRP at this average power and pulse energy level with picosecond pulse duration. With this unique laser system cutting of CFRP with a thickness of 2 mm an effective average cutting speed of 150 mm/sec with a thermal damage below 10μm was demonstrated.
We describe a multi-stages single crystal fiber (SCF) amplifier for the amplification of femtosecond pulses with radial or azimuthal polarization in view of high speed material processing (surface structuring, drilling). We demonstrate a three stages diode-pumped Yb:YAG single crystal fiber amplifier to achieve femtosecond pulses at an average power of 85W at 20 MHz in radial and azimuthal polarization.
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