Femtosecond laser inscription

Ultrafast femtosecond laser (fs-laser) inscription is a powerful technique for the fabrication of sophisticated waveguide in various optical materials including crystalline materials, such as laser gain medium Nd:YAG, Yb:YAG and nonlinear crystal KTP, LBO. It has a great practical importance since it facilitates manufacturing of extremely compact and reliable photonic devices with great flexibility. We propose to develop and demonstrate a high efficiency, 80%, Second Harmonic Generation (SHG) to Sodium resonance wavelength, 589nm, with fs-laser inscribed KTP waveguide.

Laser wavelength conversion technique is widely used in various space-based laser systems. High laser wavelength conversion efficiency can directly reduce the instrument SWaP. State of the art lidar systems are frequently using high repetition rate, micro-pulses (microjoule/pulse) lasers with single photo detection technique to improve the system performance. The wavelength conversion of the micro-pulses requires tight pump beam diameter and long nonlinear crystal interaction length to achieve the required conversion efficiency. Fs-laser inscribed nonlinear crystal will address this need.

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