Laser Pulse Shaper
VALUE PROPOSITION
This technology can continuously monitor internal dispersion and correct for temperature drifts caused by the environment or by laser deposited thermal energy. This Pulse shaper will be zero-dispersion and will be able to faithfully characterize input as well as output pulses.
INTRODUCTION
When a pulse shaper is used as a pulse characterization device, the system can produce dispersion-free pulses at the output, but the system cannot characterize the input pulses because of the unknown spectral dispersion of the pulse shaper itself. To measure the dispersion of a pulse shaper a very stable laser oscillator and a well calibrated pulse shaper is needed. Unfortunately, vibration during shipping, temperature changes, aging of optical components, and laser
intensity affect the dispersion. It would be advantageous to continuously measure dispersion on-site.
Description of Technology
The solution is to sample a small portion of the input pulse entering the pulse shaper and interfere it with a small portion of the output pulse after it has traversed the shaper optics. The interferogram obtained between the reference and the output is then Fourier transformed to obtain the dispersion introduced by the optical path of the pulse shaper. Once the dispersion is measured, it can be minimized by ensuring the optics are in their optimal position, and then the programmable spatial light modulator can introduce a compensation phase to achieve the goal of having a zero-dispersion pulse shaper. The implementation requires a dispersion free reference pathlength for the reference pulse, that matches in length the optical path length of the pulse shaper.
BENEFITS
- This technology enables a truly zero-dispersion pulse shaper.
- Will be able to faithfully characterize input as well as output pulses.
- Additional shaper to correct dispersion will not be needed during laser fabrication.
Applications
