Titanium-Sapphire laser system: a technical report

Jens Goemaere Wouter Gins November 10, 2013

Abstract In this paper, we delve into the technical aspects of a Titanium-Sapphire (Ti:Sa) pulsed laser system, with a focus on the setup used at RILIS@CERN. The laser cavity itself is briey discussed, with a more extensive treatment of the components placed in the cavity: the etalon, birefringent lter, Pockels cell and second harmonic generator. The end result is a high-power, pulsed laser system with a possible spectral width of 1 GHz.

1 Titanium-Sapphire system and crystal

Figure 2: The band structure of the Ti+3 in the sapphire. Figure taken from [6].

Figure 1: The bandwidth achievable by both dye lasers and Ti:Sa lasers. Figure taken from [9].

The doping of the sapphire with the titanium provides the energy levels used in the lasing: the energy level the titanium ions occupy is split due to their location in the crystal structure, with broadening of these levels due to other interactions. The pumping of the Ti:Sa crystal is normally achieved by doubling a commercial Nd:YAG (neodymium-doped yttrium aluminum garnet) laser, which gives light of 532 nm. From the excited state of the titanium, radiative decay between 670 and 1100 nm is possible, as indicated on gure 2 [6].

A Ti:Sa laser system can produce a very wide range of laser frequencies, as illustrated in gure 1. The reason for constructing this laser system next to the existing dye laser system was to meet the increased demand of the ISOLDE users, the second system greatly reducing the time needed for switching to the particular element requested by the user. An overview of the elements that can be produced using the dierent laser systems can be found in [9].

2 Laser cavity of CERN laser

The laser cavity used at the ISOLDE facility is called a Z-cavity, since it resembles the letter Z. The cavity extends from the leftmost rectangular mirror labeled b to the rightmost mirror. The pumping laser enters from the right, with optics

Figure 3: Schematic overview of the Ti:Sa setup at CERN; this paper focuses on the resonator (1). Components include the Ti:Sa crystal (a), resonator mirrors (b), birefringent lter (c), etalon (d), Pockels cell (d), and the intra-cavity second harmonic generator (f). Figure taken from [9].

to focus the beam on the Ti:Sa crystal, located in the middle of the Z. The rightmost mirror is selected to be slightly less reective, so the laser light can exit there. As can be seen in gure 3, several components are present in the laser cavity: Mirrors Etalon Birefringent lter Pockels cell Second harmonic generator (SHG) In a more recent paper [10], a second operating mode for the Ti:Sa system was developed. The cavity as presented in gure 3 is the broad-band mode, while including a second etalon in the cavity reduces the spectral width again, which is the narrow-band mode. The mirrors are selected to be reective in a certain range of frequencies, giving a rst ltering eect. The etalon and the birefringent lter are used to narrow the width of the emission prole even further. The order of magnitude for the dierent narrowing eects can be seen in gure 4. The nal result of these ltering eects is the multiplication of these proles.
Figure 4: Overview of dierent ltering eects. A more recent update of the laser cavity included a second etalon [10], greatly reducing the achieved line width. Figure taken from [6].

The Pockels cell is used for Q-switching, a technique where the ring of the laser is delayed. Finally, the SHG doubles the frequency of the light. All these components together form a pulsed laser with a high power output. Details of the achieved laser can be found in table 1. The etalon, birefringent lter, Pockels cell and SHG will be discussed in this order, roughly following an order of simple to more complex components.

Frequency (fundamental) Repetition rate Pump power Lasing threshold Pulse duration Output power

Spectral width

680 - 960 nm 1 - 15 KHz 22 W 2W 40 - 60 ns 5 W (fundamental frequency) 1 W (2) 150 mW (3 and 4) 10 GHz (broad-band) 1 GHz (narrow-band)

Table 1: Specications of a typical Ti:Sa system. The data given are from measurements of the Mainz Ti:Sa system, while the spectral widths were measured at CERN. Data are taken from [9, 10].

2.1 Etalon
An etalon is used to lter the range in frequency space that the laser emits, narrowing the width. The birefringent lter, as discussed further in this paper, has the same purpose. The dierence lies in the achieved width of the frequency range, with a combination of both lters giving the best results. An etalon achieves the ltering eect by utilizing destructive interference.

for the maximally transmitted wavelengths [5]: m = 2n cos () , m (1)

with m an integer. Note that the reected waves interfere destructively for = m , leading to complete transmission. However, this assumes that the reected waves overlap completely. Taking into account the nite diameter D of the laser beam gives rise to a radiation loss; the intensity of this loss is given by [5] IR 2 R tan () I0 , D (2)

with R the reectivity of the surfaces of the etalon and I0 the original intensity. The selection of the right frequency range requires changing the angle of incidence on the etalon. In the setup used at CERN, this is done by rotating the etalon using a stepping motor [9].

2.2 Birefringent lter

Figure 5: Overview of optical paths in an etalon. Figure taken from [11].

As can be seen on gure 5, the light beam that enters the etalon is reected multiple times in the interior of the etalon. The optical path dierence between two successive transmitted beams (T1 and T2 ) is given by 2n cos (), with n being the refractive index of the medium. Constructive interference, and thus maximal transmission, is obtained when this dierence is a multiple of the wavelength. This leads to the following equation

Figure 6: Schematic of a typical birefringent lter. Multiple birefringent crystals are spaced after each other to minimize losses. Figure adapted from [2].

The birefringent crystal is placed with its optical axis at an angle to the polarization of the laser light. The result is that the beam is split into two: a fast and a slow component. At the end of the crystal, the beams are combined again, resulting

in elliptically polarized light. This will lead to different reection and transmission coecients due to the Fresnel equations, allowing a wavelength selection. More specically, the polarization is rotated by a phase [6] = 2 n , (3)

2.3 Pockels cell

with the thickness of the plate and n the dierence in refractive index for the fast and slow component. At wavelengths where n is an integer multiple of the wavelength, no eective rotation occurs. The Fresnel equations, derived from the Maxwell equations, describe the reection of two types of polarized light on an interface: s polarized light, polarized perpendicular to the plane containing the rays. p polarized light, polarized in the plane containing the rays. The reection amplitude for s and p polarized light are given by the following equations [1, 8]: n1 cos (1 ) n2 cos (2 ) , n1 cos (1 ) + n2 cos (2 ) n2 cos (1 ) n1 cos (2 ) rp = , n1 cos (2 ) + n2 cos (1 ) rs = (4) (5)

A Pockels cell is a device that can modify the polarization of light. It is made from noncentrosymmetric crystals that are sensitive to the Pockels eect. Placing an electric eld over such crystals will lead to a change of the refractive index for a certain direction. By changing the electric eld, a proportional change of the birefringence of the crystal can be induced. The birefringence will cause a phase retardation between the two mutually orthogonal polarization components of the incoming beam, given by equation 3. This retardation will cause a change of the polarization of the light. Except for the etalon, the components of the laser are sensitive for the polarization of the light. Thus, it is possible to modulate the cavity losses by controlling the polarization inside the cavity. These losses are quantied in the Q factor of the resonator, which is a measure of the damping of the oscillations and is dened as Q = Trt 2 , I (6)

with n1 , n2 the refractive indices, 1 the internal reection angle, and 2 the propagation angle.

with the optical frequency, I the fractional power loss per round trip and Trt the time of a round trip [3]. By rst applying a high voltage over the Pockels cell, the polarization of the light will be changed. This leads to high losses in the resonator, making lasing impossible. In the meantime, the energy fed by the pumping laser will accumulate, leading to a higher percentage of population inversion in the Ti:Sa medium, with only the spontaneous emission as limit. As the voltage on the Pockels cell is dropped, the resonator will work eciently again, the noise of the spontaneous emission will be amplied and trigger the stimulated emission. This technique is called Q switching. The time-evolution of the process is represented in gure 8. At time t = 0, the Q switch is activated. From that moment on, the power starts to increase, but only becomes signicant some 0.2 s later.

Figure 7: The percentage of reectivity for both polarizations. Figure taken from [1].

As seen in gure 7, at a certain angle the p polarized light is not reected, but fully transmitted. The angle at which this occurs is the Brewster angle. Since the polarization of the light at the end of the crystal depends periodically on the wavelength, a periodic dependence in transmission through the lter is observed. Figure 4 illustrates this eect, although only one period is plotted.

parametric process are dictated by and are tunable over wide spectral
1 3 2
Figure 8: Time evolution of Q switching. At time t = 0 the Q switch is activated, the resonator losses drop and the power starts to increase exponentially. Figure taken from [4].

2 3 1

(a) Figure 9: Graphical representation of a three photon interaction in a nonlinear medium. Two low-frequency 1 and 2 of anniFigure 21.2-9 photons, Comparison parametric hilate and create a higher energetic photon laser action. a) Annihilation 3 . This ( gure is taken from [7] of two low-fr

With this technique, one can inuence when the cavity starts lasing. This can be important to synchronize multiple lasers in, for instance, a multi-step ionization. First excite the electron to a higher laying energy level with a laser, and then one can ionize the excited electrons with the second laser.

relation exists between the induced polarization P of the medium and the applied electric eld E :

photon. The dashed line for the upper level in frequency photon and creation of two low-fre For a normal linearprocess dielectric medium, a linear nonparametric in which the medium p

2.4 Second Harmonic Generation

The Ti:Sa-crystal has only a limited window of wavelengths, ranging from 650 to 1100 nm in which it can emit radiation (see gure 2). It can happen that wavelengths outside of this window are required, for example, to perform Resonant Ionization Spectroscopy. Second Harmonic Generation (SHG) can double the frequency of the fundamental laser emission light, so it can produce the required wavelength. The following explanation of the process of SHG is based on the derivation found in [7]. The process of SHG is in fact a three-wave mixing process, where two photons with a certain frequency annihilate to create a photon with a frequency 2 . A graphical representation is given in gure 9. To keep track of the two dierent incident photons, we will label the two components of the incident eld with 1 and 2 . In this case, at the end, we can assume that 1 = 2 . The incoming wave is thus given by E (t) = Re{A(1 )ei1 t + A(2 )ei2 t },
1

P = 0 E, wave mixing (8) involv The process of with of vacuum and must the elecwaves. Clearly, energy be conse 0 the permittivity tric susceptibility of the medium. The relation condition, a + 2 = 3 . Photon numb between P and E in1 nonlinear medium can be 1: photon interaction. Consider the photon approximated by a Taylor expansion If ,( 2(2) , and 33 are the net cha 2 (3) (9) P =1 0 E + E + E + . . . ). in the course of the interaction (the ux To understand second harmonic generation, entering) at frequencies second , it is 2 , and 3 sucient to look at this expansion up to 1 of the 3more photons lost, one each of the order. We can conveniently write the polarizationIf as P = 0 E + PNwaves the the sam L , with PN L = 2dE in the three travel nonlinear term and d the second-order nonlinear by taking a cylinder of unit area and i coecient. The propagation of a wave through a nonlinear medium can then, after some reductions, be expressed as: 2 E 1 2E 2 PN L = 0 , 2 2 c t t2 (10)

(7)

with A(i ) the complex amplitude of the wave.

with c the velocity of light inside the nonlinear medium. Because the nonlinearity is mostly small, it is possible to use the Born approximation, an iterative process where the S (E0 ) = 2P NL 0 t term can be seen as a source. First we 2 calculate this source term as a function of the incident light. The generated light can itself be seen as incident light, leading to a second step in this iterative process by generating itself radiation. The source term will then be in function of the scattered eld S (E1 ). Because the nonlinearity is in general quite low, restricting ourselves to the rst step will be a good approximation.

The expansion of P around E = 0 is a good approximation because the typically applied elds are small in comparison with the inter-atomic elds of the medium.

which is represented graphically by an ellipse [see (6.3-15) and Fig. 6.3-7]. If the polarizations of the signal and idler waves are the same, the wave mixing is said to be Type I; if they are orthogonal, it is said to be Type II.

EXAMPLE 21.2-1.

Collinear Type-I Second-Harmonic Generation (SHG). For SHG,

waves 1 and 2 have the same frequency (1 = 2 = ) and 3 = 2 . For Type-I mixing, waves If we now apply the Born approximation to our with the optical axis. As represented in gure 10, 1 and 2 have identical polarization so that n1 = n2 . Therefore, from (21.2-20), the phase-matching is n3 the = n1 , i.e., the fundamental wave has the same refractive index as the second-harmonic only for a certain angle will the phase-matching problem, we insert the incident wavecondition (7) into wave. Because of2 dispersion, this condition cannot usually be satised unless the polarization of these condition (11) be fullled, leading to the creation nonlinear term of the polarization, P = 2 d E , NL two waves is different. For a uniaxial crystal, the process is either o-o-e or e-e-o. In either case, the direction at which the wave enters the crystal is adjusted in such a way that n = n , i.e., such that 3 1 and obtain that the nal result contains 5 frequen- of a second harmonic. birefringence compensates exactly for dispersion. cies: 0, 21 , 22 , + = 1 + 2 and = 1 2 . 2 no(2) Keeping in mind that the two frequencies are in o ne no() fact the same, we obtain the creation of a photon no with a frequency 2 , and the null solution. ne(2)
ne()

The two most fundamental laws of physics, con 2 servation of energy and momentum, still have to be satised throughout this derivation. They Figure 21.2-10 Phase matching in e-e-o SHG. The (a) Matching the index of the e wave in at funcwith 10: Left: refractive index plotted are often referred as the frequency-matching and Figure that of the o wave at 2 . (b) Index surfacestion at (solid curves) andthe 2 (dashed curves) for and a uniaxial of angle for fundamental seccrystal. (c) The wave is chosen to travel at an angle with respect to the crystal optic axis, such that phase-matching condition:
harmonic. Graphical reprethe extraordinary refractive index ne (, ) ond of the wave equals theRight: ordinary refractive index n o (2 ) of the 2 wave. sentation of the incident light (red) and For an e-e-o process such as that illustrated in Fig. 21.2-10, the fundamental wave is extraordinary the second harmonic ordiand the second-harmonic wave is ordinary, n1 generated = n(, ) and n3 = no (2 ), so that as the an matching condition is: n(, ) = no (2 ). This is achieved selecting an angle for which naryby wave (blue). Figure taken from [7].

+ = k1 + k2 =

(2 ) k3 .

(11)

These will impose certain restrains on the cre- 3 Conclusion SHG Type-I e-e-o ation of the second harmonic. The where velocities of n(, ) is given by (21.2-21). This is illustrated graphically in Fig. 21.2-10, which displays the ordinary and extraordinary (a circle and an ellipse) at (solida curves) and at the waves in a medium depend on the frequency, The refractive CERNindexes Ti:Sa laser system utilizes Z-cavity, 2 (dashed curves). The angle at which phase matching is satised is that at which the circle at 2 due to the dispersive nature of materials. two possile operating modes: narrow-band intersects theThis ellipse at with . an example, for KDP at a fundamental wavelength = 694 nm, no ( ) = 1.506, ne ( ) = 1.466; makes it possible to rewrite the lastAs equation, broad-band. The output is a high-power, and at /2 = 347 nm, nand o (2 ) = 1.534, ne (2 ) = 1.490. In this case, (21.2-22) and (21.2-21) gives o n1 + n2 = 2n3 where ni are the refractive = 52 . This is called the cut anglelaser of the crystal. mayin be written SHG in the pulsed thatSimilar can equations be used high for resolution o-o-e conguration. In this case, for KDP at a fundamental wavelength = 1.06 m, = 41o . indexes which are frequency dependent. experiments, since a spectral width of 1 GHz is EXAMPLE 21.2-2. Collinear Optical Parametric Oscillator (OPO). The oscillation frewithin from reach. The and Pockels cell conditions. present be quencies of an OPO are determined the frequency phase matching Forcan a Type-I o-o-e mixing genconguration, Because the medium of a second harmonic used to delay the ring of the laser, which allows erator is a uniaxial crystal, there is an ordinary re- the user to synchronize with an external event, 1 + 2 = 3 , 1 no (1 ) + 2 no (2 ) = 3 n(, 3 ). (21.2-23) fractive index no , and an extraordinary refractive or other laser. Using frequency doubling techOPO Type-I o-o-e index ne . The extraordinary refractive index has, niques allows doubling, tripling and even quadrubesides the dependency on the frequency, also a pling the frequency while maintaning usable laser dependency on the angle the incoming ray makes powers.

n(, ) = no (2 ),

Optic axis

(21.2-22)

References
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[9] S. Rothe et al. A complementary laser system for ISOLDE RILIS. In: Journal of Physics: Conference Series, vol. 312, no. 5: p. 052020 (2011). ISSN 1742-6596. URL http://dx.doi. org/10.1088/1742-6596/312/5/052020. [10] S. Rothe et al. Narrow linewidth operation of the RILIS titanium: Sapphire laser at ISOLDE/CERN. In: Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section B: Beam Interactions with Materials and Atoms, pp. 811 (2013). ISSN 0168583X. URL http://dx.doi. org/10.1016/j.nimb.2013.08.058. [11] Wikipedia. Fabry-P erot interferometer (2013). URL http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etalon.