Open Access
12 January 2024 Intense white laser of high spectral flatness via optical-damage-free water–lithium niobate module
Lihong Hong, Yuanyuan Liu, Haiyao Yang, Lingzhi Peng, Mingzhou Li, Yujie Peng, Ruxin Li, Zhi-Yuan Li
Author Affiliations +
Abstract

A supercontinuum white laser with ultrabroad bandwidth, intense pulse energy, and high spectral flatness can be accomplished via synergic action of third-order nonlinearity (3rd-NL) and second-order nonlinearity. In this work, we employ an intense Ti:sapphire femtosecond laser with a pulse duration of 50 fs and pulse energy up to 4 mJ to ignite the supercontinuum white laser. Remarkably, we use water instead of the usual solid materials as the 3rd-NL medium exhibiting both strong self-phase modulation and stimulated Raman scattering effect to create a supercontinuum laser with significantly broadened bandwidth and avoid laser damage and destruction. Then the supercontinuum laser is injected into a water-embedded chirped periodically poled lithium niobate crystal that enables broadband and high-efficiency second-harmonic generation. The output white laser has a 10 dB bandwidth encompassing 413 to 907 nm, more than one octave, and a pulse energy of 0.6 mJ. This methodology would open up an efficient route to creating a long-lived, high-stability, and inexpensive white laser with intense pulse energy, high spectral flatness, and ultrabroad bandwidth for application to various areas of basic science and high technology.

CC BY: © The Authors. Published by SPIE and CLP under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Distribution or reproduction of this work in whole or in part requires full attribution of the original publication, including its DOI.
Lihong Hong, Yuanyuan Liu, Haiyao Yang, Lingzhi Peng, Mingzhou Li, Yujie Peng, Ruxin Li, and Zhi-Yuan Li "Intense white laser of high spectral flatness via optical-damage-free water–lithium niobate module," Advanced Photonics Nexus 3(1), 016008 (12 January 2024). https://doi.org/10.1117/1.APN.3.1.016008
Received: 24 October 2023; Accepted: 16 December 2023; Published: 12 January 2024
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KEYWORDS
Pulsed laser operation

Supercontinuum generation

Femtosecond pulse shaping

Second harmonic generation

Water

Femtosecond phenomena

Scanning probe microscopy

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