Virtual Journal of Laser

Richard M. Clare, Miska Le Louarn, Clementine Béchet
The subaperture images in Shack–Hartmann wavefront sensors are elongated when using sodium laser guide stars, due to the parallax effect and the nonzero thickness of the sodium layer. This elongation increases the measurement error in each subaperture and introduces a correlation between the ... [Appl. Opt. 49, G27-G36 (2010)]

Christian Schwab, Andrew Rakich
We describe the calibration method to be used for the off-axis laser guide stars at the Large Binocular Telescope’s (LBT’s) advanced Rayleigh guided ground layer adaptive optics system facility and the optical design of a dedicated calibration unit. Several possible solutions for ... [Appl. Opt. 49, G53-G59 (2010)]

Andreas Tünnermann, Thomas Schreiber, Jens Limpert
The first rare-earth-doped fiber lasers were operated in the early sixties and produced a few milliwatts at a wavelength around 1 μm. For the next several decades, fiber lasers were little more than a low-power laboratory curiosity. Recently, however, fiber lasers are entering the realm of ... [Appl. Opt. 49, F71-F78 (2010)]

N. V. Karlov, O. N. Krokhin, S. G. Lukishova
Some moments of maser and laser history in the Soviet Union are outlined, commemorating the work of Nikolaj G. Basov and Alexander M. Prokhorov, who, together with Charles H. Townes, were awarded the 1964 Nobel Prize “for fundamental work in the field of quantum electronics, which has led to ... [Appl. Opt. 49, F32-F46 (2010)]

Takayuki Mabuchi, Minoru Watanabe
This paper proposes a method of superimposing acceleration and optimizing the optical reconfiguration speed while requiring no increase of laser power. Using this technique, the optical reconfiguration speed is increased by superimposing multiple configuration contexts. Simultaneously, optimization ... [Appl. Opt. 49, 4120-4126 (2010)]

Gilbert L. Bourdet, Claude Gouédard
In this paper, we introduce analytical derivations for the thermal lensing of an end-pumped laser disk. These derivations are done for pump beam shapes from Gaussian to top hat, assuming that the thermal conductivity is either constant with the temperature or not. We give examples in two ... [Appl. Opt. 49, 4160-4167 (2010)]

Xingpeng Yan, Qiang Liu, Xing Fu, Hailong Chen, Dongsheng Wang, Mali Gong
We demonstrated an acousto-optically (AO) Q-switched dual-rod laser with different gain crystals in the cavity, the combination of Nd:YAG crystal and Nd:YVO_4 crystal. An AO Q-switched dual-rod Nd:YVO_4−Nd:YVO_4 laser was also configured for comparative investigation. A 69 and 75?W near ... [Appl. Opt. 49, 4131-4138 (2010)]

Liying Tan, Yiwei Song, Jing Ma, Siyuan Yu, Qiqi Han, Yijun Jiang, Jian Wang, Sen Fu
Wave-front aberrations due to thermal deformation of elliptical reflectors in periscopic laser communication terminals are studied, and are fitted by Zernike elliptical polynomials. The relationship between pointing error and temperature distribution of elliptical reflectors in intersatellite laser ... [Appl. Opt. 49, 4168-4174 (2010)]

Benjamin Witschas, Maria O. Vieitez, Eric-Jan van Duijn, Oliver Reitebuch, Willem van de Water, Wim Ubachs
Atmospheric lidar techniques for the measurement of wind, temperature, and optical properties of aerosols rely on the exact knowledge of the spectral line shape of the scattered laser light on molecules. We report on spontaneous Rayleigh–Brillouin scattering measurements in the ultraviolet ... [Appl. Opt. 49, 4217-4227 (2010)]

Nicola Coluccelli
Modeling a real laser diode stack based on Zemax ray tracing software that operates in a nonsequential mode is reported. The implementation of the model is presented together with the geometric and optical parameters to be adjusted to calibrate the model and to match the simulated intensity ... [Appl. Opt. 49, 4237-4245 (2010)]