Regenerative amplification of picosecond pulses in Nd:YAG at repetition rates in the 100-kHz range

Ruggiero, Anthony J.; Scherer, Norbert F.; Mitchell, G.; Fleming, Graham R.; Hogan, Josh

doi:10.1364/josab.8.002061

Cited by 39 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 26 publications

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“…The sample was excited with -1-nJ pulses, while the gate pulse was -2 nJ. Excitation at 608 nm was provided by a cavitydumped, anti-resonant ring dye laser amplified in a two-stage single-pass dye amplifier pumped by the frequency-doubled output of a neodymium:yttrium aluminum garnet regenerative amplifier operating at 100-kHz repetition rate (20). This system typically yielded 60-fs pulses of 240 nJ.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Femtosecond spontaneous-emission studies of reaction centers from photosynthetic bacteria.

Rosenthal

Xie

et al. 1992

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

173

151

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Spontaneous emission from reaction centers of photosynthetic bacteria has been recorded with a time resolution of 50 fs. Excitation was made directly into both the special-pair band (850 nm) and the Qx band of bacteriochlorophylls (608 am). Rhodobacter sphaeroides R26, Rhodobacter capsuleas wild type, and four mutants of Rb. capsulatus were studied. In all cases the fluorescence decay was not single exponential and was well fit as a sum of two exponential decay components. The short components are in excellent agreement with the single component detected by measurements of stimulated emission. The origin of the nonexponential decay is discussed in terms of heterogeneity, the kinetic scheme, and the possibility of slow vibrational relaxation.The mechanism of the initial electron transfer step in the reaction center (RC) of photosynthetic bacteria has been the subject of intense study over the past 10 years. This initial step is ultrafast, occurring in about 3 ps at room temperature (1). As the understanding of the RC improves the need arises for more precise kinetic data. In particular, questions arise as to the exponentiality of the observed kinetic signals (2-8), the possibility of differing behavior at different wavelengths (3, 4), the existence of oscillatory components (5), and the existence of spectral shifts (3, 6) accompanying the excitation and subsequent electron transfer processes.The primary method used for ultrafast studies of the primary charge separation step has been time-resolved absorption spectroscopy, generally with low-repetition-rate (10-30 Hz) relatively high-power (excitation pulse energies in the range 1-30 pJ) laser systems. In addition to the limited dynamic range and signal/noise ratios of such measurements, precise determination of kinetics requires that accurate account be taken of all the competing absorptions and bleachings at the detection wavelength. In measurements of the decay of the excited state of the special pair (P*) by stimulated emission, most workers have made measurements at or near the isosbestic point in the spectrum consisting of ground state (P) bleaching and absorption of the radical cation of P (P+) and P*. However, such a procedure makes it difficult to observe longer decay components in the stimulated emission and to look for the presence of spectral evolution or wavelength-dependent kinetics. Zinth and coworkers (7) could not rule out the presence of a 10-to 20-ps component within their experimental accuracy. More recently Vos et al. (5), after significantly improving their signal/noise ratio, reported that the stimulated emission in Rhodobacter sphaeroides R26 (R26) did not decay exponentially but was well described by two decay times (2.9 and 12 ps) with relative amplitudes of 65% and 35%. This observation is very significant for kinetic analyses of absorption changes in other portions of the spectrum, in particular for discussion of whether the primary process should be described by a one-step superexchange or two-step sequential mechanism (2-15).An...

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mentioning

confidence: 99%

Femtosecond spontaneous-emission studies of reaction centers from photosynthetic bacteria.

Rosenthal

Xie

et al. 1992

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

173

151

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“…[35][36][37][38][39] The pulse energy can be amplified into either the microjoule or millijoule range, depending on the operational repetition rates. 45 However, this system does not provide enough time resolution for picosecond time resolved experiments and it operates only at a single wavelength ͑1064 nm͒. 35,[40][41][42][43][44] On the other hand, only low repetition rate ͑ϳ1 kHz͒ laser amplifier systems are currently available for ps pulse ͑ഛ5 ps͒ amplification.…”

Section: Picosecond Regenerative Amplifier At Repetition Rate Of 1mentioning

confidence: 99%

Two-color pump-probe laser spectroscopy instrument with picosecond time-resolved electronic delay and extended scan range

Xiong

Ionascu

et al. 2005

Review of Scientific Instruments

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An electronically delayed two-color pump-probe instrument was developed using two synchronized laser systems. The instrument has picosecond time resolution and can perform scans over hundreds of nanoseconds without the beam divergence and walk-off effects that occur using standard spatial delay systems. A unique picosecond Ti: sapphire regenerative amplifier was also constructed without the need for pulse stretching and compressing optics. The picosecond regenerative amplifier has a broad wavelength tuning range, which suggests that it will make a significant contribution to two-color pump-probe experiments. To test this instrument we studied the rotational correlation relaxation of myoglobin ͑ r = 8.2± 0.5 ns͒ in water as well as the geminate rebinding kinetics of oxygen to myoglobin ͑k g1 = 1.7ϫ 10 11 s −1 , k g2 = 3.4ϫ 10 7 s −1 ͒. The results are consistent with, and improve upon, previous studies.

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“…To keep the overall cavity length approximately the same as the old design, a dog-leg fold arrangement was chosen for the cavity-dumping mechanism. 7,30 Although additional prisms require more effort in initial construction, the mode-locking condition is easy to establish. Following power optimization in cw operation, we achieve mode locking by slightly increasing the distance of M1 and M2 and then applying a gentle perturbationlike tapping at the end mirror.…”

Section: A Oscillator Designmentioning

confidence: 99%

Femtosecond-pulse cavity-dumped solid-state oscillator design and application to ultrafast microscopy

Liau¹,

Unterreiner²,

Arnett³

et al. 1999

Appl. Opt.

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The construction, modeling, and performance characteristics of a new resonator design for ultrafast cavity-dumped oscillators are presented. An acousto-optic Bragg cell was incorporated at the end of the longer arm of a Ti:sapphire oscillator rather than in the shorter arm as in several recent studies. The new arrangement improves the pulse intensity stability of the oscillator and significantly reduces the effort required in construction. The experimental findings are supported by comparison of the stability regions of the laser cavities based on the two different designs. To demonstrate the potential of cavity-dumped oscillators for spatially resolved ultrafast spectroscopy studies, the pulse duration is characterized at the focal plane of two achromatic high-N.A. oil-immersion objectives with different amounts of flat-field correction. Transform-limited pulse widths as short as 15 fs are obtained. To our knowledge, this is the shortest pulse duration measured with true high-N.A. (N.A. > 1) focusing conditions.

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Regenerative amplification of picosecond pulses in Nd:YAG at repetition rates in the 100-kHz range

Cited by 39 publications

References 26 publications

Femtosecond spontaneous-emission studies of reaction centers from photosynthetic bacteria.

Femtosecond spontaneous-emission studies of reaction centers from photosynthetic bacteria.

Two-color pump-probe laser spectroscopy instrument with picosecond time-resolved electronic delay and extended scan range

Femtosecond-pulse cavity-dumped solid-state oscillator design and application to ultrafast microscopy

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