Although the beam pointing stability of optical parametric oscillators and amplifiers is important for various applications few results on this parameter have been published. Here, we investigate the beam pointing stability of an injection-seeded, nanosecond optical parametric oscillator, compare it to its pump laser, and measure correlations between them. Although correlation between both quan...

An X-ray preionised, discharge excited ArF excimer laser, = 193 nm, has been studied in the long pulse regime. The laser performance is found to be primarily dependent on the discharge stability, and therefore, on the gas composition, preionization timing and the pumping power. Using X-ray preionization and prepulse-mainpulse excitation, laser pulselengths of up to 120-ns full-width at half-max...

We present an all-laser-driven, energy-tunable, and quasimonochromatic x-ray source based on Thomson scattering from laser-wakefield-accelerated electrons. One part of the laser beam was used to drive a few-fs bunch of quasimonoenergetic electrons, while the remainder was backscattered off the bunch at weakly relativistic intensity. When the electron energy was tuned from 17-50 MeV, narrow x-ra...

We demonstrate a robust method of stabilizing a diode laser frequency to an atomic transition. This technique employs the Zeeman shift to generate an antisymmetric signal about a Doppler-broadened atomic resonance, and therefore offers a large recapture range as well as high stability. The frequency of a 780-nm diode laser, stabilized to such a signal in Rb, drifted less than 0.5 MHz peak-peak ...

Spherical iron oxide nanocomposite particles composed of magnetite and wustite have been successfully synthesized using a novel method of pulsed laser irradiation in ethyl acetate. Both the size and the composition of nanocomposite particles are controlled by laser irradiation condition. Through tuning the laser fluence, the Fe3O4/FeO phase ratio can be precisely controlled, and the magnetic pr...

We demonstrate the generation of two high-power laser beams whose frequencies are separated by the ground state hyperfine transition frequency in (87)Rb. The system uses a single master diode laser appropriately shifted by high frequency acousto-optic modulators and amplified by semiconductor tapered amplifiers. This produces two 1 W laser beams with a frequency spacing of 6.834 GHz and a relat...

The construction of a sealed, CO2 gas discharge laser was undertaken as an independent study project. Glass laser tube design as well as clear acrylic housing makes this an excellent demonstrational tool. Sealed operation was characterized in mode, power, warm-up and stability over the period of weeks. Novel design approaches are used for expediency and cost savings and an anomalus turn-on beha...

We have frequency doubled a 1319-nm Nd:YAG laser in a quasi-phase-matched LiNbO(3) waveguide and used the asymptotically equal to1-mW second-harmonic output to investigate the (127)I(2) transitions near 660 nm. We reached submegahertz laser-frequency stability at a (vacuum) wavelength of 1319.098 nm by locking the second harmonic to the center of the P(48)6-6 transition.

Spectral line narrowing (by a factor of 8) and stabilization of the emission wavelength (by a factor of 30) of multimode high-power laser diodes and arrays is demonstrated by use of volume Bragg gratings fabricated in high-stability inorganic photorefractive glasses. Applications include stabilization of pump laser diodes and arrays for solid-state lasers and metal-vapor lasers, spin hyperpolar...

We present a cryogenic source of periodic streams of micrometer-sized hydrogen and argon droplets as ideal mass-limited target systems for fundamental intense laser-driven plasma applications. The highly compact design combined with a high temporal and spatial droplet stability makes our injector ideally suited for experiments using state-of-the-art high-power lasers in which a precise synchron...