In this study, we develop an ultra-fast fiber Bragg grating sensor system that is based on the Fourier domain mode-locked (FDML) swept laser. A FDML wavelength swept laser has many advantages compared to the conventional wavelength swept laser source, such as high-speed interrogation, narrow spectral sensitivity, and high phase stability. The newly developed FDML wavelength swept laser shows a ...

Interactions between atoms and lasers provide the potential for unprecedented control of quantum states. Fulfilling this potential requires detailed knowledge of frequency noise in optical oscillators with state-of-the-art stability. We demonstrate a technique that precisely measures the noise spectrum of an ultrastable laser using optical lattice-trapped 87Sr atoms as a quantum projection nois...

A new method for sample fiber Bragg grating fabrication by use of both femtosecond laser and CO(2) laser has been proposed and demonstrated. Such a method exhibits the advantages of high fabrication flexibility, and good thermal stability. The sampling period and duty cycle can be easily varied by changing the CO(2) laser beam scanning pattern during operation. The gratings produced have potent...

Diode laser frequency stability of 2 kHz to 680 Hz over 20 ms to 500 s has been demonstrated at 1523 nm in the technologically important communication band by use of persistent spectral holes in the inhomogeneously broadened 4I15/2 --> 4I13/2 optical absorption of Er3+:D-:CaF2. Laser frequency stabilization was realized without vibrational or acoustical isolation of either the laser or spectral...

We demonstrate a robust and versatile solution for locking the continuous-wave dye laser for applications in laser cooling of molecules which need linewidth-narrowed and frequency-stabilized lasers. The dye laser is first stabilized with respect to a reference cavity by Pound-Drever-Hall (PDH) technique which results in a single frequency with the linewidth 200 kHz and short-term stabilization,...

Carrier-envelope (CE) phase stabilization of a two-stage chirped pulse amplifier laser system with regenerative amplification as the preamplifier is demonstrated. The CE phase stability of this laser system is found to have a 90 mrad rms error averaged over 50 laser shots for a locking period of 4.5 h. The CE phase locking was confirmed unambiguously by experimental observation of the 2pi perio...

We perform an analytical study of the external cavity modes of a semiconductor laser subject to conventional optical feedback as modeled by the well-known Lang-Kobayashi equations. Specifically, the bifurcation set is derived in the threedimensional parameter space of feedback phase, feedback strength and pump current of the laser. Different open regions in this space correspond to different nu...

In this paper, thermal effects of laser irradiance on biological tissue is investigated using computer simulations. Earlier attempts in this field made use of finite difference and finite element techniques. Here a novel approach is adopted to improve the results. The effect of our implicit approach on the convergence procedure and accuracy of results, with different timing steps, is explor...

A scanning-laser glint meter designed for field measurements of sea-surface slope statistics is described. A narrow laser beam is scanned in a line, and specular reflections (glints) are counted in bins according to their slope angle. From normalized glint histograms, moments to the fourth order are calculated, and slope probability density functions are approximated with a Gram-Charlier expans...

We propose a technique to simultaneously stabilize relative wavelengths among multiple diode lasers by using multiplexed photorefractive gratings. Each grating is designed to be Bragg matched for the counter-propagating reflection at a specific diode laser wavelength. Experimental results from stabilization of two diode laser wavelengths by using two photorefractive gratings exhibit excellent s...