OSE Master's Degree Thesis Defense by Mr. David Valdes on Generation and Use of Femtosecond, Gigawatt, Near-Infrared Laser Pulses from an Amplified Mode-Locked, Ti:Sapphire Laser
Departmental News
Posted: April 2, 2019
Date: Friday, April 5, 2019
Time: 2:00 PM to 3:00 PM
Location: CHTM, Room 103
Map to CHTM:
http://www.chtm.unm.edu/about/map-directions.html
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Speaker:
Mr. David Valdes
Committee:
Dr. Jean Claude Diels, Committee Chair
Dr. Francisco Becerra-Chavez
Dr. Francesca Cavallo
Dr. Paul Schwoebel
100 fs light pulses of around 800 nm were generated by a Ti: Sapphire oscillator, then amplified to approximately 30 GW peak power using a chirped pulse amplification system that included regenerative and multi-pass amplifiers. High power pulses were then used to strike water, glass, and a Kerr Cell. Supercontinuum generation was observed as a result of striking the water and glass. Moreover, using water produced a stable source of white light.
This experiment demonstrates some of the foundational elements of the early days of optical chirped pulse amplification leading up to the 2018 Nobel Prize in Physics and looking forward to vacuum breaking laser intensities. The experimental set-up and principles of operation will be discussed.
