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Definition: lasers based on a Ti:sapphire gain medium
Titanium-doped sapphire (Ti3+:sapphire) is a widely used transition-metal-doped gain medium for femtosecond solid-state lasers. It was introduced in 1986 [1], and thereafter Ti:sapphire lasers quickly replaced most dye lasers, which had previously dominated the fields of ultrashort pulse generation and widely wavelength-tunable lasers. Ti:sapphire lasers are also used in continuous-wave mode with a wide wavelength tuning range. Ti:sapphire lasers are also very convenient e.g. for pumping test setups of new solid-state lasers (e.g. based on neodymium- or ytterbium-doped gain media), since they can easily be tuned to the required pump wavelength and allow to work with very high pump brightness due to their good beam quality and high output power of typically several watts.
Properties of Ti:sapphire
Special properties of the Ti:sapphire gain medium are:
- Sapphire (monocrystalline Al2O3) has an excellent thermal conductivity, alleviating thermal effects even for high laser powers and intensities.
- The Ti3+ ion has a very large gain bandwidth (much larger than that of rare-earth-doped gain media), allowing the generation of very short pulses as well as wide wavelength tunability (typically using a birefringent tuner). The maximum gain and laser efficiency is obtained around 800 nm. The possible tuning range is ∼650 nm to 1100 nm, although different mirror sets are normally required for covering this huge range, and exchanging mirror sets is a somewhat tedious task. (The number of required mirror sets can be reduced by using ultrabroadband chirped mirrors.)
- There is also a wide range of possible pump wavelengths, which however are located in the green spectral region, where powerful laser diodes are not available. In most cases, several watts of pump power are used, sometimes even up to 20 W. Originally, Ti:sapphire lasers were in most cases pumped with 514-nm argon ion lasers, which are powerful, but very inefficient, expensive to operate, and bulky. Other kinds of green lasers are now available, and frequency-doubled solid-state lasers based on neodymium-doped gain media are widely used. The pump wavelength is then typically 532 nm, with a somewhat reduced pump absorption efficiency compared with 514 nm.
- The upper state lifetime is rather short (3.2 μs), and the saturation power is very high. This means that the pump intensity needs to be rather high, so that a strongly focused pump beam and thus a pump source with high beam quality is required.
- Despite the huge emission bandwidth, Ti:sapphire has relatively high laser cross sections, which reduces the tendency of Ti:sapphire lasers for Q-switching instabilities.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| chemical formula | Ti3+:Al2O3 |
| crystal structure | hexagonal |
| mass density | 3.98 g/cm3 |
| Moh hardness | 9 |
| Young's modulus | 335 GPa |
| tensile strength | 400 MPa |
| melting point | 2040 °C |
| thermal conductivity | 33 W / (m K) |
| thermal expansion coefficient | ∼5·10-6/K |
| thermal shock resistance parameter | 790 W/m |
| birefringence | negative uniaxial |
| refractive index at 633 nm | 1.76 |
| temperature dependence of refractive index | 13·10-6/K |
| Ti density for 0.1% atm. doping | 4.56·1019 cm-3 |
| fluorescence lifetime | 3.2 μs |
| emission cross section at 790 nm | 41·10-20 cm2 |
Pulse Generation
Ultrashort pulses from Ti:sapphire lasers can be generated with passive mode locking, usually in the form of Kerr lens mode locking (KLM). The combination with a SESAM allows for reliable self-starting of the pulse generation process. A pulse duration around 100 fs is easily achieved and is typical for commercial devices. However, even pulse durations around 10 fs are possible for commercial devices, and the shortest pulses obtained in research laboratories have durations around 5.5 fs [6,7]. For such high performance, it is essential to introduce very precise dispersion compensation e.g. with double-chirped mirrors.
Typical output powers of mode-locked Ti:sapphire lasers are of the order of 0.3 W to 1 W, whereas continuous-wave versions sometimes generate several watts. A typical pulse repetition rate is 80 MHz, but devices with multi-GHz repetition rates are also commercially available, which can be used e.g. as frequency comb sources. For optical frequency metrology, Ti:sapphire lasers with ultrabroad (octave-spanning) optical spectra [8,9] are very important.
If the requirements in terms of pulse duration and output power are less stringent, Ti:sapphire lasers may be replaced with Cr:LiSAF or Cr:LiCAF lasers, which can be pumped at longer (red) wavelengths, where laser diodes are available. In other cases, fiber lasers may be used.
Ti:sapphire is also often used for multi-pass amplifiers and regenerative amplifiers. Particularly with chirped pulse amplification, such devices can reach enormous output peak powers of several terawatts, or in large facilities even petawatts. Such huge powers are interesting for nonlinear optics in an extreme regime, e.g. for high harmonic generation, but also for nuclear fusion research.
Frequency Conversion
Nonlinear frequency conversion can be used to further extend the range of emission wavelengths of a Ti:sapphire laser system. The simplest possibility is frequency doubling to access the blue, ultraviolet and green spectral region. Another approach is to pump an optical parametric oscillator, offering a wide tuning range in the near or mid infrared spectral region. For tuning the OPO, it is often sufficient to tune the Ti:sapphire wavelength, rather than e.g. tuning the OPO itself e.g. by actively affecting the phase-matching conditions.
Bibliography
| [1] | P. F. Moulton, "Spectroscopic and laser characteristics of Ti:Al2O3", J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 3 (1), 125 (1986) |
| [2] | P. Albers et al., "Continuous-wave laser operation and quantum efficiency of titanium-doped sapphire", J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 3 (1), 134 (1986) |
| [3] | A. Sanchez et al., "Room-temperature continuous-wave operation of a Ti:Al2O3 laser", Opt. Lett. 11 (6), 363 (1986) |
| [4] | E. Gulevich et al., "Current state and prospects for tunable titanium-sapphire lasers", Proc. SPIE 2095, 102 (1994) |
| [5] | G. N. Gibson et al., "Electro-optically cavity-dumped ultrashort-pulse Ti:sapphire oscillator", Opt. Lett. 21 (14), 1055 (1996) |
| [6] | D. H. Sutter et al., "Semiconductor saturable-absorber mirror-assisted Kerr lens modelocked Ti:sapphire laser producing pulses in the two-cycle regime", Opt. Lett. 24 (9), 631 (1999) |
| [7] | U. Morgner et al., "Sub-two cycle pulses from a Kerr-lens mode-locked Ti:sapphire laser", Opt. Lett. 24 (6), 411 (1999) |
| [8] | R. Ell et al., "Generation of 5-fs pulses and octave-spanning spectra directly from a Ti:sapphire laser", Opt. Lett. 26 (6), 373 (2001) |
| [9] | L. Matos et al., "Direct frequency comb generation from an octave-spanning, prismless Ti:sapphire laser", Opt. Lett. 29 (14), 1683 (2004) |
| [10] | T. M. Fortier et al., "Octave-spanning Ti:sapphire laser with a repetition rate >1 GHz for optical frequency measurements and comparisons", Opt. Lett. 31 (7), 1011 (2006) |
| [11] | I. Matsushima et al., "10 kHz 40 W Ti:sapphire regenerative ring amplifier", Opt. Lett. 31 (13), 2066 (2006) |
See also: solid-state lasers, transition-metal-doped gain media, femtosecond lasers, vibronic lasers, dye lasers, wavelength tuning, dispersion compensation, passive mode locking, Kerr lens mode locking, ultrashort pulses, ultrafast lasers, regenerative amplifiers, chirped pulse amplification, frequency combs, frequency metrology
This encyclopedia is authored by Dr. Rüdiger Paschotta, the founder and executive of RP Photonics Consulting GmbH. Contact this distinguished expert in laser technology, nonlinear optics and fiber optics, and find out how his technical consulting services (e.g. product designs, problem solving, independent evaluations, or staff training) could become very valuable for your business!
