Efficient speckle-suppressed white light source by micro-vibrated and color-mixing techniques for lighting applications.

In this paper, we have demonstrated an efficient speckle-suppressed white light source generation when a blue laser diode illuminates on a micro-vibrated phosphor paper. Both micro-vibrated and color-mixing techniques are used in this system. With only micro-vibrated technique, the speckle contrast can be reduced from about 50% to 7.4% for the scattering blue image for a 16-ms integration time. Together with color-mixing technique, mixing speckle contrast is defined for laser diode pumped phosphor and almost speckle-free result is achieved. For color temperature lower than 5000 K, almost speckle-free mixed white can be obtained even without vibration technique.

Efficient speckle reduction for a laser illuminating on a micro-vibrated paper screen.

We have demonstrated an efficient speckle reduction method for laser illumination using a micro-vibrated paper screen along the projection direction. Using this method, a micro-vibrated amplitude of 0.532 µm, or a 2π phase change is sufficient to de-correlate the generated speckle pattern for a static SHG green laser beam image. When the measured speckle contrast is lowered to about 5.0%, and comparable with an LED source, a speckle-free image can be achieved. This technique will be suitable for compact and portable laser illumination equipment, image display, signal sensing devices, and so forth. Wearable and near-to-eye laser display applications are also included.

Broadly tunable ultraviolet light generation in a compact MgO-doped periodically-poled stoichiometric lithium tantalate optical parametric oscillator with a high-Q cavity.

A compact tunable UV laser source based on intracavity sum frequency generation in a MgO-doped periodically-poled stoichiometric lithium tantalate optical parametric oscillator is reported. UV output at an approximately 1 mW level of power over the range of 364 to 378 nm with a bandwidth of 0.5 nm was obtained with a crystal that has just one periodically-poled grating period. The full tuning range can be as much as approximately 68 nm, from 324 to 392 nm by varying the crystal temperature from room temperature to 250 degrees C. This will cover nearly the entire UVA range.

Green-pumped high-power optical parametric oscillator based on periodically poled MgO-doped stoichiometric LiTaO3.

A high-power 532 nm-pumped multikilohertz nanosecond optical parametric oscillator using a periodically poled 1.0 mol.% MgO-doped stoichiometric lithium tantalate crystal that could be operated from room temperature to 200 degrees C without damage is reported. A broad continuous tuning range from 855 to 1410 nm was achieved within a single domain period. Efficient operation of high peak power and watt level average power with a power conversion of 62.5% was measured. These results show that a high-resolution high average power visible tunable source can be realized.

Dissociation of heme from gaseous myoglobin ions studied by infrared multiphoton dissociation spectroscopy and Fourier-transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry.

Detachment of heme prosthetic groups from gaseous myoglobin ions has been studied by collision-induced dissociation and infrared multiphoton dissociation in combination with Fourier-transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry. Multiply charged holomyoglobin ions (hMbn+) were generated by electrospray ionization and transferred to an ion cyclotron resonance cell, where the ions of interest were isolated and fragmented by either collision with Ar atoms or irradiation with 3 mum photons, producing apomyoglobin ions (aMbn+). Both charged heme loss (with [Fe(III)-heme]+ and aMb(n-1)+ as the products) and neutral heme loss (with [Fe(II)-heme] and aMbn+ as the products) were detected concurrently for hMbn+ produced from a myoglobin solution pretreated with reducing reagents. By reference to Ea = 0.9 eV determined by blackbody infrared radiative dissociation for charged heme loss of ferric hMbn+, an activation energy of 1.1 eV was deduced for neutral heme loss of ferrous hMbn+ with n = 9 and 10.

Efficient periodically poled stoichiometric lithium tantalate optical parametric oscillator for the visible to near-infrared region.

A compact, efficient optical parametric oscillator (OPO) for the visible to near-infrared region based on periodically poled stoichiometric lithium tantalate pumped by a frequency-doubled multikilohertz Q-switched Nd:YAG laser is demonstrated. Up to 61% photon conversion with a 71% slope efficiency for photon conversion from 532 nm to the signal radiation was measured. We observed that the efficient conversion diminished the potential for photorefractive damage induced by the 532 nm radiation in the crystal and made sustained operation of the OPO device possible.

Glass-clad Cr4+:YAG crystal fiber for the generation of superwideband amplified spontaneous emission.

Glass-clad Cr4+:YAG crystal fiber is demonstrated by a codrawing laser-heated pedestal growth method. As much as 2.45 mW of superwideband amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) is generated in the optical fiber communication band with a 3-dB width of 240 nm. The simulation indicates that the ASE power could be in excess of 20 dBm for a 5-microm-diameter core at a pump power of 2.5 W.