Optical pulse apparatus and method

摘要

The invention can include an apparatus for producing optical pulses, comprising an oscillator for producing optical pulses at a first optical pulse repetition frequency, the optical pulses having a first wavelength and a first time duration; a pulse picker for receiving optical pulses having the first optical pulse repetition frequency, first wavelength and first time duration and operable to reduce the optical pulse repetition frequency to produce optical pulses having the first wavelength, first time duration and a reduced optical pulse repetition frequency that is less than the first optical pulse repetition frequency; an optical fiber receiving optical pulses at the reduced optical pulse repetition frequency and having the first wavelength and first time duration to produce, at the reduced optical pulse frequency, optical pulses that include one or more nonlinearly produced wavelengths different than the first wavelength.

主权项

1. Optical apparatus for outputting ultraviolet light pulses, comprising:
an optical signal source for producing optical pulses having a selected wavelength, the optical signal source comprising a fibre oscillator outputting optical pulses; an optical fibre amplifier for amplifying optical pulses comprising the selected wavelength, the optical fibre amplifier comprising a rare earth doped polarization maintaining amplifier fibre; a nonlinear optical fibre receiving optical pulses having the selected wavelength to produce optical pulses that include a nonlinearly produced first wavelength that is shorter than the selected wavelength; a nonlinear optical crystal receiving pulses having the first wavelength to output second optical pulses comprising ultraviolet light having a second wavelength that is shorter than the first wavelength; and wherein said second optical pulses comprise short optical pulses having a time duration of less than 10 ns.