In this paper, the frequency difference of the eigen polarization modes of the Nd:YAG crystal laser at different polarization ratios is experimentally studied, and to the best of our knowledge, the correlation between the frequency difference of the eigenmodes and the output polarization degree is reported for the first time. Combined with the analysis of the polarization beam profile, it is proved that the polarized laser produced by the isotropic crystal is due to the frequency locking of the eigen polarization modes. The weak birefringence in the crystal causes the round-trip phase difference of the orthogonal polarization modes, which leads to the frequency difference between the polarization modes. By the adjustment of the cavity mirror, the anisotropic loss will interact with the round-trip phase difference. The eigen polarization modes can reach frequency degeneration, and then be coherently combined to produce linearly polarized laser output. This work provides a useful reference for understanding the physical mechanism of polarized lasers realized by isotropic crystals.

We reporte and demonstrate a solid-state laser to achieve controlled generation of order-switchable cylindrical vector beams (CVBs). In the cavity, a group of vortex wave plates (VWPs) with two quarter-wave plates between the VWPs was utilized to achieve mode conversion and order-switch of CVBs. By utilizing two VWPs of first and third orders, the second and fourth order CVBs were obtained, with mode purities of 96.8% and 94.8%, and sloping efficiencies of 4.45% and 3.06%, respectively. Furthermore, by applying three VWPs of first, second, and third orders, the mode-switchable Gaussian beam, second, fourth, and sixth order CVBs were generated.

We experimentally demonstrated a cascaded internal phase control technique. A laser array with 12 channels was divided into three sub-arrays and a stage array, and phases of the sub-arrays and the stage array were locked by four phase controllers based on the stochastic parallel gradient descent (SPGD) algorithm, respectively. In this way, the phases of the whole array were locked, and the visibility of the interference pattern of the whole emitted laser array in the far field was ∼93%. In addition, the technique has the advantage of element expanding and can be further used in the high-power coherent beam combination (CBC) system due to its compact spatial structure.

An immersed liquid cooling slab laser is demonstrated with deionized water as the coolant and a Nd:YAG slab as the gain medium. Using waveguides, a highly uniform pump beam distribution is achieved, and the flow velocity distribution is also optimized in the channels of the gain module (GM). At various flow velocities, the convective heat transfer coefficient (CHTC) is obtained. Experimentally, a maximum output power of 434 W is obtained with an optical–optical efficiency of 27.1% and a slope efficiency of 36.6%. To the best of our knowledge, it is the highest output power of an immersed liquid cooling laser oscillator with a single Nd:YAG slab.

We demonstrate spectral-furcated vector solitons in normal-dispersion fiber lasers comprising a section of polarization-maintaining fiber. The spectrum of each orthogonal-polarized component is confined by the birefringence-related phase-matching principle, and the bicorn spectral structure corresponds to the zero-order sidebands of two vector modes. Due to the Hopf bifurcation effect, the vector soliton evolves into a breathing state at the higher pump level, accompanied by an extra set of sub-sidebands that continuously exchange energy with the zero-order sidebands. Simulation results fully reproduce experimental observations of the spectral furcation and soliton breathing, offering comprehensive insights into the pulse-shaping mechanism of the birefringence-managed soliton.

We have successfully generated a 1.3/1.4 µm random fiber laser (RFL) using bismuth (Bi)-doped phosphosilicate fiber. The Bi-doped RFL has shown excellent long-term operational stability with a standard deviation of approximately 0.34% over 1 h at a maximum output power of 549.30 mW, with a slope efficiency of approximately 29.21%. The Bi-doped phosphosilicate fiber offers an emission spectrum ranging from 1.28 to 1.57 µm, indicating that it can be tuned within this band. Here, we demonstrated a wavelength-tuning fiber laser with a wavelength of 1.3/1.4 µm, achieved through the using of a fiber Bragg grating or a tunable filter. Compared to traditional laser sources, the RFL reduces the speckle contrast of images by 11.16%. Due to its high stability, compact size, and high efficiency, this RFL is highly promising for use in biomedical imaging, communication, and sensor applications.

We report a Yb-doped mode-locked fiber laser based on a nonlinear amplifying loop mirror (NALM), which is all-normal-dispersion (ANDi), and allows the output wavelength to be tunable. The laser can generate a stable femtosecond dissipative soliton with a maximum output power of 196 mW. Its repetition rate is 112.4 MHz, and the final pulse duration is 236 fs. By adjusting the angle of the reflective diffraction grating, the mode-locked fiber laser was realized to tune the output with a tuning range of 54 nm from 1011.8 nm to 1065.6 nm. To the best of our knowledge, this is the widest tuning range of an ANDi Yb-doped mode-locked fiber laser based on NALM.

High-order dispersion introduced by Gires–Tournois interferometer mirrors usually causes spectral sidebands in the near-zero dispersion region of mode-locked fiber lasers. Here, we demonstrate a sideband-free Yb-doped mode-locked fiber laser with dispersion-compensating Gires–Tournois interferometer mirrors. Both the simulation and the experiment demonstrate that the wavelength and energy of the sidebands can be tuned by changing the transmission coefficient of the output mirror, the pump power, and the ratio of the net cavity dispersion to the net third-order dispersion in the cavity. By optimizing these three parameters, the laser can generate a sideband-free, Gaussian-shaped spectrum with a 13.56-nm bandwidth at -0.0232ps2 net cavity dispersion, which corresponds to a 153-fs pulse duration.

A high-energy 100-Hz optical parametric oscillator (OPO) based on a confocal unstable resonator with a Gaussian reflectivity mirror was demonstrated. A KTA-based OPO with a good beam quality was obtained when the magnification factor was 1.5, corresponding to the maximum signal (1.53 µm) energy of 56 mJ and idler (3.47 µm) energy of 20 mJ, respectively. The beam quality factors (M²) were measured to be M²_x = 5.7, M²_y = 5.9 for signal and M²_x = 8.4, M²_y = 8.1 for idler accordingly. The experimental results indicated that the beam quality positively changed with the increase of magnification factors, accompanied by an acceptable loss of pulse energy.

High-repetition rate femtosecond lasers are shown to drive heat accumulation processes that are attractive for femtosecond laser-induced subwavelength periodic surface structures on silicon. Femtosecond laser micromachining is no longer a nonthermal process, as long as the repetition rate reaches up to 100 kHz due to heat accumulation. Moreover, a higher repetition rate generates much better defined ripple structures on the silicon surface, based on the fact that accumulated heat raises lattice temperature to the melting point of silicon (1687 K), with more intense surface plasmons excited simultaneously. Comparison of the surface morphology on repetition rate and on the overlapping rate confirms that repetition rate and pulse overlapping rate are two competing factors that are responsible for the period of ripple structures. Ripple period drifts longer because of a higher repetition rate due to increasing electron density; however, the period of laser structured surface is significantly reduced with the pulse overlapping rate. The Maxwell–Garnett effect is confirmed to account for the ripple period-decreasing trend with the pulse overlapping rate.