Wittrock, Ulrich
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Jahr
Publikationstyp
Sprache
- Englisch (33)
- Deutsch (6)
- Mehrsprachig (2)
Schlagworte
- adaptive optics (3)
- deformable mirror (3)
- active optics (2)
- active optics, adaptive optics, sharpness metrics, aberration compensation, algorithm design (2)
- deformable mirrors (2)
- laser machining (2)
- space optics (2)
- space telescopes (2)
- Active or adaptive optics (1)
- Deformable mirror, adaptive mirror, unimorph mirror, high-power laser (1)
Fachbereich / Studiengang
Efficient quasi-three-level laser operation requires the generation of the highest possible pump rate from a given pump source. We derive the fundamental scaling laws for the pump rate and we extract optimization criteria for pump concepts from these laws. The analysis is then applied to the thin-disk laser. Based on the results, a novel pump concept for thin-disk lasers is proposed, which allows for several tens of pump beam passes and reduces the optical complexity of conventional pump concepts. Furthermore, the beam quality of the pump source is preserved almost completely, facilitating the highest possible pump rate.
Novel unimorph deformable mirror with monolithic tip-tilt functionality for solid state lasers
(2011)
We present a new type of unimorph deformable mirror with monolithic tip-tilt functionality. The tip-tilt actuation is based on a spiral arm design. The mirror will be used in high-power laser resonators for real-time intracavity phase control. The additional tip-tilt correction with a stroke up to 6 μm simplifies the resonator alignment significantly. The mirror is optimized for a laser beam footprint of about 10 mm. We have modeled and optimized this mirror by finite element calculations and we will present design criteria and tradeoffs for this mirrors. The mirror is manufactured from a super-polished glass substrate with very low surface scattering and excellent dielectric coating.
It has been shown that the beam quality and the efficiency of high-power solid-state lasers could be enhanced by the use of deformable mirrors in order to compensate for optical aberrations. An intracavity compensation requires a deformable mirror which is capable of handling very high laser intensities. The active diameter of the deformable mirror should be a few millimeters in order to match typical fundamental mode laser beam diameters. There is a wide variety of commercially available deformable mirrors, but neither meets all requirements.
We have developed a new type of unimorph deformable mirror for the correction of low-order Zernike modes. The mirror features a clear aperture of 50 mm combined with large peak-to-valley amplitudes of up to 35 μm. Newly developed fabrication processes allow the use of prefabricated, coated, super-polished glass substrates. The mirror's unique features suggest the use in several astronomical applications like the compensation of atmospheric aberrations seen by laser beacons, low light astronomy, and the use in woofer-tweeter systems. Additionally, the design enables an efficient correction of the inevitable wave-front error imposed by the floppy structure of primary mirrors in future large space telescopes. We have modeled the mirror by using analytical as well as finite element models. We will present design, key features and manufacturing steps of the deformable mirror.
Characterization of a miniaturized unimorph deformable mirror for high power cw-solid state lasers
(2012)
We have developed a new type of unimorph deformable mirror for real-time intra-cavity phase control of high power cw-lasers. The approach is innovative in its combination of super-polished and pre-coated highly reflective substrates, the miniaturization of the unimorph principle, and the integration of a monolithic tip/tilt functionality. Despite the small optical aperture of only 9 mm diameter, the mirror is able to produce a stroke of several microns for low order Zernike modes, paired with a residual static root-mean-square aberration of less than 0.04 µm. In this paper, the characteristics of the mirror such as the influence functions, the dynamic behavior, and the power handling capability are reported. The mirror was subjected to a maximum of 490 W of laser-light at a wavelength of 1030 nm. Due to the high reflectivity of over 99.998 percent the mirror is able to withstand intensities up to 1.5 MW/cm2.
We have developed a new type of unimorph deformable mirror, designed to correct for low-order Zernike modes. The mirror has a clear optical aperture of 50 mm combined with large peak-to-valley Zernike amplitudes of up to 35 μm. Newly developed fabrication processes allow the use of prefabricated super-polished and coated glass substrates. The mirror's unique features suggest the use in several stronomical applications like the precompensation of atmospheric aberrations seen by laser beacons and the use in woofer-tweeter systems. Additionally, the design enables an efficient correction of the inevitable wavefront error imposed by the floppy structure of primary mirrors in future large space-based telescopes. We have modeled the mirror by using analytical as well as finite element models. We will present design, key features and manufacturing steps of the deformable mirror.
6th Laser Ceramics Symposium
(2012)
We report on interferometric measurements of the thermo-optical aberrations of the laser medium of an Yb:YAG thin-disk laser in pumped and cw lasing conditions at several pump-power levels with a mean repeatability of 5 nm. These measurements build the basis for future intracavity compensation of the aberrations with our deformable mirror in order to improve the fundamental-mode efficiency.
Concepts for future large space telescopes require an active optics system to mitigate aberrations caused by thermal deformation and gravitational release. Such a system would allow on-site correction of wave-front errors and ease the requirements for thermal and gravitational stability of the optical train. In the course of the ESA project "Development of Adaptive Deformable Mirrors for Space Instruments" we have developed a unimorph deformable mirror designed to correct for low-order aberrations and dedicated to be used in space environment. We briefly report on design and manufacturing of the deformable mirror and present results from performance verifications and environmental testing.
We report interferometric measurements of the temperature coefficient of the refractive index (dn=dT) and the coefficient of thermal expansion (a) of a praseodymium-doped yttrium lithium fluoride (Pr:YLF) crystal and of a fused silica reference sample. Our phase-resolved interferometric method yields a large number of data points and thus allows a precise measurement and a good error estimation. Furthermore, both dn=dT and a are obtained simultaneously from a single measurement which reduces errors that can occur in separate measurements. Over the temperature range from 20 °C to 80 °C, the value of dn=dT of Pr:YLF decreases from -5.2 x 10-6 /K to -6.2 x 10-6 /K for the ordinary refractive index and from -7.6 x 10-6 /K to -8.6 x 10-6 /K for the extraordinary refractive index. The coefficient of thermal expansion for the a-axis of Pr:YLF increases from 16.4 x 10-6 /K to 17.8 x 10-6 /K over the same temperature range.