Fyzikální ústav Akademie věd ČR

The hybrid iodine photodissociation laser SOFIA has been constructed. The pulse feeding the amplifier chain is the idler wave of an optical parametric oscillator (OPO) tuned to the atomic iodine transition at 1315 nm. This solid-state oscillator enables ps-synchronization to other laser systems. A homemade automatic stabilization of the OPO idler wave as to wavelength [3] and pointing [2] ensures long-term stable operation of the whole system. The active medium of the SOFIA amplifiers is a mixture of C₃F₇I and He. The SOFIA pulses are frequency-tripled in two KD*P crystals and then serve as the driver in a two-stage optical parametric amplification scheme in which chirped broadband Ti:sapphire laser pulses are amplified (OPCPA).

1. J. Dostál, H. Turčičová, B. Králikova, L. Král and J. Huynh
   Iodine photodissociation laser SOFIA with MOPO-HF as a solid-state oscillator
   Appl. Phys. B, Published online: 6 August 2009, doi: 10.1007/s00340-009-3671-0
2. L. Král
   Automatic beam alignment system for a pulsed infrared laser
   Rev. Sci. Instrum. 80 (2009) 013102(1) - 013102(5), doi: 10.1063/1.3058604
3. L. Král
   Closed-loop wavelength stabilization of an optical parametric oscillator as a front end of a high-power iodine laser chain
   Rev. Sci. Instrum. 78 (2007) 053104(1) - 053104(5), doi: 10.1063/1.2740473
4. H. Turčičová, J. Dostál, G. Kocourková, P. Černý, M. Divoký, M. Smrž, P. Straka
   Amplification of ultrashort laser pulses by the OPCPA method at SOFIA laboratory
   Acta Phys. Slov. 56 (2006) 115 - 118.
5. P. Straka, H. Turčičová, K. Rohlena, B. Rus, J. Skála, B. Králiková, J. Ullschmied, K. Jungwirth
   Proposed upgrades of the laser system PALS: from a novel solid-state oscillator toward petawatt
   Czech. J. Phys. 52D (2002) 368 - 374