Pulse-on-demand laser operation from nanosecond to femtosecond pulses and its application for high-speed processing

Abstract In this manuscript we present a true pulse-on-demand laser design concept using two different approaches. First, we present a fiber master oscillator power amplifier (MOPA) based quasi-continuous wave (CW) laser, working at high modulation bandwidths, for generation of nanosecond pulses. Second, we present a hybrid chirped pulse amplification (CPA)-based laser, combining a chirped-pulse fiber amplifier and an additional solid-state amplifier, for generation of femtosecond pulses. The pulse-on-demand operation is achieved without an external optical modulator/shutter at high-average powers and flexible repetition rates up to 40 MHz, using two variants of the approach for near-constant gain in the amplifier chain. The idler and marker seed sources are combined in the amplifier stages and separated at the out using either wavelength-based separation or second harmonic generation (SHG)-generation-based separation. The nanosecond laser source is further applied to high throughput processing of thin film materials. The laser is combined with a resonant scanner, using the intrinsic pulse-on-demand operation to compensate the scanner’s sinusoidal movement. We applied the setup to processing of indium tin oxide (ITO) and metallic films on flexible substrates.