Power amplification for 1.6 μm high-order vortex modes

1.6 pm high-order vortex modes carrying orbital angular momentums (OAMs) play significant roles in long-range Doppler lidars and other remote sensing. Amplification of 1.6 pm high-order vortex modes is an important way to provide high-power laser sources for such lidars and also enable the weak echo signal to be amplified so that it can be analyzed. In this work, we propose a four-pass Er:YAG vortex master-oscillator-power-amplification (MOPA) system to amplify 1.6 pm high-order vortex modes. In the proof-of-concept experiments, 1.6 pm single OAM mode (l = 3) is amplified successfully and the gain ranging from 1.88 to 2.36 is achieved. Multiplexed OAM mode (l=+/- 3) is also amplified with favorable results. This work addresses the issue as the low gain of Er:YAG vortex MOPA, which provides a feasible path for 1.6 pm high-order vortex modes amplification.(c) 2023 Optica Publishing Group under the terms of the Optica Open Access Publishing Agreement