Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2001. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references. Available also from UMI/Dissertation Abstracts International.

Femtosecond laser microsurgery has emerged as a remarkable technique for precise ablation of biological systems with minimal damage to their surrounding tissues. The combination of this technique with nonlinear optical imaging provides a means of microscopic visualization to guide such surgery in situ. A clinical endoscope capable of image-guided femtosecond laser microsurgery will provide physicians a means for cellular-level microsurgery with the highest precision. This dissertation focuses the development of a miniaturized fiber-coupled probe for image-guided microsurgery, towards future realization as a clinical endoscope. The first part of the dissertation describes the development of an 18-mm diameter probe. This development includes delivery of femtosecond laser pulses with pulse energy in excess of 1 µJ through air-core photonic bandgap fiber, laser beam scanning by a microelectromechanical system scanning mirror, and development of a new image reconstruction methodology for extracting increased temporal information during Lissajous beam scanning. During testing, the 18-mm probe compares favorably with the state-of-the-art as a microscopic imaging tool and we present the first known demonstration of cellular femtosecond laser microsurgery through an optical fiber. The second part of the dissertation explores further refinement of the design into a streamlined package with 9.6 mm diameter and improved imaging resolution. Study of the optical performance through analytical and computer-aided optical design indicates that simple custom lenses can be designed that require only commercial-grade manufacturing tolerances while still producing a fully aberration-corrected microsurgical endoscope. With the 9.6-mm probe, we demonstrate nonlinear optical imaging, including tissue imaging of intrinsic signals from collagen, using average laser powers 2-3× lower than the current state-of-the-art. We also demonstrate the use of the 9.6-mm probe in conjunction with gold nanoparticles for enhanced imaging and microsurgery through plasmonics. Finally, in the third part of this dissertation, we detail bench-top development of a new clinical application for combined femtosecond laser microsurgery and nonlinear optical imaging: the treatment of scarred vocal folds. We show the utility of femtosecond laser microsurgery for creating sub-epithelial voids in vocal fold tissue that can be useful for enhancing localization of injectable biomaterial treatments. We demonstrate that a single compact fiber laser system can be utilized for both microsurgery and imaging. Furthermore, the proposed clinical technique is shown to be achievable with parameters (e.g., pulse energy, focused spot size) that were found to be attainable with fiber-coupled probes while still achieving ablation speeds practical for clinical use. / text

Several significant wave propagation problems in the fields of nonlinear optics and hydrodynamics are studied in this thesis. In optics, the physical model considered is the two-core optical fiber (TCF), which is an essential component of lightwave technology. In hydrodynamics, the motion of a wave packet on the free surface of water of finite depth allowing modulations from two mutually perpendicular and horizontal directions, governed by the famous Davey-Stewartson (DS) equations, is taken into account. The main contributions of this thesis are: In optics, the effects of the intermodal dispersion (IMD) and the birefringence induced effects, both of which always exist in the TCFs, have been ignored in the previous studies of the modulation instability (MI) of continuous waves (CWs) in the TCFs. In this thesis, a detailed analysis of these effects on the MI spectra has been done. It is found that IMD does not seriously affect the MI spectra of the symmetric/antisymmetric CW states, but can significantly modify the MI spectra of the asymmetric CW states. In exploring the birefringence induced effects, a particular class of asymmetric CW states, which admits analytical solutions and has no counterpart in the single-core fibers, is focused on. It is found that the MI spectra of a birefringent TCF in the normal dispersion regime can be distinctively different from those of a zero-birefringence TCF especially for the circular-birefringence TCF. All the findings of MI analysis can be well verified by the wave propagation dynamics. Another contribution of this thesis is that we find the dramatic pulse distortion and even pulse splitting phenomenon due to IMD in TCFs, which is unexpected in many situations, can be effectively suppressed and even avoided by Kerr nonlinearity, which has never been reported in the literatures in the studies of TCFs. In hydrodynamics, DS equations describe the evolution of weakly nonlinear, weakly dispersive wavepackets with slow spanwise dependences on a fluid of finite depth. Generally, DS equations are divided into two types e, i.e. DSI and DSII equations, depending on the specific fluid configurations (fluid depth, wavelength of the water wave, surface tension etc). Due to the importance of DS equations, many exact solutions have been derived by different nonlinear wave methods over the years in the literature. In this thesis, two new exact doubly periodic wave patterns of DS equations are derived by the use of properties of the theta functions, or equivalently, the Jacobi elliptic functions, and the corresponding solitary waves are also deduced in the long wave limits. The new feature of the two wave patterns found is that they can be applied to both DSI and DSII systems at the same time. / published_or_final_version / Mechanical Engineering / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

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Ever since the first laser demonstration in 1960, applications for laser systems have increased to include diverse fields such as: national defense, biology and medicine, entertainment, imaging, and communications. In order to serve the growing demand, a wide range of laser types including solid-state, semiconductor, gas, and dye lasers have been developed. For most applications it is critical to have lasers with both high optical power and excellent beam quality. This has traditionally been difficult to simultaneously achieve in semiconductor lasers. In the mid 1990's, the advent of an optically pumped semiconductor vertical-external-cavity surface-emitting laser (VECSEL) led to the demonstration of high (multi-watt) output power with near diffraction limited (TEM00) beam quality. Since that time VECSELs covering large wavelength regions have been developed. It is the objective of this dissertation to investigate and explore novel cavity designs which can lead to increased functionality in high power, high brightness VECSELs. Optically pumped VECSELs have previously demonstrated their potential for high power, high brightness operation. In addition, the "open" cavity design of this type of laser makes intracavity nonlinear frequency conversion, linewidth narrowing, and spectral tuning very efficient. By altering the external cavity design it is possible to add additional functionality to this already flexible design. In this dissertation, the history, theory, design, and fabrication are first presented as VECSEL performance relies heavily on the design and fabrication of the chip. Basic cavities such as the linear cavity and v-shaped cavity will be discussed, including the role they play in wavelength tuning, transverse mode profile, and mode stability. The development of a VECSEL for use as a sodium guide star laser is presented including the theory and simulation of intracavity frequency generation in a modified v-cavity. The results show agreement with theory and the measurement of the sodium D1 and D2 lines are demonstrated. A discussion of gain coupled VECSELs in which a single pump area accommodates two laser cavities is demonstrated and a description of mode competition and the importance of spontaneous emission in determining the lasing condition is discussed. Finally the T-cavity configuration is presented. This configuration allows for the spatial overlap of two VECSEL cavities operating with orthogonal polarizations. Independent tuning of each cavity is presented as well as the quality of the beam overlap and demonstration of Type II intracavity sum frequency generation. Future applications to this configuration are discussed in the generation of high power, high brightness lasers operating from the UV to far-infrared and even terahertz regimes.

This thesis reports on ultrafast linear and nonlinear optical probing of nanometer thick films. Exfoliated graphene and few-layer graphite are probed through optical second harmonic generation (SHG) with 800 nm, 150 fs pulses. Samples of varying thickness from 1 carbon layer to bulk graphite are deposited onto an oxidized silicon substrate. SHG measurements are taken as a function of azimuthal rotation angle of the films. It is found that the SHG from graphene is much weaker than that from bilayer graphene, and has a qualitatively different azimuthal pattern. As the sample thickness increases from bilayer graphene to bulk graphite, the SHG yield generally decreases. Both of these effects are explained in terms of the symmetry of graphene and graphite, and modeled using multilayer optical transfer matrices, and an identical set of nonlinear susceptibility tensor elements for the front and back surfaces. These tensors are independent of sample thickness. MnAs films of 150 and 190 nm thickness on (001)GaAs are optically excited with 775 nm, 200 fs pump pulses. Specular SHG at 388 nm and first order optical diffraction at ∼ 400 nm are used to probe the samples on timescales up to 2 μs. It is found that the SHG probes the temperature-dependent, spatially averaged, surface strain. This strain reaches a maximum deviation in ∼ 6–100 ps after optical excitation depending on the pump fluence and initial temperature. The strain then recovers in hundreds of picoseconds, a timescale consistent with heat diffusion. The optical diffraction probes the first Fourier component of the paramagnetic–ferromagnetic stripes inherent to MnAs films in the 10–40◦C temperature range. After optical excitation, the diffraction data show highly nonthermal behaviour in the MnAs films. If a sample is excited from the coexistence phase, the diffraction signal shows decaying oscillations with a period of ∼ 335±4 (408±4) ps for the 150 (190) nm films; this is consistent with the release of a standing acoustic wave. Decay occurs on a timescale of ∼ 2 ns consistent with local diffusion through the films. The stripes are restored on a timescale of hundreds of nanoseconds, with a temporal behavior consistent with a diffusion process, possibly thermal in origin.

This thesis reports on ultrafast linear and nonlinear optical probing of nanometer thick films. Exfoliated graphene and few-layer graphite are probed through optical second harmonic generation (SHG) with 800 nm, 150 fs pulses. Samples of varying thickness from 1 carbon layer to bulk graphite are deposited onto an oxidized silicon substrate. SHG measurements are taken as a function of azimuthal rotation angle of the films. It is found that the SHG from graphene is much weaker than that from bilayer graphene, and has a qualitatively different azimuthal pattern. As the sample thickness increases from bilayer graphene to bulk graphite, the SHG yield generally decreases. Both of these effects are explained in terms of the symmetry of graphene and graphite, and modeled using multilayer optical transfer matrices, and an identical set of nonlinear susceptibility tensor elements for the front and back surfaces. These tensors are independent of sample thickness. MnAs films of 150 and 190 nm thickness on (001)GaAs are optically excited with 775 nm, 200 fs pump pulses. Specular SHG at 388 nm and first order optical diffraction at ∼ 400 nm are used to probe the samples on timescales up to 2 μs. It is found that the SHG probes the temperature-dependent, spatially averaged, surface strain. This strain reaches a maximum deviation in ∼ 6–100 ps after optical excitation depending on the pump fluence and initial temperature. The strain then recovers in hundreds of picoseconds, a timescale consistent with heat diffusion. The optical diffraction probes the first Fourier component of the paramagnetic–ferromagnetic stripes inherent to MnAs films in the 10–40◦C temperature range. After optical excitation, the diffraction data show highly nonthermal behaviour in the MnAs films. If a sample is excited from the coexistence phase, the diffraction signal shows decaying oscillations with a period of ∼ 335±4 (408±4) ps for the 150 (190) nm films; this is consistent with the release of a standing acoustic wave. Decay occurs on a timescale of ∼ 2 ns consistent with local diffusion through the films. The stripes are restored on a timescale of hundreds of nanoseconds, with a temporal behavior consistent with a diffusion process, possibly thermal in origin.

In this thesis, the spectral behavior of the fundamental and sum-frequency waves, generated from the surface of a thin metal film in the Kretschmann configuration, is theoretically studied with coherent ultrashort pulses. As a first exploration of considering spectral response in nonlinear plasmonics, it is shown that the spectra of reflected sum-frequency waves exhibit pronounced shifts for the incident fundamental waves close to the plasmon coupling angle, whereas meanwhile those of reflected fundamental waves display energy holes. We also demonstrate that the scale of discovered plasmon-enhanced spectral changes is strongly influenced by the magnitude of the incidentce angle and the source pulse duration, and at a certain angle a spectral switch is observed. The appearance of large sum-frequency wave shifts can serve as an unambiguous plasmon signatur in nonlinear surface spectroscopy. Also, the discovered spectral switch can trigger extremely surface-sensitive nonlinear plasmonic sensors.

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In recent years, second harmonic generation (SHG) microscopy has revolutionised the field of biological imaging by offering a new means of visualising the fine structures of collagen tissues with excellent image penetration while minimising photodamage. This project involves the design and construction of a SHG microscope that is built around a compact femtosecond fibre laser for collagen imaging. Operating at 1032 nm, the microscope has demonstrated a penetration depth of beyond 320 microns in collagen, which is considerably superior to depths of 250 to 300 microns achievable with a conventional SHG microscope coupled to a Ti:sapphire excitation laser. The imaging characteristics of the microscope have been tested with a modified sample of bovine pericardium. The results indicate the microscope is polarisation-sensitive to the tissue structure and is capable to detecting signal changes at 10 μm resolution. This thesis will describe in detail, to our best knowledge, the first SHG microscope equipped with a compact and robust all-fibre femtosecond 1032 nm laser source.