Dr. Jay W. Dawson Profile

Dr. Jay W. Dawson

Program Director at Lawrence Livermore National Lab

SPIE Involvement:

Author

Publications (27)

Proceedings Article | 4 March 2022 Presentation + Paper

First demonstration of dispersion-shifted LMA silica fiber in a high-power 1.6-um laser

Charles Yu, Victor Khitrove, Paul Pax, Cody Mart, Mike Runkle, Mike Messerly, Jay Dawson, Jun Zhang, Mark Dubinskii

Proceedings Volume 11981, 119810S (2022) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2608370

KEYWORDS: Raman spectroscopy, Fiber lasers, Fiber amplifiers, Dispersion, Optical fibers, Optical amplifiers, Modulation, Erbium, Multimode fibers, Diodes

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Proceedings Article | 26 November 2018 Presentation

Novel AMP surface treatment for improving optical fiber strength and laser gain (Conference Presentation)

Diana VanBlarcom, Derrek Drachenberg, Marcus Monticelli, Gabriel Davalos, Steve Davis, Nick Schenkel, Matthew Cook, Robert Crist, Michael Messerly, Jay Dawson

Proceedings Volume 10805, 108051C (2018) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2501563

KEYWORDS: Fiber lasers, Laser damage threshold, Glasses, Silica, Etching, Coating, National Ignition Facility, Amplifiers, Fiber coatings, Photonic crystals

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Contaminants can severely limit the efficiency, laser damage threshold, and strength of photonic crystal fiber-based lasers. Such contamination can occur due to environmental exposure during the pulling or stacking of rods and tubes or improper handling and storage of these glass components. A preform made by the “stack and draw” process is susceptible to incorporating surface contaminants into the bulk laser glass. We have adapted cleaning and handling protocols originally developed for processing large fused silica optics for the National Ignition Facility. The etch cleaning process reported here mimics the “AMP” or “Advanced Mitigation Process” developed for NIF optics that see high fluence 351nm light. In addition, all cleaning, fixturing and assembly processes used to prep a stack for pulling into a fiber are done in a Class 100 cleanroom. Glass rods (1-3mm in diameter and 10” long) are assembled into a Teflon fixture that only contacts the rods at each end. The loaded fixture receives 120kHz ultrasonic cleaning in 10% sodium hydroxide at 45C and 3% Brulin 1696 detergent at 55C. Parts are thoroughly rinsed using ultrasonicated ultrapure water and spray rinses. A 200nm etch in buffered hydrofluoric acid (6:1 BOE diluted 2:1 in DI water) is followed by additional ultasonicated (120kHz-270kHz) ultrapure water and spray rinse. Finally, the components are allowed to fully dry inside the Teflon frame. The rods are cleaned, stacked, and assembled into a fused silica tube. The preform stack is then returned to a non-cleanroom area to be pulled into fiber using standard telecom fiber-based draw tower equipment and without clean air filters around the draw area. Four fibers were made to test independently the damage threshold and the background loss, two Yb core active fibers and two silica core (F clad) fibers. One of each was cleaned with the AMP process, and one of each with a methanol wipe cleaning process. The active fiber was coated with a dual acrylate coating, first with a low-index inner coating to provide a pump cladding, and then with a relatively hard coating to protect the relatively soft primary coating. The active fibers were pumped at 980nm in a double Fresnel cavity configuration and the power increased until the fiber was damaged up to 1kW. The passive fiber background loss was measured using a standard cut-back technique. Replacing the former methanol wipe clean process with this aqueous cleaning process improved the 1060nm damage threshold of a fiber laser by >30x to above the kW level in the laboratory and reduced the background attenuation by >18x. Early indications are that the acid etching also makes the tensile strength of the fiber consistently high. This work was performed under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Energy by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory under Contract DE-AC52-07NA27344.

Proceedings Article | 18 July 2018 Presentation + Paper

LLAMAS: low-latency adaptive optics at LLNL

S. Mark Ammons, Brian Bauman, Greg Burton, Chris Gates, Jay Dawson, Brian Hackel, Doug Homoelle, Michael Kim, Glenn Larkin, David Palmer, Robert Panas, Paul Pax, Lisa Poyneer

Proceedings Volume 10703, 107031N (2018) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2314281

KEYWORDS: Adaptive optics, Wavefront sensors, Gemini Planet Imager, Sensors, Actuators, Mirrors, Turbulence, Deformable mirrors, Wavefronts, Control systems

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The performance of high-contrast AO instruments (GPI, SPHERE, ScEXAO, MagAO) and other systems that operate at visible wavelengths can be severely hampered by control system latencies and temporal wavefront errors. In high-contrast systems, temporal errors and delays are manifest as high spatial frequency wavefront residuals that scatter light into the controllable region of the PSF and diminish contrast, an effect that is particularly severe when atmospheric coherence times are short. Solutions that have been proposed include lower latency electronics, deformable mirrors with lower mechanical response times, and specialized control algorithms such as predictive control. These advancements will be necessary for achieving the latency goals of high actuator count systems on future Extremely Large Telescopes (ELTs), including NFIRAOS+ and PFI on the Thirty Meter Telescope, upgrading the performance of existing highcontrast systems, and pushing adaptive optics to visible wavelengths. LLAMAS (Low-Latency Adaptive Optical Mirror System) is a fully funded adaptive optics system at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory site that will test these techniques in an integrated, real time, closed-loop AO system. With a total system latency goal of ~100 microseconds (including mechanical response time, not including frame integration), LLAMAS will achieve an order of magnitude improvement in AO system latencies over the current generation of high-contrast AO systems. The woofer/tweeter architecture will incorporate a 492-actuator Boston Micromachines MEMS device mapping 24 actuators across a circular pupil. The tweeter mirror will be paired with a specialized low-latency driver, delivering less than 40 microseconds electronic and mechanical latency (10 – 90%). The real-time control computer will utilize the computationally efficient Fourier Transform Reconstructor with a predictive Kalman filter with a goal of completing all computations and reconstructing the wavefront in less than 20 microseconds. LLAMAS will be fully integrated with a 21×21 lenslet Shack-Hartmann sensor by January 2019. These proceedings describe the LLAMAS design, characterize the performance of its low-latency componentry, and discuss the relevance of the design for future high-contrast, visiblelight, and high actuator count AO systems on ELTs.

Proceedings Article | 26 February 2018 Paper

10W single-mode Nd3+ fiber laser at 1428nm

Victor Khitrov, Leily Kiani, Paul Pax, Derrek Drachenberg, Michael Messerly, Robert Crist, Nick Schenkel, Matt Cook, Jay Dawson

Proceedings Volume 10512, 105121P (2018) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2284876

KEYWORDS: Fiber lasers, Neodymium, Fiber amplifiers, Waveguides, Silica, Laser development, High power fiber amplifiers, Diodes, Laser sources

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Proceedings Article | 23 February 2017 Paper

Status of NIF laser and high power laser research at LLNL

Mark Bowers, Jeff Wisoff, Mark Herrmann, Tom Anklam, Jay Dawson, Jean-Michel Di Nicola, Constantin Haefner, Mark Hermann, Doug Larson, Chris Marshall, Bruno Van Wonterghem, Paul Wegner

Proceedings Volume 10084, 1008403 (2017) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2257571

KEYWORDS: National Ignition Facility, High power lasers, Pulsed laser operation, Laser welding, Fusion energy, Physics, Fiber lasers, Radiography, Laser development, Picosecond phenomena, X-rays, Laser optics

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Proceedings Article | 20 May 2015 Paper

Higher order mode selection for power scaling in laser resonators using transmitting Bragg gratings

Brian Anderson, George Venus, Dan Ott, Evan Hale, Ivan Divliansky, Derrek Drachenberg, Jay Dawson, Mike Messerly, Paul Pax, John Tassano, Leonid Glebov

Proceedings Volume 9466, 94660C (2015) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2177060

KEYWORDS: Resonators, Diffraction, Fiber Bragg gratings, Neodymium, Laser resonators, Multiplexing, Amplifiers, Glasses, Wave propagation, Near field

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Proceedings Article | 16 March 2015 Paper

Raman gain of SiC as a potential medium for Raman lasers

Larry Merkle, Jun Zhang, Graham Allen, Jay Dawson, Mark Dubinskii

Proceedings Volume 9359, 935904 (2015) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2077299

KEYWORDS: Raman spectroscopy, Silicon carbide, Raman scattering, Crystals, Laser crystals, Laser beam diagnostics, Laser damage threshold, Beam propagation method, Polarization, Light scattering

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Proceedings Article | 4 March 2015 Paper

Brightness enhancement of a multi-mode ribbon fiber using transmitting Bragg gratings

B. Anderson, G. Venus, D. Ott, I. Divliansky, J. Dawson, D. Drachenberg, M. Messerly, P. Pax, J. Tassano, L. Glebov

Proceedings Volume 9344, 93441W (2015) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2079358

KEYWORDS: Resonators, Diffraction, Fiber Bragg gratings, Fiber lasers, Optical filters, Diffraction gratings, Complex systems, Near field, Oscillators, Glasses

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Proceedings Article | 26 February 2015 Paper

The commissioning of the advanced radiographic capability laser system: experimental and modeling results at the main laser output

J. M. Di Nicola, S. Yang, C. Boley, John Crane, J. Heebner, Thomas Spinka, P. Arnold, C. P. Barty, M. Bowers, T. Budge, K. Christensen, J. Dawson, G. Erbert, E. Feigenbaum, G. Guss, C. Haefner, M. Hermann, Doug Homoelle, J. Jarboe, J. Lawson, R. Lowe-Webb, Kathleen McCandless, Brent McHale, L. Pelz, P. Pham, M. Prantil, M. Rehak, M. Rever, Michael Rushford, R. Sacks, M. Shaw, D. Smauley, L. Smith, R. Speck, G. Tietbohl, P. Wegner, C. Widmayer

Proceedings Volume 9345, 93450I (2015) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2080459

KEYWORDS: National Ignition Facility, Near field, Mirrors, Diagnostics, Picosecond phenomena, X-rays, Optical amplifiers, Performance modeling, Sensors, Fusion energy

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Proceedings Article | 9 June 2014 Paper

Transverse mode selection in laser resonators using volume Bragg gratings

Brian Anderson, George Venus, Daniel Ott, Ivan Divliansky, Jay Dawson, Derrek Drachenberg, Mike Messerly, Paul Pax, John Tassano, Leonid Glebov

Proceedings Volume 9081, 90810Y (2014) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2053291

KEYWORDS: Diffraction, Resonators, Diffraction gratings, Laser resonators, Fiber Bragg gratings, Diodes, Laser development, Solid state lasers, Fiber lasers, Silica

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Proceedings Article | 7 March 2014 Paper

Yb3+ doped ribbon fiber for high-average power lasers and amplifiers

Derrek Drachenberg, Michael Messerly, Paul Pax, Arun Sridharan, John Tassano, Jay Dawson

Proceedings Volume 8961, 89610T (2014) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2040792

KEYWORDS: Fiber amplifiers, Optical amplifiers, Oscillators, Silica, Near field, Fiber lasers, Spatial filters, High power fiber amplifiers, Optical fibers, Raman scattering

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Proceedings Article | 22 March 2013 Paper

High order ribbon fiber modes, simulations, and experiments for high power fiber amplifiers

Derrek Drachenberg, Michael Messerly, Paul Pax, Arun Sridharan, John Tassano, Jay Dawson

Proceedings Volume 8601, 860107 (2013) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2001920

KEYWORDS: Fiber amplifiers, Amplifiers, Fiber lasers, Cladding, Beam propagation method, Near field, Optical simulations, Binary data, Absorption, Optical amplifiers

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Proceedings Article | 7 May 2012 Paper

Mode-converters for rectangular-core fiber amplifiers to achieve diffraction-limited power scaling

Arun Kumar Sridharan, Paul Pax, John Heebner, Derrek Drachenberg, Jay Dawson

Proceedings Volume 8381, 838103 (2012) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.920769

KEYWORDS: Fiber amplifiers, Diffractive optical elements, Near field, Cameras, Fiber lasers, Waveguides, Spatial light modulators, Optical amplifiers, Laser applications, Laser guide stars

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Proceedings Article | 4 May 2010 Paper

Power scaling analysis of fiber lasers and amplifiers based on non-silica materials

Jay Dawson, Michael Messerly, John Heebner, Paul Pax, Arun Sridharan, Amber Bullington, Raymond Beach, Craig Siders, C. P. Barty, Mark Dubinskii

Proceedings Volume 7686, 768611 (2010) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.852393

KEYWORDS: Fiber lasers, Silica, YAG lasers, Thermal effects, Optical fibers, Fiber amplifiers, Laser scattering, Raman scattering, Glasses, Raman spectroscopy

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Proceedings Article | 20 February 2007 Paper

Compact 50W ultrashort pulse fiber laser for precision and high-speed material processing

L. Shah, M. Fermann, J. Dawson, C. Barty

Proceedings Volume 6453, 64530Z (2007) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.713437

KEYWORDS: Ultrafast phenomena, Fiber lasers, Micromachining, Laser ablation, Fiber amplifiers, Dielectrics, Glasses, Materials processing, Diffraction gratings, Aluminum

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Proceedings Article | 23 February 2006 Paper

High peak power ytterbium doped fiber amplifiers

W. Torruellas, Y. Chen, B. McIntosh, J. Farroni, K. Tankala, S. Webster, D. Hagan, M. Soileau, M. Messerly, J. Dawson

Proceedings Volume 6102, 61020N (2006) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.646571

KEYWORDS: Ytterbium, Silica, Fiber amplifiers, Cladding, Optical damage, Refractive index, Optical amplifiers, Optical fibers, Semiconductor lasers, Fiber lasers

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Proceedings Article | 23 February 2006 Paper

High energy short pulse fiber laser front end for kilo-Joule class CPA systems

J. Dawson, S. Mitchell, R. Beach, M. Messerly, C. Siders, H. Phan, C. Barty

Proceedings Volume 6102, 610214 (2006) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.644950

KEYWORDS: Fiber lasers, Fiber amplifiers, Laser systems engineering, Pulsed laser operation, National Ignition Facility, Picosecond phenomena, Mode locking, Optical amplifiers, Bragg cells, Fourier transforms

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Proceedings Article | 23 February 2006 Paper

Multi-watt 589nm fiber laser source

Jay Dawson, Alex Drobshoff, Raymond Beach, Michael Messerly, Stephen Payne, Aaron Brown, Deanna Pennington, Douglas Bamford, Scott Sharpe, David Cook

Proceedings Volume 6102, 61021F (2006) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.644947

KEYWORDS: Fiber lasers, Fiber amplifiers, Crystals, Laser systems engineering, Neodymium, Pulsed laser operation, Semiconductor lasers, Optical amplifiers, Polarization, Modulation

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Proceedings Article | 22 April 2005 Paper

Fiber laser front ends for high-energy short pulse lasers

Jay Dawson, Zhi Liao, Scott Mitchell, Michael Messerly, Raymond Beach, Igor Jovanovic, Curtis Brown, Stephen Payne, C. Barty

Proceedings Volume 5709, (2005) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.591147

KEYWORDS: Fiber lasers, Pulsed laser operation, Laser systems engineering, Amplifiers, Fiber amplifiers, Oscillators, Polarization, Mode locking, National Ignition Facility, Glasses

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Proceedings Article | 22 April 2005 Paper

469-nm fiber laser source

Alex Drobshoff, Jay Dawson, Deanna Pennington, Stephen Payne, Raymond Beach, Luke Taylor

Proceedings Volume 5709, (2005) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.591171

KEYWORDS: Fiber amplifiers, Crystals, Semiconductor lasers, Oscillators, Fiber lasers, Neodymium, Optical amplifiers, Cladding, Diodes, Collimation

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Proceedings Article | 12 January 2005 Paper

Unique high-power fiber laser technologies

William Neuman, Deanna Pennington, Jay Dawson, Alex Drobshoff, Raymond Beach, Igor Jovanovic, Zhi Liao, Stephan Payne, C. Barty

Proceedings Volume 5653, (2005) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.581425

KEYWORDS: Fiber lasers, Fiber amplifiers, Optical amplifiers, Absorption, Laser systems engineering, Optical fibers, Cladding, Amplifiers, Neodymium, Ytterbium

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Proceedings Article | 8 July 2004 Paper

Initial operation of the mercury laser: a gas-cooled 10-Hz Yb:S-FAP system

Camille Bibeau, Andy Bayramian, Raymond Beach, Robert Campbell, Adrian DeWald, Wilburt Davis, Jay Dawson, Larain DiMercurio, Christopher Ebbers, Barry Freitas, Michael Hill, Kevin Hood, V. Keith Kanz, Joseph Menapace, Stephen Payne, Mark Randles, Jon Rankin, Kathleen Schaffers, Christopher Stoltz, John Tassano, Steve Telford, Everett Utterback

Proceedings Volume 5332, (2004) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.538414

KEYWORDS: Optical amplifiers, Diodes, Mercury, Semiconductor lasers, Diffraction, Diagnostics, Fusion energy, Wavefronts, Wavefront distortions, Crystals

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Proceedings Article | 7 June 2004 Paper

Large flattened-mode optical fiber for reduction of nonlinear effects in optical fiber lasers

Jay Dawson, Raymond Beach, Igor Jovanovic, Benoit Wattellier, Zhi Liao, Stephen Payne, Christopher Barty

Proceedings Volume 5335, (2004) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.529746

KEYWORDS: Fiber amplifiers, Optical fibers, Amplifiers, Optical amplifiers, Fiber lasers, Refractive index, Nonlinear optics, Waveguide modes, Raman scattering, Raman spectroscopy

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Proceedings Article | 3 July 2003 Paper

Ribbon fiber with multiple antiguided phase-locked gain cores

Raymond Beach, Michael Feit, Scott Mitchell, Kurt Cutter, Jay Dawson, Stephen Payne, Richard Mead, Joseph Hayden, David Krashkevich, David Alunni

Proceedings Volume 4974, (2003) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.478275

KEYWORDS: Waveguides, Glasses, Refractive index, Structured optical fibers, Cladding, Near field, Fiber lasers, Silica, Prototyping, Mode locking

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Proceedings Article | 3 July 2003 Paper

High-power 938-nm cladding pumped fiber laser

Jay Dawson, Alex Drobshoff, Zhi Liao, Raymond Beach, Deanna Pennington, Stephen Payne, Luke Taylor, Wolfgang Hackenberg, Domenico Bonaccini

Proceedings Volume 4974, (2003) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.478270

KEYWORDS: Fiber lasers, Fiber amplifiers, Optical amplifiers, Cladding, Neodymium, Absorption, Optical fibers, Signal attenuation, Semiconductor lasers, Ions

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Proceedings Article | 20 June 2002 Paper

Interferometer design for writing Bragg gratings in optical fibers

Peter de Groot, Xavier Colonna de Lega, Jay Dawson, Trevor MacDougall, Minfu Lu, John Troll

Proceedings Volume 4777, (2002) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.472247

KEYWORDS: Mirrors, Fiber Bragg gratings, Ultraviolet radiation, Interferometers, Tolerancing, Optical fibers, Luminescence, Optical design, Modulation, Refractive index

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