We report on mode-locked thulium-doped fiber lasers with high-energy nanosecond pulses, relying on the transmission in a semiconductor saturable absorber (SESA) and a carbon nanotube (CNTs-PVA) film separately. A section of an SMF–MMF–SMF structure multimode interferometer with a transmission peak wavelength of ∼2003 nm was used as a wavelength selector to fix the laser wavelength. When the SESA acted as a saturable absorber (SA), the mode-locked fiber laser had a maximum output power of ∼461 mW with a pulse energy of ∼0.14 μJ and a pulse duration of ∼9.14 ns. In a CNT-film-based mode-locked fiber laser, stable mode-locked pulses with the maximum output power of ∼46 mW, pulse energy of ∼26.8 nJ and pulse duration of ∼9.3 ns were obtained. To the best of our knowledge, our experiments demonstrated the first 2 μm region ‘real’ SA-based dissipative soliton resonance with the highest mode-locked pulse energy from a ‘real’ SA-based all-fiberized resonator.

Nanosecond pulse discharges can provide high reduced electric field for exciting high-energy electrons, and the ultrafast rising time of the applied pulse can effectively suppress the generation of spark streamer and produce homogeneous discharges preionized by runaway electrons in atmospheric-pressure air. In this paper, the electrostatic field in a tube-plate electrodes gap is calculated using a calculation software. Furthermore, a simple physical model of nanosecond pulse discharges is established to investigate the behavior of the runaway electrons during the nanosecond pulse discharges with a rise time of 1.6 ns and a full-width at half-maximum of 3–5 ns in air. The physical model is coded by a numerical software, and then the runaway electrons and electron avalanche are investigated under different conditions. The simulated results show that the applied voltage, voltage polarity, and gas pressure can significantly affect the formation of the avalanche and the behavior of the runaway electrons. The inception time of runaway breakdown decreases when the applied voltage increases. In addition, the threshold voltage of runaway breakdown has a minimum value (10 kPa) with the variation of gas pressure.

PACS: 52.80.-s

In this work, the generation of a super-short avalanche electron beam (SAEB) in SF6 in an inhomogeneous electric field is studied on two generators with pulse rise times of 0.5 and 2 ns, respectively. The SAEB parameters in SF6 are compared with those obtained in other gases (air, nitrogen, argon, and krypton). It is shown that the SAEB amplitude in SF6 at pressures ranging from 0.05 to 0.2 MPa is commensurable with that in krypton and is much lower than that in air and nitrogen. It is also found that in SF6, SF6 mixture with 2.5% of nitrogen, and other gases, a diffuse discharge is ignited not only at negative polarity but also at positive polarity of the electrode with small curvature radius. Furthermore, the velocity of the ionization wave front in SF6 in an inhomogeneous electric field is studied. Experimental results show that the velocity of the ionization wave front in SF6 is lower than that in air and nitrogen as well as such velocity decreases when the pressure increases from 0.05 to 0.3 MPa in all gases.

In this work, experiments were performed to study the effect of cathode materials on the amplitude of the super-short avalanche electron beam (SAEB) current and X-ray density during discharges in atmospheric-pressure air. In the experiments, discharges were generated by three nanosecond-pulse generators in air gaps between a plane anode and a tubular cathode made of different metals. The output pulse of the three generators had a rise time of 0.3, 1, 15 ns, and a full width at half maximum of 1, 2, 30–40 ns, respectively. For the generators with pulse rise-time of 0.3 and 1 ns, the cathodes used in these experiments were made of stainless steel, permalloy, titanium, niobium, copper, brass, and aluminum. For the generator with pulse rise-time of 15 ns, the cathodes were made of stainless steel, titanium, copper, and aluminum. When the rise time of the applied pulse is 0.3 ns, our experimental results show that the amplitude of the voltage across the gap depends on the cathode material and reaches its maximum value when a stainless steel cathode is used. It is also observed that, under such situation, the maximum amplitudes of the SAEB current occur at maximum voltages across the gap when all other factors are equal. Furthermore, the amplitude of the SAEB current hereof is found to depend not only on the material of the sharp edge of the tubular cathode, but also on the material of the side surface of the tubular cathode. When the rise time of the applied pulse is 1 ns, the experimental results show that the average number of electrons in SAEB is also affected by the cathode materials. In addition, in the case that the rise time of the voltage pulse is 15 ns and the gap spacing is 8 cm, the experimental results show that the cathode material has no effect on the voltage amplitude across the gap and the X-ray density. The increase of the pulse repetition frequency from 250 to 500 Hz under such condition can lead to a three-fold increase in X-ray density in a repetitive pulsed mode.

Repetitive nanosecond-pulse discharge with a highly inhomogeneous electric field was investigated in air at atmospheric pressure. Three repetitive nanosecond generators were used, and the rise times of the voltage pulses were 15, 1, and 0.2 ns, respectively. Under different experimental conditions, X-rays and runaway electron beams were directly measured using various setups. The variables affecting X-rays and runaway electrons, including gap distance, pulse repetition frequency, anode geometry, and material, were investigated. It was shown that it was significantly easier to record the X-rays than the runaway electrons in the repetitive nanosecond-pulse discharge. It was confirmed that a volume diffuse discharge was attributed to the generation of runaway electrons and the corresponding X-rays.