Internal phase control of fiber laser array based on photodetector array

Coherent beam combining(CBC) of fiber laser array is a promising technique to realize high output power while maintaining near diffraction-limited beam quality. To implement CBC, an appropriate phase control feedback structure should be established to realize phase-locking. In this paper, an innovative internal active phase control CBC fiber laser array based on photodetector array is proposed. The dynamic phase noises of the laser amplifiers are compensated before being emitted into free space. And the static phase difference compensation of emitting laser array is realized by interference measurement based on photodetector array. The principle of the technique is illustrated and corresponding simulations are carried out, and a CBC system with four laser channels is built to verify the technique. When the phase controllers are turned on, the phase deviation of the laser array is less than λ/20, and ~ 95% fringe contrast of the irradiation distribution is obtained. The technique proposed in this paper could provide a reference for the system design of a massive high-power CBC system.

The second fusion of laser and aerospace-an inspiration for high energy lasers

Since the first laser was invented,the pursuit of high-energy lasers(HELs)has always been enthusiastic.The first revolution of HELs was pushed by the fusion of laser and aerospace in the 1960s,with the chemical rocket engines giving fresh impetus to the birth of gas flow and chemical lasers,which finally turned megawatt lasers from dream into reality.Nowadays,the development of HELs has entered the age of electricity as well as the rocket engines.The properties of current electric rocket engines are highly consistent with HELs’goals,including electrical driving,effective heat dissipation,little medium consumption and extremely light weight and size,which inspired a second fusion of laser and aerospace and motivated the exploration for potential HELs.As an exploratory attempt,a new configuration of diode pumped metastable rare gas laser was demonstrated,with the gain generator resembling an electric rocket-engine for improved power scaling ability.

Single-frequency linearly polarized Q-switched fiber laser based on Nb_(2)GeTe_(4)saturable absorber

We report a single-frequency linearly polarized Q-switched fiber laser based on an Nb_(2)GeTe_(4)saturable absorber(SA).The Nb_(2)GeTe_(4)SA triggers passive Q-switching of the laser,and an un-pumped Yb-doped fiber together with a 0.08-nmbandwidth polarization-maintaining fiber Bragg grating(FBG)acts as an ultra-narrow bandwidth filter to realize singlelongitudinal-mode(SLM)oscillation.The devices used in the laser are all kept polarized,so as to ensure linearly polarized laser output.Stable SLM linearly polarized Q-switching operation at 1064.6 nm is successfully achieved,producing a laser with a shortest pulse width of 1.36μs,a linewidth of 28.4 MHz,a repetition rate of 28.3 kHz-95.9 kHz,and a polarization extinction ratio of about 30 dB.It is believed that the single-frequency linearly polarized pulsed fiber laser studied in this paper has great application value in gravitational wave detection,beam combining,nonlinear frequency conversion,and other fields.

Response analysis of NMRG system considering Rb-Xe coupling

The dynamic range of the nuclear magnetic resonance gyroscope can be effectively improved through the closedloop control scheme,which is crucial to its application in inertial measurement.This paper presents the analytical transfer function of Xe closed-loop system in the nuclear magnetic resonance gyroscope considering Rb–Xe coupling effect.It not only considers the dynamic characteristics of the system more comprehensively,but also adds the influence of the practical filters in the gyro signal processing system,which can obtain the accurate response characteristics of signal frequency and amplitude at the same time.The numerical results are compared with an experimentally verified simulation program,which indicate great agreement.The research results of this paper are of great significance to the practical application and development of the nuclear magnetic resonance gyroscope.

Orbital angular momentum conversion of acoustic vortex beams via planar lattice coupling

Orbital angular momentum(OAM)conversion is critical in understanding interactions between a structural sound field and a planar lattice.Herein,we explore the evolution of a monochromatic acoustic vortex beam(AVB)that is scattered by a phononic crystal(PnC)or a correlated random lattice.The phenomenon is ascribed to the enhanced orbit–orbit angular momentum coupling induced by the band structure.By modifying the coupling condition,accurate and continuous micromanipulation of AVBs can be achieved,including the transverse/lateral gravity shift,the dynamics of the phase singularities,and the spatial distribution of acoustic pressure,etc.This research provides insight to the inhomogeneous coupling of AVBs with both propagating Bloch waves and localized Anderson modes,and may facilitate development of novel OAM-based acoustic devices for active sound field manipulation.

Intrinsic polarization conversion and avoided-mode crossing in X-cut lithium niobate microrings

Compared with well-developed free space polarization converters, polarization conversion between TE and TM modes in the waveguide is generally considered to be caused by shape birefringence, like curvature, morphology of waveguide cross section and scattering. Here, we study the polarization conversion mechanism in 1-THz-FSR X-cut lithium niobate microrings with multiple-resonance condition, that is the conversion can be implemented by birefringence of waveguides,which will also introduce an avoided-mode crossing. In the experiment, we find that this mode crossing results in severe suppression of one sideband in local nondegenerate four-wave mixing and disrupts the cascaded four-wave mixing on this side. Simultaneously, we propose one two-dimensional method to simulate the eigenmodes(TE and TM) in X-cut microrings, and the mode crossing point. This work will provide one approach to the design of polarization converters and simulation for monolithic photonics integrated circuits, and may be helpful to the studies of missed temporal dissipative soliton formation in X-cut lithium niobate rings.

Unipolar p-type monolayer WSe_(2) field-effect transistors with high current density and low contact resistance enabled by van der Waals contacts

High-performance field-effect transistors (FETs) based on atomically thin two-dimensional (2D) semiconductors have demonstrated great promise in post-Moore integrated circuits. However, unipolar p-type 2D semiconductor transistors yet remain challenging and suffer from low saturation current density (less than 10 µA·µm^(−1)) and high contact resistance (larger than 100 kΩ·µm), mainly limited by the Schottky barrier induced by the mismatch of the work-functions and the Fermi level pinning at the metal contact interfaces. Here, we overcome these two obstacles through van der Waals (vdW) integration of high work-function metal palladium (Pd) as the contacts onto monolayer WSe2 grown by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) method. We demonstrate unipolar p-type monolayer WSe2 FETs with superior device performance: room temperature on-state current density exceeding 100 µA·µm^(−1), contact resistance of 12 kΩ·µm, on/off ratio over 107, and field-effect hole mobility of ~ 103 cm2·V^(−1)·s^(−1). Electrical transport measurements reveal that the Fermi level pinning effect is completely effectively eliminated in monolayer WSe2 with vdW Pd contacts, leading to a Schottky barrier-free Ohmic contact at the metal-semiconductor junctions. Combining the advantages of large-scale vdW contact strategy and CVD growth, our results pave the way for wafer-scale fabrication of complementary-metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) logic circuits based on atomically thin 2D semiconductors.

Electrically-driven ultrafast out-of-equilibrium light emission from hot electrons in suspended graphene/hBN heterostructures

Nanoscale light sources with high speed of electrical modulation and low energy consumption are key components for nanophotonics and optoelectronics.The record-high carrier mobility and ultrafast carrier dynamics of graphene make it promising as an atomically thin light emitter which can be further integrated into arbitrary platforms by van der Waals forces.However,due to the zero bandgap,graphene is difficult to emit light through the interband recombination of carriers like conventional semiconductors.Here,we demonstrate ultrafast thermal light emitters based on suspended graphene/hexagonal boron nitride(Gr/hBN)heterostructures.Electrons in biased graphene are significantly heated up to 2800 K at modest electric fields,emitting bright photons from the near-infrared to the visible spectral range.By eliminating the heat dissipation channel of the substrate,the radiation efficiency of the suspended Gr/hBN device is about two orders of magnitude greater than that of graphene devices supported on SiO2or hBN.Wefurther demonstrate that hot electrons and low-energy acoustic phonons in graphene are weakly coupled to each other and are not in full thermal equilibrium.Direct cooling ofhigh-temperature hot electrons to low-temperature acoustic phonons is enabled by the significant near-field heat transfer at the highly localized Gr/hBN interface,resulting in ultrafast thermal emission with up to 1 GHz bandwidth under electrical excitation.It is found thatsuspending the Gr/hBN heterostructures on the SiO2trenches significantly modifies the light emission due to the formation of the optical cavity and showed a~440%enhancement inintensity at the peak wavelength of 940 nm compared to the black-body thermal radiation.The demonstration of electrically driven ultrafast light emission from suspended Gr/hBNheterostructures sheds the light on applications of graphene heterostructures in photonicintegrated circuits,such as broadband light sources and ultrafast thermo-optic phase modulators.

Impact of amplified spontaneous emission noise on the SRS threshold of high-power fiber amplifiers

Impact of amplified spontaneous emission(ASE)noise on the stimulated Raman scattering(SRS)threshold of highpower fiber amplifiers is demonstrated numerically through a spectral evolution approach.The simulation results confirm that ASE noise in the Raman wavelength band could reduce the SRS threshold of high-power fiber amplifiers significantly.As for ASE noise originated the main amplifier,it becomes stronger and reduces the SRS threshold at shorter operation wavelength below 1052 nm.As for ASE noise originated from the seed laser,it reduces the SRS threshold at different operation wavelength under the condition that the Raman ratio is over-90 dB in the seed laser.The theoretical method and results in this work could provide a well reference to extend the operation wavelength of high-power fiber lasers.

Waveguide-integrated optical modulators with two-dimensional materials

Waveguide-integrated optical modulators are indispensable for on-chip optical interconnects and optical computing.To cope with the ever-increasing amount of data being generated and consumed,ultrafast waveguide-integrated optical modulators with low energy consumption are highly demanded.In recent years,two-dimensional(2D)materials have attracted a lot of attention and have provided tremendous opportunities for the development of high-performance waveguide-integrated optical modulators because of their extraordinary optoelectronic properties and versatile compatibility.This paper reviews the state-of-the-art waveguide-integrated optical modulators with 2D materials,providing researchers with the developing trends in the field and allowing them to identify existing challenges and promising potential solutions.First,the concept and fundamental mechanisms of optical modulation with 2D materials are summarized.Second,a review of waveguide-integrated optical modulators employing electro-optic,all-optic,and thermo-optic effects is provided.Finally,the challenges and perspectives of waveguide-integrated modulators with 2D materials are discussed.

Surface lattice resonance of circular nano-array integrated on optical fiber tips

As metallic nanoparticles are arranged to form a 2D periodic nano-array,the coupling of the localized surface plasmonic resonance(LSPR)results in the well-known phenomenon of surface lattice resonances(SLRs).We theoretically investigate the SLR effect of the circular nano-array fabricated on the fiber tips.The difference between the 2D periodic and circular periodic arrays results in different resonant characteristics.For both structures,the resonant peaks due to the SLRs shift continuously as the array structures are adjusted.For some specific arrangements,the circular nano-array may generate a single sharp resonant peak with extremely high enhancement,which originates from the collective coupling of the whole array.More interestingly,the spatial pattern of the vector near-field corresponding to the sharp peak is independent of the polarization state of the incidence,facilitating its excitation and regulation.This finding may be helpful for designing multifunctional all-fiber devices.

Efficient single‑pixel imaging based on a compact fiber laser array and untrained neural network

This paper presents an efficient scheme for single-pixel imaging(SPI)utilizing a phase-controlled fiber laser array and an untrained deep neural network.The fiber lasers are arranged in a compact hexagonal structure and coherently combined to generate illuminating light fields.Through the utilization of high-speed electro-optic modulators in each individual fiber laser module,the randomly modulated fiber laser array enables rapid speckle projection onto the object of interest.Furthermore,the untrained deep neural network is incorporated into the image reconstructing process to enhance the quality of the reconstructed images.Through simulations and experiments,we validate the feasibility of the proposed method and successfully achieve high-quality SPI utilizing the coherent fiber laser array at a sampling ratio of 1.6%.Given its potential for high emitting power and rapid modulation,the SPI scheme based on the fiber laser array holds promise for broad applications in remote sensing and other applicable fields.

Brightness enhancement on random-distributed-feedback Raman fiber lasers pumped by multimode diodes

The power scaling on short wavelength(SW)fiber lasers operating around 1μm are in significant demand for applications in energy,environment and industry.The challenge for performance scalability of high-power SW lasers based on rare-earth-doped fiber primarily lies in the physical limitations,including reabsorption,amplified spontaneous emission and parasitic laser oscillation.Here,we demonstrate an all-fiberized,purely passive SW(1018 nm)randomdistributed-feedback Raman fiber laser(RRFL)to validate the capability of achieving high-power output at SWs based on multimode laser diodes(LDs)direct pumping.Directly pumped by multimode LDs,the high-brightness RRFL delivers over 656 W,with an electro-optical efficiency of 20%relative to the power.The slope efficiency is 94%.The beam quality M2factor is 2.9(which is~20 times that of the pump)at the maximum output signal power,achieving the highest brightness enhancement of 14.9 in RRFLs.To the best of our knowledge,this achievement also represents the highest power record of RRFLs utilizing multimode diodes for direct pumping.This work may not only provide a new insight into the realization of high-power,high-brightness RRFLs but also is a promising contender in the power scaling of SWs below 1μm.

High power tunable Raman fiber laser at 1.2μm waveband

Development of a high power fiber laser at special waveband,which is difficult to achieve by conventional rare-earth-doped fibers,is a significant challenge.One of the most common methods for achieving lasing at special wavelength is Raman conversion.Phosphorus-doped fiber(PDF),due to the phosphorus-related large frequency shift Raman peak at 40 THz,is a great choice for large frequency shift Raman conversion.Here,by adopting 150 m large mode area triple-clad PDF as Raman gain medium,and a novel wavelength-selective feedback mechanism to suppress the silica-related Raman emission,we build a high power cladding-pumped Raman fiber laser at 1.2μm waveband.A Raman signal with power up to 735.8 W at 1252.7 nm is obtained.To the best of our knowledge,this is the highest output power ever reported for fiber lasers at 1.2μm waveband.Moreover,by tuning the wavelength of the pump source,a tunable Raman output of more than 450 W over a wavelength range of 1240.6–1252.7 nm is demonstrated.This work proves PDF’s advantage in high power large frequency shift Raman conversion with a cladding pump scheme,thus providing a good solution for a high power laser source at special waveband.

Ultrafast laser state active controlling based on anisotropic quasi-1D material

Laser state active controlling is challenging under the influence of inherent loss and other nonlinear effects in ultrafast systems.Seeking an extension of degree of freedom in optical devices based on low-dimensional materials may be a way forward.Herein,the anisotropic quasi-one-dimensional layered material Ta2PdS6 was utilized as a saturable absorber to modulate the nonlinear parameters effectively in an ultrafast system by polarization-dependent absorption.The polarization-sensitive nonlinear optical response facilitates the Ta2PdS6-based mode-lock laser to sustain two types of laser states,i.e.,conventional soliton and noise-like pulse.The laser state was switchable in the single fiber laser with a mechanism revealed by numerical simulation.Digital coding was further demonstrated in this platform by employing the laser as a codable light source.This work proposed an approach for ultrafast laser state active controlling with low-dimensional material,which offers a new avenue for constructing tunable on-fiber devices.

Coherent combining of a fiber laser array via cascaded internal phase control technique

We experimentally demonstrated a cascaded internal phase control technique.A laser array with 12 channels was divided into three sub-arrays and a stage array,and phases of the sub-arrays and the stage array were locked by four phase controllers based on the stochastic parallel gradient descent(SPGD)algorithm,respectively.In this way,the phases of the whole array were locked,and the visibility of the interference pattern of the whole emitted laser array in the far field was∼93%.In addition,the technique has the advantage of element expanding and can be further used in the high-power coherent beam combination(CBC)system due to its compact spatial structure.

A 110 W fiber gas Raman laser at 1153 nm

We report here the first hundred-watt continuous wave fiber gas laser in H_(2)-filled hollow-core photonic crystal fiber(PCF)by stimulated Raman scattering.The pump source is a homemade narrow-linewidth fiber oscillator with a 3 dB linewidth of 0.15 nm at the maximum output power of 380 W.To efficiently and stably couple several-hundred-watt pump power into the hollow core and seal the gas,a hollow-core fiber end-cap is fabricated and used at the input end.A maximum power of 110 W at 1153 nm is obtained in a 5 m long hollow-core PCF filled with 36 bar H2,and the conversion efficiency of the first Stokes power is around 48.9%.This work paves the way for high-power fiber gas Raman lasers.

2kW random fiber laser based on hybrid Yb-Raman gain [Invited]

High-power operation is one of the most important research topics surrounding random fiber lasers(RDFLs).Here we optimized the cavity structure and proposed a new scheme based on hybrid gain to address the issue of high-power backward light in traditional kilowatt-level RDFLs.Consequently,a record power of 1972 W was achieved while the maximum backward leaked power only reached 0.12 W.The conversion efficiency relative to the laser diode pump power was 68.4%,and the highest spectral purity of the random lasing reached 98.1%.This work may provide a reference for high-power RDFLs,Raman fiber lasers,and long-wavelength Yb-doped fiber lasers.

Monolithic tapered Yb‑doped fber chirped pulse amplifer delivering 126μJ and 207 MW femtosecond laser with near difraction‑limited beam quality

In this work,a high-energy and high peak power chirped pulse amplifcation system with near difraction-limited beam quality based on tapered confned-doped fber(TCF)is experimentally demonstrated.The TCF has a core numerical aperture of 0.07 with core/cladding diameter of 35/250µm at the thin end and 56/400μm at the thick end.With a backward-pumping confguration,a maximum single pulse energy of 177.9μJ at a repetition rate of 504 kHz is realized,corresponding to an average power of 89.7 W.Through partially compensating for the accumulated nonlinear phase during the amplifcation process via adjusting the high order dispersion of the stretching chirped fber Bragg grating,the duration of the amplifed pulse is compressed to 401 fs with a pulse energy of 126.3μJ and a peak power of 207 MW,which to the best of our knowledge represents the highest peak power ever reported from a monolithic ultrafast fber laser.At the highest energy,the polarization extinction ratio and the M2 factor were respectively measured to be~19 dB and 1.20.In addition,the corresponding intensity noise properties as well as the short-and long-term stability were also examined,verifying a stable operation of the system.It is believed that the demonstrated laser source could fnd important applications in,for example,advanced manufacturing and photomedicine.

High-energy and high-peak-power GHz burst-mode all-fiber laser with a uniform envelope and tunable intra-burst pulses

We report a Yb-doped all-fiber laser system generating burst-mode pulses with high energy and high peak power at a GHz intra-burst repetition rate.To acquire the uniform burst envelope,a double-pre-compensation structure with an arbitrary waveform laser diode driver and an acoustic optical modulator is utilized for the first time.The synchronous pumping is utilized for the system to reduce the burst repetition rate to 100 Hz and suppress the amplified spontaneous emission effect.By adjusting the gain of every stage,uniform envelopes with different output energies can be easily obtained.The intra-burst repetition rate can be tuned from 0.5 to 10 GHz actively modulated by an electro-optic modulator.Optimized by timing control of eight channels of analog signal and amplified by seven stages of Yb-doped fiber amplifier,the pulse energy achieves 13.3 mJ at 0.5 ns intra-burst pulse duration,and the maximum peak power reaches approximately3.6 MW at 48 ps intra-burst pulse duration.To the best of our knowledge,for reported burst-mode all-fiber lasers,this is a record for output energy and peak power with nanosecond-level burst duration,and the widest tuning range of the intra-burst repetition rate.In particular,this flexibly tunable burst-mode laser system can be directly applied to generate high-power frequency-tunable microwaves.