Fabrication of Tm-Doped Fibers for High Power and 121W Output All-Fiber Tm-Doped Fiber Laser

We fabricate the Tm-doped double cladding silica fiber by using the vapor-solution hybrid-doping method, then build up an all-fiber Tin-doped fiber laser which can provide the output power of up to 121 W, corresponding to a slope efficiency of 51% and an optical-optical efficiency of 48%. By using the domestic Tin-doped fiber, it is the first time a hundred-watt level output at 1915nm has been achieved, to the best of our knowledge. The thermal effect of Tm-doped fiber laser is also analyzed.

An Actively Mode-Locked Ho:YAG Solid-Laser Pumped by a Tm-Doped Fiber Laser

An actively mode-locked Ho： YAG laser pumped by a diode-pumped Tin-doped fiber laser is reported. For the cw operation, we obtain the maximum output power of 3.43 W with a central wavelength 2022.2nm at the maximum incident pump power of 11.4 W, corresponding to a slope efficiency of 34.5%. The beam quality factor M2 is 1.16, and the output beam is close to fundamental TEMoo. In the case of the CWML operation, a stable pulse train is generated with an average output power up to 3.41 W with a slope efficiency of 34.3% at the incident pump power of 11.4 W and a pulse duration of 294ps at a repetition rate of 81.92MHz. In addition, the maximum single pulse energy is 41.6nJ.

Synchronously Pumped Mode-Locked 1.89 μm Tm-Doped Fiber Laser with High Detuning Toleration

We propose and demonstrate a synchronously pumped mode-locked Tm-doped fiber（TDF） laser without any extra mode-locking elements. Pumped by a 1.56 μm pulse fiber laser, the TDF laser generates 1.17 ps pulses with a spectral width of 9.7 nm and a repetition rate of 9.33 MHz. The emission wavelength is tunable along with the cavity length detuning in a wide range of 3 mm. The high detuning toleration is beneficial to achieve high temperature and vibration stability in all-fiber configuration lasers.

Absorption efficiency of graded-index double-clad fiber lasers

Absorption efficiency of graded-index double-clad fiber lasers or amplifiers is analyzed. As ray optics method is no longer valid for graded-index case, the mode analysis method is used. Calculated results show that absorption efficiency for a graded-index is higher than that for a step-index in symmetric case. In offset core case, the graded-index can achieve the same absorption efficiency with much smaller offset distance. Absorption efficiencies for different graded-index profiles of the inner cladding are compared.

Fiber core mode leakage induced by refractive index variation in high-power fiber laser

This paper presents an investigation of specific optical fiber core mode leakage behavior that occurs in high-power double-clad fiber lasers as a result of thermally-induced refractive index variations. A model of the power transfer between the core modes and the cladding modes during thermally-induced refractive index variations is established based on the mode coupling theory. The results of numerical simulations based on actual laser parameters are presented. Experimental measurements were also carried out, the results showed good agreement with the corresponding simulation results.

Compact pulsed thulium‐doped fiber laser for topographical patterning of hydrogels

We report the generation of high energy 2μm picosecond pulses from a thulium-doped fiber master oscillator power amplifier system.The all-fiber configuration was realized by a flexible large-mode area photonic crystal fiber(LMA-PCF).The amplifier output is a linearly-polarized 1.5 ns,100 kHz pulse train with a pulse energy of up to 250μJ.Pulse compression was achieved with(2+2)-pass chirped volume Bragg grating(CVBG)to obtain a 2.8 ps pulse width with a total pulse energy of 46μJ.The overall system compactness was enabled by the all-fiber amplifier design and the multi-pass CVBG-based compressor.The laser output was then used to demonstrate high-speed direct-writing capability on a temperature-sensitive biomaterial to change its topography(i.e.fabricate microchannels,foams and pores).The topographical modifications of biomaterials are known to influence cell behavior and fate which is potentially useful in many cell and tissue engineering applications.

Thulium-Doped Fiber Amplifier for Blue Light Signal Amplification

Fluoride-based thulium-doped visible light fiber amplifier(TmVLFA), which can be used to amplify the blue light signal for a visible light communication(VLC) system,is theoretically demonstrated for the first time according to the best of our knowledge. The transition rate equations and power propagation equations are solved to predict the dependence of the gain and noise figure on fiber parameters. The numerical results show that with the pump wavelength 1150 nm and pump power 800 mW, 2.75 m long thulium-doped fiber can amplify blue light(480 nm) signal up to 33.3 dB, and the noise figure is in the range from 3.0 to 3.5 dB. The model and numerical results encourage the use of fiber amplifier in VLC system for blue light amplification to extend the range of VLC.

2-μm mode-locked nanosecond fiber laser based on MoS_2 saturable absorber

We demonstrated a 2-μm passively mode-locked nanosecond fiber laser based on a MoS2 saturable absorber（SA）.Owing to the effect of nonlinear absorption in the MoS2 SA, the pulse width decreased from 64.7 to 13.8 ns with increasing pump power from 1.10 to 1.45 W. The use of a narrow-bandwidth fiber Bragg grating resulted in a central wavelength and 3-dB spectral bandwidth of 2010.16 and 0.15 nm, respectively. Experimental results show that MoS2 is a promising material for a 2-μm mode-locked fiber laser.

The Formation of Fringes of Equal Chromatic Order across Double Clad Fiber in the Presence of High Power Lasers

Multiple-beam fringes of equal chromatic order interferometry is a powerful technique to extract optical properties over a continuous range of spectrum. In this paper we develop a theory for the spectral shape of the fringes of equal chromatic order (FECO) that are formed across a double-clad fiber. The modified single term Sellmeier dispersion formula is used to construct the refractive index dispersion curves for the liquid, claddings, and core. Expressions for the paraxial optical path length for several rays passing through the fiber and the liquid are developed. The condition of bright fringe is applied to get an analytical expression for the spectral shape of the FECO across a double-clad fiber with an elliptical/circular inner cladding. A potential application of this theory is to determine the dispersion of Kerr constant of the claddings and the core of the fiber. To illustrate the theory and its application, simulation examples are provided and discussed.

Stable noise-like pulse generation in all-PM mode-locked Tm-doped fiber laser based on NOLM

A stable noise-like(NL)mode-locked Tm-doped fiber laser(TDFL)relying on a nonlinear optical loop mirror(NOLM)was experimentally presented.Different from the previous NL mode-locked TDFL with NOLM,the entire polarization-maintaining(PM)fiber construction was utilized in our laser cavity,which makes the oscillator have a better resistance to environmental perturbations.The robust TDFL can deliver stable bound-state NL pulses with a pulse envelope tunable from〜14.1 ns to〜23.6 ns and maximum pulse energy of〜40.3 nj at a repetition rate of〜980.6 kHz.Meanwhile,the all-PM fiber laser shows good power stability[less than〜0.7%)and repeatability.

Graphene oxide paper as a saturable absorber for Er-and Tm-doped fiber lasers

In this work pulse generation in both the 1.5 and 2 μm spectral ranges using a graphene oxide(GO)-paper-based saturable absorber in Er-and Tm-doped fiber lasers is presented. The article describes the fabrication method of GO paper and its characterization. The performance of both lasers is discussed in detail. Stable, mode-locked operation provides 613 fs and 1.36 ps soliton pulses centered at 1565.9 and 1961.6 nm in Er-and Tm-doped fiber lasers, respectively. Furthermore, scaling of spectral width, and hence the pulse duration, by increasing the number of GO paper layers in the Er-doped laser is described. The versatility and simplicity of GO paper fabrication combined with the possibility of scaling the optical spectrum full width at half-maximum are essential features that make it a good candidate for ultrafast low-power mode-locked lasers operating in different spectral regions.

51.5 W monolithic single frequency 1.97 μm Tm-doped fiber amplifier

We demonstrate a monolithic single frequency Tm-doped fiber amplifier with output power of 51.5 W. A single frequency fiber laser at 1.97 μm is amplified by a cascaded master oscillator power amplifier(MOPA) system with all-fiber configuration. The optical-to-optical conversion efficiency of the main fiber amplifier is 45%. No amplified spontaneous emission(ASE) or stimulated Brillouin scattering(SBS) effect is observed in the fiber amplifier. The output power could be further scaled by launching more pump power.

2 μm mode-locking laser performances of sol-gel-fabricated large-core Tm-doped silica fiber

High-power ultrafast fiber lasers operating at the 2 μm wavelength are extremely desirable for material processing, laser surgery, and nonlinear optics. Here we fabricated large-core（LC） double-cladding Tm-doped silica fiber via the sol-gel method. The sol-gel-fabricated Tm-doped silica（SGTS） fiber had a large core diameter of 30 μm with a high refractive index homogeneity（Δn=2 × 10^（-4））. With the newly developed LC SGTS fiber as the gain fiber, high-power mode-locking was realized. By using a semiconductor saturable absorber mirror（SESAM） as a mode locker, the LC SGTS fiber oscillator generated mode-locked pulses with an average output power as high as 1.0 W and a pulse duration of 23.9 ps at the wavelength of 1955.0 nm. Our research results show that the self-developed LC Tm-doped silica fiber via the sol-gel method is a promising gain fiber for generating high-power ultrafast lasers in the 2 μm spectral region.

An acousto-optic Q-switched fiber laser using China-made double-cladding fiber

A simple laser-diode pumped acoustic-optic Q-switched fiber laser is reported by using China-made largemode-area ytterbium-doped fiber. Q-switched pulses with a beam quality factor of M^2 ≈ 2 and several hundred nanoseconds pulse duration are achieved at the repetition rate of 1 - 50 kHz. When the repetition rate is 1 kHz, the pulse energy is 0.93 mJ with the pulse duration of 132 ns. Meanwhile, the profile of laser pulses shows some mode-locking phenomena, the mechanism of the phenomena is discussed.

Broadband Acoustic Vibration Sensor Based on Cladding-Mode Resonance of Double-Cladding Fiber

We have proposed and demonstrated a double-cladding fiber (DCF) with cladding?mode resonance property for broadband acoustic vibration sensing. Since the fundamental mode in the core waveguide is able to be coupled to LP05 mode in the tube waveguide once the phase-matching condition is fulfilled, the transmission spectrum can exhibit a dip with a large extinction ratio. An acoustic vibration could induce the wavelength shift of such transmission spectrum, so that the intensity variation at a wavelength near the dip is coded with the information of the acoustic vibration signal. By demodulating the response of intensity variation, the frequency of the applied acoustic vibration signal can be recovered. Such a DCF-based sensor with an intensity modulation could measure the acoustic vibration with a broadband frequency range from 1 Hz to 400 kHz and exhibits the maximum signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of ?80.79 dB when the vibration frequency is 20 kHz. The obtained results show that the proposed DCF-based acoustic vibration sensor has a potential application in environmental assessment, structural damage detection, and health monitoring.

A strain-induced birefringent double-clad fiber Bragg grating

A strain-induced birefringence double-clad (DC) fiber Bragg grating (FBG) is proposed and demonstrated. The grating is fabricated in the core of rectangular inner cladding double clad fiber by using phase mask method. By applying lateral strain on the grating, the birefringence is induced. In order to detect the birefringent effect of the grating, we use it as the output mirror of a laser. When lateral strain is applied, the grating becomes birefringent. Therefore, one reflection peak of double-clad fiber Bragg grating becomes two peaks and the laser also lases in two wavelengths. The wavelength spacing of the laser can be tuned from 0 to 0.8 nm. The absolute wavelengths for the two polarizations can be tuned 1.2 and 2.0 nm, respectively.

10 Watts Double-Cladding Fiber Laser

Considering the wavelength characteristics of the pump high-power laser diode, a modified Fabry-Perot fiber laser resonator is designed. And a fiber laser with more than 10Watts output, near diffraction-limited and operating in the 1110nm region is developed.

A 110-W fiber laser with homemade double-clad fiber

A high-power ytterbium-doped fiber laser (YDFL) with homemade double-clad fiber (DCF) is introduced in this letter. The geometric parameter and laser characteristics of the fiber have been studied. With oneend-pumping scheme, pumped by a high-power laser diode with launching power of 280 W, a maximum continuous wave (CW) output of 110 W is obtained with an optical-to-optical efficiency of 40%.

Ultrasonic signal detection based on Fabry–Perot cavity sensor

Acoustic/ultrasonic sensors are devices that can convert mechanical energy into electrical signals.The Fabry–Perot cavity is processed on the end face of the double-clad fiber by a two-photon three-dimensional lithography machine.In this study,the outer diameter of the core cladding was 250μm,the diameter of the core was 9μm,and the microcavity sensing unit was only 30μm.It could measure ultrasonic signals with high precision.The characteristics of the proposed ultrasonic sensor were investigated,and its feasibility was proven through experiments.Its design has a small size and can replace a larger ultrasonic detector device for photoacoustic signal detection.The sensor is applicable to the field of biomedical information technology,including medical diagnosis,photoacoustic endoscopy,and photoacoustic imaging.

Spectrum characteristics and pump wavelengths of Nd_(3+) -doped double-clad fiber

Nd3+ -doped double-clad fiber is a new type of fiber that has large N.A.and large receivingarea compared with single-clad rare-earth-doped fiber.So Nd3+-doped double-clad fiberpumped directly by laser-diode arrays can be manufactured into high-power fiber lasers,high-power superfluorescence sources and high-gain fiber amplifiers,and they will be applied