High-power xenon lamp-pumped Er:YAP pulse laser operated in free-running and acousto-optical Q-switching modes

We demonstrate a high-energy and high-power pulse laser on a xenon lamp-pumped Er:YAP crystal. The laser performance and thermal focal lengths under different working frequencies are discussed. The results show that the thermal lens effect is gradually aggravated with the increase of working frequencies, and even working at 100 Hz, a single pulse energy of 234 m J can be achieved. A maximum average power of 41.5 W is achieved with a working frequency of 20 Hz and slope efficiency of 2.82%. This output power is much higher than other xenon lamp-pumped erbium laser devices.A Q-switched laser is demonstrated by using the TeO2crystal, the maximum output energies of 11.5 m J and 3.5 m J are obtained at 50 and 100 Hz, the corresponding peak powers are 93.4 k W and 17.2 kW, respectively.The laser wavelengths and beam quality factors are also characterized in the free-running and Q-switched modes. A higher pulse energy and peak power laser could be achieved further by improving the damage threshold of TeO2acousto-optical Q-switching. All the experimental results illustrate that the xenon lamp-pumped Er:YAP laser is a promising candidate for high-power and high-frequency mid-infrared laser devices.

Continuous wave and active Q-switched operation of Watt-level LED-pumped two-rod Nd,Ce:YAG laser

A high-performance LED-side-pumped two-rod Nd,Ce:YAG laser with continuous-wave(CW) and acousto–optical(A-O) Q-switched operation is demonstrated in this work. A symmetrically shaped flat–flat cavity with two identical LEDside-pumped laser modules is employed for power scalability. In the CW regime, the maximum output average power of laser at 1064 nm is 4.41 W, corresponding to a maximum optical conversion efficiency of 5.3% and a slope efficiency is 12.4%. In the active Q-switched regime, the pulse energy of laser reaches as high as 0.89 m J at a repetition rate of 800 Hz with a pulse width of 457.2 ns, the corresponding highest peak output power is 1.94 k W and the M~2 factor is measured to be about 8.8. To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first demonstration and the highest performance of a CW LED-side-pumped two-rod laser Nd,Ce:YAG with Watt-level output reported so far.

MoS_2 saturable absorber prepared by chemical vapor deposition method for nonlinear control in Q-switching fiber laser

Due to the remarkable carrier mobility and nonlinear characteristic, MoS2 is considered to be a powerful competitor as an effective optical modulated material in fiber lasers. In this paper, the MoS2 films are prepared by the chemical vapor deposition method to guarantee the high quality of the crystal lattice and uniform thickness. The transfer of the films to microfiber and the operation of gold plated films ensure there is no heat-resistant damage and anti-oxidation. The modulation depth of the prepared integrated microfiber-MoS2 saturable absorber is 11.07%. When the microfiber-MoS2 saturable absorber is used as a light modulator in the Q-switching fiber laser, the stable pulse train with a pulse duration of 888 ns at 1530.9 nm is obtained. The ultimate output power and pulse energy of output pulses are 18.8 mW and 88 nJ, respectively. The signal-to-noise ratio up to 60 dB indicates the good stability of the laser. This work demonstrates that the MoS2 saturable absorber prepared by the chemical vapor deposition method can serve as an effective nonlinear control device for the Q-switching fiber laser.

Q-Switching Pulse Operation in 1.5-μm Region Using Copper Nanoparticles as Saturable Absorber

We demonstrate a passively Q-switched erbium-doped fiber laser （EDFL） using a copper nanoparticle （CuNP） thin film as the saturable absorber in a ring cavity. A stable Q-switched pulse operation is observed as the CuNP saturable absorber （SA） is introduced in the cavity. The pulse repetition rate of the EDFL is observed to be proportional to the pump power, and is limited to 101.2kHz by the maximum pump power of 113.7mW. On the other hand, the pulse width reduces from 10.19μs to 4.28μs as the pump power is varied from 26.1 mW to 113.7mW. The findings suggest that CuNP SA could be useful as a potential saturable absorber for the development of the robust, compact, efficient and low cost Q-switched fiber laser operating at 1.5-μm region.

Passive Q-Switching of a Yb:LuVO_4 Laser with Cr^(4+):YAG:Approaching the Intrinsic Upper Limit of Repetition Rate

We demonstrate a diode pumped Yb：LuVO4 laser that can be passively Q-switched by a Cr^（4＋）：YAG saturable absorber having an initial transmission as high as 99.3%.A maximum pulsed output power of 2.35 W is generated at a repetition rate of 285.7 kHz,approaching or very near the intrinsic upper limit imposed by the recovery time of the Cr^（4＋）：YAG saturable absorber,and the resulting pulse energy,duration and peak power are,respectively,8.2μJ,39.2ns and 0.209kW.

Passive, Stable and Order-Adjustable SBS Q-Switching Fiber Laser

We propose a new method to separate different orders of an all-fiber passive Q-switching stimulated Brillouin scattering（SBS） laser. We use two fiber Bragg gratings connected by two circulators for the filtering. We obtain a stabilized pulse laser and measure the pulse width of different orders. The first order of SBS has a central wavelength of 1549.75 nm, an average output power of 9 mW, and a pulse width of 400 ns. The pulse width of SBS is reduced by the higher-order signals with the larger fluctuations.

Antimonene-based saturable absorber for a soliton mode-locked and Q-switched fiber laser in the 2 μm wavelength region

We demonstrate antimonene as a saturable absorber(SA) to generate an ultrafast mode-locked and Q-switched laser in the 2 μm wavelength region. The two antimonene-based SAs were prepared and inserted separately in a thulium–holmiumdoped fiber laser to produce the pulsed laser. Antimonene was coated onto a tapered fiber to generate soliton mode-locked pulses and used in thin-film form for the generation of Q-switched pulses. The mode-locking was stable within a pump power of 267 m W–511 m W, and the laser operated at a central wavelength of 1897.4 nm. The mode-locked laser had a pulse width of 1.3 ps and a repetition rate of 12.6 MHz, with a signal-to-noise ratio of 64 d B. Q-switched laser operation was stable at a wavelength of 1890.1 nm within a pump power of 312 m W–381 m W. With the increase in pump power from 312 m W to 381 m W, the repetition rate increased to a maximum of 56.63 k Hz and the pulse width decreased to a minimum value of 2.85 μs. Wide-range tunability of the Q-switched laser was also realized within the wavelength range of1882 nm–1936 nm.

High stability and low noise laser-diode end-pumped Nd:YAG ceramic passively Q-switched laser at 1123 nm based on a Ti_(3)C_(2)T_(x)-PVA saturable absorber

We report a high repetition frequency, high power stability and low laser noise laser-diode(LD) end-pumped Nd: YAG ceramic passively Q-switched laser at 1123 nm based on a Ti_(3)C_(2)T_(x)-polyvinyl alcohol(PVA) film as a saturable absorber(SA). A Brewster polarizer(BP) and a birefringent crystal(BC) are incorporated to enable frequency selection and filtering for the passively Q-switched 1123 nm pulsed laser to improve the power stability and reduce the noise. When the pump power is 5.1 W, an average output power of 457.9 m W is obtained, corresponding to a repetition frequency of 1.09 MHz,a pulse width of 56 ns, a spectral line width of 0.65 nm, a power instability of ±0.92%, and a laser noise of 0.89%.The successful implementation of the “Ti_(3)C_(2)T_(x)-PVA film passively Q-switching” combined with “frequency selection and filtering of BP + BC” technology path provides a valuable reference for developing pulsed laser with high repetition frequency, high stability and low noise.

Experimental study of electro-optical-switched pulsed Nd:YAG laser

We report the specification of a compact and stable side diode-pumped Q-switched pulsed Nd：YAG laser. We ex- perimentally study and compare the performance of the pulsed Nd：YAG laser in the free-running and Q-switched modes at different pulse repetition rates from 1 Hz to 100 Hz. The laser output energy is stabilized by using a special configu- ration of the optical resonator. In this laser, an unsymmetrical concave-concave resonator is used and this structure helps the mode volume to be nearly fixed when the pulse repetition rate is increased. According to the experimental results in the Q-switched operation, the laser output energy is nearly constant around 70 mJ with an FWHM pulse width of 7 ns at 100 Hz. The optical-to-optical conversion efficiency in the Q-switched regime is 17.5%.

1.5-MHz repetition rate passively Q-switched Nd:YVO4 laser based on WS2 saturable absorber

A transmission-type tungsten disulfide（WS_2）-based saturable absorber（SA） is fabricated and applied to passively Q-switched Nd：YVO_4 laser.The WS_2 nanosheets are deposited on a quartz substrate by the vertical evaporation method.By inserting the WS2 SA into the plano-concave laser cavity,we achieve 153-ns pulses with an average output power of1.19 W at 1064 nm.To the best of our knowledge,both of them are the best results among those obtained by the Q-switched solid-state lasers with WS_2-based absorbers.The repetition rate ranges from 1.176 MHz to 1.578 MHz.As far as we know,it is the first time that MHz level Q-switched pulses have been generated in all solid state lasers based on low-dimensional materials so far.

A compact graphene Q-switched erbium-doped fiber laser using optical circulator and tunable fiber Bragg grating

We demonstrate a passively Q-switched tunable erbium-doped fiber laser （EDFL） based on graphene as a saturable absorber （SA）. A three-port optical circulator （OC） and a strain-induced tunable fiber Bragg grating （TFBG） are used as the two end mirrors in an all-fiber linear cavity. The Q-switched EDFL has a low pump threshold of 23.8 mW. The pulse repetition rate of the fiber laser can be widely changed from 9.3 kHz to 69.7 kHz by increasing the pump power from 23.8 mW to 219.9 mW. The minimum pulse duration is 1.7 p.s and the highest pulse energy is 25.4 nJ. The emission wavelength of the laser can be tuned from 1560.43 nm to 1566.27 nm by changing the central wavelength of the straininduced TFBG.

High-power electro-optic switch technology based on novel transparent ceramic

A novel high-power polarization-independent electro-optic switch technology based on a reciprocal structtire Sagnac interferometer and a transparent quadratic electro-optic ceramic is proposed and analyzed theoretically and experimentally. The electro-optic ceramic is used as a phase retarder for the clockwise and counter-clockwise polarized light, and their po- larization directions are adjusted to their orthogonal positions by using two half-wave plates. The output light then becomes polarization-independent with respect to the polarization direction of the input light. The switch characteristics, including splitter ratios and polarization states, are theoretically analyzed and simulated in detail by the matrix multiplication method. An experimental setup is built to verify the analysis and experimental results. A new component ceramic is used and a non- polarizing cube beam splitter （NPBS） replaces the beam splitter （BS） to lower the ON/OFF voltage to 305 V and improve the extinction ratio by 2 dB. Finally, the laser-induced damage threshold for the proposed switch is measured and discussed. It is believed that potential applications of this novel polarization-independent electro-optic switch technology will be wide, especially for ultrafast high-power laser systems.

Passively Q-switched diode-pumped Tm,Ho:LuVO4 laser with a black phosphorus saturable absorber

We presented a passively Q-switched(PQS) diode-pumped c-cut Tm, Ho:LuVO_4 laser with a black phosphorus saturable absorber for the first time.Under PQS mode, an average output power of 0.86 W and a peak power of 2.32 W were acquired from the Tm, Ho:LuVO4 laser with the pump power of 14.55 W, corresponding to a pulse width of 2.89 μs,a pulse repetition rate of 71.84 kHz, and a pulse energy of about 6.70 μJ.

Electro-optical properties cholesteric liquid of polymer stabilized crystal film＊

Liquid crystals （LCs） and polymers are extensively used in various electro-optical applications. In this paper, normal mode polymer stabilized cholesteric LC film is prepared and studied. The effects of chiral dopant and monomer concentrations on the electro-optical properties, such as contrast ratio, driving voltage, hysteresis width and response time, are investigated. The reasons of electro-optical properties influenced by the concentrations of the materials are discussed. Through the proper material recipe, the electro-optical properties of polymer stabilized cholesteric LC film can be optimized.

Passively Q-switched dual-wavelength Yb：LSO laser based on tungsten disulphide saturable absorber

We demonstrate a passively Q-switched Yb：LSO laser based on tungsten disulphide （WS2） saturable absorber op- erating at 1034 nm and 1056 nm simultaneously. The saturable absorbers were fabricated by spin coating method. With low speed, the WS2 nanoplatelets embedded in polyvinyl alcohol could be coated on a BK7 glass substrate coated with high-refractive-index thin polymer. The shortest pulse width of 1.6 gs with a repetition rate of 76.9 kHz is obtained. As the pump power increases to 9 W, the maximum output power is measured to be 250 mW, corresponding to a single pulse energy of 3.25 μJ. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time to obtain dual-wavelength Q-switched solid-state laser using few-layer WS2 nanoplatelets.

Recent progress in integrated electro-optic frequency comb generation

Optical frequency combs have emerged as an important tool enabling diverse applications from test-and-measurement,including spectroscopy,metrology,precision distance measurement,sensing,as well as optical and microwave waveform synthesis,signal processing,and communications.Several techniques exist to generate optical frequency combs,such as mode-locked lasers,Kerr micro-resonators,and electro-optic modulation.Important characteristics of optical frequency combs include the number of comb lines,their spacing,spectral shape and/or flatness,and intensity noise.While mode-locked lasers and Kerr micro-resonators can be used to obtain a large number of comb lines compared to electro-optic modulation,the latter provides increased flexibility in tuning the comb spacing.For some applications in optical communications and microwave photonics,a high degree of integration may be more desirable over a very large number of comb lines.In this paper,we review recent progress on integrated electro-optic frequency comb generators,including those based on indium phosphide,lithium niobate,and silicon photonics.

Acousto-Optically Q-Switched Operation of Yb:CNGG Disordered Crystal Laser

We report the repetitively Q-switched laser operation of the Yb-doped calcium niobium gallium garnet disordered garnet crystal, achieved with an acousto-optic modulator in a compact plano-concave resonator that is endpumped by a 935-nm diode laser. An average output power of 1.96 W is produced at pulse repetition rate of50 k Hz at emission wavelengths around 1035 nm, with a slope efficiency of 16%. The highest pulse energy of 269 μJ is generated at pulse repetition rate of 1 k Hz, with pulse width 12.1 ns and peak power 20.53 kW.

Organic electro-optic polymer materials and organic-based hybrid electro-optic modulators

High performance electro-optic modulator,as the key device of integrated ultra-wideband optical systems,have be-come the focus of research.Meanwhile,the organic-based hybrid electro-optic modulators,which make full use of the advant-ages of organic electro-optic(OEO)materials(e.g.high electro-optic coefficient,fast response speed,high bandwidth,easy pro-cessing/integration and low cost)have attracted considerable attention.In this paper,we introduce a series of high-perform-ance OEO materials that exhibit good properties in electro-optic activity and thermal stability.In addition,the recent progress of organic-based hybrid electro-optic devices is reviewed,including photonic crystal-organic hybrid(PCOH),silicon-organic hy-brid(SOH)and plasmonic-organic hybrid(POH)modulators.A high-performance integrated optical platform based on OEO ma-terials is a promising solution for growing high speeds and low power consumption in compact sizes.

Q-Switched Raman Fiber Laser with Molybdenum Disulfide-Based Passive Saturable Absorber

We demonstrate a Q-switched Raman fiber laser using molybdenum disulfide （MoS2） as a saturable absorber （SA）. The SA is assembled by depositing a mechanically exfoliated MoS2 onto a fiber ferrule facet before it is matched with another clean ferrule via a connector. It is inserted in a Raman fiber laser cavity with a total cavity length of about 8kin to generate a Q-switching pulse train operating at 1560.2nm. A 7.7-kin-long dispersion compensating fiber with 584 ps.nm-i km-1 of dispersion is used as a nonlinear gain medium. As the pump power is increased from 395 m W to 422 m W, the repetition rate of the Q-switching pulses can be increased from 132.7 to 137.4 kHz while the pulse width is concurrently decreased from 3.35μs to 3.03μs. The maximum pulse energy of 54.3 nJ is obtained at the maximum pump power of 422 roW. These results show that the mechanically exfoliated MoS2 SA has a great potential to be used for pulse generation in Raman fiber laser systems.

Investigation of the mode splitting induced by electro-optic birefringence in a vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser by polarized electroluminescence

The mode splitting induced by electro-optic birefringence in a P-I-N InGaAs/GaAs/A1GaAs vertical-cavity surface- emitting laser （VCSEL） has been studied by polarized electroluminescence （EL） at room temperature. The polarized EL spectra with E｜｜[110] and E ｜｜ [150] directions, are extracted for different injected currents. The mode splitting of the two orthogonal polarized modes for a VCSEL device is determined, and its value increases linearly with the increasing injected current due to electro-optic birefringence; This article demonstrates that the polarized EL is a powerful tool to study the mode splitting and polarization anisotropy of a VCSEL device.