Precise determination of characteristic laser frequencies by an Er-doped fiber optical frequency comb

Femtosecond optical frequency combs correlate the microwave and optical frequencies accurately and coherently.Therefore,any optical frequency in visible to near-infrared region can be directly traced to a microwave frequency.As a result,the length unit“meter”is directly related to the time unit“second”.This paper validates the capability of the national wavelength standards based on a home-made Er-doped fiber femtosecond optical frequency comb to measure the laser frequencies ranging from visible to near-infrared region.Optical frequency conversion in the femtosecond optical frequency comb is achieved by combining spectral broadening in a highly nonlinear fiber with a single-point frequencydoubling scheme.The signal-to-noise ratio of the beat notes between the femtosecond optical frequency comb and the lasers at 633,698,729,780,1064,and 1542 nm is better than 30 d B.The frequency instability of the above lasers is evaluated by using a hydrogen clock signal with a instability of better than 1×10^(-13)at 1-s averaging time.The measurement is further validated by measuring the absolute optical frequency of an iodine-stabilized 532-nm laser and an acetylenestabilized 1542-nm laser.The results are within the uncertainty range of the international recommended values.Our results demonstrate the accurate optical frequency measurement of lasers at different frequencies using the femtosecond optical frequency comb,which is not only important for the precise and accurate traceability and calibration of the laser frequencies,but also provides technical support for establishing the national wavelength standards based on the femtosecond optical frequency comb.

A Temperature-Insensitive Amplified Spontaneous Emission Broadband Source Based on Er-Doped Fiber

To obtain a stable amplified spontaneous emission（ASE） source for complex environment applications, we design an ASE source and study the output power and spectral characteristics under different ambient temperatures.We optimize the structure of the ASE source to flatten the ASE spectrum, and study the output characteristics in terms of output power and optical spectrum under different pump powers. Then the performance of the ASE source is investigated in the temperature range from-18.9°C to 50°C. A stable-power and flat-spectrum ASE source can be obtained by structural optimization and pump control.

Observation of 550 MHz passively harmonic mode-locked pulses at L-band in an Er-doped fiber laser using carbon nanotubes film

We demonstrate a passively harmonic mode-locked（PHML） fiber laser operating at the L-band using carbon nanotubes polyvinyl alcohol（CNTs-PVA） film. Under suitable pump power and an appropriate setting of the polarization controller（PC）, the 54^（th） harmonic pulses at the L-band are generated with the side mode suppression ratio（SMSR） better than 44 dB and a repetition frequency of 503.37 MHz. Further increasing the pump power leads to a higher frequency of 550 MHz with compromised stability of 38.5 dB SMSR. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first demonstration on the generation of L-band PHML pulses from an Er-doped fiber laser based on CNTs.

Using Reduced Graphene Oxide to Generate Q-Switched Pulses in Er-Doped Fiber Laser

Using the reduced graphene oxide（rGO） as a saturable absorber（SA） in an Er-doped fiber（EDF） laser cavity,we obtain the Q-switching operation. The rGO SA is prepared by depositing the GO on fluorine mica（FM） using the thermal reduction method. The modulation depth of rGO/FM is measured to be 3.2%. By incorporating the rGO/FM film into the EDF laser cavity, we obtain stable Q-switched pulses. The shortest pulse duration is3.53 μs, and the maximum single pulse energy is 48.19 nJ. The long-term stability of working is well exhibited.The experimental results show that the rGO possesses potential photonics applications.

Double Clad Er-doped Fiber Amplifier

Presented is a theoretical study of double-clad Er-doped fiber power amplifier(EDFA). Two kinds of double clad fibers(DCF) with rectangular and "flower" inner clad shapes are studied, and these fibers have different coupling constants and propagation losses. We calculate the effective pump power absorption ratio along the fiber with different coupling constants from the first cladding to the doped core and with different propagation losses for the power in the inner cladding. Then the gains of the double clad Er-doped fiber amplifiers versus fiber lengths are calculated using the EDFA model based on propagation and rate equations of a homogeneous, two-level medium.

Dual-comb soliton rains based on polarization multiplexing in a single-walled carbon nanotube mode-locked Er-doped fiber laser

We experimentally demonstrate tunable dual-comb soliton rains in a polarization multiplexing fiber laser based on a singlewalled carbon nanotube.The repetition frequency difference of dual-comb pulses is about 39 Hz,with a maximum extinction ratio of 29 dB.With suitable polarization states,one of the dual-comb pulses switches into soliton rain sequence with chirped isolating soliton trains.The signal-to-noise ratio reaches 61 dB,which is 11 dB higher than that of the normal dual-comb pulses.The intervals between chirped isolating solitons are distributed progressively,and the number of isolating solitons can be flexibly tuned from 2 to 11 by adjusting polarization state or pump power.Our work will provide support for further understanding of interaction dynamics of solitons and give a new route to the application of precision measurement.

A kW Continuous-Wave Ytterbium-Doped All-Fiber Laser Oscillator with Domestic Fiber Components and Gain Fiber

We demonstrate a kW continuous-wave ytterbium-doped all-fiber laser oscillator with M1 domestic fiber compo- nents： a 7× I fused fiber bundle combiner, a fiber Bragg grating and a double-clad gain fiber. The oscillator operates at 1079.48nrn with 80.94% slope efficiency and shows no limit of temperature and nonlinear effects. These indicate that the passive fiber components and the gain fiber are all qualified for the high power environ- ment. No evidence of the signal power roll-over shows that this oscillator possesses the capacity to higher output with available pump power.

A theoretical and experimental investigation of an in-band pumped gain-switched thulium-doped fiber laser

In this paper, the theoretical rate equation model of an in-band pumped gain-switched thulium-doped fiber （TDF） laser is investigated. The analytical formulations of pump energy threshold, peak power extraction efficiency, and pulse extraction efficiency are derived through analyzing the interaction process between the pump pulse and the laser pulse. They are useful for understanding, designing, and optimizing the in-band pumped TDF lasers in a 1.9 μm-2.1 μm wavelength region. The experiment with an all-fiber gain-switched TDF laser pumped by a 1.558-μm pulse amplifier is conducted, and our experimental results show good agreement with theoretical analysis.

Fabrication and gain performance of Er^(3+)/Yb^(3+)-codoped tellurite glass fiber

Er^3＋/Yb^3＋-codoped TeO2-ZnO-BaO-La2O3 tellurite glass fiber was fabricated by rotation and rod-in-tube technologies. The thermal stability and optical refractive index of the core and cladding glasses were determined by DTA and optical coupler, respectively. The average background loss of tellurite glass fiber was 1.8 dB/m at 1310 nm. Optical microscopy and field emission scanning electron microscope （FESEM） were used to study structural characteristics of preforms and optical fibers. The main loss of tellurite glass fiber could be attributed to scatter centre due to core-cladding interface defects. The amplifier performance of tellurite glass fiber was investigated by pumping with 980 nm laser diode （LD）. The gain coefficient and maximum signal gain were 0.21 dB/mW and 10 dB, respectively, for a pumping power of 120 mW. Gains exceeding 5 dB were obtained over 30 nm bandwidth from 1535 to 1565 nm. The minimum noise figure was 4.8 dB at 1557 nm.

Effect of stimulated Brillouin scattering on the gain saturation of distributed fiber Raman amplifier and its suppression by phase modulation

For distributed fiber Raman amplifiers（DFRAs）, stimulated Brillouin scattering（SBS） can deplete the pump once occurring and consequently generate gain saturation. On the basis of such a theory, theoretical gain saturation powers in DFRAs with various pump schemes are obtained by calculating SBS thresholds in them, and the experimental results show that they are in excellent agreement with the calculation results. The saturation power of the DFRA with a 300 m W forward pump is as low as 0 d Bm, which needs to be enhanced by phase modulation, and the effect is quantitatively studied. A simple model taking both modulation frequency and index into consideration is presented by introducing a correction factor to evaluate the effect of phase modulation on the enhancement of saturation power. Experimentally, it is shown that such a correction factor decreases as the modulation frequency increases and approaches zero when the modulation frequency becomes high enough. In particular, a phase modulation with a modulation frequency of 100 MHz and a modulation index of 1.380 can enhance the saturation power by 4.44 d B, and the correction factor is 0.25 d B, in which the modulation frequency is high enough. Additionally, the factor is 1.767 d B for the modulation frequency of 25 MHz. On this basis,phase modulations with various indexes and a fixed frequency of 25 MHz are adopted to verify the modified model, and the results are positive. To obtain the highest gain saturation power, the model is referable. The research results provide a guide for the design of practical DFRAs.

Analysis of gain distribution in cladding-pumped thulium-doped fiber laser and optical feedback inhibition problem in fiber-bulk laser system

The steady-state gain distribution in cladding pumped thulium-doped fiber laser（TDFL） is analytically and numerically solved based on the rate equations including loss coefficients and cross relaxation effect. With the gain curve, a problem, which is named optical feedback inhibition（OFI） and always occurs in tandem TDFL-Ho：YAG laser system, is analyzed quantitatively. The actual characteristics of output spectra and power basically prove the conclusion of theoretical analysis. Then a simple mirror-deflected L-shaped cavity is employed to restrain the external feedback and simplify the structure of fiber-bulk Ho：YAG laser. Finally, 25 W of 2097-nm laser power and 51.2% of optical-to-optical conversion efficiency are obtained, and the beam quality factor is less than 1.43 obtained by knife-edge method.

Brillouin gain spectrum characterization in Ge-doped large-mode-area fibers

The dependence of Brillouin gain spectrum(BGS)characteristics,including the Brillouin frequency shift(BFS)and the BGS bandwidth,on germanium concentration in large-mode-area Ge-doped passive fibers is investigated theoretically and experimentally.The simulation results show that the BFS is inversely proportional to GeO_(2)concentration,and the BGS bandwidth initially increases with the augment of GeO_(2)concentration,and then decreases.The BGSs of four fibers with core diameters of 10μm and 20μm for different GeO_(2)concentrations are compared experimentally.Experimental results demonstrate that with the same core diameter,the variations of BFS and BGS bandwidths with GeO_(2)concentration accord with the simulation results.Additionally,the BGS characteristics of three large-mode-area passive fibers with diameters of 10μm,25μm,and 30μm are measured,which confirm that the increasing of the fiber diameters will cause the BGS bandwidth to broaden.We believe that these results can provide valuable references for modulating the high-power narrowlinewidth fiber lasers and Brillouin fiber amplifiers.

Modeling and Experiments of the Gain and Noise Figure for an Irradiated Erbium-Ytterbium Co-Doped Fiber Amplifier

It is crucial to study the effect of radiation on the fiber amplifier devices. In the present paper, the Erbium-ytterbium co-doped fiber amplifier (EYDFA) has been irradiated by a neutron beam of different doses for various exposure times from an Am-241/Be-9 neutron source. The gain and noise figure of the EYDFA have been calculated theoretically and recorded after and before the irradiation to test its performance under the effect of irradiation. In order to show the enhancement in the gain of the fiber amplifier devices, a comparison between the gain of the irradiated EYDFA and Erbium doped Fiber amplifier (EDFA) has been carried out. The calculated results by the proposed model are in good agreement with the experimental ones. It indicates that the gain of EYDFA deteriorates after being irradiated by a neutron dose. Moreover, the gain of irradiated EYDFA has been reduced to 13.8 dB at a dose of 720 Gy.

Gain Characteristics of Fiber Optical Parametric Amplifier

The theory model of fiber optical parametric amplifier (FOPA) was introduced, which is based on optical nonlinear effect. And then numerical simulation was done to analyze and discuss the gain spectral characteristics of one-pump and two-pump FOPA. The results show that for one-pump FOPA, when pump wavelength is near to fiber zero-dispersion wavelength(ZDW), the gain flatness is better, and with the increase of the pump power, fiber length and its nonlinear coefficient, the gain value will increase while the gain bandwidth will become narrow. For two-pump FOPA, when the pump central wavelength is near to fiber ZDW, the gain flatness is better. Moreover, by decreasing the space of two pumps wavelength, the gain flatness can be improved. Finally, some problems existing in FOPA were addressed.

Mode-dependent dynamic gain of all-fiber FM-EDFA under various pump manipulation

The dynamic gain of a few-mode erbium-doped fiber amplifier(FM-EDFA)is vital for the long-haul mode division multiplexing(MDM)transmission.Here,we investigate the mode-dependent dynamic gain of an FM-EDFA under various manipulations of the pump mode.First,we numerically calculate the gain variation with respect to the input signal power,where a modedependent saturation input power occurs under different pump modes.Even under the fixed intensity profile of the pump laser,the saturation input power of each spatial mode is different.Moreover,high-order mode pumping leads to a compression of the linear amplification region,even though it is beneficial for the mitigation of the differential modal gain(DMG)arising in all guided modes.Then,we develop an all-fiber 3-mode EDFA,where the fundamental mode of the pump laser can be efficiently converted to the LP_(11)mode using the all-fiber mode-selective coupler(MSC).In comparison with the traditional LP_(01)pumping scheme,the DMG at 1550 nm can be mitigated from 1.61 dB to 0.97 dB under the LP_(11)mode pumping,while both an average gain of 19.93 dB and a DMG of less than 1 dB can be achieved from 1530 nm to 1560 nm.However,the corresponding signal input saturation powers are reduced by 0.3 dB for the LP_(01)mode and 1.6 dB for the LP_(11)mode,respectively.Both theoretical and experimental results indicate that a trade-off occurs between the DMG mitigation and the extension of the linear amplification range when the intensity profile of pump laser is manipulated.

Gain and Noise Properties of Bidirectional EDFAs

建立了考虑ＡＳＥ谱和背景损耗影响的双向掺铒光纤放大器（ＢｉＥＤＦＡ）稳态放大速率方程模型，分析了增益与掺铒光纤长度、输入信号光功率、泵浦光功率及泵浦方式等结构参数之间的关系，研究了单向和双向等功率泵浦下正反向噪声系数随正反向信号光输入功率的变化行为。

Performance Tendency of Gain and Noise Figure at Different EDFA Configurations

A comprehensive behavioral investigation of gain and noise figure （NF） at different erbium doped fiber amplifier （EDFA） configurations is proposed. Configurations such as single pass （SP）, single pass with filter （SPF）, double pass （DP） and double pass with filter （DPF） are designed, investigated and compared. A continuous increasing of gain value is recorded by changing the configuration from SP to SPF to DP then to DPF. The NF value shows different behaviors at different configurations.

Annealing behaviour of structure and morphology and its effects on the optical gain of Er^3＋/yb^3＋ co-doped Al2O3 planar waveguide amplifier

Using transmission electron microscopy （TEM） and x-ray diffraction analysis, we have studied the structural and morphological evolution of highly Er/Yb co-doped A1203 films in the temperature range from 600℃-900℃. By comparison with TEM observation, the annealing behaviours of photoluminescence （PL） emission and optical loss were found to have relation to the structure and morphology. The increase of PL intensity and optical loss above 800℃ might result from the crystallization of amorphous Al2O3 films. Based on the study on the structure and morphology, a rate equation propagation model of a multilevel system was used to calculate the optical gains of Er-doped Al2O3 planar waveguide amplifiers involving the variation of PL efficiency and optical loss with annealing temperature. It was found that the amplifiers had an optimized optical gain at the temperature corresponding to the minimum of optical loss, rather than at the temperature corresponding to the maximum of PL efficiency, suggesting that the optical loss is a key factor for determining the optical gain of an Er-doped Al2O3 planar waveguide amplifier.

Compact 517 MHz soliton mode-locked Er-doped fiber ring laser

We report on a compact passive mode-locked Er:fiber ring laser operated at the fundamental repetition rate of 517 MHz, which we believe is the highest fundamental repetition rate ever reported in a ring cavity fiber laser.The key technique is the employment of two innovative high-power wavelength domain multiplexer collimators with all gain fiber cavity suited for the high power(up to 2 W) pumping. The laser is featured with a direct chirpfree output pulse, which is 97 fs without extracavity compression at an average output power of 90 mW.

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.