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.

An all-polarization-maintaining repetition-tunable erbium-doped passively mode-locked fiber laser

An environmentally stable, repetition rate tunable, all-polarization-maintaining, Er-doped pulse fiber laser with a single-wall carbon nanotubes saturated absorber is demonstrated. The ring laser cavity includes a delay line enabling a tunable repetition rate to vary from 35.52 MHz to 35.64 MHz with continuous mode-locked operation. The laser output parameters confirm that the tunable mode-locked operations are stable. High environmental stability is also confirmed by the -130 dBc/Hz low phase noise, a 70-dB signal-to-noise ratio of radio frequency signals, a low amplitude fluctuation of 5.76 × 10-4, and a low fluctuation of reoetition rate of 12 Hz. The laser shows a high de^ree of oolarization of 93%.

Tandem-pumped 1120-nm actively Q-switched fiber laser

We report on a tandem-pumped actively Q-switched fiber laser system emitting at 1120 nm.Parasitic oscillation is challenging in Yb-doped Q-switched 1120-nm fiber laser,which is suppressed by pumping with a fiber laser at 1018 nm.At least four times improvement in output peak power is demonstrated in a single laser setup with 1018-nm fiber laser pumping instead of 976-nm laser diode pumping.This is,to the best of our knowledge,the first demonstration of a tandem-pumped Q-switched fiber laser.

40-GHz wavelength tunable mode-locked SOA-based fiber laser with 40-nm tuning range

A 40-GHz wavelength tunable mode-locked fiber ring laser based on cross-gain modulation in a semicon- ductor optical amplifier （SOA） is presented. Pulse trains with a pulse width of 10.5 ps at 40-GHz repetition frequency are obtained. The laser operates with almost 40-nm tuning range. The relationship between the key laser parameters and the output pulse characteristics is analyzed experimentally.

Q-switched Er-doped fiber laser with low pumping threshold using graphene saturable absorber

We propose a Q-switched Er-doped fiber laser （EDFL） with a threshold pumping power as low as 7.4 mW, and demonstrate using graphene polyvinyl alcohol （PVA） thin film as a passive saturable absorber （SA）. The SA is fabricated from graphene flakes, which is synthesized by electrochemical exfoliation of graphite at room temperature in 1% sodium dodecyl sulfate aqueous solution. The flakes are mixed with PVA solution to produce a thin film, which is then sandwiched between two ferrules to form a SA and integrated in the EDFL ring cavity to generate a stable Q-switched pulse train. The pulse train operates at 1560 nm with a threshold pump power of 7.4 roW. At maximum 1480 nm pump power of 33.0 roW, the EDFL generates an optical pulse train with a repetition rate of 27.0 kHz and pulse width of 3.56/as. The maximum pulse energy of 39.4 nJ is obtained at a pump power of 14.9 roW. This laser can be used as a simple and low-cost light source for metrology, environmental sensing, and biomedical diagnostics.

Fabrication of side pump combiners when pumping with a laser diode and a fiber laser

Side pumping combiners are widely used in fiber laser schemes for their high coupling efficiency, low insertion loss, and multi-point pumping capability. However, side pumping combiners perform differently in coupling efficiency when pumping with a laser diode(LD) and a high-brightness 1018 nm Yb-doped fiber laser(YDFL). In this paper, for the first time, to the best of our knowledge, we investigated the different parameters to fabricate the(2 + 1) × 1 combiner with high coupling efficiency when pumping with an LD and a YDFL, respectively. After optimization, the maximum coupled pump power from one single-pump port of the combiner was 1200 W and 2730 W when pumping with a LD and a YDFL, respectively.

Double-Brillouin-Frequency Spaced Multiwavelength Generation in a Ring Brillouin-Erbium Fiber Laser

We demonstrate the double-Brillouin-frequency spaced multiwavelength generation at room temperature by using a simple ring Brillouin-erbium fiber laser.The Brillouin pump is pre-amplified before entering the single-mode fiber,the odd Stokes and even Stokes are amplified in two opposite directions.All amplification provided by a home-made bi-directional operation erbium-doped fiber may achieve high intensity of Brillouin Stokes that leads to the homogenous gain saturation.Twelve even Stokes and thirteen odd Stokes with a wavelength spacing of 0.172 nm(20 GHz)are simultaneously obtained for 6 dBm Brillouin pump power and 120 mW pump power at 980 nm.The influence of different Brillouin and erbium-doped-fiber pump powers on multiwavelength and tuning range are investigated in detail.

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.

Dispersion Tuning of a SOA Fiber Laser Incorporating a Linearly Chirped Fiber Grating

-We describe a simple method to generate wavelength-tunable pulses by using a semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) as an intensity modulator and a gain medium. Wavelength tunable pulses at a repetition rate of 4.8 GHz have been generated.

Dual-Wavelength Holmium-Doped Fiber Laser Pumped by Thulium-Ytterbium Co-Doped Fiber Laser

We present an all-fiber dual-wavelength holmium-doped veloped holmium-doped fiber （HDF） as a gain medium fiber laser operating in 2 #m region using a newly de- The proposed fiber laser is constructed by using a hybrid gain medium, i.e., a thulium ytterbium co-doped fiber （TYDF） and an HDF in conjunction with a simple half-opened linear cavity, which is formed by a broadband mirror and an output coupler reflector. Without the HDF, the TYDF laser operates at wavelengths of 1991 and 1999nm with a signal-to-noise ratio of more than 34dB and the slope efficiency of 26.16 %. With the HDF, dual-wavelength output lines are obtained at 2075 and 2083nm with signal-to-noise ratios of more than difference between the two peaks of less than 1 dB at 17dB, 3dB bandwidth of less than 0.2nm and the power the TYDF laser pump power of 320roW.

High conversion efficiency, high power density Q-switched fiber laser

An acoustic-optic Q-switched all-fiber laser With a high-repetition-rate, a short pulse width, a wide spectrum, and a high conversion efficiency is experimentally demonstrated. In the laser configuration, a （1＋1）x 1 side-pumping coupler is introduced to perform backward pumping, and a 10/130%tm Yb fiber is adopted. The acoustic-optic component operates in the first direction, achieving a Q-switched pulse with a repetition rate adjustable in the range of 20 kHz-80 kHz. Under a repetition rate of 20 kHz and a pump power of 6.76 W, the fiber laser obtains a highly efficient and stable pulse output, with an average power of 4.3 W, a pulse width of 56 ns, a peak power of 3.83 kW, and a power density of 1.39x 101~ W/cm2. Particularly, the optic-optic conversion efficiency of the laser reaches as high as 64%. Another feature of the pulsed laser is that the high reflection mirror reflects the pump light as well, which brings the secondary absorption of the pump power into the gain fiber.

Tunable and narrow linewidth multi-wavelength Brillouin-erbium fiber laser using dual-wavelength pumping

We demonstrate a multi-wavelength Brillouin-erbium fiber laser(BEFL)with narrow linewidth and tunable wavelength interval using dual-wavelength Brillouin pumping.The generation of multi-wavelength output in BEFL is based on the combination of stimulated Brillouin scattering(SBS)and four-wave mixing(FWM)effect in a fiber cavity.The tunable wavelength interval is determined by the artificially controlled wavelength interval of the pumping lasers.The BEFL could compress a 1 MHz pump laser to a 340 Hz Brillouin Stokes laser,which proves the BEFL has excellent capability of linewidth compression.An erbium-doped fiber pumped by 980 nm laser is inserted into the cavity to further amplify the Brillouin laser.The wideband multi-wavelength BEFL covering over 50 nm is successfully generated when the 980 nm pump power is 400 mW.These features of multi-wavelength BEFL provide an effective method for optical communication systems and optical fiber sensing.

Theoretical and Numerical Study of Stress and Thermo-Optic in Photonic Crystal Fiber Laser in Different Pump Schemes

In this paper, we present a study of thermal, average power scaling, change in index of refraction and stress in photonic crystal fiber lasers with different pump schemes: forward pump scheme, backward pump scheme, forward pump scheme with reflection of 98%, backward pump scheme with reflection of 98% and bi-directional pump scheme. We show that management of thermal effects in fiber lasers will determine the efficiency and success of scaling-up efforts. In addition, we show that the most suitable scheme is the bi-directional.

Numerical study of a bi-directional in-band pumped dysprosium-doped fluoride fiber laser at 3.2μm

Dy^(3+)-doped fluoride fiber lasers have important applications in environment monitoring,real-time sensing,and polymer processing.At present,achieving a high-efficiency and high-power Dy^(3+)-doped fluoride fiber laser in the mid-infrared(mid-IR)region over 3μm is a scientific and technological frontier.Typically,Dy^(3+)-doped fluoride fiber lasers use a unidirectional pumping method,which suffers from the drawback of high thermal loading density on the fiber tips,thus limiting power scalability.In this study,a bi-directional in-band pumping scheme,to address the limitations of output power scaling and to enhance the efficiency of the Dy^(3+)-doped fluoride fiber laser at 3.2μm,is investigated numerically based on rate equations and propagation equations.Detailed simulation results reveal that the optical‒optical efficiency of the bi-directional in-band pumped Dy^(3+)-doped fluoride fiber laser can reach 75.1%,approaching the Stokes limit of 87.3%.The potential for further improvement of the efficiency of the Dy^(3+)-doped fluoride fiber laser is also discussed.The bi-directional pumping scheme offers the intrinsic advantage of mitigating the thermal load on the fiber tips,unlike unidirectional pumping,in addition to its high efficiency.As a result,it is expected to significantly scale the power output of Dy^(3+)-doped fluoride fiber lasers in the mid-IR regime.

Comparative Study of the Birefringence in Photonic Crystal Fiber Lasers

In this paper, we study the birefringence in photonic crystal fiber lasers PCFs and in conventional fiber lasers in the bi-directional pump scheme in the linear cavity laser. We show that the value of birefringence in photonic crystal fibers is smaller than that of conventional fiber lasers [1].

The Comparative Study of the Temperature Distribution of Fiber Laser with Different Pump Schemes

Based on the structure of the long fiber laser (YDCFLs) with different pump schemes using high pump power, the nonlinear coupled and heat dissipation equations are solved numerically. Using the finite-difference method, we have determined the temperature distribution along the radial and axial directions of the fiber laser (YDCFLs) for the forward pump schemes of 200 W with reflection Rp2, backward pump schemes of 200 W with reflection Rp1 and for bidirectional pump scheme of 100 W each side. The results are: the temperature distribution for bidirectional pump mode is more even than that for forward pump with reflection Rp2 and than that for backward pump with reflection Rp1. The results show that the maximum temperature difference between different schemes is 57.51°C, and when the air-clad width decreases, the temperature in the core regions also decreases and does not affect to the cladding radius regions. We summarize that the temperature in the core and in cladding radius regions decreases when the outer radius cladding increases.

Generation and observation of multiple solitons from a mid-infrared ultrafast fiber laser

We demonstrate the generation of a unique regime of multiple solitons in a Tm-doped ultrafast fiber laser at~1938.72 nm.The temporal pulse-to-pulse separation among the multiple solitons,10 in a single-pulse bunch,increases from 0.89 ns to1.85 ns per round trip.In addition,with the increasing pump power,the number of bunched solitons increases from 3 up to 24linearly,while the average time separation in the soliton bunch varies irregularly between~0.80 and~1.52 ns.These results contribute to a more profound comprehension of nonlinear pulse dynamics in ultrafast fiber lasers.

Generation of 1.3/1.4μm random fiber laser by bismuth-doped phosphosilicate fiber

We have successfully generated a 1.3/1.4μm random fiber laser(RFL)using bismuth(Bi)-doped phosphosilicate fiber.The Bi-doped RFL has shown excellent long-term operational stability with a standard deviation of approximately 0.34%over 1 h at a maximum output power of 549.30 mW,with a slope efficiency of approximately 29.21%.The Bi-doped phosphosilicate fiber offers an emission spectrum ranging from 1.28 to 1.57μm,indicating that it can be tuned within this band.Here,we demonstrated a wavelength-tuning fiber laser with a wavelength of 1.3/1.4μm,achieved through the using of a fiber Bragg grating or a tunable filter.Compared to traditional laser sources,the RFL reduces the speckle contrast of images by 11.16%.Due to its high stability,compact size,and high efficiency,this RFL is highly promising for use in biomedical imaging,communication,and sensor applications.

Dynamic counterpropagating all-normal dispersion(DCANDi)fiber laser

The fiber single-cavity dual-comb laser(SCDCL)is an emerging light-source architecture that opens up the possibility for low-complexity dual-comb pump-probe measurements.However,the fundamental trade-off between measurement speed and time resolution remains a hurdle for the widespread use of fiber SCDCLs in dual-comb pump-probe measurements.In this paper,we break this fundamental trade-off by devising an all-optical dynamic repetition rate difference(Δf rep)modulation technique.We demonstrate the dynamicΔf rep modulation in a modified version of the recently developed counterpropagating all-normal dispersion(CANDi)fiber laser.We verify that our all-optical dynamicΔf rep modulation technique does not introduce excessive relative timing jitter.In addition,the dynamic modulation mechanism is studied and validated both theoretically and experimentally.As a proof-of-principle experiment,we apply this so-called dynamic CANDi(DCANDi)fiber laser to measure the relaxation time of a semiconductor saturable absorber mirror,achieving a measurement speed and duty cycle enhancement factor of 143.DCANDi fiber laser is a promising light source for low-complexity,highspeed,high-sensitivity ultrafast dual-comb pump-probe measurements.

Pump quantum efficiency optimization of 3.5 μm Er-doped ZBLAN fiber laser for high-power operation

976 nm+1976 nm dual-wavelength pumped Er-doped ZBLAN fiber lasers are generally accepted as the preferred solution for achieving 3.5μm lasing.However,the 2μm band excited state absorption from the upper lasing level(^(4 )F_(9/2)→^(4)F_(7/2))depletes the Er ions population inversion,reducing the pump quantum efciency and limiting the power scaling.In this work,we demonstrate that the pump quantum efciency can be efectively improved by using a long-wavelength pump with lower excited state absorption rate.A 3.5μm Er-doped ZBLAN fber laser was built and its performances at diferent pump wavelengths were experimentally investigated in detail.A maximum output power at 3.46μm of~7.2 W with slope efciency(with respect to absorbed 1990 nm pump power)of 41.2%was obtained with an optimized pump wavelength of 1990 nm,and the pump quantum efciency was increased to 0.957 compared with the 0.819 for the conventional 1976 nm pumping scheme.Further power scaling was only limited by the available 1990 nm pump power.A numerical simulation was implemented to evaluate the cross section of excited state absorption via a theoretical ftting of experimental results.The potential of further power scaling was also discussed,based on the developed model.