High-Power Raman Soliton Generation at 1.7 μm in All-Fiber Polarization-Maintaining Erbium-Doped Amplifier

An all-fiber polarization maintaining high-power laser system operating at 1.7 μm based on the Ramaninduced soliton self-frequency shifting effect is demonstrated. The entirely fiberized system is built by erbiumdoped oscillator and two-stage amplifiers with polarization maintaining commercial silica fibers and devices, which can provide robust and stable soliton generation. High-power soliton laser with the average power of 0.28 W,the repetition rate of 42.7 MHz, and pulse duration of 515 fs is generated directly from the main amplifier.Our experiment provides a feasible method for high-power all-fiber polarization maintaining femtosecond laser generation working at 1.7 μm.

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.

High Power Passive Phase Locking of Four Yb-Doped Fiber Amplifiers by an All-Optical Feedback Loop

We report the passive phase locking of four high power Yb-doped fiber amplifiers with ring cavity.The interference patterns at different output power are observed and the Strehl ratios are measured.The maximum coherent output power of the fiber array is up to 1062 W by multi-stage amplification.The stable beam profiles of various phase relationships are observed by controlling the position of the feedback fiber,in good agreement with the calculated results.By using master oscillator power-amplifier(MOPA)architecture and broadband operation of passively phased systems,higher power scaling with high beam quality appears to be feasible.

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.

A Novel and Fast Model of Erbium-doped Fiber Amplifiers

A novel and fast model of erbium-doped fiber amplifiers (EDFAs) is presented. By calculating a typical EDFA, numerical results are compared with the results obtained by spectral-solved method. The results of comparison show that such a model can improve the computational speed and preserve the precision. Some characteristics of the EDFA are then analyzed using this model. The results are consistent with those of the experiments.

Amplified Spontaneous Emission in Single Frequency Double-Clad Fiber Power Amplifiers

Amplified spontaneous emission （ASE） in diode laser pumped double-clad fiber power amplifiers is studied experimentally, The dependences of ASE on fiber length and cross section of active core are discussed and the variations of ASE power as the function of pumping and signal power are investigated. There are indications that long fibers with large mode area need stronger input signals to suppress ASE. It is shown that a 150 mW input signal can suppress the ASE by 40 dB in a 4 m large mode area fiber, while to efficiently suppress the ASE in a 10 m fiber, stronger input signal is needed. 12.5 W and 16.1 W single frequency CW output power are obtained from 4 m fiber and 10 m fiber respectively. No stimulated Brillouin scattering （SBS） was observed

Bidirectional Erbium Doped Fiber Amplifiers

Bidirectional EDFAs(Bi-EDFAs)featuring bidirectional signal input are theoreticallystudied.Gain and noise performances of Bi-EDFAs are analysed numerically and comparedwith that of other optical amplifiers.Applications of Bi-EDFAs in fiber networks and otherfields are considered.

Performance Enhancement of Praseodymium Doped Fiber Amplifiers

In this paper,we report a simulation study on the performance enhancement of Praseodymium doped silica fiber amplifiers(PDFAs)in O-band(1270-1350 nm)in terms of small signal gain,power conversion efficiency(PCE),and output optical power by employing bidirectional pumping.The PDFA performance is examined by optimizing the length of Praseodymium doped silica fiber(PDF),its mode-field diameter(MFD)and the concentration of Pr^(3+).A small-signal peak gain of 56.4 dB,power conversion efficiency(PCE)of 47%,and output optical power of around 1.6 W(32 dBm)is observed at optimized parameters for input signal wavelength of 1310 nm.Minimum noise figure(NF)of 4.1 dB is observed at input signal wavelength of 1310 nm.Moreover,the effect of varying the pump wavelength and pump power on output optical power of the amplifier and amplified spontaneous emission(ASE)noise is also investigated,respectively.Finally,the impact of ion-ion interaction(up-conversion effect)on small-signal gain of the amplifier is also studied by considering different values of up-conversion coefficient.

Theoretical Analysis of Rayleigh Backscattering Noise in Fiber Raman Amplifiers

In this paper, a new theoretical model for Rayleigh backscattering (RB) analysis of fiber Raman amplifiers is proposed. The model includes all the interactions among the pumps, signals, and all orders of RB. The results show that the higher order RB has a negligible influence on the performance of the amplifier. The co-propagating and counterpropagating RB power of the signal grow quadratically with the net-gain of the amplifier. The signal to double Rayleigh backscattering noise ratio (OSNRDRB ) of backward-pumped FRAs is better than that of the forward-pumped ones at high net-gain level (＞ 13 dB), while at low net-gain level the OSNRDrb of the forward-pumped FRAs is slightly better than that of the backward-pumped ones.

Recent Advances in New Band Rare-earth Doped Fiber Amplifiers

Broadband,high bit rate,long hauls and system intelligence are current trends in developing fiber optic communication systems.The ever-increasing traffic demands have made it urgent to develop new band optical fiber amplifier.Laser characteristics of various rare-earth ion including Er3+,Tm3+,Pr3+,Dy3+,Ho3+,and Nd3+ doped fiber are reviewed.Recent advances of rare-earth doped fiber amplifiers with wide-band and flat gain are also introduced.

Analytical Studies on 980 nm Pumped Erbium-doped Fiber Amplifiers

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Effect of Soliton Propagation in Fiber Amplifiers

The propagation of optical solitons in fiber amplifiers is discussed by considering a model that includes linear high order dispersion, two photon absorption, nonlinear high order dispersion, self induced Ramam and five order nonlinear effects. Based on travelling wave method, the solutions of the nonlinear Schr dinger equations, and the influence on soliton propagation as well as high order effect in the fiber amplifier are discussed in detail. It is found that because of existing five order nonlinear effect, the solution is not of secant hyperbola type, but shows high gain state of the fiber amplifier which is very favourable to the propagation of solitons.

980-nm all-fiber mode-locked Yb-doped phosphate fiber oscillator based on semiconductor saturable absorber mirror and its amplifier

A 980-nm semiconductor saturable absorber mirror（SESAM） mode-locked Yb-doped phosphate fiber laser is demonstrated by using an all-fiber linear cavity configuration. Two different kinds of cavity lengths are introduced into the oscillator to obtain a robust and stable mode-locked seed source. When the cavity length is chosen to be 6 m, the oscillator generates an average output power of 3.5 m W and a pulse width of 76.27 ps with a repetition rate of 17.08 MHz. As the cavity length is optimized to short, 4.4-m W maximum output power and 61.15-ps pulse width are produced at a repetition rate of 20.96 MHz. The output spectrum is centered at 980 nm with a narrow spectral bandwidth of 0.13 nm. In the experiment, no undesired amplified spontaneous emission（ASE） nor harmful oscillation around 1030 nm is observed. Moreover,through a two-stage all-fiber-integrated amplifier, an output power of 740 m W is generated with a pulse width of 200 ps.

Nonlinear compression of picosecond chirped pulse from thin-disk amplifier system through a gas-filled hollow-core fiber

We theoretically study the nonlinear compression of a 20-rnJ, 1030-nm picosecond chirped pulse from the thin-disk amplifier in a krypton gas-filled hollow-core fiber. The chirp from the thin-disk amplifier system has little influence on the initial pulse, however, it shows an effect on the nonlinear compression in hollow-core fiber. We use a large diameter hollow waveguide to restrict undesirable nonlinear effects such as ionization; on the other hand, we employ suitable gas pressure and fiber length to promise enough spectral broadening; with 600-μm, 6-bar （1 bar = 105 Pa）, 1.8-m hollow fiber, we obtain 31.5-fs pulse. Moreover, we calculate and discuss the optimal fiber lengths and gas pressures with different initial durations induced by different grating compression angles for reaching a given bandwidth. These results are meaningful for a compression scheme from picoseconds to femtoseconds.

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.

Stimulated Brillouin Scattering Enhancement Factor Improvement in a 11.6-GHz-Linewidth 1.5-kW Yb-Doped Fiber Amplifier

The stimulated Brillouin scattering （SBS） threshold enhancement factor in a pure white noise linewidth broad- ening Yb-doped fiber amplifier （YDFA） with a short large mode area fiber is theoretically and experimentally studied. We demonstrate a 1064.08nm, 11.6 GHz finewidth, 1.5 k W output power YDFA with an SBS threshold enhancement of -57 （26 W SBS threshold with single frequency seed）. The output beam is near-diffraction lim- ited with a beam quality factor elM2 = 1.15 and a slope efficiency of up to 87%. No SBS or stimulated Raman scattering effects are observed in the whole power range. Further power sealing is limited by the available pump power in our system.

An All Fiber 1.94µm Nanosecond Pulse Laser Amplified by Highly Tm^(3+)-Doped Silicon Fibers

We present an all-fiber 1.94μm nanosecond pulse laser in master oscillation-power amplifier configuration.A dual-FBGs gain-switched Tm^(3+)-doped fiber laser is built and is used as the seed laser.The output characteristics of the amplifier are studied at different pulse repetition rates,and the maximum output energy of 500μJ is achieved under incident pump power of 39 W.The emitting spectra are checked at 5 and 10 kHz,and no obvious nonlinear effects are observed in the spectrum of the amplified laser.The beam quality factor is M^(2)=2.1±0.03 measured by the traveling knife-edge method,and the laser beam spot is also monitored by an infrared vidicon camera.

Semiconductor Optical Amplifier (SOA)-Fiber Ring Laser and Its Application to Stress Sensing

We have developed a novel optical fiber ring laser using a semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) as the gain medium, and taking advantage of polarization anisotropy of its gain. The frequency difference of the bi-directional laser is controlled by birefringence which is introduced in the ring laser cavity. The beat frequency generated by combining two counter-propagating oscillations is proportional to the birefringence, the fiber ring laser of the present study is, therefore, applicable to the fiber sensor. The sensing signal is obtained in a frequency domain with the material which causes the retardation change by a physical phenomenon to be measured. For the application to stress sensing, the present laser was investigated with a photoelastic material.