Low-Threshold Broadband Spectrum Generation by Amplification of Cascaded Stimulated Raman Scattering in an Ytterbium-Doped Fiber Amplifier

We present an experimental study on low-threshold broadband spectrum generation mainly due to the amplirfication of the cascaded stimulated Raman scattering （SRS） effect in a four-stage fiber master oscillator power amplifier system. The cascaded SRS is achieved by using a long passive fiber pumped by a pulsed fiber laser cen： tered at wavelength 1064 nm. The amplified spontaneous emission during the amplification process is efficiently suppressed by cutting the length of the passive fiber and by using a double-clad ytterbium-doped fiber amplifier. The generated broadband spectrum spans from 960nm to 1700nm with maximum average output 13.6 W and average spectral power density approximately 17. 7 mW/nm.

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.

Analytical Studies on 980 nm Pumped Erbium-doped Fiber Amplifiers

ＡｎａｌｙｔｉｃａｌＳｔｕｄｉｅｓｏｎ９８０ｎｍＰｕｍｐｅｄＥｒｂｉｕｍ－ｄｏｐｅｄＦｉｂｅｒＡｍｐｌｉｆｉｅｒｓ￥ＸＩＡＧｕａｎｇｑｉｏｎｇ；ＷＵＺｈｅｎｇｍａｏ（ＳｏｕｔｈｗｅｓｔＮｏｒｍａｌＵｎｉｖｅｒｓｉｔｙ，Ｃｈｏｎｇｑｉｎｇ６３０７１５，...

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.

In-band intermodulation induced by transient response of erbium-doped fiber amplifier

Transient response of an erbium-doped fiber amplifier(EDFA) is studied in an externally-modulated analog link.Double tones represented as transmitted radio frequency and dither signals are introduced.Extra modulation is generated owing to the EDFA’s transient response caused by a low-frequency dither signal.Therefore,the parasitic modulation is superposed to the output signals and may significantly affect in-band electrical spectra.Analytical and numerical solutions are both given,which agree well with experimental results.This work indicates that a suitable dither signal should be selected to maximize the carrier to intermodulation ratio.In-band spurious free dynamic range is optimized in the meantime.

All-fiber few-mode erbium-doped fiber amplifier supporting six spatial modes

Using the few-mode erbium-doped fiber(FM-EDF)with a simple two-layer erbium-doped structure,we demonstrate an all-fiber FM-EDF amplifier.The gain equalization among the six spatial modes supported by the FM-EDF is achieved when only the pump in the fundamental mode(LP01)is applied.When the signals in six spatial modes are simultaneously amplified,the average modal gain is about 15 dB,and differential modal gain is about 2.5 dB for the signal at 1550 nm.

All-fiber,high power single-frequency linearly polarized ytterbium-doped fiber amplifier

We report an all-fiber high power,single frequency large-mode area （LMA） linearly polarized ytterbiumdoped fiber amplifiers （YDFA） module,which is based on the master oscillator multi-stage power amplifiers （MOPA）.The maximum output power is 43.8 W at a wavelength of 1064 nm when 60-W launched pump light is coupled,with high slope efficiency of 88%,polarization extinction rate （PER） 17.2 dB and nearly diffraction-limited beam quality （M 2 1.1）.

Gain performances of 980 nm-pumped erbium-doped fiber amplifiers

Through the introduction of the overlapping factors between the light (pump and signal) intensities and the erbium doping distributions inside the fiber core, analytical solutions of homogeneously broadened two-level systems for erbium-doped fiber amplifiers pumped in the 980 nm absorption band have been derived from EDFA rate equations and light propagation equations in steady-state case. By using these deduced expressions and numerical simulated methods, important features characterizing the amplifiers such as gain, pump threshold power, optimum fiber length have been analyzed and discussed.

Doping radius effects on an erbium-doped fiber amplifier

In an erbium-doped fiber amplifier(EDFA), erbium ions act as a three-level system. Therefore, much higher pump energy is required to achieve the population inversion in an erbium-doped fiber(EDF). This higher pump energy requirement complicates the efficient design of an EDFA. However, efficient use of the pump power can improve the EDFA performance. The improved performance of an EDFA can be obtained by reducing the doping radius of the EDF. A smaller doping radius increases pump–dopant interactions and subsequently increases the pump–photon conversion efficiency. Decreasing the doping radius allows a larger proportion of dopant ions,which are concentrated near the core, to interact with the highest pump intensity. However, decreasing the doping radius beyond a certain limit will bring the dopant ions much closer and introduce detrimental ion–ion interaction effects. In this Letter, we show that an optimal doping radius in an EDF can provide the best gain performance. Moreover, we have simulated the well-known numerical aperture effects on EDFA gain performance to support our claim.

Effective SNR improvement using a high-power pulsed pump in an ytterbium-doped fiber amplifier

A high-power pulsed pump method is proposed to obtain a high-energy output with an improved signal- to-noise ratio （SNR） during pulse amplification. Based on numerical analysis, the ytterbium-doped fiber amplifiers are compared under different pumping conditions. At the same signal gain, the output using the high-power pulsed pump shows great SNR improvement and reduced output signal distortion, compared with a continuous-wave pump and a low-power pulsed pump. By adjusting the pump parameters, the amplifier can achieve the optimal output SNR without sacrificing the signal gain. We believe that the high-power pulsed pump scheme is very suitable for the high-energy nanosecond pulse amplification, which has a high SNR requirement.

A kind of multiwavelength erbium-doped fiber laser based on Lyot filter

A multiwavelength tunable ring-cavity erbium-doped fiber laser(EDFL)based on a Lyot filter was presented.For the proposed Lyot filter,a comb filter consisting of an EDF-polarization-maintaining fiber(EDF-PMF),a polarization controller(PC),and a circulator with four ports was used to suppress the mode competition.The light transmission direction was guaranteed by the circulator.For the proposed fiber laser,tunable single,dual,triple,quadruple,quintuple,sextuple,and septuple wavelengths were realized.A single-wavelength laser output with an optical signal-to-noise ratio(SNR)of up to30.56 dB was realized,and a tuning range of 1590.54 nm to 1599.54 nm was achieved by tuning the PC.The stability of the single,dual,triple,and quadruple-wavelength center power fluctuations was less than 0.05 dB,0.98 dB,5.07 dB,and7.71 dB respectively.When the laser was operated in the multiwavelength condition,the SNR was more than 20.97 dB.The proposed erbium-doped fiber laser is suitable for fiber-sensing system applications.

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.

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.

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.

Stable single longitudinal mode erbium-doped silica fiber laser based on an asymmetric linear three-cavity structure

We present a stable linear-cavity single longitudinal mode （SLM） erbium-doped silica fiber laser. It consists of four fiber Bragg gratings （FBGs） directly written in a section of photosensitive erbium-doped fiber （EDF） to form an asymmetric three-cavity structure. The stable SLM operation at a wavelength of 1545.112 nm with a 3-dB bandwidth of 0.012 nm and an optical signal-to-noise ratio （OSNR） of about 60 dB is verified experimentally. Under laboratory conditions, the performance of a power fluctuation of less than 0.05 dB observed from the power meter for 6 h and a wavelength variation of less than 0.01 nm obtained from the optical spectrum analyzer （OSA） for about 1.5 h are demonstrated. The gain fiber length is no longer limited to only several centimeters for SLM operation because of the excellent mode-selecting ability of the asymmetric three-cavity structure. The proposed scheme provides a simple and cost-effective approach to realizing a stable SLM fiber laser.

Mode-Locked Erbium-Doped Fiber Laser Using Vanadium Oxide as Saturable Absorber

A mode-locked erbium doped fiber laser（EDFL） is demonstrated using the vanadium oxide（V2O5） material as a saturable absorber（SA）. The V2O5 based SA is hosted into poly ethylene oxide film and attached on fiber ferule in the laser cavity. It shows 7% modulation depth with 71 MW/cm2 saturation intensity. By incorporating the SA inside the EDFL cavity with managed intra-cavity dispersion, ultrashort soliton pulses are successfully generated with a full width at half maximum of 3.14 ps. The laser operated at central wavelength of 1559.25 nm and repetition frequency of 1 MHz.

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.

Experimental investigation on chaos generation in erbium-doped fiber single-ring lasers

In this paper,the chaotic behaviors in an erbium-doped fiber（EDF） single-ring laser（EDFSRL） are investigated experimentally by using the loss modulation method.An electro-optic modulator（EOM） made of LiNbO 3 crystal is added to the system.Thus,by changing the modulation voltage and the modulation frequency of the EOM,the freedom of the EDFSRL system is increased.The chaotic characteristics of the system are studied by observing the time series and the power spectra.The experimental results indicate that the erbium-doped fiber single-ring laser system can enter into chaos states through period-doubling bifurcation and intermittency routes.

Q-Switched Erbium-Doped Fiber Laser Using Cadmium Selenide Coated onto Side-Polished D-Shape Fiber as Saturable Absorber

A stable Q-switched erbium doped fiber laser emitting at 1558 nm is demonstrated using a cadmium selenide（CdSe） material coated onto a side-polished D-shape fiber as the saturable absorber（SA）. By elevating the input pump power from the threshold of 91 mW to the maximum available power of 136 mW, a pulse train with a maximum repetition rate of 57.44 kHz, minimum pulse width of 3.76 us, maximum average output power of7.99 mW, maximum pulse energy of 0.1391 uJ, and maximum peak power of 36.99 mW are obtained. The signalto-noise ratio of the spectrum is measured to be around 75 dB. This CdSe based SA is simple, robust, and reliable,and thus suitable for making a portable pulse laser source.