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.

Fiber core mode leakage induced by refractive index variation in high-power fiber laser

This paper presents an investigation of specific optical fiber core mode leakage behavior that occurs in high-power double-clad fiber lasers as a result of thermally-induced refractive index variations. A model of the power transfer between the core modes and the cladding modes during thermally-induced refractive index variations is established based on the mode coupling theory. The results of numerical simulations based on actual laser parameters are presented. Experimental measurements were also carried out, the results showed good agreement with the corresponding simulation results.

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.

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

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.

Erbium Doped Fiber Laser and Amplifier

In this paper, new configuration is proposed, investigated and analyzed. Fiber laser and fiber amplifier are merged in one configuration which called Erbium Doped Fiber Laser and Amplifier (EDFLA) or integrating EDFL and EDFA in one design. The configuration has three main outputs;one for laser, second for amplifier and the third it can be used for on/off output. A surprising phenomenon was remarked during the operation of this configuration. The amplification is abolished during the lasing state and appeared again if the lasing is stopped or the switch is off. The difference between outputs with the lasing and without lasing has 30 dB EDFA gain value;it is a good sign that this optical configuration can be used as an on/off integrated optical device for fiber laser.

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.

Low-repetition-rate, all-polarization-maintaining Yb-doped fiber laser mode-locked by a semiconductor saturable absorber

A low-repetition-rate, all-polarization-maintaining（PM）-fiber sub-nanosecond oscillator is presented, which is simple and low-cost, composed of standard components. The ring cavity is elongated by 114-m-long standard PM fiber, and passively mode-locked by a fiber pigtailed semiconductor saturable absorber. Linearly polarized pulses with 1.66 MHz repetition rate and 22 dB polarization extinction ratio are generated at a wavelength of 1030 nm, which is determined by an intracavity filter. In addition, to demonstrate that the oscillator is a good seed for high energy pulse generation, an all-fiber master oscillator power amplifier is built and amplified pulses with energy about 2 μJ are obtained.

Suppression of multi-pulse formation in all-polarization-maintaining figure-9 erbium-doped fiber mode-locked laser

We report on a novel architecture to suppress the multi-pulse formation in an all-polarization-maintaining figure-9 erbium-doped fiber laser under high pump power. A 2×2 fiber coupler is introduced into the phase-biased nonlinear amplifying loop mirror to extract part of intracavity laser power as a laser output, and the dependence of output couple ratio of fiber coupler on the mode-locking state is experimentally investigated. The intracavity nonlinear effect is mitigated by lowering the intracavity laser power, which is conducive to avoiding the multi-pulse formation. In the meantime, the loss-imbalance induced by fiber coupler is helpful in improving the self-starting ability. With the proposed laser structure,the multiple pulse formation can be suppressed and high power single pulse train can be obtained. The laser emits three pulse trains which is convenient for some applications. Finally, the output power values of three ports are 5.3 m W, 51.3 m W,and 13.2 m W, respectively. The total single pulse output power is 69.8 m W, which is more than 10 times the result without OC2. The total slope efficiency is about 10.1%. The repetition rate of three pulse trains is 21.17 MHz, and the pulse widths are 2.8 ps, 2.63 ps, and 6.66 ps, respectively.

Effect of pulse width on near-infrared supercontinuum generation in nonlinear fiber amplifier

The effect of pulse width on near-infrared supercontinuum generation in nonlinear fiber amplifier is investigated theoretically and experimentally. The complex Ginzburg–Landau equation and adaptive split-step Fourier method are used to simulate the propagation of pulses with different pulse widths in the fiber amplifier, and the results show that a longer pulse is more profitable in near-infrared supercontinuum generation if the central wavelength of the input laser lies in the normal dispersion region of the gain fiber. A four-stage master oscillator power amplifier configuration is adopted and the output spectra under picosecond and nanosecond input pulses are compared with each other. The experimental results are in good accordance with the simulations which can provide some guidance for further optimization of the system.

Effect of initial chirp on near-infrared supercontinuum generation by a nanosecond pulse in a nonlinear fiber amplifier

Theoretical and experimental research on the effect of initial chirp on near-infrared supercontinuum generation by a nanosecond pulse in a nonlinear fiber amplifier is carded out. The complex Ginzburg-Landau equation is used to simulate the propagation of the pulse in the fiber amplifier and the results show that pulses with negative initial chirp produce the widest supercontinuum and pulses with positive initial chirp produce the narrowest supercontinuum when the central wavelength of the pump lies in the normal dispersion region of the gain fiber. A self-made line width narrowing system is utilized to control the initial chirp of the nanosecond pump pulse and a four-stage master oscillator power amplifier configuration is adopted to produce a high power near-infrared suppercontinuum. The experimental results are in good agreement with simulations which can provide some guidance on further optimization of the system in future work.

Influence of mode competition on beam quality of fiber amplifier

Theoretical and experimental studies of the influence of the mode competition on the output beam quality of fiber amplifiers are presented. Rate equations and modal decomposition method are used in the theoretical model. In the experiment, the output beam-quality factor of a fiber amplifier, which is based on a Yb-doped double-clad large mode area fiber as a function of the seed beam quality and the pump power of the amplifier, is measured. The experimental results are consistent with the theoretical analysis.

High-power femtosecond laser generation from an all-fiber linearly polarized chirped pulse amplifier

An all-fiber high-power linearly polarized chirped pulse amplification(CPA)system is experimentally demonstrated.Through stretching the pulse duration to a full width of approximately 2 ns with two cascaded chirped fiber Bragg gratings(CFBGs),a maximum average output power of 612 W is achieved from a high-gain Yb-doped fiber that has a core diameter of 20μm with a slope efficiency of approximately 68%at the repetition rate of 80 MHz.At the maximum output power,the polarization degree is 92.5%and the M^(2)factor of the output beam quality is approximately 1.29;the slight performance degradations are attributed to the thermal effects in the main amplifier.By optimizing the B-integral of the amplifier and finely adjusting the higher-order dispersion of one of the CFBGs,the pulse width is compressed to 863 fs at the highest power with a compression efficiency of 72%,corresponding to a maximum compressed average power of 440.6 W,single pulse energy of 5.5μJ and peak power of about 4.67 MW.To the best of our knowledge,this is the highest average power of a femtosecond laser directly generated from an all-fiber linearly polarized CPA system.

Experimental study of mode distortion induced by stimulated Raman scattering in high-power fiber amplifiers

The experimental investigation of mode distortion induced by stimulated Raman scattering(SRS)in a high-power fiber amplifier,which includes the evolutions of optical spectra,spatial beam profiles,and time-frequency characteristics,has been carried out in detail.Temporal-frequency characteristics have been studied for the first time,to the best of our knowledge,by using a low-speed camera and high-speed photodiode traces,which revealed that temporal-frequency characteristics of SRS-induced mode distortion are different from traditional dynamic mode instability(MI).The experimental results show that the output beam profile remains stable before the mode distortion occurs and fluctuates obviously after the onset of SRS-induced MI but on a time scale of seconds,which is much lower than that of Yb-gain-induced MI featuring millisecond-level beam profile fluctuation.It also shows that the mode distortion became measurable in company with the onset of inter-mode four-wave mixing(IM-FWM)when the ratio of Raman light reaches 3%;further,the beam quality factor M2degrades gradually from 1.4 to 2.1 as the ratio of Raman light increases.The mode distortion is accompanied by an obvious temperature increase of the output passive fiber,which further confirms that the mode distortion originates from SRS.The cause of the mode distortion induced by SRS has been explained in the context of core-pumped SRS effect,and the investigation on the accompanying IM-FWM effect indicates that the main content of the SRSinduced high-order mode is the LP21 mode.

Effective suppression of mode distortion induced by amplifiers stimulated Raman scattering in high-power fiber

Mode distortion induced by stimulated Raman scattering(SRS)has become a new obstacle for the further development of high-power fiber lasers with high beam quality.Here,an approach for effective suppression of the SRS-induced mode distortion in high-power fiber amplifiers has been demonstrated experimentally by adjusting the seed power(output power of seed source)and forward feedback coefficient of the rear port in the seed source.It is shown that the threshold power of the SRS-induced mode distortion can be increased significantly by reducing the seed power or the forward feedback coefficient.Moreover,it has also been found that the threshold power is extremely sensitive to the forward feedback power value from the rear port.The influence of the seed power on the threshold power can be attributed to the fact that the seed power plays an important role in the effective length of the gain fiber in the amplifier.The influence of the forward feedback coefficient on the threshold power can be attributed to the enhanced SRS configuration because the end surface of the rear port together with the fiber in the amplifier constitutes a half-opening cavity.This suppression approach will be very helpful to further develop the high-power fiber amplifiers with high beam quality.

High-power mid-infrared femtosecond master oscillator power amplifier Er:ZBLAN fiber laser system

High-power femtosecond mid-infrared(MIR)lasers are of vast importance to both fundamental research and applications.We report a high-power femtosecond master oscillator power amplifier laser system consisting of a singlemode Er:ZBLAN fiber mode-locked oscillator and pre-amplifier followed by a large-mode-area Er:ZBLAN fiber main amplifier.The main amplifier is actively cooled and bidirectionally pumped at 976 nm,generating a slope efficiency of 26.9%.Pulses of 8.12 W,148 fs at 2.8μm with a repetition rate of 69.65 MHz are achieved.To the best of our knowledge,this is the highest average power ever achieved from a femtosecond MIR laser source.Such a compact ultrafast laser system is promising for a wide range of applications,such as medical surgery and material processing.

Mitigation of stimulated Raman scattering in a high-power fiber master oscillator power amplifier laser based on a dual-structure fiber grating

With the increasing power of fiber lasers,single chirped and tilted fiber Bragg gratings(CTFBGs)cannot completely mitigate continuously enhanced system-excited stimulated Raman scattering(SRS).Although improving the loss rate of a single CTFBG or cascading multiple CTFBGs can provide better suppression of the stronger SRS,excessive insertion loss may cause significant attenuation of the output power.Confronting the challenge,we firstly present an SRS mitigation method based on a dual-structure fiber grating in this paper.The dual-structure fiber grating comprises a CTFBG and a fiber Bragg grating structure,which were designed and fabricated on a passive 25/400 double-clad fiber.To evaluate the performance of the grating,a 3 kW fiber master oscillator power amplifier laser is established.The experimental results demonstrate that the SRS mitigation rate of the grating is greater than 30 dB(99.9%),whereas the insertion loss is only approximately 3%,thus allowing for minimal deterioration of the output power.This solves the contradiction between high suppression rate and high insertion loss faced by CTFBGs,which in turn makes dualstructure fiber gratings particularly suitable for mitigating SRS in 3-5 kW high-power fiber lasers.

Static and dynamic mode evolution in high-power distributed side-coupled cladding-pumped fiber amplifiers

We present a theoretical study of mode evolution in high-power distributed side-coupled cladding-pumped(DSCCP)fiber amplifiers.A semi-analytical model taking the side-pumping schemes,transverse mode competition,and stimulated thermal Rayleigh scattering into consideration has been built,which can model the static and dynamic mode evolution in high-power DSCCP fiber amplifiers.The mode evolution behavior has been investigated with variation of the fiber amplifier parameters,such as the pump power distribution,the length of the DSCCP fiber,the averaged coupling coefficient,the number of the pump cores and the arrangement of the pump cores.Interestingly,it revealed that static mode evolution induced by transverse mode competition is different from the dynamic evolution induced by stimulated thermal Rayleigh scattering.This shows that the high-order mode experiences a slightly higher gain in DSCCP fiber amplifiers,but the mode instability thresholds for DSCCP fiber amplifiers are higher than those for their end-coupled counterparts.By increasing the pump core number and reducing the averaged coupling coefficient,the mode instability threshold can be increased,which indicates that DSCCP fibers can provide additional mitigation strategies of dynamic mode instability.

Coherent beam combining of two all‑PM thulium‑doped fiber chirped pulse amplifiers

In this paper,we report a coherent beam combining(CBC)system that involves two thulium-doped all-polarization maintaining(PM)fiber chirped pulse amplifiers.Through phase-locking the two channels via a fiber stretcher by using the stochastic parallel gradient descent(SPGD)algorithm,a maximum average power of 265 W is obtained,with a CBC efficiency of 81%and a residual phase error of λ/17.After de-chirping by a pair of diffraction gratings,the duration of the combined laser pulse is compressed to 690 fs.Taking into account the compression efficiency of 90%and the main peak energy proportion of 91%,the corresponding peak power is calculated to be 4 MW.The laser noise characteristics before and after CBC are examined,and the results indicate that the CBC would degrade the low frequency relative intensity noise(RIN),of which the integration is 1.74%in[100 Hz,2 MHz]at the maximum combined output power.In addition,the effects of the nonlinear spectrum broadening during chirped pulse amplification on the CBC efficiency are also investigated,showing that a higher extent of pulse stretching is effective in alleviating the spectrum broadening and realizing a higher output power with decent combining efficiency.

Bismuth-doped optical fibers: a challenging active medium for near-IR lasers and optical amplifiers

It has recently been demonstrated that Bi-doped glass optical fibers are a promising active laser medium.Various types of Bi-doped optical fibers have been developed and used to construct Bi-doped fiber lasers and optical amplifiers.This paper reviews the recent results regarding the luminescence properties of various Bi-doped optical fibers and the development of Bi-doped fiber lasers and optical amplifiers for the 1150 to 1550 nm spectral region.