Experimental Investigation of Wavelength-Tunable All-Normal-Dispersion Yb-Doped Mode-Locked Fiber Lasers:Compression and Amplification

Wavelength-tunable ultrashort pulse source with high energy is highly desired for a lot of applications. The wavelength-tunable all-normal-dispersion （ANDi） mode-locked fiber laser, which can be compressed easily and amplified by an all-fiber structure, is a promising seed of such a source with compact structures. The pulse compression and amplification at different center wavelengths （from 1026 to 1058nm） of the tunable ANDi Yb- doped mode-locked fiber lasers that we previously proposed are experimentally investigated in this work. It is found that, for different wavelengths, the duration and chirp of the direct output pulse from the oscillator vary considerably, however, the duration of compressed pulse fluctuates less. For the amplification process, due to the unf/at gain spectrum of Yb-doped fiber, the gain at a short wavelength is larger than that at a long wavelength. Consequently, the trends of spectrum distortions induced by the amplification process are different for different wavelengths. These results and analyses will be helpful for the design of a high-energy and wavelength-tunable ultrashort pulse source based on an ANDi seed.

A theoretical and experimental study on all-normal-dispersion Yb-doped mode-locked fiber lasers

We report on a theoretical and experimental study of an all-normal-dispersion （ANDi） Yb-doped mode-locked fiber laser, in which nonlinear polarization rotation （NPR） is used to realize mode-locking without any dispersion compensation. Based on the coupled nonlinear Schr6dinger （CNLS） equation, a model simulating the mode-locked process of an all-normal-dispersion ring fiber laser is developed, which shows that the achievement of stable mode-locking depends on the alignment of the polarization controller （PC） along the fast-polarization axis of the fiber, the birefringence intensity, and the net cavity dispersion. According to the theoretical analysis, stable mode-locked pulses with pulse duration 300 ps and average output power 33.9 mW at repetition rate 36 MHz are obtained.

Transition Metal Dichalcogenides(WS2 and MoS2)Saturable Absorbers for Mode-Locked Erbium-Doped Fiber Lasers

We demonstrate an ultrafast fiber laser based on transition metal dichalcogenide materials which are tungsten disulfide (WS2) and molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) as saturable absorber (SA). These materials are fabricated via a simple drop-casting method. By employing WS2, we obtain a stable harmonic mode-locking at the threshold pump power of 184 mW, and the generated soliton pulse has 3.48 MHz of repetition rate. At the maximum pump power of 250 mW, we also obtain a small value of pulse duration, 2.43 ps with signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of 57 dB. For MoS2 SA, the pulse is generated at 105 mW pump power with repetition rate of 1.16 MHz. However, the pulse duration cannot be detected by the autocorrelator device as the pulse duration recorded is 468 ns, with the SNR value of 35 dB.

Influences of cavity dispersion distribution on the output pulse properties of an all-normal-dispersion fiber laser

In this paper, the influences of the dispersion distribution in the cavity on the output pulse properties of the all-normaldispersion（ANDi） fiber laser are investigated. Our simulations show that, as the relative length of the dispersion fiber increases, the temporal width and the spectral bandwidth of the output pulse for an ANDi fiber laser with fixed total cavity dispersion or fiber length are decreased, while the pulse energy is enhanced and the compressed pulse width is increased.These simulation predictions have been proved by our experimental results. The reason may be that the nonlinear phase shift accumulated in the nonlinear fiber is more than that in the dispersion fiber if they have the same length.

Systematical analysis of mode-locked fiber lasers using single-walled carbon nanotube saturable absorbers

The output characteristics of the Er-doped mode-locked fiber laser using a single-walled carbon nanotube saturable absorber are investigated theoretically with a nonlinear Schrtidinger equation and a saturable absorption equation using realistic parameters. Stable self-starting mode-locking pulses are achieved under net normal, net zero, and net anomalous cavity group velocity dispersion （GVD） respectively. A spectrum with a flat top is obtained from the net normal cavity GVD laser while a spectrum with Kelly side-bands is obtained from the net anomalous cavity GVD laser. The characteristics of the pulse duration changing with cavity GVD and modulation depth of the single-walled carbon nanotubes are discussed. The characteristics of the mode-locking pulses from net normal, net zero, and net anomalous cavity GVD mode-locked fiber lasers are compared. These systematical results are useful for designing mode-locked fiber lasers with saturable absorbers made by different kinds of carbon nano-materials.

Tunable,High-Order Harmonically Mode-Locked All-Normal-Dispersion Ytterbium Fiber Laser

We report the generation of passively tunable high peak signal-to-noise ratio harmonic mode-locked （HML） all- normal-dispersion Yb-doped fiber laser with a single birefringent filter in a ring cavity configuration. The highest fourth harmonic of the fundamental mode-locked frequency at a repetition rate of 88 MHz is obtained. The pulses are compressed to 627fs by using an external grating-pair compressor. For the fourth HML output, the peak signal-to-noise ratio of the rf is 73dB and the average power is as high as 110mW with the pump power of 500mW. Soliton bunches which contain multipulses are also observed in the weak mode-locked regime of the HML, and the separation between interpulses in a dissipative soliton bunch can be controlled by adjustment of the waveplates and spectral filter in the cavity：

Observation and optimization of 2 μm mode‐locked pulses in all‐fiber net anomalous dispersion laser cavity

We integrally demonstrate 2μm mode-locked pulses performances in all-fiber net anomalous dispersion cavity.Stable mode-locking operations with the center wavelength around 1950–1980 nm can be achieved by using the nonlinear polarization rotation structure and properly designing the dispersion management component.Conventional soliton is firstly obtained with a total anomalous dispersion cavity.Due to the contribution of commercial ultra-high numerical aperture fibers,net dispersion is reduced to-0.077 ps2.So that stretched pulse with 19.4 nm optical bandwidth is obtained and the de-chirped pulse-width can reach 312 fs using extra-cavity compression.Under pump power greater than 890 mW,stretched pulse can evolve into noise-like pulse with 41.3 nm bandwidth.The envelope and peak of such broadband pulse can be compressed with up to 2.2 ps and 145 fs,respectively.The single pulse energy of largely chirped stretched and noise-like pulse can reach 1.785 nJ and 1.53 nJ,respectively.Furthermore,extra-cavity compression can also contribute to a significant increase of peak power.

Real-time observation of soliton pulsation in net normal-dispersion dissipative soliton fiber laser

We present experimental observations of soliton pulsations in the net normal-dispersion fiber laser by using the dispersive Fourier transform(DFT) technique. According to the pulsating characteristics, the soliton pulsations are classified as visible and invisible soliton pulsations. The visible soliton pulsation is converted from single-into dual-soliton pulsation with the common characteristics of energy oscillation and bandwidth breathing. The invisible soliton pulsation undergoes periodic variation in the spectral profile and peak power but remains invariable in pulse energy. The reason for invisible soliton pulsation behavior is periodic oscillation of the pulse inside the soliton molecule. These results could be helpful in deepening our understanding of the soliton pulsation phenomena.

Fiber optical parametric oscillator based on photonic crystal fiber pumped with all-normal-dispersion mode-locked Yb:fiber laser

We demonstrate a cost effective, linearly tunable fiber optical parametric oscillator based on a home-made photonic crystal fiber pumped with a mode-locked ytterbium-doped fiber laser, providing linely tuning ranges from 1018 nm to 1038 nm for the idler wavelength and from 1097 nm to 1117 nm for the signal wavelength by tuning the pump wavelength and the cavity length. In order to obtain the desired fiber with a zero dispersion wavelength around 1060 rim, eight sam- ples of photonic crystal fibers with gradually changed structural parameters are fabricated for the reason that it is difficult to accurately customize the structural dimensions during fabrication. We verify the usability of the fabricated fiber experimen- tally via optical parametric generation and conclude a successful procedure of design, fabirication, and verification. A seed source of home-made all-normal-dispersion mode-locked ytterbium-doped fiber laser with 38.57 ps pulsewidth around the 1064 nm wavelength is used to pump the fiber optical parametric oscillator. The wide picosecond pulse pump laser enables a larger walk-off tolerance between the pump light and the oscillating light as well as a longer photonic crystal fiber of 20 m superior to the femtosecond pulse lasers, resulting in a larger parametric amplification and a lower threshold pump power of 15.8 dBm of the fiber optical parametric oscillator.

Comparison of Absolute Distance Measurement by Different Types of Dual Mode-Locked Fiber Lasers

Two types of the dual mode-locked fiber lasers for asynchronous absolute distance measurement are investigated, The lasers are linear and ring cavity with repetition rate of 70 MHz and 100 MHz, respectively. The group velocity dispersion is not compensated in the first type of the lasers, while the others are fully done. The timing jitter with the Allan deviation below averaging time of 0.2 s during the distance measurement for around 1 m of both types of lasers were 2.5 ps with 600 nm and 1.6 ps with 200 nm. We concluded that the phase noise resulted from the intra-cavity dispersion is the main contribution for the uncertainty of the ranging in these two types of the lasers.

Mode-locked fiber lasers at 1064 and 910 nm wavelengths using Nd^(3+)-doped silica fiber

Mode-locked lasing operations at 1064 and 910 nm wavelengths are demonstrated,respectively,in two all-fiber laser oscillators using our homemade Nd^(3+)-doped silica fiber(NDF)as the gain medium.The Al3+/Nd^(3+)co-doped silica core glass was fabricated by the modified sol-gel method with 18,300×10^(-6) Nd^(3+)doping concentration.The NDF drawn by the rodin-tube method has a core of 4μm in diameter and a numerical aperture(NA)of 0.14.At 1064 nm,we measure an average laser output power of 18mWwith a pulse duration of 5.75 ps,a pulse energy of 1.14 nJ,and a slope efficiency of 7.2%.Using the same NDF gain fiber of a different length,a maximum average laser output power is 3.1 mW at 910 nm with a pulse duration of 877 ns,a pulse energy of 2.7 nJ,and a slope efficiency of 1.44%.

Spectral filtering effect on multi-pulsing induced by chirped fiber Bragg grating in dispersion-managed mode-locked Yb-doped fiber lasers

We numerically and experimentally investigate the multi-pulsing mechanism in a dispersion-managed mode-locked Ybdoped fiber laser.Multi-pulsing occurs primarily owing to the inherent filtering effect of the chirped fiber Bragg grating.The spectral filtering effect restricts the spectral broadening induced by self-phase modulation and causes extra loss,leading to a decreased pump power threshold for the multi-pulsing state.Numerical simulations show that multi-pulsing emerges at a lower pump power when the spectral filter bandwidth becomes narrower.In the experiment,the spectral width increases as the net cavity dispersion approaches zero.Pulses with wider spectral widths experience more loss from the spectral filtering effect,leading to a decreased pump power threshold for multi-pulsing.Therefore,the net cavity dispersion also has an impact on the multi-pulsing threshold.Based on this conclusion,we devise a strategy to obtain single-pulsing operation with the shortest pulse width and the highest pulse energy.

260 fs,403 W coherently combined fiber laser with precise high‑order dispersion management

An ultrafast fiber laser system comprising two coherently combined amplifier channels is reported.Within this system,each channel incorporates a rod-type fiber power amplifier,with individual operations reaching approximately 233 W.The active-locking of these coherently combined channels,followed by compression using gratings,yields an output with a pulse energy of 504μJ and an average power of 403 W.Exceptional stability is maintained,with a 0.3%root mean square(RMS)deviation and a beam quality factor M^(2)<1.2.Notably,precise dispersion management of the front-end seed light effectively compensates for the accumulated high-order dispersion in subsequent amplification stages.This strategic approach results in a significant reduction in the final output pulse duration for the coherently combined laser beam,reducing it from 488 to 260 fs after the gratings compressor,while concurrently enhancing the energy of the primary peak from 65%to 92%.

Nonlinear optical response of niobium telluride and its application for demonstrating pulsed fiber lasers

Niobium telluride(NbTe_(2)),a kind of few-layer two-dimensional(2D)transition metal dichalcogenides(TMDs)material,has been theoretically predicted with nonlinear absorption properties and excellent optical response.Herein,we experimentally demonstrated an Er-doped fiber(EDF)laser based NbTe_(2)as saturable absorber(SA).Few-layer NbTe_(2)nanosheets were successfully prepared by adopting the commonly used liquid-phase exfoliation(LPE)method.The nonlinear optical response of highly stable few-layer NbTe_(2)was investigated through an open-aperture Z-scan laser measurement,the nonlinear absorption coefficient was 2.45×10^(-11)m/W.Both Q-switched and mode-locked operation centered at 1559 nm were recorded based on NbTe_(2)SA.The pulse duration was varied from 4.88 ms to 1.75 ms,and the adjustable range of repetition frequency is changed from 44.01 kHz to 64.12 kHz in passively Q-switched operation.Furthermore,a constant repetition rate of 5.33 MHz and pulse width of 2.67 ps were observed in mode-locked operation.Our experimental results fully reveal the nonlinear optical prop-erties of NbTe_(2)used in pulsed fiber lasers and broaden its ultrafast applications in the optics field.

Pulse dynamics controlled by saturable absorber in a dispersion-managed normal dispersion Tm-doped mode-locked fiber laser

Based on the coupled Ginzburg-Landu equation, we numerically investigate the pulse dynamics in a dispersion-managed normal dispersion Tin-doped mode-locked fiber laser. The influences of the rood-ulation depth and saturation power of saturable absorber on the pulse dynamics are presented. The simulation results show that these parameters are crucial to achieve high pulse energy and high pulse peak power pulsed laser near 2-μm wavelength.

Sideband-free dispersion-managed Yb-doped mode-locked fiber laser with Gires–Tournois interferometer mirrors

High-order dispersion introduced by Gires–Tournois interferometer mirrors usually causes spectral sidebands in the nearzero dispersion region of mode-locked fiber lasers.Here,we demonstrate a sideband-free Yb-doped mode-locked fiber laser with dispersion-compensating Gires–Tournois interferometer mirrors.Both the simulation and the experiment demonstrate that the wavelength and energy of the sidebands can be tuned by changing the transmission coefficient of the output mirror,the pump power,and the ratio of the net cavity dispersion to the net third-order dispersion in the cavity.By optimizing these three parameters,the laser can generate a sideband-free,Gaussian-shaped spectrum with a 13.56-nm bandwidth at-0.0232 ps^(2)net cavity dispersion,which corresponds to a 153-fs pulse duration.

Single-mode output by controlling the spatiotemporal nonlinearities in mode-locked femtosecond multimode fiber lasers

The performance of fiber mode-locked lasers is limited due to the high nonlinearity induced by the spatial confinement of the single-mode fiber core.To massively increase the pulse energy of the femtosecond pulses,amplification is performed outside the oscillator.Recently,spatiotemporal mode-locking has been proposed as a new path to fiber lasers.However,the beam quality was highly multimode,and the calculated threshold pulse energy(>100 nJ)for nonlinear beam self-cleaning was challenging to realize.We present an approach to reach high energy per pulse directly in the mode-locked multimode fiber oscillator with a near single-mode output beam.Our approach relies on spatial beam self-cleaning via the nonlinear Kerr effect,and we demonstrate a multimode fiber oscillator with M^2<1.13 beam profile,up to 24 nJ energy,and sub-100 fs compressed duration.Nonlinear beam self-cleaning is verified both numerically and experimentally for the first time in a mode-locked multimode laser cavity.The reported approach is further power scalable with larger core sized fibers up to a certain level of modal dispersion and could benefit applications that require high-power ultrashort lasers with commercially available optical fibers.

Transient breathing dynamics during extinction of dissipative solitons in mode‑locked fiber lasers

The utilization of the dispersive Fourier transformation approach has enabled comprehensive observation of the birth process of dissipative solitons in fiber lasers.However,there is still a dearth of deep understanding regarding the extinction process of dissipative solitons.In this study,we have utilized a combination of experimental and numerical techniques to thoroughly examine the breathing dynamics of dissipative solitons during the extinction process in an Er-doped mode-locked fiber laser.The results demonstrate that the transient breathing dynamics have a substantial impact on the extinction stage of both steady-state and breathing-state dissipative solitons.The duration of transient breathing exhibits a high degree of sensitivity to variations in pump power.Numerical simulations are utilized to produce analogous breathing dynamics within the framework of a model that integrates equations characterizing the population inversion in a mode-locked laser.These results corroborate the role of Q-switching instability in the onset of breathing oscillations.Furthermore,these findings offer new possibilities for the advancement of various operational frameworks for ultrafast lasers.

Comprehensive analysis of pure-quartic soliton dynamics in a passively mode-locked fiber laser

The understanding of soliton dynamics promotes the development of ultrafast laser technology. High-energy purequartic solitons(PQSs) have gradually become a hotspot in recent years. Herein, we numerically study the influence of the gain bandwidth, saturation power, small-signal gain, and output coupler on PQS dynamics in passively mode-locked fiber lasers. The results show that the above four parameters can affect PQS dynamics. Pulsating PQSs occur as we alter the other three parameters when the gain bandwidth is 50 nm. Meanwhile, PQSs evolve from pulsating to erupting and then to splitting as the other three parameters are altered when the gain bandwidth is 10 nm, which can be attributed to the existence of the spectral filtering effect and intra-cavity fourth-order dispersion. These findings provide new insights into PQS dynamics in passively mode-locked fiber lasers.

Mode-locking of fiber lasers using novel two-dimensional nanomaterials: graphene and topological insulators [Invited]

The paper summarizes the recent achievements in the area of ultrafast fiber lasers mode-locked with so-called lowdimensional nanomaterials: graphene, topological insulators（Bi2Te3, Bi2Se3, Sb2Te3）, and transition metal sulfide semiconductors, like molybdenum disulfide（MoS2）. The most important experimental achievements are described and compared. Additionally, new original results on ultrashort pulse generation at 1.94 μm wavelength using graphene are presented. The designed Tm-doped fiber laser utilizes multilayer graphene as a saturable absorber and generates 654 fs pulses at 1940 nm wavelength, which are currently the shortest pulses generated from a Tm-doped fiber laser with a graphene-based saturable absorber.