Wavelength-interval switchable Brillouin–Raman random fiber laser through Brillouin pump manipulation

A wavelength-interval switchable Brillouin–Raman random fiber laser(BRRFL) based on Brillouin pump(BP) manipulation is proposed in this paper. The proposed wavelength-interval switchable BRRFL has a full-open cavity configuration, featuring multiwavelength output with wavelength interval of double Brillouin frequency shifts. Through simultaneously injecting the BP light and its first-order stimulated Brillouin-scattered light into the cavity, the laser output exhibits a wavelength interval of single Brillouin frequency shift. The wavelength-interval switching effect can be manipulated by controlling the power of the first-order stimulated Brillouin scattering light. The experimental results show the multiwavelength output can be switched between double Brillouin frequency shift multiwavelength emission with a broad bandwidth of approximately 60 nm and single Brillouin frequency shift multiwavelength emission of 44 nm. The flexible optically controlled random fiber laser with switchable wavelength interval makes it useful for a wide range of applications and holds significant potential in the field of wavelength-division multiplexing optical communication.

Widely-wavelength-tunable brillouin fiber laser with improved optical signal-to-noise ratio based on parity-time symmetric and saturable absorption effect

A widely-wavelength-tunable Brillouin fiber laser(BFL)with improved optical signal-to-noise ratio(OSNR)based on parity-time(PT)symmetric and saturable absorption(SA)effect is present.This novel BFL realizes PT symmetry and SA effect through polarization-maintaining erbium-doped fiber(PM-EDF)Sagnac loop,which is composed of a PM-EDF,a coupler and two polarization controllers(PCs).By using the inherent birefringence characteristic of PM-EDF,two feedback loops in orthogonal polarization state are formed when the Strokes signal in injected.One of these loops provides gain in the clockwise direction with in the Sagnac loop,while the other loop generates loss in the counterclockwise direction.By adjusting the PCs to control the polarization state of the PM-EDF,a single-longitudinal-mode(SLM)BFL can be achieved,as the PT symmetry is broken when the SA participating stimulated Brillouin scattering(SBS)gain and loss are well-matched and the gain surpasses the coupling coefficient.Compared to previous BFLs,the proposed BFL has a more streamlined structure and a wider wavelength tunable range,at the same time,it is not being limited by the bandwidth of the erbium-doped fiber amplifier while still maintaining narrow linewidth SLM output.Additionally,thanks to SA effect of the PM-EDF,the PT symmetric SBS gain contract is enhanced,resulting in a higher optical signal-to-noise(OSNR).The experimental results show that the laser has a wide tunable range of 1526.088 nm to 1565.498 nm,an improved OSNR of 77 dB,and a fine linewidth as small as 140.5 Hz.

Broadband bidirectional Brillouin–Raman random fiber laser with ultra-narrow linewidth

We present a Brillouin–Raman random fiber laser(BRRFL)with full-open linear cavity structure to generate broadband Brillouin frequency comb(BFC)with double Brillouin-frequency-shift spacing.The incorporation of a regeneration portion consisting of an erbium-doped fiber and a single-mode fiber enables the generation of broadband BFC.The dynamics of broadband BFC generation changing with the pump power(EDF and Raman)and Brillouin pump(BP)wavelength are investigated in detail,respectively.Under suitable conditions,the bidirectional BRRFL proposed can produce a flatamplitude BFC with 40.7-nm bandwidth ranging from 1531 nm to 1571.7 nm,and built-in 242-order Brillouin Stokes lines(BSLs)with double Brillouin-frequency-shift spacing.Moreover,the linewidth of single BSL is experimentally measured to be about 2.5 kHz.The broadband bidirectional narrow-linewidth BRRFL has great potential applications in optical communication,optical sensing,spectral measurement,and so on.

Using Brillouin fiber-optic ring laser to provide base station with uplink optical carrier in a 10 GHz radio over fiber system

In this paper, a 10 GHz radio over fiber system is analyzed. The Brillouin fiber-optic ring laser is used in the center station （CS） to suppress the optical carrier for the modulation depth enhancement. Simultaneously, the Stockes wave induced by the Brillouin amplification injects and locks the Fabry-Perot （FP） laser to output a signal-mode optical source, which works as the uplink optical carrier.

A low-threshold multiwavelength Brillouin fiber laser with double-frequency spacing based on a small-core fiber

We demonstrate multiwavelength Brillouin fiber lasers(MWBFLs)with double-frequency spacing based on a small-core fiber(SCF)and a standard single-mode fiber(SMF),which have core diameters of 5 and 8.8μm,respectively.Experimental results show that the SCF-based MWBFL exhibits a higher laser output power and a lower pump threshold.The output powers of the SCF-based MWBFL are>1.4 times those of the SMF-based MWBFL.Moreover,the threshold power required to generate each channel of the SCF-based MWBFL is 59%that of the SMF-based MWBFL.When the same pump power of 180 mW is injected,the number of laser channels generated for the SCF-based MWBFL is 13,which is twice that generated for the SMF-based MWBFL.In addition,the SCF-based MWBFL exhibits good wavelength tunability from 1535 to 1565 nm and temporal stability over an hour.

Switching,explosion,and chaos of multi-wavelength soliton states in ultrafast fiber lasers

Because of the complexity and difficulty of realizing a multi-wavelength soliton state,reports on its internal dynamic characteristics are scarce.In this study,the switching and periodic soliton explosion processes of the multi-wavelength soliton state in a negative dispersion passively mode-locked fiber laser are realized.The generation of the multi-wavelength soliton state undergoes the process of noise,oscillation,and stable mode-locking,and the splitting and annihilation of solitons with different group velocities directly impact the generation and disappearance of three wavelengths.Positive and negative dispersion lead to different group velocities of solitons.The presence and displacement of solitons with different group velocities cause soliton collisions,which lead to soliton explosions.A soliton experiences relative phase oscillation,chaos,and oscillation,as well as convergence and separation before and after an explosion.With an increase in parameters related to pump power,single-soliton oscillation,multi-wavelength solitons,and chaos are found in experiments and simulations,proving the relevance and reliability between simulation and experimental results.This work promotes the dynamical study of multi-soliton collisions in nonlinear science and the development of chaos theory in multi-comb lasers.

Influence of laser linewidth on performance of Brillouin optical time domain reflectometry

The effects of optical sources with different laser linewidths on Brillouin optical time domain reflectometry （BOTDR） are investigated numerically and experimentally. Simulation results show that the spectral linewidth of spontaneous Brillouin scattering remains almost constant when the laser linewidth is less than 1 MHz at the same pulse width; otherwise, it increases sharply. A comparison between a fiber laser （FL） with 4-kHz linewidth at 3 dB and a distributed feedback （DFB） laser with 3-MHz linewidth is made experimentally. When a constant laser power is launched into the sensing fiber, the fitting linewidths of the beat signals （backscattered Brillouin light and local oscillator （LO）） is about 5 MHz wider for the DFB laser than for the FL and the intensity of the beat signal is about a half. Furthermore, the frequency fluctuation in the long sensing fiber is lower for the FL source, yielding about 2 MHz less than that of the DFB laser, indicating higher temperature/strain resolution. The experimental results are in good agreement with the numerical simulations.

Brillouin gain spectrum characterization in Ge-doped large-mode-area fibers

The dependence of Brillouin gain spectrum(BGS)characteristics,including the Brillouin frequency shift(BFS)and the BGS bandwidth,on germanium concentration in large-mode-area Ge-doped passive fibers is investigated theoretically and experimentally.The simulation results show that the BFS is inversely proportional to GeO_(2)concentration,and the BGS bandwidth initially increases with the augment of GeO_(2)concentration,and then decreases.The BGSs of four fibers with core diameters of 10μm and 20μm for different GeO_(2)concentrations are compared experimentally.Experimental results demonstrate that with the same core diameter,the variations of BFS and BGS bandwidths with GeO_(2)concentration accord with the simulation results.Additionally,the BGS characteristics of three large-mode-area passive fibers with diameters of 10μm,25μm,and 30μm are measured,which confirm that the increasing of the fiber diameters will cause the BGS bandwidth to broaden.We believe that these results can provide valuable references for modulating the high-power narrowlinewidth fiber lasers and Brillouin fiber amplifiers.

Multi-wavelength laser active coherent combination

A seed laser oscillating at different frequencies is proved to have the potential to mitigate the stimulated Brillouin scattering（SBS） effect in a fiber amplifier,which may increase the emission power of a coherent beam combination（CBC） system greatly.In this study,a basic mathematical model describing the multi-wavelength CBC is proposed on the fundamentals of CBC.A useful method for estimating the combination effect and analysing the feasibility and the validity of the multi-wavelength coherent combination is provided.In the numerical analysis,accordant results with four-wavelength four-channel CBC experiments are obtained.Through calculations of some examples with certain spectra,the unanticipated excellent combination effect with a few frequencies involved is explained,and the dependence of the combination effect on the variance of the amplifier chain length and the channel number is clarified.

Long-Pulse Single-Frequency All-Fiber Amplifier

In this paper, we report a high power long-pulse single-frequency all-fiber amplifier at 1064 nm with near-diffraction-limited beam quality based on a polarization-maintaining tapered Yb-doped fiber (T-YDF). By applying square wave pulse modulation to the diodes, with a frequency of 50 Hz and a pulse width of 668 μs, the peak power of the output laser reached 257 W with an average power of 8.65 W, linewidth of 10.6 kHz and M2 < 1.5. .

Tunable self-seeded multi-wavelength Brillouin-erbium fiber laser based on few-mode fiber filter

A tunable self-seeded multi-wavelength Brillouin-erbium fiber laser(BEFL) is proposed and demonstrated based on a few-mode fiber filter(FMFF) with varying temperature. The FMFF configuration is a section of uncoated few-mode fiber(FMF) sandwiched between two up-tapers. As the temperature varies from 25 °C to 125 °C, the transmission spectrum of FMFF moves towards the longer wavelength. The self-excited Brillouin pump is internally achieved by cascaded stimulated Brillouin scattering(SBS) in the single mode fiber(SMF). Then employing the FMFF temperature variation characteristics in the ring cavity fiber laser, the multi-wavelength of the output laser can be tuned, and the tunable range is about 8.0 nm. The generation of up to 15 Brillouin Stokes wavelengths with 16 d B optical signal-to-noise ratio(OSNR) is realized.

超窄线宽布里渊光纤激光器研究进展(特邀)

基于光纤受激布里渊散射的布里渊光纤激光器以其Hz量级甚至亚Hz量级的超窄线宽特性,自问世以来便吸引了广泛的研究关注。超窄线宽布里渊光纤激光器主要经历三个发展阶段,从最初的基于单模光纤谐振腔的布里渊光纤激光器,到向腔内引入掺铒光纤放大器的布里渊掺铒光纤激光器,再到利用一段普通掺铒光纤同时提供布里渊增益与线性增益的紧凑型布里渊掺铒光纤激光器,激光器的性能不断得到发展,相关理论研究也不断得到丰富。近10年,紧凑型布里渊掺铒光纤激光器的研究取得了一系列的进展,在高精度光纤传感等诸多领域有着十分重要的应用前景。按照三个发展阶段依次梳理和总结了布里渊光纤激光器的研究进展,重点阐述了紧凑型布里渊掺铒光纤激光器的机理、特性和应用,并对其未来发展方向进行展望。

Ultra-long-period grating-based multi-wavelength ultrafast fiber laser [Invited]

We propose and demonstrate the cascaded multi-wavelength mode-locked erbium-doped fiber laser(EDFL) based on ultralong-period gratings(ULPGs) for the first time, to the best of our knowledge.Study found that the ULPG can be used as both a mode-locker for pulse shaping and a comb filter for multi-wavelength generation simultaneously.Using the dual-function of ULPG, three-, four-, five-, six-, and seven-wavelength mode-locked pulses are obtained in EDFL, seven of which are the largest number of wavelengths up to now.For the four-wavelength soliton pulses, their pulse width is about 7.8 ps.The maximum average output power and slope efficiency of these pulses are 8.4 m W and 2.03%, respectively.Besides the conventional pulses, hybrid soliton pulses composed of a four-wavelength pulse and single soliton are also observed.Finally, the effect of cavity dispersion on the multi-wavelength mode-locked pulses is also discussed.Our findings indicate that apart from common sensing and filtering, the ULPG may also possess attractive nonlinear pulse-shaping property for ultrafast photonics application.

A high-efficiency Brillouin fiber ring laser

A high-efficiency Brillouin fiber ring laser is demonstrated using the standard single-mode fiber. The laser exhibits a 3.6-mW threshold. The output power is 22 mW with 40-mW pump power, and the maximum optical-to-optical efficiency is 5570. The output is single wavelength with a 3-dB linewidth of 5 MHz, and the interval of center frequency between the laser and the pump light is 11 GHz （0.088 nm）. It is shown that the stimulated Brillouin scattering threshold of ring resonator is lower and the energy transfer efficiency is higher than those in fiber.

Recent progress in multi-wavelength fiber lasers:principles,status,and challenges

In recent years,multi-wavelength fiber lasers play a significant role in plenty of fields,ranging from optical communications to mechanical processing and laser biomedicine,owing to their high beam quality,low cost,and excellent heat dissipation properties.Benefitting from increasing maturity of optical elements,the multi-wavelength fiber laser has made rapid developments.In this review,we summarize and analyze diverse implementation methods covering continuous wave and pulsed fiber lasers at room temperature conditions:inserting an optical filter device and intensity-dependent loss structure in the resonant cavity,and applying ultrafast nonlinear optical response of materials and a dual-cavity structure.Finally,future challenges and perspectives of the multi-wavelength fiber laser are discussed and addressed.

Fiber laser with simultaneous multi-wavelength Er/Yb passively Q-switched and single-wavelength Tm gain-switched operations

We report the experimental investigation of an all-fiber multi-wavelength passively Q-switched Er/Yb laser with simultaneous gain-switched pulsed operation by using a thulium-doped fiber as a saturable absorber.Laser emission is obtained in three wavelength regions with central peaks at around 1546 nm, 1561 nm, and1862 nm. Multi-wavelength emission with separation of approximately 1 nm is obtained around the wavelength regions of 1546 nm and 1561 nm. Stable laser pulses are generated in the pump power range from 3.6 W to7.3 W.

Multi-wavelength fiber ring laser based on a chirped moiré fiber grating and a semiconductor optical amplifier

A simple and cost-effective multi-wavelength fiber ring laser based on a chirped Moire fiber grating （CMFG） and a semiconductor optical amplifier （SOA） is proposed. Stable triple-wavelength lasing oscillations at room temperature are experimentally demonstrated. The measured optical signal-to-noise ratio （SNR） reaches the highest value of 50 dB and the power fluctuation of each wavelength is less than 0.2 dB within a 1-h period. To serve as a wavelength selective element, the CMFG possesses excellent comb-like filtering characteristics including stable wavelength interval and ultra-narrow passband, and its fabrication method is easy and flexible. The lasing oscillation shows a narrower bandwidth than SOA-based multi-wavelength fiber lasers utilizing some other kinds of wavelength selective components. Methods to optimize the laser performance are also discussed.

Multi-wavelength erbium-doped fiber laser using four-wave mixing effect in doped fiber

We demonstrate a multi-wavelength erbium-doped fiber laser （EDFL） using erbium gain and four-wave mixing （FWM） effect in a piece of erbium-doped fiber （EDF） with high erbium ion concentration. The EDF has a pump absorption rate of 24.6 dB/m at 979 nm and is bi-directionally pumped by 980-nm laser diodes. FWM effect redistributes the energy of different oscillating lines and causes multi-wavelength operation. The laser generates more than 22 lines of optical comb with a line spacing of approximately 0.10 nm at the 1569-nm region using only 1.5-m-long EDF.

Widely tunable linear-cavity multiwavelength fiber laser with distributed Brillouin scattering

We demonstrate a multiple wavelength Brillouin/erbium fiber laser in a linear cavity configuration.The laser cavity is made up of a fiber loop mirror on one end of the resonator and a virtual mirror generated from the distributed stimulated Brillouin scattering effect on the other end.Due to the weak reflectivity provided by the virtual mirror,self-lasing cavity modes are completely suppressed from the laser cavity.At Brillouin pump and 1480-nm pump powers of 2 and 130 mW,respectively,11 channels of the demonstrated laser with an average total power of 7.13 dBm can freely be tuned over a span of 37-nm wavelength from 1530 to 1567 nm.

Stimulated Brillouin scattering evolution and suppression in an integrated stimulated thermal Rayleigh scattering-based fiber laser

The spectral purity of fiber lasers has become a critical issue in both optical sensing and communication fields.As a result of ultra-narrow intrinsic linewidth, stimulated thermal Rayleigh scattering(STRS) has presented special potential to compress the linewidth of fiber lasers. To suppress stimulated Brillouin scattering(SBS), the most dominant disturbance for STRS in optical fibers, a semi-quantitative estimation has been established to illuminate the mechanism of suppressing SBS in a periodic tapered fiber, and it agrees with experimental results. Finally, a linewidth compression device based on STRS is integrated into a single-longitudinal-mode ring-cavity fiber laser with secondary cavities, and its linewidth is verified to be 200 Hz through a self-heterodyne detecting and Voigt fitting method.