Tunable and broadband microwave frequency combs based on a semiconductor laser with incoherent optical feedback

Based on a semiconductor laser （SL） with incoherent optical feedback, a novel all-optical scheme for generating tunable and broadband microwave frequency combs （MFCs） is proposed and investigated numerically. The results show that, under suitable operation parameters, the SL with incoherent optical feedback can be driven to operate at a regular pulsing state, and the generated MFCs have bandwidths broader than 40 GHz within a 10 dB amplitude variation. For a fixed bias current, the line spacing （or repetition frequency） of the MFCs can be easily tuned by varying the feedback delay time and the feedback strength, and the tuning range of the line spacing increases with the increase in the bias current. The linewidth of the MFCs is sensitive to the variation of the feedback delay time and the feedback strength, and a linewidth of tens of KHz can be achieved through finely adjusting the feedback delay time and the feedback strength. In addition, mappings of amplitude variation, repetition frequency, and linewidth of MFCs in the parameter space of the feedback delay time and the feedback strength are presented.

Chaos synchronization in injection-locked semiconductor lasers with optical feedback

Based on the rate equations, we have investigated three types of chaos synchronizations in injection-locked semiconductor lasers with optical feedback. Numerical simulation shows that the synchronization can be realized by the symmetric or asymmetric laser systems. Also, the influence of parameter mismatches on chaos synchronization is investigated, and the results imply that these two lasers can achieve good synchronization, with smaller tolerance of parameter mismatch existing.

Optical feedback characteristics in a dual-frequency laser during laser cavity tuning

The optical feedback characteristics in a Zeeman-birefringence dual-frequency laser are studied during the laser cavity tuning in three different kinds of optical feedback conditions： （i） only //-light is fed back; （ii） only ⊥-light is fed back; （iii） both lights are fed back. A compact displacement sensor is designed using the experimental result that there is a nearly 90 degrees phase delay between the two lights＇ cosine optical feedback signals when both lights are fed back into the laser cavity. The priority order that the two lights＇ intensity curves appear can be used for direction discrimination. The resolution of the displacement sensor is at least 79 rim, and the sensor can discriminate the target＇s moving direction easily.

Strong optical feedback in birefringent dual frequency laser

Strong optical feedback in a birefringent dual frequency He-Ne laser with a high reflectivity feedback mirror has been investigated for the first time. The output characteristics of two orthogonally polarized modes are demonstrated in two different optical feedback cases： one is for both modes being fed back and the other is for only one of the modes being fed back. Strong mode competition can be observed between the two modes with strong optical feedback, And when one mode＇s intensity is near its maximum, the other mode is nearly extinguished. When both modes are fed back into the laser cavity, the mode competition is stronger than when only one mode is fed back, The difference in initial intensity between the two orthogonally polarized modes plays an important role in the mode competition, which has been experimentally and theoretically demonstrated.

Numerical investigation on photonic microwave generation by a sole excited-state emitting quantum dot laser with optical injection and optical feedback

Based on three-level exciton model,the enhanced photonic microwave signal generation by using a sole excited-state(ES)emitting quantum dot(QD)laser under both optical injection and optical feedback is numerically studied.Within the range of period-one(P1)dynamics caused by the optical injection,the variations of microwave frequency and microwave intensity with the parameters of frequency detuning and injection strength are demonstrated.It is found that the microwave frequency can be continuously tuned by adjusting the injection parameters,and the microwave intensity can be enhanced by changing the injection strength.Moreover,considering that the generated microwave has a wide linewidth,an optical feedback loop is further employed to compress the linewidth,and the effect of feedback parameters on the linewidth is investigated.It is found that with the increase of feedback strength or delay time,the linewidth is evidently decreased due to the locking effect.However,for the relatively large feedback strength or delay time,the linewidth compression effect becomes worse due to the gradually destroyed P1 dynamics.Besides,through optimizing the feedback parameters,the linewidth can be reduced by up to more than one order of magnitude for different microwave frequencies.

Polarization switching in a quasi-isotropic microchip Nd:YAG laser induced by optical feedback

This paper demonstrates the influence of external optical feedback on the polarization state of longitudinal modes in quasi-isotropic microchip Nd：YAG lasers. Under optical feedback, the polarization state of longitudinal modes in quasi-isotropic lasers relies strongly on the intracavity anisotropy loss and mode competition. When the intracavity anisotropy loss is small, external optical feedback can cause polarization switching and strong mode competition between two orthogonal linearly polarized eigenstates of one laser longitudinal mode, which leads to the distortion of laser intensity modulation waveform. The polarization switching is independent of the initial external cavity length. By increasing the intracavity anisotropy loss, one polarization eigenstate can be suppressed and the laser works in single-polarization state. A theoretical analysis based on the compound cavity model is presented, which is in good agreement with the experimental results. The results offer guidance to the development of laser feedback interferometers.

Analysis of gain distribution in cladding-pumped thulium-doped fiber laser and optical feedback inhibition problem in fiber-bulk laser system

The steady-state gain distribution in cladding pumped thulium-doped fiber laser（TDFL） is analytically and numerically solved based on the rate equations including loss coefficients and cross relaxation effect. With the gain curve, a problem, which is named optical feedback inhibition（OFI） and always occurs in tandem TDFL-Ho：YAG laser system, is analyzed quantitatively. The actual characteristics of output spectra and power basically prove the conclusion of theoretical analysis. Then a simple mirror-deflected L-shaped cavity is employed to restrain the external feedback and simplify the structure of fiber-bulk Ho：YAG laser. Finally, 25 W of 2097-nm laser power and 51.2% of optical-to-optical conversion efficiency are obtained, and the beam quality factor is less than 1.43 obtained by knife-edge method.

Sensitivity to external optical feedback of circular-side hexagonal resonator microcavity laser

The sensitivity to fault reflection is very important for larger dynamic range in fiber fault detection technique.Using time delay signature(TDS)of chaotic laser formed by optical feedback can solve the sensitivity limitation of photodetector in fiber fault detection.The TDS corresponds to the feedback position and the fault reflection can be detected by the laser diode.The sensitivity to feedback level of circular-side hexagonal resonator(CSHR)microcavity laser is numerically simulated and the feedback level boundaries of each output dynamic state are demonstrated.The peak level of TDS is utilized to analyze the sensitivity.The demonstration is presented in two aspects:the minimum feedback level when the TDS emerges and the variation degree of TDS level on feedback level changing.The results show that the CSHR microcavity laser can respond to the feedback level of 0.07%,corresponding to-63-dB feedback strength.Compared to conventional distributed feedback laser,the sensitivity improves almost 20 dB due to the shorter internal cavity length of CSHR microcavity laser.Moreover,1%feedback level changing will induce 1.001 variation on TDS level,and this variation degree can be influenced by other critical internal parameters(active region side length,damping rate,and linewidth enhancement factor).

Time-Domain Traveling Wave Model of Single-Section Quantum Dot Mode-Locked Lasers with Optical Feedback

The optical feedback modulations of a passively mode-locked semiconductor laser with quantum dot structure were investigated in this study. The delay-induced dynamics of QD MLL under the condition of optical feedback have been studied by exploiting a time domain traveling wave(TDTW) model. The conventional TDTW model was improved to make it suitable for studying optical feedback system, especially the system with long external cavity structure. Combing the TDTW model with optical feedback and carrier rate equations, the pulse variation of a single section QD MLL was studied. This new model shows good agreement with the published experimental data. The roundtrip time and local light intensity modulation to the pulse evolution of QD MLL were studied. The results show that when the time for a light to go to and return from external cavity is equal to the integral times of the period of laser pulse without external feedback, resonance will be formed, and the period of pulse sequence is the shortest. The results also show that the stronger the local light intensity modulation is, the shorter the pulse period is.

Experimental research on dual polarized laser optical feedback microscope

The principle of laser optical feedback microscope was presented and demonstrated. Three methods to advance the vertical resolution of laser optical feedback microscope were experimentally studied. The first one is to detect the two polarized lights’ intensities separately with a Wollaston prism instead of to detect the whole light’s intensity. The second is that both of the two orthogonally polarized lights of a birefringent dual frequency laser are fed back. The third one is that only one of the orthogonally polarized lights is fed back. The experimental results show that the modes competition between orthogonally polarized lights can be used to improve the vertical resolution of laser optical feedback microscope effectively.

Steady-State Behavior of Semiconductor Laser Diodes Subject to Arbitrary Levels of External Optical Feedback

This paper investigates the steady-state behavior of a semiconductor laser subject to arbitrary levels of external optical feedback by means of an iterative travelling-wave (ITW) model. Analytical expressions are developed based on an iterative equation. We show that, as in good agreement with previous work, in the weak-feedback regime of operation except for a phase shift the ITW model will be simplified to the Lang-Kobayashi (LK) model, and that in the case where this phase shift is equal to zero the ITW model is identical to the LK model. The present work is of use in particular for distinguishing the coherence-collapse regime from the strong-feedback regime where low-intensity-noise and narrow-linewidth laser operation would be possible at high feedback levels with re-stabilization of the compound laser system.

Agile cavity ringdown spectroscopy enabled by moderate optical feedback to a quantum cascade laser

Cavity ringdown spectroscopy(CRDS),relying on measuring the decay time of photons inside a high-finesse optical cavity,offers an important analytical tool for chemistry,physics,environmental science,and biology.Through the reflection of a slight amount of phase-coherent light back to the laser source,the resonant optical feedback approach effectively couples the laser beam into the optical cavity and achieves a high signal-to-noise ratio.However,the need for active phaselocking mechanisms complicates the spectroscopic system,limiting its primarily laboratory-based use.Here,we report how passive optical feedback can be implemented in a quantum cascade laser(QCL) based CRDS system to address this issue.Without using any phase-locking loops,we reflect a moderate amount of light(–18.2 dB) to a continuous-wave QCL simply using a fixed flat mirror,narrowing the QCL linewidth from 1.2 MHz to 170 kHz and significantly increasing the laser-cavity coupling efficiency.To validate the method's feasibility and effectiveness,we measured the absorption line(P(18e),2207.62 cm^(−1)) of N_(2)O in a Fabry–Perot cavity with a high finesse of ~52000 and an inter-mirror distance of 33 cm.This agile approach paves the way for revolutionizing existing analytical tools by offering compact and high-fidelity mid-infrared CRDS systems.

Wideband chaos generation based on a dual-mode microsquare laser with optical feedback

We propose and demonstrate the generation of wideband chaos based on a dual-mode microsquare semiconductor laser with optical feedback. By adjusting the dual-mode intensity ratio and the feedback strength, wideband chaos covering more than 50 GHz in the RF spectrum is achieved. The standard and effective bandwidths of the chaotic signal are 31.3 GHz and 30.7 GHz with the flatness of 8.3 dB and 6.1 dB, respectively.

Time-delay signature concealment of polarizationresolved chaos outputs in vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers with variable-polarization filtered optical feedback

Through employing permutation entropy and the self-correlation function, the time-delay signature （TDS） of a vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser （VCSEL） with variable-polarization filtered optical feedback （VPFOF） is evaluated theoretically. The work shows that the feedback rate η, polarizer angle Op, and filter bandwidth A have an obvious influence on the TDS. The evolution maps of the TDS in parameter space （η, A） and （ηθp） are simulated for searching the chaos with weak TDS. Furthermore, compared with a VCSEL with polarization-preserved filtered optical feedback and a VCSEL with variable-polarization mirror optical feedback, this VPFOF-VCSEL shows superiority in TDS suppression.

Light-current characteristics of vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers with external optical feedback

The influence of external optical feedback （OFB） on the light-current characteristics of the vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers （VCSELs） was investigated theoretically and experimentally. By calculating the OFB sensitivity parameter, the OFB sensibility of the VCSELs was compared with the edge emitting lasers. Based on the compound cavity theory, the light-current characteristic parameters of the VCSELs with external OFB, such as the threshold current and the slope efficiency, were calculated. The experimental results indicated that the threshold current of the VCSELs with different DBR refleetivities decreased to different degrees, accompanied with a decrease of slope efficiency when under 10% feedback ratio of the external OFB, which is in good agreement with the theoretical calculation.

Low noise,continuous-wave single-frequency 1.5-μm laser generated by a singly resonant optical parametric oscillator

We report a low noise continuous-wave （CW） single-frequency 1.5-μm laser source obtained by a singly resonant optical parametric oscillator （SRO） based on periodically poled lithium niobate （PPLN）. The SRO was pumped by a CW single-frequency Nd：YVO4 laser at 1.06μm. The 1.02 W of CW single-frequency signal laser at 1.5 μm was obtained at pump power of 6 W. At the output power of around 0.75 W, the power stability was better than ±l.5% and no mode-hopping was observed in 30 min and frequency stability was better than 8.5 MHz in 1 min. The signal wavelength could be tuned from 1.57 to 1.59 μm by varying the PPLN temperature. The 1.5-μm laser exhibits low noise characteristics, the intensity noise of the laser reaches the shot noise limit （SNL） at an analysis frequency of 4 MHz and the phase noise is less than 1 dB above the SNL at analysis frequencies above 10 MHz.

1 kHz single-frequency, injection-seeded Er:YAG laser with an optical feedback

A novel 1 kHz single-frequency, Q-switched Er-doped yttrium aluminum garnet(Er:YAG) laser pumped by a 1470 nm laser diode is demonstrated. The 500 ns, 5.52 mJ single-frequency, diffraction-limited pulses are obtained by using a ‘ramp-fire' injection-seeding technique and an optical feedback architecture. The full width at half-maximum of the pulse spectrum is measured to be 1.47 MHz by using the heterodyne technique. The beam quality M2 factors are measured to be 1.18 and 1.24 in the x and y directions, respectively.

Nonlinear dynamics of 1550 nm VCSELs subject to polarization-preserved optical feedback and orthogonal optical injection

Based on spin-flip model （SFM）, the nonlinear dynamics of 1550nm vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers （VCSELs） subject to polarization-preserved optical feedback （PPOF） and orthogonal optical injection （OOI） are theoretically investigated. The results show that two linear polarization （LP） modes can be simultaneously stimulated and polarization switching （PS） can be observed, which is different from the case that only y LP mode exists in a VCSEL with PPOF. Under the joint action of PPOF and OOI, the two LP modes will exhibit rich dynamical states, such as period one, period two, multi- period and chaos oscillation. Different evolution routes to chaos can be also observed. Moreover, frequency detuning Af（Af=fm fs, wherefn andfs are the center frequencies of free-running master VCSEL and slave VCSEL, respectively） has an obvious influence on the PS. With the increase of the positive frequency detuning PS points shift toward larger injection strengths; meanwhile, a suitable negative frequency demning value makes the injection strength for PS be the lowest.

Cavity-Mode Properties of Semiconductor Lasers Operating in Strong-Feedback Regime

This paper investigates the modal properties of semiconductor lasers operating in the strong-feedback regime. Analytical expressions are developed based on an iterative travelling-wave model, which enable a complete and quantitative description of a compound cavity mode in its steady state. Additional information is provided about the physical inside into a compound laser system, such as a bifurcation diagram of the compound cavity modes for full variation range （from 0 to 1） of the external reflection coefficient and a more general shape for the diagram of photon density versus mode phase - this latter will reduce to the classical ＂ellipse＂ in the weak-feedback regime. It is shown that in the strong-feedback regime, a feedback laser is characterized by a small mode number and a high density of photons. This behavior confirms previous experimental observations, showing that beyond the coherence-collapse regime, the compound laser system could be re-stabilized, and that as a result power-enhanced low-noise stable laser operation with quasi-uniform pulsation is possible with external-mirror reflectivity close to 1. Moreover, it is also shown that for a compound system operating in the strong-feedback regime, an anti-reflection treatment of a laser can significantly reduce its current threshold, and that in the absence of this treatment excitation of a minimum-linewidth mode with higher output power would be possible inside such a system. Finally, it is shown that in the weak-feedback regime except for a phase shift the iterative travelling-wave model will reduce to the Lang-Kobayashi model in cases where the product of the feedback rate and the internal round-trip time is much less than unity （that would mean in situations of as-cleaved 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.