Nonlinear polarization rotation-induced pulse shaping in a stretched-pulse ytterbium-doped fiber laser

We report on controllable pulse shaping in a Yb-doped stretched-pulse fiber laser followed by a high-power chirped pulse amplifier. We demonstrate that the pulses after an extra-cavity grating pair change their intensity profile from Lorentz to Gaussian and then to sech2 shapes by adjusting the intra-cavity polarization through a quarter-wave plate inside the fiber laser cavity. The laser pulses with different pulse shapes exhibit pulse-to-pulse amplitude fluctuation of -- 1.02%, while the sech2-shaped pulse train is provided with a more stable free-running repetition rate as a result of the stronger self-phase modulation in the fiber laser cavity than Lorentz- and Gaussian-shaped pulse trains.

Dynamics of different pulse types in a single-/dualwavelength mode-locked fiber laser

We explore for the first time the real-time spectra of dissipative soliton(DS)and noise-like pulse(NLP)inter-switching by adjusting the pump power,as well as the dual-pulse collision dynamics for three modes:dual-NLP,NLP-DS,and dual-DS in a single-/dual-wavelength mode-locked fiber laser.Different types of dual-pulses differ in collision duration.During spectral reconstruction,dual-pulses exchange energy twice due to their respective accumulation dynamics.Additionally,collisioninduced soliton explosions have chaotic properties,leading to each collision being random.The experimental results advance the study of the dynamics of different pulse types and also contribute to the conduction of in-depth investigations on dual-comb sources.

On the generation of high-quality Nyquist pulses in mode-locked fiber lasers

Nyquist pulses have wide applications in many areas,from electronics to optics.Mode-locked lasers are ideal platforms to generate such pulses.However,how to generate high-quality Nyquist pulses in mode-locked lasers remains elusive.We address this problem by managing different physical effects in mode-locked fiber lasers through extensive numerical simulations.We find that net dispersion,linear loss,gain and filter shaping can affect the quality of Nyquist pulses significantly.We also demonstrate that Nyquist pulses experience similariton shaping due to the nonlinear attractor effect in the gain medium.Our work may contribute to the design of Nyquist pulse sources and enrich the understanding of pulse shaping dynamics in mode-locked lasers.

Harmonic splitting phenomenon of bright-dark pulse pairs in a passive mode-locked Thulium-Holmium co-doped fiber laser

This study reports a passive mode-locked Thulium-Holmium co-doped fiber laser featuring a figure-9 shaped resonator structure.The laser utilizes a nonlinear amplifying loop mirror(NALM)as the mode-locking device.By increasing pump power,the laser’s output evolution was experimentally observed,showing that bright-dark pulse pairs first split into double pulses and then into a second harmonic state.Additionally,the time intervals between bright and dark pulses and between double pulses increased with higher pump power.The RF spectrum of the bright-dark pulse pairs exhibited envelope modulation,with a modulation frequency approximately equal to the reciprocal of the time interval between bright and dark pulses.When the pump power increased from 0.46 W to 0.72 W,the reciprocal of the modulation frequency showed a linear growth trend.These findings contribute to understanding the evolution patterns of bright-dark pulse pairs in passive mode-locked fiber lasers.

Q-Switched Ytterbium-Doped Fiber Laser Using Black Phosphorus as Saturable Absorber

We demonstrate a Q-switched ytterbium-doped fiber laser （YDFL） using a newly developed multi-layer black phosphorous （BP） saturable absorber （SA）. The BP SA is prepared by mechanically exfoliating a BP crystal and sticking the acquired BP flakes onto a scotch tape. A small piece of the tape is then placed between two ferrules and incorporated in a YDFL cavity to achieve a stable Q-switched operation in a 1.0 μm region. The laser has a pump threshold of 55.1 mW, a pulse repetition rate that is tunable from 8.2 to 32.9 kHz, and the narrowest pulse width of 10.8 μs. The highest pulse energy of 328 nJ is achieved at the pump power of 97.6 mW. Our results show that multi-layer BP is a promising SA for Q-switching laser operation.

Wavelength-Tunable Single Frequency Ytterbium-Doped Fiber Laser with Loop Mirror Filter

By using a loop mirror filter, a novel wavelength-tunable single-frequency ytterbium-doped fiber laser is developed to select single longitudinal modes in a linear cavity. The output wavelength could be tuned 2.4 nm intervals range from 1063.3 to 1065.Tnrn with the temperature change of the fiber Bragg grating. The maximum output power could reach 32 m W while the pump power increases to 120 m W. The corresponding optical-to-optical conversion efficiency is 26.7% and the slope efficiency is 33.9%, respectively. The output power fluctuation is below 2%, and its highest signal-to-noise ratio is 60 dB.

A kW Continuous-Wave Ytterbium-Doped All-Fiber Laser Oscillator with Domestic Fiber Components and Gain Fiber

We demonstrate a kW continuous-wave ytterbium-doped all-fiber laser oscillator with M1 domestic fiber compo- nents： a 7× I fused fiber bundle combiner, a fiber Bragg grating and a double-clad gain fiber. The oscillator operates at 1079.48nrn with 80.94% slope efficiency and shows no limit of temperature and nonlinear effects. These indicate that the passive fiber components and the gain fiber are all qualified for the high power environ- ment. No evidence of the signal power roll-over shows that this oscillator possesses the capacity to higher output with available pump power.

Compact pulsed thulium‐doped fiber laser for topographical patterning of hydrogels

We report the generation of high energy 2μm picosecond pulses from a thulium-doped fiber master oscillator power amplifier system.The all-fiber configuration was realized by a flexible large-mode area photonic crystal fiber(LMA-PCF).The amplifier output is a linearly-polarized 1.5 ns,100 kHz pulse train with a pulse energy of up to 250μJ.Pulse compression was achieved with(2+2)-pass chirped volume Bragg grating(CVBG)to obtain a 2.8 ps pulse width with a total pulse energy of 46μJ.The overall system compactness was enabled by the all-fiber amplifier design and the multi-pass CVBG-based compressor.The laser output was then used to demonstrate high-speed direct-writing capability on a temperature-sensitive biomaterial to change its topography(i.e.fabricate microchannels,foams and pores).The topographical modifications of biomaterials are known to influence cell behavior and fate which is potentially useful in many cell and tissue engineering applications.

Dual-Wavelength Passively Q-Switched Ytterbium-Doped Fiber Laser Based on Aluminum Oxide Nanoparticle Saturable Absorbers

We report on generation of a dual-wavelength, all-fiber, passively Q-switched ytterbium-doped fiber laser using aluminum oxide nanoparticle （Al2O3-NP） thin film. A thin film of Al2O3 was prepared by embedding Al2O3-NPs into a polyvinyl alcohol （PVA） as a host polymer, and then inserted between two fiber ferrules to act as a saturable absorber （SA）. By incorporating the Al2O3-PVA SA into the laser cavity, a stable dual-wavelength pulse output centered at 1050 and 1060.7nm is observed at threshold pump power of 80mW. As the pump power is gradually increased from 80 to 300mW, the repetition rate of the generated pulse increases from 16.23 to 59 kHz, while the pulse width decreases from 19 to 6μs. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first demonstration for this type of SA operating in the 1 μm region.

Development of gated fiber detectors for laser-induced strong electromagnetic pulse environments

With the development of laser technologies,nuclear reactions can happen in high-temperature plasma environments induced by lasers and have attracted a lot of attention from different physical disciplines.However,studies on nuclear reactions in plasma are still limited by detecting technologies.This is mainly due to the fact that extremely high electromagnetic pulses(EMPs)can also be induced when high-intensity lasers hit targets to induce plasma,and then cause dysfunction of many types of traditional detectors.Therefore,new particle detecting technologies are highly needed.In this paper,we report a recently developed gated fiber detector which can be used in harsh EMP environments.In this prototype detector,scintillating photons are coupled by fiber and then transferred to a gated photomultiplier tube which is located far away from the EMP source and shielded well.With those measures,the EMPs can be avoided which may result that the device has the capability to identify a single event of nuclear reaction products generated in laser-induced plasma from noise EMP backgrounds.This new type of detector can be widely used as a time-of-flight(TOF)detector in high-intensity laser nuclear physics experiments for detecting neutrons,photons,and other charged particles.

Interaction of a parabolic-shaped pulse pair in a passively mode-locked Yb-doped fiber laser

We numerically investigate the formation and interaction of a parabolic-shaped pulse pair in a passively mode-locked Yb-doped fiber laser. Based on a lumped model, the parabolic-shaped pulse pair is obtained by controlling the intercavity average dispersion and gain saturation energy, Moreover, pulse repulsive and attractive motion are also achieved with different pulse separations. Simulation results show that the phase shift plays an important role in pulse interaction, and the interaction is determined by the inter-cavity average dispersion and gain saturation energy, i.e., the strength of the interaction is proportional to the gain saturation energy, a stronger gain saturation energy will result in a higher interaction intensity. On the contrary, the increase of the inter-cavity dispersion will counterbalance some interaction force. The results also show that the interaction of a parabolic-shaped pulse pair has a larger interaction distance compared to conventional solitons.

Generation of cavity-birefringence-dependent multi-wavelength bright-dark pulse pair in a figure-eight thulium-doped fiber laser

We experimentally demonstrated a stable multi-wavelength bright-dark pulse pair in a mode-locked thulium-doped fiber laser(TDFL).The nonlinear polarization rotation(NPR)and nonlinear optical loop mirror(NOLM)were employed in a figure-eight cavity to allow for multi-wavelength mode-locking operation.By incorporating different lengths of high birefringence polarization-maintaining fiber(PMF),the fiber laser could operate stably in a multi-wavelength emission state.Compared with the absence of the PMF,the birefringence effect caused by PMF resulted in rich multi-wavelength optical spectra and better intensity symmetry and stability of the bright-dark pulse pair.

Investigation on Material Response of 55% SiCp/Al Composites Induced by Pulsed Laser

Silicon carbide particle reinforced aluminum matrix composites(SiCp/Al composites)are widely used in aviation,aerospace and electronic package.However,low machining efficiency,severe tool wear and poor surface quality are severe during the machining of SiCp/Al composites.Laser-induced oxidation is capable to improve the machinability of SiCp/Al composites.The material response of 55%(volume fraction)SiCp/Al composites induced by a nanosecond pulsed laser is studied.A metamorphic layer which is composed of an oxide layer and sub-layer is produced.The effects of reaction surrounding and laser average power on the microstructure and thickness of the oxide layer and sub-layer are investigated.Experimental results show that:A thicker oxide layer and a sub-layer are formed in an oxygen-rich atmosphere.The oxides are mainly composed of 2Al2O3·SiO2(mullite).A positive correlation between the laser average power and thicknesses of oxide layers and sub-layers is found.A loose oxide layer of 138μm and a sub-layer of 21μm are formed at the laser average power of 6 W,laser scanning pitch of 10μm,and laser scanning speed of 1 mm/s under an oxygen-rich atmosphere.The high efficient machining of Si Cp/Al composites can be realized by laser-induced oxidation.

Generation of wideband tunable femtosecond laser based on nonlinear propagation of power-scaled mode-locked femtosecond laser pulses in photonic crystal fiber

We implement an experimental study for the generation of wideband tunable femtosecond laser with a home-made power-scaled mode-locked fiber oscillator as the pump source.By coupling the sub-100 fs mode-locked pulses into a nonlinear photonic crystal fiber(NL-PCF),the exited spectra have significant nonlinear broadening and cover a spectra range of hundreds of nm.In experiment,by reasonably optimizing the structure parameters of NL-PCF and regulating the power of the incident pulses,femtosecond laser with tuning range of 900-1290 nm is realized.The research approach promotes the development of femtosecond lasers with center wavelengths out of the traditional laser gain media toward the direction of simplicity and ease of implementation.

Tunable and Switchable Narrow Bandwidth Semiconductor-Saturable Absorber Mirror Mode-Locked Yb-Doped Fiber Laser Delivering Different Pulse Widths

The wavelength-tunable and switchable narrow bandwidth mode-locking operation is demonstrated in an all fiber laser based on semiconductor-saturable absorber mirror （SESAM）. Two narrow-band fiber Bragg gratings centered at 1029.9nm and 1032nm respectively with a polarization controller inserted between them are used to realize the wavelength switchable between 1029.9nm and 1032nm. The laser delivers different pulse widths of 7.5ps for 1030nm and 20ps for 1032nm. The maximum output power for both could reach -6.5mW at single pulse operation. The output wavelength couM be tuned to about 0.gnm intervals ranging from 1030.2nm to 1031.1 nm and from 1032.15nm to 1033.7nm with the temperature change of the fiber Bragg grating, respectively.

Flexible pulses from carbon nanotubes mode-locked fiber laser

We demonstrate a flexible erbium-doped pulsed fiber laser which achieves the wavelength and pulse width tuning by adjusting an intracavity filter. The intracavity filter is flexible to achieve any of the different wavelengths and bandwidths in the tuning range. The wavelength and width of pulse can be tuned in a range of - 20 nm and from - 0.8 ps to 87 ps, respectively. The flexible pulsed fiber laser can be accurately controlled, which is insensitive to environmental disturbance.

Generation of high-energy dual-wavelength domain wall pulse with low repetition rate in an HNLF-based fiber ring laser

The generation of high-energy dual-wavelength domain wall pulse with a low repetition rate is demonstrated in a highly nonlinear fiber （HNLF）-based fiber ring laser. By introducing the intracavity birefringence-induced spectral filtering effect, the dual-wavelength lasing operation can be achieved. In order to enhance the cross coupling effect between the two lasing beams for domain wall pulse formation, a 215-m HNLF is incorporated into the laser cavity. Experimentally, it is found that the dual-wavelength domain wall pulse with a repetition rate of 77.67 kHz could be efficiently obtained through simply rotating the polarization controller （PC）. At a maximum pump power of 322 mW, the 655-nJ single pulse energy in cavity is obtained. The proposed configuration provides a simpler and more efficient way to generate high energy pulse with a low repetition rate.

Chirp Extraction of Self-Similar Pulses in a Passively Mode-Locked Er-doped Fiber Laser

In this paper, we adopt cloud computing in a specific scientific computing field for its virtualization, distribution and dynamic extendibility as follows: We obtain high-energy parabolic self-similar pulses by numerical simulation using our non-distributed passively mode-locked Er-doped fiber laser model. For researching characteristics of these wave-breaking-free self-similar pulses, chirp of them must be extracted. We propose several time-frequency analysis methods adopted in chirp extraction of ultra-short optical pulses for the first time and discuss the advantages and disadvantages of them in this particular application.

Optical properties of ytterbium-doped tandem-pumped fiber oscillator

With the rapid development of ytterbium-doped fiber lasers, some obtrusive limitations on power scaling appeared. In order to avoid these problems, a scheme called tandem pumping is introduced into the fiber laser field. In this paper, the optical properties of an ytterbium-doped tandem-pumped fiber oscillator are presented. According to the oscillator profile, the proper gain fiber type and pump wavelength range are picked out, under the comprehensive consideration of laser conversion efficiency and beam quality. In addition, the photodarkening performances of tandem pumping lasers and conventional ones are compared based on practical application, with all possible impact parameters taken into account. Moreover, an all-fibered tandem-pumped oscillator centered at 1079.5 nm is built, in the way of clad pumping by a 1030-nm fiber laser. The laser power of the oscillator reaches 7 W, with an opto-optic efficiency of 82.4%.

Harmonic Dark Pulse Emission in Erbium-Doped Fiber Laser

A harmonic dark pulse generation in an erbium-doped fiber laser is demonstrated based on a figure-of-eight configuration. It is found that the harmonic dark pulse can be shifted from the fundamental to the 5th order harmonic by increasing the pump power with an appropriate polarization controller orientation. The fundamental repetition rate of 2O kHz is obtained at the pump power of 29 m W. The highest pulse energy of 42.6 n3 is obtained at the fundamental repetition rate. The operating frequency of the dark pulse trains shifts to 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th harmonic as the pump powers are increased to 34mW, 50mW, 59mW and 137mW, respectively.