Evaluation of quenching effects on silica-based erbium doped fiber micro-ring lasers

While micro-ring lasers is a step forward for the miniaturization of fiber lasers, up-conversion quenching due to ion energy transfer may limit the device size and deteriorate system performance. The effect of Er³⁺ concentration quenching on the characteristics of silica-based Er-doped fiber (EDF) micro-ring laser was investigated. In particular, the dependence on Er³⁺ concentration and laser size of threshold pump power and quantum efficiency is discussed. To achieve high laser efficiency, it was found that ring diameter has to be ∼150 μm with ∼5 wt.% erbium concentration. The threshold value is increased by a factor of 340, for such laser characteristics compared with threshold power when up-conversion is not considered. Moreover, we show that detrimental effect due to up-conversion quenching can be reduced by careful micro-ring laser design.     

Spectral characteristics of the erbium-bismuth co-doped silica fibers and its application in single frequency fiber laser

We developed two kinds of erbium (Er)-bismuth (Bi) co-doped silica fibers with different erbium doping concentrations. After investigation of its spectral characteristics, it was found that the co-doping of the bismuth could alleviate the clustering of the erbium ions in the silica fiber and thus improve the fluorescence efficiency. However, the near-infrared (NIR) fluorescence spectrum attributed to the bismuth ions was different from that reported before and needs further comprehensive investigation. For the heavy Er doped erbium-bismuth (Er-Bi) co-doped fiber (about 8000 ppm Er concentration), the optical absorption coefficients at the wavelengths of 976 and 1530 nm are more than 40 and 90 dB/m, respectively. A couple of fiber Bragg gratings with proper reflectivity were chosen to be spliced to 2 cm long of this fiber forming a compact linear cavity fiber laser. Upon the excitation of the 976 nm laser diode, stable single frequency fiber laser operation was realized with a maximum side mode suppression ratio more than 60 dB and a line-width less than 1 kHz. By splicing a segment of the Er fiber to the output end of the fiber laser, the fiber laser worked in a master oscillator pumping amplifier (MOPA) structure and emitted an increased laser power of more than 100 mW.     

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.     

掺铒光纤环形激光器输出特性的研究

根据掺铒光纤激光器的速率方程，对环形腔光纤激光器的输出特性进行了理论分析，得到了光纤激光器在稳态条件下阈值抽运功率、激光输出功率和斜率效率的解析表达式。利用数值模拟结果对光纤激光器的这些基本特性参量进行了分析和讨论，为光纤环形激光器的优化设计提供了依据。并进行了980nm抽运的掺铒光纤激光器的实验，实验证明理论分析得到的基本特性是合理的。     

An Efficient Photonic Crystal Fiber-Based Brillouin Erbium Fiber Laser Using a Fiber Bragg Grating for Multi-Wavelength Generation

Abstract

An efficient multi-wavelength Brillouin erbium fiber laser is demonstrated using an improved configuration with a broadband fiber Bragg grating and a piece of photonic crystal fiber. The laser generates more than 55 lines of optical comb with a line spacing of approximately 0.09 nm in a 1,565-5 nm region using pump powers of 3 dBm and 150 mW for the Brillouin and 980-nm pumps, respectively. The Brillouin erbium fiber laser with a fiber Bragg grating's reflectivity of 50% obtained a higher number of comb lines compared to that of 99% reflectivity.     

High frequency fiber laser emission generated by pump spiking

A stable and short pulse train of ∼100 MHz repetition frequency was obtained from an erbium doped fiber laser excited by a “continuous” semiconductor laser and by using a linear cavity defined by a Bragg grating pair. The operation frequency of the fiber laser was greater (∼5-15 times) than the cavity round-trip frequency. Emission properties obtained from the erbium doped fiber laser were correlated with those taken from the pump laser, which presented a particular optical noise (very short pulses) added to the continuous emission. From the temporal and radio-frequency analysis of both systems, we conclude that the pump emission characteristics are the responsible of the fiber laser pulsed behaviour.     

基于高双折射光纤布拉格光栅的自动增益控制掺铒光纤放大器

掺铒光纤非均匀展宽引起的空间烧孔现象导致单波长激光并不能完全控制放大器增益,提出了一种新颖的自动增益控制掺铒光纤放大器的结构:即采用高双折射光纤布拉格光栅产生抽运光,其写制光栅的波峰对应的波长分别为1549.3 nm和1549.83 nm,波长间隔为0.53 nm。通过调整偏振控制器,就实现了单激光或双激光的增益控制。这种设计增益控制范围为40 nm(1530~1570 nm),当输入功率在-40~-15 dBm的动态范围内,双激光增益控制的掺铒光纤放大器的平均增益和噪声系数分别约为22.22 dB和8.69 dB,而它们的漂移分别被钳制在0.69 dB和1.51 dB。系统性能测试表明:双激光控制掺饵光纤放大器在稳定性方面比单激光有着明显的优势。     

Bandpass filters based on pi-shifted long-period fiber gratings for actively mode-locked erbium fiber lasers

We have fabricated bandpass filters based on pi-shifted long-period gratings for application in actively mode-locked erbium fiber lasers. Introducing the pi-phase shift in the middle of the grating opens a bandpass within the core-cladding mode resonance peaks. With a 22-nm bandwidth filter inserted in an actively mode-locked erbium fiber sigma laser, solitonlike pulses are generated, with a power-dependent duration of approximately 3-5 ps , at a 3-GHz repetition rate. These all-fiber filters have the advantages of low insertion loss (<0.5 dB) and a wide bandwidth (10-20 nm), and they do not require that a circulator be inserted into the laser cavity.     

5-W repetitively Q-switched Er:LuAG laser resonantly pumped by an erbium fiber laser

We report a high-average-power, near-diffraction-limited Er:LuAG laser generating 5 W of power at 1.648 microm in either cw or repetitively Q-switched operation. When the laser is Q switched at 9 kHz, we measure 0.52 mJ/pulse. The laser is end pumped by a 20-W erbium fiber laser and achieves >30% optical conversion efficiency and >40% incident slope efficiency. This is, to our knowledge, the highest performance (average power and conversion efficiency) obtained from a bulk solid-state erbium laser.     

Mode-locked 1.93 microm thulium fiber laser with a carbon nanotube absorber

We report a ring-cavity thulium fiber laser mode locked with a single-wall carbon nanotube absorber used in transmission. A carboxymethyl cellulose polymer film with incorporated carbon nanotubes synthesized by the arc discharge method has an absorption coinciding with in the amplification bandwidth of a Tm-doped fiber. This laser is pumped by an erbium fiber laser at 1.57 microm wavelength and produces a 37 MHz train of mode-locked 1.32 ps pulses at 1.93 microm wavelength with an average output power of 3.4 mW.     

掺铒光纤激光器自脉冲行为的研究

对掺饵光激光器的自脉冲行为进行了研究。采用半导体激光器连续光泵浦，在较低的泵浦功率下，在掺饵光纤激光器中得到了稳定的１倍周期和２倍周期自脉冲输出，观察到周期性的不等幅脉冲序列输出，在理论上动用光子寿命可变的正交偏振激光场耦合模型对实验进行了分析。结果表明，掺饵光纤激光器中两正交偏振模光子寿命的调节对获得稳定的自脉冲有着十分重要的作用。     

多功能有源光纤器件组合实验仪

多功能有源光纤器件组合实验仪由若干功能单元构成，通过简单的跳线插接就可组合成系列实验装置：掺铒光纤放大的自发辐射(ASE)光源，掺铒光纤放大器(EDFA)，掺铒光纤激光器(EDFL)和全光纤调Q激光器．该实验仪为学生做有源光纤器件专题系列实验提供了平台．     

线形腔掺铒光纤激光器输出特性的理论研究

通过求解速率方程，从理论上详细地分析了形腔掺铒光纤激光器输出特性，得到了稳定条件下激光器阈值泵浦功率，输出功率和斜率效率的解析表达式；给出了构造线形腔掺铒光行激光器所需掺铒光纤最短长度和最佳长度的表达式。     

All-fiber,octave-spanning supercontinuum

We present an all-fiber supercontinuum source based on a passively mode-locked erbium fiber laser and a small-effective-area, germanium-doped silica fiber. The parallels between this system and the continuum generated in microstructured fibers with 800-nm pulses are discussed, and the role of dispersion is investigated experimentally. We construct a hybrid fiber by fusion splicing lengths of different-dispersion fiber together, generating more than an octave of bandwidth.     

高浓度镱铒共掺磷酸盐光纤放大器增益特性

在忽略高能级的自发辐射和光纤损耗的情况下，利用速率方程和传输方程理论研究了高浓度Er³⁺/Yb³⁺共掺磷酸盐玻璃光纤放大器的增益特性，讨论了Er³⁺浓度、Yb³⁺浓度、抽运光功率、信号光功率、光纤长度对放大器增益的影响，并与单掺铒光纤放大器进行了比较.由于Yb³⁺的敏化作用降低了铒离子的团簇效应，减少了离子间相互作用，共掺光纤的增益和效率明显高于单掺光纤.数值计算表明，3.2cm长Er³⁺/Yb³⁺共掺光纤在980nm的20dBm(100mW)抽运功率下，1532nm处的增益可达10dB. 关键词： 镱铒共掺光纤放大器 速率方程 传输方程 高浓度     

低噪声环形腔掺铒光纤激光器的研究

分析了环形腔掺铒光纤激光器的输出特性,给出了稳态下的激光器输出功率、阈值泵浦功率和斜率效率的解析表达式,为激光器结构的优化提供了依据。搭建了全保偏环形腔掺铒光纤激光器,利用未泵浦铒纤中由驻波干涉和饱和吸收诱发的自写入光纤光栅的窄带滤波特性及反射波长的自适应特性,有效地解决了激光器的跳模问题。通过测量得到激光器系统的泵浦阈值为15.3mW,斜率效率为2.8%,输出偏振度为32dB。利用非平衡光纤干涉仪系统和相位产生载波(PGC)调制解调技术测得激光器的相位噪声为3×10-5rad/Hz~1/2(1kHz)。     

Cross sections of excited-state absorption at 800 nm in erbium-doped ZBLAN fiber

4 I_13/2 and ⁴I_11/2 of erbium is measured in a fluorozirconate fiber in the wavelength range 780–840 nm. Using a pump- and probe-beam technique and choosing the pump wavelength such that the perturbation by pump ESA is minimized in the measurement, it is possible to determine the effective ESA cross sections, despite the fact that the excitation is distributed among two metastable levels. The derived ESA cross sections at 793 nm of 1.4×10^-21 cm² from the ⁴I_13/2 level and less than 0.1×10^-21 cm² from the ⁴I_11/2 level are in reasonable agreement with former results obtained from a rate-equation simulation of the erbium 3-μm laser. The corresponding ESA spectrum under 3-μm lasing conditions is derived. At the strongest ground-state absorption around 799 nm, decreasing ESA from the ⁴I_13/2 level is compensated by increasing ESA from the ⁴I_11/2 level, i.e., ESA losses cannot be avoided when pumping around 800 nm. This result is of relevance for possible high-power diode pumping of an erbium 3-μm double-clad fiber laser. Received: 20 January 1998     

An Experimental Study on the Output Properties of an Actively Mode-locked Er~(3 ) Doped Fiber Ring Laser

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A tunable multi-wavelength Brillouin–erbium fiber laser with fourfold Brillouin frequency spacing

We have experimentally demonstrated a tunable multi-wavelength Brillouin–erbium fiber laser with over 40 GHz spacing utilizing two cascaded double Brillouin-frequency-spacing cavities. In this laser configuration, two segments of 25 km-long single-mode fibers are used as Brillouin gain medium in each ring cavity, and a segment of 8 m-long erbium-doped fiber with 980 nm pump is employed to amplify Brillouin pump (BP). At BP wavelength of 1550 nm, BP power of 8.3 dBm (6.8 mW) and the maximum 980 nm pump power of 27.78 dBm (600 mW), seven output channels with fourfold Brillouin-frequency spacing, and the tuning range of 15 nm from 1545 to 1560 nm are achieved. The proposed multi-wavelength Brillouin–erbium fiber laser has wide applications, such as in microwave signal generation and optical communications.     

Continuous-wave supercontinuum laser based on an erbium-doped fiber ring cavity incorporating a highly nonlinear optical fiber

We experimentally demonstrate a novel erbium-doped fiber based continuous-wave (cw) supercontinuum laser. The laser has a simple ring-cavity structure incorporating an erbium-doped fiber and a highly nonlinear dispersion-shifted fiber (HNL-DSF). Differently from previously demonstrated cw supercontinuum sources based on single propagation of a strong Raman pump laser beam through a highly nonlinear fiber, erbium gain inside the cavity generates a seed light oscillation, and the oscillated light subsequently evolves into a supercontinuum by nonlinear effects such as modulation instability and stimulated Raman scattering in the HNL-DSF. High quality of the depolarized supercontinuum laser output with a spectral bandwidth larger than 250 nm is readily achieved.