Impact of dispersion on pulse dynamics in chirped-pulse fiber lasers

We report on a systematic study of an environmentally stable mode-locked Yb-doped fiber laser operating in the chirped-pulse regime. The linear cavity chirped-pulse fiber laser is constructed with a saturable absorber mirror as nonlinear mode-locking mechanism and a nonlinearity-free transmission-grating-based stretcher/compressor for dispersion management. Mode-locked operation and pulse dynamics from strong normal to strong anomalous total cavity dispersion in the range of +2.5 to ?1.6 ps² is experimentally studied. Strongly positively chirped pulses from 4.3?ps (0.01?ps²) to 39?ps (2.5?ps²) are obtained at normal net-cavity dispersion. In the anomalous dispersion regime, the laser generates average soliton feature negatively chirped pulses with autocorrelation pulse durations from 0.8?ps (?0.07 ps²) to 3.9?ps (?1.6 ps²). The lowered peak power due to the pulse stretching allows one to increase the double pulse threshold. Based on the numerical simulation, different regimes of mode locking are obtained by varying the intra-cavity dispersion, and the characteristics of average soliton, stretched-pulse, wave-breaking-free and chirped-pulse regimes are discussed.     

光纤中基于拉曼放大与脉冲压缩的超短光孤子产生

提出一种在单模光纤负群速色散枢由弱脉冲产生高强度超短光孤子的新方法。     

正色散激光器中的增益导引孤子

采用非线性薛定谔方程模拟了全正色散介质激光器中实现脉冲锁模输出的动态过程,理论表明,不同于工作于净色散为负的孤子锁模激光器以及腔内具有色散延迟线净色散为正的色散管理孤子和自相似脉冲锁模激光器,在纯正色散介质构成的锁模激光器中,增益饱和和增益窄化对形成稳定的锁模脉冲起重要的作用,在两者的作用下脉冲形成增益导引孤子.采用不同的锁模方式在纯正色散光纤锁模激光器中得到了稳定的增益导引孤子锁模,实验结果与理论模拟一致. 关键词： 锁模 正色散 增益导引孤子     

Supercontinuum manipulation based on the influence of chirp on soliton spectral tunneling

The soliton spectral tunneling(SST) effect, as a soliton spectral switching phenomenon, enables a soliton to tunnel through a spectrally limited regime of normal dispersion in the fiber with multiple zero dispersion wavelengths(ZDWs).Since initial chirp can affect the behavior of pulse evolution, we numerically study the influence of chirp on the SST in the process of supercontinuum(SC) occurring in a photonic crystal fiber(PCF) with three ZDWs. The linear chirp is imposed by a phase modulation of input pulse while maintaining a constant pulse duration. Interestingly, it is found that the spectral range and flatness can be flexibly tuned by adjusting the initial chirp value. More specifically, positive chirp facilitates soliton self-frequency shifting(SSFS), making the soliton quickly transfer from one anomalous dispersion regime to another accompanied by the generation of dispersive waves(DWs). In this case, the SST effect further expands the spectral range by enhancing both the red-shift of the fundamental soliton and the blue-shift of DWs, thus generating a broader SC. However, negative chirp suppresses the SST effect, resulting in a smoother SC at the expense of bandwidth.Therefore, the findings in this work provide interesting results relating to the influence of initial chirp on the SST to generate a considerably smoother and broader SC, which is extremely useful in many applications, such as wavelength conversion and SC generation.     

光纤中基于互相位调制效应的超短光脉冲对的产生

提出一种在单模光纤正常色散区由连续波产生超短光脉冲对的新方法.即让连续波和一个波长位于光纤负色散区的高阶孤子在光纤中同时传输,互相位调制效应和群速度色散效应的互相作用能使连续波演化成超短光脉冲对.本文还通过计算机模拟,对该方法进行了全面的考察和分析.结果表明,此方法实用且效果较好.     

Soliton self-frequency shift in a short tapered air-silica microstructure fiber

We report a soliton self-frequency shift of more than 20% of the optical frequency in a tapered air-silica microstructure fiber that exhibits a widely flattened large anomalous dispersion in the near infrared. Remarkably, the large frequency shift was realized in a fiber of length as short as 15 cm, 2 orders of magnitude shorter than those reported previously with similar input pulse duration and pulse energies, owing to the small mode size and the large and uniform dispersion in the tapered fiber. By varying the power of the input pulses, we generated compressed sub-100-fs soliton pulses of ~1-nJ pulse energy tunable from 1.3 to 1.65 mum with greater than 60% conversion efficiency.     

Long-cavity passively mode-locked fiber ring laser with high-energy rectangular-shape pulses in anomalous dispersion regime

We report on a long-cavity passively mode-locked fiber laser in the anomalous dispersion regime. The nonlinear polarization rotation technique is employed to achieve mode locking. The output pulse from the fiber laser has a rectangular shape and a corresponding gaussian-shape spectral profile. Stable mode-locked pulses at a repetition rate of 278 kHz with single pulse energy as high as 715 nJ are obtained under equal bidirectional pumping power of 500 mW in cavity. The experimental results demonstrate that the passively mode-locked fiber laser operating in the anomalous regime can also realize a high-energy pulse, which is different from the conventional low-energy soliton pulse.     

Dispersion-managed solitons in a fiber loop with in-line filtering.

We investigate both numerically and experimentally soliton propagation in a fiber loop with dispersion management, in-line filters, and frequency shifting. More than 90% of the fiber in the loop is in the normal-dispersion regime, but the net dispersion is anomalous. Stable pulses in the loop have an enhanced power relative to solitons in a fiber with uniform dispersion equal to the loop's path-averaged dispersion. Because the loop's path-averaged dispersion is small, the in-line filtering and the frequency shifting play an important role in pulse shaping. Recirculating loop experiments that demonstrate stable pulse propagation over 28,000 km are consistent with results from computer modeling.     

高能量掺Yb偏振型大模场面积光子晶体光纤孤子锁模飞秒激光器

实验研究了基于掺Yb偏振型大模场面积光子晶体光纤的孤子锁模激光器,获得了高脉冲能量的飞秒激光输出. 激光器基于线形腔结构,利用光栅对补偿腔内色散,并通过半导体可饱和吸收镜实现锁模的自启动. 实验中从振荡级直接获得了平均功率为700mW, 重复频率为47.3MHz(对应于14.8 nJ的单脉冲能量),脉冲宽度为518 fs的稳定锁模脉冲输出. 与普通孤子锁模飞秒光纤激光器相比,输出的单脉冲能量提高了两个数量级. 关键词： 光子晶体光纤 飞秒 光纤激光器 孤子锁模     

Role of dispersion profile in controlling emission of dispersive waves by solitons in supercontinuum generation

We study the supercontinuum process in optical fibers numerically for a variety of dispersion profiles to investigate how a specific dispersion profile controls the emission of dispersive waves. We conclude that the number of zero-dispersion points in the dispersion profile of a fiber is an excellent predictor of the dispersive-wave peaks when it is pumped with femtosecond pulses in the anomalous dispersion regime. Our study reveals that two or more such peaks can form on the same side of the input wavelength in specially designed and practically achievable dispersion profiles. We show that dispersive waves are emitted even in the case of normal dispersion where soliton fission does not occur. We suggest that a phenomenon related to soliton spectral tunneling is responsible for this radiation. Distinct dispersive peaks may also appear when an optical pulse, launched in the normal dispersion region, later begins to propagate in the anomalous dispersion regime because of its spectral broadening. Several dispersion profiles are numerically employed to show how the soliton fission process creates non-solitonic radiation even under normal dispersion pumping. A time-domain picture clearly shows this radiation when the conventional phase matching condition is satisfied. We also propose a realistic photonic crystal fiber with a dispersion profile that supports dispersive-wave generation in the normal-dispersion region. Our study should prove useful for experiments designed to control the generation of blue light by launching femtosecond pulses into optical fibers.     

APPROACH FOR THE STUDY OF SOLITON IN OPTICAL FIBER

In the anomalous group velocity dispersion regime, under the influence of optical Kerr nonlinearity, the monomode optical fiber supports stable propagation of an initial soliton pulse. In this paper, we present a singular perturbation approach for the study of various perturbations acting on this initial soliton pulse, In contrast with the previous perturbation theory for this subject, this approach gets rid of dependence on any tool of the sophisticated inverse scattering transform.     

All-fiber-integrated soliton-similariton laser with in-line fiber filter

We demonstrate an all-fiber-integrated Er-doped fiber laser operating in the soliton-similariton mode-locking regime. In the similariton part of the cavity, a self-similarly evolving parabolic pulse with highly linear chirp propagates in the presence of normal dispersion. Following an in-line fiber-based birefringent filter, the pulse evolves into a soliton in the part of the cavity with anomalous dispersion. The similariton and the soliton pulses are dechirped to 75.5 and 167.2?fs, respectively, outside of the cavity. Mode-locked operation is very robust, owing to the influence of the two similariton and soliton attractors that predominate each half of the laser cavity. The experimental results are supported with numerical simulations, which provide good agreement.     

Long-range interaction of picosecond solitons through excitation of acoustic waves in optical fibers

We present the theory of electrostrictional interaction of soliton pulses in optical fibers. Solitons excite acoustic waves propagating in the direction transverse to the fiber axis. Scattering of optical radiation on these waves leads to a timing jitter of the optical pulses arrival time. We consider this effect as nonlinear self-scattering of light on acoustic waves. Because of the fact that a value of acoustic lifetime can reach a value of about 100 ns self-scattering on acoustic waves can be observed for a single optical pulse as well as for an optical pulse sequence as a whole. The value of single soliton self-frequency shift due to excitation of acoustic waves as a function of soliton duration have been obtained. For soliton duration _sol > 14 ps an acoustic wave soliton self-frequency shift is larger than the Raman soliton self-frequency shift.The obtained theoretical results describe well the long-range interaction of soliton pulse trains in an optical fiber. The value of bit error rate due to electrostrictional interaction of optical pulses in high bit rate, ultra long soliton communication systems have been obtained.     

Universal soliton pattern formations in passively mode-locked fiber lasers

We investigate multiple-soliton pattern formations in a figure-of-eight passively mode-locked fiber laser. Operation in the anomalous dispersion regime with a double-clad fiber amplifier allows generation of up to several hundreds of solitons per round trip. We report the observation of remarkable soliton distributions: soliton gas, soliton liquid, soliton polycrystal, and soliton crystal, thus indicating the universality of such complexes.     

压缩平稳重调脉冲的色散渐减光纤的设计

文章根据平稳重调脉冲(SRP)在梳状光纤(CPF)结构中的压缩原理,对色散渐减光纤(DDF)的色散特性进行设计,结果发现该色散渐减光纤的色散特性呈线性递减.对于平稳重调脉冲其压缩比与功率比等于光纤始末两端二阶色散系数的比值.当色散渐减光纤的斜率足够小时,无啁啾基阶孤子可以近似为平稳重调脉冲,当色散渐减光纤的色散斜率较大时,无啁啾基阶孤子不能近似为平稳重调脉冲.当基阶孤子带有与光纤色散斜率成正比的线性啁啾时,脉冲的压缩比与功率比更接近于光纤始末两端二阶色散系数的比值.说明带有线性啁啾的基阶孤子比不带啁啾的基阶孤子更接近于平稳重调脉冲. 关键词： 平稳重调脉冲(SRP) 梳状光纤(CPF) 色散渐减光纤(DDF) 色散递减表达式     

Propagation of short soliton pulses through a parabolic index fiber with dispersion decreasing along length

A parabolic index dispersion decreasing fiber (DDF) has been designed and optimized to produce high capacity soliton communication system. Variation of different fiber parameters such as core radius, effective core area and GVD factor along the 25 km of DDF length has been carried out to optimize a best possible DDF which can sustain the propagation of fundamental soliton. The variation of non-linearity with length along with the conventional power and GVD factor variation has been included in the generalized non-linear Schrodinger equation (NLSE). This NLSE has been solved numerically by split step Fourier method for shorter pulse propagation, incorporating the term for third order dispersion and intrapulse Raman scattering. Stable soliton pulses in transmission system have been achieved by our simulation, when a correction factor due to Raman induced soliton mean frequency shift is incorporated to the GVD profile predicted by the fundamental soliton condition. The interaction of neighboring soliton pulse pair through the proposed fiber has also been studied.     

掺杂光子晶体光纤产生光孤子所需泵浦功率的研究

在光纤纤芯中掺入适量GeO₂有利于增加纤芯非线性折射率,提高光纤的非线性系数。利用有限元法设计了一种带宽为1.45 μm的宽反常色散掺杂光子晶体光纤,其光纤可以利用低泵浦功率产生任意波长的光孤子。分析结果显示,当脉冲脉宽T_FWHM取300 fs时,产生基阶光孤子需要的最高平均泵浦功率为0.001 695 W,而产生五阶光孤子需要的最高平均泵浦功率仅0.042 38 W。     

实现20Gbit/s的OTDM孤子信号56km色散位移光纤的传输

在国内最先采用孤子的方式将8×2.5Gb/s的OTDM信号在色散位移光纤中传输了56.1km,对8×2.5Gb/s的OTDM进行解复用后进行了误码测量,系统功率代价为2.9dB.系统采用增益开关半导体激光器作光孤子源,高Q电滤波方式提取时钟,非线性光学环路镜解复用。孤子脉冲最大半宽度为20ps,传输光纤平均色散1.2ps/nm/km。     

Generation of mid-infrared supercontinuum by designing circular photonic crystal fiber

A circular photonic crystal fiber (C-PCF) based on As₂Se₃ is designed, which has three zero dispersion wavelengths and flat dispersion. Using this fiber, a wide mid-infrared supercontinuum (MIR-SC) can be generated by launching a femtosecond pulse in the first anomalous dispersion region. The simulation results show that the MIR-SC is formed by soliton self-frequency shift and direct soliton spectrum tunneling on the long wavelength side and self-phase modulation, soliton fission on the short wavelength side. Further, optical shocking and four-wave mixing (FWM) are not conducive to the long-wavelength extension of MIR-SC, while the number and intensity of fundamental solitons have a greater effect on the short-wavelength extension of MIR-SC. The generation of optical shocking waves, FWM waves and fundamental solitons can be obviously affected by changing the fiber length and input pulse parameters, so that the spectrum range and flatness can be adjusted with great freedom. Finally, under the conditions of 4000 W pulse peak power, 30 fs pulse width, 47 mm fiber length, and 0 initial chirp, a wide MIR-SC with a coverage range of 2.535 μm-16.6 μm is obtained. These numerical results are encouraging because they demonstrate that the spread of MIR-SC towards the red and blue ends can be manipulated by choosing the appropriate incident pulse and designing optimized fiber parameters, which contributes to applications in such diverse areas as spectroscopy, metrology and tomography.     

Nonlinear copropagation of two optical pulses of different frequencies in photonic crystal fibers

A theoretical investigation of the nonlinear copropagation of two optical pulses of different frequencies in a photonic crystal fiber is presented. Different phenomena are observed depending on whether the wavelength of the signal pulse is located in the normal or the anomalous dispersion region. In particular, it is found that the phenomenon of pulse trapping occurs when the signal wavelength is located in the normal dispersion region while the pump wavelength is located in the anomalous dispersion region. The signal pulse suffers cross-phase modulation by the Raman shifted soliton pulse and it is trapped and copropagates with the Raman soliton pulse along the fiber. As the input peak power of the pump pulse is increased, the red-shift of the Raman soliton is considerably enhanced with the simultaneous further blue-shift of the trapped pulse to satisfy the condition of group velocity matching. PACS 42.65.Tg; 42.81.Dp