A fibre grating DFB laser for generation of optical microwave signal

A distributed feedback fibre laser is realised with a phase-shifted fibre Bragg grating. Dual-mode operation is obtained by means of linear birefringence for heterodyne generation of optical microwave signal. The two modes, operating in the same cavity produce a beat signal with exceptionally low-phase noise. The linewidth of the resulting microwave signal obtained is less than 1 kHz.     

Frequency drift and instantaneous linewidth broadening of phase-section tuned SG-DBR laser

We experimentally investigate the spectral dynamics of a phase-section tuned sampled-grating distributed Bragg reflector (SG-DBR) laser by using optical heterodyne method. The measured time-resolved spectra of the beat signal illustrate that the beat signal suffers from both frequency drift and instantaneous spectrum broadening, which indicates that the wavelengths of the lightwaves experience drift and jitter. We study the variation of frequency drift and instantaneous linewidth broadening with applied voltages. It is helpful in selection of optimum operating conditions and design of experimental setup. Experimental results demonstrate that the pulse-waveform can be used to reduce the frequency drift by shorting the beating time.     

超短时延测量DFB激光器的动态线宽

激光器调谐过程中的动态线宽是非常重要的参数, 然而, 当前各种测量方法得到的都是激光器稳定状态下的静态线宽. 本文提出一种对干涉拍信号进行基于局部均值分解的时频分析进而获取激光动态线宽的方法, 通过仿真信号验证了这种时频分析方法提取瞬时相位噪声的有效性; 构建实验系统, 利用10cm路径差产生约0.5ns的超短时延, 提取相位噪声的时频分布, 首次得到了分布反馈半导体激光器在脉冲工作模式下的动态线宽. 关键词： 超短时延 动态线宽 局部均值分解 时频分布     

近距离激光外差探测光学极限位移分辨率

通过统计理论和维纳-辛钦定理推导出激光外差探测系统光电流的功率谱函数,分析了光电流谱线分布与激光光源线宽、中频信号频率以及信号光相对本振光传输延迟时间的关系,修正了相关文献中光电流功率谱的理论公式.根据信号与噪声理论建立了激光线宽引起的相位噪声的一维概率分布模型,并据此得到了基于激光波长、探测距离以及激光线宽的极限位移分辨率的数学模型.对光电流的功率谱和外差光学极限位移分辨率进行了相关的数值仿真,结果表明延迟时间与相干时间的关系决定光电流谱线分布的情况.当激光波长为532 nm,激光线宽在1 kHz,探测距离为100 m时,光学极限位移分辨率为0.266 nm,相关文献中的实验数据与理论推导结果相符合.     

Subhertz-linewidth Nd:YAG laser

Light from a Nd:YAG laser at 1064 nm is independently stabilized to two Fabry-Perot etalons situated on separate vibration-isolation platforms. A heterodyne beat measurement shows their relative frequency stability to be at the part-in-10(15) level at 5 s and the relative linewidth to be less than 1 Hz.     

基于时变功率谱的激光器调谐瞬时线宽测量方法研究

半导体激光器的线宽通常采用激光外差测量技术,通过差拍信号的功率谱密度函数来确定,受傅里叶变换方法的限制,得到的均是在一定时间段内的静态平均线宽。为了获得半导体激光器在电流调谐过程中的瞬时线宽特性,提出了利用时变功率谱获知调谐瞬时线宽的相干和非相干测量方法,并分别进行了理论分析和实验验证。首先对半导体激光器输出光信号及差拍信号进行了时间-频率域下的数学描述,确定了时变功率谱与调谐瞬时线宽的关系;其次,针对差拍信号的趋向性特征,提出了趋势局部均值分解方法,并研究了利用分解出的乘积函数建立差拍信号及激光器输出光信号的时变功率谱的方法;最后利用非相干和相干测量法分别获得了分布反馈式半导体激光器在50~51及50~100 mA锯齿波电流调谐过程中的瞬时线宽。     

2 μm semiconductor disk laser with a heterodyne linewidth below 10 kHz

We demonstrate a 2 μm semiconductor disk laser emitting in a single longitudinal mode with a linewidth in the <10 kHz range. A heterodyne detection scheme was used for precise linewidth measurements. In these experiments, the output beams of two identical laser cavities were superposed in order to generate a beat note signal on a photodiode. In the absence of active frequency stabilization, a linewidth of 45 kHz was measured at an output power of 100 mW. When using a frequency stabilization consisting of a feedback loop with a Fabry-Perot interferometer as wavelength reference, the linewidth could be further reduced to 9 kHz.     

激光光源线宽对外差探测性能的影响

本文根据统计理论分析了激光线宽对外差探测结果的影响, 并讨论了激光线宽对杨氏干涉条纹对比度的影响. 本文基于解析结果做了数值仿真, 所得结果表明激光线宽增加时, 外差探测方式仍可以检测到中频信号, 但在线宽较大时, 受噪声影响无法准确地提取到中频频率. 为验证理论分析结果, 使用线宽为1 MHz的激光光源进行了8.1 km外场实验, 实验结果与数值分析结论一致, 即不会因为线宽增加而无法检测到中频信号. 文中所得结论对于外差探测光源的选择有重要指导意义, 因此根据测量目标的特性和测量要求, 可按照文中结论评估光源的线宽指标.     

Chirped-frequency generation in a translated-grating-type frequency-shifted feedback laser

The properties of a frequency-shifted feedback (FSF) laser using a translated grating as the frequency-shifting element are investigated. FSF operation is attained by feedback of the first-order diffracted light from a grating coupler, which is translated in a direction perpendicular to the grating normal. A diode-pumped Nd:YVO(4) gain medium is used. Chirped-frequency components are periodically generated with a chirp rate of 1.8 THz / s. The unique spectral characteristics of this device are demonstrated with a Michelson interferometer and a heterodyne experiment.     

Laser frequency stabilization by means of optical self-heterodyne beat-frequency control

We propose and demonstrate a novel frequency-stabilization scheme that provides linewidth narrowing and at the same time is compatible with high-speed frequency agility. The method relies on sensing and control of a heterodyne beat signal derived from a fiber interferometer and functions in the absence of a fixed reference frequency. Our demonstration utilizes a short-external-cavity diode laser equipped with an intracavity electro-optic crystal for frequency correction. The stabilization method is shown to suppress impressed laser frequency modulation by nearly 2 orders of magnitude. Without further modification of our scheme we also demonstrate laser frequency tuning control.     

Autocorrelation Method to Detect Frequency Shift of a Laser Diode by Short Pulse Irradiation

A new method to investigate fast frequency modulation of a laser diode by applying optical pulse irradiation is presented. The self-delayed heterodyne technique and an autocorrelation method are used to detect beat in the heterodyne signal due to frequency shift by the irradiation. Autocorrelation of the beat signal is suggested to be calculated via its spectrum.     

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.     

Cancellation of laser dither modulation from optical frequency standards

We demonstrate the removal of the dither modulation from an iodine-stabilized He-Ne laser by using a frequency-modulated acousto-optic modulator and feed-forward techniques. This procedure reduces the linewidth of the beat between this laser and a flywheel He-Ne laser from 6 MHz to 8 kHz, the undithered beat linewidth being ~7 kHz. Dither suppression greatly reduces counter errors during beat measurements from stroboscopic effects between the counter's gate and the frequency of the dither modulation and increases the utility of the already formidable array of dithered laser frequency standards by making locking to them an easier task.     

基于平行偏振光注入的1550nm波段垂直腔表面发射激光器获取窄线宽光子微波的理论和实验研究

提出一种基于1550 nm垂直腔表面发射激光器(1550 nm-VCSEL)获取高质量微波信号的全光方案.在该方案中,采用波长位于VCSEL中被抑制模式的中心波长附近、振动方向与VCSEL中主导模式相同的偏振光注入(即平行注入)1550 nm-VCSEL获取高频微波,并借助双光反馈对该高频微波的线宽进行窄化.一方面,基于VCSEL的自旋反转模型,从理论上分析了采用该方案产生微波信号的可行性;另一方面,通过构建相应的实验系统,对该方案产生的微波的特性进行初步实验研究.实验结果表明:在合适的注入条件下,1550 nm-VCSEL能够产生30 GHz左右的微波信号,但该信号的线宽较宽(百兆水平);引入双光反馈后,微波线宽可被压窄两个数量级以上,得到了线宽低于1 MHz、信噪比大于40 d B的微波信号.     

Effect of laser source nonlinearity on optical heterodyne interferometry

In this paper, an optical heterodyne interferometric detection model with a frequency-ramped laser diode (LD) has been analyzed. The effect of the nonlinearity of the LD source on the optical heterodyne interferometry has been investigated in two different ways, which are the power-distortion Fourier series analysis and the harmonic distortion analysis. The general formulation between the tangent of the tested phase and the interference fringe have been presented with the analysis of the beat signal in the frequency domain by each methodology. The numerical results of these formulations have been presented.     

Dual-frequency Brillouin fiber laser for optical generation of tunable low-noise radio frequency/microwave frequency

We demonstrate a new approach, i.e., a cw dual-frequency Brillouin fiber laser pumped by two independent single-frequency Er-doped fiber lasers, for the generation of tunable low-noise rf/microwave optical signals. Its inherent features of both linewidth narrowing effect in a Brillouin fiber cavity and common mode noise cancellation between two laser modes sharing a common cavity allow us to achieve high frequency stability without using a supercavity. Beat frequency of the dual-frequency Brillouin fiber laser can be tuned from tens of megahertz up to 100 GHz by thermally tuning the wavelengths of the two pump lasers with tuning sensitivity of approximately 1.4 GHz/ degrees C. Allan variance measurements show the beat signals have the hertz-level frequency stability.     

Two-hertz-linewidth Nd:YAG lasers at 1064nm stabilized to vertically mounted ultra-stable cavities

Two Nd：YAG lasers operating at 1064 nm are separately servo-locked to two vertically mounted ultra-stable cavities. The optical heterodyne beat between two cavity-stabilized lasers shows that the linewidth of each laser reaches 2 Hz and the average frequency drift reduces to less than 1 Hz/s.     

Sweep optical frequency synthesizer with a distributed-Bragg-reflector laser injection locked by a single component of an optical frequency comb

A sweep optical frequency synthesizer is demonstrated by using a frequency-stabilized optical frequency comb and injection-locked distributed-Bragg-reflector (DBR) laser diode. The injection-locked DBR laser acts as a single-frequency filter and, simultaneously, a high-gain amplifier of the optical frequency comb. The frequency instability of the heterodyne beat signal between two independently injection-locked DBR lasers is measured to be 2.3 x 10(-16) at 1 s averaging time. The output frequency of the sweep optical frequency synthesizer can be precisely tuned over 1 GHz, and a saturated absorption spectrum of the Cs D2 line at 852 nm is recorded by the injected DBR laser.     

Photon time-interval statistics applied to the analysis of laser heterodyne signal with photon counter

In this paper, we report a mathematical derivation of probability density function (PDF) of time-interval between two successive photoelectrons of the laser heterodyne signal, and give a confirmation of the theoretical result by both numerical simulation and an experiment. The PDF curve of the beat signal displays a series of fluctuations, the period and amplitude of which are respectively determined by the beat frequency and the mixing efficiency. The beat frequency is derived from the frequency of fluctuations accordingly when the PDF curve is measured. This frequency measurement method still works while the traditional Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) algorithm hardly derives the correct peak value of the beat frequency in the condition that we detect 80 MHz beat signal with 8 Mcps (counts per-second) photons count rate, and this indicates an advantage of the PDF method.