A novel 2-μm pulsed fiber laser based on a supercontinuum source and its application to mid-infrared supercontinuum generation

A new method to achieve 2-μm pulsed fiber lasers based on a supercontinuum(SC) is demonstrated. The incident pump light is a pulsed SC which contains a pump light and a signal light at the same time. The initial signal of the seed laser is provided by the incident pump light and amplified in the cavity. Based on this, we obtain a 2-μm pulsed laser with pulse repetition rate of 50 kHz and pulse width of 2 ns from the Tm-doped fiber laser. This 2-μm pulsed laser is amplified by two stages of fiber amplifiers, then the amplified laser is used for mid-infrared(mid-IR) SC generation in a 10-m length of ZrF4–BaF2–LaF3–AlF3–NaF(ZBLAN) fiber. An all-fiber-integrated mid-IR SC with spectrum ranging from 1.8 μm to4.3 μm is achieved. The maximal average output power of the mid-IR SC from the ZBLAN fiber is 1.24 W(average output power beyond 2.5 μm is 340 mW), corresponding to an output efficiency of 6.6% with respect to the 790-nm pump power.     

The 2-μm to 6-μm mid-infrared supercontinuum generation in cascaded ZBLAN and As_2Se_3 step-index fibers

Fiber-based mid-infrared(MIR) supercontinuum(SC) sources benefit from their spectral brightness and spatial coherence that are needed for many applications, such as spectroscopy and metrology. In this paper, an SC spanning from 2 μm to 6 μm is demonstrated in cascaded ZrF_4–BaF_2–LaF_3–AlF_3–NaF(ZBLAN) and As_2Se_3 step-index fibers. The pump source is a ZBLAN fiber-based MIR SC laser with abundant high-peak-power soliton pulses between 3000 nm and 4200 nm. By concatenating the ZBLAN fiber and the As_2 Se_3 fiber, efficient cascading red-shifts are obtained in the normal dispersion region of the As_2 Se_3 fiber. The spectral behavior of cascaded SC generation shows that the long-wavelength proportion of MIR SC generated in the ZBLAN fiber plays a critical role for further spectral extension in the As_2 Se_3 fiber.     

Nearly transform-limited optical pulse from a passively mode-locked laser diode

An optical ultra-short pulse train with a duration of 2.9 ps was successfully generated from a passively mode-locked laser diode. The time-bandwidth product was 0.43, and it was very close to the transform-limited value of a Gaussian waveform. The highest peak power of 10 mW in an InP-based passively mode-locked laser has been achieved. The laser is promisng as an optical source for an ultra-high-speed bit rate transmission system, especially for the optical time division multiplexing (OTDM) system.     

Mid-infrared Er:ZBLAN fiber laser reaching 3.68 μm wavelength

We report a continuous-wave Er:ZBLAN fiber laser with the operation wavelength reaching 3.68 μm.The midinfrared Er:ZBLAN fiber laser is pumped with the dual-wavelength sources consisting of a commercial laser diode at 970 nm and a homemade Tm-doped fiber laser at 1973 nm.By increasing the launched pump power at1973 nm,the laser wavelength can be switched from 3.52 to 3.68 μm.The maximum output power of 0.85 W is obtained with a slope efficiency of 25.14% with respect to the 1973 nm pump power.In the experiment,the laser emission at 3.68 μm is obtained with a significant power of 0.62 W,which is the longest emission wavelength in free-running Er:ZBLAN fiber lasers.     

All-fiber,wavelength-tunable ultrafast praseodymium fiber laser

The interest in tunable ultrafast fiber lasers operating in the 1.3 μm region has seen a significant increase due to rising demands for bandwidth as well as the zero-dispersion characteristic of silica fibers in this wavelength region. In this work, a tunable mode-locked praseodymium-doped fluoride fiber(PDFF) laser using single-walled carbon nanotubes as a saturable absorber is demonstrated. The mode-locked pulses are generated at a central wavelength of 1302 nm with a pulse repetition rate of 5.92 MHz and pulse width of 1.13 ps. The tunability of the mode-locked PDFF laser covers a tuning range of 11 nm.     

Fabrication of 16W all-normal-dispersion mode-locked Yb-doped rod-type fiber laser with large-mode area

A mode-locked ytterbium-doped rod-type fiber laser with 85 μm core diameter is developed based on the nonlinear polarization evolution in an all-normal-dispersion ring cavity, in which a uniaxial birefringent plate is used as the spectral filter. Average power up to 16 W is obtained at the repetition rate of 58 MHz, and the pulse duration is compressed to 182 fs with a grating-pair compressor. The output laser pulses show very good beam quality and power stability.     

Millijoule pulse energy picosecond fiber chirped-pulse amplification system

The efficient generation of a 1.17-mJ laser pulse with 360 ps duration using an ytterbium (Yb)-doped fiber amplifier chain seeded by a homemade mode-locked fiber laser is demonstrated experimentally.A specially designed figure-of-eight fiber laser acts as the seed source of a chirped-pulse amplification (CPA) system and generates mode-locked pulses with hundreds of picosecond widths.Two kinds of large-mode-area (LMA) double-clad Yb-doped fibers are employed to construct the pre-amplifier and main amplifier.All of the adopted instruments help avoid severe nonlinearity in fibers to raise sub-nanosecond pulse energy with acceptable signal-to-noise ratio (SNR).The output spectrum of this fiber-based CPA system shows that amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) is suppressed to better than 30 dB,and the onset of stimulated Raman scattering is excluded.     

A compact graphene Q-switched erbium-doped fiber laser using optical circulator and tunable fiber Bragg grating

We demonstrate a passively Q-switched tunable erbium-doped fiber laser(EDFL)based on graphene as a saturable absorber(SA).A three-port optical circulator(OC)and a strain-induced tunable fiber Bragg grating(TFBG)are used as the two end mirrors in an all-fiber linear cavity.The Q-switched EDFL has a low pump threshold of 23.8 mW.The pulse repetition rate of the fiber laser can be widely changed from 9.3 kHz to 69.7 kHz by increasing the pump power from23.8 mW to 219.9 mW.The minimum pulse duration is 1.7μs and the highest pulse energy is 25.4 nJ.The emission wavelength of the laser can be tuned from 1560.43 nm to 1566.27 nm by changing the central wavelength of the straininduced TFBG.     

Graphene/MoS_2 heterostructure: a robust mid-infrared optical modulator for Er~(3+)-doped ZBLAN fiber laser

We have prepared the graphene∕MoS_2 heterostructure by a hydrothermal method, and presented its nonlinear absorption parameters and application as a nonlinear optical modulator in the mid-infrared region.Using the nonlinear optical modulator, stable passively Q-switched operation of an Er~(3+)-doped ZrF_4-BaF_2-LaF_3-AlF_3-NaF(ZBLAN) fiber laser at ~2.8 μm can be obtained. The Q-switched Er~(3+)-doped ZBLAN fiber laser can yield per-pulse energy up to 2.2 μJ with the corresponding pulse width and pulse repetition rate of 1.9 μs and 45 kHz, respectively. Our results indicate that the graphene∕MoS_2 heterostructure can be a robust optical modulator for pulsed lasers in the mid-infrared spectral range.     

Diode-pumped self-starting mode-locked femtosecond Yb:YCa4O（BO3）3laser

A self-starting mode-locked femtosecond laser is accomplished with an oxoborate self-frequency doubling crystal Yb:YCa4O(BO3)3(Yb:YCOB) as the gain medium and a semiconductor mirror as the saturable absorber. Pumped by a976-nm fiber-coupled diode laser with 50-μm core diameter, stable mode-locked laser pulses up to 430 mW were obtained at a repetition rate of 83.61 MHz under 5-W pump power. The autocorrelation measurement shows that the pulse duration is as short as 150 fs by assuming the sech2pulse shape at a central wavelength of 1048 nm. This work has demonstrated a compact and reliable femtosecond laser source for prospective low-cost applications.     

Diode end-pumped self-Q-switched and mode-locked Nd,Cr：YAG /KTP green laser

We first experimentally demonstrate a laser-diode end-pumped self-Q-switched and mode-locked Nd,Cr:YAG green laser with a KTP crystal as the intra-cavity frequency doubler. The device produces an average output power of 680 mW at 532 nm. The corresponding pulse width of the Q-switched envelope of the green laser is 170±20 ns. The mode-locked pulses have a repetition rate of approximately 183 MHz and the average pulse duration is estimated to be around sub-nanosecond. It is found that the intra-cavity frequency doubling greatly improves the modulation depth and stability of the mode-locked pulses within the Q-switched envelope.     

Nonlinear Polarization Rotation-Based Mode-Locked Erbium-Doped Fiber Laser with Three Switchable Operation States

A simple mode-locked erbium-doped fiber laser （EDFL） with three switchable operation states is proposed and demonstrated based on nonlinear polarization rotation. The EDFL generates a stable square pulse at a third harmonic pulse repetition rate of 87kHz as the 1480 nm pump power increases from the threshold of 17.5 m W to 34.3mW. The square pulse duration increases from 105 ns to 245ns as the pump power increases within this region. The pulse operation switches to the second operation state as the pump power is varied from 48.2mW to l16.Tm W. The laser operates at a fundamental repetition rate of 29 kHz with a fixed pulse width of 8.5 μs within the pump power region. At a pump power of ll6.TmW, the average output power is 3.84mW, which corresponds to the pulse energy of 131.5 ng. When the pump power continues to increase, the pulse train experiences unstable oscillation before it reaches the third stable operation state within a pump power region of 138.9 m W to 145.0 m W. Within this region, the EDFL produces a fixed pulse width of 2.8 μs and a harmonic pulse repetition rate of 58 kHz.     

2-μm mode-locked nanosecond fiber laser based on MoS_2 saturable absorber

We demonstrated a 2-μm passively mode-locked nanosecond fiber laser based on a MoS_2 saturable absorber(SA).Owing to the effect of nonlinear absorption in the MoS_2 SA, the pulse width decreased from 64.7 to 13.8 ns with increasing pump power from 1.10 to 1.45 W. The use of a narrow-bandwidth fiber Bragg grating resulted in a central wavelength and 3-dB spectral bandwidth of 2010.16 and 0.15 nm, respectively. Experimental results show that MoS_2 is a promising material for a 2-μm mode-locked fiber laser.     

Towards all-fiber structure pulsed mid-infrared laser by gas-filled hollow-core fibers

We report here on a diode-pumped pulsed mid-infrared laser source based on gas-filled hollow-core fibers(HCFs)towards an all-fiber structure by the tapering method. The pump laser is coupled into an acetylene-filled HCF through a tapered single-mode fiber. By precisely tuning the wavelength of the diode to match different absorption lines of acetylene near 1.5 μm, mid-infrared emission around 3.1–3.2 μm is generated. With 2 m HCFs and3 mbar acetylene gas, a maximum average power of 130 m W is obtained with a laser slope efficiency of ～24%.This work provides a potential scheme for all-fiber mid-infrared fiber gas lasers.     

Fiber laser pumped burst-mode operated picosecond mid-infrared laser

We demonstrate a compact periodically poled MgO-doped lithium niobate(MgO:PPLN)-based optical parametric oscillator(OPO) quasi-synchronously pumped by a fiber laser system with burst-mode operation.The pump source is a peak-power-selectable pulse-multiplied picosecond Yb fiber laser.The chirped pulses from a figure of eight-cavity modelocked fiber laser seed are narrowed to a duration of less than 50 ps using an FBG reflector and a circulator.The narrowed pulses are directed to pass through a pulse multiplier and to form pulse bunches,each of which is composed of 13 subpulses.The obtained pulse bunches are amplified by two-stage fiber pre-amplifiers:one-stage is core-pumped and the other is cladding-pumped.A fiberized acousto-optic modulator is inserted to control the pulse repetition rate(PRR) of the pulse bunches before they are power-amplified in the final amplifier stage with a large mode area(LMA) PM Yb-doped fiber.The maximum average powers from the final amplifier are 85 W,60 W,and 45 W,respectively,corresponding to the PRR of2.72 MHz,1.36 MHz,and 0.68 MHz.The amplified pulses are directed to pump an MgO:PPLN-based optical parametric oscillator(OPO).A maximum peak power at 3.45 μm is obtained approximately to be 8.4 kW.Detailed performance characteristics are presented.     

Generation of 8.5-nJ pulse from all-fiber dispersion compensation-free Yb-doped laser

We report the generation of an 8.5-nJ chirped pulse from a mode-locked all-fiber Yb-doped laser.Modelocking is achieved through nonlinear polarization evolution(NPE) along with spectral filtering.The laser delivers 135 mW of average output power with positively chirped 10.9-ps pulses.The pulse repetition rate is 15.9 MHz,which results in an energy of 8.5 nJ per pulse.The externally dechirped pulse duration is 223 fs,and the pulse energy is 6 nJ,which corresponds to the peak power of～27 kW.     

Wavelength-Tunable Rectangular Pulse Dissipative Soliton Operation of an Erbium-Doped Mode-Locked Fiber Laser

The wavelength-tunable rectangular pulse dissipative soliton （DS） is experimentally demonstrated, for the first time to the best of our knowledge, in an erbium-doped figure-of-eight fiber laser based on the nonlinear amplifying loop mirror mode-locked technique. The proposed rectangular pulse DS fiber laser can operate in the wavelength- tunable mode-locked state from 1573.5nm to 159d.6 nm with the rotation of the polarization controllers. The achieved output wavelengths are 1573.5nm, 1576.3nm, 1586.8nm, 1590.4nm and 1594.6nm, respectively. The pulse widths of the rectangular pulse can also be tuned from ~8ns to ~24ns by adjusting the pump power. The fundamental repetition rate of the rectangular pulse DS is 1.154 MHz and the output power is 6.1d m W （at 1594.6 nm）.     

Impacts of operational parameters on nonlinear polarization rotation-based passively mode-locked fiber laser

The operational parameters including the polarization controlling and the pump power in a nonlinear polarization rotation-based passively mode-locked fiber laser are studied in this paper.The carrier rate equations of the activated erbium-doped fiber are first employed together with the nonlinear Shro¨dinger equations to reveal the relation between the operational parameters and the output state of the passively mode-locked fiber laser.The numerical and experimental results demonstrate that the output state of the mode-locked laser varies with the polarization controlling and the pump power.The periodicity of the polarization controlling is observed.With given pump power,there exists a set of polarization controlling under which the ultra-short pulse can be generated.With given polarization controlling,the mode-locked state can be maintained generally except for some particular values of pump power.Three shapes of the output optical spectra from the fiber cavity can be identified when the pump power changes.The results in this paper provide a comprehensive insight into the operation of the nonlinear polarization rotation-based passively mode-locked fiber laser.     

Harmonically pump a femtosecond optical parametric oscillator to 1.13 GHz by a femtosecond 515 nm laser

We demonstrate a harmonically pumped femtosecond optical parametric oscillator(OPO)laser using a frequency-doubled mode-locked Yb:KGW laser at a repetition rate of 75.5 MHz as the pump laser.Based on a bismuth borate nonlinear crystal,repetition rates up to 1.13 GHz are realized,which is 15 times that of the pump laser.The signal wavelength is tunable from 700 nm to 887 nm.The maximum power of the signal is 207 m W at the central wavelength of 750 nm and the shortest pulse duration is 117 fs at 780 nm.The beam quality(M^2 factor)in the horizontal and vertical directions of the output beam are 1.077 and 1.141,respectively.     

Self-starting harmonic mode-locked Tm-Bi co-doped germanate fiber laser with carbon nanotube-based saturable absorber

We report a ring cavity passively harmonic mode-locked fiber laser using a newly developed thuliumbismuth co-doped fiber(TBF) as a gain medium in conjunction with a carbon nanotube(CNT)-based saturable absorber.The TBF laser generates a third harmonic mode-locked soliton pulse train with a high repetition rate of 50 MHz and a pulse duration of 1.86 ps.The laser operates at 1 901.6 nm with an average power of 6.6 mW,corresponding to a pulse energy of 0.132 nJ,at a 1 552 nm pump power of 723.3 mW.