Ultrahigh-repetition-rate bound-soliton harmonic passive mode-locked fiber lasers

On the basis of numerical simulation results, we put forward a way to realize harmonic passive mode locking of fiber lasers with an ultrahigh-repetition-rate pulse train. The equidistant distribution of ultrashort pulses filling the total laser cavity is due to bound-soliton mechanisms. In the case of large bound energy, such long soliton trains are very stable and have the ideal periodic structure as a soliton crystal.     

Stable multigigahertz pulse-train formation in a short-cavity passively harmonic mode-locked erbium/ytterbium fiber laser

We demonstrate a short-cavity erbium-ytterbium fiber laser that is passively mode locked by a saturable Bragg reflector with a fundamental repetition rate of 235 MHz . The laser operates in the soliton regime and under passive harmonic mode locking with 11 pulses in the cavity and produces output pulse trains at 2.6 GHz with transform-limited 270-fs pulses and 1.6 mW of average power. Within the cavity the multiple pulses form a stable pattern with fixed, nearly equal pulse-to-pulse temporal spacings, causing the output pulse train to have timing offsets of less than 15 ps. A slow gain-recovery model is proposed to explain the pulse-train self-organization.     

Bidirectional passively mode-locked soliton fiber laser with a four-port circulator

We present an all-fiber bidirectional passively mode-locked soliton laser with what we believe is a novel cavity configuration. Using a four-port circulator, we incorporate two different semiconductor saturable absorber mirrors (SESAMs) into the laser cavity, which enables bidirectional mode locking. The laser allows the generation of two independent countercirculating mode-locked pulse trains, each with an individual fundamental repetition rate that can be adjusted by varying the SESAM pigtail length. Two countercirculating pulse trains with repetition rates of 21.3 and 15.2 MHz are obtained simultaneously. By controlling the intracavity loss imposed on these two pulse trains, either one of the two pulse trains can be switched on or off. The bidirectional operation with other repetition rates is also demonstrated.     

High Repetition Rate Optical Pulse Generation Using a Rational Harmonic Mode Locking Technique in a Fiber Ring Laser

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Dissipative soliton operation in diode pumped ultrafast Yb:GdYSiO5 oscillator

We demonstrate the dissipative soliton mode locking in a diode pumped Yb：GdYSiO~（Yb：GYSO） laser operating in the positive dispersion regime. We obtain stable passively mode-locked pulses with strong positive chirp and with very steep spectral edges. The central wavelength is 1050 nm with bandwidth of about 4 nm, autocorrelation trace shown the typical pulse duration is about 3.5 ps. We obtain the maximum average power of 558 mW for a 3.3-W absorbed pump power, with 22% slope efficiency, and a 78-MHz pulse repetition frequency.     

Ultralow noise and supermode suppression in an actively mode-locked external-cavity semiconductor diode ring laser

We report what is to our knowledge the lowest phase and amplitude noise characteristics achieved to date in a 10-GHz pulse train produced by the active harmonic mode locking of an external-cavity semiconductor diode laser. Supermode noise has also been suppressed below -140 dBc/Hz by use of a high-finesse fiber Fabry-Perot etalon as an intracavity filter. Novel noise sideband measurements that extend to the Nyquist offset frequency suggest a significant advantage in using harmonic (rather than fundamental) mode locking to produce ultralow-noise pulse trains, owing to the relationship between the noise roll-off frequency and the fundamental cavity frequency.     

Observation of soliton bound states in a graphene mode locked erbium-doped fiber laser

We report on the experimental observation of bound states of solitons in a graphene mode locked erbium-doped fiber laser. By using graphene as a saturable absorber, we have obtained stable, single and bound soliton pulses, the latter with a full width at half maximum (FWHM) of 1.49 ps and a fixed pulse separation of 2.46 ps. Our results once again show that bound soliton pulses is an intrinsic feature of fiber lasers independent of the exact mode locking mechanism.     

LD调制有理数谐波锁模光纤激光器

本文将F-PLD与环形光纤激光器结合起来,以LD作为调制器,得到高稳定单波长超短光脉冲序列.与工作在增益开关状态的LD相比,平均输出功率提高到2mW,脉冲宽度压窄到47ps.并利用有理数谐波锁模技术,得到重复频率5GHz(5阶有理数谐波锁模)的锁模脉冲,脉冲宽度略有展宽为49ps.     

Ytterbium doped all-fiber-path all-normal dispersion mode-locked laser based on semiconductor saturable mirror

In this paper, we describe a compact all-fiber-path picosecond pulse based on Ytterbium doped fiber oscillator. A home-made novel SESAM mounted on fiber is reported, by which stable mode locking is obtained. The SESAM possesses the low saturation flux 20 μJ/cm² (versus prior low saturation flux 32 μJ/cm²), which effectively reduces the pump power threshold of mode locking. The fiber laser generates 15 ps pulse trains without a dispersive delay line or anomalous dispersion in the cavity. Mode locking pulse with 30 MHz basic repetition-rate was produced, with 10–30 mW scale average output power at 1064 nm. Through 60 h of uninterrupted laser operating, mode locking is steady as ever.     

Passive mode locking of thin-disk lasers: effects of spatial hole burning

We recently demonstrated that passive mode locking of a thin-disk Yb:YAG laser is possible and that this concept leads to sources of femtosecond pulses with very high average power. Here we discuss in detail the effect of spatial hole burning on the mode-locking behavior of such lasers. We have developed an efficient numerical model and arrive at quantitative stability criteria which agree well with experimental data. The main result is that stable soliton mode locking can in general be obtained only in a certain range of pulse durations. We use our model to investigate the influence of various cavity parameters and the situation for different gain media. We also consider several methods to reduce the effect of spatial hole burning in order to expand the range of possible pulse durations. Received: 4 September 2000 / Published online: 10 January 2001     

Technique for multiplying the repetition rates of periodic trains of pulses by means of a temporal self-imaging effect in chirped fiber gratings

We show that a temporal effect that is equivalent to the spatial self-imaging (Talbot) effect applies to the reflection of periodic signals from linearly chirped fiber gratings. The effect can be used for multiplying the repetition frequency of a given periodic pulse train without distorting the individual pulse characteristics. The practical limit on the frequency-multiplication factor depends only on the temporal width of the individual pulse. Thus we demonstrate that a suitable combination of well-known techniques for short-pulse generation, such as pulse mode locking, and the technique proposed here allows us to obtain short-pulse trains with ultrahigh repetition rates (in the terahertz regime). Results from simulations show good agreement with those predicted by theory.     

Critical behavior of a passively mode-locked laser: rational harmonic mode locking

The critical behavior of passive mode locking has been demonstrated in a figure-eight fiber laser that performs rational harmonic mode locking (RHML). On both the repetition rate and the pulse amplitude distribution, the observed pulse trains near the threshold exhibit the same regulations as the rational harmonic mode-locked ones. The theory also shows that there should be a middle status of RHML before achieving normal mode locking. It is important to note that the results provide what we believe to be the first confirmed attempt to address a fundamental question: how does a laser become mode locking with an increase of pump power?     

Gain-guided soliton in a positive group-dispersion fiber laser

We report on the operation of a passively mode-locked fiber ring laser made of purely normal dispersive fibers. Self-started mode locking can still be achieved in the laser by use of the nonlinear polarization rotation technique, and the mode-locked pulse has large pulse energy, strong frequency chirp, and a mode-locked spectral width limited by the effective laser gain bandwidth. Furthermore, we show that the operation of the laser can be well described by an extended Ginzburg-Landau equation model that governs the soliton dynamics of fiber lasers.     

Oscillating solitons in a novel integrable model of asynchronous mode locking

An integrable nonlinear Schr?dinger equation incorporating time-varying phase modulation is presented. A family of solutions is identified, including solitons that oscillate in position and frequency. The equation is used to model steady-state asynchronous laser mode locking. Numerical simulations are used to verify the model and to explore the breakdown of the model as the product of pulse width and modulation frequency is increased.     

Numerical study of converting beat-note signals of dual-frequency lasers to optical frequency combs by optical injection locking of semiconductor lasers

The optical injection locking of semiconductor lasers to dual-frequency lasers is studied by numerical simulations. The beat-note signals can be effectively transformed to optical frequency combs due to the effective four wave-mixing in the active semiconductor gain medium. The low-noise Gaussian-like pulse can be obtained by locking the relaxation oscillation and compensating the gain asymmetry. The simulations suggest that pulse trains of width below 30 ps and repetition rate in GHz frequency can be generated simply by the optical injection locking of semiconductor lasers. Since the optical injection locking can broaden the spectrum and amplify the optical power simultaneously, it can be a good initial stage for generating optical frequency combs from dual-frequency lasers by multi-stage of spectral broadening in nonlinear waveguides.     

Broadband coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering spectroscopy using soliton pulse trains from a photonic crystal fiber

Pulse trains of fundamental soliton pulses with different center wavelengths and delay times from a photonic crystal fiber were generated and used as Stokes optical pulses in coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering (CARS) spectroscopy. The pulse trains were created by shaping optical pulses with a pulse shaper and their waveforms were measured by a cross-correlation frequency-resolved optical gating method. By the use of pulse trains, the time required for obtaining broadband CARS signals was reduced to be about one third compared with our previous study without using pulse trains. With this setup, broadband CARS signals between 500 and 3100 cm⁻¹ of a single polystyrene bead sample have been measured and the most of the Raman peaks in this frequency range of samples have been observed clearly.     

一种基于非线性光纤环镜开关特性的超短光孤子产生方法

提出了一种利用非线性光纤环镜的开关特性将连续波同时转化为亮孤子和暗孤子的新方法 ,即让连续波和另一波长的调制脉冲串共同耦合入光纤环镜 ,交叉相位调制使得一部分连续波被环镜透射 ,其余部分被反射 ;再让透射波和反射波分别在反常色散光纤和正常色散光纤中传输 ,自相位调制和群速度色散之间的相互作用使得透射波和反射波分别演化为亮、暗孤子。数值计算表明 ,该方法不仅可产生脉宽比调制脉冲窄、重复频率比调制脉冲高的亮孤子和暗孤子 ,而且几乎可将全部的连续波能量转化为孤子能量。     

40-gHz, 100-fs stimulated-Brillouin-scattering-free pulse generation by combining a mode-locked laser diode and a dispersion-decreasing fiber

A 40-GHz, 100-fs pulse train was successfully generated by soliton compression of a mode-locked laser diode (MLLD) pulse with a dispersion-decreasing fiber. The MLLD had a longitudinal mode linewidth as broad as 60 MHz, which made it possible to suppress stimulated Brillouin scattering and achieve stable, ultrahigh-speed pulse compression without applying external frequency modulation.     

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.     

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