Generation of a mid-infrared broadband polarized supercontinuum in As2Se3 photonic crystal fibers

A simplified structure of birefringent chalcogenide As 2 Se 3 photonic crystal fiber（PCF） is designed.Properties of birefringence,polarization extinction ratio,chromatic dispersion,nonlinear coefficient,and transmission are studied by using the multipole method,the finite-difference beam propagation method,and the adaptive split-step Fourier method.Considering that the zero dispersion wavelength of our proposed fiber is about 4 μm,we have analysed the mechanism of spectral broadening in PCFs with different pitches in detail,with femtosecond pulses at a wavelength of 4 μm as the pump pulses.Especially,mid-infrared broadband polarized supercontinuums are obtained in a 3-cm PCF with an optimal pitch of 2 μm.Their spectral width at 20 dB reaches up to 12 μm.In the birefringent PCF,we find that the supercontinuum generation changes with the pump alignment angle.Research results show that no coupling between eigenpolarization modes are observed at the maximum average power（i.e.,37 mW）,which indicates that the polarization state is well maintained.     

Q-switched thulium-doped photonic crystal fiber laser

We report a novel, Tm-doped photonic crystal fiber (PCF) actively Q-switched oscillator that provides ~8.9 kW peak power with 435 μJ, 49 ns pulses at 10 kHz repetition rate at 2 μm wavelength. This fiber has a mode-field area >1000 μm2, the largest of any flexible PCF providing diffraction-limited beam quality to the best of our knowledge. As an application, the oscillator is used as pump to generate >350 nm broadening in ~50 m of SMF-28 fiber.     

飞秒光脉冲在光子晶体光纤不同色散区产生超连续谱的数值分析

采用预测校正分步傅里叶方法数值模拟了飞秒光脉冲在光子晶体光纤中的非线性传输和超连续谱产生,分析了初始光脉冲的中心波长、峰值功率和光纤长度在光子晶体光纤正、反常色散区对超连续谱形状和带宽的影响。结果表明,当初始光脉冲的中心波长在光纤的反常色散区时,产生的超连续谱宽要远宽于正常色散区,但是光谱的平坦性较差;当光脉冲中心波长在靠近零色散波长的反常色散区且其他脉冲参数不变的情况下,存在一个产生宽且平坦的超连续谱的最佳峰值功率和最佳光纤长度。对于超连续谱系统的优化设计与实际应用具有参考意义。     

Low-threshold supercontinuum generation from an extruded SF6 PCF using a compact Cr<Superscript>4+</Superscript>:YAG laser

The modal properties of an extruded SF6 photonic crystal fiber (PCF) have been analyzed on the basis of a full-vector model. The favorable dispersion properties (the zero-dispersion wavelength for a PCF with 4.5-m core size lies at approximately 1.5 m) and the large nonlinearity figure of up to 280 W^-1km^-1 may provide more than an octave of spectral broadening with launched pulse energies below 200 pJ. In agreement with simulations, experiments have demonstrated the low-energy spectral broadening under excitation by -–60 70fs pulses from a compact mode-locked Cr⁴⁺:YAG laser operating at a 100-MHz repetition rate. Besides the spectral broadening due to the soliton-fission mechanism, the rich mode structure of the fiber allows third-order harmonic generation and four-wave mixing, which extend the supercontinuum spectrum down to the visible-wavelength range. PACS 42.65.Tg; 42.81.Dp     

在远离光子晶体光纤零色散波长的正常色散区入射飞秒脉冲产生四波混频及孤子效应的实验研究

在远离光子晶体光纤零色散波长的正常色散区入射飞秒脉冲,实验产生了一对由四波混频引起的信号波带和闲频波带,及一对由脉冲内拉曼散射和非孤子辐射引起的孤子和色散波带,并观察到功率饱和现象.利用有限元法理论模拟了光纤的色散和非线性特性,用四波混频的相位匹配条件模拟了光纤在满足相位匹配条件下所产生的信号波带和闲频波带出现的可能位置,并与实验结果符合得很好.结果表明:即使在光子晶体光纤的正常色散区抽运激光脉冲亦可以产生四波混频和孤子效应;研究发现四波混频的产生是由四阶色散参量引起的;并进一步从理论上解释了孤子及色散波的产生原因.     

低损耗宽带近零色散高非线性光子晶体光纤设计

提出了一种兼具低损耗、宽带近零色散和高非线性的光子晶体光纤结构,该结构光纤包层空气孔直径从纤芯向外层方向渐进增加;应用多极法,通过改变包层空气孔间距Λ、各层空气孔直径和空气孔层数N_r,对光子晶体光纤色散、损耗和非线性特性进行分析,获得了各特性随包层结构参数变化的规律,并最终设计出最佳结构参数。计算结果表明,该结构光纤存在3个零色散点,在1.25～1.55 μm较宽的波长范围内,色散值波动小于0.27 ps·nm?1·km?1,色散斜率小于0.008 ps·km?1·nm?2,1.55 μm波长处损耗为0.021 dB/km,在常用的飞秒激光泵浦波长0.8,1.06,1.55 μm处非线性系数分别达到78.6,60.4,38.2 W?1·km?1。     

Design of highly birefringent chalcogenide glass PCF: A simplest design

In this article, a new simplified structure of a highly birefringent chalcogenide As₂Se₃ glass photonic crystal fiber (PCF) is designed and analyzed by using fully vectorial finite element method. The effective indices, confinement loss, birefringence, and chromatic dispersion of fundamental polarized mode are calculated in the proposed PCF for a wide wavelength range. To maintain the polarization in chalcogenide As₂Se₃ glass PCF, we enlarged two of the central air holes and reduced two transverse air holes for achieving high birefringence. This helps in creating an effective index difference between the two orthogonal polarization modes. It is also shown that As₂Se₃ glass PCF provides lower chromatic dispersion and less confinement loss compared to silica PCF of the same structure in wavelength range 1.3 to 1.8 μm and hence such chalcogenide As₂Se₃ glass PCF have high potential to be used in dispersion compensating and birefringence application in optical communication systems. In addition to this, the polarization mode dispersion (PMD) result of the proposed PCF is also reported.     

利用自发四波混频测量光子晶体光纤色散

使用脉宽为1.6ps的脉冲光抽运0.6m长的光子晶体光纤,测量由光纤中自发四波混频过程所产生光子对的频谱,并利用所获得的相位匹配数据确定了待测光纤的色散。当抽运光的中心波长以1nm的步长,在1037～1047nm的范围内变化时,通过可调谐滤波器和单光子探测器测量光子晶体光纤产生的信号和闲频光子对的频谱,从而获得11组四波混频相位匹配数据。然后使用阶跃有效折射率模型对所获得的相位匹配数据进行拟合,得出待测光子晶体光纤的纤芯半径和包层空气比的有效值分别为0.949μm和29.52%,并在此基础上计算了光纤的色散及全频谱范围内的四波混频相位匹配曲线。实验结果显示,曲线预测值与实测值之间误差小于0.1%。     

Ultrashort pulse compression and delivery in a hollow-core photonic crystal fiber at 540 nm wavelength

We have fabricated a bandgap-guiding hollow-core photonic crystal fiber (PCF) capable of transmitting and compressing ultrashort pulses in the green spectral region around 532 nm. When propagating subpicosecond pulses through 1 m of this fiber, we have observed soliton-effect temporal compression by up to a factor of 3 to around 100 fs. This reduces the wavelength at which soliton effects have been observed in hollow-core PCF by over 200 nm. We have used the pulses delivered at the output of the fiber to machine micrometer-scale features in copper.     

Supercontinuum generation in photonic crystal fiber using femtosecond pulses

Supercontinuum (SC) generation in photonic crystal fiber (PCF) is demonstrated using an amplified femtosecond stretched pulses. The stretched pulse is obtained from a mode-locked Erbium-doped fiber laser and operates at 1564 nm with a repetition rate of 8.27 MHz and a pulse width of 340 fs. Using a 50 m long PCF, broad SC spectra are observed starting from 1220 and 1050 nm for the corresponding 5.1 and 177 kW pump and spanning a wavelength region of more than 1750 nm. At a maximum peak pump power of 177 kW, flat SC which extends over bandwidths of 660 and 486 nm are obtained using 50 and 100 m piece of PCF respectively. However, the output power level is higher for the 100 m PCF especially at longer wavelength region.     

双折射色散阶跃光纤中拉曼效应和参量放大增益谱

在拉曼效应和参量放大共同作用下,当激光脉冲在双折射光纤中传输时,根据所遵循的耦合模方程,通过引入平行拉曼增益的洛伦兹模型,导出了当输入泵浦波偏振方向同双折射轴成45°角时,在双折射色散阶跃光纤中拉曼效应和参量放大共同作用所导致的增益,讨论并分析了在不同色散区增益谱随相关参量的变化。结果表明:由于拉曼效应、参量放大、双折射和色散的相互作用,导致增益谱的斯托克斯波与反斯托克斯波彼此不对称;在反常色散区,产生的增益以反斯托克斯波为主,在正常色散区则以斯托克斯波为主;当表征距离的级数m发生变化时,增益谱也随之发生变化,可以利用色散阶跃光纤在适当的级数m位置提取T频率脉冲。     

一种新型高双折射光子晶体光纤特性研究

设计了一种高双折射高非线性光子晶体光纤, 采用全矢量有限元法研究了这种光纤的基模模场、双折射、非线性、有效模面积及色散特性. 数值研究发现, 减小孔间距Λ的大小, 在波长1550 nm 处, 该光纤可获得10^-2 数量级的双折射B, 比普通的椭圆保偏光纤高约两个数量级; 同时, 该光纤可获得42 W^-1·km^-1 的高非线性系数γ. 另外,分别在可见光和近红外波段出现了两个零色散波长, 在波长800–2000 nm 之间具有良好的色散平坦特性. 这种设计为获得高双折射高非线性超平坦色散光子晶体光纤提供了一种新的方法, 该光纤在偏振控制、非线性光学和色散控制方面具有广泛的应用前景. 关键词： 光子晶体光纤 高双折射 高非线性 有限元法     

Numerical investigation of a broadband coherent supercontinuum generation in Ga8Sb32S60 chalcogenide photonic crystal fiber with all-normal dispersion

All normal dispersion (ANDi) and highly nonlinear chalcogenide glass photonic crystal fiber (PCF) is proposed and numerically investigated for a broad, coherent and ultra-flat mid-infrared supercontinuum generation. The proposed PCF consists of a solid core made of Ga₈Sb₃₂S₆₀ glass surrounded by seven rings of air holes arranged in a triangular lattice. We show by employing the finite difference frequency domain (FDFD) method that the Ga₈Sb₃₂S₆₀ PCF dispersion properties can be engineered by carefully adjusting the air holes diameter in the cladding region and ANDi regime is achieved over the entire range of wavelengths with a zero chromatic dispersion around 4.5?μm. Moreover, we demonstrate that injecting 50?fs width and 20?kW peak power laser pulses (corresponding to a pulse energy of 1.06?nJ) at a pump wavelength of 4.5?μm into a 1?cm long ANDi Ga₈Sb₃₂S₆₀ PCF generates a broad, flat-top and perfectly coherent SC spectrum extending from 1.65?μm to 9.24?μm at the 20?dB spectral flatness. These results make the proposed Ga₈Sb₃₂S₆₀ PCF an excellent candidate for various important mid-infrared region applications including mid-infrared spectroscopy, medical imaging, optical coherence tomography and materials characterization.     

高双折射光子晶体光纤偏振模色散测量

对一种高双折射光子晶体光纤的偏振模色散进行了测量.实验用26 m长光子晶体光纤使皮秒光脉冲的两个正交偏振模产生了108 ps时延.运用脉冲时延法和固定分析仪法对这种高双折射光子晶体光纤的偏振模色散进行了实验测量，测量得到其偏振模色散参量可达4154 ps/km，对应的模式双折射度为1.25×10－3.这种新型的高双折射光纤可用于补偿光纤通信系统中的偏振模色散.     

Polarization-dependent two-color dispersion wave generation and evolution in polarization-maintaining photonic crystal fiber

We investigate the effect of the polarization state of the input pulses on the visible emissions in the anomalous dispersion region of polarization-maintaining photonic crystal fiber (PM-PCF), by using ～100 fs pump pulses whose central wavelength (1064 nm) is close to the second zero dispersion wavelength (1100 nm) of the fiber, where the soliton fission mechanisms play an important role. The experimental results show that the phase-matching two-color dispersive wave emission, one at 582 nm and the other at 600 nm, is polarization-dependent and frequency shift results from the different dispersion characteristics along the two orthogonal principal axes of PM-PCF. Furthermore, it is observed for the first time that the variation of the linear input polarization angles in 45° region almost has no influence on the output spectral profiles, and the break variation of the output spectrum exists when the angle between the polarization of the linear incident pulse and the fast-axis or the slow-axis of PM-PCF is 45°, which are attributed to the coupling between the two polarization modes in high birefringent PM-PCF.     

Highly nonlinear birefringent photonic crystal fiber

We propose an index guiding highly nonlinear birefringent photonic crystal fiber (PCF). Using a full vectorial finite element method (FEM), we investigate the key propagation characteristics of the proposed design. We demonstrate that it is possible to design a simple PCF structure configuration with a birefringence in the order of 10⁻² and a nonlinear coefficient of 49 W⁻¹ km⁻¹ at the wavelength of 1.55 μm. It is demonstrated that two zero dispersion wavelengths can be achieved by the proposed design. Bending analysis and fabrication issues are also discussed thoroughly.     

Optimization of highly nonlinear dispersion-flattened photonic crystal fiber for supercontinuum generation

A simple type of photonic crystal fiber (PCF) for supercontinuum generation is proposed for the first time. The proposed PCF is composed of a solid silica core and a cladding with square lattice uniform elliptical air holes, which offers not only a large nonlinear coefficient but also a high birefringence and low leakage losses. The PCF with nonlinear coefficient as large as 46 W 1 · km-1 at the wavelength of 1.55 μm and a total dispersion as low as ±2.5 ps · nm-1 · km-1 over an ultra-broad waveband range of the S-C-L band (wavelength from 1.46 μm to 1.625 μm) is optimized by adjusting its structure parameter, such as the lattice constant Λ , the air-filling fraction f , and the air-hole ellipticity η. The novel PCF with ultra-flattened dispersion, highly nonlinear coefficient, and nearly zero negative dispersion slope will offer a possibility of efficient super-continuum generation in telecommunication windows using a few ps pulses.     

光子晶体光纤产生飞秒超连续谱的实验研究

研究了飞秒脉冲经过光子晶体光纤时超连续谱产生的物理机制。采用输出波长可调谐的钛宝石光参量放大器作为泵浦源,光纤光谱仪测量不同泵浦功率和不同泵浦波长条件下光子晶体光纤产生的超连续谱的光谱图,对进行了归一化处理后的不同泵浦功率和不同泵浦波长条件下的超连续谱进行对比,分析影响光子晶体光纤超连续谱差异的物理机制。实验结果表明,当泵浦波长不变时,随着入射泵浦脉冲平均功率的增大,波峰增多,谱宽也逐渐加宽并伴随着出现能量向短波方向集中的现象,泵浦功率到达一定强度时,超连续谱的宽度最后到达饱和,谱的包络趋于稳定;入射光功率稳定在300 mW时,超连续谱的宽度和形状皆受到泵浦波长影响,在760～840 nm范围内,泵浦波长越长,波峰数越多,泵浦脉冲波长离零色散点越近,光子晶体光纤产生的超连续谱谱宽会越宽,超连续谱的形状相对越平坦。     

Supercontinuum generation in chloroform-filled photonic crystal fibers

We propose a novel method to achieve highly nonlinear photonic crystal fiber (PCF) by filling highly nonlinear liquid chloroform in the core of hollow-core PCF (HCPCF). The dispersion properties and electric field distribution of the fundamental mode are calculated by using the full-vector finite element method (FVFEM). Simulation results indicate that the zero-dispersion wavelength (ZDWL) of the chloroform-filled PCF is adjustable around 800 nm. Hence the femtosecond laser pulses with central wavelength at 800 nm can propagate in anomalous dispersion regime of the PCF, inducing the spectra broadening.     

Nd:YVO₄ amplifier for ultrafast low-power lasers

An Nd:YVO₄ amplifier consisting of two modules end pumped at 808?nm at 30?W total absorbed power has been designed for efficient, diffraction-limited amplification of ultrafast pulses from low-power seeders. We investigated amplification with a 50?mW, 7?ps Nd:YVO₄ oscillator, a 2?mW, 15?ps Yb fiber laser, and a 30?mW, 300?fs Nd:glass laser. Output power as high as 9.5?W with 8?ps pulses was achieved with the 250?MHz vanadate seeder, whereas the 20?MHz fiber laser was amplified to 6?W. The femtosecond seeder allowed extracting Fourier-limited 4?ps pulses at 7?W output power. To our knowledge, these are the shortest pulses from any Nd:YVO₄ laser device with at least 7?W output power. This suggests a novel approach to exploit the gain bandwidth of vanadate amplifiers with high output power levels. Such amplifier technology promises to offer an interesting alternative to high-power thin disk oscillators at few picoseconds duration, as well as to regenerative amplifiers with low-repetition-rate fiber seeders.