Random distributed feedback Raman fiber laser operating in a 1.2 μm wavelength range

The random distributed feedback fiber laser operating via the stimulated Raman scattering and random distributed feedback based on the Rayleigh scattering is demonstrated in the 1.2 μm frequency band. The RDFB fiber laser generates at 1174 nm up to 2.4 W of output power with corresponding slope efficiency more than 30%. The output radiation has the spectral shape similar to the conventional Raman fiber lasers and spectral width less than 1.7 nm.     

Random distributed feedback fiber laser pumped by an ytterbium doped fiber laser

A random distributed feedback fiber laser operating at 1115 nm has been demonstrated experimentally in standard communication optical fibers by using a LD-pumped Yb-doped fiber laser as the pump source. We have studied the effect of different fiber spans on this new type of random fiber laser output power. It is shown that the generation power is the highest up to 198 mW in a 50 km fiber span. The slope efficiency is more than 28.7%. Stable, high-power continuous-wave (CW) lasing can be generated when the pump power is 3.6 W. The threshold power has also been calculated which well proves a random fiber laser operating via Rayleigh scattering, amplified through the Raman scattering.     

Development of multi-wavelength microsphere fibre laser system for potential sensor applications

A multi-wavelength microsphere laser system, using a chirped fibre Bragg grating and a microsphere resonator as wavelength-selective elements and a high dopant erbium doped fibre as the gain material, has been successfully demonstrated. The multi-wavelength generation of the laser system arises from both the microsphere whispering gallery mode selection and from the additional Raman scattering inside the microsphere cavity when the erbium laser is operating at resonance with the whispering gallery modes. Through an appropriate design and fabrication of a microsphere and of a fibre taper, a selective multi-wavelength fibre laser has been realized when the pump power is above threshold required. The laser output lines created have shown much narrower linewidths than those from conventional fibre lasers and these characteristics are particularly suitable for the range of sensor applications envisaged in the work.     

Nanolasers Enabled by Metallic Nanoparticles: From Spasers to Random Lasers

Owing to exotic optical responses, metallic nanoparticles and nanostructures are finding broad applications in laser science, leading to numerous design variations of plasmonic nanolasers. Nowadays, two of the most intriguing plasmonic nanolasing devices are spasers and random lasers. While a spaser is based on a single metallic nanoparticle resonator with the optical feedback provided by the localized surface plasmon resonance, the operation of a random laser relies on multiple light scattering within randomly distributed metallic nanoparticles. In this paper, an up‐to‐date review on the applications of metallic nanoparticles in spasers and random lasers is provided. Principles of a random spaser, a device combining the features of a spaser and a random laser, are briefly discussed as well. The paper is focused on major theoretical and experimental approaches to control the core metrics of lasing performance, including threshold, resonant wavelength, and emission directionality. The applications of spasers and random lasers in the fields of sensing and imaging are also mentioned. Finally, the challenges and future perspectives in this area of research are discussed.     

Light transport and correlation length in a random laser

A random laser is a strongly disordered, laser‐active optical medium. The coherent laser feedback, which has been demonstrated experimentally to be present in these systems beyond doubt, requires the existence of spatially localized photonic quasimodes. However, the origin of these quasimodes has remained controversial. We develop an analytical theory for diffusive random lasers by coupling the transport theory of the disordered medium to the semiclassical laser rate equations, accounting for (coherent) stimulated and (incoherent) spontaneous emission. From the causality of wave propagation in an amplifying, diffusive medium we derive a novel length scale which we identify with the average mode radius of the lasing quasi‐modes. We show that truly localized modes do not exist in the system without photon number conservation. However, we find that causality in the amplifying medium implies the existence of a novel, finite intensity correlation length which we identify with the average mode volume of the lasing quasimodes. We show further that the surface of the laser‐active medium is crucial in order to stabilize a stationary lasing state. We solve the laser transport theory with appropriate surface boundary conditions to obtain the spatial distributions of the light intensity and of the occupation inversion. The dependence of the intensity correlation length on the pump rate agrees with experimental findings.     

Laser saturation grating phenomena

Spatial hole burning of population differences by standing waves is considered in terms of Bragg-like gratings. This philosophy is used to explain increased saturation in two-mirror, single-mode laser operation with stationary active systems, modified mode coupling in the corresponding two-mode operation, an intensity dip that might occur in flowed standing wave lasers, bistable unidirectional ring laser operation, and increased saturation in distributed feedback lasers. The analysis is developed for both stationary media and for those moving with respect to the standing wave. The latter treatment is used to interpret washout of grating contributions in Doppler broadened media, and to determine level decay constants in stationary media. This last application constitutes a stationary system analog to the Doppler medium's Lamb dip spectroscopy and can be called saturation grating spectroscopy. Knowledge of the decay constants is particularly important in laser studies involving coherent mode couplings such as due to saturation grating scattering and population pulsations. It is further shown that the same equations result for probe and saturating waves propagating in the same direction. One then obtains a signal absorption with a heterodyne advantage. Inasmuch as diffusion affects the two methods quite differently, this phenomenon should be easily examined. Work supported in part by a U.S. Senior Scientist Award (administered by the Alexander von Humboldt Stiftung) and in part by the Space and Missile Systems Organization, Los Angeles, California.     

Effect of Rayleigh-scattering distributed feedback on multiwavelength Raman fiber laser generation

We experimentally demonstrate a Raman fiber laser based on multiple point-action fiber Bragg grating reflectors and distributed feedback via Rayleigh scattering in an ~22-km-long optical fiber. Twenty-two lasing lines with spacing of ~100 GHz (close to International Telecommunication Union grid) in the C band are generated at the watt level. In contrast to the normal cavity with competition between laser lines, the random distributed feedback cavity exhibits highly stable multiwavelength generation with a power-equalized uniform distribution, which is almost independent on power.     

Multiwavelength fiber laser based on a photonic crystal fiber loop mirror with cooperative Rayleigh scattering

In this work, a multiwavelength fiber Raman laser based on a highly birefringent photonic crystal fiber loop mirror is presented. A laser resonator is formed when the Raman amplification with cooperative Rayleigh scattering in a dispersion-compensating fiber is used as a distributed mirror and combined with a photonic crystal fiber loop mirror filtering structure. Stable multiwavelength lasing at room temperature is achieved due to the low temperature sensitivity of the highly birefringent photonic crystal fiber.     

A self-gain random distributed feedback fiber laser based on stimulated Rayleigh scattering

We reported a narrow linewidth (~ 4 kHz) fiber laser with a mirror-less open cavity based on stimulated Rayleigh scattering (STRS) in a non-uniform fiber. Because of its variable core size and dispersion along the fiber, the threshold of the stimulated Brillouin scattering was increased by ~ 7 dB compared with that of conventional single mode fiber, which allows higher order Rayleigh scattering. The self-gain is initiated by the spontaneous Rayleigh scattering and amplified via STRS, and the distributed feedback mechanism is formed by different orders of Rayleigh scattering counter-propagating as the “random mirror reflection” in the non-uniform fiber.     

Improvement in Light Output of Thin-Film Vertical-Cavity Surface-Emitting Lasers Transferred onto A1N Substrates

Thin-film 850-nm vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) were improved in light output power by designing both the reflectivity of the distributed Bragg reflector on the light-emitting side and also the degree of de-tuning between the photoluminescence peak and the etalon wavelength. Thin-film VCSELs, which were fabricated on A1N substrates by a functional layer transfer technique, are attractive components for the hybrid integration of optoelectronic devices. Their maximum output power was 2.8 mW and their slope efficiency was 0.40 W/A for the 15μm diameter VCSEL devices that we studied. Uniform spontaneous emission over the entire mesa area, and a single transverse laser mode up to 1.3 times the threshold current were confirmed by observing the near-field images.     

Reduction of beam divergence of a thermal lensing insensitive Nd:YAG laser

In a previous paper we proposed an active resonator designed especially for Nd:YAG lasers. The beam generated by this resonator had a flat-top beam profile and a divergence that was insensitive to the thermal lensing effect. The beam generated by this resonator was, however, too divergent to be focused into a fibre. With the help of numerical simulations, we have found a way to reduce this divergence, and to render the far-field of the laser beam fine enough to be coupled into a fibre with 600 μm core and NA = 0.2.     

Lasing in random media

A random laser is a non-conventional laser whose feedback mechanism is based on disorder-induced light scattering. Depending on whether the feedback supplied by scattering is intensity feedback or amplitude feedback, random lasers are classified into two categories: random lasers with incoherent feedback and random lasers with coherent feedback. A brief survey of random lasers with incoherent feedback is presented. It is followed by a review of our recent experimental work on random lasers with coherent feedback, including measurement of the lasing threshold, lasing spectra, emission pattern, dynamical response, photon statistics, speckle pattern and the investigation of relevant length scales. Large disorder leads to spatial confinement of the lasing modes, that is the foundation for the micro random laser. Some theoretical models of random lasers with coherent feedback are briefly introduced. The study of random lasers improves our understanding of the interplay between light localization and coherent amplification.     

Raman oscillation with intracavity pumping of a fibre laser

We introduce the concept of cascaded resonant Raman pumping of fibre lasers. The pump scheme utilises the relatively large intracavity Stokes field that is generated within a Raman fibre laser to excite a lanthanide ion that is doped within the core of the fibre providing the Raman gain. In order to illustrate the general characteristics of the pump method and, to establish the design parameters necessary for the realisation of the pump scheme, calculations from a theoretical model that is used to simulate the generation of laser output from a fibre laser that is resonantly pumped with first Stokes radiation is presented. Specifically, the 2.1 μm output from a Ho³⁺-doped silica fibre laser that is pumped with 1.15 μm first Stokes radiation is calculated with the use of a relatively simple numerical model. For a launched pump power of 20 W at 1.07 μm, a fibre laser output of 3 W is predicted for a nominal intrinsic loss of 1.5 dB/km at 2.1 μm, however, this low value of the intrinsic loss at 2.1 μm can be significantly relaxed when the length of the Ho³⁺-doped silica fibre laser resonator is made considerably shorter than the Stokes resonator.     

极弱散射结构中的随机激光器

提出了一种基于空间散斑的极弱散射随机激光系统,并用该系统在不同抽运条件下分别实现了相干反馈输出和非相干反馈输出.结果表明,两种反馈机制存在内在的联系.提出了随机腔耦合的概念,对弱散射随机激光器的模式特性给出了合理的解释.     

Laser intracavity absorption spectroscopy

Emission spectra of multimode lasers are very sensitive to spectrally selective extinction in their cavity. This phenomenon allows the quantitative measurement of absorption. The sensitivity of measurements of intracavity absorption grows with the laser pulse duration. The ultimate sensitivity obtained with a cw laser is set by various perturbations of the light coherence, such as quantum noise, Rayleigh scattering, four-wave mixing by population pulsations, and stimulated Brillouin scattering. It depends on the particular laser type used, and on its operative parameters, for example pump power, cavity loss, cavity length, and length of the gain medium. Nonlinear mode-coupling dominates the dynamics of lasers that feature a thin gain medium, such as dye lasers, whereas Rayleigh scattering is more important in lasers with a long gain medium, such as doped fibre lasers, or the Ti:sapphire laser. The highest sensitivity so far has been obtained with a cw dye laser. It corresponds to 70000 km effective length of the absorption path. The ultimate spectral resolution is determined by the spectral width of mode emission, which is 0.7 Hz in this dye laser. High sensitivity and high temporal and spectral resolution allow various practical applications of laser intracavity spectroscopy, such as measurements and simulations of atmospheric absorption, molecular and atomic spectroscopy, process control, isotope separation, study of free radicals and chemical reactions, combustion diagnostics, spectroscopy of excited states and nonlinear processes, measurements of gain and of spectrally narrow light emission. Intracavity absorption in single-mode lasers shows enhanced sensitivity as well, although not as high as in multimode lasers. Received: 10 May 1999 / Published online: 29 July 1999     

A new grating tuning compound unstable resonator

A proposal of new grating tuning compound unstable resonator is presented. This new type of unstable resonator is profitable for generating single transverse mode, high energy, high-average power tunable laser radiation from TEA CO₂ laser and other gas lasers.     

An approximate analytic solution of strongly pumped Yb-doped double-clad fiber lasers without neglecting the scattering loss

A theoretical analysis of strongly pumped Yb-doped double-clad fiber lasers is presented and an approximate analytic function of distributed laser along the whole fiber with the scattering loss is obtained for the first time. A comparison is made between the analytic solution and the exact numerical solution. The results have shown that the analytic function of distributed laser within the fiber is accurate and explicit. With the analytic solution the losses caused by laser scattering are shown in three different pump modes. The results verify that the backward pumping can get the highest output power in strongly pumped fiber lasers.     

分布反馈光纤激光器阵列中外腔反馈特性研究

以半导体激光器中的复合腔模型和实测的分布反馈光纤激光器的外腔端面反射率为基础,对不同反射率条件下分布反馈光纤激光器的输出功率进行了仿真,同时搭建了二基元分布反馈光纤激光器阵列实验平台,对仿真结果进行了验证.仿真与实验结果表明:外腔反馈光重新注入分布反馈光纤激光器会增加激光器的输出功率,降低了阵列的输出功率平坦性.并且外腔端面反射率越大,这种平坦性降低的效果越明显.在构建分布反馈光纤激光器阵列时,应考虑外腔反馈对阵列输出功率平坦性造成的影响,尽量选择外腔端面反射率较小的激光器进行组阵.     

Transverse localization of Tamm plasmon in metal-DBR structure with disordered layer

Transverse localization of the optical Tamm plasmon(OTP) is studied in a metal-distributed Bragg reflector(DBR)structure with a one-dimensional disordered layer embedded at the interface between the metal and the DBR. The embedded disordered layer induces multiple scattering and interference of light, forming the light localization in the transverse direction. This together with the formation of Tamm plasmonic modes at the metal-DBR interface(i.e., the confinement of light in the longitudinal direction), gives birth to the so called transverse-localized Tamm plasmon. It is shown that for both transverse electric(TE) and transverse magnetic(TM) polarized light injection, the excited transverse-localized Tamm plasmon broadens and splits the dispersion curve due to spatial incoherence in the transverse direction, thus proving the stronger light confinement especially in the TE polarized injection. By adding the gain medium, specific random lasing modes are observed. The proposed study could be an efficient way of trapping and locally enhancing light on a subwavelength scale,which is useful in applications of random lasers, optical sensing, and imaging.     

基于掩埋光栅一级分布反馈结构的太赫兹量子级联激光器

结合理论和实验研究了掩埋光栅一级分布反馈太赫兹量子级联激光器中的模式竞争和功率特性。理论计算得到掩埋光栅腐蚀深度与两个带边模式的波导损耗、光学限制因子、辐射损耗以及辐射效率的关系。理论计算表明,掩埋光栅分布反馈结构可以通过改变腐蚀深度,保证激光器稳定单模工作在高频带边模式的同时,调节激光器的阈值增益以及辐射效率。实验和测试结果表明,激光器辐射波长和掩埋光栅的周期成正比,激光器可以在整个动力学范围内稳定单模工作。单模激光器的波长范围可覆盖86.2~91.7μm的范围,边模抑制比可达25 dB,最大输出功率为9.1 mW。该工作有助于高性能单模太赫兹激光器及锁相耦合激光器阵列的研制。