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.     

大口径DKDP晶体受激拉曼散射增益系数的测量（英）

大口径KDP/DKDP晶体在强紫外光辐照下产生横向受激拉曼散射效应（TSRS）, 受激放大的拉曼散射光将导致激光能量损失甚至激光损伤, 测量DKDP晶体TSRS增益系数对设置激光装置的运行区间以确保晶体的安全使用非常重要。采用高精度光谱仪探测大口径DKDP晶体（氘含量65%）在351 nm激光辐照下的横向拉曼散射信号, 得到了拉曼散射光的增长曲线, 拟合得到的拉曼增益系数为0.109 cm/GW。同时, 实验结果表明晶体体损伤不影响TSRS增长行为, 表明晶体体损伤对拉曼增益系数测量结果的影响可以忽略。     

High efficiency, dual-wavelength fibre Raman pump laser for U-band fibre Raman amplifiers

A dual-wavelength, continuous wave, high efficiency fibre Raman ring laser for pumping U-band (1625–1675 nm) fibre Raman amplifiers is demonstrated. Two fibre Bragg gratings were used as wavelength-selective elements resulting in lasing lines at 1529.7 and 1558.7 nm with respective maximum powers of 209.0 and 390.9 mW. A simple U-band Raman amplifier was constructed to test the dual-wavelength pump laser and on:off gain with a peak of 7.3 dB and a 3-dB bandwidth of 73 nm was obtained.     

Amplification effect on SBS and Rayleigh scattering in the backward pumped distributed fiber Raman amplifier

The amplification effect on stimulated Brillouin scattering （SBS） and Rayleigh scattering in the backward pumped G652 fiber Raman amplifier （FRA） is studied. The pump source is a 1427.2-nm fiber Raman laser whose power is tunable between 0 - 1200 mW, and the signal source is a tunable narrow spectral bandwidth （〈 10 MHz） external cavity laser （ECL）. The Rayleigh scattering lines are amplified by the FRA and Stokes SBS lines are amplified by the FRA and the fiber Brillouin amplifier. The total gain of SBS lines is the production of the gain of Raman amplifier and that of Brillouin amplifier. In experiment, the SBS gain is about 42 dB and the saturation gain of 25-km G652 backward FRA is about 25 dB, so the gain of fiber Brillouin amplifier is about 17 dB.     

Temperature-insensitive strain sensor based on four-wave mixing using Raman fiber Bragg grating laser sensor with cooperative Rayleigh scattering

A temperature-insensitive strain sensor based on Four-Wave Mixing (FWM) using two Raman fiber Bragg grating (FBG) lasers with cooperative Rayleigh scattering is proposed. Two FBG were used to form two linear cavities laser sensors based on Raman amplification combined with cooperative Rayleigh scattering. Due to the very low dispersion coefficient of the fiber, it is possible to obtain the FWM using the two lasers. This configuration allows the operation as a temperature-insensitive strain sensor where both sensors have the same sensitivity to temperature but only one of the FBG laser is sensitive to strain. The difference between the wavelengths of the signal sensor and the converted signal presents a strain coefficient sensitivity of 2?pm/??? with insensitivity to temperature. The FWM efficiency is also dependent on the applied strain, but it is temperature independent, presenting a maximum sensibility of 0.01?dB/???.     

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.     

掺钕微球的受激辐射激光和自受激拉曼散射

采用溶胶-凝胶法在SiO_2微球表面覆盖上一薄层Nd~(3+)掺杂SiO_2,并经电极放电熔融后形成表面光滑的高Q值微球.采用锥光纤将808 nm的抽运激光耦合入钕离子掺杂的高Q值微球形成回廊模,激发产生了1080—1097 nm波段受激辐射激光.由于所产生的激光有足够高的功率密度,在高Q SiO_2微球中激发产生了波长为1120—1143 nm一级自受激拉曼散射激光.推导了锥光纤掺钕微球组合的自受激拉曼散射的输出功率和阈值公式.描述了输出激光的特性:阈值、输出功率、线宽、边模抑制比.     

Picosecond stimulated Raman scattering in crystals

The comparative values of the peak and integral cross sections of spontaneous Raman scattering and the optical dephasing time of molecular vibrations were determined for several oxide crystals by spontaneous Raman spectroscopy. The spectral, time, and energy parameters of stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) were measured for ten crystals using picosecond YLF: Nd laser pumping with a radiation wavelength of 1047 nm. An analysis of the experimental dependence of the threshold energy of pumping SRS on the integral and peak cross sections of spontaneous Raman scattering showed that the SRS gain increment explicitly depended on the integral cross section and was independent of the peak cross section of spontaneous Raman scattering as the ratio between the pumping pulse width (11 ps) and the time of optical dephasing of molecular vibrations changed from 0.42 to 9.3. The gain coefficients of steady-state stimulated Raman scattering under threshold stimulated Raman scattering conditions were determined for all the crystals studied on the basis of the measured threshold SRS pumping energies, the duration and width of the spectrum of pulses, the nonlinear interaction length, the intensity of pumping, and the theoretical dependences that relate the steady-state and transient SRS gain increments. The steady-state SRS gain coefficients obtained in this work fitted well a linear dependence on the peak cross sections of spontaneous Raman scattering, which substantiated the correctness of our analysis and measurements.     

Low-Threshold Conjugated Polymer Distributed Feedback Lasers on InP Substrate

We demonstrate a low threshold polymer solid state thin-film distributed feedback （DFB） laser on an InP substrate with the DFB structure. The used gain medium is conjugated polymer poly[2-methoxy-5-（2-ethylhexyloxy）-l, 4- phenylenevinylene] （MEH-PPV） doped polystyrene （PS） and formed by drop-coating method. The second order Bragg scattering region on the InP substrate gave rise to strong feedback, thus a lasing emission at 638.9nm with a line width of 1.2nm is realized when pumped by a 532nm frequency-doubled Nd：YAG pulsed laser. The devices show a laser threshold as low as 7n J/pulse.     

Widely tunable Raman ring laser using highly nonlinear fiber

An all-optical widely tunable Raman fiber laser has been realized by incorporating a highly nonlinear fiber in a ring cavity. By feedback a portion of Raman Stokes wave back into the highly nonlinear gain medium, a Raman fiber laser is generated. We found that the lasing wavelength of Raman fiber laser can be tuned from 1537 to 1568 nm with peak power fluctuation within 1 dB, giving a total wavelength tunability of 31 nm. The optical signal-to-noise ratio is found to be wavelength dependent, and the highest optical signal-to-noise ratio of about 59 dB is recorded. The lasing threshold of the Raman fiber laser with this configuration is found to be as low as 300 mW.     

Continuous-wave supercontinuum laser based on an erbium-doped fiber ring cavity incorporating a highly nonlinear optical fiber

We experimentally demonstrate a novel erbium-doped fiber based continuous-wave (cw) supercontinuum laser. The laser has a simple ring-cavity structure incorporating an erbium-doped fiber and a highly nonlinear dispersion-shifted fiber (HNL-DSF). Differently from previously demonstrated cw supercontinuum sources based on single propagation of a strong Raman pump laser beam through a highly nonlinear fiber, erbium gain inside the cavity generates a seed light oscillation, and the oscillated light subsequently evolves into a supercontinuum by nonlinear effects such as modulation instability and stimulated Raman scattering in the HNL-DSF. High quality of the depolarized supercontinuum laser output with a spectral bandwidth larger than 250 nm is readily achieved.     

Long-distance fiber Bragg grating sensor system with a high optical signal-to-noise ratio based on a tunable fiber ring laser configuration

A novel tunable fiber ring laser configuration with a combination of bidirectional Raman amplification and dual erbium-doped fiber (EDF) amplification is proposed for realizing high optical signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), long-distance, quasi-distributed fiber Bragg grating (FBG) sensing systems with large capacities and low cost. The hybrid Raman-EDF amplification configuration arranged in the ring laser can enhance the optical SNR of FBG sensor signals significantly owing to the good combination of the high gain of the erbium-doped fiber amplifier (EDFA) and the low noise of the Raman amplification. Such a sensing system can support a large number of FBG sensors because of the use of a tunable fiber Fabry-Perot filter located within the ring laser and spatial division multiplexing for expansion of sensor channels. Experimental results show that an excellent optical SNR of approximately 60 dB has been achieved for a 50 km transmission distance with a low Raman pump power of approximately 170 mW at a wavelength of 1455 nm and a low EDFA pump power of approximately 40 mW at a wavelength of 980 nm, which is the highest optical SNR achieved so far for a 50 km long FBG sensor system, to our knowledge.     

532 nm激光泵浦硝酸钡晶体产生外腔拉曼激光

 由于硝酸钡晶体具有很强的对称振动(频率1 047 cm^-1)和较高的拉曼增益,可以用来产生受激拉曼激光。采用单端泵浦的外置拉曼振荡腔与双棱镜分光装置进行了硝酸钡晶体拉曼激光实验,泵浦源为倍频Nd: YAG的532 nm激光,硝酸钡晶体通过水溶液降温法生长,尺寸为10 mm×10 mm×48 mm,采用特殊镀膜的腔镜对各阶斯托克斯光进行优化选择。在泵浦源达到65 mJ时,获得21 mJ一阶斯托克斯光,输出波长为563 nm,以及16 mJ的二阶斯托克斯光,输出波长为599 nm,受激拉曼散射SRS最大的整体转换效率（包含一阶、二阶斯托克斯光之和）为56.3%。     

Continuous-wave cavity-ringdown detection of stimulated Raman gain spectra

Cavity ringdown (CRD) spectroscopy, with its high sensitivity, provides a novel way to perform continuous-wave (cw) stimulated Raman gain (SRG) spectroscopy, rather than by conventional optically detected coherent Raman techniques. Tunable cw laser light at ∼1544 nm is used to probe ringdown decay from a rapidly-swept, high-finesse optical cavity containing a gas-phase sample of interest and itself located inside the cavity of a cw single-longitudinal-mode Nd:YAG ring laser operating at ∼1064.4 nm. This approach is used to measure cw SRG spectra of the ν ₁ fundamental rovibrational Raman band of methane gas at ∼2916.5 cm⁻¹. The resulting SRG-CRD resonances have ringdown times longer than in the off-resonance case, in contrast to the usual shorter ringdown times arising from absorption and other loss processes. Previously reported noise-equivalent sensitivities have been substantially improved, by using a second ringdown cavity to facilitate subtraction of infrared-absorption background signals. Moreover, by employing a ringdown cavity in the form of a ring, the SRG-pump and CRD-detected Stokes beams can co-propagate uni-directionally, which significantly reduces Doppler broadening.     

基于拉曼光谱散射的新型分布式光纤温度传感器及应用

介绍了分布式光纤拉曼温度传感器(DTS)的基本原理、发展趋势和工程应用研究状况,研究了分布式光纤拉曼温度传感器的关键技术,全面提升了DTS的性能。将拉曼放大技术应用于DTS系统,用拉曼增益部分抵偿光纤的传输损耗,使系统的传感长度达到50 km;对脉冲激光器进行211位循环编码,在接收时采用相关运算解调,显著提高系统的信噪比,使测温不确定度达到1 ℃;采用双波长自校正技术提高了系统的空间分辨率,达到2 m;在DTS系统中嵌入光开关,使测温通道成倍扩展,有效延伸了传感光纤的总长度,组成光纤传感网络。     

基于硅波导的喇曼光放大器

在硅波导上添加反向偏压的PIN结构,当波导产生受激喇曼散射时,可以将波导中双光子吸收(TPA)产生的光生自由载流子扫出波导,降低了波导的非线性损失,极大地提高了硅波导中泵浦光对信号光的喇曼增益。为了应用已经非常成熟的硅工艺,并且应用硅波导使器件小型化,根据法布里-帕罗(F-P)腔和行波放大器理论,在硅波导两端的解理面蒸镀增透膜,应用这种波导的喇曼效应设计了一种光放大器,即基于硅波导的喇曼光放大器。建立了计算放大器增益的方程,给出了不同波导长度和输入功率情况下的放大器增益,得出适当增加波导长度和泵浦光功率可以得到较高喇曼增益的结论。基于硅的光放大器有较高的饱和功率且没有泵浦源的限制,通过调整泵浦激光的波长可以放大不同波长的信号光。     

Inhomogeneous loss mechanism in multiwavelength fiber Raman ring lasers

As one of the mechanisms for stable multiwavelength oscillation in a fiber Raman ring laser, an inhomogeneous loss induced by intraline four-wave mixing in a fiber Raman laser is physically explained and experimentally validated by comparison of laser peak gain and power gain as well as the gain spectra at several pump levels.     

激光波长对拉曼散射水温遥感系统测温精度及探测深度的影响

机载激光拉曼散射雷达技术可以快速获取次表层海水温度的三维分布,具有重要的实用价值和经济价值.首先,从理论上分析了水的伸缩振动拉曼谱峰值位置和半高全宽与激发波长之间的对应关系,发现随着激发波长的增大,拉曼峰逐渐向长波方向移动,且拉曼光谱半高全宽显著增大.然后,实验测量了不同温度下450 nm激光和532 nm激光激发的水的拉曼光谱,对比验证了上述理论分析结果.并采用单高斯峰拟合法分析了两组拉曼光谱,拟合出高斯峰峰值位置与温度之间的关系,分析了激发波长对温度测量精度的影响.研究发现,采用较长波长的激发光可以提高拉曼光谱的测量精度,从而改善测温精度.最后,建立了拉曼散射雷达方程,分析了拉曼散射系数与激光波长之间的关系,研究了激光波长对雷达系统探测深度的影响.结果表明,激光波长对雷达系统探测深度有很大的影响,采用480 nm以下波长的激光时雷达系统探测深度较大,而采用长波段激光时雷达系统探测深度会大幅降低.实际系统设计中选取激光光源时需要综合考虑上述两方面的影响.     

Laser-assisted generation of gold nanoparticles and nanostructures in liquid and their plasmonic luminescence

Nanoparticles (NPs) and surface nanostructures (NS) are produced via laser ablation of a bulk gold target in liquid using second harmonics of 10 ps Nd:YAG laser (532 nm) with repetition rate of 50 kHz. The morphology and plasmon photoluminescence (PL) properties of obtained nanoscale objects are described. Transmission electron microscopy and field emission scanning electron microscopy are used for morphology characterization of NPs and NS, respectively. Plasmon PL of both gold NPs and NS is experimentally studied using the third harmonics of the Nd:YAG picosecond laser (355 nm) as a pump. The wavelength of intensity maximum of PL of Au NPs colloidal solution virtually coincides with the position of Au NPs plasmon absorption peak. Real-time excitation of both plasmon PL and Raman scattering of surrounding liquid by picosecond laser pulses in aqueous colloidal solution is also investigated. The efficient cross section of plasmon PL of Au NPs colloid is evaluated using Raman scattering of water as a comparative parameter. The results are in good agreement with values obtained in previous works. Plasmon PL from self-organized NS on the Au surface produced via laser ablation is observed for the first time. Its spectrum is compared to PL spectra of both aqueous colloidal solutions of NPs and of NPs deposited on a Si wafer. The obtained experimental data are discussed with reference to the band structure of bulk Au.     

Emission Spectra Inside the Ammonia s-Multiplets Pumped by a Line-Narrowed Tunable CO2 Laser

By using a line narrowed high power tunable laser we have analysed the FIR emission spectrum inside some , compact sQ, sR k-multiplets. Jumps between adjacent k-systems are observed , although tunable emissions of dominant lines are produced. The more favourable gain overlap of the K Raman lines in the fundamental vibrational level induces an off-resonance dominance of this process respect to the standard Raman scattering in the excited vibrational level. The AC Stark splitting has been also observed when the CO₂ laser is posed in resonance with the absorption lines.