Random Bragg-grating-based wavelength-tunable random fiber laser with a full-open cavity

A full-open-cavity wavelength-tunable random fiber laser(WT-RFL) with compact structure and hundreds of picometers tuning range is proposed and demonstrated. A π fiber Bragg grating(FBG) is used in the WT-RFL as a filter to select lasing wavelengths. The two random Bragg grating arrays(RBGAs) and a section of high gain erbium-doped fiber result in a low lasing threshold and high stability. A numerical model to analyze the tunable characteristics is developed. The results show that the laser threshold is 22 m W, and the maximum peak-power fluctuation is 0.55 d B. To the best of our knowledge, it is the first time that a compact and full-open-cavity WT-RFL with two RBGAs and a π-FBG is proposed.     

Solid-state green-light-emitting upconversion coherent random laser in macroporous LiNbO_3:Er

A solid-state green-light-emitting upconversion coherent random laser was realized by pumping macroporous erbium-doped lithium niobate with a 980 nm laser. The lasing threshold was determined to be about 40 k W∕cm~2.Above the threshold, the emission intensity increased sharply with the increasing pump intensity. Moreover, a narrow multi-peaks structure was observed in the green-light-emission band, and the positions of lasing lines were various at different angles. The results were the direct evidences of coherent random lasing emission from macroporous erbium-doped lithium niobate. These phenomena were attributed to the coexistence of upconversion emission and a multiple scattering feedback mechanism.     

High OSNR and simple configuration dual-wavelength fiber laser with wide tunability in S+C+L band

A simple configuration dual-wavelength fiber laser,by combining the first-order Brillouin laser and the residual pump laser,is proposed and experimentally demonstrated.A 1 km long single-mode fiber is used as the stimulated Brillouin scattering gain medium pumped by a narrow linewidth tunable laser source(TLS).Through simply adjusting the TLS output power,power-equalized dual-wavelength lasing can be achieved with a high optical signal to noise ratio(OSNR) of 80 d B.With the good tunability of the TLS,the dual-wavelength fiber laser has a tunable range of ～130 nm,and simultaneously the beat frequency of the two lasing wavelengths can be tuned from 10.1875 to 11.0815 GHz with the tunable range of 0.8940 GHz.The high stability of the dualwavelength operation is experimentally verified by the measured beat frequency fluctuation of ≤6 MHz in 1 h and power fluctuation of ≤0.03 d B in 2 h.The temporal characteristics of the fiber laser are also investigated experimentally.The fiber laser will find good applications in fiber sensing and microwave photonics areas.     

Photonic crystal ber-based multi-wavelength Brillouin ber laser with dual-pass ampli cation con guration

A simple technique for achieving a stable, room temperature and multi-wavelength lasing with narrow linewidth is demonstrated using Brillouin ber laser (BFL) with a 100-m-long photonic crystal ber (PCF) in conjunction with a dual-pass configuration. A broadband ber Bragg grating (FBG) operating in the C-band region is incorporated at the end side of the setup to allow a dual-pass operation. The proposed BFL can operate at any wavelength depending on the Brillouin pump wavelength and the FBG’s reflection region used. With a Brillouin pump (BP) of 15.7 dBm, approximately 7 Stokes and 4 anti-Stokes lines are obtained with a line spacing of 0.08 nm.     

Novel discretely tunable narrow linewidth fiber laser with uniform wavelength spacing

A novel configuration of the tunable fiber laser with uniform wavelength spacing in dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) application is proposed.The ring type tunable fiber laser consists of an all-fiber comb filter which determines the wavelength spacing,and a piece of adjustable fiber grating to select the discrete lasing wavelength for DWDM application.The proposed all-fiber ring type tunable laser has potential application in the DWDM and other optical systems due to its advantages such as narrow linewidth,easy tuning,uniform wavelength interval,etc..     

A 168-W high-power single-frequency amplifier in an all-fiber configuration

We present a high-power,single-frequency,narrow linewidth fiber amplifier based on master oscillator power amplification chains in an all-fiber configuration.The effect of the delivery fiber on the maximum output power is studied.A home-made 1064-nm seed laser with a 20-kHz linewidth is boosted to 129 W,and limited by stimulated Brillouin scattering(SBS) when the delivery fiber is 1.2 m long.By shortening the delivery fiber length to 0.7 m,the SBS threshold is increased efficiently and the maximum output power rises to 168 W with an 82.9% power conversion efficiency.The experimental results indicate that the output power can be further raised by shortening the delivery fiber length and increasing the pump power.     

Random lasing in dye-doped polymer dispersed liquid crystal film

A dye-doped polymer-dispersed liquid crystal film was designed and fabricated,and random lasing action was studied.A mixture of laser dye,nematic liquid crystal,chiral dopant,and PVA was used to prepare the dye-doped polymer-dispersed liquid crystal film by means of microcapsules.Scanning electron microscopy analysis showed that most liquid crystal droplets in the polymer matrix ranged from 30 μm to 40 μm,the size of the liquid crystal droplets was small.Under frequency doubled 532 nm Nd:YAG laser-pumped optical excitation,a plurality of discrete and sharp random laser radiation peaks could be measured in the range of 575–590 nm.The line-width of the lasing peak was 0.2 nm and the threshold of the random lasing was 9 m J.Under heating,the emission peaks of random lasing disappeared.By detecting the emission light spot energy distribution,the mechanism of radiation was found to be random lasing.The random lasing radiation mechanism was then analyzed and discussed.Experimental results indicated that the size of the liquid crystal droplets is the decisive factor that influences the lasing mechanism.The surface anchor role can be ignored when the size of the liquid crystal droplets in the polymer matrix is small,which is beneficial to form multiple scattering.The transmission path of photons is similar to that in a ring cavity,providing feedback to obtain random lasing output.     

Short distributed feedback fiber laser with unidirectional output for sensing applications

A short distributed feedback fiber laser with a nearly unidirectional output is fabricated and tested. The short fiber laser is made of a polarization-dependent phase-shift grating fabricated with a vertically polarized 244-nm ultraviolet (UV) laser. A single ∏ phase-shift is introduced to a 2-cm grating at a specified position by directly moving the phase mask during UV beam scanning. Test results show that the laser has a single polarization longitudinal mode with 2.6-mW pump threshold. The backward-to-forward output power ratio is approximately 30:1. The relative intensity noise is -88 dB/Hz, and the linewidth is approximately 10 kHz at 75-mW 980-nm pumping. The unidirectional output and short dimension of this short fiber laser make it very useful in sensing applications, especially in multiplexed sensing applications.     

Linearly polarized operation of Yb-doped fiber laser by Brewster's angle-polished fiber end

<正>A new method to obtain linear polarization operation by Brewster's angle-polished fiber end is demonstrated. By using the special polarization operation technique together with introducing a narrow-linewidth fiber grating into the laser cavity,a cladding-pumped linear polarization and single-transverse-mode (M~21.1) Yb-doped fiber laser with narrow linewidth whose full-width at half-maximm(FWHM) is less than 0.2 nm,is obtained in a simple configuration.The output power is up to 10 W which is continuouswave output at 1085 nm,and the slope efficiency is 63%with respect to the coupled pump power and 75%with respect to the absorbed pump power,respectively.The measured 21-dB polarization extinction ratio does not degrade with the output power.The simplicity of such an approach is highly beneficial for a number of applications,including the use of a fiber laser for the nonlinear wavelength conversion (especially for the intracavity frequency doubling) and for the coherent and spectral beam combination.     

Suppression of mode competition in fiber lasers by using a saturable absorber and a fiber ring

An erbium-doped fiber (EDF) laser was configured with a fiber grating, a fiber ring resonator, and a saturable absorber by using un-pumped EDF as mode selection element. The laser showed single mode operation with a narrow linewidth of 5 kHz. The mode selection mechanisms of the un-pumped EDF and the ring resonator are theoretically and experimentally analyzed.     

A self-seeded fiber laser incorporated with a fiber Bragg grating external cavity semiconductor laser

A self-seeded fiber laser incorporated with a fiber Bragg grating external cavity semiconductor laser (FBG-ECL) and a Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI) were reported in this paper. The MZI provided a Q-switching with response time in the order of micro-seconds. The FBG-ECL provided narrow pulses as seeds to shorten the Q-switched pulses. Experimentally, pulse width of 0.8 μs was measured, which was one fifth of the pulse width without self-seeding.     

Suppression of mode competition in fiber lasers by using a saturable absorber and a fiber ring

An erbium-doped fiber (EDF) laser was configured with a fiber grating, a fiber ring resonator, and a saturable absorber by using un-pumped EDF as mode selection element. The laser showed single mode operation with a narrow linewidth of 5 kHz. The mode selection mechanisms of the un-pumped EDF and the ring resonator are theoretically and experimentally analyzed.     

Narrow Linewidth Tm^3＋-Doped Large Core Fiber Laser Based on a Femtosecond Written Fiber Bragg Grating

A diode laser （LD） clad-pumped narrow linewidth all-fiber Tm^3＋-doped fiber laser is reported with a maximal output power of 27W at 1.947μm. By successively splicing an LD pigtail fiber, a single-mode Tm^3＋-doped fiber, and a multi-mode Tm^3＋-doped fiber, the fiber laser has 70pm narrow linewidth output, and a high slope efficiency of nearly 47.5% with respect to the launched pump power. The high reflectivity fiber Bragg gratings, which are directly written into the single-mode Tm^3＋-doped fiber core by the 800nm femtosecond pulsed laser, act as the high reflectivity coupler. The output laser has diffraction-limited beam quality with a factor M^2 of 1.29, when the output laser power is nearly 27W.     

Experimental study of an ultra narrow linewidth fiber laser by injection locking

An ultra narrow linewidth fiber laser is presented, which is composed of a ring cavity laser and a linewidth-narrowing module. The fiber laser is introduced in detail and the single mode operation of the laser is verified. Using a revised self-heterodyne detection method, experimental data of the laser linewidth against the pump power are presented. The narrowest linewidth is measured to be 109 Hz, whereas the output power is 1.1 mW.     

Eye-safe,single-frequency pulsed all-fiber laser for Doppler wind lidar

A single-frequency pulsed erbium-doped fiber(EDF) laser with master-oscillator power-amplifier configuration at 1 533 nm is developed. A short-cavity,erbium-doped phosphate glass fiber laser is utilized as a seeder laser with a linewidth of 5 kHz and power of 40 mW. The seeder laser is modulated to be a pulse laser with a repetition rate of 10 kHz and pulse duration of 500 ns. The amplifier consists of two pre-amplifiers and one main amplifier. The detailed characteristics of the spectrum and linewidth of the amplifiers are presented. A pulse energy of 116 μJ and a linewidth of 1.1 MHz are obtained. This laser can be a candidate transmitter for an all-fiber Doppler wind lidar in the boundary layer.     

A high-efficiency Brillouin fiber ring laser

A high-efficiency Brillouin fiber ring laser is demonstrated using the standard single-mode fiber. The laser exhibits a 3.6-mW threshold. The output power is 22 mW with 40-mW pump power, and the maximum optical-to-optical efficiency is 5570. The output is single wavelength with a 3-dB linewidth of 5 MHz, and the interval of center frequency between the laser and the pump light is 11 GHz （0.088 nm）. It is shown that the stimulated Brillouin scattering threshold of ring resonator is lower and the energy transfer efficiency is higher than those in fiber.     

Flexible electrically pumped random lasing from ZnO nanowires based on metal–insulator–semiconductor structure

Flexible electrically pumped random laser(RL) based on ZnO nanowires is demonstrated for the first time to our knowledge. The ZnO nanowires each with a length of 5 μm and an average diameter of 180 nm are synthesized on flexible substrate(ITO/PET) by a simple hydrothermal method. No obvious visible defect-related-emission band is observed in the photoluminescence(PL) spectrum, indicating that the ZnO nanowires grown on the flexible ITO/PET substrate have few defects. In order to achieve electrically pumped random lasing with a lower threshold, the metal–insulator–semiconductor(MIS) structure of Au/SiO_2/ZnO on ITO/PET substrate is fabricated by low temperature process. With sufficient forward bias, the as-fabricated flexible device exhibits random lasing, and a low threshold current of ～ 11.5 m A and high luminous intensity are obtained from the ZnO-based random laser. It is believed that this work offers a case study for developing the flexible electrically pumped random lasing from ZnO nanowires.     

Experimental investigation on Q-switching and Q-switched mode-locking operation in gold nanorods-based erbium-doped fiber laser

We report on the generation of Q-switched and Q-switched mode-locked(QML) pulses in an erbium-doped fiber ring laser by using a polyvinyl alcohol(PVA)-based gold nanorod(GNR) saturable absorber(SA). The PVAbased GNR SA has a modulation depth of ～4.8% and a non-saturable loss of ～26.9% at 1.5 μm. A Q-switched pulse train with a repetition rate varying from 18.70 to 39.85 k Hz and a QML pulse train with an envelope repetition rate tuning from 20.31 to 31.50 k Hz are obtained. Moreover, the lasing wavelengths of the Q-switched pulses can be flexibly tuned by introducing a narrow bandwidth, tunable filter into the laser cavity. The results demonstrate that the GNRs exhibit good optical performance and can find a wide range of applications in the field of laser technology.     

Theoretical and experimental study on rare-eath element-doped silicon single-mode fiber laser with two different structures of resonators

Abstract: Laser resonator is very important in the study and fabrication of lasers. The work conditions and work parameters of rare-earth element-doped optical fiber lasers with two different structures of laser resonators, i. e., the fiber ring resonator and Fabry-Perot resonator are studied. The fineness, laser resonant conditions, laser oscillation conditions and threshold inversion of these two different cavity are deduced. A series of experiments are also given. The result is very valuable to evaluate the output of optical fiber laser and can be a foundation of device fabrication. The Nd~(3 )-doped silica single-mode fiber laser pumped by Ar~ laser with a low threshold of 1.02 mW and a maximum output of more than 1 mW are presented in this paper.     

Study on external-cavity semiconductor laser

In this paper, a narrow-band tunable external-cavity semiconductor laser with the Littman set-up is reported. The laser system consists of a semiconductor laser, a blazed grating and an external mirror. Its sideband suppression ratio over 20 dB was obtained. Conveniently tuning in wavelength region of 797.38 - 807.26 nm was achieved. The laser is operating in single frequency with narrow linewidth smaller than 0.06 nm. The output beam has good directional stability when tuned.