The use of nonlinear dynamics of erbium-doped fiber laser at pump modulation for intra-cavity sensing

We report the use of nonlinear dynamics of an erbium-doped fiber laser (EDFL) at pump modulation, namely the period-1 pulsed regime, for intra-cavity loss sensing and demonstrate noticeable sensitivity enhancement of an EDFL-based sensor, provided by this arrangement. Experimentally, we obtain a ten-fold increase of the sensor response, i.e. peak-to-peak pulse amplitude against loss variation, as compared with the standard sensing schemes using a low-power wide-spectrum light emitting diode (LED) or fiber laser without external modulation. This advantage originates from a strong dependence of pulse amplitude in the period-1 regime on intra-cavity loss variable that is, in turn, determined by the interrelation of relaxation frequency (an internal EDFL parameter) and frequency and depth of external (pump) modulation. A modeling of the EDFL-based sensor, presented for the case when the laser operates in the period-1 regime, allows an insight into the sensor operation details and opens the gate to its further optimization. The proposed sensing method seems to be a proper choice for the applications where an intra-cavity sensor’s head has high internal loss (≥10 dB) while sensed loss is varied within a quite narrow range (a few dB).     

Ultrashort pulse formation and evolution in mode-locked fiber lasers

Passive mode-locking in fiber lasers is investigated by numerical and experimental means. A non-distributed scalar model solving the nonlinear Schr?dinger equation is implemented to study the starting behavior and intra-cavity dynamics numerically. Several operation regimes at positive net-cavity dispersion are experimentally accessed and studied in different environmentally stable, linear laser configurations. In particular, pulse formation and evolution in the chirped-pulse regime at highly positive cavity dispersion is discussed. Based on the experimental results a route to highly energetic pulse solutions is shown in numerical simulations.     

Stability regime study of a nonlinear mirror mode-locked laser

A diode array pumped nonlinear mirror mode-locked (ML) laser is developed and the regime of the stable operation for such a system is found to occur for a little detuning of intra-cavity second harmonic phase-matching. The existing theory of mode-locking using a fast saturable absorber (FSA) is used to derive corresponding equivalent parameters for a fast nonlinear mirror saturable absorber. The condition for stable single pulse ML operation is evaluated in terms of small signal gain of the laser medium and small signal nonlinear loss. The analysis explains the experimental observations and differentiates the regime of operation in ML, Q-switching and cw mode-locking.     

基于阿秒抖动光纤锁模激光器的时钟同步

光纤锁模激光器结构简单, 运转稳定, 且输出的超短脉冲序列具有极高的时钟稳定性, 在抽运探测、脉冲相干合成等要求高精度时钟同步的前沿领域有着广阔的应用前景. 本文通过激光器腔内的电光调制器进行反馈控制, 实现了两台光纤锁模激光器之间的紧密时钟信号同步; 并且通过平衡光学互相关方法, 对残余的时钟误差信号进行了测量, 分辨率达到了13 as. 通过优化激光器的腔内动力学过程及反馈环路的参数, 在[1 Hz, 10 MHz]的积分区间内得到了109 as的残余时钟误差, 对应单台激光器的平均时间抖动为77 as.     

Generation, measurement and optimization of a variable duration, short pulse, mode-locked cavity-dumped Nd:YAG laser

Spectral and temporal measurements undertaken on a single picosecond laser pulse from a flash lamp pumped, cavity dumped, active/passive mode-locked Nd:YAG laser are presented in this paper. Optimization of several parameters of the resonator cavity produced a single pulse with 0.7 mJ energy and 10² contrast. The pulse duration was variable from 24 to 120 ps by using intra-cavity etalons of different thicknesses. The pulse width and spectrum of the pulse were simultaneously measured using a second harmonic autocorrelator and a spectrometer. The time bandwidth product was 0.445, which is close to theoretical limit for a bandwidth limited pulse.     

Generation of multi-wavelength square pulses in the dissipative soliton resonance regime by a Yb-doped fiber laser

Multi-wavelength square pulses are generated in the dissipative soliton resonance(DSR) regime by a Yb-doped fiber laser(YDFL) with a long cavity configuration. The spectral filter effect provided by a passive fiber with low-stress birefringence facilitates the establishment of multi-wavelength operation. Through appropriate control of the cavity parameters,a multi-wavelength DSR pulse can be generated in single-and dual-waveband regions. When the multi-wavelength DSR works in the 1038 nm waveband, the pulse duration can broaden from 2 ns to 37.7 ns. The maximum intra-cavity pulse energy is 152.7 nJ. When the DSR works in the 1038 nm and 1080 nm wavebands, the pulse duration can be tuned from2.3 ns to 10.5 ns with rising pump power. The emergence of the 1080 nm waveband is attributed to the stimulated Raman scattering(SRS) effect. Our work might help a deeper insight to be gained into DSR pulses in all-normal-dispersion YDFLs.     

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.     

Wavelength tunable,high energy femtosecond laser pulses directly generated from large-mode-area photonic crystal fiber

Wavelength tunable high energy ultrashort laser pulses are generated from a large-mode-area photonic crystal fiber in anomalous dispersion (AD) regime. A simplified laser cavity design with one fine polished facet of the fiber as a cavity mirror is used. The intra-cavity dispersion compensation is achieved by a grating pair, the spatial dispersed light from which also have optical spectrum filtering effects combined with the limited aperture of the fiber core. The laser system is able to generate ultrashort pulses ranging from 494 fs (with 56 nJ pulse energy) to 1.24 ps (with 49 nJ pulse energy) at 55 MHz repetition rate. The filtering mechanism benefits the generation of high energy pulses with narrowing pulse duration in AD regime. An undulation in frequency and time domain is also observed with the increase of the pump power. Furthermore, this laser system is directly used as seed for supercontinuum generation.     

Femtosecond pulse shaping using counter-propagating pulses in a semiconductor optical amplifier

An efficient pulse shaping method using counter-propagating pulses in the femtosecond regime is proposed and investigated. The effects of pump pulse power and pulsewidth on probe pulse are studied in counter-propagation scheme. It is shown that, with the proposed method, output probe pulse temporal and spectral peak shift due to femtosecond nonlinearities can be compensated, while the output pulse is amplified sufficiently. Furthermore, in relatively high power regime, the probe pulsewidth and time-bandwidth product are improved using counter-propagating pump pulse.     

Diode end-pumped self-Q-switched and mode-locked Nd,Cr：YAG /KTP green laser

We first experimentally demonstrate a laser-diode end-pumped self-Q-switched and mode-locked Nd,Cr:YAG green laser with a KTP crystal as the intra-cavity frequency doubler. The device produces an average output power of 680 mW at 532 nm. The corresponding pulse width of the Q-switched envelope of the green laser is 170±20 ns. The mode-locked pulses have a repetition rate of approximately 183 MHz and the average pulse duration is estimated to be around sub-nanosecond. It is found that the intra-cavity frequency doubling greatly improves the modulation depth and stability of the mode-locked pulses within the Q-switched envelope.     

An improved nonlinear optical pulse propagation equation

A new equation for self-focusing of extremely focused short-duration intense pulses is derived using a method that treats diffraction and dispersion to all orders with nonlinearity present, and self-consistently determines the nonlinear derivative terms present in the propagation equation. It generalizes both the previous formulation of linear optical pulse propagation to the nonlinear regime, and the cw nonlinear regime propagation to the pulsed regime by including temporal characteristics of the pulse. We apply the new equation and propagate a tightly focused picosecond pulse in silica and explicitly show the effects of spatial-derivative nonlinear coupling terms.     

Controlling the spacing of attosecond pulse trains from relativistic surface plasmas

When a laser pulse hits a solid surface with relativistic intensities, XUV attosecond pulses are generated in the reflected light. We present an experimental and theoretical study of the temporal properties of attosecond pulse trains in this regime. The recorded harmonic spectra show distinct fine structures which can be explained by a varying temporal pulse spacing that can be controlled by the laser contrast. The pulse spacing is directly related to the cycle-averaged motion of the reflecting surface. Thus the harmonic spectrum contains information on the relativistic plasma dynamics.     

Zig-Zag板条泵浦的2.12μm激光器

 为了实现窄脉宽、高峰值功率2.12 μm激光的稳定输出,设计了基于侧面泵浦Zig-Zag 板条产生1.06 μm基频光,进而泵浦KTP晶体通过II类相位匹配产生2.12 μm激光的光参量振荡实验。对外腔及内腔进行了实验研究,分别获得了1.53%和2.86%的电光转换效率。在20 Hz频率下内腔2.12 μm输出能量达到70 mJ以上,脉宽7 ns~9 ns。其中内腔实验中能量输出稳定度接近8%。     

Modulation instability in filamentary self-compression

We numerically analyze filamentary propagation for various media and input pulse parameters and show that temporal self-compression can greatly benefit from refocusing events. Analyzing the dynamical behavior in the second focal spot, it turns out that a dispersive temporal break-up may appear due to the emission of a hyperbolic shock wave from the self-steepened trailing edge of the pulse. This break-up event in the refocus enhances the self-compression capabilities of laser filaments, enabling up to 12-fold temporal compression. Only slightly perturbing the input pulse parameters, we further identify a regime in which refocusing events give rise to extended subdiffractive propagation in a weakly ionized channel.     

基于啁啾镜色散补偿技术的超宽带飞秒激光脉冲

在精确计算包括空气在内的钛蓝宝石激光器腔内色散的基础上，通过合理选取啁啾反射镜，直接用简单的四镜腔结构获得了光谱覆盖540—1030nm波段的超连续激光光谱.进一步探讨分析了实现超过一个倍频程光谱宽度的有关物理与技术. 关键词： 超连续 啁啾镜 飞秒     

超宽光谱掺钛蓝宝石飞秒激光器时域频域特性的实验研究

系统地研究了超宽光谱（Δλ>100nm）情况下,掺钛蓝宝石飞秒激光振荡器时域和频域特性,观测到腔内光谱从40nm带宽的sech²型演化至180nm带宽的多峰结构,以 及脉冲在时域相应的成型过程.实验表明随着光谱的加宽,脉冲的变窄主要体现在其中部,而脉冲底部并未变窄,其包含的能量反而相对增加. 关键词： 掺钛蓝宝石激光器 飞秒脉冲 超宽光谱 时频特性     

Dynamics of gain-guided solitons in a dispersion-managed fiber laser with large normal cavity dispersion

The intra-cavity pulse dynamics of gain-guided solitons in a dispersion-managed fiber laser with large normal cavity dispersion was investigated experimentally and numerically. It was found that in the laser the gain-guided solitons have a similar evolution as that of the parabolic pulses.     

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.     

Single picosecond-pulse generation in a mode-locked oscillator and regenerative amplifier system

A mode-locked Nd-glass laser oscillator with intra-cavity pulse selection by a Pockels cell shutter is described. A regenerative amplifier system with a saturable absorber is used to shorten the selected light pulses from the master oscillator. Pulses were shortened from 8 ps to 1 ps.     

Determination of Optimum Conditions for Reproducing Information in Optical Echo Processors

We consider correlations between the temporal profile of stimulated photon echo and the temporal form of the object laser pulse. We find that the information measure is a good criterion in choosing optimum conditions for reproducing information in optical echo processors. We show that the reproducibility of information in the stimulated photon-echo response in this regime depends on the object-pulse area.