Broadband four-wave optical parametric amplification in bulk isotropic media in the ultraviolet

We report on four-wave optical parametric amplification of the ultrashort ultraviolet light pulses in bulk fused silica and CaF₂. Exact phase-matching in these isotropic media is achieved by means of non-collinear interaction with cylindrical beam focusing. Four-wave optical parametric amplifier efficiently operates in the UV spectral range with 1-ps laser pulses, delivering amplified signal energy exceeding 50 μJ using millijoule pump pulses in the visible (527 nm). Results of scanning of the parametric gain profile suggest that broad amplification bandwidth as wide as ∼20 nm (at FWHM) under these experimental settings is achieved, which might support amplification of sub-10-fs ultraviolet pulses with central wavelength around 330 nm. It is also shown experimentally and verified theoretically that the parametric gain profile exposes a distinct inhomogeneity and its bandwidth notably broadens due to effects of self- and cross-phase modulation imposed by the intense pump beam.     

Generation of fs laser pulses from a ps pulse-pumped optical parametric amplifier with a beat-wave seed signal

We describe a method of ultrashort-pulse and ultrafast-pulse-train generation through optical parametric amplification of a laser beat wave. Numerical simulation shows that 250-fs laser pulses at 1.55 μm are generated from a beat-wave seeded optical parametric amplifier pumped by a 30-ps laser at 1064 nm. The pulse compression is attributable to sideband generation and parametric amplification under group velocity mismatch. Our experimental result confirms efficient generation of comb-like sidebands for the mixing waves from such an optical parametric amplifier.     

Amplification properties of Tb (III) green emission in polymeric waveguide doped with Tb-Al nanocluster

This paper describes optical amplification properties in a polymeric waveguide doped with Tb-Al nanoclusters. The Tb-Al nanocluster is a promising fluorescent material for polymeric waveguides, which can be uniformly dispersed in polymer matrices while restraining the concentration quenching of Tb³⁺. Under the continuous optical pumping by 488 nm laser light, optical amplification for the green emission of Tb³⁺ was achieved. The optical gain coefficients were estimated to be as high as 0.25 and 0.56 mm⁻¹ at the Tb-Al nanocluster concentrations of 4.5 and 5.0 wt%, respectively. Taking into account our previous works for the polymeric waveguide doped with Eu-Al nanocluster, the rare-earth-metal nanocluster is believed to be a promising candidate for various photonic applications such as multicolor polymer lasers and waveguide-type optical amplifiers.     

Investigation of the optical gain and noise figure for multi-channel amplification in EDFA under optimized pump condition

We present the results of an investigation of optical gain and noise figure for simultaneous multi-channel amplification of an erbium doped fibre amplifier (EDFA) under optimized pump condition. Different pump configurations with varying input signal levels show interesting features on gain flatness. In the experiment, population inversion along the fibre length which determines the gain-spectra and noise characteristics of the amplifier is adjusted through optimized fibre length and injected pump power in order to minimize the gain-tilt at C-band. It is observed that bi-directional pumping manifests the best combination of low noise and high gain of EDFA which are useful as in-line repeaters in WDM network. We obtain 30 ± 1.5 dB intrinsically flat small signal gain from 1538 nm to 1558 nm band of wavelength with noise figure <4 dB for 16-channel simultaneous amplification in a single stage EDFA without gain flattening filter.     

Amplification characteristics measurement of 1.55 μm multi-mode LD

The amplification characteristics of 1.55 μm multi-mode LD are presented experimentally. It demonstrates that nine wavelengths across 1547–1557 nm have a good amplification, the maximum gain of ∼43 dB at 1552.14 nm is obtained with pump power of 130 mW @980 nm, and noise figure of ∼5.6 dB at 1554.3 nm is achieved.     

Tm–Ho codoped fiber based all fiber amplification of a gain-switched 2 μm fiber laser

A Tm–Ho codoped fiber amplifier system is built. And, amplification of a gain-switched Tm–Ho codoped fiber laser is investigated. Average output of 300 mW is obtained at repetition rate of tens of kHz with an amplification gain bigger than 11 dB. And, pulse amplification efficiency of resonantly pumped Tm–Ho codoped single clad fiber is comparable with 793 nm pumped Tm-doped double clad fiber. The maximal pulse energy generated is about 13.1 μJ, corresponding to a peak power of 282 W at 20 kHz. During the amplification process, gain-switching, partially modulated gain-switched mode-locking and 100% modulated gain-switched mode-locking are observed sequentially. At gain-switching mode, the laser output enjoys a narrow linewidth of 0.31 nm, while at gain-switched mode-locking mode, the spectral linewidth broadens to 0.6 nm.     

Optical path design and evaluation in Tm doped glass channel waveguide for S-band amplification

To achieve high-gain S-band waveguide amplifiers and promote the practicality of integrated signal amplification devices, bent waveguide structures based on Tm³⁺ doped germanate glass substrate have been designed. Using simulated-bend method, the optimal radius for the curved structure is offered to be 1.90 cm with a loss coefficient of 0.04 dB/cm, as the substrate size is minimally schemed. For the folded-spiral waveguide, the internal gain at 1482 nm is derived to be 13.01 dB, which is higher than the values of 8.21 and 4.22 dB in the U- and S-bend waveguides, respectively, and nearly three times higher than that of the straight one. Simulation results indicate that the optical path design is attractive in realizing the high gain of Tm³⁺ doped germanate glass channel waveguides for practical S-band amplification.     

High-peak power multi-wavelength picosecond pulses generated from a BaWO4 Raman-seeded optical parametric amplifier

We report the generation of high-peak power multi-wavelength picosecond laser pulses using optical parametric amplification (OPA) in BBO seeded with pulses generated in a 5-mm length BaWO₄ crystal by stimulated Raman scattering of 18-ps laser pulses at 532 nm. The maximum output energy of the amplified first-Stokes component at 559.7 nm was about 1.76 mJ. The corresponding maximum peak power, pulse duration and spectral line width were measured to be 117.3 MW, 15 ps and 18.0 cm⁻¹, respectively. The multi-wavelength picosecond laser pulses were in the visible and near infrared ranges. Using this Raman-seeded OPA technique, the beam quality of the stimulated Raman scattering pulses can be improved.     

Sum and difference frequency generation of white light continuum with the ps pulses of Nd:YAG laser in a thick BBO crystal

The white light continuum (WLC) generated in water/D₂O mixture by pumping with the fundamental of ps Nd⁺³:YAG laser has been used as a variable frequency source for the sum frequency generation as well as for its amplification. 35 ps long pulses with 8 mJ energy at 1064 nm were mixed collinearly with the WLC generated by the same laser beam in a 20 mm thick BBO crystal. The obtained tunable output has been identified as the sum frequency between the fundamental and a portion of the WLC with the required phase matching. Theoretical simulations are also given along with a few initial experiments to use this combination for the difference frequency generation (optical parametric amplification) under non-collinear geometry.     

Cross-relaxation and spectral broadening of gain for Nd/Cr:YAG ceramic lasers with white-light pump source under high-temperature operation

Spectral broadening of the fluorescence of a Nd/Cr:YAG ceramic at the 1064 nm lasing wavelength was observed, and the amplification properties at a high temperature were investigated by considering cross-relaxation. These ceramics are promising for use as a solid-laser material pumped with solar or lamp light. It has been found that whenever the temperature of a laser medium is high and a spectral shift occurs, a high small-signal gain remains owing to the broad spectral band and the cross-relaxation. This optical property is remarkably different from that of a Nd:YAG laser. For a conventional Nd:YAG laser, the bandwidth at 1064 nm is 0.45 nm, and a reduction in small-signal gain occurs at a temperature of 373 K because the spectral peak shift is 0.005 nm/K. However, for the Nd/Cr:YAG ceramic, the bandwidths are 1.2 and 1.9 nm in the case of 0.1% Cr ion doping and 3% Cr ion doping, respectively, owing to the existence of excited Cr ions and the shortening of the effective Nd ion coherence time. It is prospected that the laser medium can be used at a high temperature of 600 K.     

Widely tunable optical parametric oscillator driven by a pulsed diode-pumped nonlinear-mirror mode-locked Nd:YAG laser

We report on the development of a pulsed diode end-pumped Nd:YAG laser mode-locked by a nonlinear mirror and stabilized by an acousto-optical modulator. With the introduction of appropriate intracavity loss, the laser is able to generate 22.8 ps pulses with the energy of 4.5 μJ. After amplification and frequency doubling stages, the second harmonic radiation is used to non-collinearly synchronously pump a β-barium borate optical parametric oscillator in a walk-off compensated scheme. The system demonstrates a wide-tuning range from 635 nm to 2.55 μm for the signal output, with maximum average conversion efficiency as high as 42%.     

High performance wavelength-swept laser with mode-locking technique for optical coherence tomography

We demonstrate a Fourier-domain mode-locked wavelength-swept laser that uses a polygon-based narrowband optical scanning filter and a high-efficiency semiconductor optical amplifier. Peak and average output powers of 98 mW and 71 mW have been achieved, respectively, without an external amplifier, while the wavelength was swept continuously from 1247 nm to 1360 nm. A unidirectional wavelength sweeping rate of 7452 nm/ms (65.95 kHz repetition rate) was achieved by using a 72 facet polygon scanner with a rotation rate of 916 revolutions per second. The instantaneous linewidth of this laser is 0.09 nm, which corresponds to a coherence length of 16 mm. This laser is most suitable for optical coherence tomography applications.     

A high power hybrid mid-IR laser source

An efficient hybrid mid-IR laser system comprising a thulium fibre laser, Ho:YAG solid state laser and a zinc germanium phosphide optical parametric oscillator is presented. A 790 nm diode pumped 1908 nm thulium fibre laser operating at 30 W pumps an RTP q-switched Ho:YAG laser emitting 17 W at 40 kHz and 2090 nm. The zinc germanium phosphide optical parametric oscillator efficiently converts this into the 3-5 μm region producing 10.1 W with 59% optical conversion efficiency and an M² = 1.5.     

Wavelength dependent resonant nonlinearities in a standard saturable absorber IR26 on picosecond time scale

Nonlinear optical properties of a standard dye IR26 have been studied by using the Z-scan technique to decipher the difference in the mechanism of nonlinear absorption on picosecond time scale at two wavelengths i.e. at 1064 nm and 532 nm. A prominent contribution of nonlinear absorption is observed in the Z-scan profiles at 1064 nm. The dye exhibits the mechanism of self-defocusing at 1064 nm in contrast to that of self-focusing at 532 nm. While the two photon absorption has been found to be the dominant mechanism of reverse saturable absorption at 1064 nm, the mechanism of excited state absorption is operating at 532 nm. Additionally, the optical phase conjugate geometry of degenerate four wave mixing (DFWM) technique has been used to measure the third order nonlinear susceptibility values at 532 nm to compare with those obtained from the Z-scan profiles.     

Stacking chirped pulse optical parametric amplification

Stacking chirped pulse optical parametric amplification based on a home-built Yb³⁺-doped mode-locked fiber laser and an all-fiber pulse stacker has been demonstrated. Energic 11 mJ shaped pulses with pulse duration of 2.3 ns and a net total gain of higher than 1.1 × 10⁷ at fluctuation less than 2% rms are achieved by optical parametric amplification pumped by a Q-switched Nd:YAG frequency-doubled laser, which provides a simple and efficient amplification scheme for temporally shaped pulses by stacking chirped pulse.     

A liquid lens-based broadband variable fiber optical attenuator

To the best of our knowledge, proposed is the first variable fiber optical attenuator (VFOA) using an electronically controlled variable focus liquid lens. The approach uses the changes in the radius of curvature of the liquid lens edge to enable an electronically controlled optical wedge that produces a varying beam tilt angle. In effect, changing beam tilt within a single mode fiber (SMF) lens free space coupling assembly leads to a polarization independent broadband VFOA design. The demonstrated VFOA experiment shows broadband operation over the 1530-1560 nm C-Band with a 40 dB dynamic range, <0.5 dB resolution, 0.3 dB polarization dependant loss, 4.3 dB fiber-to-fiber optical loss, 3 dB optical bandwidth from 1510 nm to 1700 nm, and switching time of <100 ms. Applications for this VFOA include use in hand held test and measurement equipment.     

Numerical design of high nonlinear coefficient of microstructure optical fibers

This paper presents a theoretical design of highly nonlinear microstructure optical fiber with dispersion-flat characteristics. The APSS™ 2.3 software based on the finite difference method with perfectly matched boundary conditions is used to simulate the properties of the proposed microstructure optical fiber. According to simulation, the proposed fiber warrants a high nonlinear coefficient of the order 41 W⁻¹ km⁻¹ and a low dispersion of 0.25 ps/nm/km at 1550 nm wavelength. It assumes a dispersion-flat characteristic of 0 ± 0.50 ps/nm/km in a 1450-1620 nm wavelength range centering 1550 nm wavelength with a modest number of design parameters.     

Thermally tunable microfiber knot resonator based erbium-doped fiber laser

A compact and tunable erbium-doped fiber laser is demonstrated using a highly doped fiber and a microfiber knot resonator (MKR) structure which is laid on the surface of a small peltier. The MKR functions as both a reflector and a tunable filter where tunability is achieved by varying the temperature of the resonator by heating the peltier. A stable laser output is achieved at the 1533 nm region with an optical signal to noise ratio (OSNR) of 27 dB using a 65 mW of 980 nm pump power. The operating wavelength of the laser can be tuned from 1532.60 nm to 1533.49 nm as the temperature is increased from the room temperature of 24 to 90 °C. It is observed that the operating wavelength shifts to a longer wavelength as the temperature increases with an efficiency of 12.4 pm/°C. This is due to the thermally induced optical phase shift attributable to the changes in effective refractive index and optical path length of the MKR loop.     

Experimental study of SOA-based NRZ-to-PRZ conversion and distortion elimination of amplified NRZ signal using spectral filtering

We experimentally study both reshaping of nonreturn-to-zero (NRZ) signal and NRZ to pseudoreturn-to-zero (PRZ) format conversion based on self-phase modulation of a semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) and detuning an optical bandpass filter (OBF). When an OBF with 1 nm bandwidth is blue shifted by 0.8 nm, the distortion of the amplified NRZ signal at 10 Gbit/s is shown to be eliminated completely. When an OBF with 0.32 nm bandwidth is red shifted by 0.42 nm from the carrier frequency, NRZ-to-PRZ conversion at 10 Gbit/s is obtained. A holding beam is used to suppress the SOA noise and improve the output extinction ratio (ER). The output ER of both the reshaped NRZ and the converted PRZ is larger than 10 dB when the signal wavelength is longer than 1540 nm, and an input power dynamic range from −7 dBm to 2 dBm is obtained at a signal wavelength of 1563.6 nm. The average power of the reshaped NRZ signal is about 3 dBm at an input power dynamic range of 13 dB. The amplitude fluctuation of the converted PRZ signal is around 1.6 dB.     

Optimization of optical parametric chirped pulse amplification with different pump wavelengths

Optical parametric chirped pulse amplification with different pump wavelengths was investigated using LBO crystal, at signal central wavelength of 800 nm. According to our theoretical simulation, when pump wavelength is 492.5 nm, there is a maximal gain bandwidth of 190 nm centered at 805 nm in optimal noncollinear angle using LBO. Presently, pump wavelength of 492.5 nm can be obtained from second harmonic generation of a Yb:Sr₅(PO₄)₃F laser. The broad gain bandwidth can completely support ∼6 fs with a spectral centre of seed pulse at 800 nm. The deviation from optimal noncollinear angle can be compensated by accurately tuning crystal angle for phase matching. The gain spectrum with pump wavelength of 492.5 nm is much better than those with pump wavelengths of 400, 526.5 and 532 nm, at signal centre of 800 nm.