Experimental observation and analysis of novel pulse properties in erbium-doped fiber ring laser with normal cavity dispersion

We demonstrate the experimental observation of different operation states in erbium-doped fiber ring laser with normal cavity dispersion. The Q-switching, Q-switching mode-locking (QML), continuous wave mode-locking (CML), harmonic mode-locking (HML), double-pulse and multiple-pulse operation states can be manipulated by only adjusting the polarization controller with the same pump power. The output spectral bandwidth and pulse width of operation states are measured. The central wavelength dynamics of different operation states achieved by adjusting the polarization controller are also observed and analyzed. It is shown that pulse width, polarization, chirp and stability of different operation states are diverse by using nonlinear polarization rotation technique.     

Arbitrarily switchable multi-wavelength Yb-doped fiber lasers with phase-shifted long-period fiber grating

An arbitrarily switchable multi-wavelength Yb-doped fiber laser (YDFL) based on a phase-shifted long-period fiber grating (PS-LPFG) is proposed and demonstrated. The PS-LPFG, which was fabricated by a CO₂ laser under asymmetric exposure, acts as a spectral filter with anisotropic transmission spectrum at different states of polarization. The capability of arbitrary wavelength switching can be attributed to the combination of the polarization-dependent loss (PDL) of the PS-LPFG and the nonlinear polarization rotation (NPR) effect. The method suggests a new possibility to achieve even more wavelengths output with an all-fiber format, arbitrarily switchable and tunable capability in the Yb-doped fiber laser system in a simple, stable and well controlled manner.     

Generation of cylindrical vector beams in a mode-locked fiber laser using a mode-selective coupler

We experimentally obtain cylindrical vector beams(CVBs) in a passively mode-locked fiber laser based on nonlinear polarization rotation. A mode-selective coupler composed of both a single-mode fiber(SMF) and a twomode fiber(TMF) is incorporated into the cavity to act as a mode converter from LP01 mode to LP11 mode with broad spectral bandwidth. CVBs in different mode-locked states including single-pulse, multi-pulse, and bound pulse are obtained, for the first time to our best knowledge. The ultrafast CVBs with different operation states have potential applications in many fields such as laser beam machining, nanoparticle manipulation, and so on.     

Tunable and switchable multi-wavelength Erbium-doped photonic crystal fiber ring laser incorporating a length of highly nonlinear photonic crystal fiber

A tunable and switchable multi-wavelength Erbium-doped photonic crystal fiber ring laser incorporating a length of single-mode highly nonlinear photonic crystal fiber is proposed and demonstrated experimentally. Stable dual-wavelength and triple-wavelength operations at room temperature are achieved by employing the highly nonlinear photonic crystal fiber to induce four-wave mixing effect and a polarization controller to vary the polarization states of propagation lights in the laser cavity. The laser cavity is free from any wavelength selection components. The laser obtains maximal 30 dB signal-to-noise ratio and the peak power fluctuations of lasing lines are less than 1.39 dB.     

Polarization-controlled dispersive wave redirection in dual-core photonic crystal fiber

The complex study of the polarization-controlled supercontinuum generation in a dual-core square lattice photonic crystal fiber made of multicomponent glass was accomplished. The fiber was excited by 100-fs pulses at a 1250-nm wavelength in the anomalous dispersion region and the registered spectra exhibited soliton fission and Raman-induced self-frequency shift processes. The study also involved a detailed analysis of the infrared-to-visible light conversion exhibiting a dispersive wave origin. The special dual-core properties were investigated by separate spectral analysis of each of the two cores and the near-field profile registration. The emphasis was on the visible part of the spectrum where the input energy and polarization direction dependences were studied. The increase in the input energy allowed for the tuning of the wavelength of the visible spectral features, a further rotation of the polarization direction had an effect on the spectral dependence of the light distribution between the cores. The dual-core fiber exhibited a significant coupling performance and the spectral dependence of the visible light distribution is in good agreement with the simulated coupling length spectral characteristics. Single-core excitation in the linear regime revealed the possibility of coupling 50% of the energy to the other core and the same polarization-controlled redirection possibilities as that at the nonlinear experiments. Dual-core excitation of the fiber enhances the light redirection effect with the application potential for the polarization-controlled directional coupler accompanied by nonlinear frequency conversion.     

Analysis of spectral characteristics for reflective tilted fiber gratings of uniform periods

On the basis of the coupled-mode theory, a detailed investigation of the optical spectral characteristics is presented for uniform tilted fiber gratings. Explicit expressions are derived for the spectral parameters of reflection and transmission spectra. Numerical simulations are carried on to show the dependences of grating spectral responses on the structural parameters, such as tilt angle, grating length, index modulation amplitude and polarization states. The effects of these parameters on shaping the grating spectra are discussed comprehensively. The physical mechanism and intuitive phase-matching vector model are provided to explain the unique behaviors of transmission loss spectra. The results are helpful for providing a better understanding of the spectral behavior of the tilted fiber grating.     

高非线性光纤中四波混频的磁控机理研究

将磁光效应和光纤非线性效应作为微扰,采用导波光耦合理论分析了高非线性光纤中导波光发生磁光四波混频的机理;实验测试了磁场对四波混频偏振依赖性的影响,理论分析与实验结果符合.研究表明,当输入的探测光和抽运光为相互正交的线偏振光时,四波混频的磁控效果最为明显,输出的闲频光功率随磁光耦合系数振荡变化,施加适当的外加磁场可使四波混频效率得到进一步提高.选择适当费尔德常数的光纤材料,利用磁光效应对四波混频偏振依赖性的影响,可实现不同范围的磁场测量.     

Artificial spectral filtering in dissipative soliton fiber lasers with invisible bandpass filters

We numerically study the artificial spectral-filtering effect in dissipative soliton fiber lasers without intracavity spectral filters. It is found that in dissipative soliton lasers with real saturable absorbers (SAs), the dynamic spectral filtering of the real SAs serves as an artificial spectral filter and contributes to the pulse shaping. While in the dissi- pative soliton lasers with artificial SAs, such as nonlinear polarization rotation, the spectral filtering introduced by the intracavity polarization-dependent components acts as an artificial spectral filter and shapes the pulses to obtain mode-locking. An investigation of the artificial spectral-filtering effect reveals the operating mechanisms of the dissipative soliton fiber lasers without visible bandpass filters.     

Generation of quadrature-squeezed light during the propagation of a light wave in a birefringent fiber

It is shown that generation of quadrature-squeezed states of a vector electromagnetic field in which quantum fluctuations in one of the quadrature components are smaller than in the coherent state can occur in cubically nonlinear media (birefringent fibers) with efficient energy transfer between the polarization modes of the field. It is shown that for certain distributions of the initial total power between modes, light with suppressed quantum fluctuations in both polarization modes of the vector field is formed at the fiber exit. The optimal conditions for obtaining quadrature-squeezed light are determined. New analytical expressions are obtained for the degree of squeezing in the two polarization modes in the case when there is no energy transfer between the polarization components of the field propagating in the fiber (eigenmodes of two-wave mixing).     

Entangled photon states generation and regeneration using a nonlinear fiber ring resonator

We propose a simple system of the entangled photon states generation and regeneration using a standard diode laser, a Mach Zehnder Interferometer (MZI) and a fiber optic ring resonator (FORR). Light from the diode laser is launched into an MZI and circulated in the FOOR, without any optical pumping components included in the system. The nonlinear light pulses are generated by a Kerr nonlinear effects type, while the resonance peaks are formed by the four-wave mixing of light pulses in the FORR. The entangled photons can be performed by using the polarization control device, and then detected by the avalanche photo-detectors, where the entangled photon visibility is plotted and seen. Similarly, the entangled photon states can be easily formed by using the appropriated coupling ratios into a fiber coupler, then into a ring resonator, i.e. without an MZI. The use of the entangled photons generation based on a fiber optic scheme for quantum teleportation, quantum key distribution via optical wireless link, and the system of the entangled photon states recovery by using a fiber ring resonator incorporating an erbium-doped fiber (EDF) have been investigated and discussed. The feasibility of dense coding using multi-entangled photons generation based on the fiber optic scheme and the effect of the entangled state walk-off along the optical fiber are also discussed, respectively.     

Tunable high energy giant chirped passively mode-locked Yb-doped fiber laser

A tunable, low-repetition rate, all-normal-dispersion Yb-doped fiber laser (YDFL) that is passively mode locked based on a phase shifted long period fiber grating (PS-LPFG) is demonstrated and proposed. The mode-locking mechanism of the laser is based on nonlinear polarization evolution (NPE). Using a PS-LPFG as the spectral filter in the laser cavity, the mode-locked output wavelength can be tuned continuously and smoothly over a spectral range of 10 nm, which is the first time implementation of a tunable giant chirped pulse with all-fiber format bandpass filter in YDFL. The maximum output pulse energy is 38.9 nJ at the repetition rate of 2.499 MHz.     

Principal modes in fiber amplifiers

The dynamics of the state of polarization in multimode fiber amplifiers is presented. The experimental results reveal that although the state of polarizations at the output can vary over a large range when changing the temperatures of the fiber amplifiers, the variations are significantly reduced when resorting to the principal states of polarization in single-mode fiber amplifiers and principal modes in multimode fiber amplifiers.     

Experimental investigation of supercontinuum generation in highly nonlinear dispersion-shifted fiber pumped by spectrum-sliced amplified spontaneous emission

Spectral broadening of spectrum-sliced amplified spontaneous emission (SS-ASE) in highly nonlinear, dispersion-shifted fiber in different dispersion regimes is investigated experimentally. We find that, the spectral noise of the amplified SS-ASE pump from Er³⁺-doped fiber amplifier seeds the spectral broadening via four-wave mixing or modulation instability. Stimulated Raman scattering, red-shifted Raman solitons, and blue-shifted dispersion waves all enhance the broadening of the spectrum. The effect of the polarization state of pump on supercontinuum generation is also investigated, and it is found that, linear polarization is more efficient than random polarization for pumping supercontinuum. Supercontinuum with −10 dB bandwidth of 200 nm is generated by launching linearly polarized pump with 33.5 dB m power into anomalous dispersion regime near to zero dispersion wavelength of fiber.     

Spectral sideband distribution asymmetry in fiber laser

A ring fiber laser with SESAM mode-locking mechanism is constructed. The spectral sideband distribution asymmetry of solitons is observed in the fiber laser. There are different order sidebands distributed in two edges of the soliton spectrum. Through experimentally studying the effect of the different gain media lengths on the mode-locked solitons, it is found that the spectral sideband asymmetry occurs at the long wavelength band of erbium-doped fiber (EDF) gain profile. The origin of sideband asymmetry is owing to the secondary amplification gain profile of EDF, which is pumped by the first gain peak at 1530 nm. Furthermore, an extra in-line polarizer is imported in the cavity for studying the effect of the polarization bias on sidebands. It is found that the polarization bias in the cavity is an important control method to adjust the power and generate the spectral sidebands. However, the polarization bias does not decide the generation of spectral sideband distribution asymmetry.     

66 W average power from a microjoule-class sub-100 fs fiber oscillator

Performance scaling of passively mode-locked ultrashort-pulse fiber oscillators in terms of average power, peak power, and pulse energy is demonstrated. A very-large-mode-area fiber laser in an all-positive group-velocity-dispersion ring cavity configuration with intracavity spectral filter, mode-locked by nonlinear polarization evolution, emits 66 W of average power at 76 MHz repetition rate, corresponding to 0.9 μJ pulse energy. The pulses are dechirped to 91 fs outside the cavity with an average power of 60 W remaining after the compressor. The generated pulse peak power is as high as 7 MW.     

Long-cavity passively mode-locked fiber ring laser with high-energy rectangular-shape pulses in anomalous dispersion regime

We report on a long-cavity passively mode-locked fiber laser in the anomalous dispersion regime. The nonlinear polarization rotation technique is employed to achieve mode locking. The output pulse from the fiber laser has a rectangular shape and a corresponding gaussian-shape spectral profile. Stable mode-locked pulses at a repetition rate of 278 kHz with single pulse energy as high as 715 nJ are obtained under equal bidirectional pumping power of 500 mW in cavity. The experimental results demonstrate that the passively mode-locked fiber laser operating in the anomalous regime can also realize a high-energy pulse, which is different from the conventional low-energy soliton pulse.     

Impacts of operational parameters on nonlinear polarization rotation-based passively mode-locked fiber laser

The operational parameters including the polarization controlling and the pump power in a nonlinear polarization rotation-based passively mode-locked fiber laser are studied in this paper.The carrier rate equations of the activated erbium-doped fiber are first employed together with the nonlinear Shro¨dinger equations to reveal the relation between the operational parameters and the output state of the passively mode-locked fiber laser.The numerical and experimental results demonstrate that the output state of the mode-locked laser varies with the polarization controlling and the pump power.The periodicity of the polarization controlling is observed.With given pump power,there exists a set of polarization controlling under which the ultra-short pulse can be generated.With given polarization controlling,the mode-locked state can be maintained generally except for some particular values of pump power.Three shapes of the output optical spectra from the fiber cavity can be identified when the pump power changes.The results in this paper provide a comprehensive insight into the operation of the nonlinear polarization rotation-based passively mode-locked fiber laser.     

A linearly-polarized tunable Yb-doped fiber laser using a polarization dependent fiber loop mirror

A Ytterbium-doped linearly-polarized fiber laser is constructed with a polarization maintaining fiber Sagnac loop mirror. The fiber loop mirror made of polarization maintaining fiber coupler has a polarization dependent reflectivity, which provides the necessary polarization discrimination between the slow and fast axes. With a fiber Bragg grating written in normal polarization maintaining fiber as an output coupler, laser output of up to 5.6 W at 1070 nm is generated with a polarization extinction ratio of > 20 dB and an overall efficiency of 55%. The broadband polarization dependent reflection of the fiber loop mirror offers advantages of easy spectral tuning and simple linearly-polarized laser generation.     

Supercontinuum generation by combining clad-pumped Er/Yb co-doped fiber amplifier and highly nonlinear photonic crystal fiber

We present an experimental study on supercontinuum generation by combining a clad-pumped Er/Yb co-doped fiber amplifier (EYDFA) and a highly nonlinear photonic crystal fiber (HNL-PCF). By using the nonlinear polarization rotation technique, a stable femtosecond optical pulse seed signal with a central wavelength of 1556.36 nm and a spectral line width of ∼5.6 nm has been obtained. Then, this pulsed seed signal is amplified by the EYDFA, the amplified pulse, which, with the broaden spectrum, propagates in the HNL-PCF. The 20 dB bandwidth of ∼520 nm from 1230 to 1750 nm is obtained.     

Comparison of pulse evolutions in low and ultra-large anomalous dispersion mode-locked fiber lasers

We have investigated and compared the pulse evolutions in low and ultra-large anomalous dispersion erbium-doped fiber lasers mode-locked by the nonlinear polarization rotation technique. Two lasers deliver the pulses that exhibit quite distinct characteristics such as pulse duration, spectral width, and spectral sidebands. Experimental observations show that the spectral width decreases from several nanometers to less than one nanometer whereas pulse duration extends about three times by changing the cavity dispersion from −0.03 to −15.50 ps². The solitons in ultra-large anomalous fiber laser show dips in the optical spectrum, which is quite distinct from that of conventional solitons observed in low anomalous regime.