Supercontinuum generation in a standard fiber pumped by noise-like pulses from a figure-eight fiber laser

We report the experimental study of broadband spectrum generation in a piece of standard fiber (SMF-28) using as the pump a train of noise-like pulses, or sub-nanosecond packets of sub-ps pulses with randomly varying amplitudes. The pulses are generated by an erbium-doped figure-eight fiber laser, and present a wide (∼50 nm) optical spectrum, which represents a significant advantage to seed the generation of new frequencies. Another advantage of the pulses is their relatively large energy, as they are made up of a large number of ultrashort pulses. After amplification with an Erbium Doped Fiber Amplifier (EDFA), the pulses were injected in a 0.75 km length of SMF-28 fiber. We obtained experimentally at the end of the fiber an output signal spectrum extending from 1530 nm to at least 1750 nm (the upper limit of the spectrum analyzer) for pump pulses with an average power of 20.4 mW, corresponding to a few kilowatts peak power. The spectral broadening is due to Raman self-frequency shift (SFS). It is noteworthy that the spectrum of the newly created frequencies was extremely uniform over the range of measurement. Considering that the Raman shift is directly related to the pump pulse duration, spectral flatness is a direct consequence of the random distribution of amplitudes and durations of the pulses in the packet. Finally, the results show the capabilities of noise-like pulses from a fiber laser for applications in supercontinuum generation based on nonlinear phenomena such as Raman SFS.     

120 nm Bandwidth noise-like pulse generation in an erbium-doped fiber laser

We report on the generation of noise-like pulses with up to 120 nm bandwidth in a passively mode-locked erbium-doped fiber ring laser. By inserting a segment of slightly normal dispersion fiber in a mode-locked fiber laser cavity, we found that the spectrum of the noise-like pulse emission of the laser can be significantly broadened as a result of the four-wave-mixing and the soliton self-frequency shift effects in the inserted fiber.     

Noise-like pulses generated at high harmonics in a partially-mode-locked km-long Raman fiber laser

We present a 5-km-long Raman fiber laser that delivers pulses at high harmonics of the fundamental cavity repetition rate, up to 1 GHz. The observed nanosecond pulses that propagate in an anomalous dispersion regime possess a complex noise-like structure with a coherence time of around 1 picosecond.     

Numerical analysis of a broadband spectrum generated in a standard fiber by noise-like pulses from a passively mode-locked fiber laser

This paper covers a numerical analysis of supercontinuum spectrum generation in a piece of standard fiber by using as the pump noise-like pulses produced by a passively mode-locked fiber laser. An experimental study was also carried out, yielding results that support the numerical results. In the numerical study we estimated that the spectral extension of the generated supercontinuum reaches ~ 1000 nm, and that it presents a high flatness over a region of ~ 220 nm (1630 nm-1850 nm) when we use as the pump noise-like pulses with a wide optical bandwidth (~ 50 nm) and a peak power of ~ 2 kW. Experimentally, the output signal spectrum extends from ~ 1530 nm to at least 1750 nm and presents a high flatness over a region of 1640 nm to 1750 nm for the same value of numerical input power, 1750 nm being the upper limit of the optical spectrum analyzer. The numerical analysis presented here is thus an essential part to overcome the severe limitation in measuring capabilities and to understand the phenomena of supercontinuum generation, which is mainly related to Raman self-frequency shift. Finally, this work demonstrates the potential of noise-like pulses from a passively mode-locked fiber laser for broadband spectrum generation.     

Different operation states of soliton pulses in an erbium-doped fibre ring laser

We report on the experimental observation of soliton pulses in an erbium doped fibre ring laser. The passive mode-locking is achieved using the nonlinear polarization rotation technique. By adjusting the pump power and the intracavity polarization controllers, a normal soliton, a stable 8th harmonic mode-locked pulse and a noise-like pulse have been observed in our laser. The experimental results revealed that the noise-like pulse is not suitable for the optical telecommunication, and in order to obtain the stable harmonic mode-locked soliton, a strong unstable CW laser field is necessary to mediate global soliton interaction. The formation mechanism of the harmonic mode-locked pulse has also been analysed.     

孤子分子/类噪声脉冲可切换的混合锁模光纤激光器

不同类型脉冲之间的演化是被动锁模光纤激光器丰富动力学的体现。报道了一种可实现多种脉冲切换的混合锁模光纤激光器,当泵浦功率为400 mW时实现了孤子分子、谐波锁模、孤子簇之间的相互切换。增加泵浦功率至600 mW时获得了类噪声脉冲输出,对应的输出功率和单脉冲能量分别为15.2 mW和0.86 nJ。通过调节偏振控制器实现了类噪声脉冲中心波长从1 895 nm到1 930 nm可调谐。所搭建的激光器具有锁模脉冲可切换,波长可调谐,能自启动等优点。     

低阈值锁模状态可转换的全保偏光纤激光器

报道了一种可实现低阈值自启动的全保偏九字腔光纤激光器。谐振腔结构中使用相移器降低锁模阈值,当泵浦功率达到120 mW时,便可实现自启动的传统孤子锁模,中心波长为1530 nm,脉冲宽度为614.6 fs。随后泵浦功率逐渐增大到470 mW,实现了从孤子脉冲到类噪声脉冲的转换,在该锁模状态下的激光器输出功率为63.2 mW,对应的类噪声脉冲能量为5.69 nJ。所搭建的激光器具有低锁模阈值、自启动的优势,并且仅通过调节泵浦功率就能够实现超快脉冲和高能量脉冲间的转换,具有广泛的应用价值。     

基于类噪声脉冲抽运的平坦超连续谱光源

设计了一种由类噪声脉冲抽运的全光纤结构平坦超连续谱光源。在色散管理掺铒光纤激光器中通过调节腔内偏振态,在泵浦功率为450 mW时,实现了稳定的类噪声脉冲锁模,锁模脉冲的中心波长为1 600 nm,脉冲宽度为303 fs。在最大泵浦功率为1 W时,谐振腔直接输出功率为8.6 mW。较低的功率无法有效拓展超连续谱宽度,为此设计一种掺铒光纤放大器进行功率放大,放大器最大输出功率为338 mW,将功率放大后的类噪声脉冲耦合进高非线性光纤以产生超连续谱,超连续谱的20 dB光谱范围为1 530 nm～2 300 nm,在1 736 nm～2 134 nm范围内,光谱的平坦度优于0.5 dB。     

Choice of a modulating sequence for code separation of channels in the optical memory based on photon echo

The possibility of applying of phase-coded sequences in optical-memory systems based on photon echo is considered. Comparative analysis of the characteristics of the efficiency of using noise-like phase-coded signals as reference and reading excitation pulses is performed. Choice of the optimal code sequence is substantiated.     

孤子光脉冲的产生及其应用研究

利用非线性偏振旋转技术实现自起振被动锁模.在掺铒光纤环形腔激光器中产生了中心波长为1563.3 nm、重复频率为12.5 MHz、脉冲宽度为352.0 fs、3 dB光谱宽度为7.8 nm的孤子光脉冲.采用该孤子光脉冲作为抽运光源，经掺铒光纤放大器放大后，输入到101 m长的高非线性光子晶体光纤中，获得了20 dB带宽约为240 nm的超连续激光光谱.实验详细观测了光脉冲随抽运功率的变化及超连续激光光谱的形成过程，分析了其形成机理.研究表明：当抽运功率较低时，光谱加宽主要由高阶孤子的分裂引起；随着抽运功率的增加，高阶孤子分裂成基本孤子的数目逐渐增大，光谱进一步加宽；当抽运功率增加到受激拉曼散射的阈值时，受激拉曼散射成为光谱展宽的主要原因；抽运功率进一步增加时，受激拉曼散射、参量四波混频等非线性的共同作用将使光谱进一步加宽且变得光滑. 关键词： 孤子光纤激光器 超连续 光子晶体光纤     

负啁啾高强度飞秒脉冲在正常色散材料中传输特性研究

利用块状正常色散材料作非线性介质，实验研究了负啁啾强激光飞秒脉冲在正常色散材料的传输过程中，脉冲波形及频谱随入射脉冲能量的变化特性.实验发现，负啁啾脉冲经过材料后激光光谱在被整形和压缩的同时，脉冲宽度也被压缩.实验获得的压缩脉冲宽度短于相等光谱宽度下的双曲正割转换极限脉冲宽度.数值模拟结果显示，在实验条件下模拟结果具有同样的变化特性. 关键词： 飞秒脉冲 自压缩 负啁啾 自聚焦     

Interference spectroscopy with coherent anti‐Stokes Raman scattering of noisy broadband pulses

We propose a new technique for comparing two Raman active samples. The method employs optical interference of the signals generated via coherent anti‐Stokes Raman scattering (CARS) of broadband laser pulses with noisy spectra. It does not require spectrally resolved detection, and no prior knowledge about either the Raman spectrum of the samples or the spectrum of the incident light is needed. We study the proposed method theoretically and demonstrate it in a proof‐of‐principle experiment on toluene and o‐xylene samples. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

基于多波长类噪声脉冲的掺铒光纤激光器

报道了一种基于多波长类噪声脉冲的被动锁模掺铒光纤激光器。采用980 nm半导体激光器作为泵浦源，2.5 m长的掺铒光纤作为增益介质。锁模机制为非线性放大环形镜(NALM)。通过自相关迹证明输出脉冲为类噪声脉冲。该类噪声脉冲的光谱3 dB带宽可达17.2 nm，边模抑制比为47.7 dB，重复频率为5.434 MHz，单脉冲能量为7.9 nJ。为了实现平坦的多波长输出，在NALM结构中加入Sagnac环干涉仪，获得了最大波长数为5的平坦多波长类噪声脉冲，平坦度为1.995。     

Polyhedral shaped gold nanoparticles with outstanding near-infrared light absorption

A time-resolved X-ray absorption study of the structural dynamics of liquid water on a picosecond timescale is presented. We apply femtosecond midinfrared pulses to resonantly excite the intramolecular O–H stretching band of liquid water and monitor the transient response in the oxygen K-edge absorption spectrum with picosecond X-ray pulses. In this way, structural changes in the hydrogen bond network of liquid water upon an ultrafast temperature jump of approximately 20 K are investigated. The changes of the X-ray absorption as induced by such a temperature jump are about 3.2%. This demonstrates that our method serves as a sensitive probe of transient structural changes in liquid water and that combined infrared-laser–synchrotron experiments with substantially shorter X-ray pulses, such as generated with a femtosecond slicing scheme, are possible.     

Image watermarking by using phase retrieval algorithm in gyrator transform domain

We propose an image watermarking scheme based on the phase retrieval algorithm in gyrator domain. The watermark is converted into a noise-like image by Arnold transform. The scrambled image is regarded as the amplitude of gyrator spectrum. The Gerchberg-Saxton algorithm is employed to obtain the unknown phase function in gyrator pair, in which the host image is the amplitude of input function. The phase information and the parameters of the two transforms serve as the key of watermarking algorithm. The numerical simulation has demonstrated the performance of the proposed algorithm.     

氦原子在啁啾激光与中红外组合场中产生的单个阿秒脉冲

通过Crank Nicolson方法数值求解一维氦原子的含时Schrdinger方程,研究了啁啾激光与中红外激光形成组合场驱动氦原子发射高次谐波的特点.研究结果表明,在组合场驱动下,高次谐波平台区能得到很大的扩展,其截至位置得到大幅度扩展,对平台区不同阶次范围的高次谐波进行叠加均能得到单个的阿秒脉冲,最短可实现46 as的单个脉冲输出,经分析发现,中红外场的加入,不仅使高次谐波的平台得到扩展,而且提高了平台区前端的谐波强度.通过经典计算和对电离几率特点的讨论,解释了发生这种现象的原因.     

Generation of single dispersion precompensated 1-fs pulses by shaped-pulse optimized high-order stimulated Raman scattering

We propose and theoretically analyze a new approach for generating and shaping 1-fs pulses. It combines the ideas of strong-field molecular optics and optimal control to manipulate light generation in a pump-probe Raman regime. Flexible phase control over the generated spectrum of about 3 eV width is achieved by controlling the input pulses and maximizing the coherence of medium excitation by adiabatically aligning molecules in the medium with a specially shaped pump pulse. The generated pulse is optimized for an output window, precompensating for its dispersion to all orders.     

Fluctuations in synchronously mode-locked dye lasers

We present detailed experimental data on random fluctuations of the pulse properties of a cw rhodamine 6G dye laser synchronously pumped by an acousto-optically mode-locked argon ion laser. It is shown that quantitative information about the fluctuations of the energy, the pulse repetition time and the duration of the pulses can be obtained from the power spectrum of the laser intensity which is measured with the use of an electronic spectrum analyser. This method is capable of revealing small, subpicosecond temporal pulse jitter. We show that the dye laser pulses exhibit an absolute r.m.s. jitter of 20 ps which is induced by the pump laser. The relative jitter in a dual system can be less than 1 ps because well defined correlations of the output fluctuations exist when two lasers are pumped by a common source.     

色散管理掺铥光纤激光器高能量脉冲的产生

设计了一种基于色散管理的掺铥光纤激光器。通过调节泵浦功率以及腔内偏振态，首先实现了稳定的展宽脉冲输出，中心波长和脉冲宽度分别为1 939.4 nm和482 fs。最大输出功率为15 mW，对应的单脉冲能量为0.52 nJ。增加泵浦功率到645 mW时，通过适当调节偏振控制器可以实现类噪声脉冲锁模，中心波长为1 940.1 nm。所实现的锁模脉冲具有飞秒量级的尖峰以及皮秒量级的基底。最大输出功率为20.4 mW，相对应的单脉冲能量为0.7 nJ。相比于传统孤子，采用色散管理所实现的锁模脉冲具有更高的脉冲能量。此外，所设计的掺铥光纤激光器可作为理想的主振荡功率放大以及啁啾脉冲放大结构的种子源，进一步提高脉冲能量，拓展2 μm高能光纤激光器的实际应用。     

超长腔碳纳米管锁模多波长掺镱光纤激光器

报道了一种超长腔碳纳米管锁模多波长掺镱光纤激光器, 光纤激光器的总长度为1021.2 m. 实验得到了噪声型孤子和孤子雨两种类型的多波长锁模脉冲, 重复频率均为199.8 kHz. 孤子雨具有更高的输出功率和单脉冲能量, 分别为40.3 mW和201.5 nJ, 对应的脉冲宽度为102.5 ns.