Mode-locked fiber laser frequency-controlled with an intracavity electro-optic modulator

We demonstrate a mode-locked, erbium-doped fiber laser with its repetition frequency synchronized to a second fiber laser via an intracavity electro-optic modulator (EOM). With servo control from the EOM (bandwidth approximately 230 kHz) and a slower speed intracavity piezoelectric transducer (resonance at approximately 20 kHz), we demonstrate stabilization of the repetition frequency with an in-loop rms timing jitter of 10 fs, integrated over a bandwidth from 1 Hz to 100 kHz. This represents what is to our knowledge the first time an EOM has been introduced inside a mode-locked laser cavity for fast servo action and the lowest timing jitter reported for a mode-locked fiber laser.     

Subfemtosecond timing jitter between two independent, actively synchronized, mode-locked lasers

With the implementation of a fast-bandwidth servo, along with improved laser construction and associated better passive stability, we have achieved subfemtosecond relative timing jitter between two independent, actively synchronized, mode-locked Ti:sapphire lasers. Timing jitter of 0.58 fs is obtained with a 160-Hz observation bandwidth over several seconds. Within a 2-MHz observation bandwidth, the timing jitter is 1.75 fs. Excellent repeatability and rapid speed in setting an arbitrary time delay between two pulses are also demonstrated.     

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.     

Attosecond-resolution timing jitter characterization of free-running mode-locked lasers

Timing jitter characterization of optical pulse trains from free-running mode-locked lasers with attosecond resolution is demonstrated using balanced optical cross correlation in the timing detector and the timing delay configurations. In the timing detector configuration, the balanced cross correlation between two mode-locked lasers synchronized by a low-bandwidth phase-locked loop is used to measure the timing jitter spectral density outside the locking bandwidth. In addition, the timing delay configuration using a 325 m long timing-stabilized fiber link enables the characterization of timing jitter faster than the delay time. The limitation set by shot noise in this configuration is 2.2 x 10(-8) fs(2)/Hz corresponding to 470 as in 10 MHz bandwidth.     

Passive synchronization of femtosecond Er- and Yb-fiber lasers by?injection locking

We demonstrated a self-starting passively synchronized Er- and Yb-fiber laser system. Synchronization was implemented by the master-slave configuration where partial output power of the Er-fiber laser was injected into the Yb-fiber laser via a 2-m-long single-mode fiber. The output pulses both were in femtosecond range, and the cavity mismatch tolerance was 160 μm, corresponding to 1267 Hz in frequency domain. The RMS (root mean square) timing jitter between these two lasers was calculated as 14.7 fs (5-kHz bandwidth) in one second.     

Remote transfer of a high-stability and ultralow-jitter timing signal

Transfer of a high-stability and ultralow-jitter timing signal through a fiber network via a mode-locked fiber laser is demonstrated. With active cancellation of the fiber-transmission noise, the fractional instability for transfer of a radio-frequency signal through a 6.9- (4.5-) km round-trip installed (laboratory-based) fiber network is below 9(7) x 10(-15) tau(-1/2) for an averaging time tau > or = 1 s, limited by the noise floor of the frequency-counting system. The noise cancellation reduces the rms timing jitter, integrated over a bandwidth from 1 Hz to 100 kHz, to 37 (20) fs for the installed (laboratory-based) fiber network, representing what is to our knowledge the lowest reported jitter for transfer of a timing signal over kilometer-scale distances using an installed (laboratory-based) optical-fiber network.     

Stretched-pulse mode-locking synchronously triggered by a femtosecond master laser at sub-megahertz repetition rate

A stretched-pulse mode-locked ytterbium-doped fiber laser was passively synchronized to a femtosecond Ti:sapphire laser at a low repetition rate of 240 kHz through large cross absorption modulation along additional 1-m-long erbium-doped fiber. The synchronous fiber laser with an ultra-long fiber cavity could produce not only nanosecond flat-top pulses with tunable pulse duration but also Gaussian-shape stretched pulses with its minimum pulse duration of ∼450 ps as confirmed by cross-correlation measurement. When operating in the stretched pulse regime, the sub-nanosecond fiber laser could be synchronously triggered by the master injection with the cavity-length mismatch tolerance up to ∼7.8 cm and timing jitter less than 400 fs, confirming that the stretched-pulse mode-locking of the ultra-long slave fiber laser could be robustly controlled by cross absorption modulation effects in the erbium-doped fiber with appropriate femtosecond master injection.     

Generation of synchronized femtosecond and picosecond pulses in a dual-wavelength femtosecond Ti:sapphire laser

We obtain synchronized 45-fs and 0.848-ps pulses by achieving cross-mode locking in a double-cavity dual-wavelength femtosecond Ti:sapphire laser. Autocorrelation and cross correlation show that the femtosecond and picosecond pulses are well synchronized, with a timing jitter of 41 fs. Cross-phase modulation dominates the processes of cross-mode locking and synchronization.     

High-repetition-rate, 491 MHz, femtosecond fiber laser with low timing jitter

We demonstrate a soliton fiber laser based on an anomalously dispersive erbium-doped fiber butt-coupled to a saturable absorber mirror for passive mode locking. The laser generates 180 fs pulses at a repetition rate of 491 MHz and exhibits a timing jitter as low as 20 fs over the frequency range 1 kHz-10 MHz.     

Mode locking of an erbium-doped fiber laser with intra-cavity polarization modulation

Erbium-doped fiber lasers are normally actively mode-locked through amplitude modulation or phase modulation. In this paper, we demonstrate that the laser can also be mode-locked by employing polarization modulation with a polarization-dependent cavity loss. We obtain a nearly transform-limited mode-locked pulse train at 10 GHz repetition rate with timing jitter as low as 164 fs. The timing jitter is only limited by the timing jitter of the driving signal.     

Wavelength-independent all-optical synchronization of a Q-switched 100-ps microchip laser to a femtosecond laser reference source

We present a Q-switched microchip laser emitting 1064-nm pulses as short as 100 ps synchronized to a cavity dumped femtosecond laser emitting 800-nm pulses as short as 80 fs. The synchronization is achieved by presaturating the saturable absorber of the microchip laser with femtosecond pulses even though both lasers emit at widely separated wavelengths. The mean timing jitter is 40 ps and thus considerably shorter than the pulse duration of the microchip laser.     

Measurement of mode-locked laser timing jitter by use of phase-encoded optical sampling

The phase-noise characteristics of a harmonically mode-locked fiber laser are investigated with a new measurement technique called phase-encoded optical sampling. A polarization-maintaining ring laser is mode locked by use of the short-pulse electrical output of a resonant-tunneling diode oscillator, enabling it to produce 30-ps pulses at a 208-MHz repetition rate. The interferometric phase-encoded sampling technique provides 60-dB suppression of amplitude-jitter noise and allows supermode phase noise to be observed and quantified. The white-noise pulse-to-pulse timing jitter and the rms supermode timing jitter of the laser are measured to be less than 50 and 70 fs, respectively.     

Quantum-limited noise performance of a mode-locked laser diode

Low-noise operation of a 9-GHz hybridly mode-locked laser diode is demonstrated. The integrated timing jitter was 47 fs (10 Hz to 10 MHz) and 86 fs (10 Hz to 4.5 GHz), with a pulse width of 6.7 ps. The noise performance as a function of filter bandwidth and oscillator noise is also addressed.     

Timing-jitter reduction of a mode-locked Cr:LiSAF laser by simultaneous control of cavity length and pump power

The pulse-repetition frequency of a mode-locked Cr:LiSAF laser has been stabilized to an electrical reference signal by simultaneous control of the laser cavity length and the pump power. The phase difference between the laser pulse and an electrical reference signal is detected by use of a digital phase detector and fed back to a piezoelectric transducer and to a laser diode injection current. A rms timing jitter of 7.5 fs relative to the reference was obtained for the 25-mHz-10-kHz bandwidth.     

亚飞秒被动同步掺钛蓝宝石激光器

通过采用一种新的被动同步方案，使两束独立掺钛蓝宝石激光通过互相位调制实现稳定同步.同步维持时间超过24h，同步精度达到0.78fs. 关键词： 互相位调制 被动同步     

Generation of low-timing-jitter femtosecond pulse trains with 2 GHz repetition rate via external repetition rate multiplication

Generation of low-timing-jitter 150 fs pulse trains at 1560 nm with 2 GHz repetition rate is demonstrated by locking a 200 MHz fundamental polarization additive-pulse mode-locked erbium fiber laser to high-finesse external Fabry-Perot cavities. The timing jitter and relative intensity noise of the repetition-rate multiplied pulse train are investigated.     

Passive harmonic mode-locking of a soliton Yb fiber laser at repetition rates to 1.5 GHz

We report passive harmonic mode locking of a soliton Yb fiber laser at repetition rates continuously scalable up to 1.5 GHz. The laser generates transform-limited 500 fs pulses, with pulse energies of 30-100 pJ. At the 31st harmonic (1.3 GHz), the cavity supermodes are suppressed by 35 dB, and the pulse-to-pulse timing jitter is 6 ps.     

Ultralow-jitter, 1550-nm mode-locked semiconductor laser synchronized to a visible optical frequency standard

Using high-bandwidth feedback, we have synchronized the pulse train from a mode-locked semiconductor laser to an external optical atomic clock signal and achieved what is to our knowledge the lowest timing jitter to date (22 fs, integrated from 1 Hz to 100 MHz) for such devices. The performance is limited by the intrinsic noise of the phase detector used for timing-jitter measurement. We expect such a highly stable device to play an important role in fiber-network-based precise time/frequency distribution.     

Independently tunable 1.3 W femtosecond Ti:sapphire lasers passively synchronized with attosecond timing jitter and ultrahigh robustness

A stable passively synchronized femtosecond laser has been realized by coupling two 1.3 W mode-locked Ti:sapphire lasers with a Kerr medium. An ultralong tolerance of 10 microm for the cavity length mismatch and a timing jitter of less than 0.4 fs were obtained. The relative carrier-envelope phase slip was directly observed by measuring the heterodyne output between the two lasers.     

Synchronization of Fourier-Synthesized Optical Pulses to a Mode-Locked Optical Clock

A Fourier-synthesized 40-GHz optical pulse train was successfully synchronized to an 8-GHz optical clock generated from a mode-locked fiber ring laser. The measured timing jitter of the synchronization was 0.43 ps.