Modeling photonic crystal fiber for efficient soliton pulse propagation at 850 nm

We numerically investigate the dynamics of soliton propagation at 850 nm in chloroform filled liquid core photonic crystal fiber (LCPCF) by using both finite element method (FEM) and split step Fourier method (SSFM). We propose a novel chloroform filled PCF structure that operates as a single mode at 850 nm featuring an enhanced dispersion and nonlinearity for efficient soliton propagation with low input pulse energy and low loss over small distances. We adopt the projection operator method (POM) to derive the pulse parameter equations which clearly describes the impact of fourth order dispersion on the pulse propagation in the proposed PCF. To analyse the quality of the pulse, we perform the stability analysis of pulse propagation numerically and compare our results of the newly designed chloroform filled PCF with that of standard silica PCF. From the stability analysis, we infer that the soliton pulse propagation in modified chloroform filled PCF is highly stable against the perturbation.     

Ultra-short pulse compression using photonic crystal fibre

A short section of photonic crystal fibre has been used for ultra-short pulse compression. The unique optical properties of this novel medium in terms of high non-linearity and relatively small group velocity dispersion are shown to provide an ideal platform for the standard fibre pulse compression technique used directly on the nano-Joule output pulses from a commercial laser system. We report an order of magnitude reduction of the pulse width to 25 fs FWHM but predict a substantially improved performance with a dedicated fibre design. Good agreement is obtained with a simple model for the spectral broadening in the fibre. PACS 42.65.Re; 42.70.Qs; 42.81.Cn     

Ultrashort pulse compression and delivery in a hollow-core photonic crystal fiber at 540 nm wavelength

We have fabricated a bandgap-guiding hollow-core photonic crystal fiber (PCF) capable of transmitting and compressing ultrashort pulses in the green spectral region around 532 nm. When propagating subpicosecond pulses through 1 m of this fiber, we have observed soliton-effect temporal compression by up to a factor of 3 to around 100 fs. This reduces the wavelength at which soliton effects have been observed in hollow-core PCF by over 200 nm. We have used the pulses delivered at the output of the fiber to machine micrometer-scale features in copper.     

Lasing at 1065 nm in bulk Nd-doped telluride-tungstate glass

We have achieved, for the first time to our knowledge, lasing in a new type of telluride-tungstate glass host doped with neodymium: Nd³⁺:(0.8)TeO₂-(0.2)WO₃. Lasing was obtained at 1065 nm with two samples containing 0.5 mol% and 1.0 mol% Nd₂O₃. During gain-switched operation, slope efficiencies of 12% and 10% were obtained with the 0.5 mol% and 1.0 mol% doped samples, respectively, at a pulse repetition rate of 1 kHz. Judd-Ofelt analysis was further employed to determine the emission cross section σ_e at 1065 nm from the absorption spectra and lifetime data. The emission cross section from the Judd-Ofelt analysis came to 3.23 ± 0.09 × 10⁻²⁰ cm², in reasonable agreement with the value of 2.0 ± 0.13 × 10⁻²⁰ cm² obtained from the analysis of laser threshold data.     

Topological solitons of resonant nonlinear Schödinger'sequation with dual-power law nonlinearity by G′/G-expansion technique

This paper considers the resonant nonlinear Schrödinger's equation with dual-power law nonlinearity. The G′/G-expansion method is applied to integrate this equation. The soliton solutions are thus obtained. Both constant coefficients as well as time-dependent coefficients are considered. The results for parabolic law nonlinearity fall out as a special case.     

Erbium-doped photonic crystal fiber laser with 49 mW

We have demonstrated a continuous-wave (CW) all fiber laser operation at 1558.4 nm of a diode-pumped erbium-doped PCF laser based on 9.6 m erbium-doped PCF. The maximum output power and the threshold of the fiber laser are 49.4 mW and 6.67 mW, respectively. We show that it is possible to achieve a high stability and beam quality laser, which has a great application potential in optical communication field in future.     

Tapering photonic crystal fibres for supercontinuum generation with nanosecond pulses at 532 nm

Experimental results on supercontinuum generation in photonic crystal fibre tapers using pump pulses of 7 ns duration at 532 nm are presented. Photonic crystal fibre tapers with the first wavelength of zero dispersion around 532 nm were fabricated. The generation of supercontinuum was investigated in normal and anomalous dispersion regimes. Supercontinuum spectra spanning more than 400 nm in the visible region are reported.     

Visible supercontinuum generation in tapered photonic crystal fiber pumped by picosecond pulse at 1064 nm

Short photonic crystal fibers (PCFs) with different tapered waist diameter are made to extend the continuum spectrum in the visible range. The diversification of output continuum spectrum with the diameter of the tapered waist is experimentally observed. An all fiber visible supercontinuum source with 1.88 W output is demonstrated in our experiments. To the best of our knowledge, it is the highest all fiber visible supercontinuum generation in tapered PCF, pumping by picosecond pulse at 1064 nm. The suitably designed short tapered PCF can extend the visible spectrum, while, how to preserve the tapered waist is crucial for the all fiber visible supercontinuum source in the practical applications.     

Surface-emitted THz generation using a compact ultrashort pulse fiber amplifier at 1060 nm

Generation of InAs-surface-emitted terahertz radiation by application of an ultrashort pulse 1060 nm parabolic fiber amplifier source is reported for the first time. The fiber amplifier delivers 100 fs pulses at a repetition rate of 75 MHz and an average power of maximum 12 W. This new excitation laser for surface-emitters generates high brightness broadband THz radiation ranging from 100 GHz to over 2.5 THz. THz detection is demonstrated based on two-photon absorption at low-temperature-grown GaAs dipole receivers.     

基于光子晶体光纤光脉冲压缩的理论研究

从理论上研究了单根光子晶体光纤的光脉冲压缩,利用较短的具有高非线性系数的光子晶体光纤可以实现较高质量的光脉冲压缩。针对单根光子晶体光纤压缩光脉冲的限制,提出了一种基于光子晶体光纤非线性环路镜中交叉相位调制效应的脉冲压缩方法。理论研究表明,这种脉冲压缩方式可以压缩自身功率较低的信号脉冲,相比于单根光子晶体光纤的方法,可以得到更高压缩质量的脉冲,通过合理选择控制光脉冲的参数,可以有效地抑制基座。     

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.     

Comparison of 885 nm pumping and 808 nm pumping in Nd:CNGG laser operating at 1061 nm and 935 nm

A Nd:CNGG laser operated at 935 nm and 1061 nm pumped at 885 nm and 808 nm, respectively, is demonstrated. The 885 nm direct pumping scheme shows some advantages over the 808 nm traditional pumping scheme. It includes higher slope efficiency, lower threshold, and better beam quality at high output power. With the direct pumping, the slope efficiency increases by 43% and the threshold decreases by 10% compared with traditional pumping in the Nd:CNGG laser operated at 935 nm. When the Nd:CNGG laser operates at 1061 nm, the direct pumping increases the slope efficiency by 14% with a 20% reduction in the oscillation threshold.     

Ytterbium femtosecond fiber laser without dispersion compensation tunable from 1015 nm to 1050 nm

We report on a widely tunable ytterbium fs-fiber laser without dispersion compensation. The all-normal dispersion laser contains a spectral filter for wavelength tuning and for generating additional amplitude modulation to support the nonlinear polarization evolution as mode-locking mechanism. By tilting the interference filter the center wavelength of the laser can be tuned from 1015 nm to 1050 nm with a pulse energy up to 2.0 nJ. The pulses can be dechirped externally to 108 fs.     

Absolute frequency measurements and comparisons in iodine at 735 nm and 772 nm

We report frequency measurements at the rovibronic transition P(42)1-14 (772 nm) and R(114)2-11 (735 nm) from the electronic transition of the iodine molecule ¹²⁷I₂ with the help of a frequency comb as a reference. By using Doppler-free saturation spectroscopy a frequency precision in the 7 × 10⁻¹⁰ region is reached and two iodine cells both operated at 550-600 °C are compared. To relate our results to other measurements, the absolute transition frequency of the hyperfine structure line P(148)1-14 a₁ at 780 nm with an already known transition frequency was also determined.     

A novel design for single-polarization single-mode photonic crystal fiber at 1550 nm

The present paper proposes a novel design for achieving single-polarization single-mode (SPSM) operation at 1550 nm in photonic crystal fiber (PCF), using a rectangular-lattice PCF with two lines of three central air holes enlarged. The proposed PCF composed entirely of silica material is modeled by a full-vector finite element method with anisotropic perfectly matched layers. Simulations show that single-polarization operation within broad wavelength range can be easily realized with the proposed structure. The wideband SPSM operation features, the low confinement losses, and the small effective mode area are the main advantages of the proposed PCF structure. A SPSM-PCF with confinement loss less than 0.1 dB/km within wavelength range from 1370 to 1610 nm and effective mode area about 4.7 μm2 at 1550 nm is numerically demonstrated.     

120 nm wide band switchable fiber laser

A novel method of producing switchable tunable output that spans the S-, C- and L-bands is presented. The achievable tuning range is about 120 nm. The design consists of a wide band SOA, 1 × 16 AWG and an optical selectable switch in a ring configuration. The measured average output powers for S-, C- and L-bands for different output wavelengths are −7.0 dBm, −6 dBm and −6.5 dBm respectively. The SMSR for these wavelengths is about 72 dB.     

High speed ultra short pulse fiber ring laser using photonic crystal fiber nonlinear optical loop mirror

A scheme to generate high speed optical pulse train with ultra short pulse width is proposed and experimentally studied. Two-step compression is used in the scheme: 20 GHz and 40 GHz pulse trains generated from a rational harmonic actively mode-locked fiber ring laser is compressed to a full width at half-maximum (FWHM) of ~ 1.5 ps using adiabatic soliton compression with dispersion shifted fibers (DSF). The pulse trains then undergo a pedestal removal process by transmission through a cascaded two photonic crystal fiber (PCF)-nonlinear optical loop mirrors (NOLM) realized using a double-ring structure. The shortest output pulse width obtained was ~ 610 fs for 20 GHz pulse train and ~ 570 fs for 40 GHz pulse train. The signal to noise ratio of the RF spectrum of the output pulse train is larger than 30 dB. Theoretical simulation of the NOLM transmission is conducted using split-step Fourier method. The results show that two cascaded NOLMs can improve the compression result compared to that for a single NOLM transmission.     

飞秒脉冲在光子晶体光纤中的传输特性

 基于广义非线性薛定谔方程,利用分步傅里叶法数值模拟了超高斯时间分布的飞秒脉冲在光子晶体光纤中的传输特性。结果表明：超高斯脉冲比高斯脉冲在更短距离内形成孤子衰变,而且出现比强孤子功率稍低的次峰,孤子自频移更显著;另外,三阶色散会导致脉冲波形及频谱不对称,出现精细结构,并且有形成孤子的趋势;脉冲内拉曼散射对脉冲有平滑作用;自陡改变了主峰与次峰之间的能量分配。     

1 × 4 coupler based on all solid five-core photonic crystal fibers

An improved 1 × 4 coupler based on all solid multi-core photonic crystal fiber is proposed and analyzed. The expressions to calculate the coupling length and the coupling efficiency are deduced based on the coupled-mode equations firstly. Then a full-vector finite element method (FEM) is used to calculate the coupling length and the coupling efficiency. Next, the propagation characteristics and the performances of the coupler are analyzed through using a full vector beam propagation method (BPM). Research shows that the results derived by FEM agree with that by BPM. The coupling length of the coupler is 4.1 mm at λ = 1.55 μm. A maximum coupling efficiency of 24.96% can be obtained. The coupling ratio is more than 22.5% over a wavelength range of 100 nm. The polarization-dependent loss at λ = 1.55 μm is equal to 0.73 dB. Finally, the influences of the micro-variation of structure parameters and the material refractive index on the working performances of the coupler are investigated.     

Numerical investigation and optimization of a photonic crystal fiber for simultaneous dispersion compensation over S + C + L wavelength bands

In this paper, we numerically investigate and optimize the profile of a photonic crystal fiber (PCF) that can eliminate the residual dispersion from the telecom link as well as can provide identical dispersion compensation over S + C + L bands. A full-vectorial finite element method combined with genetic algorithm is used to optimize the fiber’s profile as well as to accurately determine its modal properties. The optimized PCF exhibits a dispersion of −98.3 ps/nm/km with a variance of ±0.55 ps/nm/km from 1.48 μm to 1.63 μm (i.e., over 150 nm bandwidth) and a zero dispersion slope. Macro-bending loss performance of the designed PCF is also studied and it is found that the fiber shows low bending losses for the smallest feasible bending radius of 5 mm. Further, sensitivity analysis has been carried out for the proposed fiber design and it has been found that a ±2% change in the fiber parameters may lead to a ±8% shift of the dispersion from its nominal value.