Wideband wavelength tunable fiber ring laser with flattened output power spectrum

A wavelength tunable erbium-doped fiber ring laser with flattened output power spectrum over a broadband is proposed and demonstrated. The power flattening is achieved using a high-birefringence fiber loop mirror, in which a number of high-birefringence fiber sections and polarization controllers are used to get a reflection spectrum that can compensate for the output power spectrum. The wavelength tuning is realized by compressing or stretching the FBGs in the laser cavity. A 1×3 switchable fiber Bragg grating array is incorporated into the fiber ring to get a wideband tuning range of 38 nm, from 1527 to 1565 nm. Within this range, the output power uniformity is controlled within ±0.8 dB. The total output power is about 4 dBm, the 3-dB linewidth is 0.01 nm, and the side mode suppression ratio is more than 48 dB.     

基于FLM的L波段双波长EDFL的双稳态变换

提出和验证了一种L波段双波长掺铒光纤激光器(EDFL)双稳态控制变换和双波长开关切换的方法.将偏振控制器(PC)插入基于3 dB光纤耦合器的光纤环镜(FLM)中,并将该FLM用作L波段双波长级联线形耦合腔EDFL的公共腔镜,结果表明,调节PC可以改变FLM的反射率,实现对EDFL双稳态特性的有效控制,且双稳态特性随FLM反射率呈单调变化.利用这一性质,提出并证实,对于处在FLM最大反射率对应的双稳态第一跃变点和最小反射率对应的双稳态第二跃变点之间的任意固定抽运光功率,调节PC可实现两个稳态之间的相互变换和双波长之间的相互切换.     

1083nm窄线宽单频掺镱光纤激光器

提出了一种低噪声、线宽小于4 kHz、波长为1 083 nm的线形腔单频光纤激光器.该激光器引入了偏振控制器来消除线形腔内的空间烧孔效应,从而抑制了多纵模振荡.实验结果表明:泵浦功率在40～200 mW范围内时,可获得稳定的单纵模振荡,且最大输出功率可达46 mW,光学信噪比大于60 dB,其光光转换效率和斜率效率分别为23％和33.3％％;经过1h的观察,测得的激光输出功率以及光谱不稳定性分别小于3％和0.9％;在整个观察期内,没有出现模式跳跃和模式竞争现象.     

基于掺铒光纤/喇曼混合放大的光纤激光器布喇格光栅传感系统

提出了一种提高长距离光纤布喇格光栅信噪比以进行准分布测量的新方法.该方法基于掺铒光纤/喇曼混合放大的光纤激光器结构,掺铒光纤和滤波器构成的环形结构产生激光作为光源,喇曼光纤放大器对布喇格光栅信号进行低噪音的双向放大,置于远处的掺铒光纤利用剩余的泵浦功率产生自发辐射光和放大传感信号,为远处掺铒光纤之后的布喇格光栅传感器提供信号光以及补偿由于长距离传输造成的光纤损耗.实验显示,与使用宽带光源的传感方式相比,系统的性能得到显著提高,仅使用小功率泵浦,分布在50km光纤上的FBG均获得了超过58dB的优良信噪比.     

Intensity measurement based temperature-independent strain sensor using a highly birefringent photonic crystal fiber loop mirror

A fiber-optic strain sensor is demonstrated by using a short length of highly birefringent photonic crystal fiber (HiBi-PCF) as the sensing element inserted in a fiber loop mirror (FLM). Due to the ultralow thermal sensitivity of the HiBi-PCF, the proposed strain sensor is inherently insensitive to temperature. When a distributed-feedback (DFB) laser passes through the FLM, the output power is only affected by the transmission spectral change of the FLM caused by the strain applied on the HiBi-PCF. Based on intensity measurement, an optical power meter is adequate to deduce the strain information and an expensive optical spectrum analyzer (OSA) would not be needed.     

光纤环形镜线形腔掺Er3+光纤激光器输出特性的数值分析

在分析光纤环形镜工作原理的基础上,给出了基于光纤环形镜的线形腔掺Er3+光纤激光器相位和幅度的振荡条件.通过求解速率方程,理论分析了其输出特性,获得了稳态条件下激光器输出功率、阈值泵浦功率和斜率效率的解析表达式.推导出激光器工作所需掺Er3+光纤最短长度,并在给定泵浦光功率时,在特定输出波长上获得最大输出功率所需最佳掺Er3+光纤长度的表达式,且通过实验进行了验证.     

S-band multiwavelength Brillouin Raman Fiber Laser

In this paper we propose and demonstrate an S-band Brillouin-Raman Fiber Laser (BRFL). The S-band BRFL utilizes a Dispersion Compensating Fiber (DCF) as the non-linear gain medium in a linear cavity configuration and amplified by two 1425 nm, 380 mW pumped Raman Fiber Amplifiers (RFAs). A Brillouin Pump (BP) signal of 1515 nm at 12 dBm in power is injected into the setup to generate Stokes lines via the Stimulated Brillouin Scattering (SBS) process. The S-band BRFL is able of generating a Brillouin comb with 32 Stokes lines with a flat peak output power of − 18 dBm. The best BP to Stokes power ratio of the system is determined to be 50:50, while a ratio of 70:30 is observed to generate Stokes with a higher peak power, but at the expense of the number of wavelengths. The S-band BRFL has many potential applications as multiwavelength sources for communications and sensors.     

8字形主被动锁模掺Er3+光纤激光器

在理论上分析了利用非线性光学环形镜作为等效可饱和吸收体压缩脉冲进行锁模的物理机制。利用8字形主被动混合锁模的结构在调制频率2．498749GHz下，在1．543μm处获得了12ps的锁模脉冲输出，对应谱宽0．22nm，时间脉宽积0．33。在抽运功率50mW情况下，输出脉冲平均功率3．715mW。在调制频率2．499344GHz、2．499114GHz和2．498999GHz时分别并获得了2～4阶幅度较为均衡的有理数谐波锁模脉冲序列。     

Curvature sensor based on a pressure-induced birefringence single mode fiber loop mirror

An optical fiber curvature sensor based on a pressure-induced birefringence singlemode fiber loop mirror is presented. The birefringer SMF is made by applying a transverse force against a short length of singlemode fiber. The length of the sensing element for the curvature sensing is about 150 mm. The sensitivity of the curvature measurement experimentally is 0.0263 m⁻¹/pm. And the temperature effect of the proposed sensor is also analyzed. Comparing with the sensor of photonic crystal fiber, it is more convenient and simply.     

高双折射光纤环镜应变传感研究

研究了高双折射光纤环镜的应变传感原理,推导了谐振波长与轴向应变的关系式,并进行了实验研究.该传感器具有很高的灵敏度：谐振波长漂移为0.031 8 nm/με,约是裸光纤光栅的32倍.谐振波长和轴向应变之间的线性拟合度为0.999 4.该传感器具有灵敏度高、结构紧凑、使用方便等优点.     

高重复频率、单模纳秒脉冲全光纤激光器

报道了一种基于主振荡放大技术的全光纤脉冲激光器.种子激光器使用直接调制的单纵模半导体激光器,其输出波长为1 063.8 nm,重复频率100 kHz～10 MHz连续可调谐,光纤放大器采用了多级放大器级联的方法.在重复频率100 kHz、脉冲宽度5 ns时,激光器获得了平均功率为1.2 W,峰值功率为2.4 kW的单横模激光脉冲输出.     

窄线宽线形腔调Q双包层掺钕光纤激光器

对LD泵浦调Q双包层掺Nd³⁺光纤激光器进行了实验研究.在Littrow结构的体光栅与二向色镜构成的线形腔结构中,利用声光Q开关(AQM)调Q,在1064nm得到了光谱线宽约为0.08nm稳定的激光脉冲序列.脉冲重复频率从1kHz到10kHz可调.在重复频率1kHz时得到脉冲宽度约800ns,最大单脉冲能量180μJ,脉冲峰值功率225W,激光平均功率180mW,并对激光输出脉冲能量进行了计算,计算结果与实验符合很好.     

Reflectivity characteristics of the fiber loop mirror with a polarization controller

In this paper, reflectivity characteristics of a fiber loop mirror (FLM), which is formed by inserting a fiber polarization controller (PC) into the fiber loop of an ordinary FLM, are investigated in detail. A theoretical model for determining the reflectivity characteristics of the FLM is present by using the equivalent optical path technique, and the reflectivity characteristics of the FLM are then simulated with the model. The simulation results show that, when the FLM is based on a 3 dB optical coupler (OC), the reflectivity of the FLM may be continuously adjusted to any value between 1 and 0 by changing the PC state, i.e. by either changing the fast axis orientation or the birefringence intensity of the PC alone, as well as both of them; the reflectivity spectra of the FLM are wide and flattened for any PC state, mainly limited by the operating bandwidth of the OC used. The reflectivity characteristics of the FLM are further tested experimentally. The results verify that the reflectivity of the FLM may truly be continuously adjusted between its maximum and minimum values by changing the PC state. The obtainable maximum and minimum reflectivities of the FLM are measured to be 93% and 2%, respectively. Moreover, the experimental results are in agreement with those of the simulations.     

Temperature-sensitive dual-segment polarization maintaining fiber Sagnac loop mirror

A new temperature-sensitive fiber Sagnac loop mirror (FLM) is proposed using two segments of polarization maintaining fiber (PMF). The proposed dual-segment FLM provides greater temperature sensitivity in the spectral spacing detuning compared to the conventional single-segment configuration. Besides, the proposed configuration also enables both efficient positive and negative spectral spacing detuning by rising the temperature of one of the PMF segments. The experimental results show that the proposed configuration has achieved a great improvement in increasing spectral spacing variation range by 6.6 times and an increment of temperature sensitivity as much as 337.6% as compared to the conventional configuration.     

Three methods for improving an axial strain sensitivity of polarization maintaining fiber loop mirror

Sensitivity is one of the important performances for sensor. Theoretical results show that we can choose a long wavelength monitoring point, a high strain dependent birefringence coefficient polarization maintaining fiber (PMF) and a low birefringence PMF to improve the axial strain sensitivity of PMF loop mirror, and experimental results show that the axial strain sensitivity has respectively been improved by 8.06, 30.73, and 22.26% by these methods. The advantage of these methods is to improve the axial strain sensitivity without increasing system complexity. These results help to improve the temperature, displacement, torsion, curvature and liquid level sensitivities of PMF loop mirror. These results can also be applied in photonic crystal fiber loop mirror.     

Switchable erbium-doped fiber ring laser based on Sagnac loop mirror incorporating few-mode high birefringence fiber

Without the need of any other additional filtering device, a triple-wavelength switchable erbium-doped fiber ring laser based on Sagnac loop mirror incorporating a piece of few-mode high birefringence fiber is newly proposed and experimentally demonstrated. Three potential lasing wavelengths at about 2.0 nm interval with the side mode suppression ratio higher than 40 dB can be switched mainly by adjusting a polarization controller next to the few-mode high birefringence fiber in the Sagnac loop. In addition to the stable single-line lasing operation, simultaneous dual- and triple-line oscillations are also highly stable at room temperature with suppressing the intrinsic homogeneous gain broadening of the erbium-doped fiber.     

Multi-wavelength generation using a bismuth-based EDF and Brillouin effect in a linear cavity configuration

The generation of a multiple wavelength source using a bismuth-based erbium-doped fiber (Bi-EDF) in a linear cavity configuration is demonstrated. The configuration uses a pair of optical circulators at the input and output ends of the cavity to form a resonator for multi-wavelength generation in conjunction with optical couplers to inject the Brillouin pump (BP) and to tap the output at the two ends. The Brillouin erbium fiber laser (BEFL) comb with a 2.15 m of Bi-EDF has a wavelength spacing of 0.09 nm and operates in long-wavelength (L-) band region. A stable output laser comb of 50 lines is obtained at a BP of 1568.2 nm and 5 dBm and two 1480 nm pumps at 120 mW. The injected BP wavelength and power as well as the 1480 nm pump powers have a great effect on the number of lines and output power of the BEFL. This configuration is compact due to the use of the significantly shorter Bi-EDF as the linear gain medium, and can be made more compact by replacing the single-mode fiber with highly non-linear fibers such as holey fibers.     

Scaling of Yb-doped photonic crystal fiber to 200 μm core diameter for high beam quality laser output

The rare earth-doped active fibers not only have ten thousands of square-micron core-area but also deliver a laser with near-diffraction-limited beam quality. However, they have been studied little. In this paper, we design a 200-μm-corediameter Yb~(3+)-doped photonic crystal fiber with a large pitch in the air-hole cladding region. Simulations demonstrate that only fundamental mode(FM) with a mode field area(MFA) of ～ 28000 μm~2 can be amplified and propagated at the gain saturation, and the beam quality M~2 is about 1.5. It is predicted that almost 105 m J single-pulse energy is available from such a 1.5-meter-length fiber.     

Comparison of Yb-doped fiber laser with one-end and double-end pumping configuration

A high-power Ytterbium-doped fiber laser (YDFL) with homemade double clad fiber (DCF) is introduced in this paper. The output power characteristics of a linear cavity fiber laser have been studied theoretically by solving the rate equations and experimentally tested with single- and double-end-pumping configurations. When both ends of the fiber are pumped by two high-power laser diodes with a launched power of 300 W each, a maximum CW output of 444 W is obtained with a slope efficiency of 75%.     

Switchable dual-wavelength polarization-maintaining erbium-doped fiber laser using an optical circulator as the all-reflecting mirror

A simple and effective switchable dual-wavelength polarization-maintaining erbium-doped fiber laser is proposed and demonstrated. Only using a uniform fiber Bragg grating written directly in a segment of the photosensitive and polarization-maintaining erbium-doped fiber as the wavelength selector and an optical circulator as the all-reflecting mirror, a stable simultaneous dual-wavelength oscillation is achieved with a wavelength spacing of 0.364 nm experimentally by exploiting the polarization hole burning effect at room temperature. The output can be switched between single- and dual-wavelength by adjusting the polarization controller. The 3-dB bandwidth and the side mode suppression ratio of the laser’s outputs are measured to be less than 0.01 nm and more than 50 dB. The power fluctuation and wavelength drift are measured to be less than 0.50 dB and 0.020 nm over an hour.