Passive harmonic mode locked Yb-doped fibre all-normal-dispersion lasers

Passive harmonic mode-locking of dissipative solitons is demonstrated in all-normal dispersion Yb-doped fibre lasers. A difference equation model of the mode-locked fibre lasers is adopted to simulate the intra-cavity nonlinear dynamics. Hysteresis phenomena around the mode-locking threshold, and the effect of introducing linear phase bias are discussed. The passive harmonic mode-locking as one kind of multipulsing operations is revealed. Moreover, the simulation shows the bistability between multipulsing and single-pulse or period multiplication.     

All-normal-dispersion Yb-doped mode-locked fibre laser and its stability analysis

We experimentally demonstrate an all-normal-dispersion Yb-doped mode-locked fibre laser with no intentional spectral filter inserted.Pulses with 1.1 nJ pulse energy at a repetition rate of 20.4 MHz are achieved.A theoretical model of the fibre laser is derived,whose coefficients are explicitly dependent on the orientations of the wave plates and the polarizer.Based on the model,stability diagrams of both the mode-locking and the continuous wave regimes of the laser are presented.The influence of group-velocity dispersion (GVD) and cavity length on the stability of mode-locking is also discussed.     

Tunable all-normal-dispersion Yb-doped mode-locked fiber lasers

We experimentally investigate continuous wavelength tunability in an all-normal-dispersion Yb-doped mode-locked fiber laser with an Yb-doped fiber of a fixed length. The spectral tuning over 46.3 nm, from 1024.5 to 1070.8 nm, is achieved. Spectral dynamics with different pumping levels are demonstrated. The central wavelength of the dissipative solitons shifts 8 nm towards short wavelength with pump power increasing from 168 to 456 mW.     

A theoretical and experimental study on all-normal-dispersion Yb-doped mode-locked fiber lasers

We report on a theoretical and experimental study of an all-normal-dispersion (ANDi) Yb-doped mode-locked fiber laser, in which nonlinear polarization rotation (NPR) is used to realize mode-locking without any dispersion compensation. Based on the coupled nonlinear Schrdinger (CNLS) equation, a model simulating the mode-locked process of an allnormal-dispersion ring fiber laser is developed, which shows that the achievement of stable mode-locking depends on the alignment of the polarization controller (PC) along the fast-polarization axis of the fiber, the birefringence intensity, and the net cavity dispersion. According to the theoretical analysis, stable mode-locked pulses with pulse duration 300 ps and average output power 33.9mW at repetition rate 36MHz are obtained.     

Design and fabrication of triangular inner cladding double-clad ytterbium doped fibre for high power lasers

To improve the performance of double clad high power fibre lasers, inner cladding design plays a significant role. A triangular inner cladding and silica structure second cladding with large air holes go acquire high inner cladding numerical aperture are designed. Single mode and high power output of the fibre lasers need the double clad Yb doped fibre with large core. A fibre with annular refractive index distribution core and low numerical aperture to acquire a large mode area fibre core is designed and fabricated. Furthermore co-doping with aluminium （A1） has been used to improve the solubility of ytterbium （Yb） into silicate network, and the core absorption coefficients of two Yb doped fibres are compared with different A1 concentration experimentally.     

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.     

Soliton shaping of dispersive waves in a passively mode-locked fibre soliton ring laser

We have studied the mechanism of soliton formation in a passively mode-locked fibre ring laser when the gain is increased. We show experimentally that new soliton pulses in the laser are generated by soliton shaping of dispersive waves. Our observation is further confirmed by numerical simulations where an improved model is used that takes into account explicitly the polarization dispersion effect and discrete saturable absorber effect.     

波长间隔可调的可开关双波长掺铒光纤激光器

对两种波长间隔可调的可开关双波长掺铒光纤激光器结构进行了实验研究。一种结构应用保偏光纤中布拉格光栅作为波长选择器件，另一种结构则利用侧向压力下的常规单模光纤光栅作为波长选择器件。两种结构均利用了光纤光栅的双折射特性。在室温下，通过调整偏振控制器的状态可使两激光器工作在稳定的双波长状态或在两单波长之间转换。通过改变加在光纤光栅上侧向应力的大小和方向，可有效控制双波长激射的波长间隔。     

Characteristics of Er and Er-Yb-Cr doped phosphate microsphere fibre lasers

In this paper both Er and Er-Yb-Cr doped phosphate microspheres have been successfully created through precise melting of the ends of fibre tapers, drawn, respectively, from Er and Er-Yb-Cr doped phosphate glasses. When coupled with a fibre taper, a microsphere fibre laser cavity can thus be configured creating a system pumped by a 980 nm laser diode and using an optical spectrum analyzer to monitor the spectral characteristics of the laser output. The performance and characteristics of the Er and Er-Yb-Cr microsphere lasers thus created are discussed in detail and cross-compared in this paper. Both lasers have shown low-threshold in terms of the pump power and the laser output wavelengths and a close investigation of the system has shown that the output power and laser stability are closely related to the size of the microsphere, the pump power and the microsphere material composition.     

High-power Yb-doped continuous-wave and pulsed fibre lasers

High-power laser generation using Yb-doped double-clad fibres with conversion efficiencies in excess of 80% have attracted much attention during the last decade due to their inherent advantages in terms of very high efficiency, no misalignment due to in-built intracore fibre Bragg gratings, low thermal problems due to large surface to volume ratio, diffraction-limited beam quality, compactness, reliability and fibre-optic beam delivery. Yb-doped fibres can also provide a wide emission band from ～1010 nm to ～1170 nm, which makes it a versatile laser medium to realize continuous-wave (CW), Q-switched short pulse, and mode-locked ultrashort pulse generation for various applications. In this article, a review of Yb-doped CW and pulsed fibre lasers along with our study on self-pulsing dynamics in CW fibre lasers to find its role in high-power fibre laser development and the physical mechanisms involved in its generation has been described. A study on the generation of high-power CW fibre laser of 165 W output power and generation of high peak power nanosecond pulses from acousto-optic Q-switched fibre laser has also been presented.     

Erbium-doped twin-core fibre narrow-band filter for fibre lasers

Theoretical analysis of a recently experimentally demonstrated erbium-doped twin-core (ErTCF) fibre saturable-absorber-based narrow-band tracking filter is presented. Basic qualitative characteristics of the filter are deduced from an analogy with an ideally inhomogeneously broadened saturable absorber while the effect of wide band saturation of absorption due to spatial overlap of individual spectral components of the radiation is studied in detail using a numerical model based on coupled mode theory, resolved in space and frequency. The effect of the input power, twin-core fibre length and laser operating wavelength on the spectral characteristics of the filter is investigated.     

Tm:Ho co-doped single mode optical fibre laser pumped by a 1600 nm Er fibre laser

An all-fibre Tm:Ho laser system is reported, using a 1600 nm Er fibre pump laser and 0.3 m length of the fibre through a two-stage optimization of both the pump source and laser configuration to achieve a low threshold operation. As a result a low threshold power of 33 mW and a slope efficiency of 0.6% have been achieved, in laser operation at a wavelength of 1870 nm and a cross-comparison with 785 nm laser diode pumping has been made.     

Tunable second harmonic generation from a Kerr-lens mode-locked Yb:YCa_4O(BO_3)_3 femtosecond laser

We experimentally demonstrated a diode-pumped Kerr-lens mode-locked femtosecond(fs) laser with a self-frequency doubling Yb:YCa_4O(BO_3)_3 crystal.Sub-40 fs laser pulses were directly generated from the oscillator without extracavity compression.The central wavelength was tunable from 1039 nm to 1049 nm with a typical bandwidth of 35 nm and an average output power of 53 mW.For the first time,a self-frequency doubled second harmonic green laser with tunable range from 519 nm to 525 nm was observed.     

Modelling of multi-line Brillouin/erbium fibre lasers

Laser sources with unique properties can be produced using a combination of nonlinear Brillouin gain in single-mode optical fibre (SMOF) and gain in erbium-doped fibre (EDF). Narrow bandwidth nonlinear gain from stimulated Brillouin scattering in SMOF determines the wavelength of operation, and gain in EDF allows efficient operation and large power extraction. Various cascading schemes based on the Brillouin/erbium fibre laser (BEFL) as well as distinctive multi-wavelength versions of the BEFL were proposed, being able to produce 10GHz combs of over 30 lines at 1550 nm. These multi-wavelength sources may be of use in future dense wavelength-division multiplexing systems. We explore fundamental aspects of BEFLs configured to generate multiple wavelengths with particular focus on the effects of the Brillouin and EDF pumps on the number of lines and the relationship between the intensities of the individual lines in the comb.     

Dual-wavelength dissipative soliton operation of an erbium-doped fibre laser using a nonlinear polarization rotation technique

We report on the generation of dual-wavelength dissipative solitons in a passively mode-locked fibre laser with a net normal dispersion using the nonlinear polarization rotation (NPR) technique. Taking the intrinsic advantage of the intracavity birefringence-induced spectral filtering effect in the NPR-based ring laser cavity, the dual-wavelength dissipative solitons are obtained. In addition, the wavelength separation and the lasing location of the dual-wavelength solitons can be flexibly tuned by changing the orientation of the polarization controller.     

A 980 nm Yb-doped single-mode fibre laser with 946 nm Nd:YAG laser as pump source

Based on rate equations,this paper gives expressions of the output power,the pump power threshold,the slope efficiency,the fibre optimal length and the laser gain of a quasi-three-level Yb-doped fibre laser.The gain relationship between quasi-three-level system and four-level system is also given,which provides a theoretical basis for suppressing the four-level transmissions.In the experiment,we adopt the backward pumping configuration and use a linear cavity.The Yb-doped fibre laser has an output power of 372 mW of single-mode laser emission at 980 nm with a slope efficiency of 21.2% when the fibre length is 29.5 cm close to an optimal fibre length in theory.The experimental results accord well with the theoretical analyses.     

超低频率全正色散半导体可饱和吸收镜被动锁模光纤激光器

通过延长激光器环形腔腔长,利用高浓度掺杂的单模掺镱光纤,搭建了超低重复频率、全正色散结构的半导体可饱和吸收镜被动锁模光纤激光器。激光器的中心波长、重复频率、平均功率及单脉冲能量分别为1 064 nm,281.5 kHz,11 mW和39 nJ。为了稳定中心波长,实现自启动,激光器腔体内接入了一个带通滤波器。该激光器运行稳定,无调Q不稳定现象,极大减小了半导体可饱和吸收镜被损坏的机会。     

国产30/600μm掺镱光纤实现4.1kW激光输出

采用化学气相沉积结合气相/液相复合掺杂方式制备30/600 μm掺镱双包层光纤,石英纤芯中的掺杂组分为Yb₂O₃, Al₂O₃,P₂O₅。基于976 nm发光二极管反向抽运方式,构建全光纤化的主控振荡器功率放大器结构对增益光纤进行测试。实验中,种子源功率为189 W,当泵浦总功率为4747 W时,激光输出功率为4120 W,放大级光光效率为85%,3 dB带宽为1.6 nm。激光器连续工作1 h,激光功率稳定在4100 W,未发生明显的功率衰退现象。     

Theory of combined AM and high-harmonic FM mode locked laser

Closed form solutions for a simultaneously AM and high-harmonic FM mode locked laser system is presented. Analytical expressions for the pulsewidth and pulsewidth-bandwidth products are derived in terms of the system parameters. The analysis predicts production of 17 ps duration pulses in a Nd:YAG laser mode locked with AM and FM modulators driven at 80 MHz and 1.76 GHz for 1 W modulator input power. The predicted values of the pulsewidth-bandwidth product lie between the values corresponding to the pure AM and FM mode locking values.     

超低频率全正色散半导体可饱和吸收镜被动锁模光纤激光器

 通过延长激光器环形腔腔长,利用高浓度掺杂的单模掺镱光纤,搭建了超低重复频率、全正色散结构的半导体可饱和吸收镜被动锁模光纤激光器。激光器的中心波长、重复频率、平均功率及单脉冲能量分别为1 064 nm,281.5 kHz,11 mW和39 nJ。为了稳定中心波长,实现自启动,激光器腔体内接入了一个带通滤波器。该激光器运行稳定,无调Q不稳定现象,极大减小了半导体可饱和吸收镜被损坏的机会。