Environmentally stable all-normal-dispersion femtosecond fiber laser

We demonstrate a mode-locked all-normal-dispersion ytterbium-doped fiber laser constructed with polarization-maintaining fibers. Spectral filtering of a chirped pulse in the cavity, along with a semiconductor saturable absorber, produce self-starting femtosecond mode-locked operation with large normal dispersion. Environmentally stable generation of 2 nJ and 300 fs pulses is achieved.     

High-energy femtosecond Yb-doped fiber laser operating in the anomalous dispersion regime

We report on high-energy ultrashort pulse generation from a passively mode-locked ytterbium-doped large-mode-area photonic crystal fiber oscillator operating in the anomalous dispersion regime. In the single-pulse regime, the laser directly generates 880 mW of average power of sub-500 fs pulses at a repetition rate of 53.33 MHz, corresponding to a pulse energy of 16.5 nJ. Stable and self-starting operation is obtained by adapting the spot size at the saturable absorber mirror to the pulse evolution in the low-nonlinearity fiber. The approach presented demonstrates the scaling potential of fiber based short pulse oscillators towards the microJ-level.     

掺Yb3+光纤F-P腔被动锁模激光器的实验研究

 掺镱(Yb³⁺光纤被动锁模激光器谐振腔采用线性腔结构，腔内插入二分之一波片和偏振分束器引入偏振旋转，结合半导体可饱和吸收镜的自起动，实现稳定的被动锁模运转。腔内插入光栅对，提供负的群速度色散，以补偿光纤所带来的正色散，达到压缩脉宽的目的。当泵浦功率为300 mW、光栅对的距离为10 cm时，获得稳定的锁模运转，锁模输出功率28 mW，脉冲重复频率20 MHz，输出光谱宽度达15 nm，按脉冲变换极限公式，其脉冲时间宽度与频带宽度的乘积为0.315计算，脉宽可达100 fs以下。     

Mode-locked Yb:KGW laser longitudinally pumped by polarization-coupled diode bars

Mode-locked operation of a simple Yb:KGW (potassium gadolinium tungstate) oscillator is described, providing 10 W at 1039 nm with a 290 fs pulse width. A polarization-coupled scheme is used for efficient longitudinal pumping by a pair of reshaped laser diode bars. With changes in cavity dispersion, the pulse width is adjustable from 134 to 433 fs, in a high-quality circular mode. A saturable absorber mirror provides self-starting operation, and the cavity is stabilized by the Kerr-lens effect.     

Self-compensation of third-order dispersion for ultrashort pulse generation demonstrated in an Yb fiber oscillator

Compensation of the intracavity dispersion in the mode-locked oscillator is known to be one of the most important factors for ultrashort pulse generation. However, recent investigations of a Yb-doped fiber mode-locked oscillator revealed that precise third-order dispersion (TOD) compensation is not always necessary for ultrashort pulse generation, owing to the strong nonlinearity that compensates residual TOD without reducing its spectral bandwidth. The origin of the nonlinear TOD compensation has remained unclear. To investigate the process in detail, we studied the pulse evolution inside a 30 fs Yb-doped fiber mode-locked oscillator both experimentally and numerically, and we found that the nonlinear phase shift with a temporally asymmetric pulse shape introduces an appropriate amount of TOD that exactly cancels the residual cavity dispersion.     

High-energy femtosecond fiber laser at 976 nm

We report on a passively mode-locked fiber laser emitting around 976nm. The self-starting mode locking is achieved in an unidirectional ring cavity by means of nonlinear polarization evolution. Stable single-pulse operation is observed for 480mW of average output power. This all-normal dispersion laser generates naturally chirped pulses with 1ps duration. The repetition rate is 40.6MHz, resulting in 12nJ pulse energy. External compression using bulk grating shortens the pulse duration down to 286fs.     

High-energy femtosecond photonic crystal fiber laser

We report the generation of high-energy high-peak power pulses in an all-normal dispersion fiber laser featuring large-mode-area photonic crystal fibers. The self-starting chirped-pulse fiber oscillator delivers 11 W of average power at 15.5 MHz repetition rate, resulting in 710 nJ of pulse energy. The output pulses are dechirped outside the cavity from 7 ps to nearly transform-limited duration of 300 fs, leading to pulse peak powers as high as 1.9 MW. Numerical simulations reveal that pulse shaping is dominated by the amplitude modulation and spectral filtering provided by a resonant semiconductor saturable absorber.     

高能量掺Yb偏振型大模场面积光子晶体光纤孤子锁模飞秒激光器

实验研究了基于掺Yb偏振型大模场面积光子晶体光纤的孤子锁模激光器,获得了高脉冲能量的飞秒激光输出. 激光器基于线形腔结构,利用光栅对补偿腔内色散,并通过半导体可饱和吸收镜实现锁模的自启动. 实验中从振荡级直接获得了平均功率为700mW, 重复频率为47.3MHz(对应于14.8 nJ的单脉冲能量),脉冲宽度为518 fs的稳定锁模脉冲输出. 与普通孤子锁模飞秒光纤激光器相比,输出的单脉冲能量提高了两个数量级. 关键词： 光子晶体光纤 飞秒 光纤激光器 孤子锁模     

Wavelength tunable,high energy femtosecond laser pulses directly generated from large-mode-area photonic crystal fiber

Wavelength tunable high energy ultrashort laser pulses are generated from a large-mode-area photonic crystal fiber in anomalous dispersion (AD) regime. A simplified laser cavity design with one fine polished facet of the fiber as a cavity mirror is used. The intra-cavity dispersion compensation is achieved by a grating pair, the spatial dispersed light from which also have optical spectrum filtering effects combined with the limited aperture of the fiber core. The laser system is able to generate ultrashort pulses ranging from 494 fs (with 56 nJ pulse energy) to 1.24 ps (with 49 nJ pulse energy) at 55 MHz repetition rate. The filtering mechanism benefits the generation of high energy pulses with narrowing pulse duration in AD regime. An undulation in frequency and time domain is also observed with the increase of the pump power. Furthermore, this laser system is directly used as seed for supercontinuum generation.     

输出近百纳焦耳脉冲能量的光子晶体光纤锁模激光器

设计并搭建了一种支持百纳焦耳量级的单脉冲能量输出的锁模光纤激光器.激光器基于σ型腔结构,采用掺Yb偏振型大模场面积光子晶体光纤作为增益介质,利用半导体可饱和吸收镜实现自启动锁模.激光器内没有色散补偿机理,使其工作在全正色散锁模状态.通过在谐振腔内引入多通长腔使激光器的重复频率降低至11.1 MHz,直接获得了平均功率为1.08 W,单脉冲能量为 97 nJ,脉冲宽度为4.17 ps的稳定锁模脉冲输出,经腔外色散补偿,脉冲宽度压缩至740 fs.     

High average and peak power femtosecond large-pitch photonic-crystal-fiber laser

We report on the generation of high-average-power and high-peak-power ultrashort pulses from a mode-locked fiber laser operating in the all-normal-dispersion regime. As gain medium, a large-mode-area ytterbium-doped large-pitch photonic-crystal fiber is used. The self-starting fiber laser delivers 27 W of average power at 50.57 MHz repetition rate, resulting in 534 nJ of pulse energy. The laser produces positively chirped 2 ps output pulses, which are compressed down to sub-100 fs, leading to pulse peak powers as high as 3.2 MW.     

A diode-pumped, self-starting, all-solid-state self-mode-locked Cr:LiSGAF laser

In this paper, a self-starting, diode-pumped self-mode-locked Cr:LiSGAF laser, which produced a stable pulse train of 45 fs duration with about 20 mW-average power at the repeated rate of 90 MHz, was presented. Self-mode-locked operation can be obtained whether there is the semiconductor saturable absorber mirror (SESAM) in the Cr:LiSGAF laser cavity or not, and with the SESAM in the cavity, the self-mode-locked operation could self-start. The shortest pulses, as short as 38 fs, which were not very stable, were obtain with the SESAM in the cavity.     

基于全正色散光子晶体光纤的超连续谱光源

利用预估校正分步傅里叶法数值求解非线性薛定谔方程, 模拟超短激光脉冲在全正色散光子晶体光纤中传输时的演化情况, 分析了不同脉宽和能量的脉冲对产生的超连续谱的影响. 结果表明: 无啁啾高斯脉冲在此全正色散光子晶体光纤中传输时, 始终保持单个脉冲特性, 提高脉冲峰值功率可进一步展宽获得的超连续谱.模拟结果同时表明, 利用中心波长为1060 nm, 脉宽和能量分别为50 fs, 15 nJ的脉冲抽运此光纤, 当传输12 cm 后便可获得具有较好的光谱连续性和光谱平坦度的超连续谱. 进一步模拟结果表明, 采用棱镜对对其进行脉冲压缩, 可获得脉宽约15 fs, 谱宽约700 nm的理想超连续谱光源. 关键词： 超连续谱 光子晶体光纤 全正色散     

Ultrashort Gaussian pulse-width expansion and shape deformation induced by group velocity dispersion

Pulse-width expansion and pulse-shape deformation of an ultrashort Gaussian pulse induced by both low and high order group velocity dispersion were theoretically analyzed in terms of energy conservation and coupled equations for three wave radiations. As an example, the optical parametric interaction processes in a negative uniaxial crystal of CsLiB₆O₁₀ with 50 fs of ultrashort Gaussian pulse were simulated. The results indicate that the degree of the pulse expansion induced by low and high order group velocity dispersion is determined by both the wavelength of the incident wave and the crystal length. A pulse could be expanded to 1.41 times its initial value as a crystal length equals the dispersion length and further heavily expanded with decreasing wave-length and increasing crystal length. The pulse expansion induced by high order group velocity dispersion using an incident wavelength of 213 nm is 1.6 times that when using 532 nm in a 50 fs pulse width without chirp modulation, and the symmetry deformation and the frequency pushing phenomena of the ultrashort pulse shape are also found. The text was submitted by the authors in English.     

基于混合锁模的耗散孤子掺铒光纤激光器

从一种简单、全光纤结构的混合被动锁模掺铒光纤激光器中,得到了高稳定性、宽光谱的耗散孤子。激光器结合了半导体可饱和吸收体和非线性偏振旋转两种锁模机制,并运行在正常色散区内;通过色散管理,激光器能产生光谱宽度39.1 nm和时域宽度178 fs的孤子脉冲序列。激光输出的中心波长为1.55μm,重复频率约为34.3 MHz,单脉冲能量在0.33 nJ左右。与此同时,激光器的斜效率也约等于15.5%;室温工作下,激光器能实现自启动锁模,且运行在稳定单脉冲输出状态的时长在15 h以上。     

多芯光子晶体光纤锁模激光器

实验研究了基于掺Yb多芯大模场面积光子晶体光纤的全正色散锁模激光器.增益光纤的18个纤芯呈六角阵列排布,等效的模场直径约为52 μm.激光器基于σ腔结构,腔内没有色散补偿元件,通过半导体可饱和吸收镜实现锁模的自启动.实验获得了平均功率为3.3 W,脉冲宽度为4.92 ps,重复频率为44.68 MHz的锁模脉冲输出,对应的单脉冲能量为74 nJ,脉冲经腔外光栅对压缩为780 fs. 关键词： 光子晶体光纤 多芯 光纤激光器 全正色散     

High-power ultrafast thin disk laser oscillators and their potential for sub-100-femtosecond pulse generation

Ultrafast thin disk laser oscillators achieve the highest average output powers and pulse energies of any mode-locked laser oscillator technology. The thin disk concept avoids thermal problems occurring in conventional high-power rod or slab lasers and enables high-power TEM₀₀ operation with broadband gain materials. Stable and self-starting passive pulse formation is achieved with semiconductor saturable absorber mirrors (SESAMs). The key components of ultrafast thin disk lasers, such as gain material, SESAM, and dispersive cavity mirrors, are all used in reflection. This is an advantage for the generation of ultrashort pulses with excellent temporal, spectral, and spatial properties because the pulses are not affected by large nonlinearities in the oscillator. Output powers close to 100 W and pulse energies above 10 μJ are directly obtained without any additional amplification, which makes these lasers interesting for a growing number of industrial and scientific applications such as material processing or driving experiments in high-field science. Ultrafast thin disk lasers are based on a power-scalable concept, and substantially higher power levels appear feasible. However, both the highest power levels and pulse energies are currently only achieved with Yb:YAG as the gain material, which limits the gain bandwidth and therefore the achievable pulse duration to 700 to 800 fs in efficient thin disk operation. Other Yb-doped gain materials exhibit a larger gain bandwidth and support shorter pulse durations. It is important to evaluate their suitability for power scaling in the thin disk laser geometry. In this paper, we review the development of ultrafast thin disk lasers with shorter pulse durations. We discuss the requirements on the gain materials and compare different Yb-doped host materials. The recently developed sesquioxide materials are particularly promising as they enabled the highest optical-to-optical efficiency (43%) and shortest pulse duration (227 fs) ever achieved with a mode-locked thin disk laser.     

High pulse energy mode-locked multicore photonic crystal fiber laser

A high pulse energy passively mode-locked fiber laser operating in the all-normal dispersion regime is demonstrated. The gain material is an Yb-doped multicore photonic crystal fiber with 18 cores in array-type geometry. Robust and self-starting mode locking is achieved using a fast semiconductor saturable absorber mirror. The laser generates 180?nJ chirped pulses at a 14.48?MHz repetition rate for an average power of 2.6?W. The 1.15?ps output pulses are compressed to 690?fs outside the cavity.     

基于平衡光学互相关方法的超短脉冲激光相干合成技术

相干合成技术是超快光学领域的重要研究方向之一.当单路脉冲激光的连续谱超过一个倍频程时,精确控制其光谱相位(色散管理)是获得亚周期超短脉冲激光的关键.由于常见的脉冲压缩系统存在光谱带宽限制,因此多通道相干合成技术受到了广泛的关注.本文将充气空心光纤展宽后的超倍频程连续光谱分波段独立压缩,并利用平衡光学互相关方法锁定子脉冲之间的相位延迟,获得了4.1 fs的合成脉冲.实验结果表明相干合成技术在高能量亚周期超快光场调控中存在优势.     

电子束泵浦KrF激光器进行超短脉冲的单束放大实验研究

电子束泵浦KrF激光器口径大、泵浦率高 ,可直接用于进行超短脉冲激光的放大。用天光一号电子束泵浦KrF激光器进行超短脉冲激光放大 ,将超短脉冲激光放大到 2～ 3J、1.2 ps,激光功率达到 2TW。测量了石英窗镜中的非线性吸收系数和超短脉冲激光脉宽的变化