Yb(3+)-ring-doped fiber for high-energy pulse amplification

We report what is to our knowledge the first demonstration of pulse amplification in a cw-pumped fiber in which the doped gain medium has a ring shape surrounding a single-mode core. For a given pump power, ring doping reduces the gain and hence the power lost to amplified spontaneous emission. Thereby, a significantly larger amount of energy can be stored in the amplifier. Using an Yb(3+)-doped fiber pumped by 540 mW of power at 1000 nm, we measured 69 microJ of extracted pulse energy at 1047 nm, the highest value reported to date from a single-mode Yb(3+)-doped fiber. We predict that a fiber cladding pumped by a diode bar can produce pulse energies in excess of 1 mJ.     

Stable high-power continuous-wave Yb(3+)-doped silica fiber laser utilizing a point-by-point inscribed fiber Bragg grating

We report on a narrowband 5 W cw fiber laser incorporating a point-by-point fiber Bragg grating inscribed into the core of a Yb(3+)-doped double-clad fiber. The laser featured excellent long-term wavelength and power stability (0.3%), as well as a very narrow (15 pm) linewidth, when passive temperature stabilization of the grating was implemented.     

Practical low-noise stretched-pulse Yb(3+)-doped fiber laser

We report on the development of what we consider to be a practical and highly stable stretched-pulse laser based on Yb(3+) -doped silica fiber. The Fabry-Perot cavity uses nonlinear polarization rotation as the mode-locking mechanism, and a semiconductor saturable-absorber mirror to ensure robust self-starting and incorporates a diffraction grating pair to compensate for the normal dispersion of the fiber. Use of a single-mode grating-stabilized telecommunications-qualified pump laser diode ensures reliable, low-noise operation (~0.05% amplitude fluctuations at 10-Hz measurement bandwidth). The laser generates high-quality, 60-pJ pulses of <110-fs duration at a repetition rate of ~54 MHz (3-mW average power).     

Power scaling method for 2-microm diode-cladding-pumped Tm(3+)-doped silica fiber lasers that uses Yb(3+) codoping

Unidirectional dual-wavelength pumping at 805 and 975 nm of a Tm(3+)-doped silica double-clad fiber laser that has been codoped with Yb(3+) is demonstrated. With equal 2-wt. % concentrations of the Tm(3+) and Yb(3+) ions, slope efficiencies of 49% (57%) and 35% (40%) with respect to the launched (absorbed) pump power of the 805- and 975-nm pump wavelengths, respectively, were obtained. Efficient Yb(3+) --> Tm(3+) energy transfer and efficient cross relaxation combined with minimal upconversion losses were thus operating. At the maximum output power of 18 W, the fiber laser operated at a center wavelength of 2050 nm.     

全光纤超短脉冲掺Yb3+光纤环形激光器

讨论了自启动被动锁模掺Yb3+光纤环形激光器产生短脉冲的机理,并研制出全光纤结构超短脉冲掺Yb3+光纤环形激光器.采用两个976nm半导体激光器级联抽运作为抽运源,高掺杂浓度掺Yb3+光纤作为增益介质,利用光纤的非线性偏振旋转效应,得到自启动、十分稳定的ps量级锁模光脉冲.激光器锁模阈值功率260mW,输出功率25mW,锁模光脉冲中心波长1056nm,3dB带宽11.7nm,重复频率20MHz.与其他结构光纤激光器相比,这种全光纤结构具有更高的效率和更好的稳定性.     

Efficient 521 nm all-fiber laser: splicing Pr(3+)-doped ZBLAN fiber to end-coated silica fiber

We demonstrated a green all-fiber laser by splicing both ends of a Pr(3+)-doped ZBLAN fiber to silica fibers, whose ends were coated with a dielectric thin film. The output power and the slope efficiency were 322 mW and 53%, respectively, and the coupled pump power of the two blue GaN pump lasers in the silica fiber core was 652 mW. We estimated that the damage threshold of the spliced structure was at least 21 MW/cm2. This splicing technique should be applicable for other wavelengths and glass fibers having low melting temperatures.     

Femtosecond mode-locked Yb fiber laser for single-mode fiber chirped pulse amplification system

High-peak-power laser systems are based on the chirped pulse amplification (CPA) technique. CPA laser system needs a mode-locked laser oscillator for stable ultrashort pulse laser generation. We report a single-mode fiber CPA system which consists of stable mode-locked Yb-doped fiber laser oscillator with a wide tuning range, chirped fiber Bragg grating stretcher, and two Yb-doped fiber amplifiers. The single-mode fibers can generate high-quality and single-mode beams which are stable for long time.     

Three-level all-fiber laser at 915 nm based on polarization-maintaining Nd~(3+)-doped silica fiber

Nd3+-doped fiber lasers at around 900 nm based on the 4F3/2→4I9/2 transition have obtained much research attention since they can be used as the laser sources for generating pure blue fiber lasers through the frequency doubling.Here,an all-fiber laser at 915 nm was realized by polarization-maintaining Nd3+-doped silica fiber.A net gain per unit length of up to 1.0 dB/cm at 915 nm was obtained from a 4.5 cm fiber,which to our best knowledge is the highest gain coefficient reported in this kind of silica fiber.The optical-to-optical conversion efficiency varies with the active fiber length and the reflectivity of the output fiber Bragg grating(FBG),presenting an optimal value of 5.3%at 5.1 cm fiber length and 70%reflectivity of the low reflection FBG.Additionally,the linear distributed Bragg reflector short cavity was constructed to explore its potential in realizing single-frequency 915 nm fiber laser.The measurement result of longitudinal-mode properties shows it is still multi-longitudinal mode laser operation with 40 mm laser cavity.These results indicate that the Nd3+-doped silica fiber could be used to realize all-fiber laser at 915 nm,which presents potential to be the seed source of high-power fiber laser.     

Broadband amplified spontaneous emission from an Er(3+)-Tm(3+)-codoped silica fiber

A new type of amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) based on an Er-Tm-codoped silica fiber is reported. When the fiber was pumped at 980 nm, the emission yielded a 3-dB bandwidth over 90 nm (1460-1550 nm) without any external filters, which is twice larger than that produced by conventional Er-doped fiber ASE sources. We believe that the superposition of two ASE bands, one from Er ions near 1530 nm and the other from Tm ions near 1450 nm, results in the broad bandwidth. Temperature-dependent ASE powers and fiber-length-dependent spectra strongly suggest that photon-assisted energy transfer between the sensitizing ion, Er, and the acceptor ion, Tm, plays an important role in changes in the bandwidth's size.     

Yb~(3+)-doped double-clad fiber laser with all fiber cavity

A novel all fiber cavity Yb~(3+)-doped double-clad fiber laser (DCFL) based on two double-clad fiber (DCF) Bragg grating is presented. The fiber Bragg gratings (FBGs) as the input and output mirrors have been formed in Yb~(3+)-doped DCF with the phase-mask method, and their reflectivities are 99% and 22%, respectively. When the input pump power is 417 mW, the maximum output power is 144 mW with linewidth <0.1 nm at the wavelength of 1.057 μm, over 40-dB signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), and 50.8% slope efficiency.     

Tm(3+)/Ho(3+) codoped tellurite fiber laser

Continuous-wave and Q-switched lasing from a Tm(3+)/Ho(3+) codoped tellurite fiber is reported. An Yb(3+)/Er(3+)-doped silica fiber laser operating at 1.6 microm was used as an in-band pump source, exciting the Tm(3+) ions into the (3)F(4) level. Energy is then nonradiatively transferred to the upper laser level, the (5)I(7) state of Ho(3+). The laser transition is from the (5)I(7) level to the (5)I(8) level, and the resulting emission is at 2.1 microm. For continuous wave operation, the slope efficiency was 62% and the threshold 0.1 W; the maximum output demonstrated was 0.16 W. Mechanical Q switching resulted in a pulse of 0.65 microJ energy and 160 ns duration at a repetition rate of 19.4 kHz.     

Optimization of the dimensions of an Yb(3+):ZBLANP optical fiber sample for laser cooling of solids

We propose a theoretical model for an optimized fiber structure for use in anti-Stokes laser cooling of solids. The sample is an optical fiber fabricated from a fluorozirconate glass ZBLANP with a core doped with Yb(3+) ions. The diameter of the fiber core is optimized to achieve the largest temperature change in the sample. It is shown that for each value of the pump power there is an optimized diameter of the fiber core, which permits the largest drop in the temperature of the sample.     

Raman fiber laser improvement by using Yb3+-doped fiber

We report here the efficiency improvement in a fiber Raman laser by splicing to it short pieces of 10000-ppm Yb³⁺-doped fibers. The amplified spontaneous emission produced by the doped fiber started the stimulated Raman scattering earlier than the spontaneous scattering in the 350-m silica-fiber cavity. In the best case, when splicing to the cavity 127 cm of doped fiber, the pump threshold decreased from 2.9 down to 1.27 W, representing a 56% improvement. This power was close to the theoretical minimum of 1.25 W for very long fibers. The second stokes signal (1175 nm) was only present when the doped fibers were inserted. At 4-W pump, the non-doped cavity delivered 2 W of first stokes signal (1117 nm) that represent a 50% efficiency compared to ～3 W delivered (～75%) when a 34-cm doped fiber was inserted. This improvement is intended to reduce the cost of fiber Raman lasers because less powerful sources or shorter fibers are necessary to produce more stokes components.     

Yb3+-doped double-clad fiber laser with all fiber cavity

A novel all fiber cavity Yb3+-doped double-clad fiber laser (DCFL) based on two double-clad fiber (DCF)Bragg grating is presented. The fiber Bragg gratings (FBGs) as the input and output mirrors have been formed in Yb3+-doped DCF with the phase-mask method, and their reflectivities are 99% and 22%,respectively. When the input pump power is 417 mW, the maximum output power is 144 mW with linewidth ＜0.1 nm at the wavelength of 1.057μm, over 40-dB signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), and 50.8% slope efficiency.     

980-nm diode-pumped Tm(3+)/Yb(3+)-codoped tellurite fiber for S-band amplification

We report gain measurements in Tm(3+)/Yb(3+)-codoped tellurite glass fibers in the 1460-1530-nm region using a conventional 980-nm pumping scheme. The gain spectrum is dependent on the geometry of the fiber and the length owing to the superfluorescence upconversion pump scheme.     

被动谐波锁模掺Yb3+光纤环形激光器

 利用光纤的非线性偏振旋转效应产生可饱和吸收体的锁模机制，从掺Yb³⁺光纤环形激光器中得到稳定高阶谐波锁模光脉冲。理论分析了工作于正色散区的掺Yb³⁺光纤环形激光器的特性。实验中观测到了掺Yb³⁺光纤环形激光器3种不同演化方式产生高阶锁模光脉冲。4阶谐波锁模脉冲（107.2 MHz重复频率）经过1 m长高掺杂Yb³⁺光纤放大器放大后产生了平均功率100 mW，脉宽22.8 ps的脉冲，最后经过光栅压缩得到了平均输出功率20 mW，脉宽307 fs，脉冲中心波长1 051.2 nm，带宽13.76 nm的激光。     

被动锁模Yb3+光纤环形腔激光器的研究

采用974 nm半导体激光器作为泵浦源,超高掺杂Yb3+光纤作为增益介质,利用光纤的非线性偏振旋转效应,得到稳定的ps量级锁模光脉冲。泵浦功率220 mW时,激光器锁模阈值功率150 mW,输出功率26 mW,锁模光脉冲中心波长1 046 nm,3 dB带宽6.01 nm,20 dB带宽16 nm,脉宽22 ps,重复频率20 MHz。与同类光纤激光器相比,该激光器输出功率高,具有更好的稳定性。     

被动锁模Yb3+光纤环形腔激光器的研究

 采用974 nm半导体激光器作为泵浦源，超高掺杂Yb³⁺光纤作为增益介质，利用光纤的非线性偏振旋转效应，得到稳定的ps量级锁模光脉冲。泵浦功率220 mW时，激光器锁模阈值功率150 mW，输出功率26 mW，锁模光脉冲中心波长1 046 nm，3 dB带宽6.01 nm，20 dB带宽16 nm，脉宽22 ps，重复频率20 MHz。与同类光纤激光器相比，该激光器输出功率高，具有更好的稳定性。     

端面泵浦掺Yb3+双包层光纤激光器

从双包层光纤激光器的速率方程出发，得到了光纤中泵浦光与激光的功率分布、输出功率与泵浦功率的关系、腔镜反射率及光纤长度对输出功率的影响。研究结果表明：输出激光功率与光纤长度及后腔镜反射率有很强的依赖关系，存在一个输出功率最大的最佳光纤长度。后腔镜反射率越大，输出激光功率越小；当光纤长度较短时，在输出端放置反射镜使泵浦光高反射，可以提高输出功率和效率。通过对端面泵浦掺Yb3+双包层光纤激光器进行理论分析和实验研究，得到输出激光的中心波长为1088.3nm，斜率效率为33.7%，最大输出功率为1.75W。     

Multi-wavelength mode-locked Er/Yb Co-doped fiber laser with square nano-second pulse output

We report a multi-wavelength mode-locked Er/Yb codoped fiber laser with square nano-second pulse output, which is constructed with a “figure-of-eight” cavity structure. A section of polarization-maintaining Er/Yb co-doped double clad fiber was used as the gain medium and pumped by a fiber pigtailed multimode laser diode working at 975 nm via a multimode fiber combiner. Several megahertz repetition rate output pulses with peak power up to 9.2 W and pulse duration around several nanoseconds were obtained.