基于光纤中超短脉冲非线性传输机理与特定光谱选择技术的多波长飞秒激光的产生

高集成、高可靠性宽调谐飞秒激光源在超快光谱学、量子光学及生物成像等研究与应用领域具有重要价值.如在生物多光子显微成像中,具有适中能量的宽调谐飞秒激光源不仅可满足多种生物组织荧光激发所需的峰值功率与激发波长,而且也可以显著提升非线性荧光产生效率、成像分辨率以及增大成像穿透深度.采用自主研发的高可靠性全保偏光纤飞秒激光器作为抽运源,基于低色散光纤中高峰值功率飞秒激光脉冲非线性传输引起的光谱加宽机制,本文开展了多波长全光纤飞秒激光产生技术研究.通过采用中心波长在980, 1000,1050, 1070与1100 nm的带通滤波片选择性地对单模光纤输出光谱中最左边与最右边光谱旁瓣进行滤波,在上述中心波长处分别可获得203, 195, 196, 187与194 fs的激光输出.本文提出的基于全光纤飞秒激光脉冲在单模光纤中非线性传输引起的光谱加宽机制与特定光谱选择技术的实验方案为高集成、高可靠性宽调谐飞秒激光源的实现提供了新的研究途径.     

Fabrication of Long-Period Fibre Gratings Using 800 nm Femtosecond Laser Pulses

Long-period fibre gratings inside standard single-mode optical communication fibres are successfully fabricated with infrared femtosecond laser pulses. The refractive index perturbations are well confined within the fibre core by choosing the proper laser focusing parameters and translation speed of the fibre during the direct laser writing process. With the self-focusing effect considered and at a constant average irradiation dose of 1.62 × 10^3 J/（cm^2μm）, the threshold intensity for fabricating long-period gratings with infrared femtosecond laser pulses is determined to be 5.13 × 10^13 W/cm2.     

Rayleigh scattering optical frequency correlation in a single-mode optical fiber

The bichromatic optical frequency correlation function for Rayleigh backscattering from a pulse of laser light propagating along a single-mode optical fiber has been calculated and measured. It is shown that the optical correlation frequency, Dnu(c) , is equal to the reciprocal of pulse width T(w) . These results are important for the development of wavelength diversity techniques for the reduction of coherent Rayleigh noise in distributed Rayleigh backscattering single-mode optical fiber sensors.     

Co(2+)-doped flatband optical fiber attenuator

The attenuation properties of Co(2+) -doped single-mode optical fibers were experimentally and analytically investigated for preparation of a stable flatband attenuator. By controlling the Co(2+) -doped region in a fiber core, we could prepare a flatband attenuator in which the attenuation in wavelengths 1530-1610 nm was held to within 9.9-10.2 dB (3% variation) and the fluctuation of attenuation was less than 0.1 dB with 1-W input power for 100 h.     

具有几个光振荡周期的飞秒激光脉冲

从麦克斯韦方程组出发 ,推导出了具有几个光振荡周期的飞秒激光脉冲在非线性光纤中传输的方程和非线性光纤的折射率。给出了描述具有几个光振荡周期的飞秒激光脉冲在非线性光纤中传输方程的解。研究了在非线性光纤中自相位调制导致具有几个光振荡周期的飞秒激光脉冲频谱展宽 (脉宽压缩 )的详细物理过程。研究了非线性光纤中飞秒光孤子产生的条件     

Fabrication of microfluidic optical waveguides on glass chips with femtosecond laser pulses

We describe the fabrication of microfluidic channel structures on the surface of a borosilicate glass slide by femtosecond laser direct writing for optical waveguide application. Liquid with a variable refractive index is fed into the microchannel, serving as the core of the waveguide. We demonstrate that either a multimode or a single-mode waveguide can be achieved by controlling the refractive index of the liquid.     

Controllable optical delay line using a Brillouin optical fiber ring laser

A controllable optical delay line using a Brillouin optical fiber ring laser is demonstrated and a large timedelay is obtained by cascading two optical fiber segments. In experiment, a single-mode Brillouin opticalfiber ring laser is used to provide Stokes wave as probe wave. We achieve a maximum tunable time delayof 61 ns using two cascading optical fiber segments, about 1.5 times of the input probe pulse width of 40ns. In the meantime, a considerable pulse broadening is observed, which agrees well with the theoreticalprediction based on linear theory.     

Characteristics of pure silica core single-mode fiber

Single-mode fibers with low attenuation and sufficient reliability are especially important for long-span optical transmission systems. Conventionally, GeO₂ has been added to the fiber core region in order to make a refractive index difference between the core and cladding. However, the addition of GeO₂ increases Rayleigh scattering loss [1], and deteriorates the chemical stability against hydrogen atmosphere and γ-ray irradiation to bring about an increase in attenuation. [2][3] Therefore, pure silica core single-mode fiber was considered to be an ideal type of fiber, and it was succeeded in being fabricated by utilizing fluorine containing SiO₂ cladding.     

Variable photonic crystal fiber optical attenuator combining air hole reduction induced radiation and bending loss

Recently, an optical attenuator has been important in fiber optic communication systems, because a transmission power in fiber has become higher due to a channel increment in wavelength division multiplexing transmission. A photonic crystal fiber (PCF) optical attenuator is fabricated by air hole diameter reduction in a part of PCF in which radiations are caused in the air hole diameter reduced part of PCF. A PCF optical attenuator has a high power resistance feature due to its radiation-induced operation of optical attenuation. In this paper, we proposed a variable PCF optical attenuator in which a bend was applied to the air hole diameter reduced part in PCF optical attenuator that was fabricated by CO₂ laser irradiation. In PCF optical attenuator fabrication, the attenuation was adjusted by the reduced air hole diameter with laser irradiation time control. It was demonstrated that 10.6–13.5 dB of variable attenuation was obtained at 1550 nm-wavelength with 0°–90° bending angle applied to the air hole diameter reduced part in PCF optical attenuator.     

Characteristics of pure silica core single-mode fiber

Single-mode fibers with low attenuation and sufficient reliability are especially important for long-span optical transmission systems. Conventionally, GeO₂ has been added to the fiber core region in order to make a refractive index difference between the core and cladding. However, the addition of GeO₂ increases Rayleigh scattering loss [1], and deteriorates the chemical stability against hydrogen atmosphere and γ-ray irradiation to bring about an increase in attenuation. [2][3] Therefore, pure silica core single-mode fiber was considered to be an ideal type of fiber, and it was succeeded in being fabricated by utilizing fluorine containing SiO₂ cladding.     

Ultrafast pulse sources based on multi-mode optical fibers

Ultrafast pulse sources based on multi-mode optical fibers are discussed. High-power passively mode-locked fiber lasers based on multi-mode rare-earth-doped optical fibers greatly exceed the power limitations of single-mode oscillators. Ultrafast multi-mode fiber amplifiers operating in conjunction with multi-mode oscillators provide even higher power levels, where nonlinear propagation effects enable pulse compression to below 100 fs. Multi-mode fiber oscillators can be combined with single-mode Raman-shifting fibers to produce widely wavelength-tunable sources of femtosecond pulses. Further amplification in Yb fibers allows for the generation of sub-100-fs pulses with W-level average powers.     

Coupling laser radiation to a fabry-perot cavity with a single-mode optical fiber

Three aspects of coupling to Fabry-Perot cavities used in optical frequency standards are discussed: the use of a single-mode optical fiber to maintain coupling stability while improving vibration isolation of the cavity, the required stability of the coupling geometry, and the phase and polarization variations resulting from fiber movement. Optical fiber coupling should be useful when laser linewidths and stabilities at the Hertz level are desired.     

Optical frequency measurement across a 104-THz gap with a femtosecond laser frequency comb

The frequency-domain mode comb of a Ti:sapphire femtosecond laser centered at 350 THz is broadened to 150 THz (full width at -30 dBc) by self-phase modulation in a single-mode optical fiber. By phase locking continuous-wave lasers to elements of the comb near 1064 and 778 nm, we measure the 104-THz frequency gap between these two lasers with a relative uncertainty of 2.7 x 10(-11) in 1 s.     

Supermode-noise-free eighth-order femtosecond soliton from a backward dark-optical-comb-injection mode-locked semiconductor optical amplifier fiber laser

A backward dark-optical-comb-injection mode-locked semiconductor optical amplifier fiber laser (SOAFL) with a femtosecond pulse width and an ultrahigh supermode-noise suppressing ratio (SMSR) is primarily demonstrated. The mode-locked SOAFL pulse with a spectral linewidth of 0.45 nm is shortened from 15 to 8.6 ps under chirp compensation in a 420 m long dispersion-compensated fiber, corresponding to a time-bandwidth product of 0.48. The eighth-order soliton is obtained by the nonlinearly soliton's compression of the chirp-compensated SOAFL pulse in a 112 m long single-mode fiber at an input peak power of 51 W, providing the pulse width, the linewidth, and the nearly transform-limited time-bandwidth product are <200 fs, 13.8 nm, and 0.34, respectively. The phase noise and integrated timing jitter at an offset frequency below 1 MHz are -105 dBc/Hz and 0.8 ps, respectively. An ultrahigh pulse-compression ratio of 43 and a SMSR of 87 dB for the eighth-order SOAFL soliton are reported.     

Review of femtosecond laser fabricated optical fiber high temperature sensors [Invited]

The femtosecond laser has been an efficient tool for optical fiber high temperature sensor construction. Here, we review the progress of optical fiber high temperature sensors based on femtosecond laser fabricated fiber gratings and various types of fiber in-line interferometers in silica fibers and sapphire fibers.     

Direct link between microwave and optical frequencies with a 300 THz femtosecond laser comb

We demonstrate a great simplification in the long-standing problem of measuring optical frequencies in terms of the cesium primary standard. An air-silica microstructure optical fiber broadens the frequency comb of a femtosecond laser to span the optical octave from 1064 to 532 nm, enabling us to measure the 282 THz frequency of an iodine-stabilized Nd:YAG laser directly in terms of the microwave frequency that controls the comb spacing. Additional measurements of established optical frequencies at 633 and 778 nm using the same femtosecond comb confirm the accepted uncertainties for these standards.     

掺镱硼酸钙氧钇飞秒激光器及在拉锥光纤中产生跨倍频程超连续光

跨倍频程超连续光谱的产生是光学频率梳系统中测量载波包络相移频率的关键.本文采用拉锥单模光纤作为非线性光谱展宽介质, 将半导体激光(LD)抽运的掺镱硼酸钙氧钇(Yb:YCOB)振荡器输出的飞秒激光耦合到该拉锥光纤中, 通过飞秒激光在光纤中发生的相位调制、四波混频等非线性效应将光谱展宽至超过倍频程的范围.振荡器输出的飞秒激光脉冲宽度为130 fs, 中心波长为1052 nm, 重复频率为76.8 MHz, 平均功率为620 mW, 耦合进单模拉锥光纤后获得了光谱覆盖范围从550 nm至1350 nm的跨倍频程超连续光谱, 最大输出平均功率为323 mW, 耦合效率达到52%.为进一步实现全固态飞秒激光光学频率梳提供了重要基础.     

Microchannels in conventional single-mode fibers

Microchannels are fabricated into conventional single-mode fibers by femtosecond laser processing and chemical etching. Fabrication limitations imposed by the fiber geometry are highlighted and resolved through a simple technique without compromising fabrication flexibility. A microfluidic fiber device consisting of a 4 microm wide microchannel that intersects the fiber core for refractive index sensing is further demonstrated.     

Numerical simulation of propagation of a femtosecond optical soliton in a single-mode fiber with allowance for the imaginary part of Raman response

We consider the effect of Raman inertial response of a medium on the stability of a first-order femtosecond soliton. Numerical solution to the high-order nonlinear Schrödinger equation, with the complex Raman term, describing propagation of a femtosecond optical soliton in a single-mode fiber, is obtained. It is shown that a soliton solution of the high-order nonlinear Schrödinger equation exists under certain conditions imposed on the equation coefficients. These conditions lead to limitations on the wavelength, fiber type, and the highest energy. Results of numerical solutions are in agreement with available experimental data.     

Miniaturized fiber inline Fabry-Perot interferometer fabricated with a femtosecond laser

We report a miniaturized inline Fabry-Perot interferometer directly fabricated on a single-mode optical fiber with a femtosecond laser. The device had a loss of 16 dB and an interference visibility exceeding 14 dB. The device was tested and survived in high temperatures up to 1100 degrees C. With an accessible cavity and all-glass structure, the new device is attractive for sensing applications in high-temperature harsh environments.