Theory of Pr:ZBLAN ultraviolet upconversion fiber master oscillator power amplifier

A theoretical study for ultraviolet upconversion fiber master oscillator power amplifier (MOPA) based on the transition from the 4f5d state to the ³H₄ ground state in Pr³⁺:ZBLAN fiber is performed by using steady population rate equations and propagation equations. The variation of the output power with the fiber length of master oscillator and MOPA and the launched pump powers, the dependence of the slope efficiency on the fiber length of master oscillator and MOPA, and the optimum fiber length of MOPA as a function of the launched pump powers, are calculated. Both the output power and the slope efficiency of MOPA are 2-3 times those of the simplex oscillator. It is found that the UV upconversion fiber MOPA system can effectively improve the output power and the slope efficiency of laser.     

Numerical analysis of multi-wavelength cascaded Raman fiber lasers based on genetic algorithm

A novel numerical method is presented for the calculations of the coupled propagation equations in multi-wavelength Raman fiber lasers. By taking the advantages of genetic algorithm and shooting method, only a few of the best individuals at each generation are chosen to implement several shootings in order to accelerate theirs converging. The output characteristics of an all-fiber three-wavelength Raman fiber laser have been analyzed based on the proposed algorithm. Results show that the total output power linearly depends on the pump power with a slope efficiency of ∼51%. For the three output Stokes, the slope efficiencies of the longer wavelengths are larger than that of the shorter ones because the optical energy at the Stokes with shorter wavelengths allows for a transfer of optical power to the longer Stokes via stimulated Raman scattering. We also find that the total output power degrades by less than 10% by adjusting the output-coupler reflectivity and is insensitive to the variation of the Raman fiber length over a large range.     

High-power Er:YAG laser with quasi-top-hat output beam

A simple method for simultaneously exciting the fundamental (TEM00) transverse mode and first order Laguerre-Gaussian (LG01) donut mode in an end-pumped solid-state laser to yield a quasi-top-hat output beam is reported. This approach has been applied to an Er:YAG laser, in-band pumped by an Er,Yb fiber laser, yielding 9.6 W of continuous-wave output at 1645 nm in a top-hat-like beam with beam propagation factor (M2)<2.1 for 24 W of incident pump power at 1532 nm. The corresponding slope efficiency with respect to incident pump power was 49%. The prospects of further scaling of output power and improved overall efficiency are considered.     

Highly efficient Yb-doped silica fibers prepared by powder sinter technology

We report on the characteristics of an active fiber with core material made by sintering of Yb-doped silica powders as an alternative to a conventional modified chemical vapor deposition (MCVD) technique. This material provides the possibility to design very large and homogenously rare-earth doped active fiber cores. We have determined a fiber background attenuation of 20 dB/km and measured a slope efficiency of 80%. These values are comparable to established fibers made by MCVD technology.     

High-power Yb-doped multicore ribbon fiber laser

A highly elongated double-clad ribbon fiber that comprises a pure-silica inner cladding with transverse dimensions of approximately 1.4 mm by 0.23 mm with a linear array of ten ytterbium-doped cores has been fabricated and operated in a simple laser configuration pumped by two diode stacks. The fiber laser yielded 320 W of output power at a center wavelength of 1045 nm in a combined beam with beam propagation factors of approximately 2 (perpendicular to the array) and approximately 150 (parallel to the array) for 576 W of launched pump power. The slope efficiency with respect to absorbed pump power was 62%. The prospects for further power scaling and improved beam quality and efficiency are discussed.     

Generation of radially polarized mode in Yb fiber laser by using a dual conical prism

For the first time to our knowledge, a radially polarized beam is generated in an Yb-doped multimode double-clad fiber laser by using an intracavity dual conical prism. Up to 6.2 mW of output power is obtained from a 2 m long gain fiber with 7.4% slope efficiency. This research opens a new window to obtaining a radially polarized beam directly from an active fiber.     

High efficiency Tm fiber laser of seed amplification

We use all-fiber single-mode lasers as seed source, amplifiers and pump laser coupling amplifier has been experimentally investigated, respectively. The maximum output power is 10.4 W, with the slope efficiency of 54.4% when the seed laser power is 1 W, and the slope efficiency is 48.7% when the seed laser power is 2 W. The slope efficiency of this scheme is higher than that of the all-fiber amplifier. This can be explained by the loss of pump power at the splice dots. The wavelength of the fiber amplifier is 1947.6 nm, the same as the seed laser's, with a linewidth of 2 nm. We estimate the beam quality to be M² = 2.39, clearly indicating nearly diffraction-limited beam propagation.     

Single-mode 212 W tapered fiber laser pumped by a low-brightness source

With a tapered double-clad all-glass ytterbium fiber as a gain medium, a maximum output power of over 200 W at 1079 nm and a slope efficiency of over 70% were demonstrated. The tapered double-clad fiber concept allows for using low-brightness diode bars and results in cost-effective and efficient high-power fiber lasers. The adiabatic conical fiber gain waveguide combines improved pump absorption owing to enhanced mode mixing in the pump cladding, low-noise single fundamental mode operation with M(2)< or =1.02, and strong potential for significant power scaling.     

High-power, single-mode, linearly polarized, ytterbium-doped fiber superfluorescent source

High-power operation of a single-mode, linearly polarized, broadband superfluorescent fiber source has been achieved by using a two-stage cladding-pumped fiber configuration comprising a low power, single-ended, ytterbium-doped superfluorescent fiber seed source and a high-power cladding-pumped, polarization-maintaining, large-mode-area, ytterbium-doped amplifier pumped by a high-power diode source at 976 nm. The source yielded a maximum linearly polarized output of 106 W with a slope efficiency of up to 67% with respect to the launched pump power and with a measured polarization extinction ratio of 13.5 dB. The wavelength spectrum of the superfluorescent source spanned the range continuously from ~1035 to 1100 nm, and the bandwidth (FWHM) of the emission spectrum was 21 nm. The minimum seed power required for an output power over 100 W was only 10 mW, corresponding to an effective power gain in the amplifier stage of 40 dB. Single-spatial-mode operation with a beam propagation factor (M(2))<1.1 was achieved by bending the amplifier fiber to a bend radius of ~8 cm, without a significant reduction in output power.     

Local-cooled watt-level Nd-doped phosphate single-mode fiber laser

Efficient and stable continuous-wave (CW) laser operation at 1053 nm in a Nd-doped phosphate single-mode fiber (Nd:PSMF) has been demonstrated experimentally. The fiber laser consisted of a 21 cm Nd:PSMF placed in a F-P cavity formed by high reflector butt-coupled to coupling end of the fiber and Fresnel reflection of the other end facet. An output power of 1.42 W and a slope efficiency of 34.1% (18.4%) with respect to absorbed pump power (incident pump power) were obtained with 808 nm diode pumping. An increment as much as 9.7 and 15.0% in slope efficiency of the input coupling efficiency and the output power, respectively, were obtained by using a local-cooling design provided by watered sealing the coupling point. The repeatable results indicate that the design, featuring fluid sealing the coupling point of the fiber laser, which was capable of offering an effective alleviation of thermal effects and an elevation of the quality of the laser cavity, could be expected to be a convenient and effective scheme to improve the performance characteristics of the non-silica fiber lasers and the high power fiber lasers, generally in free-space coupling configuration.     

30.6 W CW Tm3+ fiber laser of seed amplification

We use all fiber single-mode lasers as seed source, all fiber amplifiers and pump laser coupling amplifier has been experimentally investigated, respectively. The max output power of all fiber amplifier is 30.6 W, corresponding slope efficiency is 39.1%. The two setups, amplifier output laser spectrum finely holds the property of seed laser spectrum, the wavelength of output laser are both 1947.6 nm, the spectrum width is less than 2 nm as same as the wavelength of seed laser. We estimate the beam quality to be M ² = 2.42, clearly indicating nearly diffraction-limited beam propagation.     

CW single transverse mode all-fiber Tm3+-doped silica fiber laser

The CW 25.6 W output power with a slope efficiency of 30.6% respected to the pump power from a CW single transverse mode all-fiber Tm³⁺-doped Silica Fiber Laser is reported. The all-fiber laser is made up by progressively splicing the pigtail fiber, matched FBG fiber and Tm fiber. The reflective FBG and Tm³⁺-doped fiber end Fresnel reflection build up the laser resonance cavity. Due to the multi-mode FBG as the reflective mirror, the output laser spectrum is multi-peaks at high output power, but the spectrum width is less than 2 nm at 1.94 μm. We estimate the beam quality to be M ² = 2.39, clearly indicating nearly diffraction-limited beam propagation.     

Efficient single-mode operation of a cladding-pumped ytterbium-doped helical-core fiber laser

A novel approach to achieving robust single-spatial-mode operation of cladding-pumped fiber lasers with multimode cores is reported. The approach is based on the use of a fiber geometry in which the core has a helical trajectory within the inner cladding to suppress laser oscillation on higher-order modes. In a preliminary proof-of-principle study, efficient single-mode operation of a cladding-pumped ytterbium-doped helical-core fiber laser with a 30 microm diameter core and a numerical aperture of 0.087 has been demonstrated. The laser yielded 60.4 W of output at 1043 nm in a beam with M2 < 1.4 for 92.6 W launched pump power from a diode stack at 976 nm. The slope efficiency at pump powers well above threshold was approximately 84%, which compares favorably with the slope efficiencies achievable with conventional straight-core Yb-doped double-clad fiber lasers.     

Hybrid glass substrates for waveguide device manufacture

Hybrid glass substrates were prepared by a novel, low-temperature process joining active (Er-Yb codoped) and passive phosphate glass. The resulting hybrid substrates are chemically and physically robust; they can be cut, ground, and polished by conventional, water-based techniques. The entire substrate can be immersed in a molten-salt bath to produce waveguides simultaneously in the active and passive regions. A low reflectance of -34+/-2 dB was measured at the joint interface with 1531.2-nm light by optical low-coherence reflectometry. Further, a hybrid laser waveguide device exhibited a slope efficiency of 33% at 1540 nm when pumped at 975 nm.     

Breaking the limit of maximum effective area for robust single-mode propagation in optical fibers

We propose and demonstrate a novel approach in optical fiber design in which the optical waveguide is formed by a ring of large air holes surrounding a solid silica core. With an appropriate choice of the geometrical configuration, robust single-transverse-mode propagation with a record effective area of 1417 microm2, verified by various methods, was demonstrated. A breakthrough was made toward the development of practical ultra-high-power fiber lasers as we observed negligible loss of the fiber at bending diameters as small as 15 cm.     

High-power pulsed diode-pumped Er:ZBLAN fiber laser

We report on the operation and performance of a gain-switched Er:ZBLAN fiber laser based on an active pulsed diode pump system. The produced laser pulses offer high peak powers while retaining the high average powers and efficiency of the cw regime. The measured pulse duration was about 300 ns and nearly independent of the pump repetition frequency. The maximum obtained 68 W of peak power is the highest reported, to our knowledge, for diode-pumped Er:ZBLAN fiber lasers, and the 2 W of average power at the repetition frequency of 100 kHz is 2 orders of magnitude higher than previously reported average power in a pulsed regime. The obtained slope efficiency was 34%.     

Light propagation with ultralarge modal areas in optical fibers

We demonstrate robust single-transverse-mode light propagation in higher-order modes of a fiber, with effective area A(eff) ranging from 2,100 to 3,200 microm(2). These modes are accessed using long-period fiber gratings that enable higher-order-mode excitation over a bandwidth of 94 mm with greater than 99% of the light in the desired mode. The fiber is designed such that the effective index separation between modes is always large, hence minimizing in-fiber mode mixing and enabling light propagation over lengths as large as 12 m, with bends down to 4.5 cm radii. The modal stability increases with mode order, suggesting that A(eff) of this platform is substantially scalable.     

LD泵浦掺铥(Tm3+)光纤激光器的数值分析

首先从掺铥光纤激光器的速率方程和光传输方程出发,建立数学模型,通过Matlab软件进行数值计算,分析了泵浦光和激光沿光纤的分布以及各能级离子数的变化.在不同掺杂浓度下,研究了小信号增益与入纤泵浦功率的关系以及泵浦光和激光功率与增益介质长度的关系.在不同泵浦功率下,研究了输出功率与输出耦合镜反射率的关系.进一步对不同泵浦吸收系数,研究了斜率效率和泵浦阈值与光纤长度的关系.分析结果表明存在最佳光纤长度和最佳耦合输出透过率,使得激光输出功率达到最佳值.     

All-fiber linearly polarized laser oscillator by fiber coiling loss control

In this paper,we demonstrate an all-fiber linearly polarized fiber laser oscillator.The single polarization of the oscillator is achieved through the careful designing of the active fiber coiling.The relationship between fiber coiling diameter and polarization extinction ratio and optical efficiency is studied,whose results lead to an optimized system.The thermal management of the oscillator is also refined,which allows the oscillator to reach a maximum output power of44.1 W with an optical-to-optical efficiency of 57.9%.A high average polarization extinction ratio of 21.6 d B is achieved during a 2-hour stability test.The oscillator also owns a narrow 3-d B bandwidth of 0.1 nm,as well as near-diffraction-limit beam quality of M~2~ 1.14.