Dispersion management in soft glass all-solid photonic crystal fibres

The development of all-solid photonic crystal fibres for nonlinear optics is an alternative approach to air-glass solid core photonic crystal fibres. The use of soft glasses ensures a high refractive index contrast (> 0.1) and a high nonlinear coefficient of the fibres. We report on the dispersion management capabilities in all-solid photonic crystal fibres taking into account four thermally matched glasses which can be jointly processed using the stack-and-draw fibre technique. We present structures with over 450 nm broadband flat normal dispersion and ultra-flat near zero anomalous dispersion below 5 ps/nm/km over 300 nm dedicated to supercontinuum generation with 1540 nm laser sources. The development of an all-solid photonic crystal fibre made of F2 and NC21 glasses is presented. The fibre is used to demonstrate supercontinuum generation in the range of 730?C870 nm (150 nm) with flatness below 5 dB.     

1040nm泵浦的光子晶体光纤超连续光谱产生性能退化研究

光子晶体光纤已经被广泛应用于由飞秒脉冲激光源产生超连续光谱。当激光源的重复频率较低时,由光子晶体光纤产生的超连续光谱随时间的变化过程较为缓慢,通常不被注意到。而在天文光谱仪定标等应用中,需要使用GHz至几十GHz量级的高重复频率激光源。此时,可观察到光子晶体光纤的超连续光谱产生性能在有限时间内产生显著的退化。在1 040 nm飞秒激光泵浦条件下,通过测试三种不同气孔占空比的光子晶体光纤的超连续光谱产生性能演化,发现超连续光谱的退化进程随光纤气孔占空比的增大而加速。观察发生光谱退化后的光子晶体光纤样品,发现在光纤上超连续光被产生的区段出现多个不同颜色的亮点,呈现有方向性的光泄露现象。针对光泄露现象,通过测量光纤的吸收光谱线,证实了实验中超连续光谱退化的主因并非是光纤熔融石英材料中大量非桥氧色心产生。针对光泄露具有方向性这一特征,提出了经由多光子吸收作用在光纤纤芯中形成长周期光栅的理论。为探究影响光子晶体光纤超连续光谱产生性能的退化的因素,以达到光谱退化抑制的目的,首先通过改变了光纤的拉锥参数,期望增强光纤熔融石英材料的光子耐受性。实验结果证实了该方法的有效性较为有限。其次,从保持激光源的平均功率,降低激光脉冲的峰值功率和保持激光脉冲的峰值功率,降低激光源平均功率两个方面入手,对激光源进行调制。实验结果证明,光纤单位时间内接受的高峰值功率脉冲总量是影响其超连续光谱产生性能的最重要因素。在天文光谱仪定标的应用中,对超连续光谱光功率的需求并不高,使用斩波器降低光子晶体光纤入射光的平均功率是减缓超连续光谱产生性能退化过程的有效且简单可行的方法。     

高非线性光纤正常色散区产生超连续谱的数值研究

基于广义非线性薛定谔方程,通过数值计算对高非线性光纤正常色散区产生超连续谱进行了研究.结果表明,抽运脉冲的峰值功率、脉冲宽度以及脉冲初始啁啾对该光纤正常色散区超连续谱的形成有极其重要的影响;在高非线性光纤正常色散区产生超连续谱的过程中,三、四阶群速度色散甚至更高阶群速度色散对超连续谱的影响完全可以忽略,但与其他高非线性效应相比,自陡峭效应对超连续谱产生的影响更为明显.高功率超短光脉冲在高非线性光纤正常色散区,得到了没有泵浦成份残余、－20 dB谱宽达400 nm以上而频谱强度起伏小于10 dB的超宽而平坦超连续谱.     

克尔介质中超连续谱的产生与自聚焦的抑制

 从（3+1）维非线性薛定谔方程出发,理论上分析了超短脉冲频谱展宽与自聚焦的影响因素。分析得出：通过改变泵浦光的功率和光束口径,可以实现光谱的极大展宽并避免自聚焦成丝。数值模拟了小口径强泵浦光束在BK7玻璃中的传输过程并进行了实验验证。模拟结果显示在超连续谱产生的同时小尺度调制被完全抑制。实验结果表明：降低泵浦光功率,使光束不会因为全光束自聚焦而发生塌陷,同时还能控制除自聚焦外的其它非线性效应,进而改善近场光束质量。由于自相位调制是超短超强脉冲产生超连续谱的重要机制之一,需要维持传输过程中的泵浦光功率,由此最佳的入射光功率应选在全光束自聚焦功率阈值附近。     

高激光损伤阈值Ge-As-S硫系玻璃光纤及中红外超连续谱产生

测量了Ge-As-S系列硫系玻璃在中红外波段的飞秒激光损伤阈值,研究了它与玻璃化学组成的关系.基于优化的玻璃组成,采用棒管法制备了芯径为15μm的阶跃折射率非线性光纤.采用飞秒脉冲抽运光纤,研究了光纤中超连续谱(supercontinuum,SC)的产生特性.在研究的Ge-As-S硫系玻璃中,具有化学计量配比的Ge0....     

High power all-fiber structured supercontinuum source with variable spectral coverage

An all-fiber structured supercontinuum source based on chirped pulse amplification (CPA) technology and the use of nonlinear photonic crystal fiber was constructed. By experimentally varying fiber stretcher length in CPA laser source, we can change the spectral coverage and therefore the percentage of visible light in the produced supercontinuum at output of nonlinear photonic crystal fiber, while the average supercontinuum power always keeps at watts of level. The all-fiber structured feature and the capability of changing supercontinuum spectral coverage make this CPA system a promising implement for different applications that require different broad band spectrum.     

高非线性光子晶体光纤深紫外超连续谱的研究

光子晶体光纤作为光学非线性良好介质,对超连续谱产生具有重要作用。深紫外超连续谱光源在许多应用中有急切的需求,然而由于实验条件和光纤参数等方面的影响,利用高非线性光子晶体光纤产生深紫外(<280 nm)超连续谱的报道较少。通过理论和实验研究了高非线性光子晶体光纤在深紫外区的频率变换,并分析其产生的物理机理。使用钛宝石飞秒激光器将实验室自制的光子晶体光纤在反常色散区泵浦,研究了不同泵浦功率和泵浦波长对深紫外区超连续谱的影响,结果表明：泵浦波长固定为860 nm时,深紫外频率光谱展宽范围随泵浦功率的增加而逐渐展宽;泵浦功率固定为0.4 W时,泵浦波长的增加不仅展宽超连续谱范围而且极大的提高了深紫外区光谱的转换效率。当泵浦波长为870 nm,泵浦功率为0.4 W,实验所用光子晶体光纤长度为1.45 m,零色散波长为825 nm时,光子与色散波的交叉相位调制使深紫外基模超连续谱扩展到最短波长212 nm。     

Continuous-wave supercontinuum laser based on an erbium-doped fiber ring cavity incorporating a highly nonlinear optical fiber

We experimentally demonstrate a novel erbium-doped fiber based continuous-wave (cw) supercontinuum laser. The laser has a simple ring-cavity structure incorporating an erbium-doped fiber and a highly nonlinear dispersion-shifted fiber (HNL-DSF). Differently from previously demonstrated cw supercontinuum sources based on single propagation of a strong Raman pump laser beam through a highly nonlinear fiber, erbium gain inside the cavity generates a seed light oscillation, and the oscillated light subsequently evolves into a supercontinuum by nonlinear effects such as modulation instability and stimulated Raman scattering in the HNL-DSF. High quality of the depolarized supercontinuum laser output with a spectral bandwidth larger than 250 nm is readily achieved.     

Experimental investigation of the effect of pump incoherence on nonlinear pump spectral broadening and continuous-wave supercontinuum generation

The development of high-power cw fiber lasers has triggered a great interest in the phenomena of nonlinear pump spectral broadening and cw supercontinuum generation. These effects have very convenient applications in Raman amplification, optical fiber metrology, and fiber sensing. In particular, it was recently shown that pump incoherence has a strong impact in these processes. We study experimentally the effect of pump incoherence in nonlinear pump spectral broadening and cw supercontinuum generation in optical fibers. We show that under certain experimental conditions an optimum degree of pump incoherence yields the best performance in the broadening process. We qualitatively explain these results, and we point out that these results may have important implications in cw supercontinuum optimization.     

在色散渐减光子晶体光纤中产生超连续谱的实验研究

本文利用非线性偏振锁模激光器产生的重复频率50 MHz, 脉宽为1.8 ps的脉冲分别抽运外径均匀和色散渐减两种高非线性光子晶体光纤, 在三阶非线性效应 (自相位调制、交叉相位调制、四波混频和受激拉曼散效应等) 和色散共同作用下得到扩展至蓝光部分的超连续谱. 模拟了光谱在色散渐减光纤和均匀光纤中的展宽过程, 通过对比均匀光纤发现色散渐减光纤在调控色散, 加强拉曼孤子和色散波的群速度匹配条件, 产生超带宽光谱方面具有很大优势. 实验利用20 m长的色散渐减光纤, 得到了406.1至671.8 nm的可见光波段增强的较为平坦的超连续谱. 关键词： 超连续谱 色散渐减光子晶体光纤 群速度匹配 非线性效应     

光子晶体光纤反常色散区抽运产生超连续谱的相干特性分析

使用复互相干度的定义对超连续谱的相干性进行了数值计算,得到了不同功率抽运情况下的脉冲谱展宽以及超连续谱相干性的变化.结果表明孤子自频移以及色散波辐射是抽运波长位于光纤反常色散区情况下超连续谱展宽的主要物理机理,而超连续谱的相干性则主要受到调制不稳定性的影响.调制不稳定性放大抽运脉冲自身携带的随机噪声,使得非线性效应产生的光谱成分具有随机的相位与幅度,引起超连续谱相干性的下降. 抽运功率越高, 调制不稳定性增益越高,噪声对超连续谱产生的作用越强, 超连续谱的相干性越差.要获得高相干的超连续谱, 需采用峰值功率较小的脉冲进行抽运.要获得大谱宽高相干的超连续谱, 则需要合理选择抽运脉冲功率.     

光子晶体光纤中超连续谱产生的理论与实验研究

研究了光子晶体光纤中超连续激光光源的产生机理.利用非线性偏振旋转技术产生的中心波长为1 556.0 nm的飞秒光脉冲作为泵浦光源,在69 m长的高非线性光子晶体光纤中,得到了20 dB带宽约为140 nm的超连续谱;采用实验和数值模拟方法,研究了不同泵浦功率下超连续谱形成的过程.结果表明,在不同的泵浦功率下,超连续谱的形成机理不同,在各种非线性效应的共同作用下,泵浦光脉冲的峰值功率越高,得到超连续谱的带宽越宽,实验与数值模拟结果一致.另外,要想获得平坦的宽带超连续谱,必须选择合适的光纤长度.     

光子晶体光纤产生飞秒超连续谱的实验研究

研究了飞秒脉冲经过光子晶体光纤时超连续谱产生的物理机制。采用输出波长可调谐的钛宝石光参量放大器作为泵浦源,光纤光谱仪测量不同泵浦功率和不同泵浦波长条件下光子晶体光纤产生的超连续谱的光谱图,对进行了归一化处理后的不同泵浦功率和不同泵浦波长条件下的超连续谱进行对比,分析影响光子晶体光纤超连续谱差异的物理机制。实验结果表明,当泵浦波长不变时,随着入射泵浦脉冲平均功率的增大,波峰增多,谱宽也逐渐加宽并伴随着出现能量向短波方向集中的现象,泵浦功率到达一定强度时,超连续谱的宽度最后到达饱和,谱的包络趋于稳定;入射光功率稳定在300 mW时,超连续谱的宽度和形状皆受到泵浦波长影响,在760～840 nm范围内,泵浦波长越长,波峰数越多,泵浦脉冲波长离零色散点越近,光子晶体光纤产生的超连续谱谱宽会越宽,超连续谱的形状相对越平坦。     

Supercontinuum generation in a standard fiber pumped by noise-like pulses from a figure-eight fiber laser

We report the experimental study of broadband spectrum generation in a piece of standard fiber (SMF-28) using as the pump a train of noise-like pulses, or sub-nanosecond packets of sub-ps pulses with randomly varying amplitudes. The pulses are generated by an erbium-doped figure-eight fiber laser, and present a wide (∼50 nm) optical spectrum, which represents a significant advantage to seed the generation of new frequencies. Another advantage of the pulses is their relatively large energy, as they are made up of a large number of ultrashort pulses. After amplification with an Erbium Doped Fiber Amplifier (EDFA), the pulses were injected in a 0.75 km length of SMF-28 fiber. We obtained experimentally at the end of the fiber an output signal spectrum extending from 1530 nm to at least 1750 nm (the upper limit of the spectrum analyzer) for pump pulses with an average power of 20.4 mW, corresponding to a few kilowatts peak power. The spectral broadening is due to Raman self-frequency shift (SFS). It is noteworthy that the spectrum of the newly created frequencies was extremely uniform over the range of measurement. Considering that the Raman shift is directly related to the pump pulse duration, spectral flatness is a direct consequence of the random distribution of amplitudes and durations of the pulses in the packet. Finally, the results show the capabilities of noise-like pulses from a fiber laser for applications in supercontinuum generation based on nonlinear phenomena such as Raman SFS.     

Supercontinuum generation in standard single-mode fiber pumped by a nanosecond-pulse laser

We have experimentally investigated supercontinuum generation in a conventional single-mode fiber pumped with a nanosecond pulse source. The experimental results show that, when pump power increases, the spectral flatness is improved obviously and the spectral broadening only occurs in a red-shifted radiation rather than a blue-shifted radiation. A supercontinuum source is experimentally reported with a flatness of 4.7 dB over 180 nm (ranging from 1555 to >1735 nm) at pump power P _R = 5 W and is predicted to have the flatness of less than 1 dB at P _R > 8 W. The cascade of stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) together with soliton fission plays the key roles in supercontinuum generation.     

177.6 W全光纤超连续谱光源

超连续谱光源在众多科学领域具有广泛而重要的应用, 近年来一直是国际研究热点. 回顾了利用连续光激光器和脉冲光激光器抽运光子晶体光纤产生超连续谱光源的形成机制以及近几年来两种机制下高功率超连续谱光源所取得的进展, 分析了在提高超连续谱光源输出平均功率过程中需要克服的难题. 报道了国防科学技术大学通过优化超连续谱光源的整体结构, 攻克了低损耗熔接、光纤端面抗损伤、热处理以及非线性效应的有效控制等关键技术, 成功研制出一种全光纤结构、输出平均功率为177.6 W的超连续谱光源, 光谱范围覆盖1064-2000 nm, 10 dB光谱带宽约740 nm, 光-光转换效率高达56%, 功率水平为国际领先.     

Build-up of supercontinuum in heated and unheated photonic crystal fibers using a chirped femtosecond laser

The build-up of supercontinuum in a photonic crystal fiber (PCF) has been investigated experimentally as a function of pump power using chirped 100-fs pulses from a Ti:sapphire laser. As compared with the PCF at room temperature, a new blue-shifted spectral component is observed in the initial steps of supercontinuum (SC) generation when the central part of PCF is heated to 120 °C by a hot plate. In addition, the slope efficiency of SG is slightly improved with the slightly extension of supercontinuum spectrum in blue edge at high pump powers. The change in dispersion property as well as the effective cascading of nonlinear photonic crystal fibers for heated PCF would be the main attributions.     

Recent developments in high power near-infrared super-continuum generation based on photonic crystal fiber

High power supercontinuum generation has witnessed rapid developments during the past few years. The mechanism and the latest achievements in high power supercontinuum generation are reviewed both for the continuous wave pump regime and the pulsed pump regime. The challenges in scaling the average power of supercontinuum generation are analyzed. Some of our works on high power supercontinuum generation are summarized, and perspectives for the future development are discussed.     

White-light supercontinuum generation with 60-ps pump pulses in a photonic crystal fiber

The generation of a spatially single-mode white-light supercontinuum has been observed in a photonic crystal fiber pumped with 60-ps pulses of subkilowatt peak power. The spectral broadening is identified as being due to the combined action of stimulated Raman scattering and parametric four-wave-mixing generation, with a negligible contribution from the self-phase modulation of the pump pulses. The experimental results are in good agreement with detailed numerical simulations. These findings demonstrate that ultrafast femtosecond pulses are not needed for efficient supercontinuum generation in photonic crystal fibers.     

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.