Multi-wavelength erbium-doped fiber laser using four-wave mixing effect in doped fiber

We demonstrate a multi-wavelength erbium-doped fiber laser (EDFL) using erbium gain and four-wave mixing (FWM) effect in a piece of erbium-doped fiber (EDF) with high erbium ion concentration. The EDF has a pump absorption rate of 24.6 dB/m at 979 nm and is bi-directionally pumped by 980-nm laser diodes. FWM effect redistributes the energy of different oscillating lines and causes multi-wavelength operation. The laser generates more than 22 lines of optical comb with a line spacing of approximately 0.10 nm at the 1569-nm region using only 1.5-m-long EDF.     

Multiwavelength Brillouin-erbium fiber laser incorporating a fiber Bragg grating filter

In this paper, we demonstrate a multiwavelength Brillouin erbium fiber laser in a Fabry-Perot cavity. The design utilized a bidirectional oscillation provided by a fiber Bragg grating filter and a fiber loop mirror at each end of the laser cavity. A stable operation of 25 Brillouin-Stokes lines was obtained at around a 1559-nm band.     

Tandem-pumped 1120-nm actively Q-switched fiber laser

We report on a tandem-pumped actively Q-switched fiber laser system emitting at 1120 nm.Parasitic oscillation is challenging in Yb-doped Q-switched 1120-nm fiber laser,which is suppressed by pumping with a fiber laser at 1018 nm.At least four times improvement in output peak power is demonstrated in a single laser setup with 1018-nm fiber laser pumping instead of 976-nm laser diode pumping.This is,to the best of our knowledge,the first demonstration of a tandem-pumped Q-switched fiber laser.     

Narrow-linewidth single-polarization frequency-modulated Er-doped fiber ring laser

We demonstrate a 1550-nm narrow-linewidth fiber ring laser with stable single polarization by using single-mode Er-doped fiber as active fiber and saturable absorber. A polarization-maintaining circulator is used to acquire single-polarization laser light with the degree of polarization of 99.8%--99.9%. The linewidth measured using a delayed self-heterodyne method is less than 0.5 kHz. Frequency of the fiber laser can be modulated by driving the waveguide phase modulator with proper voltage. A Mach-Zehnder interferometer with the optical path difference between two arms of about 36 km is used to study the long-distance coherent detection of the fiber laser for frequency-modulated continuous-wave application.     

784-nm amplified spontaneous emission from Tm3+-doped fluoride glass fiber pumped by an 1120-nm fiber laser

We report 784-nm (1G4 --> 3H5 transition) amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) from Tm3+-doped fluoride (ZrF4-BaF2-LaF3-AlF3-NaF) glass fiber pumped by an 1120-nm fiber laser. To our best knowledge, this is the first report of 784-nm (1G4 --> 3H5 transition) ASE in a Tm3+-doped fluoride fiber laser. Its effects on a 480-nm (1G4 --> 3H6 transition) blue laser were also discussed.     

Widely tunable linear-cavity multiwavelength fiber laser with distributed Brillouin scattering

We demonstrate a multiple wavelength Brillouin/erbium fiber laser in a linear cavity configuration.The laser cavity is made up of a fiber loop mirror on one end of the resonator and a virtual mirror generated from the distributed stimulated Brillouin scattering effect on the other end.Due to the weak reflectivity provided by the virtual mirror,self-lasing cavity modes are completely suppressed from the laser cavity.At Brillouin pump and 1480-nm pump powers of 2 and 130 mW,respectively,11 channels of the demonstrated laser with an average total power of 7.13 dBm can freely be tuned over a span of 37-nm wavelength from 1530 to 1567 nm.     

73-nm tuning of a double-clad Yb<Superscript>3+</Superscript>-doped fiber laser based on a hybrid array

We report on a wide wavelength tuning in a double-clad ytterbium-doped fiber laser. The laser cavity consists of an array of broadband high-reflection fiber Bragg gratings and a bulk grating as the output coupler and wavelength selection element. The proposed fiber laser configuration combines a low intracavity loss of the fiber Bragg grating mirrors with a wide wavelength tuning of the bulk gratings. We demonstrate a >70-nm wavelength tuning range, limited only by the available fiber Bragg gratings.     

Optical parametric oscillation in periodically poled lithium niobate driven by a diode-pumped Q-switched erbium fiber laser

We describe what is to our knowledge the first nanosecond periodically poled lithium niobate (PPLN) optical parametric oscillator (OPO) driven by a fiber laser. The source was frequency doubled by a PPLN sample before pumping a second, 20-mm-long, PPLN crystal. The OPO threshold was <10muJ, with pump depletions of as much as 45% and a tunable signal range of 945-1450 nm (1690-4450-nm idler range). We demonstrated 130-nm signal tuning by varying the pump wavelength and doubling crystal's temperature. Also, we achieved 15-nm tuning with all crystals at a constant temperature. The results demonstrate the potential of the fiber laser:PPLN combination for practical, versatile, and tunable sources.     

Spectrally scanned,repetitively pulsed erbium-doped fiber laser for spectral and temporal multiplexing of fiber Bragg grating sensors

An erbium-doped fiber laser that emits a series of spectrally scanned pulses is used to monitor an array of fiber Bragg grating (FBG) sensors. The cavity for this Fabry-Perot laser is formed by two spectrally selective reflectors: a rotating mirror-grating combination for scanning the reflectance peak wavelength and a fiber Fabry-Perot interferometer (FFPI) with a periodic reflectance spectrum. During a scan of the rotating mirror, the laser produces a set of Q-switched pulses over the 1522-1568-nm spectral range at each of the FFPI reflectance peak wavelengths. This laser is used to simultaneously demonstrate wavelength-division multiplexing of FBGs with reflectance peaks in different spectral regimes and time-division multiplexing of FBGs with overlapping spectra. The spectral location of the FBG peaks was determined to an accuracy of 1.4 pm.     

Torsion sensing with a fiber ring laser incorporating a pair of rotary long-period fiber gratings

We experimentally demonstrate a fiber ring laser for high-resolution torsion measurement, where the laser cavity consists of a Mach-Zehnder interferometer formed with a pair of long-period fiber gratings written in a twisted single-mode fiber by a CO₂ laser. The emitting wavelength of the laser provides a measure of the rate of the torsion applied to the grating pair, while the direction of the wavelength shift indicates the sense of the applied torsion. The narrow linewidth and the large side-mode suppression ratio of the laser can provide a much more precise measurement of torsion, compared with passive fiber-optic torsion sensors. The torsion sensitivity achieved is 0.084 nm/(rad/m) in the torsion range ± 100 rad/m, which corresponds to a torsion resolution of 0.12 rad/m, assuming a wavelength resolution of 10 pm for a typical optical spectrum analyzer. The ultimate resolution of the sensor is limited by the linewidth of the laser and could be an order of magnitude higher.     

Tilted superstructure fiber grating used as a Fourier-transform spectrometer

We propose and demonstrate a new method for fabricating a compact all-fiber spectrometer by using a tilted superstructure fiber grating to couple light out of a fiber core and produce an interference pattern in the near field. The Fourier transform of the interference pattern serves as a direct measurement of the optical input spectrum, and the superstructure grating design offers several degrees of freedom that permit control over the resolution and bandwidth of the spectrometer. For single-wavelength operation, the proposed scheme offers the possibility of making wavelength measurements with picometer-level precision over a broad 80-nm wavelength range while simultaneously providing coarser precision over a 160-nm range.     

Nonlinear refractive index of a rare-earth-doped fiber laser

An expression is derived for the intensity-dependent index of refraction of a rare-earth-doped fiber laser by use of a Kramers-Kronig relation and simple rate equations. The solution is applied to examine the properties of the nonlinear index of an ytterbium-doped silicate fiber laser at 975-nm pump and 1080-nm laser wavelengths.     

Compact,broad-bandwidth fiber laser for sub-2-microm axial resolution optical coherence tomography in the 1300-nm wavelength region

A novel, compact, user friendly fiber laser with a broad emission bandwidth (MenloSystems, lambdac = 1375 nm, deltalambda = 470 nm, Pout = 4 mW) was used to achieve unprecedented sub-2-microm axial resolution optical coherence tomography (OCT) in nontransparent biological tissue in the 1300-nm wavelength region. Fresh human skin and arterial biopsies were imaged ex vivo with approximately 1.4-microm axial and approximately 3-microm lateral resolution and 95-dB sensitivity, demonstrating the great potential for clinical OCT applications of this stable, low-cost, and turn-on-key fiber laser.     

Diode-pumped 1018-nm ytterbium-doped double-clad fiber laser

We report a 1 018-nm ytterbium-doped double-clad fiber laser pumped by 970-nm diode. A pair of fiber Bragg gratings with reflectivities of 99.9% and 9% at a center wavelength of 1 018.9 nm are employed as cavity mirrors. The ytterbium-doped double-clad fiber is a 2.6-m-long Liekki fiber. Laser output power of 7.5 W at 1 018 nm is obtained under the pump power of 59.2 W. The overall slope efficiency of the fiber laser is about 16%. This low slope efficiency is mainly due to the incomplete absorption of the pump power.     

Ultraviolet upconversion in thulium-doped fluorozirconate fiber observed under two-color excitation

Ultraviolet upconversion signals at 293, 351, and 366 nm were observed from thulium-doped fluorozirconate fiber pumped with a 458-nm Ar(+) laser. The upconversion signal's intensity was enhanced 5x when the fiber was simultaneously pumped with a 458-nm Ar(+) laser and a 585-nm dye laser. There is evidence of the formation of defect centers under simultaneous excitation by visible and near-infrared lasers (458 and 750 nm), and there is no evidence of color-center formation when both of the exciting beams are in the visible (458 and 585 nm).     

Real-time, ultrahigh-resolution, optical coherence tomography with an all-fiber, femtosecond fiber laser continuum at 1.5 microm

Real-time, ultrahigh-resolution optical coherence tomography (OCT) is demonstrated in the 1.4-1.7-microm wavelength region with a stretched-pulse, passively mode-locked, Er-doped fiber laser and highly nonlinear fiber. The fiber laser generates 100-mW, linearly chirped pulses at a 51-MHz repetition rate. The pulses are compressed and then coupled into a normally dispersive highly nonlinear fiber to generate a low-noise supercontinuum with a 180-nm FWHM bandwidth and 38 mW of output power. This light source is stable, compact, and broadband, permitting high-speed, real-time, high-resolution OCT imaging. In vivo high-speed OCT imaging of human skin with approximately 5.5-microm resolution and 99-dB sensitivity is demonstrated.     

A narrow-line Erbium-doped fiber laser and its application for testing fiber Bragg gratings

We inspect the spectral features of a diode-pumped Erbium-doped fiber laser (EDFL) with a Fabry-Perot cavity composed of a wavelength-selective coupler in the form of fiber Bragg grating (FBG) and wavelength-insensitive Faraday rotator mirror (FRM). High accuracy for the spectral measurements is provided with the use of an optical heterodyne scheme where the EDFL output is mixed with radiation from a narrow-line semiconductor laser, allowing the detection of the EDFL spectra with a sub-pm resolution. The heterodyne scheme permits precise measurements of the EDFL line-width as a function of the cavity length and pump power. It is worth noticing a narrow-line (a few pm) operation of the EDFL with a short length (<3 m) cavity and low (<5) excess of pump power over the laser threshold. The spectral response of the EDFL to a slow sinusoidal modulation of a physical length of the FBG coupler is analyzed and it is shown that as high as ∼1-nm modulation of the EDFL optical spectrum is attainable at maximal modulation amplitudes. The narrow-line EDFL with a modulated generation wavelength is hereby demonstrated to be a tool for high-resolution measurements of reflection spectra of FBGs, which is to the best of our knowledge a novel application of the EDFL.     

Highly efficient hybrid fiber taper coupled microsphere laser

A novel hybrid fiber taper is proposed and demonstrated as the coupler in a microsphere laser system. The pump wave and the laser emission, respectively, are more efficiently coupled to and from the sphere modes with this taper structure. A 980-nm pumped erbium-ytterbium codoped phosphate microsphere laser is demonstrated in the 1550-nm band. As much as 112microW of single-frequency laser output power was measured, with a differential quantum efficiency of 12%.     

High efficiency broad bandwidth erbium-doped superfluorescent fiber source

A practical two-stage double-pass structure using high concentration erbium-doped fiber and 1480-nm pump laser diode is suggested for a high power and broad bandwidth erbium-doped superfluorcscent fiber source. A considerable increase in output power and bandwidth extension is achieved by adding an unpumped fiber and a broadband fiber mirror to make the most of wasted backward amplified spontaneous emission as both pump and input light source simultaneously. Superfluorcscent fiber source with nearly 80-nm bandwidth and 28.6-mW output power is obtained experimentally.     

Tunable single-longitudinal-mode Ytterbium all fiber laser with saturable-absorber-based auto-tracking filter

A broadband tunable, single-longitudinal-mode (SLM) Ytterbium fiber laser with unpumped Ytterbium-doped Sagnac loop is proposed and demonstrated experimentally. The unpumped Ytterbium-doped Sagnac loop is employed as a saturable absorber based auto-tracking filter to ensure single-longitudinal-mode oscillation. And a tunable band pass optical filter with large tuning range is applied to achieve broadband tuning ability. With 1-m Ytterbium-doped fiber as the gain medium, the SLM operation is achieved with over 60-nm wavelength tuning range at 160-mW pump power. The laser is very stable with output power of about 3 dBm and optical signal to noise ratio of higher than 50 dB in all the 60-nm tuning range.