All-fiber ring-cavity based frequency swept laser source for frequency domain OCT

<正>We develop a high-speed tunable,quasi-continuous-wave laser source for frequency domain(FD) optical coherence tomography(OCT).The laser resonance is realized within a unidirectional all-fiber ring cavity consisting of a fiber coupler,two fiber isolators,a semiconductor optical amplifier(SOA),and a fiber FabryPerot tunable filter(FFP-TF) for frequency tuning.Light output from the coupler is further amplified and spectral shaped by a booster SOA terminated at both ends with two isolators.The developed laser source provides up to 8000 sweeps per second over a full-width wavelength tuning range of 120 nm at center wavelength of 1320 nm with an average power of 9 mW,yielding an axial resolution of 13.6μm in air and a maximum sensitivity of about 112 dB for OCT imaging.The instantaneous linewidth is about 0.08 nm,enabling OCT imaging over an axial range of 3.4 mm in air.For optimization consideration based on this custom-built swept laser,experimental study on imaging quality relevant parameters of the swept laser with sine and ramp driving waveforms to the FFP-TF is conducted,and investigation of the swept laser on the cavity length is done.Implementing the laser source in our established swept source based OCT(SS-OCT) system,real-time structural imaging of biological tissue is demonstrated.     

All-fiber,wavelength-tunable ultrafast praseodymium fiber laser

The interest in tunable ultrafast fiber lasers operating in the 1.3 μm region has seen a significant increase due to rising demands for bandwidth as well as the zero-dispersion characteristic of silica fibers in this wavelength region. In this work, a tunable mode-locked praseodymium-doped fluoride fiber(PDFF) laser using single-walled carbon nanotubes as a saturable absorber is demonstrated. The mode-locked pulses are generated at a central wavelength of 1302 nm with a pulse repetition rate of 5.92 MHz and pulse width of 1.13 ps. The tunability of the mode-locked PDFF laser covers a tuning range of 11 nm.     

Efficient Long Wave IR Laser from Ho：YAG 2 μm Pumped ZnGeP2 Optical Parametric Oscillator

An efficient high power long wave infrared laser based on ZnGeP2 optical parametric oscillator pumped by a 2.09μm Tm：YLF/Ho：YAG laser at 10KHz pulse repetition rate is reported. The pump to idler conversion efficiency is 8% at 15.6W Ho pump power level and a quantum efficiency of 31% when the 1idler wavelength is tuned at 8.08μm. The wavelength tuning range from 8-9.1μm is also achieved by rotating the ZGP crystal.     

40-GHz wavelength tunable mode-locked SOA-based fiber laser with 40-nm tuning range

A 40-GHz wavelength tunable mode-locked fiber ring laser based on cross-gain modulation in a semicon- ductor optical amplifier(SOA)is presented.Pulse trains with a pulse width of 10.5 ps at 40-GHz repetition frequency are obtained.The laser operates with almost 40-nm tuning range.The relationship between the key laser parameters and the output pulse characteristics is analyzed experimentally.     

Single-mode and tunable VCSELs in the near-to mid-infrared Invited Paper

Single-mode,long-wavelength vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers(VCSELs)in the near-to mid-infrared covering the wavelength range from 1.3 to 2.3μm are presented.This wide spectral emission range opens applications in gas sensing and optical interconnects.All these lasers are monolithically grown in the InGaAlAs-InP material system utilizing a buried tunnel junction(BTJ)as current aperture.Fabricated with a novel high-speed design with reduced parasitics,bandwidths in excess of 10 GHz at 1.3 and 1.55μm have been achieved.Therefore,the coarse wavelength division multiplexing(CWDM)wavelength range of 1.3 to 1.6μm at 10 Gb/s can be accomplished with one technology.Error-free data-transmission at 10 Gb/s over a fiber link of 20 km is demonstrated.One-dimensional arrays have been fabricated with emission wavelengths addressable by current tuning.Micro-electro-mechanical system(MEMS)tunable devices provide an extended tuning range in excess of 50 nm with high spectral purity.All these devices feature continuous-wave(CW)operation with typical single-mode output powers exceeding 1 mW.The operation voltage is around 1-1.5 V and power consumption is as low as 10-20 mW.Furthermore,we have also developed VCSELs based on GaSb,targeting at the wavelength range from 2.3 to 3.0μm.The functionality of tunable diode laser spectroscopy(TDLS)systems is shown by presenting a laser hygrometer applying a 1.84-μm VCSEL.     

Single-mode and tunable VCSELs in the near- to mid-infrared

Single-mode, long-wavelength vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers （VCSELs） in the near- to mid-infrared covering the wavelength range from 1.3 to 2.3 μm are presented. This wide spectral emission range opens applications in gas sensing and optical interconnects. All these lasers are monolithically grown in the InGaAlAs-InP material system utilizing a buried tunnel junction （BTJ） as current aperture. Fabricated with a novel high-speed design with reduced parasitics, bandwidths in excess of 10 GHz at 1.3 and 1.55 μm have been achieved. Therefore, the coarse wavelength division multiplexing （CWDM） wavelength range of 1.3 to 1.6 μm at 10 Gb/s can be accomplished with one technology. Error-free data-transmission at 10 Gb/s over a fiber link of 20 km is demonstrated. One-dimensional arrays have been fabricated with emission wavelengths addressable by current tuning. Micro-electro-mechanical system （MEMS） tunable devices provide an extended tuning range in excess of 50 nm with high spectral purity. All these devices feature continuous-wave （CW） operation with typical single-mode output powers exceeding 1 mW. The operation voltage is around 1 - 1.5 V and power consumption is as low as 10 - 20 mW. Furthermore, we have also developed VCSELs based on GaSb, targeting functionality of tunable diode laser spectroscopy （TDLS） applying a 1.84-μm VCSEL. at the wavelength range from 2.3 to 3.0 μm. The systems is shown by presenting a laser hygrometer     

A High-Pulse-Energy High-Beam-Quality Tunable Ti:Sapphire Laser Using a Prism-Dispersion Cavity

A high-pulse-energy high-beam-quality tunable Ti:sapphire laser pumped by a frequency-doubled Nd:YAG laser is demonstrated.Using a fused-silica prism as the dispersion element,a tuning range of 740-855 nm is obtained.At an incident pump energy of 774 mJ,the maximum output energy of 104 mJ at 790 nm with a pulse width of100 μs is achieved at a repetition rate of 5 Hz.To the best of our knowledge,it is the highest pulse energy at790 nm with pulse width of hundred micro-seconds for an all-solid-state laser.The linewidth of output is 0.5 nm,and the beam quality factor M~2 is 1.16.The high-pulse-energy high-beam-quality tunable Ti:sapphire laser in the range of 740-855 nm can be used to establish a more accurate and consistent absolute scale of second-order optical-nonlinear coefficients for KBe_2BO_3F_2 measured in a wider wavelength range and to assess Miller's rule q uantitatively.     

Single-mode and tunable VCSELs in the near- to mid-infraredInvited Paper

Single-mode, long-wavelength vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) in the near- to mid-infrared covering the wavelength range from 1.3 to 2.3μm are presented. This wide spectral emission range opens applications in gas sensing and optical interconnects. All these lasers are monolithically grown in the InGaA1As-InP material system utilizing a buried tunnel junction (BTJ) as current aperture. Fabricated with a novel high-speed design with reduced parasitics, bandwidths in excess of 10 GHz at 1.3 and 1.55 μm have been achieved. Therefore, the coarse wavelength division multiplexing (CWDM) wavelength range of 1.3 to 1.6 μm at 10 Gb/s can be accomplished with one technology. Error-free data-transmission at 10 Gb/s over a fiber link of 20 km is demonstrated. One-dimensional arrays have been fabricated with emission wavelengths addressable by current tuning. Micro-electro-mechanical system (MEMS) tunable devices provide an extended tuning range in excess of 50 nm with high spectral purity. All these devices feature continuous-wave (CW) operation with typical single-mode output powers exceeding 1 mW. The operation voltage is around 1 - 1.5 V and power consumption is as low as 10 - 20 mW. Furthermore, we have also developed VCSELs based on GaSb, targeting at the wavelength range from 2.3 to 3.0 μm. The functionality of tunable diode laser spectroscopy (TDLS) systems is shown by presenting a laser hygrometer applying a 1.84-μm VCSEL.     

CsPbBr_3 nanocrystal for mode-locking Tm-doped fiber laser

CsPbBr_3 nanocrystal is used as the saturable absorber(SA) for mode-locking Tm-doped fiber laser in a ring fiber cavity.The modulation depth, saturable intensity, and non-saturable loss of the fabricated SA are 14.1%, 2.5 MW/cm~2,and 5.9%, respectively.In the mode-locking operation, the mode-locked pulse train has a repetition rate of 16.6 MHz with pulse width of 24.2 ps.The laser wavelength is centered at 1992.9 nm with 3-dB spectrum width of 2.5 nm.The maximum output power is 110 mW with slope efficiency of 7.1%.Our experiment shows that CsPbBr_3 nanocrystal can be used as an efficient SA in the 2-μm wavelength region.     

Broadband Brillouin slow light with multiple-longitudinal-mode,tunable pump

We propose and demonstrate broadband Brillouin slow light using a multiple-longitudinal-mode tunable fiber laser as Brillouin pump. A tunable broadband Brillouin pump with a tuning range from 1 520 to 1 555 nm is generated using a fiber ring laser with a semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) as its gain medium. The pump spectrum consists of a large number of longitudinal modes separated by 6 MHz. The 3-dB bandwidth is about 11.5 GHz, and its fluctuation is less than 100 MHz within the tuning range. An 8-Gb/s data signal can be delayed by up to 83.0 ps (bit error rate < 10 9) at 17-dBm pump power.     

A Continuously Tunable Erbium-Doped Fibre Laser Using Tunable Fibre Bragg Gratings and Optical Circulator

A continuously tunable erbium-doped fibre laser （TEDFL） based on tunable fibre Bragger grating （TFBG） and a three-port optical circulator （OC） is proposed and demonstrated. The OC acts as a 100%-reflective mirror. A strain-induced uniform fibre Bragger grating （FBG） which functions as a partial-reflecting mirror is implemented in the linear cavity. By applying axial strain onto the TFBG, a continuously tunable lazing output can be realized. The wavelength tuning range covers approximately 7.00nm in C band （from 1543.6161 to 1550.3307nm）. The side mode suppression ratio （SMSR） is better than 50 dB, and the 3 dB bandwidth of the laser is less than 0.01 nm. Moreover, an array waveguide grating （AWG） is inserted into the cavity for wavelength preselecting, and a 50 km transmission experiment was performed using our TEDFL at a 10 Gb/s modulation rate.     

Experimental investigation on Q-switching and Q-switched mode-locking operation in gold nanorods-based erbium-doped fiber laser

We report on the generation of Q-switched and Q-switched mode-locked(QML) pulses in an erbium-doped fiber ring laser by using a polyvinyl alcohol(PVA)-based gold nanorod(GNR) saturable absorber(SA). The PVAbased GNR SA has a modulation depth of ～4.8% and a non-saturable loss of ～26.9% at 1.5 μm. A Q-switched pulse train with a repetition rate varying from 18.70 to 39.85 k Hz and a QML pulse train with an envelope repetition rate tuning from 20.31 to 31.50 k Hz are obtained. Moreover, the lasing wavelengths of the Q-switched pulses can be flexibly tuned by introducing a narrow bandwidth, tunable filter into the laser cavity. The results demonstrate that the GNRs exhibit good optical performance and can find a wide range of applications in the field of laser technology.     

Power amplifier for 1064 nm using Yb~(3+)-doped double-clad fiber

A master-oscillator fiber power amplifier (MOPA) system is presented, which consists of a single mode laser as the master oscillator and an Yb3+-doped large-mode-area double-clad fiber as the power amplifier. The system emits up to 6 W of amplified radiation at a wavelength of 1064 nm. The slope efficiency and extracted pulse energy as a function of pulse repetition rate are analyzed.     

Polarization-locked VCSEL with PM fiber pigtail for quantum communication

Quantum communication is a new technology requiring a stable and reliable laser source for communication security. A new kind of polarization-locked vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) with polarization maintaining (PM) fiber pigtail is fabricated as a decoy state laser source. The VCSEL is packaged in a standard butterfly box integrated with thermoelectric coder (TEC) and thermistor. The optical pulse width of full-width at half-maximum (FWHM) is smaller than 400 ps with a 100-MHz on/off modulation frequency. The results reveal that modulation range is better than 4. Moreover, the polarization is stable, and the power extinction ratio is larger than 25. The center wavelength is 850 nm, and the SMSR is better than 40 dB.     

Mid-infrared Er:ZBLAN fiber laser reaching 3.68 μm wavelength

We report a continuous-wave Er:ZBLAN fiber laser with the operation wavelength reaching 3.68 μm.The midinfrared Er:ZBLAN fiber laser is pumped with the dual-wavelength sources consisting of a commercial laser diode at 970 nm and a homemade Tm-doped fiber laser at 1973 nm.By increasing the launched pump power at1973 nm,the laser wavelength can be switched from 3.52 to 3.68 μm.The maximum output power of 0.85 W is obtained with a slope efficiency of 25.14% with respect to the 1973 nm pump power.In the experiment,the laser emission at 3.68 μm is obtained with a significant power of 0.62 W,which is the longest emission wavelength in free-running Er:ZBLAN fiber lasers.     

Enhanced laser characteristics of pyrromethene 650 using modified PMMA as solid hosts

Solid-state samples based on modified polymethyl methacrylate (MPMMA) with methanol doped with the dye pyrromethene 650 (PM650) are prepared.The effects of a volume percentage of methanol on the laser characteristics of the sample,including spectra properties,slope efficiency,photostability and tunable properties,are investigated.The broadband dye laser output wavelength is around 655 nm and a highest slope efficiency of 32.23% is achieved.Pumping the samples at a repetition rate of 5 Hz with a pulse energy of as high as 100 mJ (the fluence is 0.26 J/cm 2),the longest lifetime (168000 shots) is obtained in the sample (MMA:methanol=18:2),and the corresponding normalized photostability reaches 109.19 GJ/mol.When the sample (MMA:methanol=18:2) is placed in a Shoshan-type oscilla-tor,the narrow-linewidth operation is a continuous tuning range (up to 64 nm).The results indicate that the laser characteristics of solid-state dyes can be greatly enhanced by using modified PMMA with methanol serving as the solid host.     

Novel discretely tunable narrow linewidth fiber laser with uniform wavelength spacing

A novel configuration of the tunable fiber laser with uniform wavelength spacing in dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) application is proposed.The ring type tunable fiber laser consists of an all-fiber comb filter which determines the wavelength spacing,and a piece of adjustable fiber grating to select the discrete lasing wavelength for DWDM application.The proposed all-fiber ring type tunable laser has potential application in the DWDM and other optical systems due to its advantages such as narrow linewidth,easy tuning,uniform wavelength interval,etc..     

Mid—Infrared Optical Parametric Oscillator Based on All—Solid—State—Pumped Periodically Poled LiNbO

We report the tunable mid-infrared generation with a periodically poled LinbO3(PPLN).Using an all-solid-state pumped Nd:YVO4 laser as the pump source and a PPLN nonlinear crystal with grating periods of 28.2-30.8μm,we have achieved wavelength conversion in the 2.90-4.05μm spectral range by period tuning.The use of confocal cavity design has brought a compact,all-solid-state configuration with an average output powers of idler up to -200mW.The maximum power of 277mW was obtained at the wavelength of 3.35um.     

Fiber optical parametric oscillator based on photonic crystal fiber pumped with all-normal-dispersion mode-locked Yb:fiber laser

We demonstrate a cost effective, linearly tunable fiber optical parametric oscillator based on a home-made photonic crystal fiber pumped with a mode-locked ytterbium-doped fiber laser, providing linely tuning ranges from 1018 nm to 1038 nm for the idler wavelength and from 1097 nm to 1117 nm for the signal wavelength by tuning the pump wavelength and the cavity length. In order to obtain the desired fiber with a zero dispersion wavelength around 1060 rim, eight sam- ples of photonic crystal fibers with gradually changed structural parameters are fabricated for the reason that it is difficult to accurately customize the structural dimensions during fabrication. We verify the usability of the fabricated fiber experimen- tally via optical parametric generation and conclude a successful procedure of design, fabirication, and verification. A seed source of home-made all-normal-dispersion mode-locked ytterbium-doped fiber laser with 38.57 ps pulsewidth around the 1064 nm wavelength is used to pump the fiber optical parametric oscillator. The wide picosecond pulse pump laser enables a larger walk-off tolerance between the pump light and the oscillating light as well as a longer photonic crystal fiber of 20 m superior to the femtosecond pulse lasers, resulting in a larger parametric amplification and a lower threshold pump power of 15.8 dBm of the fiber optical parametric oscillator.     

Wavelength tunable ultra-short pulses based on a flat broadband spectrum generated in a nonlinear ytterbium-doped fiber amplifier

We present a nonlinear ytterbium-doped fiber amplifier based on enhanced nonlinear effects that can produce a flat broadband spectrum ranging from 1050–1225 nm with a maximum average output power of 7.8 W at 14 W pump power.Its repetition rate is 89 MHz. Using a pair of gratings and two knife edges as a filter, wavelength tunable picosecond pulses of tens to hundreds of milliwatts can be obtained in the broadband spectrum range. The output power, pulse width, and spectrum(center wavelength and linewidth) are adjusted by tuning the distance of the grating pair and/or the knife edges.Fixing the distance between the two gratings at 15 mm and keeping the output spectrum linewidth at approximately 20 nm,the shortest pulse width obtained is less than 1 ps centered at 1080 nm. The longest wavelength of the short pulses is around1200 nm, and its output power and pulse width are 40 m W and 5.79 ps, respectively. The generation of a flat broadband spectrum is also discussed in this paper.