Doping management for high-power fiber lasers: 100 W, few-picosecond pulse generation from an all-fiber-integrated amplifier

Thermal effects, which limit the average power, can be minimized by using low-doped, longer gain fibers, whereas the presence of nonlinear effects requires use of high-doped, shorter fibers to maximize the peak power. We propose the use of varying doping levels along the gain fiber to circumvent these opposing requirements. By analogy to dispersion management and nonlinearity management, we refer to this scheme as doping management. As a practical first implementation, we report on the development of a fiber laser-amplifier system, the last stage of which has a hybrid gain fiber composed of high-doped and low-doped Yb fibers. The amplifier generates 100?W at 100?MHz with pulse energy of 1 μJ. The seed source is a passively mode-locked fiber oscillator operating in the all-normal-dispersion regime. The amplifier comprises three stages, which are all-fiber-integrated, delivering 13?ps pulses at full power. By optionally placing a grating compressor after the first stage amplifier, chirp of the seed pulses can be controlled, which allows an extra degree of freedom in the interplay between dispersion and self-phase modulation. This way, the laser delivers 4.5?ps pulses with ～200 kW peak power directly from fiber, without using external pulse compression.     

Sub-5-ps, multimegawatt peak-power pulses from a fiber-amplified and optically compressed passively Q-switched microchip laser

We report on high-energy picosecond pulse generation from a passively Q-switched and fiber-amplified microchip laser system. Initially, the utilized microchip lasers produce pulses with durations of around 100 ps at 1064 nm central wavelength. These pulses are amplified to energies exceeding 100 μJ, simultaneously chirped and spectrally broadened by self-phase modulation using a double stage amplifier based on single-mode LMA photonic crystal fibers at repetition rates of up to 1 MHz. Subsequently, the pulse duration of chirped pulses is reduced by means of nonlinear pulse compression to durations of 2.7 ps employing a conventional grating compressor and 4.7 ps using a compact compressor based on a chirped volume Bragg grating.     

High power all-fibered femtosecond master oscillator power amplifier at 1.56 μm

Direct amplification of output from chirped pulse oscillator (CPO) to 3.3?W of average power (pulse energy of 118?nJ in 20?ps pulse duration before compression) was achieved in a properly designed cladding pumped large mode area Er-doped fiber. Various configurations of CPO cavity with different FWHM of output spectrum and pulse duration were investigated. Fourier limit compression with 480?fs pulse duration and 32?kW peak power has been obtained for pulses with 14.8?nm FWHM spectrum. Subsequent nonlinear compression in a standard SMF-28 fiber yielded pulses as short as 145?fs.     

Chirped pulse amplification in single mode Tm:fiber using a chirped Bragg grating

We report femtosecond pulse generation and chirped pulse amplification in Tm:fiber. A mode-locked oscillator operating in the soliton regime produced 800 fs pulses with 5 nm spectral bandwidth, at 40 pJ pulse energy. This oscillator seeded a pre-amplifier that utilizes a Raman soliton self-frequency shift to produce wavelength tunable pulses with 3 nJ energy, reduced pulse duration of 150 fs, and increased bandwidth of 30 nm. For further amplification, the pulses were stretched up to 160 ps using a chirped Bragg grating (CBG). Stretched pulses were amplified to 85 nJ after compression in single-mode Tm:fiber and recompressed with the CBG as short as 400 fs. Compressed pulses were coupled into a highly nonlinear tellurite fiber to investigate the potential of this ultrashort pulse 2-μm fiber source as a pump for mid-IR supercontinuum generation.     

被动谐波锁模掺Yb3+光纤环形激光器

 利用光纤的非线性偏振旋转效应产生可饱和吸收体的锁模机制，从掺Yb³⁺光纤环形激光器中得到稳定高阶谐波锁模光脉冲。理论分析了工作于正色散区的掺Yb³⁺光纤环形激光器的特性。实验中观测到了掺Yb³⁺光纤环形激光器3种不同演化方式产生高阶锁模光脉冲。4阶谐波锁模脉冲（107.2 MHz重复频率）经过1 m长高掺杂Yb³⁺光纤放大器放大后产生了平均功率100 mW，脉宽22.8 ps的脉冲，最后经过光栅压缩得到了平均输出功率20 mW，脉宽307 fs，脉冲中心波长1 051.2 nm，带宽13.76 nm的激光。     

Chirped pulse amplification with a nonlinearly chirped fiber Bragg grating matched to the Treacy compressor

We demonstrate a fiber chirped pulse amplification system that uses an engineered nonlinearly chirped fiber Bragg grating stretcher dispersion matched to the Treacy compressor. The seed pulses at 1558 nm are stretched to 720 ps, amplified by more than 50 dB to 6.5-microJ energy, and recompressed to 940 fs. After almost 1000 times compression the pulses are within 30% of the bandwidth limit and have a contrast ratio of better than 30 dB.     

微微秒超短脉冲的光学压缩

在研究了短光纤(L～L_w)中受激喇曼散射的斯托克斯脉冲对基波脉冲能量箝位效应的基础上进行了脉冲压缩实验。以高泵浦功率(P=1600W)注入长度为8.95m绿光单模光纤中,采用双光程的光栅对压缩结构,并引入空间频率窗口滤除自相位调制光谱的非线性啁啾部分,将40ps的锁模Nd:YAG倍频光脉压缩至<5ps。     

色散补偿及高阶孤子压缩啁啾光脉冲的理论与实验研究

利用半导体激光器的单模速率方程及超短光脉冲在光纤中传输的非线性薛定谔(NLS)方程，从理论及实验上研究了增益开关DFB半导体激光器出射的啁啾光脉冲在色散补偿光纤(DCF)及色散位移光纤(DSF)中的压缩过程与规律.实验上，从1.55μm增益开关DFB半导体激光器出射的重复频率为2.5GHz、脉冲宽度为53.8ps的光脉冲经色散补偿光纤压缩至12ps,而后利用色散位移光纤中的高阶孤子压缩效应将脉冲压缩至2.5ps.改变色散位移光纤参数及入射光功率后获得最窄光脉冲宽度为2.1ps.理论与实验结果符合. 关键词：     

High-energy femtosecond fiber laser at 976 nm

We report on a passively mode-locked fiber laser emitting around 976nm. The self-starting mode locking is achieved in an unidirectional ring cavity by means of nonlinear polarization evolution. Stable single-pulse operation is observed for 480mW of average output power. This all-normal dispersion laser generates naturally chirped pulses with 1ps duration. The repetition rate is 40.6MHz, resulting in 12nJ pulse energy. External compression using bulk grating shortens the pulse duration down to 286fs.     

Analysis and design of nonlinear fiber Bragg gratings and their application for optical compression of reflected pulses

We demonstrate a novel split-step solution for analyzing nonlinear fiber Bragg gratings. The solution is used for designing nonlinear fiber Bragg gratings with a low reflectivity. The structure of the grating is designed according to the profiles of the incident and reflected pulses. We demonstrate our method for nonlinear compression of a pulse reflected from a fiber Bragg grating. The method allows us to obtain compressed pulses with a very low wing intensity.     

Narrow linewidth,short pulse operation of a nitrogen-laser-pumped dye laser

Subnanosecond pulses, of 0.02 Å bandwidth, are generated by a nitrogen-laser-pumped dye laser with intracavity double prism beam expander, and holographic diffraction grating. Pulsewidths to below 450 ps, with peak powers greater than 10 kW, are obtained from 200 kW, 3.5 ns pumping pulses.     

High-power all-normal-dispersion femtosecond pulse generation from a Yb-doped large-mode-area microstructure fiber laser

We report on an all-normal-dispersion mode-locked fiber laser based on a large-mode-area Yb-doped microstructure fiber and using a high nonlinear modulation depth semiconductor saturable absorber mirror. The laser delivers 3.3 W of average output power with positively chirped 5.5 ps pulses at a center wavelength of 1033 nm. The pulse repetition rate is 46.4 MHz, which results in an energy per pulse of 71 nJ. These pulses are extracavity dechirped down to 516 fs by using bulk gratings. The average power of the dechirped pulses is 2.3 W, which corresponds to a peak power of more than 96 kW.     

高功率全正色散锁模掺Yb3+双包层光纤飞秒激光器

以芯径为30 μm的掺Yb³⁺双包层光纤为增益介质, 利用非线性偏振旋转技术以及光栅-小孔结构组成的光谱滤波器提供有效的振幅调制, 实现了稳定的全正色散耗散孤子锁模运转. 激光器直接输出重复频率为76.6 MHz、平均功率达6.3 W的超短脉冲, 单脉冲能量可达82 nJ. 直接输出脉冲宽度为1.33 ps, 经腔外压缩后的宽度为377 fs. 通过调节光栅角度还实现了输出脉冲中心波长在1025—1078 nm范围内的调谐.     

High-birefringence fiber effects on transmitted pulses and mitigated by pulses’ reshaper

The transmission performance of Gaussian pulses over a high-birefringence fiber (HBF) has been studied. The Gaussian pulses are broken into a series of deformed pulses in the experiment. The simulation and transmission experiments were performed with HBF. The result of simulation is consistent with that of the experiment. Mitigation of birefringence effect by pulses reshaper, which is made of fiber Bragg grating (0.4 nm of 3 dB bandwidth) and high nonlinear dispersion shifted fiber (about  1 ps/nm km), has also been done. The badly distributed Gaussian pulses are restored well after the pulses’ reshaper.     

High energy giant chirped passively mode-locked Yb3+-doped fiber laser with nanoseconds to picoseconds pulses

We report an all normal dispersion low repetition rate high energy passive mode-locked ytterbium-doped fiber laser with output pulses duration ranging from nanoseconds to picoseconds. The mode-locking mechanism of the laser is based on nonlinear polarization evolution and strong pulses shaping with a cascade long-period fiber grating bandpass filtering in highly chirped pulses. The laser generates highly stable pulses duration from 2.62 ns to 315 ps with a maximum pulse energy of 49.5 nJ and 2.5435 MHz repetition rate.     

基于非线性偏振旋转锁模的高功率光子晶体光纤飞秒激光振荡器

为了探索大模场面积光子晶体光纤锁模激光器在全正色散锁模域内的耗散孤子锁模机理, 以获得更大的单脉冲能量和更高的峰值功率, 本文搭建了以掺镱大模场面积光子晶体光纤作为增益介质的耗散孤子锁模激光器. 激光器使用环形腔结构, 利用非线性偏振旋转以及滤光片提供的耗散作用实现了稳定的锁模运转. 实验中, 从激光器振荡级直接获得了平均功率10 W, 重复频率49.09 MHz(对应202 nJ的单脉冲能量), 脉冲宽度为1.03 ps的稳定锁模脉冲输出, 经过腔外色散补偿得到的脉冲宽度为95.5 fs.     

Generation of 287 W, 5.5 ps pulses at 78 MHz repetition rate from a cryogenically cooled Yb:YAG amplifier seeded by a fiber chirped-pulse amplification system

We generate linearly polarized, 287 W average-power, 5.5 ps pulses using a cryogenically cooled Yb:YAG amplifier at a repetition rate of 78 MHz. An optical-to-optical efficiency of 41% is obtained at 700 W pump power. A 6 W, 0.4 nm bandwidth picosecond seed source at 1029 nm wavelength is constructed using a chirped-pulse fiber amplification chain based on chirped volume Bragg gratings. The combination of a fiber amplifier system and a cryogenically cooled Yb:YAG amplifier results in good spatial beam quality at large average power. Low nonlinear phase accumulation as small as 5.1 x 10(-3) rad in the bulk Yb:YAG amplifier supports power scalability to a > 10 kW level without being affected by self-phase modulation. This amplification system is well suited for pumping high-power high-repetition-rate optical parametric chirped-pulse amplifiers.     

High-peak-power femtosecond pulse compression with polarization-maintaining ytterbium-doped fiber amplification

We report the generation of 140 fs pulses with a peak power of up to 270 kW using a fiber pulse source based on a polarization-maintaining ytterbium-doped fiber amplifier and a semiconductor saturable absorber mirror mode-locked fiber laser seed. The seed laser pulses were amplified and chirped in the fiber amplifier and subsequently compressed in an external transmission grating pair. The use of a polarization-maintaining amplifier addresses nonlinear polarization-induced limitations to the obtainable compressed pulse duration and quality that can arise if isotropic fiber amplification is used. Numerical simulations of the system support the experimental measurements and also confirm the role of fiber dispersion in obtaining high-quality compressed pulses.     

高重复频率飞秒掺镱光纤放大器

 数值分析了掺镱单模光纤放大器的最佳增益光纤长度,并在实验上对掺镱单模光纤放大器和光栅对压缩器进行了研究。以最大平均输出功率为7 mW、重复频率为25.4 MHz、脉宽为56 ps的被动锁模环形腔掺镱光纤激光器作为种子脉冲,用250 mW的976 nm单模半导体激光器分别泵浦3种不同长度的掺镱单模光纤,对种子光进行放大,并用光栅对压缩器对放大后的脉冲在不同光栅距离上进行了压缩实验研究。当掺镱单模光纤长度为1.2 m时得到了较好的放大效果,种子脉冲被放大到140 mW,相应的增益为13 dB,放大后的单脉冲能量为5.5 nJ。在光栅距离为14.1 cm时获得了最短440 fs的脉冲,压缩后的功率为43 mW,相应的峰值功率为3.8 kW。     

Picosecond pulse amplification in a core-pumped large-mode-area erbium fiber

Amplification in a single-clad, large-mode-area erbium fiber as an alternative to double-clad Er-Yb amplifiers is presented. Both signal and pump are coupled through a mode-matched splice into the fundamental mode, which ensures preferential gain in the fundamental mode while minimizing the amplified spontaneous emission (ASE). The 875 microm(2) effective area of the Er fiber enables amplification of 6 ps pulses at 1.55 microm wavelength by approximately 33 dB in a single stage to >25 kW peak power with low nonlinear pulse distortion and a diffraction-limited output beam with M(2)<1.1.