Synchronous Injection Locking Operation of Monolithic Diode Lasers Mode-Locked Diode Lasers

Synchronized mode-locking of monolithic mode-locked diode lasers has been demonstrated by injecting the light output from a master monolithic mode-locked diode laser. The master diode laser is a 10 GHZ hybridly mode-locked two section InGaASP quantum well laser. The slave lasers are a 10 GHz two section laser which is similar to the master laser, and a 20 GHz three section colliding pulse mode-locking laser. Both the slave lasers were greatly stabilized at 10 GHz frequency by a synchronous mode-locking mechanism under the injection of master laser pulses.     

被动谐波锁模Er3+/Yb3+共掺双包层光纤环形腔激光器

为了实现高重复频率和高功率的光脉冲,实验采用Er3+/Yb3+共掺双包层光纤作为增益介质,稳定的中心波长为976 nm的高功率半导体激光器作为泵浦源,利用非线性偏振旋转锁模技术,得到稳定的自起振锁模光脉冲。当泵浦功率为2.4 W时,激光器输出重复频率为8.829 MHz的连续锁模光脉冲,平均输出功率为52.5 mW,自起振锁模泵浦阈值功率为0.6 W,并观测到了稳定的高阶谐波锁模、调Q和调Q-锁模光脉冲输出。     

Diode array pumped, non-linear mirror Q-switched and mode-locked Nd : YVO4 laser — a good tool for powder SHG measurement

A non-linear mirror consisting of a lithium triborate crystal and a dichroic output coupler are used to mode-lock (passively) an Nd : YVO₄ laser, pumped by a diode laser array. The laser can operate both in cw mode-locked and simultaneously Q-switched and mode-locked (QML) regime. The peak power of the laser while operating in QML regime is much higher but pulses suffers from poor amplitude stability. The incorporation of an acousto-optic modulator as an active Q-switch enhances the stability of the QML pulse envelope. The second-order non-linearity of powdered crystalline urea is conclusively measured with respect to KDP while the laser is operating in passively Q-switched and passively mode-locked regime as well as in actively Q-switched and passively mode-locked regime.     

电光腔倒空激光二极管抽运Nd∶YAG锁模激光器

设计了一个简单的直腔,将电光腔倒空与激光二极管端面抽运Nd∶YAG半导体可饱和吸收镜锁模激光器结合,实现了锁模脉冲的产生、放大和输出。在连续抽运功率5 W的条件下,获得了脉冲宽度为11 ps的锁模单脉冲输出和脉冲宽度为200 ns的调Q脉冲输出,腔倒空单脉冲能量为30 nJ,重复频率为10 Hz。连续锁模运转时单个锁模脉冲的能量约为2 nJ,利用腔倒空将单脉冲的能量提高了15 倍左右。文章详细讨论了腔倒空脉冲及调Q脉冲的产生机理,并分析了加在电光晶体上的高压电脉冲以及偏振片的偏振度对腔倒空脉冲及调Q脉冲的影响。     

High power passively mode-locked Nd:YVO<Subscript>4</Subscript> laser using graphene oxide as a saturable absorber

We report on a passively mode-locked Nd:YVO₄ laser using a novel graphene oxide saturable absorber fabricated by vertical evaporation method. An 880 nm LD pump source was used to reduce the thermal load of the laser crystal. At the pump power of 7.4 W, 1.2 W average output power of continuous wave mode-locked laser with optical conversion efficiency of 16.2% was achieved. To the best of our knowledge, this is the highest output power of passively mode-locked solid-state laser using graphene oxide saturable absorber. The repetition rate of passively mode-locked pulse was 88 MHz with the pulse energy of 13.6 nJ.     

Micromechanics-based digitally controlled tunable optical beam shaper

A digitally controlled programmable optical beam shaper that uses a two-dimensional (2-D) small-tilt micromirror device is introduced. The optical intensity profile at any spatial position can be independently modified by use of a macropixel, incorporated with binary pulse-width modulation. An experimental proof-of-concept optical beam shaper with a commercial 2-D digital micromirror device has shown that the spatial profile of a He-Ne laser beam can be digitally manipulated. Investigation of the analog intensity control showed 256-level nonlinear degamma behavior with a measured 24.5-dB optical contrast ratio and a 10-bit spatial resolution. The performance of this tunable optical beam shaper is limited by the dimensions of the micromirror, the intermirror distance, the size of the optical beam, the number of bits used to control the micromirror, the diffraction effect, and the quality of the imaging optical system.     

被动锁模Yb3+光纤环形腔激光器的研究

 采用974 nm半导体激光器作为泵浦源，超高掺杂Yb³⁺光纤作为增益介质，利用光纤的非线性偏振旋转效应，得到稳定的ps量级锁模光脉冲。泵浦功率220 mW时，激光器锁模阈值功率150 mW，输出功率26 mW，锁模光脉冲中心波长1 046 nm，3 dB带宽6.01 nm，20 dB带宽16 nm，脉宽22 ps，重复频率20 MHz。与同类光纤激光器相比，该激光器输出功率高，具有更好的稳定性。     

被动锁模Yb3+光纤环形腔激光器的研究

采用974 nm半导体激光器作为泵浦源,超高掺杂Yb3+光纤作为增益介质,利用光纤的非线性偏振旋转效应,得到稳定的ps量级锁模光脉冲。泵浦功率220 mW时,激光器锁模阈值功率150 mW,输出功率26 mW,锁模光脉冲中心波长1 046 nm,3 dB带宽6.01 nm,20 dB带宽16 nm,脉宽22 ps,重复频率20 MHz。与同类光纤激光器相比,该激光器输出功率高,具有更好的稳定性。     

Three-dimensional integration of microoptical components buried inside photosensitive glass by femtosecond laser direct writing

We report the three-dimensional (3D) integration of microoptical components such as microlenses, micromirrors and optical waveguides in a single glass chip by femtosecond (fs) laser direct writing. First, two types of microoptical lenses were fabricated inside photosensitive Foturan glass by forming hollow microstructures using fs laser direct writing followed by thermal treatment, successive wet etching and additional annealing. One type of lens is the cylindrical microlens with a curvature radius R of 1.0 mm, and the other is the plano-convex microlens with radius R of 0.75 mm. Subsequently, by the continuous procedure of hollow microstructure fabrication, a micromirror was integrated with the plano-convex microlens in the single glass chip. Further integration of waveguides was performed by internal refractive index modification using fs laser direct writing after the hollow structure fabrication of the microlens and the micromirror. A demonstration of the laser beam transmission in the integrated optical microdevice shows that the 3D integration of waveguides with a micromirror and a microoptical lens in a single glass chip is highly effective for light beam guiding and focusing. PACS 42.62.-b; 81.05.Kf; 42.82.Cr; 82.50.Pt; 42.79.Gn     

All-fiber passively mode-locked laser oscillator at 1.5 microm with watts-level average output power and high repetition rate

We report on a passively mode-locked all-fiber laser oscillator at 1.5 microm based on heavily doped phosphate-glass active fiber. An active fiber only 20 cm long is sufficient to produce as much as 2.4 W of average output power directly from the oscillator. The width of the mode-locked pulses varies from 8 ps at the lowest output power in the mode-locked state to 44 ps at the highest power. Our picosecond laser oscillator features a high repetition rate of 95 MHz and high peak pulse power of approximately 540 W. The oscillator combines the convenience of all-fiber construction with power performance that was previously achievable only with mode-locked bulk-optic laser oscillators or more complex systems involving fiber amplifiers.     

Impacts of operational parameters on nonlinear polarization rotation-based passively mode-locked fiber laser

The operational parameters including the polarization controlling and the pump power in a nonlinear polarization rotation-based passively mode-locked fiber laser are studied in this paper.The carrier rate equations of the activated erbium-doped fiber are first employed together with the nonlinear Shro¨dinger equations to reveal the relation between the operational parameters and the output state of the passively mode-locked fiber laser.The numerical and experimental results demonstrate that the output state of the mode-locked laser varies with the polarization controlling and the pump power.The periodicity of the polarization controlling is observed.With given pump power,there exists a set of polarization controlling under which the ultra-short pulse can be generated.With given polarization controlling,the mode-locked state can be maintained generally except for some particular values of pump power.Three shapes of the output optical spectra from the fiber cavity can be identified when the pump power changes.The results in this paper provide a comprehensive insight into the operation of the nonlinear polarization rotation-based passively mode-locked fiber laser.     

Long-cavity passively mode-locked fiber ring laser with high-energy rectangular-shape pulses in anomalous dispersion regime

We report on a long-cavity passively mode-locked fiber laser in the anomalous dispersion regime. The nonlinear polarization rotation technique is employed to achieve mode locking. The output pulse from the fiber laser has a rectangular shape and a corresponding gaussian-shape spectral profile. Stable mode-locked pulses at a repetition rate of 278 kHz with single pulse energy as high as 715 nJ are obtained under equal bidirectional pumping power of 500 mW in cavity. The experimental results demonstrate that the passively mode-locked fiber laser operating in the anomalous regime can also realize a high-energy pulse, which is different from the conventional low-energy soliton pulse.     

Characterization of the noise in continuously operating mode-locked lasers

An experimental and theoretical investigation of the fluctuations of the pulses from continuous-wave mode-locked lasers is presented. It is shown that these fluctuations can be detected and quantitatively characterized from measurements of the power spectrum of the light intensity. Such power spectra can be measured with great accuracy by shining the laser output on a suitable photodetector and by processing the detector signal with the use of an electronic spectrum analyzer. Different types of noise such as fluctuations of the pulse energy, pulse repetition time, and pulse duration, can be readily recognized from their characteristic spectral signature. Experimental results of noise measurements are presented for a synchronously mode-locked dye laser pumped by an acousto-optically mode-locked argon ion laser, and also for a colliding pulse passively mode-locked dye laser.     

Figure-eight actively-passively mode-locked erbium-doped fiber laser

The advantages of using nonlinear optical loop mirror (NOLM) to compress pulse with slight amplitude fluctuation and reflected energy loss are analyzed in theory. Experimentally the NOLM is placed in an actively mode-locked erbium-doped fiber ring laser to form a figure-eight actively and passively mode-locked fiber laser. 12 ps mode-locked pulses centered at 1.543 μm were obtained with the modulation frequency of 2.498748700 GHz. 3.715 mW output power is achieved with 50 mW pump power.     

A novel tunable dual-wavelength external-cavity laser diode array and its applications

We review the principles and characteristics of a novel tunable external-cavity laser diode source. It can operate as either a continuous wave (CW) single-wavelength, a CW dual-wavelength, a single-wavelength mode-locked, or a tunable dual-wavelength mode-locked laser. The gain medium is a commercial laser diode array. The telescopic external cavity consists of a grazing-incidence grating, a lens and a stripe-mirror. The external cavity provides functions of wavelength selection, dispersion compensation and spatial mode control. The characteristics of the laser under CW or mode-locked operation are described. The dual-wavelength laser output exhibits beat note beyond 7 THz. The tunable multi-terahertz beat frequency is characterized by a non-collinear intensity autocorrelation technique. A dual-wavelength interferometer that uses a tunable dual-wavelength laser as the light source is demonstrated. Finally, theoretical analysis is presented, which demonstrates that the dual-wavelength output of the laser is stable if the modes at the two wavelengths correspond to different array lateral modes.     

飞秒被动锁模环形腔掺Er3＋光纤激光器

在考虑增益、损耗、群速度色散、自相位调制、快速可饱和吸收体等各种参数同时作用情况下，分析了非线性偏振旋转效应自启动锁模机理，研究了腔体参数与锁模脉冲之间的关系，并给出飞秒被动锁模环形腔掺Er3＋光纤激光器实验原理。实验采用性能稳定的980nm半导体激光器作为抽运源，高掺杂短长度掺Er3＋光纤作为增益介质，利用非线性偏振旋转锁模技术，得到了稳定的飞秒自起振锁模光脉冲。抽运功率为23mW时，激光器输出锁模脉冲中心波长1552nm，3dB带宽为7.6nm，重复频率14.0MHz，平均输出功率0.43mW，自起振锁模泵浦阈值功率11.5mW,并观测到了稳定的高阶锁模脉冲输出。该激光器与报道过的相同结构光纤激光器相比,自起振泵浦阈值低、脉冲能量高、稳定性好，且频谱边带幅度小。     

250 mW, 1.5 microm monolithic passively mode-locked slab-coupled optical waveguide laser

We report the demonstration of a 1.5 microm InGaAsP mode-locked slab-coupled optical waveguide laser (SCOWL) producing 10 ps pulses with energies of 58 pJ and average output powers of 250 mW at a repetition rate of 4.29 GHz. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first passively mode-locked slab-coupled optical waveguide laser. The large mode and low confinement factor of the SCOWL architecture allows the realization of monolithic mode-locked lasers with high output power and pulse energy. The laser output is nearly diffraction limited with M2 values less than 1.2 in both directions.     

SOA-based actively mode-locked fiber ring laser by forward injecting an external pulse train

An actively mode-locked fiber ring laser based on cross-gain modulation (XGM) in a semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) is demonstrated to operate stably with a simple configuration. By forward injecting an easily-generated external pulse train, the mode-locked fiber laser can generate an optical-pulse sequence with pulsewidth about 6 ps and average output power about 7.9 mW. The output pulses show an ultra-low RMS jitter about 70.7 fs measured by a RF spectrum analyzer. The use of the proposed forward-injection configuration can realize the repetition-rate tunability from 1 to 15 GHz for the generated optical-pulse sequences. By employing a wavelength-tunable optical band-pass filter in the laser cavity, the operation wavelength of the designed SOA-based actively mode-locked fiber laser can be tuned continuously in a wide span between 1528 and 1565 nm. The parameters of external-injection optical pulses are studied experimentally to optimize the mode-locked fiber laser.     

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。     

Different operation states of soliton pulses in an erbium-doped fibre ring laser

We report on the experimental observation of soliton pulses in an erbium doped fibre ring laser. The passive mode-locking is achieved using the nonlinear polarization rotation technique. By adjusting the pump power and the intracavity polarization controllers, a normal soliton, a stable 8th harmonic mode-locked pulse and a noise-like pulse have been observed in our laser. The experimental results revealed that the noise-like pulse is not suitable for the optical telecommunication, and in order to obtain the stable harmonic mode-locked soliton, a strong unstable CW laser field is necessary to mediate global soliton interaction. The formation mechanism of the harmonic mode-locked pulse has also been analysed.