A Polarization Controlled Switchable Multiwavelength Erbium-Doped Fibre Laser

A polarization controlled switchable multiwavelength erbium-doped fibre laser with overlapping cavities is proposed. The wavelengths are specified by two Bragg gratings in polarization-maintaining PANDA fibre. The proposed laser can be designed to be operated in stable four-wavelength or wavelength switching modes only by     

Tunable Yb-Doped Double-Clad Fibre Laser Based on Fibre Bragg Grating with Narrow Linewidth

A tunable Yb-doped double-clad fibre (YDCF) laser by tuning the fibre Bragg grating (FBG) is successfully demonstrated. The FBG was fabricated in the YDCF directly, resulting in low splicing loss and compact configuration. A continuous tuning range of 15.6nm from 1046.6nm to 1062.2nm is achieved. The laser linewidth is smaller than 0.1 nm in the whole tuning range. A maximum output power 117mW is achieved when the pump power is332 mW. The laser oscillation is quite stable in the whole operation.     

Phase-Locked Fibre Array for Coherent Combination and Atmosphere Aberration Compensation

We report a fibre amplifier array that not only achieves coherent beam combination by compensation of phase noises of fibre amplifier, but also accomplishes correction of atmosphere aberration. It is of master-oscillatormultiple-amplifier （MOPA） configuration, which can be phase-locked by the multidither principle or heterodyne detection principle. First laboratory experiments of atmosphere aberration compensation of a three-element fibre amplifier array are reported. The atmosphere aberration is created by a phase screen in the experiment. The phase changes of the beam, which are introduced by the fibre amplifier and the phase screen, are both detected by the heterodyne detection method. Phase modulators are controlled to compensate for the phase in the three paths. No matter whether there is a phase screen producing atmosphere aberration or not, the dim dynamic interference fringes in the far field turn to a clear and stable pattern, and the peak intensity is maximized. It is indicated that the fibre amplifier array is phase-locked, and coherent combination of the three beams is achieved. It can be used not only to obtain high power fibre laser array but also in laser space communication.     

A New Method for Filter Design Based on Long-Period Fibre Grating

We present a simple method to induce mechanically a long-period fibre grating in a general sing mode fibre.The transmission spectrum of the new type of grating can be tailored by changing the external applied pressure or by introducing a phase-shift in the grating.The tunability this kind of gratings exhibit will be particularly useful for the filter design.     

Single Mode Er-Doped π-Phase-Shifted Distributed Feedback Fibre Grating Laser

A novel method incorporating the shielded method and the post-processing method has been proposed to fabricate the π-phase-shifted fibre grating. Then an Er-doped π-phase-shifted distributed feedback fibre grating laser has been fabricated using the grating. The laser threshold is 20mW. When pumped with 90mW light at 980nm, the laser gives an output of 1.1mW. Its signal-to-noise ratio is better than 60dB. It is demonstrated that the laser is single mode operation by means of a Fabry--Perot scanning interferometer.     

An Experimental Study of Ultrashort Pulsed Ytterbium-Doped Fibre Laser and Amplifier

We report the generation of ultrashort pulses in ytterbium-doped fibre oscillator emitting around 1.05μm at a repetition rate of 17.6 MHz. A diode laser with single silica fibre at 976nm pumps the ytterbium fibre laser, the all-fibre picosecond pulsed oscillator has excellent stability and compact size, and freedom from misalignment. After amplifying, pulse energy of 3.4 nJ and an average power of 60 m W are obtained. The compression is obtained with a grating pair out of the cavity. The compressor produces 307fs with the peak power 5.47kW. A practical fibre-based source with good performance is thus demonstrated.     

Blue Up-Conversion Fibre Laser Pumped by a ll20-nm Raman Fibre Laser

A Tm^3 -doped ZrF4-BaF2-LaF3 AlF3-NaF (ZBLAN) fibre up-conversion laser pumped by a 1120-nm Raman fibre laser is demonstrated with blue output power levels up to 116mW. For the output mirror with 80^ reflectivity, the slope efficiency is about 15%, the optical-to-optical conversion efficiency is 11%, and the maximum un-saturated output power is 116mW. For 60% reflectivity, the slope efficiency is about 18% and the opticalto-optical conversion efficiency is 12%, whilst the maximum saturated output power is about 80roW due to the existence of photo-degradation effect in Tm^3 doped ZBLAN glass fibre.     

Photoelectric Hybrid Optical Bistable Device Using Fibre Bragg Gratings with Two Feed Signals

A photoelectric hybrid optical bistable device (OBD) is investigated by using fibre Bragg gratings as a lightintensity modulator. A new operation with two feed signals is proposed, and with this method the output characteristic of the OBD is remarkably improved. The potential application of such a device in optic stabilizer for fibre laser is also briefly discussed.     

Temperature-Insensitive Chemical Sensor with Twin Bragg Gratings in an Optical Fibre

To reduce temperature sensitivity of the fibre Bragg grating （FBG） chemical sensor, a simple method is proposed by measuring the peak wavelength difference between an etched FBG and an un-etched one in an optical fibre. Thermal characteristics and chemical sensitivity of the sensor are experimentally investigated. The experimental results indicate that the etched FBG and the rest one have almost the same thermal response, and concentration changes of the surrounding chemical solutions can be detected by measuring the peak wavelength difference between them. The sensor has been used to measure the concentrations of propylene glycol solutions and sugar solutions, and it could detect 0.7% and 0.45% concentration changes for them with an optical spectrum analyser in resolution of 10pm.     

A Novel Method for Measuring the Photo－Induced Birefringence of Photosensitive Fibres Based on a Fibre Loop ＊

We report a novel method for measuring photo-induced birefringence of photosensitive fibres based on a fibre loop.The method is simple and is only slightly affected by the surroundings. The experimental results show that thephoto-inducing normalized birefringence of the photosensitive fibre is multi-decaying-exponentially proportionalto the exposure and it can attain 10^-5.     

A Room-Temperature Multiwavelength Erbium-Doped Fibre Laser by Exploiting Polarization Hole Burning

Multiwavelength operation of a linear cavity erbium-doped fibre laser (EDFL) is proposed and demonstrated. A 3-dB fibre loop mirror and a high birefringence (HiBi) fibre loop mirror are utilized as the cavity reflectors. By utilizing the wavelength-dependent polarization rotation induced by the HiBi fibre loop mirror and by using a fibre polarizer to control the intracavity polarization state, the polarization states of different wavelengths are diversified. Therefore, the polarization hole burning (PHB) effect has been greatly enhanced and the homogeneous broadening of erbium-doped fibre is suppressed to a large extent. By simply tuning a polarization controller, we experimentally obtained simultaneous lasing of four and five wavelengths with wavelength spacing of ～1.8nm and less than 2nm at room temperature, respectively. The repeated scans show that all of these lasers have good stability.     

Realization of Stable Narrow Linewidth Dual-Wavelength Lasing in an Erbium-Doped Fibre Laser by Cleaving the Wavelength-Selective Filter Spectrum

We propose and demonstrate a new concept of stable narrow-line-width and close wavelength spacing dualwavelength lasing in an Er-doped fibre ring laser （EDFRL） by cleaving the spectrum with a wavelength-selective component in the EDFRL. A fibre loop mirror （FLM） combining with a polarization controller （PC） acts as the cleaver. The cleaver can produce a fine pectinate spectrum. By adjusting the PC, the fine pectinate spectrum can be so changeable that cleaving the spectrum of a fibre Bragg grating （FBG） into two parts. As a result, we obtain the dual-wavelength fibre lasering with a bandwidth of only 0.03nm and a wavelength spacing of only 0.07nm. Furthermore, the laser can also perform stable switchable single wavelength or stable different-bandwidth dual-wavelength by carefully adjusting the PC at room temperature.     

A Novel Conventional／Long—Band Erbium—Doped Fibre Amplified Spontaneous Emission Source with 80 nm Bandwidth

We report on a one-stage erbium-doped fibre amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) source with 80 nm bandwidth and 13.5 dBm output power.the broad bandwidth erbium ASE source was realized in an erbium-doped fibre with 37m length by a 1480 nm laser diode and a 980 nm laser diode as forward and backward pump sources,respectively.The total pump power is only 95.7mW.     

Supercontinuum Generation in a Photonic Crystal Fibre

Nearly 1000-nm broad continuum from 390 nm to 1370 nm is generated in a 2-m long photonic crystal fibre. The maximum total power of supercontinuum is measured to be 60mW with the pumping power of 800mW output from a 200-fs Ti:sapphire laser. The evolution of the pumping light into supercontinuum is experimentally studied in detail. It is found that the mechanism for supercontinuum generation has direct relations with Raman effect and soliton effect, and the four-wave mixing plays an important role in the last phase of the supercontinuum generation.     

Chaotic Oscillator in Frequency by Using Tunable Laser with Fibre Bragg Grating

A novel chaotic oscillator in wavelength domain by using a tunable fibre laser is proposed. The generator of chaos in wavelength is composed of fibre Bragg grating （FBG） with hybrid delayed feedback loop which induces wavelength nonlinearity. The dynamical regime of wavelength is ruled by a differential difference equation. We give the numerical simulation of the experimental setup and discuss its application in an optical encryption system.     

Enhancing Coherent Combining Efficiency via Choosing Appropriate Lasing Wavelength in a Michelson Compound Cavity Based on Two 3 dB Fibre Loop Mirrors and One Fibre Bragg Grating

Enhancing coherent combining efficiency via choosing appropriate lasing wavelength in a Michelson compound cavity based on two 3 dB fibre loop mirrors and one fibre Bragg grating （FBG） has been experimentally demonstrated. The FBG with 4.5% reflectivity is replaced at the cleaved facet with 4% Fresnel reflection. A high coherent combining efficiency of 93.5% is obtained when the FBG with central wavelength at 1559.845nm is introduced into the cavity, while it is only 90.1% combining efficiency with the FBG at central wavelength 1557.830 nm. In comparison with other reports, the proposed compound-cavity laser has the advantage of needless tuning FBG to obtain the coherent condition, and it is facile to ascertain the seemly wavelength lasing for a Michelson compound cavity.     

A Dual-Wavelength Cladding-Pumped Er^3＋/Yb^3＋ Codoped Fibre Laser System with More Than 2 W Output and Tunable Wavelength Spacing

A dual-wavelength laser system with wideband tunable wavelength spacing and more than 2 W output power is proposed and demonstrated. The operation principle of the laser system is based on the saturation gain characteristic of a cladding-pumped Era＋ /yba＋ co-doped fibre amplifier combining with a wideband tunable fibre laser with fiat power spectrum. The tuning range of the wavelength spacing is continuous within a 35 nm spectral range, and the power difference between both lasing wavelengths can be easily adjusted and controlled by a variable optical attenuator. The total output power can approximately keep unchangeable when the wavelength spacing and the power difference between both lasing wavelengths are continuously tuned and changed. The maximum total output power of the laser system is about 2.22 W.     

A l15-W Ytterbium-Doped Fibre Laser

We report a highly efficient ytterbium-doped double-clad fibre laser, one-end pumped by a 975-nm diode stacksource and generating up to 115.6 W of cw output power at 1.1 μm. The maximum optical-to-optical conversionefficiency with respect to the launched pump power is 79% at 65-W output power, and the overall slope efficiencyis about 69%.     

Equal-Amplitude Optical Pulse Generation from a Rational Harmonic Mode-Locked Fibre Laser

A simple technique for the generation of equal-amplitude high repetition rate pulses from a rational harmonic mode-locked fibre ring laser is demonstrated. The principle is based on the combination of the nonlinear characteristics of the modulator and the effect of rational harmonic mode-locking. The two sources act on each other and the integrated effect eventually leads to the pulse amplitude-equalization. We obtain amplitude-equalized short pulses up to the fifth-order rational harmonic mode-locking with an optimum bias level and modulation depth of the modulator, which demonstrates the efficiency of this method.     

Multiwavelength Dispersion-Tuned Actively Mode-Locked Erbium-Doped Fibre Ring Laser with Gain Competition Suppression

Multiwavelength dispersion-tuned actively mode-locked erbium-doped fibre ring laser is demonstrated by incorporating a section of highly nonlinear fibre （HNLF） in the laser cavity. The HNLF and the time gate element （modulator） in the fibre laser successfully suppress the gain competition in the erbium-doped fibre, and thus enable multiwavelength operation. Simultaneous generation of 10 GHz pulses up to eight different wavelengths is achieved. Wavelength, spacing and modes number tuning are investigated by changing fibre cavity length, dispersion, and erbium-doped fibre amplifier power, respectively.