All-fiber wavelength tunable passively mode-locked erbium-doped ring laser

An all-fiber, wavelength-tunable, passively mode-locked erbium-doped ring laser is presented. Erbium-doped fibers (EDF) are used as the gain media because of their large gain bandwidth. Nonlinear polarization rotation (NPR) plays the dual role of realizing mode-locking and effectively adjusting the intensity-dependent loss of the cavity. An unbalanced Mach-Zehnder interferometer (UMZI) is used as a tunable optical beam filter. By using the UMZI and adjusting the polarization controllers (PCs), a sub-picosecond mode-locking laser is realized that is self-starting with central lasing wavelengths that can be accurately tuned over a range of about ~ sim 30 nm and also has controllable spacings between different tunable wavelengths.     

All-fiber passively mode-locked thulium-doped fiber ring oscillator operated at solitary and noiselike modes

This Letter presents an all-fiber mode-locked thulium-doped fiber ring oscillator based on nonlinear polarization evolution (NPE). Pumped by an erbium-doped fiber amplified spontaneous emission source, the construction of the laser cavity consisting of only fiber optic components can operate under two different regimes of solitary and noiselike (NL) pulses. Autocorrelation measurements are performed to extract features of these two regimes.     

All-fiber mode-locked fiber laser

An environmentally stable mode-locked fiber laser based on nonlinear polarization rotation is experimentally demonstrated. The laser is based on a novel laser configuration that has negligible low-power steady-state reflectivity from one side and, consequently, no CW gain. The laser is self starting and the configuration is implementable as an all-fiber laser with standard polarization-maintaining fiber-pigtailed components. A pulse duration of 5.6 ps is obtained at a repetition rate of 5.96 MHz and at an average power of 8 mW. As an application of the proposed laser configuration, 213 mW of supercontinuum (600-1750 nm) was demonstrated from a fiber laser system with no sections of free-space optics.     

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。     

Bound soliton pulses in a passively mode-locked fibre ring laser

The bound solitons in a passively mode-locked fibre ring laser are observed and their formation mechanism is summarized in this paper. In order to obtain stable bound solitons, a strong CW laser field at the centre of the soliton spectral is necessary to suppress and synchronize the random soliton phase variations.     

Intrinsic dual-wavelength operation of a passively mode-locked fiber ring laser

We report on the dual-wavelength operation in an erbium-doped fiber ring laser mode-locked through nonlinear polarization rotation technique. In addition to dual-wavelength continuous wave operation, alternative mode-locking at the dual wavelengths was realized experimentally. By analyzing the transmissivity of the laser cavity, we find the dual-wavelength operation is an intrinsic feature of the laser associating with the dispersive cavity loss. Numerical simulations confirm the experimental and theoretical results and further demonstrate that the location of the dual wavelengths and the separation between them closely depend on the cavity birefringence and the profile of the gain medium.     

Chaotic dynamics of a passively mode-locked soliton fiber ring laser

We report on the experimental and numerical studies of the chaotic dynamics of a soliton fiber ring laser passively mode-locked by using the nonlinear polarization rotation (NPR) technique. Period-doubling route to chaos on the soliton repetition rate of either the single pulse soliton or the bound solitons of the laser was experimentally observed. Based on a coupled complex Ginzburg-Landau equation model and also taking into account the laser cavity effect, we further show numerically that the period-doubling bifurcations and route to chaos are intrinsic properties of the laser, whose appearance is independent of the details of the laser cavity design and the laser soliton operation. Property of the solitons under the dynamical bifurcations is also numerically investigated.     

All-fiber passively Q-switched low-threshold erbium laser

A novel all-fiber passively Q-switched erbium laser with a Co(2+):ZnSe crystal as a saturable absorber is demonstrated experimentally. A pump power threshold of 20.5 mW, which the authors believe is the lowest to date, has been measured. Giant pulses with energy of 3.6 nJ and peak power of 0.7 mW have been obtained.     

Regimes of operation states in passively mode-locked fiber soliton ring laser

The principal of passively mode-locked fiber soliton ring lasers is summarized, including its three output operation states: normal soliton, bound–solitons and noise-like pulse. The experimental results of the passively mode-locked fiber soliton ring lasers developed by us are given. Bound–solitons with different discrete separations and three-bound–solitons state have been observed in our fiber laser for the first time. The relationship among three operation states in fiber soliton laser is analyzed.     

Energy quantization of twin-pulse solitons in a passively mode-locked fiber ring laser

A novel twin-pulse form of solitary wave was recently revealed in a passively mode-locked fiber ring laser. In this paper we report on the energy quantization feature of the twin-pulse solitons in the laser. We show that, as in the case of single-pulse solitons, multiple twin-pulse solitons can coexist in the laser cavity, and, in particular, that all of them have exactly the same pulse energy and twin-pulse separation. The pump-power hysteresis effect previously reported for the single-pulse soliton operation is also observed for the twin-pulse soliton operation of the laser. PACS 42.81.Dp; 42.55.Wd; 42.60.Fc     

A novel actively and passively mode-locked semiconductor optical amplifier fiber ring laser

A novel actively and passively mode-locked semiconductor optical amplifier fiber ring laser was presented, where semiconductor optical amplifier provided cavity gain and introduced nonlinear polarization rotation, whereas, intensity modulator not only acted as modulator but also polarizer. The pulses with duration below 3 ps (FWHM) and peak power about 16 mW at a repetition rate of 10 GHz can be obtained in our system and the system stability may be enhanced. To investigate system parameters effects on mode-locked pulses, a theoretical model was developed.     

微纳光纤镀铂金膜锁模光纤激光器

采用有限元法仿真了微纳光纤中模式在镀膜前后的能量、电场及有效折射率变化,分析了HE11、TE01、HE21和TM01模式在微纳光纤中的传输特性以及与铂金膜的相互作用原理。采用缓冲氧化物刻蚀液制作了微纳光纤并用离子喷溅法镀铂金膜,得到直径为13.2μm、铂金膜厚度为40 nm的微纳光纤器件,测试了其可饱和吸收特性,调制深度和饱和强度分别为0.57%和0.8 MW/cm²。制作了全光纤锁模激光器,锁模阈值为180 mW。锁模脉冲重复频率为17.93 MHz,脉冲宽度为103 ps,中心波长为1 031.6 nm,半高宽约为3.5 nm。     

All-fiber normal-dispersion mode-locked laser with gain filter

An all-fiber normal-dispersion mode locked laser is presented. No additional spectral filter components are involved in the cavity. Spectral filtering is achieved through gain narrowing by three segments of gain fibers with different lengths. The performances of the fiber lasers with and without gain narrowing are discussed. A stable mode locked pulse train is observed in the cavity with gain filtering with pulse duration of 72 ps. The gain filtering effect is discussed theoretically.     

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.     

Pulse-train nonuniformity in an all-fiber ring laser passively mode-locked by nonlinear polarization rotation

This paper reports the periodic power variation of the pulse-train in a passively mode-locked soliton fiber ring laser. It can obtain either the uniform or nonuniform pulse-train output by simply rotating the polarization controllers. The experimental results show that the pulse-train nonuniformity is caused by the interaction between the nonuniform polarization states of the soliton pulses and the passive polarizer in the cavity.     

Periodic intensity variations on the pulse-train of a passively mode-locked fiber ring laser

We investigate the evolvement of the periodic intensity variations of the pulse-train in a fiber ring laser mode-locked by the nonlinear polarization rotation technique. It is found that the phenomenon of such intensity fluctuations is related to the orientation of the polarization controllers when the pump power is fixed. The numerical results show that the mechanism of the periodic intensity variations is caused by the interaction of the nonlinear polarization rotation and the passive polarizer in the cavity.     

Pulsewidth and interpulse jitter measurements of a passively mode-locked ring CW dye laser

Pulsewidth and jitter measurements have been carried out on a passively mode-locked Rhodamine 6G CW ring dye laser using the SHG autocorrelation technique and a synchroscan streak camera respectively. The pulse durations were measured to be ≈0.18 ps and the cumulative long-term jitter was deduced to be subpicosecond.     

Transition state to mode locking in a passively mode-locked erbium-doped fibre ring laser

The transition state between the continuous wave region and the mode-locked region in a passively mode-locked erbium-doped fibre ring laser has been experimentally observed by utilizing the nonlinear polarization rotation technique.When the pump power reaches the mode-locked threshold,the metastable pulse train with a tunable repetition rate is obtained in the transition from the continuous wave state to the passive mode-locked state via proper adjustment of the polarization controller.A simple model has been established to explain the experimental observation.     

Soliton shaping of dispersive waves in a passively mode-locked fibre soliton ring laser

We have studied the mechanism of soliton formation in a passively mode-locked fibre ring laser when the gain is increased. We show experimentally that new soliton pulses in the laser are generated by soliton shaping of dispersive waves. Our observation is further confirmed by numerical simulations where an improved model is used that takes into account explicitly the polarization dispersion effect and discrete saturable absorber effect.     

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.