Propagation of femtosecond pulses in large-mode-area, higher-order-mode fiber

We demonstrate propagation of 14 nJ femtosecond pulses through a large-mode-area, higher-order-mode (HOM) fiber with an effective area of 2100 microm2. The pulses propagate stably in the LP07 mode of the fiber through lengths as long as 12 m. The strongly chirped pulses exiting the amplifier fiber are dechirped by the high-order-mode fiber, resulting in pulses with a peak power of 61 kW after propagation in 5 m of the positive-dispersion fiber. A small amount of self-phase modulation is observed in the compressed pulses and is described well by a nonlinear Schr?dinger equation model that takes into account the measured effective area and dispersion of the HOM fiber.     

Efficient high-power optical pulse compression with logarithmic wing analysis

Compression of high-power pulses of a cw mode-locked Nd: YAG laser is investigated using a short fiber (25 m) and a long fiber (1300 m) with a large mode area. With the short fiber, pulses of 4 ps duration and average output power of 3 W are obtained. The long fiber gives pulses of approximately 1 ps duration with excellent pulse quality. The wings of the optimized pulses are found to rise nearly exponentially over four orders of magnitude.     

Cross-validation of theoretically quantified fiber continuum generation and absolute pulse measurement by MIIPS for a broadband coherently controlled optical source

The predicted spectral phase of a fiber continuum pulsed source rigorously quantified by the scalar generalized nonlinear Schrödinger equation is found to be in excellent agreement with that measured by multiphoton intrapulse interference phase scan (MIIPS) with background subtraction. This cross-validation confirms the absolute pulse measurement by MIIPS and the transform-limited compression of the fiber continuum pulses by the pulse shaper performing the MIIPS measurement, and permits the subsequent coherent control on the fiber continuum pulses by this pulse shaper. The combination of the fiber continuum source with the MIIPS-integrated pulse shaper produces compressed transform-limited 9.6 fs (FWHM) pulses or arbitrarily shaped pulses at a central wavelength of 1020 nm, an average power over 100 mW, and a repetition rate of 76 MHz. In comparison to the 229-fs pump laser pulses that generate the fiber continuum, the compressed pulses reflect a compression ratio of 24.     

Supercontinuum generation in short dispersion-shifted fiber by a femtosecond fiber laser

The supercontinuum generation has been obtained in short conventional dispersion-shifted fiber using the femtosecond pulses from a passively mode-locked erbium-doped fiber laser. In the experiment, the supercontinuum spectrum of >300 nm has been observed by injecting 70-fs pulses into a several-meter dispersion-shifted fiber. The simulation of the evolution in the fiber shows that spectral broadening arises from soliton dynamics when pumping using femtosecond pulses in the anomalous group velocity dispersion regime of the fiber.     

Dispersion-insensitive low-coherent pulses emerging from nonlinear polarization switching

We have experimentally investigated low-repetition nanosecond pulses delivered from an erbium-doped fiber (EDF) laser operating in ultra-large anomalous dispersion regime. The output pulses with rectangular profile and Gaussian spectrum almost keep invariable when they propagate through either normal- or anomalous-dispersion fibers. After nanosecond pulses are amplified via a two-stage EDF amplifier, they are broken up and exhibited as flatly broadened supercontinuum from 1520 to 1700 nm if amplified pulses are launched into a 10-km single-mode fiber, whereas the pulses retain the same duration with a broadband supercontinuum from 1200 to 1750 nm if they are input into a 100-m highly-nonlinear low-dispersion photonic-crystal fiber (PCF). The experimental observations demonstrate that the nanosecond pulses result from nonlinear polarization switching and can be regarded as dispersion-insensitive low-coherent pulses rather than compressible pulses.     

基于耗散孤子种子的啁啾脉冲光纤放大系统输出特性

以不同滤波器带宽下获得的全正色散光纤激光器耗散孤子作为啁啾脉冲放大(CPA)系统的种子脉冲, 研究了光栅对和光纤展宽器CPA系统输出脉冲的可压缩性. 结果表明, 对于大能量耗散孤子种子脉冲, 当CPA系统采用正色散光纤展宽器时, 光纤群速色散与自相位调制之间的相互作用不仅可抑制耗散孤子脉冲光谱调制的影响, 还可使脉冲在光纤展宽器中自相似演化, 从而可提高CPA输出脉冲的可压缩性. 通过优化光纤展宽器长度, 对于耗散孤子种子源, 采用光纤展宽器的CPA系统输出脉冲可压缩性与主脉冲所占脉冲总能量之比均优于采用光栅对展宽器时的情况.     

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.     

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。     

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。     

啁啾高斯脉冲经啁啾光纤光栅反射后的传输特性

在考虑侈阶和高阶色散的情况下,给出了啁啾高斯光脉冲被啁啾光纤光栅反射后在光纤中传输时脉冲展宽的解析析式,。讨论了啁啾光栅脉减压缩和色散补偿中的几个重要问题。以线性啁啾光纤光栅为实例进行了数值计算,发现了脉冲殿宽的对称性质,最后提出一种新颖的可用于估算脉冲受光纤光栅作用后脉宽展宽的简单办法。     

Design of zero dispersive double clad fiber for high efficiency operation of two color light

A double clad solid silica fiber is newly designed for applications which need the high efficiency operation of two colors of light. Ultrashort pulses with a central wavelength of 800?nm are delivered by the core of the double clad fiber which can realize the transmission of the optical pulses with a net chromatic dispersion of zero. This is achieved by integrating the double clad fiber with a pair of long period gratings, which allows optical pulses to propagate in a higher order mode (LP₀₂) in the middle of the fiber as well as in a fundamental mode (LP₀₁) at the beginning and end of the fiber. The index profile of the double clad fiber is engineered so that the higher order mode has high anomalous dispersion that can be used to compensate for normal dispersion of the fundamental mode. By controlling the lengths of the fiber where pulses are in a fundamental and in a higher order modes, the fiber with total zero dispersion can be realized. The double clad fiber can collect 100?% of visible light within the numerical aperture of 0.21 with a loss of the optical pulses less than 1?%. The design of this fiber is essential for applications including fiber-optic nonlinear imaging for compactness, robustness, and low optical power loss in dispersion compensation.     

Generation of 2-nJ pulses from a femtosecond ytterbium fiber laser

We report a mode-locked ytterbium fiber laser that generates femtosecond pulses with energies as large as 2.2 nJ. This represents a 20-fold improvement in pulse energy compared with that of previously reported femtosecond Yb fiber lasers. The laser produces pulses as short as 52 fs, which are to our knowledge the shortest pulses to date from a Yb fiber laser. The laser is diode pumped by a wavelength-division multiplexing coupler, which leads to excellent stability.     

Comparison of supercontinuum generation based on high-energy nanosecond pulses via single-mode and photonic-crystal fibers

We have experimentally investigated the supercontinuum (SC) generation based on high-energy Gaussian-spectrum pulses emitted from an erbium-doped fiber laser with large-anomalous dispersion. The pulses exhibit rectangular shape in temporal domain with the pulse duration of about 16 ns. When the amplified pulses propagate through 10-km single-mode fiber, the SC ranged from 1530 to 1750 nm arises from the stimulated-Raman-scattering effect and the pulses break up due to the modulation instability. Comparatively, when the amplified pulses propagate through a segment of highly-nonlinear zero-dispersion-flattened photonic crystal fiber, super-broad SC beyond the range of 1300–1750 nm is generated due to strong four-wave mixing effect, whereas the pulses almost maintain their shapes.     

全光纤脉冲压缩器的理论及实验研究

对色散位移光纤＋普通单模光纤构成的全光纤脉冲压缩器进行了理论分析，分析了压 缩效果与光纤参数及输入脉冲参数的关系；对不同中心波长和脉宽的主动锁模光纤激光器的 输出脉冲进行了压缩实验，均得到了近变换限Sech的压缩脉冲，实验结果与理论分析一致. 关键词： 全光纤脉冲压缩器 压缩因子 基座能量 主动谐波锁模光纤 激光器     

Supercontinuum generation in a standard fiber pumped by noise-like pulses from a figure-eight fiber laser

We report the experimental study of broadband spectrum generation in a piece of standard fiber (SMF-28) using as the pump a train of noise-like pulses, or sub-nanosecond packets of sub-ps pulses with randomly varying amplitudes. The pulses are generated by an erbium-doped figure-eight fiber laser, and present a wide (∼50 nm) optical spectrum, which represents a significant advantage to seed the generation of new frequencies. Another advantage of the pulses is their relatively large energy, as they are made up of a large number of ultrashort pulses. After amplification with an Erbium Doped Fiber Amplifier (EDFA), the pulses were injected in a 0.75 km length of SMF-28 fiber. We obtained experimentally at the end of the fiber an output signal spectrum extending from 1530 nm to at least 1750 nm (the upper limit of the spectrum analyzer) for pump pulses with an average power of 20.4 mW, corresponding to a few kilowatts peak power. The spectral broadening is due to Raman self-frequency shift (SFS). It is noteworthy that the spectrum of the newly created frequencies was extremely uniform over the range of measurement. Considering that the Raman shift is directly related to the pump pulse duration, spectral flatness is a direct consequence of the random distribution of amplitudes and durations of the pulses in the packet. Finally, the results show the capabilities of noise-like pulses from a fiber laser for applications in supercontinuum generation based on nonlinear phenomena such as Raman SFS.     

非线性色散渐减光纤中高峰值脉冲的激发和传输

本文基于变系数的非线性薛定谔方程,数值地讨论高峰值脉冲在色散渐减光纤中的激发和传输。首先,基于变系数非线性薛定谔方程的Peregrine孤子解,解析和数值地讨论精确的Peregrine孤子在色散渐减光纤中的传输特性。其次,通过输入不同的平面波背景上的局域脉冲,研究高峰值脉冲在非线性色散渐减光纤中的激发和传输。结果显示Peregrine孤子在色散渐减光纤中传输时,会产生一个空间和时间都局域化的高峰值单脉冲,并且当啁啾为负时,脉冲的幅值增加,脉宽被压缩。若光纤系统存在增益,脉冲的幅值也会增加。由于非线性光纤中的调制不稳定性过程,不同平面波背景上的小局部扰动都可激发出高峰值脉冲,除了峰值和宽度略有不同外,激发脉冲的形状几乎相同。     

Kilowatt-peak-power, single-frequency, pulsed fiber laser near 2 μm

We generated single-frequency pulses at kilowatt peak power from an all-fiber Tm-doped master oscillator power amplifier system, which is the first report of this kind (to the best of our knowledge) of a laser in the 2 μm region. Compared with the laser linewidth of seed pulses, spectral broadening by a factor of 3 was observed with the amplified pulses. This was attributed to self-phase modulation in passive pigtail fibers of the components (isolator and wavelength division multiplexing) that were placed after the fiber amplifier. The short pulse width (~7 ns) of the kilowatt-level pulses prevents an onset of stimulated Brillouin scattering in the long fiber. When launching the pulses into several-meter single-mode fiber, significant nonlinear spectral broadening occurs due to modulation instability in the fiber. This reaction is beneficial for generation of a mid- and long-wavelength IR supercontinuum in nonlinear IR fibers.     

飞秒光脉冲光纤放大增益特性的实验研究

报道了掺Ｅｒ＾３＋光纤激光器输出１．５３１μｍ波长飞秒激光脉冲增益放大的实验研究结果,将自起振相加脉冲摹参Ｅｒ＾３＋光纤激光器输出的飞秒激光脉冲注入掺Ｅｒ＾３＋光纤放大器中进行放大,分别采用正向和逆向抽地这的方式,得到了最高放大倍数５５倍（１７．４ｄＢ）和６４倍（１８．１ｄＢ）的增益,对应的最大单脉冲能量（峰值功率）分别为０．３８４ｎＪ（７５２Ｗ）０．４５２ｎＪ（１２９５Ｗ）,脉冲重复率为２０．８     

Femtosecond parabolic pulse nonlinear compression with gas-filled hollow-core fiber

We study theoretically the spectral intensity evolutions of the femtosecond Gaussian and parabolic pulses with different initial pulse energies and compare the nonlinear compressions of these pulses based on a meter-long hollow-core fiber filled with neon for different initial pulse durations. The pulses are first coupled into gas-filled hollow-core fiber for spectrum broadening, then compressed by the optimal chirp compensation. The parabolic pulse possesses a shorter pulse duration, larger peak power, and cleaner wings than Gaussian pulse. The properties are useful for compressing the pulses and thus generating the high-energy, short-duration pulses.     

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.