An optical fiber spool for laser stabilization with reduced acceleration sensitivity to 10~(-12)/g

Environmental vibration causes mechanical deformation in optical fibers, which induces excess frequency noise in fiber-stabilized lasers. In order to solve such a problem, we propose an ultralow acceleration sensitivity fiber spool with symmetrically mounted structure. By numerical analysis with the finite element method, we obtain the optimal geometry parameters of the spool with which the horizontal and vertical acceleration sensitivity can be reduced to 3.25 × 10-12/g and 5.38 × 10-12/g respectively. Moreover, the structure features the insensitivity to the variation of geometry parameters,which will minimize the influence from numerical simulation error and manufacture tolerance.     

Vibration-insensitive reference cavity for an ultra-narrow-linewidth laser

We report a novel mounting of the reference cavity used for stabilization of the clock laser in an optical frequency standard. The cavity axis is oriented horizontally and the cavity is supported in its horizontal symmetry plane on four support points. The positions of the points were optimized by finite-element analysis. A sensitivity to accelerations of 1.5 kHz/(m/s²) in the vertical and 14 kHz/(m/s²) in the horizontal direction was measured, which is a reduction in the vertical sensitivity by two orders of magnitude compared to the usual support from below. PACS 42.60.Da; 46.70.Lk; 42.62.Fi     

激光原型装置光纤前端系统偏振稳定控制技术

 分析了激光原型装置光纤前端系统的偏振特性,针对激光原型装置光纤前端系统窄光谱、短脉冲的特点以及该原型装置对光纤前端系统输出偏振态的要求,提出了一种稳定光纤前端系统输出偏振态的新方法。采用脉冲方式偏置光纤前端系统的幅度调制器,通过光纤偏振稳定装置在线检测幅度调制器泄漏连续激光的偏振态进行自动调整,实现了光纤前端系统偏振态的自动稳偏,解决了波导幅度调制器长时间工作后消光比下降的问题。光纤前端系统长时间工作输出的稳定度达到了2.9％。     

激光稳频中的高灵敏度光谱技术

高灵敏度谱分析技术是激光稳频系统的关键。通过系统的理论分析,结合国内外研究的稳频系统,详尽介绍了导数谱和ＦＭ 光谱激光稳频技术,并对其进行了分析、比较。两者的根本区别在于ＦＭ 光谱技术具有相对较大的调制频率,这是它们在应用中各具特点的根源：ＦＭ 光谱技术具有更高的灵敏度和噪声抑制能力,可以探测到０－００５ ％ 的微小吸收,而导数谱技术对未知的超精细谱线结构具有较好的兼容性。     

基于分布式光纤Bragg光栅传感技术的光缆卷盘静态压力研究

基于对光缆卷盘缆层静态压力分布的理论分析, 建立了光缆缠绕体系中的受力理论模型. 研究表明, 随着缠绕层数的增加, 卷盘各层光缆所受压强先快速增大而后变化平缓. 采用分布式光纤Bragg光栅(FBG)对光缆绕线装置上缆层的静态压力进行了实时传感, 理论上给出了FBG的中心波长偏移量与体系压强的定量关系, 实验上发现各层FBG的中心波长随着光缆卷盘缠绕层数的增加先较快速变化而后趋于平缓, 理论模拟和实验测量结果符合得很好. 该技术解决了光缆绕线过程中无法对缆层所受压力进行实时监测的难题.     

Power-insensitive side locking for laser frequency stabilization

We present a simple modification of the traditional method of locking the laser frequency to the side of an atomic spectral line. We achieve first-order power insensitivity at arbitrary intensity and frequency and in this way eliminate one of the major drawbacks of the traditional method. A similar approach could also be used in locking a laser to a Fabry-Perot cavity.     

Modeling and testing of static pressure within an optical fiber cable spool using distributed fiber Bragg gratings

Based on the force analysis, we establish a theoretical model to study the static pressure distribution of the fiber cable spool for the fiber optic guided missile (FOG-M). Simulations indicate that for each fiber layer in the fiber cable spool, the applied static pressure on it asymptotically converges as the number of fiber layers increases. Using the distributed fiber Bragg grating (FBG) sensing technique, the static pressure of fiber cable layers in the spool on the cable winding device was measured. Experiments show that the Bragg wavelength of FBG in every layer varies very quickly at the beginning and then becomes gently as the subsequent fiber cable was twisted onto the spool layer by layer. Theoretical simulations agree qualitatively with experimental results. This technology provides us a real-time method to monitor the pressure within the fiber cable layer during the cable winding process.     

Seed laser frequency stabilization for Doppler wind lidar

We demonstrate a tunable wavelength-locked seed laser source with high-frequency stability to realize the precise measurements of global atmospheric wind field. An Nd:YAG laser at 1 064 nm is used as the master laser (ML). Its frequency is locked to a confocal Fabry-Perot interferometer by using the Pound-Drever- Hall method, which ensures the peak-to-peak value of its frequency drifts less than 180 kHz over 2 h. Another Nd:YAG laser at 1 064 nm, as the slave laser, is offset-locked to the above ML using optical phase locked loop, retaining virtually the same absolute frequency stability as the ML. The tunable ranges of the frequency differences between two lasers are up to 3 GHz, and the tuning step length was an arbitrary integral multiple of 200 kHz. The researched seed laser source is compact and robust, which can well satisfy the requirement of the Doppler wind lidar.     

A self-setting attenuator for laser pulse energy stabilization

An active optical filter has been developed which when applied to single shot pulsed lasers dramatically improves the pulse to pulse energy reproducibility, essentially eliminating shot to shot fluctuations and day to day drift. The device acts as an intelligent (i.e. self setting) electro optic attenuator, which samples the input laser pulse and applies an appropriate transmission correction to that same laser pulse to give a quasi-constant output energy. The basic insertion loss can be as low as 50%. We present both the design and experimental demonstration of the device.     

Versatile Raman fiber laser for sodium laser guide star

Robust high‐power narrow‐linewidth lasers at 589 nm are required for sodium laser guide star adaptive optics in astronomy. A high‐power 589 nm laser based on Raman fiber amplifier is reported here, which works in both continuous‐wave and pulsed formats. In the continuous‐wave case, the laser produces more than 50 W output. In the pulsed case, the same laser produces square‐shaped pulses with tunable repetition rate (500 Hz to 10 kHz) and duration (1 ms to 30 μs). The peak power is as high as 84 W and remains constant during the tuning. The laser also emits an adjustable sideband at 1.71 GHz away from the main laser frequency for better sodium excitation. The versatility of the laser offers much flexibility in laser guide star application.     

半导体激光器波长稳定系统的反馈效率

反射式体布拉格光栅(VBG)是改善半导体激光器(DL)输出光谱特性的首选器件。对快轴准直透镜(FAC)的非球面方程进行了数值拟合,采用光线追迹的方法建立了DL波长稳定系统反馈效率的计算模型,分析了FAC透镜、反射式VBG的空间位置和旋转角度变化对DL波长稳定系统反馈效率的影响,给出了波长稳定系统中FAC和反射式VBG的装调容差范围。分析结果表明:反射式VBG的空间位置偏差对反馈效率影响不大,但FAC透镜的空间位置和旋转角度偏差、反射式VBG的旋转角度偏差会造成反馈效率的急剧下降。     

Confocal Fabry-Perot interferometer for frequency stabilization of laser

The frequency shift of laser source of Doppler lidar is required in the range of a few megahertzs. To satisfy this demand, a confocal Fabry-Perot (F-P) interferometer was manufactured as the frequency standard for frequency stabilization. After analyzing and contrasting the center frequency shift of confocal Fabry-Perot interferometers that are made of three different types of material with the change of temperature, the zerodur material was selected to fabricate the interferometer, and the cavity mirrors were optically contacted onto the end of spacer. The confocal Fabry-Perot interferometer was situated within a double-walled chamber, and the change of temperature in the chamber was less than 0.01 K. The experimental results indicate that the free spectral range is 500 MHz, the full-width at half maximum is 3.33 MHz, and the finesse is 150.     

半导体激光器波长稳定系统的反馈效率

反射式体布拉格光栅(VBG)是改善半导体激光器(DL)输出光谱特性的首选器件。对快轴准直透镜(FAC)的非球面方程进行了数值拟合,采用光线追迹的方法建立了DL波长稳定系统反馈效率的计算模型,分析了FAC透镜、反射式VBG的空间位置和旋转角度变化对DL波长稳定系统反馈效率的影响,给出了波长稳定系统中FAC和反射式VBG的装调容差范围。分析结果表明：反射式VBG的空间位置偏差对反馈效率影响不大,但FAC透镜的空间位置和旋转角度偏差、反射式VBG的旋转角度偏差会造成反馈效率的急剧下降。     

A digital intensity stabilization system for HeNe laser

A digital intensity stabilization system for HeNe laser is developed. Based on a switching power IC to design laser power supply and a general purpose microcontroller to realize digital PID control, the system constructs a closed loop to stabilize the laser intensity by regulating its discharge current. The laser tube is made of glass ceramics and its integrated structure is steady enough to eliminate intensity fluctuations at high frequency and attenuates all intensity fluctuations, and this makes it easy to tune the control loop. The control loop between discharge current and photodiode voltage eliminates the long-term drifts. The intensity stability of the HeNe laser with this system is 0.014% over 12 h.     

Interferometric, modulation-free laser stabilization

We demonstrate novel modulation-free frequency locking of a diode laser, utilizing a simple Sagnac interferometer to create an error signal from saturated-absorption spectroscopy. The interference condition at the output of the Sagnac is strongly affected by the sharp dispersion feature near an atomic resonance. Slight misalignment of the interferometer and subsequent spatially selective, or tilt, detection allows this phase change to be converted into an error signal. Tilt locking has significant advantages over previously described methods, as it requires only a small number of low-cost optical components and a detector. In addition, the system has the potential to be constructed as a plug-and-play fiber-coupled monolithic device to provide submegahertz stability for lasers in the commercial market.     

Active stabilization of a higher-order mode-locked fiber laser operating at a pulse-repetition rate of 154 GHz

We report stabilization of a higher-order mode-locked Er-fiber laser producing transform-limited 800-fs Gaussian pulses at a repetition rate of 154 GHz against variation of cavity length caused by ambient temperature fluctuation. We obtained an error signal suitable for active control of the cavity length and synchronization to a 38.4-GHz external clock by tailoring the chromatic dispersion of the ring laser cavity and using a feedback circuit based on balanced photodetection. The wavelength and the repetition rate of the stabilized laser could be tuned over ranges of 11 nm and ~100 MHz , respectively.     

Random fiber laser

We investigate the effects of two-dimensional confinement on the lasing properties of a classical random laser system operating in the incoherent feedback (diffusive) regime. A suspension of 250 nm rutile (TiO2) particles in a rhodamine 6G solution was inserted into the hollow core of a photonic crystal fiber generating the first random fiber laser and a novel quasi-one-dimensional random laser geometry. A comparison with similar systems in bulk format shows that the random fiber laser presents an efficiency that is at least 2 orders of magnitude higher.     

Side-pumped fiber laser

A neodymium-doped side-pumped double-clad fiber laser operating at 1.06 µm is described. We report here, what is, to our knowledge, the first exclusively repetitive side-pumping scheme with two monomode laser diodes. Side-pumping has been realized by prism-fiber couplers. A pump-light-loss analysis at the pump positions has been performed. An output power of 13.5 mW is obtained with both diode lasers. The highest slope efficiency of 66% with respect to absorbed pump power at 809 nm is achieved when pumping with only one diode.