A Proposal and Demonstration for Photonic Generation of a Microwave Signal by Incorporating a Microring Resonator

A proposal for photonic generation of a microwave signal is presented by employing a dual wavelength erbiumdoped fibre ring laser. In the laser, a microring resonator is cascaded with a tunable bandpass filter to serve as a dual-wavelength selector, an unpumped polarization maintaining erbium-doped fibre is used as a saturable absorber. By replacing the microring resonator with a delay interferometer to verify the proposal, a wavelengthtunable dual wavelength single longitudinal mode laser is demonstrated, and a microwave signal at 10.01 GHz with a linewidth of less than 25 kHz is obtained by beating the two wavelengths at a photodetector.     

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.     

Dual-Wavelength Erbium-Doped Fibre Ring Laser by Cascading Tunable Bandpass Filter with Bandstop Filter

A novel fibre ring laser is proposed and successfully demonstrated. By cascading a tunable bandpass filter with a bandstop filter to construct the desired narrow dual-transmission-peak spectrum, and employing a segment of unpumped erbium-doped fibre as a saturable absorber, a stable fibre ring laser is achieved at room temperature. The proposed laser can operate in dual-wavelength with the wavelength spacing of 0.48 nm and the extinction ratio more than 50 dB or switch between the two wavelengths by adjusting a polarization controller. The stability is investigated experimentally and explained theoretically.     

Photonic crystal fiber with a flattened fundamental mode for the fiber lasers

The 1-hole-missing and 7-hole-missing photonic crystal fibers (PCFs) with flattened fundamental modes (FMs) are proposed by introducing a layer of up-doped silica into the core of the PCFs. The transverse mode competitions are compared between the 7-hole-missing PCF lasers with and without flattened-FMs. The numerical results show that the flattened-FM PCF lasers can support the single transverse mode operation, even for a large value of the ratio of air hole diameter to the spacing between holes (up to 0.53).     

Harmonic Mode-Locked Ytterbium-Doped Fibre Ring Laser

We demonstrate a harmonic mode-locked ytterbium-doped fibre ring laser, which consists of a polarization-sensitive isolator, two polarization controllers, two 976nm laser diodes as the pump source and a two-segment ytterbium-doped fibre. Utilizing an additive pulse mode-locked technique based on nonlinear polarization evolution, the ytterbium-doped fibre laser can operate in mode-locked state by adjusting the position of polarization controllers. The cavity fundamental repetition rate is 23.78 MHz. We also observe the second- and third-harmonic mode locking in the normal dispersion region, and their repetition rates are 47.66 MHz and 71.56 MHz, respectively. Over-driving of the saturable absorber in the harmonic mode-locking pulse is analysed and discussed in detail.     

Photonic crystal fiber for fundamental mode operation of multicore fiber lasers and amplifiers

A mode-selection method based on a single-mode photonic crystal fiber (PCF) in the multicore fiber (MCF) lasers is presented. The designed PCF has a central core region formed by a missing air-hole, and three air-hole rings. With an appropriate choice of the design parameters of the PCF, the power coupling between the fundamental mode (FM) of the PCF and the fundamental MCF mode can be much higher than those between the FM and the other supermodes. As a result, the fundamental MCF mode has the maximum power reflection coefficient on the right-hand side of the MCF laser cavity, and dominates the output laser power. Since the maximum power of the fundamental MCF mode will lead to the desired laser beam profile, higher the fraction of the fundamental MCF mode power contained in the total output power contributes to higher beam quality. The numerical simulations show that the effectiveness of the fundamental MCF mode-selection is higher in the MCF lasers with the PCF as a mode-selection component than in the MCF lasers based on the free-space Talbot cavity method. Additionally, for the MCF amplifiers, an approach is presented to decrease the sensitivity of the amplifier performance to the variation of Gaussian beam waist utilizing the coupling between the Gaussian beam and the FM of the PCF. The numerical results show that this method can effectively increase the design flexibility for a broad range of the Gaussian beam waist.     

New Configuration of Ring Resonator in Photonic Crystal Based on Self-Collimation

We propose a novel ring resonator configuration in a channelless photonic crystal. The proposed ring resonator utilizes the self-collimation effect and the bending and splitting mechanisms of line defects to route the propagation of light, instead of conventional indexed-guided waveguides or photonic crystal band gap waveguides. The finite-difference time-domain method (FDTD) is used to investigate the characteristics of the ring resonator. The new design exhibits an ON--OFF contrast with an extinction ratio of more than 12dB, and has an ultra-compact footprint of 3.3×3.3μm² when it operates at the optical communication wavelength λ=1.55μm. The design presented may find applications in the areas including ultra-compact optical switch and wavelength filer in integrated optical circuits.     

Modeling and optimizing of low-repetition-rate high-energy pulse amplification in high-concentration erbium-doped fiber amplifiers

Starting from the modeling of isolated ions and ion-pairs, a closed form rate and power evolution equations for pulse amplification in high-concentration erbium-doped fiber amplifiers (EDFAs) are constructed. According to the equations, the effects of ion-pairs on the performance of a high-concentration EDFA in steady state including upper-state population, ASE powers without input signal are analyzed numerically. Furthermore, the effects of ion-pairs on the dynamic characteristics of low-repetition-rate pulse amplification in the EDFA including the storied energy, output pulse energy and evolution of pulse waveform distortion are systematically studied by using the finite-difference method. The results show that the presence of the ion-pairs deteriorates amplifier performance, such as the upper-state population, ASE power, storied energy, output pulse energy, and saturated gain, etc. For the high-concentration EDFA, the optimum fiber length should be modified to achieve a better performance. The relations between the evolution of pulse waveform distortion or output pulse energy and the input pulse peak power are also discussed. The results can provide important guide for the design and optimization of the low-repetition-rate pulse amplification in high-concentration EDFAs.     

Coherent Beam Combining of Three Watt-Level Fiber Amplifiers Using a DSP-Based Stochastic Parallel Gradient Descent Algorithm

We present an experimental study on coherent beam combining of three watt-level fiber amplifiers using a stochas- tic parallel gradient descent （SPGD） algorithm. Phase controlling is performed by running the SPGD algorithm on a digital-signal-processor （DSP） chip with a voltage updating rate of 16500 times per second. Energy encircled in the target pinhole is 2.62 times more than that in an open loop. The combining efficiency is as high as 87%.     

Mode competition in multi-core fiber amplifier

3D beam propagation numerical code and a newly developed optical mode solver were implemented for studies on the recently experimentally realized Yb fiber amplifier with 7-core hexagonal structure. It was found that the launched seven single-frequency beams matched with the cores converge to a wave field with permanently diminishing space beating patterns, but the result is sensitive to phases of separate beams. Namely, at a spread of phases of individual beams within a few tenths of radian, the convergence of the wave field to the in-phase mode is observed, while at phases random spread on the order of π the out-of-phase mode is dominating. Such behavior is observed at strong gain saturation in the cores. Both effects take place even if the guiding index of the cores fluctuates within a limited range. The mode solver predicts that the in-phase mode has the minimal small signal gain, and the gain of the out-of-phase mode is maximal one. This fact proves that there is no strict correlation between modal gains and amplification in strong saturated multi-core fiber. The smaller core index step significantly improves the convergence of the amplified radiation to the in-phase mode. An approach to the waveguide structure tailoring is described which assures the single in-phase mode stability.     

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.     

Broadly Tunable SOA-Based Active Mode-Locked Fibre Ring aser by Forward Injection Optical Pulse

We present a broadly tunable active mode-locked fibre ring laser based on a semiconductor optical amplifier （SOA）, with forward injection optical pulses. The laser can generate pulse sequence with pulsewidth about 12ps and high output power up to 8.56 dBm at 2.5 GHz stably. Incorporated with a wavelength-tunable optical bandpass filter, the pulse laser can operate with a broad wavelength tunable span up to 37nm with almost constant pulsewidth. A detailed experimental analysis is also carried out to investigate the relationship between the power of the internal cavity and the pulsewidth of the output pulse sequence. The experimental configuration of the pulse laser is very simple and easy to setup with no polarization-sensitive components.     

A Continuously Tunable Erbium-Doped Fibre Laser Using Tunable Fibre Bragg Gratings and Optical Circulator

A continuously tunable erbium-doped fibre laser （TEDFL） based on tunable fibre Bragger grating （TFBG） and a three-port optical circulator （OC） is proposed and demonstrated. The OC acts as a 100%-reflective mirror. A strain-induced uniform fibre Bragger grating （FBG） which functions as a partial-reflecting mirror is implemented in the linear cavity. By applying axial strain onto the TFBG, a continuously tunable lazing output can be realized. The wavelength tuning range covers approximately 7.00nm in C band （from 1543.6161 to 1550.3307nm）. The side mode suppression ratio （SMSR） is better than 50 dB, and the 3 dB bandwidth of the laser is less than 0.01 nm. Moreover, an array waveguide grating （AWG） is inserted into the cavity for wavelength preselecting, and a 50 km transmission experiment was performed using our TEDFL at a 10 Gb/s modulation rate.     

Generation of a Sub-10fs Laser Pulse by a Ring Oscillator with a High Repetition Rate

A compact femtosecond Ti：sapphire ring oscillator composed of chirped mirrors is designed. By accurately optimizing the intra-cavity dispersion and the mode locking range of the ring configuration, we generate laser pulses as short as 7.7fs with a repetition rate as high as 745 MHz. The spectrum spans from 660nm to 94Ohm and the average output power is 480mW under the cw pump laser of 7.5 W.     

Q-Switched Large-Mode-Area Yb-Doped Fibre Laser Using GaAs as Saturable Absorber

A passive Q-switched large-mode-area Yb-doped fibre laser is demonstrated using a GaAs wafer as the saturable absorber. A high Yb doping concentration double-clad fibre with a core diameter of 30μm and a numerical aperture of 0.07 is used to increase the laser gain volume, permitting greater energy storage and higher output power than conventional fibres. The maximum average output power is 7.2W at 1080nm wavelength, with the shortest pulse duration of 580ns and the highest peak power of 161W when the laser is pumped with a 25W diode laser operating at 976nm. The repetition rate increases with the pump power linearly and the highest repetition rate of 77kHz is obtained in the experiment.     

Realization of an All-Fibre Self-Organization Intra-Cavity Coherent Erbium-Doped Fibre Laser

An intra-cavity coherent coupling Michelson Er-doped fibre （EDF） laser （MCEDFL） is proposed and demonstrated. Characteristics of the MCEDFL are investigated. It is found that the MCEDFL with a polarizer can be coherent combined effectively. By the experiment based on fibre Bragg gratings （FBGs） with different reflectivity, we find that the reflectivity of the FBG play a vital role in improving the performance of the MCEDFL. This outcome adequately shows many favourable features, such as high efficiency, easy operation, and simple all-fibre configuration.     

Directly diode-pumped Colquiriite regenerative amplifiers

The Colquiriite crystals are attractive materials for directly diode-pumped femtosecond oscillators and amplifiers. Cr:LiSAF, Cr:LiSGAF and Cr:LiCAF are for the first time directly compared for their use in regenerative amplifiers both experimentally and theoretically. A maximum pulse energy of 10 μJ was obtained at an absorbed pump power of 1.1 W. A review of the work is given including a Cr:LiSAF seed oscillator, outlining specific needs for seeding.     

Three-Rod Resonator for Krypton Lamp Pumped 1.8 kW Continuous-Wave Nd：YAG Laser

A three-rod series resonator cw Nd:YAG laser suitable for the industrial applications is presented. The symmetrical resonator laser has been developed and is rated at 1820-W output power with beam parameter product 24 mm.mrad. By utilizing the symmetrical resonator design, the characteristic of beam with multi-rod is not obviously decreased compared with that of a single one. The system total electro-optics efficiency of lamp pumped YAG crystal is as high as 4.0%. The main factors, which affect output power and beam quality of high power solid-state laser module, are theoretically analysed.     

A global design of high power Nd-Yb co-doped fiber lasers

A global optimization method - niche hybrid genetic algorithm (NHGA) based on fitness sharing and elite replacement is applied to optimize Nd³⁺-Yb³⁺ co-doped fiber lasers (NYDFLs) for obtaining maximum signal output power. With a objective function and different pumping powers, five critical parameters (the fiber length, L; the proportion of pump power for pumping Nd³⁺, η; Nd³⁺ and Yb³⁺ concentrations, N_Nd and N_Yb and output mirror reflectivity, R_out) of the given NYDFLs are optimized by solving the rate and power propagation equations. Results show that dividing equally the input pump power among 808 nm (Nd³⁺) and 940 nm (Yb³⁺) is not an optimal choice and the pump power of Nd³⁺ ions should be kept around 10-13.78% of the total pump power. Three optimal schemes are obtained by NHGA and the highest slope efficiency of the laser is able to reach 80.1%.     

Line-Width Reduction of a Laser Diode Array Using an External Cavity with Two Feedback Mirrors

A novel Littman-Metcalf external cavity laser diode array with two feedback mirrors is introduced. The linewidth broadening effect caused by smile can be reduced by the novel external cavity. At the drive current of 16A, the line-width is narrowed to 0.1 nm from free-running width of 1.6 nm with output efficiency of 84%.