Configurations for efficient free space coherent addition of four separate fiber lasers arranged in two dimensional array are presented. They include compact and robust interferometric combiners that can be inserted either inside or outside the cavity of the combined lasers system. The results reveal that over 85% combining efficiency can be obtained.
This paper presents the progress in the fields of the modelling and design of lanthanide ion doped chalcogenide glass fiber lasers. It presents the laser cavity designs that have been developed in order to optimize the performance of lanthanide ion doped chalcogenide glass fiber lasers. Also various numerical algorithms that have been applied for the optimization of chalcogenide glass lasers are reviewed and compared. The comparison shows that a combination of less accurate but more robust algorithms with more accurate ones gives the most promising performance.
The bias-pumped gain-switched fiber laser proposed by us is considered a novel pulsed fiber laser based on a new pulsing mechanism. With a certain signal power seeding, synchronization of temporal evolution can be kept between the output signal laser and the pump. The seed laser can be supplied conveniently by a CW pump power which is named bias pump power. A pulsed pump is responsible for shaping the output pulse. Stable pulsed lasers with tunable durations can be achieved under bias pump combined with pulsed pump. In addition, the temporal shape of output pulses can be controllable based on …
Here a detailed formalism to achieve an analytical solution of a lossy high power Yb-doped silica fiber laser is introduced. The solutions for the lossless fiber laser is initially attained in detail. Next, the solution for the lossy fiber laser is obtained based on the lossless fiber laser solution. To examine the solutions for both lossless and lossy fiber laser two sets of values are compared with the exact numerical solutions and the results are in a good agreement. Furthermore, steps and procedures for achieving the final solutions are explained clearly and precisely.
Fiber lasers operating via Raman gain or based on rare-earth doped active fibers are widely used as sources of CW radiation. However these lasers are only quasi-CW: their intensity fluctuates strongly on short time-scales. Here the framework of the complex Ginzburg-Landau equations, that are well known as an efficient model of mode-locked fiber lasers, is applied for the description of quasi-CW fiber lasers as well. The first ever vector model of a Raman fiber laser describes the experimentally observed turbulent-like intensity dynamics, as well as polarization rogue waves. Our results open de…
We propose an all-fiber mode-locking device which operates based on nonlinear switching in a novel concentric ring core fiber structure. The design is particularly attractive given the ease of fabrication and coupling to other components in a mode-locked fiber laser cavity. The nonlinear switching in this coupler is studied and the relative power transmission is obtained. The analysis shows that this nonlinear switch is practical for mode-locking fiber lasers and is forgiving to fabrication errors.
We demonstrate gain-switched fiber laser with bias pumping plays an important role in regulating chaotic relaxation spikes. Under certain conditions the profile of output pulse from gain-switched fiber laser can keep the same shape as that of pump pulse. Bias pumping technique may have significance in increasing output stable pulse energy in gain-switched fiber laser. Gain-switched fiber laser with bias pumping may be interesting for some applications in micro-processing and thin film removal.
Cylindrical vector beams (CVBs) have a wide range of applications owing to their particular polarization characteristics and optical field distributions. For the first time, an azimuthally polarized fiber laser without any polarization controller is proposed and demonstrated experimentally. The scheme is based on a self-designed ring-core fiber and transverse mode filter (TMF). The ring-core fiber can break the degeneracy of LP11 modes and make the TE01 mode propagate stably in the fiber laser. The TMF, which made from the ring-core fiber by depositing a layer of Aluminum on the cladding surfa…
We report on the writing of chirped volume Bragg gratings using 400 nm femtosecond pulses and the phase-mask inscription technique in the pure silica inner cladding of the gain fiber. The usefulness of such fiber component is demonstrated as a pump reflector in a cladding-pumped all-fiber laser. A reflectivity of 53% for the residual pump power guided in the cladding of the highly multimode 125 microns fiber is achieved, allowing for significant pump recycling in the fiber laser cavity which therefore optimizes the overall laser performances. As proof of concept, adding this pump reflector at …
Dual-wavelength mode-locked fiber laser and wavelength tunable mode-locked fiber laser have emerged as a promising light source. However, there is few reports on generating these two output from just one laser cavity. In this report, we demonstrate a dual-wavelength and wavelength tunable mode-locked fiber laser output from one laser cavity by utilizing short length Lyot filter. The central wavelengths of dual-wavelength mode-locked fiber laser are 1540 nm and 1564 nm and the tunable laser range is about 32 nm. We believe it could provide a simple set-up for generating dual-wavelength and wave…
Phase-locking of large mode area Yb photonic crystal fiber amplifiers via stimulated Brillouin scattering phase conjugation is analyzed. The wavefront reversing mirrors are proposed for chirped pulse fiber laser networks. The chirp control via both nonresonant Kerr and resonant index is considered.
Vector soliton operation of erbium-doped fiber lasers mode locked with atomic layer graphene was experimentally investigated. Either the polarization rotation or polarization locked vector dissipative solitons were experimentally obtained in a dispersion-managed cavity fiber laser with large net cavity dispersion, while in the anomalous dispersion cavity fiber laser, the phase locked NLSE solitons and induced NLSE soliton were experimentally observed. The vector soliton operation of the fiber lasers unambiguously confirms the polarization insensitive saturable absorption of the atomic layer gr…
A novel mode-locked fiber laser based on offset splicing technology between two kinds of graded index multimode fibers is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. The offset splice spot structure acts as a saturable absorber via nonlinear multimodal interference mechanism. The absorption modulation depth of the device is 2.8%, with a saturation intensity of 2.5 MW/cm2. The fiber laser operates at a stable mode-locked state when the pump power reaches 114 mW. The laser oscillates at 1039 nm with a pulsewidth of 17.6 ps, a repetition rate of 32.619 MHz, and a high signal noise ratio of 65 dB. T…
High power fiber lasers operating at the 1.5micron wavelength region have attractive features like eye-safety and atmospheric transparency, and cascaded Raman fiber lasers offer a convenient method to obtain high power sources at these wavelengths. A limitation to power scaling however has been the lower conversion efficiency of these lasers. We recently introduced a high efficiency architecture for high power cascaded Raman fiber lasers applicable for 1.5micron fiber lasers. Here we demonstrate further power scaling using this new architecture. Using numerical simulations we identify the idea…
Recent advances in power scaling of fiber lasers are hindered by the thermal issues, which deteriorate the beam quality. Anti-Stokes fluorescence cooling has been suggested as a viable method to balance the heat generated by the quantum defect and background absorption. Such radiation-balanced configurations rely on the availability of cooling-grade rare-earth-doped gain materials. Herein, we perform a series of tests on a ytterbium-doped ZBLAN optical fiber to extract its laser cooling-related parameters and show that it is a viable laser cooling medium for radiation-balancing. In particular,…
Generally speaking, the self-sweeping effect relies on the dynamical grating formed in a gain fiber. Here, the normal self-sweeping was generated in a pump-free ytterbium-doped fiber which serves as a fiber saturable absorber and is introduced to the laser cavity by a circulator in this experiment. The sweeping rate and the sweeping range alter as usual, both of which can be controlled by the pump power. Further, a new self-pulse signal is observed and discussed in this work, which shows the difference of the self-sweeping effects between active fiber and fiber saturable absorber.
We theoretically and experimentally demonstrate a novel mode-locked ytterbium-doped fiber laser with a saturable absorber based on nonlinear Kerr beam cleanup effect. The saturable absorber was formed by a 2-m graded-index multimode fiber and a single-mode fiber segment served as a diaphragm. With an all-normal-dispersion-fiber configuration, the laser generated dissipative soliton pulses with pulse duration of 26.38 ps and pulse energy more than 0.25 nJ; output pulses could be compressed externally to 615.7 fs. Moreover, the self-starting mode-locking operation of this laser exhibited a high …
Yes, it is possible to phase lock 25 fiber lasers but only for a short time. Our experiments on passively phase locking two-dimensional arrays of coupled fiber lasers reveal that the average phase locking level of 25 lasers is low ($20%-30%$) but can exceed 90% on rare instantaneous events. The average phase locking level was found to decrease for larger number of lasers in the array and increase with the connectivity of the array.
Rare-earth-doped fiber lasers are promising contenders in the development of spectroscopy, free-space communications and countermeasure applications in the 3 - 5 μm spectral region. However, given the limited transparency of the commonly used fluorozirconate glass fiber, these systems have only achieved wavelength coverage up to 3.8 μm, hence fueling the development of more suitable fiber glass compositions. To this extent, we propose in this Letter a novel heavily holmium-doped fluoroindate fiber, providing extended transparency up to 5 μm, to demonstrate the longest wavelength room temperatu…
We present an analytical solution for a radiation balanced fiber laser, in which no net heat is generated during lasing operation due to cooling by anti-Stokes fluorescence. The results are in excellent agreement with the numerical solutions. Using realistic values for fiber laser parameters, the analytical solutions presented are proposed as an economically desirable alternative to time-consuming, direct numerical calculations.
We demonstrate an all-fiber spatiotemporal mode-locked laser based on graded-index multimode fiber. Due to the high damage threshold of graded-index multimode fiber devices, the output single-pulse energy reach up to 11.67 nJ. The beam quality at mode-locked state is significantly improved compared with continuous wave state as a result of the self-cleaning effect. By amplifying the pulse in the multimode fiber amplifier, high power pulses with high beam quality can be obtained in the all-fiber system based on graded-index MMFs.
We demonstrate a monolayer graphene based passively Q-switched fiber laser with three-stage amplifiers that can deliver over 80 W average power at 1064 nm. The highest average power achieved is 84.1 W, with pulse energy of 1.67 mJ. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time for a high power passively Q-switched fiber laser in the 1 um range reported so far. More importantly, the Q-switched fiber laser operates stably during a week few-hours-per-a-day tests, which proves the stability and practical application value of graphene in high power pulsed fiber lasers.
We propose a Watt-level, all-fiber, ultrafast Er/Yb-codoped double-clad fiber laser passively mode-locked by reduced graphene oxide (rGO) interacting with a weak evanescent field of photonic crystal fiber (PCF). The rGO solution is filled into the cladding holes of the PCF based on total reflection, and after evaporation, the rGO flakes bear only 1/107 of the total energy in laser system, which enhances the thermal damage threshold and decreases the accumulated nonlinearity. By incorporating the saturable absorber into an Er/Yb-codoped fiber ring cavity, stable conventional soliton with a dura…
We demonstrate yellow laser emission using silicate glass fiber as the gain medium. By employing core pumping using widely available GaN diode lasers with emission at 445 nm, we show that Dy3+-doped aluminosilicate glass fiber can be readily excited creating sufficient gain at 581 nm. In this proof of concept demonstration, the maximum output power generated was 3 mW with a slope efficiency approximately 1.8% with respect to injected pump.
Soliton operation and soliton wavelength tuning of erbium-doped fiber lasers mode locked with atomic layer graphene was experimentally investigated under various cavity dispersion conditions. It was shown that not only wide range soliton wavelength tuning but also soltion pulse width variation could be obtained in the fiber lasers. Our results show that the graphene mode locked erbium-doped fiber lasers provide a compact, user friendly and low cost wavelength tunable ultrahsort pulse source.
We report a phenomenon of self-sweeping in a bi-directional ring thulium-doped fiber laser, for the first time. The laser is spontaneously sweeping in both directions at a rate up to 0.2 nm/s with 15 nm sweeping range in 1.95 μm wavelength region. The laser output is switchable between two different working modes: periodical spontaneous laser line sweeping with generation of microsecond pulses in time domain; or static central wavelength with amplitude modulated temporally.
We measure the output power of an Er/Yb fiber laser with twelve different SMF-28 narrowband output couplers and demonstrate experimentally that the optimal reflectivity is ~ 1 %. The fiber laser efficiency with the optimal output coupler is ~ 38 %. In addition, we successfully inscribe a similar output coupler in-situ during laser operation with 800 nm femtosecond pulses and the phase mask technique. An output power very close to the optimal was obtained with the in-situ inscribed output coupler.
This paper describes a mode locking technique based on enhanced polarization dependent loss (PDL). The method utilizes a bent single mode fiber (SMF28) coil to induce sufficient PDL at 2 \(μ\)m wavelength region. Significant PDL in SMF28 coils is enabled since the light is much more weakly guided. A passively mode-locked thulium doped all-fiber laser is demonstrated using this simple device with polarization controllers as mode locker. The results indicate a moderate amount of 1 dB is sufficient to initiate and sustain stable mode-locking operation. We believe, to the best of our knowledge, th…
A new configuration for synchronizing two chaotic fiber lasers, which includes both coupling and losses, is presented. Experimental and calculated results reveal that the synchronization time can be significantly shorter than with configuration that have only coupling.
We experimentally demonstrated a high-order optical vortex pulsed laser based on a mode selective all-fiber fused coupler composed of a single-mode fiber (SMF) and a few-mode fiber (FMF). The fused SMF-FMF coupler inserted in the cavity not only acts as mode converter from LP01 mode to LP11 or LP21 modes with a broadband width over 100 nm, but also directly delivers femtosecond vortex pulses out of the mode locked cavity. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report on the generation of high-order pulse vortex beams in mode-locked fiber laser. The generated 140 femtosecond vortex bea…
Fiber fuse effect can occur spontaneously and propagate along optical fibers to cause wide-spread damage; it threatens all applications involving optical fibers. This paper presents two results. First, it establishes that the initiation of fiber fuse (IFF) in silica fibers is caused by defect-induced absorption. Critical temperatures and critical optical powers for IFF are simulated for the first time using a 3D solid-state heat transfer model with heat source generated by defect-induced absorption. In this method, formation energies of the defects can be uniquely determined, which offers crit…
The beam quality factor M^2 for the fundamental LP01 mode of a step-index fiber is calculated in the presence of gain, in a closed form, as a function of the complex generalized V-number. It is shown that the M^2 value of a single-mode gain-guided fiber laser can be arbitrary large. The results are important for the interpretation of the beam quality measurements in recent experiments on single-mode gain-guided fiber lasers.
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 250nm rutile (TiO2) particles in a Rhodamine 6G solution was inserted into the hollow core of a photonic crystal fiber (PCF) generating the first random fiber laser and a novel quasi-one-dimensional RL geometry. Comparison with similar systems in bulk format shows that the random fiber laser presents an efficiency that is at least two orders of magnitude higher.
A compact, strictly all-fiber, picosecond pulse source based on ytterbium (Yb) doped fiber is described. Stable solitary mode-locking is obtained in a fiber-oscillator utilizing a carefully designed chirped fiber-Bragg-grating (C-FBG) for both dispersion control and spectral filtering. Self-starting is assured through the use of a fiber-coupled semiconductor-saturable-absorber-mirror (SESAM). The oscillator's 50MHz 3.8ps pulse-train output at 1064nm wavelength is amplified to 1.2W average power by an Yb doped fiber-amplifier, yielding 6.45ps parabolic pulses. Numerical simulations of the fiber…
A simple, robust, and efficient method to produce either radially or azimuthally polarized output beam from a fiber laser is presented. Experimental results reveal that polarization purity of 90% or better can be obtained.
We demonstrate a high power, all-fiber, tunable laser source that can operate in the L-band region. A low power, tunable input laser is amplified with a recently proposed, high efficiency, 6th order cascaded Raman amplifier. The proposed system is scalable and overcomes the limitations of Erbium and Erbium-Ytterbium co-doped fiber lasers for power scaling. A tunable Erbium-Ytterbium co-doped fiber ring laser generating ~0.5W of power and tunable in the 1560-1590 nm wavelength range is utilized as the seed source. The output from the seed laser is amplified to ~24 W using 6th order cascaded Ram…
Multi-wavelength fiber lasers have emerged as a promising light source for the application in wavelength division multiplexing communication, terahertz wave generation and optical sensing due to high efficiency and robustness. Lyot-filter emerges as a potential device for multi-wavelength generation application. However, because of the high birefringence of polarization maintaining fiber in Lyot-filter, it is difficult to generate broadband dual-wavelength or multi-wavelength mode-locked fiber laser by using common Lyot-filter. In this paper, for the first time, we propose an idea of using the…
Multiphoton microscopy has enabled us to image cellular dynamics in vivo. However, the excitation wavelength for imaging with commercially available lasers is mostly limited between 650-1040 nm. Here we develop a femtosecond fiber laser system that produces $\sim$150 fs pulses at 1.8 $μ$m. Our system starts from an erbium-doped silica fiber laser, and its wavelength is converted to 1.8 $μ$m using a Raman shift fiber. The 1.8 $μ$m pulses are amplified with a two-stage Tm:ZBLAN fiber amplifier. The final pulse energy is $\sim$1 $μ$J, sufficient for in vivo imaging.
We report the first mode-locked fiber laser to operate in the femtosecond regime well beyond 3 μm. The laser uses dual-wavelength pumping and non-linear polarisation rotation to produce 3.5 μm wavelength pulses with minimum duration of 580 fs at a repetition rate of 68 MHz. The pulse energy is 3.2 nJ, corresponding to a peak power of 5.5 kW.
We present a comprehensive theoretical and experimental investigation of a dual-wavelength, bismuth-doped fiber (BDF) laser operating near 1700 nm based on cascaded cavities. The BDF provides optical gain from 1650 nm to 1800 nm when pumped at 1550 nm; the laser cavity is defined by a 90% mirror on one end and two fiber Bragg gratings (FBGs) separated by a length of BDF on the other. The laser can operate at either wavelength alone or both wavelengths simultaneously by simple adjustment of the pump power. Experimental results correlate well simulations based on a theoretical model of the laser…
In this paper we consider mid-infrared Raman lasers based on gas-filled hollow-core silica fibers and provide theoretical and experimental analysis of factors that limit the efficiency and output power of these lasers. As a result, we realized an efficient ns-pulsed 4.42 μm Raman laser based on an 1H2-filled revolver silica fiber. Quantum efficiency as high as 36 % is achieved, and output average power as high as 250 mW is demonstrated. The possibilities of further improving the laser efficiency are discussed.
An ultrafast fiber chirped-pulse amplifier comprising 8 coherently combined amplifier channels is presented. The laser delivers 1 kW average power at 1 mJ pulse energy and 260 fs pulse duration. Excellent beam quality and low noise performance are confirmed. The laser has proven suitable for demanding scientific applications. Further power scaling is possible right away using even more amplifier channels
Parameter regulations of narrow-linewidth fiber lasers in frequency domain has drawn considerable interests for widespread applications in the light quantum computing, precise coherent detection, and generation of micro-waves. All-optical methods provide compact, precise and fast accesses to achieving these lasers with wavelength-tunability. Here, the optical-thermal effects of graphene is utilized to precisely control operations of free-running lasers with a tuning speed of 140 MHz/ms. Assisted by the single-longitude-mode operation and linewidth suppression of stimulated Brillouin backscatte…
A theoretical model for laser cooled continuous-wave fiber amplifier is presented. The amplification process takes place in the Tm3+-doped core of the fluoride ZBLAN (ZrF4-BaF2-LaF3-AlF3-NaF) glass fiber. The cooling process takes place in the Yb3+:ZBLAN fiber cladding. It is shown that for each value of the pump power and the amplified signal there is a distribution of the concentration of the Tm3+ along the length of the fiber amplifier, which provides its athermal operation. The influence of a small deviation in the value of the amplified signal on the temperature of the fiber with the fixe…
We demonstrate a new high efficiency architecture for cascaded Raman fiber lasers based on a single pass cascaded amplifier configuration. Conversion is seeded at all intermediate Stokes wavelengths using a multi-wavelength seed source. A lower power Raman laser based on the conventional cascaded Raman resonator architecture provides a convenient seed source providing all the necessary wavelengths simultaneously. In this work we demonstrate a 1480nm laser pumped by an 1117nm Yb-doped fiber laser with maximum output power of 204W and conversion efficiency of 65% (quantum-limited efficiency is ~…
We investigate the high-frequency timing jitter spectral density of mode-locked fiber lasers in different mode-locked regimes. Quantum noise-limited timing jitter spectra of mode-locked-regime-switchable Yb fiber lasers are measured up to the Nyquist frequency with sub-100 as resolution. The integrated rms timing jitter of soliton, stretched-pulse, and self-similar Yb fiber lasers is measured to be 1.8 fs, 1.1 fs, and 2.9 fs, respectively, when integrated from 10 kHz to 40 MHz. The distinct behavior of jitter spectral density related to pulse formation mechanisms is revealed experimentally for…
We report on our realization of a high power holmium doped fiber laser, together with the validation of our numerical simulation of the laser. We first present the rare absolute measurements of the physical parameters that are mandatory to model accurately the laser-holmium interactions in our silica fiber. We then describe the realization of the clad-pumped laser, based on a triple-clad large mode area holmium (Ho) doped silica fiber. The output signal power is 90 W at 2120 nm, with an efficiency of about 50% with respect to the coupled pump power. This efficiency corresponds to the state of …
We report on the observation of various bound states of dispersion-managed (DM) solitons in a passively mode-locked Erbium-doped fiber ring laser at near zero net cavity group velocity dispersion (GVD). The generated DM solitons are characterized by their Gaussian-like spectral profile with no sidebands, which is distinct from those of the conventional solitons generated in fiber lasers with large net negative cavity GVD, of the parabolic pulses generated in fiber lasers with positive cavity GVD and negligible gain saturation and bandwidth limiting, and of the gain-guided solitons generated in…
We demonstrate self-started mode-locking in an Erbium-doped fiber ring laser by using the nonlinear polarization rotation mode-locking technique but without an isolator in cavity. We show that due to the intrinsic effective nonlinearity discrimination of the mode-locked pulse propagating along different cavity directions, the soliton operation of the laser is always unidirectional, and its features have no difference to that of the unidirectional lasers with an isolator in cavity.
A single longitudinal mode fiber laser with ultra-narrow linewidth based on self-injection feedback by using the linewidth compress mechanism of Rayleigh backscattering (RBS) are proposed and demonstrated. Since the linewidth of RBS is narrower than that of the incident light in optical fibers and they have the same centre wavelength, the RBS can act as a mechanism to compress the linewidth of the incident light in fiber ring laser. In addition, more RBS signal could be collected to help further compress the laser linewidth besides the free spectral range is expanded when the self-injection fe…
We developed a new holmium-doped triple-clad fiber (Ho-3CF), reducing the clad diameter to improve the overlap between pump and doped-core, and the holmium concentration to reduce the influence of ion clustering on the laser efficiency. We illustrate here the performance of this fiber in a laser oscillator configuration. The laser emission is centered at 2.12 $μ$m by a fiber Bragg grating, and the active fiber is pumped in the clad by a 1.94 $μ$m thulium-doped fiber laser. The slope efficiency reaches 73% with respect to absorbed power (60% considering coupled power), for a maximum signal powe…
Here we investigate the use of passive intracavity optical filters for controlling the laser output spectrum of a polarization-mode-locked, ultrafast Ytterbium fiber laser. With strategic placement of the filter cutoff frequency, the overall lasing bandwidth can be increased or extended. Overall laser performance, including pulse compression and intensity noise, is investigated for both shortpass and longpass filters with a range of cutoff frequencies, tuned by rotating the filters. We demonstrate the use of an intracavity filter not only shapes the output spectra, it provides a route for over…
We report on 33 % efficient generation of the first Stokes in a high concentration GeO2 fiber Raman laser pumped by a 22 W Thulium doped fiber laser. An output power of 4.6 W at 2.105 um is demonstrated.
We report on the generation of multiwavelength gain-guided soliton (GGS) in an all normal dispersion birefringent fiber laser passively mode-locked with a semiconductor saturable absorber mirror (SESAM). Determined by the cavity birefringence, we observe the stable single-, dual- and triple- wavelength mode locked GGSs, which is a natural consequence of the mutual nonlinear interaction among the normal cavity dispersion, cavity fiber nonlinear Kerr effect, laser gain saturation and bandwidth limitation resulting from the intra-cavity birefringent filter.
The performance of mid-infrared erbium doped fiber lasers has dramatically improved in the last few years. In this paper we present a numerical model that provides valuable insight into the dynamics of a dual-wavelength pumped fiber laser that can operate on the 3.5 micron and 2.8 micron bands. This model is a much needed tool for optimizing and understanding the performance of these laser systems. Comparisons between simulation and experimental results for three different systems are presented.
Mode-locked fiber lasers are one of the most important sources of ultra-short pulses. However, A unified description for the rich variety of states and the driving forces behind the complex and diverse nonlinear behavior of mode-locked fiber lasers have yet to be developed. Here we present a comprehensive theoretical framework based upon complexity science, thereby offering a fundamentally new way of thinking about the behavior of mode-locked fiber lasers. This hierarchically structured frame work provide a model with and changeable variable dimensionality resulting in a simple and elegant vie…