Optical control of graphene-based photonic devices and systems has been under extensive explorations, nevertheless, the requirement of high power pump laser due to incoherent modulation makes those schemes low efficient. Here, we demonstrate coherent manipulation of the operating states of partially mode-locked fiber laser based on coherent population oscillation in reduced graphene oxide for the first time. We couple a much weaker continuous wave laser into the resonator operating with parametric instability state, and observe significant depression/enhancement of the sidebands when the coherent population oscillation conditions are satisfied. Besides, significant depression of partially mode-locked fiber laser is achieved. The experimental results reveal that the coherent population oscillation in reduced graphene oxide is highly effective in manipulating mode-locked fiber laser system, and the induced phase variation is highly asymmetrical. The discovery of coherent population oscillation in reduced graphene oxide facilitates coherent optical modulation of reduced graphene oxide-based photonic devices and systems with a much weaker controlling laser.
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.
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…
Cross-phase modulation instability (XPMI) is experimentally observed in a fiber ring cavity with net normal dispersion and mode-locked by long fiber taper. The taper is deposited with reduced graphene oxide, which can decrease the threshold of XPMI due to the enhanced nonlinearity realized by 8 mm evanescent field interaction length and strong mode confinement. Experimental results indicate that the phase matching conditions in two polarization directions are different, and sidebands with different intensities are generated. This phase matching condition can be satisfied even the polarization …
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…
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…
We firstly report mode-locked square-wave pulse in Yb-doped fiber laser based on graded index multimode fiber of reverse suturable absorption. By adjusting the pump power, the width of the square-wave can be tuned range from 350 ps to 52.6 ns with 3dB bandwidth spectrum of 0.73 nm. The supermode suppression ratio exceeds ~ 65 dB, which indicates excellent mode-locked operation state, and we also study the characteristic of pulse by the chirp measurement system. The mode-locked square-wave pulse fiber laser can sever as high power light source for industrial applications.
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…
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…
We demonstrate the broadband supercontinuum (SC) generation in photonic crystal fiber (PCF), highly nonlinear fiber (HNLF) and ZBLAN (ZrF4-BaF2-LaF3-AlF3-NaF) fiber with a passively mode-locked erbium-doped fiber laser (EDFL). The passively mode-locked EDFL incorporates a CNT-based saturable absorber and has achieved a pulse width of 620 fs with a pulse repetition rate of 18 MHz. The spectral broadening phenomena inside each fiber has been observed with respect to the variation in seed pulse power. The SC spectrum bandwidth of 1050 nm, 1400 nm, and 2000 nm has been achieved using PCF, HNLF, an…
A bidirectional all polarization maintaining fiber laser as a highly sensitive sensor for rotation is presented. This sensor is based on intracavity phase interferometry with application in inertial sensing, magnetometry, displacements and nonlinear index. The bios beat note of this gyroscopic laser is lowered to 166 KHz implementing a symmetric configuration including two parts of Er-doped fibers.
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…
A bidirectional mode-locked fiber laser producing two correlated frequency combs of the same repetition rate is demonstrated. The intensity dependence of pulse and phase velocities are measured simultaneously. As expected, the phase delay is determined by the linear and nonlinear indices of refraction. The nonlinear Kerr effect contribution to the pulse velocity is dwarfed by a contribution from saturable gain dynamics.
We report a wavelength-tunable Q-switched mode-locked fiber laser based on a compact optical tuning device, which is fabricated by coating single-layer graphene on the surface of micro-fiber Bragg grating (MFBG). Based on thermal-optical effect through evanescent interaction between graphene and MFBG, the center wavelength of MFBG can be accurately controlled by adjusting power of an external laser. By inserting the fabricated device into a compact fiber laser cavity mode-locked by single-wall carbon nanotubes, stable Q-switched mode-locked pulse is generated. Experimental results show that th…
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 experimentally observe soliton self-organization and pulsation in a passively mode-locked fiber laser. The optomechanical interaction in the optical fiber is key to the formation of equidistant soliton bunches. These solitons simultaneously undergo a pulsation process with a period corresponding to tens of the cavity round trip time. Using the dispersive Fourier transformation technique, we find that the Kelly sidebands in the shot-to-shot spectra appear periodically, synchronizing with the pulsation.
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 …
We propose and experimentally demonstrate the generation of pseudo-high-order group velocity locked vector solitons (GVLVS) in a fiber laser using a SESAM as the mode locker. With the help of an external all-fiber polarization resolved system, a GVLVS with a two-humped pulse along one polarization while a single-humped pulse along the orthogonal polarization could be obtained. The phase difference between the two humps is 180 degree.
Vectorial nature of dissipative solitons (DSs) with high repetition rates is studied for the first time in a normal-dispersion fiber laser. Despite the fact that the formed DSs are strongly chirped and the repetition rate is greater than 100 MHz, polarization locked and polarization rotating group velocity locked vector DSs can be formed under 129.3 MHz fundamental mode-locking and 258.6 MHz harmonic mode-locking of the fiber laser, respectively. The two orthogonally polarized components of these vector DSs possess distinctly different central wavelengths and travel together at the same group …
We report on a mid-infrared mode-locked fiber laser that uses an acousto-optic tunable filter to achieve frequency-shifted feedback pulse generation with frequency tuning over a 215 nm range. The laser operates on the 3.5 $μ$m transition in erbium-doped zirconium fluoride-based fiber and utilizes the dual-wavelength pumping scheme. Stable, self-starting mode-locking with a minimum pulse duration of 53 ps was measured using a two-photon absorption autocorrelator. The longest wavelength demonstrated was 3612 nm and a maximum average power of 208 mW was achieved. This is the longest wavelength ra…
In this letter, we investigate a Yb-doped mode-locked fiber oscillator that uses coherent pulse division and recombination to avoid excessive nonlinear phase shifts. The mode-locking mechanism of the laser is based on the accumulation of a differential nonlinear phase between orthogonal polarization modes in the polarization-maintaining fiber segment. The inserted coherent pulse divider, based on YVO4-crystals rotated successively by 45°, enables stable and undistorted mode-locked steady-states. The output pulse energy is increased from 89 pJ in the non-divided operation by ~6.5 dB to more tha…
We demonstrate a wavelength spacing tunable, multiwavelength Q-switched mode-locked fiber laser (QML) based on a fiber taper deposited with graphene oxide. The operation of the laser can be understood in terms of the formation of bunches of QMLs which possess small temporal intervals, and multiwavelength spectra are generated due to the Fourier transformation. We find that the temporal spacing of the QMLs is highly sensitive to the pump power, and as a result, the wavelength spacing can be easily tuned by varying the pump power. Our experimental laser provides a wavelength spacing tuning range…
We report on an environmentally stable, Yb-doped, all-normal dispersion, mode-locked fibre laser that is capable of creating broadband pulses with ultra-low repetition rates. Specifically, through careful positioning of fibre sections in an all-PM-fibre cavity mode-locked with a nonlinear amplifying loop mirror, we achieve stable pulse trains with repetition rates as low as 506 kHz. The pulses have several nanojules of energy and are compressible down to ultrashort (< 500 fs) durations.
Two-dimensional mono-elemental material is an excellent saturable absorber candidate with low saturation intensity, large modulation depth, high nonlinearities, and fast recovery time of excited carriers. Typically, these mono-elemental material with two-dimensional structure possesses tunable bandgap from metallic to semiconducting according to different number of layers. The successful application of these materials as the saturable absorber has exploited the development of mode-locked fiber lasers. Therefore, this review is intended to provide an up-to-date information to the development of…
In this work, we investigate an approach to scale up the output pulse energy in an all polarization-maintaining 17 MHz Yb-doped fiber oscillator via implementation of 25 um core-diameter large-mode-area fibers. The artificial saturable absorber in form of a Kerr-type self-stabilized fiber-interferometer enables highly stable mode-locked steady-states in the soliton-like operation regime with 170 mW average output power and a total output pulse energy of ~10 nJ distributed between two output ports. An experimental parameter comparison with a reference oscillator made of 5.5 um core-sized standa…
We demonstrate a novel approach to achieve wavelength-tunable ultrashort pulses from an all-fiber mode-locked laser with a saturable absorber based on nonlinear Kerr beam clean-up effect. This saturable absorber was formed by a single-mode fiber spliced to a graded-index multimode fiber, and its tunable band-pass filter effect is studied by a numerical model. By adjusting the bending condition of graded-index multimode fiber, the laser could produce dissipative soliton pulses with their central wavelength tunable from1040 nm to 1063 nm. The pulse width of output laser could be compressed exter…
In this work, we investigate the steady-states of a fiber lasers mode-locked with a nonlinear amplifying loop-mirror that has an inherent amplitude noise-suppression mechanism. Due to the interaction of the sinusoidal transmission function with the fluctuating intracavity pulse amplitude we show that this mechanism may lead to a detectable difference in relative intensity noise at the reflected and transmitted output port under specific preconditions. We present systematic intensity noise measurements with a nonlinear fiber-based system that replicates a single roundtrip in the laser cavity. E…
Mid-infrared saturable absorber mirror is successfully fabricated by transferring the mechanically exfoliated black phosphorus onto the gold-coated mirror. With the as-prepared black phosphorus saturable absorber mirror, a continuous-wave passively mode-locked Er:ZBLAN fiber laser is demonstrated at the wavelength of 2.8 um, which delivers a maximum average output power of 613 mW, a repetition rate of 24 MHz and a pulse duration of 42 ps. To the best of our knowledge, it is the first time to demonstrate black phosphorus mode-locked laser at 2.8 um wavelength. Our results demonstrate the feasib…
Soliton explosions are among the most exotic dissipative phenomena studied in mode-locked lasers. In this regime, a dissipative soliton circulating in the laser cavity experiences an abrupt structural collapse, but within a few roundtrips returns to its original quasi-stable state. In this work we report on the first observation of such events in a fiber laser. Specifically, we identify clear explosion signatures in measurements of shot-to-shot spectra of an Yb-doped mode-locked fiber laser that is operating in a transition regime between stable and noise-like emission. The comparatively long,…
We report a passively mode-locked erbium-doped fiber laser with pulsewidths switchable from 473 fs to 76.8 ns, where the fundamental mode-locking, noise-like pulse, nanosecond mode-locking, and dual-width mode-locking are obtained by adjusting a polarization controller. Co-existence of femto- and nano-second pulses in dual-width mode-locking is attributed to the gain balancing. Analytic modeling of the fiber laser with cubic-quintic Ginzburg-Landau equation is presented, in which the pulsewidths are calculated as functions of dispersion, saturable absorption, and self-phase modulation. The gen…
Mode-locked fiber laser technology to date has been limited to sub-3 μm wavelengths, despite significant application-driven demand for compact picosecond and femtosecond pulse sources at longer wavelengths. Erbium- and holmium-doped fluoride fiber lasers incorporating a saturable absorber are emerging as promising pulse sources for 2.7--2.9 μm, yet it remains a major challenge to extend this coverage. Here, we propose a new approach using dysprosium-doped fiber with frequency shifted feedback (FSF). Using a simple linear cavity with an acousto-optic tunable filter, we generate 33 ps pulses wit…
While dissipative soliton operation has successfully improved the pulse energy of 1 μm and 1.5 μm fiber lasers to tens of nanojoules, it is still hard to scale the pulse energy of dissipative solitons at 2 μm due to the anomalous dispersion of the gain fiber. Based on theoretical simulation, we analyze intracavity dynamics of dissipative solitons (DSs) and propose that gain fiber should be condensed to short length in order to scale the pulse energy of 2 μm DSs. The simulation predicts pulse energy of over 10 nJ for 2 μm dissipative solitons, comparable to that achieved in the 1 μm and 1.5 μm …
Physics phenomena of multi-soliton complexes have enriched the life of dissipative solitons in fiber lasers. By developing a birefringence-enhanced fiber laser, we report the first experimental observation of group-velocity-locked vector soliton (GVLVS) molecules. The birefringence-enhanced fiber laser facilitates the generation of GVLVSs, where the two orthogonally polarized components are coupled together to form a multi-soliton complex. Moreover, the interaction of repulsive and attractive forces between multiple pulses binds the particle-like GVLVSs together in time domain to further form …
With the proposal of dual-wavelength pumping (DWP) scheme, DWP Er:ZBLAN fiber lasers at 3.5 um have become a fascinating area of research. However, limited by the absence of suitable saturable absorber, passively Q-switched and mode-locked fiber lasers have not been realized in this spectral region. Based on the layer-dependent bandgap and excellent photoelectric characteristics of black phosphorus (BP), BP is a promising candidate for saturable absorber near 3.5 um. Here, we fabricated a 3.5-um saturable absorber mirror (SAM) by transferring liquid-phase exfoliated BP flakes onto a gold-coate…
We demonstrate ultrashort pulse generation from a fluoride fiber laser co-doped with holmium and praseodymium. To date the majority of work focused on short pulse generation from this class of fiber laser has employed loss modulators in the cavity, both real and artificial. In this work we alternatively employ a frequency shifting element: an acousto-optic modulator (AOM) in the cavity. This results in mode-locked output of sub-5 ps pulses with 10 nJ of energy at a center wavelength of 2.86 μm, and a pulse repetition frequency of 30.1 MHz, equating to a peak power of 1.9 kW. Additional experim…
Dispersive Fourier transform (TS-DFT) technique opens a fascinating pathway to explore the ultrafast non-repetitive even, which has been employed to study the build-up process of mode-locked lasers. Here the whole evolution dynamics (from starting up to shutting down) of conventional soliton (CS), stretched pulse (SP) and dissipative soliton (DS) are investigated by using TS-DFT technique. The relaxation oscillation can be always observed before the formation of stable pulse operation, which is stemmed from the inherent advantage of the single-walled carbon nanotube. However, owing to the diff…
We demonstrate the first multimode fiber interference-based filtering in an all-fiber spatiotemporally mode-locked laser. The oscillator generates dissipative soliton pulses at 1036 nm with 12 mW average power, 6.24 ps duration and 24.3 MHz repetition rate. The reported pulse energy (0.5 nJ) represents ~4 times improvement over the previously reported single-mode all-normal dispersion mode-locked lasers with multimode interference-based filtering. Numerical simulations are performed to reveal cavity and spatiotemporal mode-locking dynamics. The proposed oscillator presents an alternative appro…
By means of the emerging Dispersive Fourier transformation technique, we captured the pulse-resolved spectral evolution dynamics of the double-soliton (DS) states in a single-walled carbon nanotube based Er-doped fiber laser from the initial fluctuations, monitoring the evolution process up to 10 seconds (corresponding to ~260 million roundtrips) discontinuously. Two distinctly different evolutionary types of DS states have been investigated in detail: splitting from one pulse and forming simultaneously. Relaxation oscillations, beating, transient bound state, spectral broadening and pulse int…
We present a theoretical model and its efficient numerical implementation for the simulation of wavelength-swept waveform propagation in fiber systems such as Fourier domain mode-locked (FDML) lasers, fully accounting for the polarization dynamics in fiber spools and further polarization dependent optical components in the setup. This approach enables us to perform long-time simulations of the FDML laser dynamics over more than 100000 cavity roundtrips, as required for some FDML configurations to ensure convergence to the steady state operating regime. The model is validated against experiment…
