Two-dimensional (2D) laser arrays are shown to be achievable at a large scale by exploiting the interplay of higher-order topological insulator (HOTI) physics and the so-called non-Hermitian skin effect (NHSE). The higher-order topology allows for the amplification and hence lasing of a single-mode protected by a band gap; whereas the NHSE, widely known to accumulate population in a biased direction in non-Hermitian systems, is introduced to compete with the topological localization of corner modes. By tuning the system parameters appropriately and pumping at one site only, a single topologically protected lasing mode delocalized across over two dimensions emerges, with its power widely tunable by adjusting the pump strength. Computational studies clearly indicate that the lasing mode thus engineered is stable, and the phase difference between nearest lasing sites is locked at zero, even after the disorder is accounted for. The total power of the lasing mode forming a 2D topological laser array is proportional to the area of the 2D lattice accommodating a HOTI phase. Based on existing experiments, we further propose to use coupled optical ring resonators as a promising platform to realize large-scale 2D laser arrays.
The ability to generate phase-stabilised trains of ultrafast laser pulses by mode-locking underpins photonics research in fields such as precision metrology and spectroscopy. However, the complexity of conventional mode-locked laser systems, combined with the need for a mechanism to induce active or passive phase locking between resonator modes, has hindered their realisation at the nanoscale. Here, we demonstrate that GaAs-AlGaAs nanowire lasers are capable of emitting pairs of phase-locked picosecond laser pulses when subject to non-resonant pulsed optical excitation with a repetition freque…
We demonstrate an easily tunable locking scheme for stabilizing frequency-sum of two lasers on a two-photon ladder transition based on polarization rotation in warm rubidium vapors induced by magnetic field and circularly polarized drive field. Unprecedented tunability of the two-photon offset frequency is due to strong splitting and shifting of magnetic states in external field. In our experimental setup we achieve two-photon detuning of up to 700 MHz.
We demonstrate a technique for locking the frequency of a tunable diode laser to a ring-cavity resonator. The resonator is stabilized to a diode laser which is in turn locked to an atomic transition, thus giving it absolute frequency calibration. The ring-cavity design has the principal advantage that there is no feedback destabilization of the laser. The cavity has a free-spectral range of 1.3 GHz and $Q$ of about 35, which gives robust locking of the laser. The locked laser is able to track large scans of the cavity.
We present detailed numerical simulations of the laser dynamics that describe optical frequency comb formation by injection-locking a gain-switched laser. The typical rate equations for semiconductor lasers including stochastic carrier recombination and spontaneous emission suffice to show the injection-locking behavior of gain switched lasers, and we show how the optical frequency comb evolves starting from the free-running state, right through the final injection- locked state. Unlike the locking of continuous wave lasers, we show that the locking range for gain switched lasers is considerab…
Optical injection locking of integrated ring lasers promises to be a key technology of the future, but it is still lacking experimental verification. In this paper we present two monolithically integrated photonic circuits that experimentally realize Optically injection locking of ring lasers. The presented circuits pave the way for future application in Quantum Key Distribution and coherent communication
Inspired by the idea of non-Hermitian spectral engineering and non-Hermitian skin effect, a novel design for stable emission of coupled laser arrays with tunable phase locking and strong supermode competition suppression is suggested. We consider a linear array of coupled resonators with asymmetric mode coupling displaying the non-Hermitian skin effect and show that, under suitable tailoring of complex frequencies of the two edge resonators, the laser array can stably emit in a single extended supermode with tunable phase locking and with strong suppression of all other skin supermodes. The pr…
In a Ti:Sa laser with an absorbing with Rb vapor cell stable self-starting passive mode-locking is demonstrated. We show that the mode-locking appears due to self-induced transparency (SIT) in the Rb cell, that is, the pulse in the Rb cell is a 2pi SIT pulse. For the best of our knowledge, in these experiments we present the first time demonstration of SIT mode-locking in laser systems, which was discussed only theoretical before.
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 observe experimentally a mode-locking in a continuous narrow-band tunable dye laser with molecular iodine absorber cells, which transitions have large phase relaxation time T2. We show that the mode-locking arises due to coherent interaction of light with the absorbing medium leading to Rabi oscillations, so that zero-area (0π-) pulses in the absorber are formed. Such mode-locking regime is different to most typical passive modelocking mechanisms where saturation plays the main role.
Self-injection locking is a dynamic phenomenon representing stabilization of the emission frequency of an oscillator with a passive cavity enabling frequency filtered coherent feedback to the oscillator cavity. For instance, self-injection locking of a semiconductor laser to a high-quality-factor (high-Q) whispering gallery mode (WGM) microresonator can result in multiple orders of magnitude reduction of the laser linewidth. The phenomenon was broadly studied in experiments, but its detailed theoretical model allowing improving the stabilization performance does not exist. In this paper we dev…
We review the conventional phase-locking technique in the long-term stabilization of the mode-locked fiber laser and investigate the phase noise limitation of the conventional technique. To break the limitation, we propose an improved phase-locking technique with an optic-microwave phase detector in achieving the ultra-low phase noise and phase drift. The mechanism and the theoretical model of the novel phase-locking technique are also discussed. The long-term stabilization experiments demonstrate that the improved technique can achieve the long-term stabilization for the MLFL with ultra-low p…
We have demonstrated a frequency-stabilized tunable 318.6 nm ultraviolet (UV) laser system for the single-photon 6S1/2 - nP (n = 70 ~ 100) Rydberg excitation of cesium atoms. The 637.2 nm laser produced by single-pass sum frequency generation from two infrared fiber lasers is offset locked to a high-finesse ultra-low expansion (ULE) optical cavity placed in ultra-high vacuum using the electronic sideband locking technique. The generated 318.6 nm UV laser via cavity-enhanced second-harmonic generation can be continuously tuned over 4 GHz by indirectly changing modulation frequency on the electr…
We present what is to our knowledge the most complete 1-D numerical analysis of the evolution and the propagation dynamics of an ultrashort laser pulse in a Ti:Sapphire laser oscillator. This study confirms the dispersion managed model of mode-locking, and emphasizes the role of the Kerr nonlinearity in generating mode-locked spectra with a smooth and well-behaved spectral phase. A very good agreement with preliminary experimental measurements is found.
Higher repetition-rate optical pulse trains have been desired for various applications such as high-bit-rate optical communication, photonic analogue-to-digital conversion, and multi- photon imaging. Generation of multi GHz and higher repetition-rate optical pulse trains directly from mode-locked oscillators is often challenging. As an alternative, harmonic injection locking can be applied for extra-cavity repetition-rate multiplication (RRM). Here we have investigated the operation conditions and achievable performances of all-fibre, highly tunable harmonic injection locking-based pulse RRM. …
A unique approach for steady in-phase locking of lasers in an array, regardless of the array geometry, position, orientation, period or size, is presented. The approach relies on the insertion of an intra-cavity Gaussian aperture in the far-field plane of the laser array. Steady in-phase locking of $90$ lasers, whose far-field patterns are comprised of sharp spots with extremely high power density, was obtained for various array geometries, even in the presence of near-degenerate solutions, geometric frustration or superimposed independent longitudinal modes. The internal phase structures of t…
We experimentally observed self-injection locking regime of the gain-switched laser to high-Q optical microresonator. We revealed that comb generated by the gain-switched laser experiences a dramatic reduce of comb teeth linewidths in this regime. We demonstrated the Lorentzian linewidth of the comb teeth of sub-kHz scale as narrow as for non-switched self-injection locked laser. Such setup allows generation of high-contrast electrically-tunable optical frequency combs with tunable comb line spacing in a wide range from 10 kHz up to 10 GHz. The characteristics of the generated combs were studi…
Saturable absorbers are a key component for mode-locking femtosecond lasers. Polymer films containing graphene flakes have recently been used in transmission as laser mode-lockers, but suffer from high nonsaturable loss, limiting their application in low-gain lasers. Here we present a saturable absorber mirror based on a film of pure graphene flakes. The device is used to mode lock an erbium-doped fiber laser, generating pulses with state-of-the-art, sub-200-fs duration. The laser characteristic indicate that the film exhibits low nonsaturable loss (13% per pass) and large absorption modulatio…
We study optical cavity locking for laser stabilization through spatial modulation of the phase front of a light beam. A theoretical description of the underlying principle is developed for this method and special attention is paid to residual amplitude modulation (RAM) caused by experimental imperfections, especially the manufacture errors of the spatial phase modulator. The studied locking method owns the common advantages of the Pound-Drever-Hall method and the tilt-locking one, and it can provide a more artful way to eliminate RAM noise in phase modulation for the ultimate stability of las…
Ultrastable lasers form the back bone of precision measurements in science and technology. Such lasers attain their stability through frequency locking to reference cavities. State-of-the-art locking performances to date had been achieved using frequency-modulation based methods, complemented with active drift cancellation systems. We demonstrate an all passive, modulation-free laser-cavity locking technique (squash locking) that utilizes changes in beam ellipticity for error signal generation, and a coherent polarization post-selection for noise resilience. By comparing two identically built …
We have used injection locking to multiply the repetition rate of a passively mode-locked femtosecond fiber laser from 40 MHz to 1 GHz while preserving optical phase coherence between the master laser and the slave output. The system is implemented almost completely in fiber and incorporates gain and passive saturable absorption. The slave repetition rate is set to a rational harmonic of the master repetition rate, inducing pulse formation at the least common multiple of the master and slave repetition rates.
We report on the dependence of the frequency-to-intensity noise conversion in the locking of an ultrafast laser against a high-finesse optical resonator from the Carrier Envelope Offset (CEO) frequency. By a proper combination of the cavity finesse and laser CEO frequency it is possible to optimize the signal-to-noise ratio of the laser intensity trapped into the optical resonator. The theoretical description of the problem together with the numerical simulations and experimental results are presented with the aim of a strong suppression of the intensity fluctuations of the trapped laser field…
We demonstrate passive harmonic mode-locking of a quantum well laser diode designed to support a discrete comb of Fabry-Perot modes. Spectral filtering of the mode spectrum was achieved using a non-periodic patterning of the cavity effective index. By selecting six modes spaced at twice the fundamental mode spacing, near-transform limited pulsed output with 2 ps pulse duration was obtained at a repetition rate of 100 GHz.
The discovery of the spontaneous mode-locking of lasers, i.e., the synchronous oscillation of electromagnetic modes in a cavity, has been a milestone of photonics allowing the realization of oscillators delivering ultra-short pulses. This process is so far known to occur only in standard ordered lasers with meter size length and only in the presence of a specific device (the saturable absorber). Here we demonstrate that mode-locking can spontaneously arise also in random lasers composed by micronsized laser resonances dwelling in intrinsically disordered, self-assembled clusters of nanometer-s…
We report on a narrow linewidth laser diode system that is stabilized using both optical and electronic feedback to a spectral hole in cryogenic Tm:YAG. The laser system exhibits very low phase noise. The spectrum of the beat signal between two lasers, over millisecond timescales, is either Fourier limited or limited by the -111dBc/Hz noise floor. The resulting laser is well suited to quantum optics and sensing applications involving rare earth ion dopants.
We experimentally demonstrate thermo-optic locking of a semiconductor laser to an integrated toroidal optical microresonator. The lock is maintained for time periods exceeding twelve hours, without requiring any electronic control systems. Fast control is achieved by optical feedback induced by scattering centers within the microresonator, with thermal locking due to optical heating maintaining constructive interference between the cavity and the laser. Furthermore, the optical feedback acts to narrow the laser linewidth, with ultra high quality microtoroid resonances offering the potential fo…
Self-injection locking of a diode laser to a high-quality-factor microresonator is widely used for frequency stabilization and linewidth narrowing. We constructed several microresonator-based laser sources with measured instantaneous linewidths of 1 Hz and used them for investigation and implementation of the self-injection locking effect. We studied analytically and experimentally the dependence of the stabilization coefficient on tunable parameters such as locking phase and coupling rate. It was shown that precise control of the locking phase allows fine tuning of the generated frequency fro…
Integrated modelocked lasers with high power are of utmost importance for next generation optical systems that can be field-deployable and mass produced. Here we study fully integrated modelocked laser designs that have the potential to generate ultrashort, high power, and high quality pulses. We explore a large mode area laser for high power pulse generation and study the various mode-locking regimes of dispersion managed soliton pulses in net anomalous and net normal dispersion cavities. Furthermore, we study numerically and experimentally general properties and tunability of a fast integrat…
We stabilized the frequencies of two independent Nd:YAG lasers to two adjacent longitudinal modes of a high-finesse Fabry-Pérot resonator and obtained a beat frequency instability of 6.3 mHz at an integration time of 40 s. Referred to a single laser, this is $1.6\times10^{-17}$ relative to the laser frequency, and $1.3\times10^{-6}$ relative to the full width at half maximum of the cavity resonance. The amplitude spectrum of the beat signal had a FWHM of 7.8 mHz. This stable frequency locking is of importance for next-generation optical clock interrogation lasers and fundamental physics tests.
We show, both experimentally and theoretically, that a slave laser injected with an optical frequency comb can undergo two distinct locking mechanisms, both of which decrease the output optical comb's frequency spacing. We report that, for certain detuning and relative injection strengths, slave laser relaxation oscillations can become undamped and lock to rational frequencies of the optical comb spacing, creating extra comb tones by nonlinear dynamics of the injected laser. We also study the frequency locking of the slave laser in between the injected comb lines, which add the slave laser's f…
It is shown that that the Volume free electron laser is a self-phase-locking system. Equations are derived that describe both the phase-locking process and the dependence of generation on the times of bunches' entering into the VFEL resonator in the superradiation regime and for long pulses. The derived equations are applicable to the description of the stated processes in gratings formed by relativistic BWOs.
We report on the phase-locking of two diode lasers based on self-seeded tapered amplifiers. In these lasers, a reduction of linewidth is achieved using narrow-band high-transmission interference filters for frequency selection. The lasers combine a compact design with a Lorentzian linewidth below 200 kHz at an output power of 300 mW. We characterize the phase noise of the phase-locked laser system and study its potential for coherent beam-splitting in atom interferometers.
Injection locking is a well known and commonly used method for coherent light amplification. Usually injection locking is done with a single-frequency seeding beam. In this work we show that injection locking may also be achieved in the case of multi-frequency seeding beam when slave laser provides sufficient frequency filtering. One relevant parameter turns out to be the frequency detuning between the free running slave laser and each injected frequency component. Stable selective locking to a set of three components separated of $1.2\,$GHz is obtained for (positive) detuning values between z…
The stabilization and manipulation of laser frequency by means of an external cavity are nearly ubiquitously used in fundamental research and laser applications. While most of the laser light transmits through the cavity, in the presence of some back-scattered light from the cavity to the laser, the self-injection locking effect can take place, which locks the laser emission frequency to the cavity mode of similar frequency. The self-injection locking leads to dramatic reduction of laser linewidth and noise. Using this approach, a common semiconductor laser locked to an ultrahigh-$Q$ microreso…
Self-injection locking to a high-quality-factor microresonator is a key component of various up-to-date photonic applications, including compact narrow-linewidth lasers and microcomb sources. For optimal construction of such devices it is necessary to know the parameters of the locking mode, which is a challenging task. We developed and verified experimentally an original technique based on the fundamentals of the self-injection locking effect, which allows determining the key parameters of the mode of the microresonator (quality factor, vertical index) as well as laser diode parameters. We de…
We study the injection locking bistability of a specially engineered two-color semiconductor Fabry-Perot laser. Oscillation in the uninjected primary mode leads to a bistability of single mode and two-color equilibria. With pulsed modulation of the injected power we demonstrate an all-optical memory element based on this bistability, where the uninjected primary mode is switched with 35 dB intensity contrast. Using experimental and theoretical analysis, we describe the associated bifurcation structure, which is not found in single mode systems with optical injection.
An arrangement based on a degenerate cavity laser for forming an array of non-linearly coupled lasers with an intra-cavity saturable absorber is presented. More than $30$ lasers were spatially phase locked and temporally Q-switched. The arrangement with nonlinear coupling was found to be $25$ times more sensitive to loss differences and converged $5$ times faster to the lowest loss phase locked state than with linear coupling, thus providing a unique solution to problems that have several near-degenerate solutions.
It is believed that passive mode locking is virtually impossible in quantum cascade lasers (QCLs) because of too fast carrier relaxation time. Here, we revisit this possibility and theoretically show that stable mode locking and pulse durations in the few cycle regime at terahertz (THz) frequencies are possible in suitably engineered bound-to-continuum QCLs. We achieve this by utilizing a multi-section cavity geometry with alternating gain and absorber sections. The critical ingredients are the very strong coupling of the absorber to both field and environment as well as a fast absorber carrie…
We report a novel optical pulse generation method for high-speed wavelength switching of amplified nanosecond (ns) laser pulses resonant to atomic transitions.Under free-running condition, a slave laser diode is blue-detuned with tens of GHz relative to the master laser. A ns pulse chain generated by modulating the continuous-wave master laser with a fiber-pigtailed electro-optical intensity modulator is injected into the slave laser diode to fast switch the slave laser's wavelength back and forth. The output beam of slave laser is filtered by a temperature-controlled etalon to get the amplifi…
Stable ultrashort light pulses and frequency combs generated by mode-locked lasers have many important applications including high-resolution spectroscopy, fast chemical detection and identification, studies of ultrafast processes, and laser metrology. While compact mode-locked lasers emitting in the visible and near infrared range have revolutionized photonic technologies, the systems operating in the mid-infrared range where most gases have their strong absorption lines, are bulky and expensive and rely on nonlinear frequency down-conversion. Quantum cascade lasers are the most powerful and …
The generation of stable short optical pulses in mode-locked lasers is of tremendous importance for many applications. Mode-locking is a broad concept that encompasses different processes enabling short pulse formation. It typically requires an intracavity mechanism that discriminates between single and collective mode lasing, which can be complex and sometimes adds noise. Moreover, known mode-locking schemes do not guarantee phase stability of the carrier wave. Here we theoretically propose that injecting a detuned signal seamlessly leads to mode-locking in fiber lasers. We show that phase-lo…
The two-frequency problem of synchronization of the pulse train of a passively mode locked soliton laser to an externally injected pulse train is solved in the weak injection regime. The source and target frequency combs are distinguished by the spacing and offset frequency mismatches. Locking diagrams map the domain in the mismatch parameter space where stable locking of the combs is possible. We analyze the dependence of the locking behavior on the relative frequency and chirp of the source and target pulses, and the conditions where the relative offset frequency has to be actively stabilize…
We report on large energy pulse generation in an erbium-doped fiber laser passively mode-locked with atomic layer graphene. Stable mode locked pulses with single pulse energy up to 7.3 nJ and pulse width of 415 fs have been directly generated from the laser. Our results show that atomic layer graphene could be a promising saturable absorber for large energy mode locking.
We developed a high-power laser system at a wavelength of 399 nm for laser cooling of ytterbium atoms with ultraviolet laser diodes. The system is composed of an external cavity laser diode providing frequency stabilized output at a power of 40 mW and another laser diode for amplifying the laser power up to 220 mW by injection locking. The systematic method for optimization of our injection locking can also be applied to high power light sources at any other wavelengths. Our system, which does not depend on complex nonlinear frequency-doubling, has great importance for implementing transportab…
Dissipative nonlinear wave dynamics have been investigated extensively in mode-locked lasers with single transverse-mode, whereas there are few studies related to three-dimensional nonlinear dynamics within lasers. Recently, spatiotemporal mode-locking (STML) was proposed in lasers with small modal (i.e., transverse-mode) dispersion, which has been considered to be critical for achieving STML in those cavities because the small dispersion can be easily balanced. Here, we demonstrate that STML can also be achieved in multimode lasers with much larger modal dispersion, where we find that the int…
We present the detailed characterization of the phase dynamics of a telecom hybrid III-V-on-silicon passively mode-locked laser with a ring cavity. We explore the various regimes of operation as a function of gain current and saturable absorber bias voltage. We use a stepped-heterodyne measurement to quantify the spectral chirp and reconstruct the pulse envelop. With this technique we are able to identify regimes of near-transform-limited operation and we assess the degradation of mode-locking in the comb phase relationship when saturable absorber bias voltage is changed. Finally, we present a…
Detailed experimental and theoretical investigations on two coupled fiber lasers, each with many longitudinal modes, reveal that the behavior of the longitudinal modes depends on both the coupling strength as well as the detuning between them. For low to moderate coupling strength only longitudinal modes which are common for both lasers phase-lock while those that are not common gradually disappear. For larger coupling strengths, the longitudinal modes that are not common reappear and phase-lock. When the coupling strength approaches unity the coupled lasers behave as a single long cavity with…
We report on phase-locking of two continuous wave infrared laser sources separated by 100 THz emitting around 1029 nm and 1544 nm respectively. Our approach uses three independent harmonic generation processes of the IR laser frequencies in periodically poled MgO: LiNbO3 crystals to generate second and third harmonic of that two IR sources. The beat note between the two independent green radiations generated around 515 nm is used to phase-lock one IR laser to the other, with tunable radio frequency offset. In this way, the whole setup operates as a mini frequency comb (MFC) emitting four inten…
Spontaneous transverse mode locking to generate optical vortex arrays is already widely studied for the frequency degenerated transverse modes. While, the mode locking between transverse modes in different orders (non-frequency degenerated families) to achieve spatial stationary beam patterns is rarely reported. The theory of transverse mode locking is discussed. Concepts of general transverse mode locking (G-TML) and restricted transverse mode locking (R-TML) are mentioned. It's experimentally shown that R-TML is possible in microchip cavities with high nonlinearity. More interestingly, some …
A microscopic study of mode-locked pulse generation is presented for vertical external-cavity surface-emitting lasers utilizing type-II quantum well configurations. The coupled Maxwell semiconductor Bloch equations are solved numerically where the type-II carrier replenishment is modeled via suitably chosen reservoirs. Conditions for stable mode-locked pulses are identified allowing for pulses in the \unit[100]{fs} range. Design strategies for type-II configurations are proposed that avoid potentially unstable pulse dynamics.
In this work, we describe an updated version of single arm locking, and the noise amplification due to the nulls can be flexibly restricted with the help of optical frequency comb. We show that, the laser phase noise can be divided by a specific factor with optical frequency comb as the bridge. The analytical results indicate that, the peaks in the science band have been greatly reduced. The performance of the noise suppression shows that the total noise after arm locking can well satisfy the requirement of time delay interferometry, even with the free-running laser source. We also estimate th…
We present a novel technique to phase-lock two lasers with controllable frequency difference. In our setup, one sideband of a current modulated Vertical-Cavity Surface-Emitting Laser (VCSEL) is phase locked to the master laser by injection seeding, while another sideband of the VCSEL is used to phase lock the slave laser. The slave laser is therefore locked in phase with the master laser, with a frequency difference tunable up to about 35 GHz. The sideband suppression rate of the slave laser is more than 30dB at 30 uW seed power. The heterodyne spectrum between master and slave has a linewidth…
We have demonstrated the laser frequency offset locking via the Rb tripod-type double dark resonances electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) system. The influence of coupling fields power and detuning on the tripod-type EIT profile is detailed studied. In a wide coupling fields detuning range, the narrower EIT dip has an ultranarrow linewidth of 590 KHz, which is about one order narrower than the natural linewidth of Rb. Without the additional frequency stabilization of the coupling lasers, we achieve the relative frequency fluctuation of 60 KHz in a long time of ~2000s, which is narro…
In this paper, we present an experimental study of the metrological stabilization of a solid-state frequency comb for embedded metrology applications. The comb is a passively mode-locked laser diode based on InGaAs/InP Quantum-dash structure emitting optical lines into a 9 nm bandwidth centered at 1.55 $μ$m with a repetition rate of 10.09 GHz. The frequency stabilization is achieved by optical injection locking of the comb with an external cavity laser diode referenced onto a metrological frequency standard. One observes the transfer of the spectral purity from the injection laser to the neigh…
The theoretical calculation for nonlinear refractive index in Cr: ZnSe - active medium predicts the strong defocusing cascaded second-order nonlinearity within 2000 - 3000 nm spectral range. On the basis of this result the optimal cavity configuration for Kerr-lens mode locking is proposed that allows to achieve a sub-100 fs pulse duration. The numerical simulations testify about strong destabilizing processes in the laser resulting from a strong self-phase modulation. The stabilization of the ultrashort pulse generation is possible due to spectral filtering that increases the pulse duration u…
