Wavelength tunable high power lasers are desired for many applications, such as spectroscopy, sensing and nonlinear
optics, etc. A tunable Yb3+-doped photonic crystal fiber laser based on a blazed grating in Littrow configuration is
demonstrated. The active fiber used in the experiment is a double-clad Yb3+-doped PCF which contains an Yb3+-doped
core of 23 μm in diameter and a holy inner clad of 420 μm in diameter. The laser resonator is composed of a dichroic
reflective mirror and a blazed grating which is set in Littrow configuration. To reduce reflection the fiber end near to the
grating is polished into an angle of 8 degree. Wavelength tunable output with a range form 1035.425 nm to 1111.770nm
is realized. The output power of the laser at different wavelengths is flatten within 0.8 dB. At the available maximum
pump power of 12.11 W, the maximum output power of 3.45 W is obtained at 1064.085 nm, which corresponds to a
slope efficiency of 35.9%. Degree of polarization of the output at different pump level are all more than 0.87.
A 1.16-W superfluorescent fiber source (SFS) centered at 1561 nm with a 3-dB bandwidth of 8 nm has been achieved, under the pumping of a 3.56-W 976-nm laser diode array. The optical conversion efficiency reaches 32%. The source is constructed in a dual-stage configuration. The first stage is an ASE seed source with output power about 30 mW in the C band. The second stage is a backward-pumped high-power erbium-ytterbium-codoped double-clad fiber amplifier. An interesting phenomenon has been observed: low-power ASE seed source causes laser oscillation in the SFS, yet a relatively high-power ASE seed source prevents the SFS from lasing. The Rayleigh backscattering and the saturation effect of the amplifier are considered to explain the phenomenon.
An Yb-doped double-cladding photonic crystal fiber (DC-PCF) superfluorescent source (SFS) is presented experimentally for the first time, which is pumped at 976nm by a diode laser (LD) with the end-coupling method. We employ a single-stage SFS in double-pass forward configuration and get the maximum output power of 1.649W with a slope efficiency of 56.7%. The peak wavelength and the 3dB bandwidth are 1067.6nm and 22.4nm, respectively.
The cavity configurations of erbium-ytterbium co-doped fiber ring lasers (EYDFL) have been experimentally investigated. Additional attention has been paid to the mode competition effect of the laser. It is demonstrated that even in a traveling wave cavity, mode competition occurs when the cavity configuration or the output splitting ratio are incorrectly chosen. By employing the proper cavity configuration and an optimal output splitting ratio, an extremely stable ring cavity EYDFL with fine-shaped laser spectrum is obtained at 1565.8nm. Output power of 1.07 W is achieved under 3.5W 976nm pump power, with an optical conversion efficiency of 30.6%.
In this paper, we review the recent works on high power cladding-pumped fiber lasers and amplifiers. And we will present some recent results on their applications such as Raman fiber laser and supercontinuum generation.
With a 10-km single-mode fiber and a pair of fiber Bragg gratings (FBGs), we design four different linear cavity structures for supercontinuum (SC) generation using a cw Raman fiber laser (RFL) as pump. The output characteristics of the generated SC in these different constructs are compared when the RFL reaches its maximum output power. The broadest SC spectrum of 100 nm and the highest output power of 1.1 W are obtained when the nested cavity structure is employed. The influences of the feedback FBGs and cavity constructs on the SC generation are analyzed by considering the Raman effect and four-wave mixing.
A bidirectionally pumped spectrum-presliced multiwavelength fiber source is presented. Two 980-nm laser diodes are engaged to pump a section of erbium-doped fiber (EDF) in contrary directions. A double-pass Mach-Zehnder comb filter is utilized to filter and reflect the amplified spontaneous emission at one port of the EDF. An optical isolator is employed to guide out the multiwavelength outputs at the other end. The extinction ratio of the source is larger than 24.5 dB over the whole C band, and almost reaches 29 dB at 1530 nm. The integrated power of each channel is 0.58 mW at 1550 nm at 112.3-mW total pump power. The channel spacing and bandwidth are 0.81 and 0.30 nm, respectively. The ratio of the forward pump power to the total pump power is best set between 0.3 and 0.4, to obtain large extinction ratio and high output power simultaneously. The source is expected to have applications in wavelength-division-multiplexing local access networks and integrated optics.
In this paper the SRS characteristic of a phosphorus-doped fiber made for RFLs is experimentally investigated. At an averaged pump power of 0.5W we observe three spectral lines in the output spectrum, which correspond to the first order Stokes of silica at 1.12μm, the third order Stokes of silica or the first order Stokes of P2O5 at 1.24μm, and the fourth order Stokes of silica at 1.31μm, respectively. When the pump power is increased to the maximum value of 2W, there in the spectrum appears a continuum near 1.54μm with a FWHM of more than 50nm. The expected fifth Stokes of silica at 1.39μm and the second Stokes of P2O5 at 1.48μm are not observed. We demonstrate that the fiber loss in the region of 1-1.5μm plays an important role in the development of SRS in phosphorus-doped fibers.
The output characteristics of a large-core double clad fiber (DCF) laser are experimentally investigated in this paper. The fiber laser is fabricated with 5m Yb-doped DCF that consists of a 30μm diameter core and a 400/340μm D-shape inner clad. The measured spectra show that the wavelength of laser is not stable at low pump levels, and the wavelength tends to be stabilized at 1074nm until the pump power is increased to a level far over the threshold. The maximum output power of 7.2W is obtained at an input pump of 11W with a FWHM of about 6nm. The slope efficiency and the total conversion efficiency are 84% and 65.5%, respectively.
With a published model that describes a nested fiber Raman cavity using FBGs as reflectors, we have made numerical simulations for the comparison between the performance of P-doped and Ge-doped fiber. Although the former fibers are the standard choice for fiber Raman lasers due to the large Raman gain, the latter can be also of interest because they present a large Raman shift so that the configuration of the Raman fiber laser can be simplified. We have considered a two-step Raman laser using a P-doped fiber and a six-step Raman laser using a Ge-doped fiber, both pumped by 1060 nm and emitting at 1480 nm. The effects of the Raman fiber length, output coupler reflectivity and splice loss upon the behavior of both lasers are studied. Simulation results show that the P-doped fiber laser requires a longer fiber length while the Ge-doped fiber laser requires a higher output mirror reflectivity, and the RFL using Ge-doped fiber is more sensitive to the splice loss because of its large Stokes wave number. Finally, by comparison in the optimum configuration, we find that the P-doped fiber laser shows better output characteristics than Ge-doped fiber laser.
A bidirectionally pumped spectrum pre-sliced multi-wavelength fiber source is presented in the paper. Two 980nm laser diodes (LDs) are engaged to provide the pump power. An optimized double pass Mach-Zehnder interferometer with extinction ratio larger than 41dB is utilized as the comb filter. The extinction ratio of the fiber source is larger than 24.5dB in the whole C band, and almost reaches 29dB at 1530nm. Integral power of each channel is 0.58mW at 1550nm under 112.3mW total pump power. Channel spacing and bandwidth are 0.81nm and 0.30nm, respectively.
In this paper a large mode area Yb3+-doped double cladding photonic crystal fiber laser is reported. The laser's output power reaches as high as 4.3W. The slope efficiency and the maximum optical-to-optical efficiency of laser output are 69.4% and 59.7%, respectively, with respect to absorbed pump power. Single transverse mode operation is obtained at central wavelength of 1072.3nm and the measured mode distribution agrees with the simulation by using scalar beam propagation method.
The multi-order output of stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) and Rayleigh scattering (RS) in a Raman pumped dispersion compensation fiber (DCF) are experimentally studied. The characteristics and the evolution of the output spectra under different pump powers are shown and analyzed.
A novel design of widely tunable Ytterbium-doped double-clad fiber laser is realized in this paper. The tunable wavelength output can be achieved by using a polarizer and polarization controller into the Frabry-Perot Ytterbium doped double-clad fiber laser. Wide wavelength tunability (1054-1080nm) is achieved either by rotating the polarizer or by varying the fiber birefringence with an in-line polarization controller (PC).
The generation of SBS in discrete Raman gain must be considered along with the problem of limited gain per unit
pump power when developing a practical Raman amplifier. In this paper, we focus on discrete Raman amplifier with 15
km dispersion compensating fibers (DCFs). The gain saturation of both forward and backward pumping schemes have
been considered and compared.
As the pump power increased, the SBS threshold decreased and the reflected power increased dramatically. The 7th
SBS stokes have been observed when the pump power is 490mW. The experimental results clearly indicate that the SBS
effects produced a saturation of the Raman gain.
By using Yb3+-doped double-clad fiber with rectangular inner-cladding, and a set of back-cavity mirrors with different transmission ratio, the double-clad fiber lasers are constructed. It is found that the back-cavity mirror with a higher transmission ratio is better; a back-cavity mirror can control laser wavelength; the relationship between slope efficiency and transmission ratio is in accordance with exponential function, the maximum slope efficiency is about 60%.
KEYWORDS: Fiber lasers, Fiber Bragg gratings, Reflectivity, Mirrors, High power lasers, Cladding, High power fiber lasers, Signal attenuation, Lithium, Physics
An all-fiber Yb-doped double-clad fiber laser based on distributed Bragg reflection (DBR) with fiber Bragg gratings (FBGs) is demonstrated. The single transverse-mode wavelength-stable output at 1 .06 µ m is up to 1.18W, with a slope efficiency of 68% and an optical-to-optical conversion efficiency of more than 50%
The output characteristics of linear cavity Yb-doped double-clad fiber laser have been studied theoretically and experimentally. Analytical expressions are evaluated for threshold pump power, output power and slope efficiency of the laser under steady state conditions. The expression of minimum of fiber length for designing a linear cavity Yb-doped double-cladding fiber laser has been given. Then, the Yb-doped double-clad fiber laser has been investigated experimentally. By exploiting various output coupler, output power, threshold pump power and the slop efficiency have been measured. Comparison between the experimental results and theoretical data has been performed. They are in good agreement with each other.
KEYWORDS: Raman spectroscopy, Amplifiers, Interference (communication), Backscatter, Single mode fibers, Fiber amplifiers, Signal attenuation, Signal detection, Signal to noise ratio, Lithium
Two configurations of distributed Raman amplifiers with dispersion compensation module are analyzed. On the basis of dispersion compensation, a lossless hybrid line is obtained. And amplifier characteristics such as gain and noise figure are compared between the two configurations. The results show that the SMF+DCF configuration is a good candidate at low pump conditions.
A novel double-grating design of widely tunable Ytterbium double-clad fiber (DCF) laser is demonstrated. By using an extermal cavity in double-grating configuration the laser wavelength is tunable over a range of 72 nm from 1037 to I I 09 nm. And a spectral line width of GHz over the whole tuning range is achieved. Measurements indicate the laser is linear polarized.
A novel Yb3+-doped double-clad silica fiber with rectangular inner cladding was designed and developed using MCVD process, solution-doping and optical machining altogether. The dimension of inner classing is 100(Mu) mx70micrometers , and Yb3+-doped concentration in the core is about 0.24wt%. The operation of the fiber laser pumped by inner cladding is reported. The threshold of laser is 34mW. When the pump power launched is 141mW, the laser output is 84mW at the wavelength and 1075.6nm, and slope efficiency is 77%.
A new pump configuration of two steps of cascaded Raman fiber amplifier is demonstrated and is numerically simulated in the 80 km fiber span. In order to obtain lossless transmission and low noise figure, the pump power values are optimized.
The experimental results on a high-power Yb-doped double- cladding fiber broadband superfluorescent source pumped by a 976 nm broad-stripe laser diode are reported. The maximum superfluorescent output power is 54.11 mW, while the slope efficiency is 19.3%, central wavelength of superfluorescent spectrum is 1082 nm with a 17.2 nm 3 dB bandwidth.
The paper reports the theoretical and experimental research of Yb-doped double-clad fiber laser. In the experiment, we use F- P cavity structure. We obtained an output power of 233 mW at a slope efficiency of 79.6% with respect to input fiber power. The total optical-to-optical conversion efficiency is 30.3%. And the output wavelength is 1.078 micrometers .
A cladding pumped self-Q-switched Yb3+ fiber laser is described in this paper. By exploiting fiber nonlinearity -- stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) in the fiber laser cavity, we demonstrated a series of stable pulses with the full width at half maximum (FWHM) about 2 ns and repetition frequency about 29.4 MHz.
In this paper, a self-Q-switched Er-doped fiber (EDF) laser is reported, which employs stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) in single-mode (SM) fiber as a passively Q-switched mechanism. The stable nanosecond magnitude optical pulses were obtained. Pulses with peak power 800 mW, pulse width 2.2 ns and repetition rate about 64.5 MHz could be achieved, when the pumped power was 88.0 mW. A few factors that affect the pulse characters are studied.
A novel structure for multiple wavelength operation and narrow line-width ring Er-doped fiber laser, in which the multiple fiber gratings are in series connection, is proposed. The feasibility of this new structure is confirmed in experiment and the stable operation of dual wavelength is obtained.
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