Synchronous nanosecond and femtosecond pulses delivered from a low-repetition-rate Er-doped fiber laser mode-locked by nonlinear polarization evolution is experimentally proposed. Here, the repetition rate is set as ~4.5 MHz by introducing sufficiently long fiber in a ring cavity. By fully exploiting long fiber and anti-saturation absorption characteristics, it is experimentally observed that dissipative-soliton-resonance pulse with the nanosecond-level pulsewidth and femtosecond soliton pulse synchronously propagate in the same cavity. Besides, the pulsewidth of dissipative-soliton-resonance pulse and laser output power could be tailored by finely configuring the bidirectional pump powers. These results provide deep understanding of low-repetition-rate pulse laser and an intriguing way to obtain tunable dual-scale synchronous pulses, indicating the high potential for multiple-pulse laser processing and so on.
We proposed the emission of wavelength-switchable dual-wavelength-comb pulses in a practical-filter-free cavity. Based on the polarization dependent loss based gain profile tuning, lasings in triple independent gain subregions, i.e. ~1530-, ~1543- and ~1555-nm gain subregions, of erbium-doped fiber, are experimentally observed. Mode-locked by hybrid mechanisms combining carbon nanotube and nonlinear polarization evolution, triple types of dual-wavelength pulses distributed in different dual gain subregions are experimentally obtained. They are distributed in above triple gain subregions and could be switched by adjusting the intracavity polarization controller. These results provide a simple yet effective route to obtain dual-wavelength-comb pulses without additional practical filter and show the high potential in the applications of single-cavity dual-comb metrology.
We proposed an absolute distance measurement method with a large non-ambiguity range based on a polarization-multiplexed dual-comb fiber laser. By fully exploiting the intracavity linear loss based gain profile tilting and residual birefringence, polarization-multiplexed dual-comb pulses with tunable repetition rate difference and overlapping spectra in the 1530-nm gain region are obtained. The repetition frequency difference could be continuously tuned from ~89 to ~194 Hz. The alternative sampling under different repetition rate difference is experimentally verified to be effective approach to extend the non-ambiguity range in the single-cavity dual-comb ranging. The non-ambiguity range could reach thousands of kilometer while the precision could reach at least on the order of hundreds of micrometers. These results indicate a simple and intriguing route with a free-running laser source to obtain ranging with large non-ambiguity range, showing high potential in the applications such as satellite formation flying, large-scale 3D surface morphology measurement and so on.
We experimentally investigated the build-up dynamics of single-cavity dual-wavelength-comb pulses emitted from a ring fiber cavity with Lyot filter configuration. Dual-wavelength lasers are firstly observed by adjusting the polarization controller to control Lyot filter effect. When the pump powers of the bidirectional pumps are set as 57 mW and 49 mW respectively, dual-wavelength pulses with the center wavelengths of 1546.2 nm and 1563.6 nm and spectral bandwidths of 2 nm and 1.6 nm are obtained. Subsequently, time-stretched dispersive Fourier transform spectroscopy is adopted to monitor the build-up process of dual-wavelength pulses. When switching on the pump diode, the three-stage build-up process from background noise to stable dual-wavelength pulses is experimentally observed. The build-up time is at the level of hundreds of milliseconds. These results provide a deep understanding of single-cavity dual-wavelength-comb pulse generation and contribute to the design and control of the single-cavity dual-comb pulses.
In recent years, transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) have been widely used as saturable absorbers (SAs) in ultrafast fiber lasers. Among them, we have chosen manganese sulfide (MnS), also a type of TMD, for its small bandgap and excellent nonlinear optical properties. In this paper, we have fabricated a MnS thin film as a saturable absorber and demonstrated a passively Q-switched erbium-doped fiber laser based on MnS. It has achieved stable short-pulsed output. With a pump power of 29.8 mW from a 980 nm semiconductor laser, we obtained stable Q-switched pulses at a center wavelength of 1563.3 nm with a repetition rate of 29 kHz. The 3-dB spectral bandwidth is 1.25 nm, and the pulse width is 7.15 μs. The average output power is 0.95 mW, and the pulse energy is 32.8 nJ. The signal-to-noise ratio of the RF spectrum at the fundamental frequency is 54 dB, indicating the high stability of the Q-switched pulses. These results demonstrate that MnS, as a promising new SA material, provides a new research approach for generating stable short-pulsed output. Additionally, this is the first proposal of using MnS as a saturable absorber in Q-switched fiber lasers.
In recent years, the diversity of transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) have made them widely used in fiber lasers for the saturable absorption effect. Zirconium ditelluride (ZrTe2), as a member of TMDs, has a high anti-damage threshold, and it exhibits excellent and controllable photoelectric performance due to the anisotropy of the band structure. In this paper, we prepared a ZrTe2 saturable absorber film for passively mode-locking operation in an erbium-doped fiber laser and obtained an optical pulse output with a central wavelength of 1564.4 nm and a repetition frequency of 5.81 MHz. The spectral 3-dB bandwidth is 0.51 nm, the pulse width is 2.98 ps, and the signal-to-noise ratio of the fundamental frequency is 60 dB. These results show the potential of ZrTe2 as a new saturable absorber material for generating ultrashort pulses, and this is the first demonstration for mode-locked fiber lasers based on ZrTe2 material.
Q-switched laser is one of the important techniques to achieve high-energy laser pulses and greatly promotes the development and application of the field of optical engineering. With the modulation of cavity loss by optical switch in the laser cavity, the energy output by the laser is compressed into a pulse with a very short duration. For passively Q-switched lasers, saturable absorbers (SAs) with nonlinear saturable absorption are commonly used as optical switches. In recent years, 2D materials are used widely as SAs, such as topological insulators, black phosphorous, transition metal dichalcogenides and transition metal oxides. As one of the TMDs, the antimonous sulfide (Sb2S3) with smaller band gap as well as excellent nonlinear optical properties is a promising SA material. In this paper, we demonstrate a passively Q-switched erbium-doped fiber laser based on Sb2S3 SA, which could generate stable short pulses. By utilizing the Sb2S3 SA fabricated with optical deposition method, an all-fiber cavity is built. In the experiment, a stable Q-switched pulse trains with a repetition frequency of 30 kHz, a central wavelength of 1558.4 nm and a pulse width of 6.4 μs are obtained at a 980 nm pump power of 35 mW. The signal-to-noise ratio of radio-frequency spectrum at the fundamental frequency is about 50 dB, indicating the high stability of the Q-switched pulse. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first demonstration of Q-switched fiber laser based on Sb2S3 material, which could contribute as a new potential SA material for pulsed fiber lasers.
Developing ultrafast lasers with controllable flexible pulses, such as wavelength and pulsewidth tunable lasers are desired for various applications like fiber telecommunication and optical sensing. To achieve wavelength or/and pulsewidth tunability in saturable absorber (SA) based mode-locked fiber lasers, some technologies including tunable band pass filter, fiber Bragg grating, diffraction grating mirror, 45°tilted fiber grating, and tunable Lyot filter are proposed to provide the direct spectral manipulation of the pulses. In this paper, we demonstrate a simple bandwidth-tunable ultrashort pulse generation scheme for a nonlinear polarization rotation mode-locked laser. By utilizing a polarization-maintaining-fiber-pigtailed inline polarizer and a polarization controller, a nonlinear polarization evolution (NPE) mode-locking effect as well as a bandwidth-tunable Lyot filter are enabled in the laser cavity when the intracavity polarization settings adjusted. The Lyot filter formed by the inline polarizer and its birefringence of the two fiber pigtails with lengths of 0.3 m could introduce a spectral filtering effect. By only tuning the intracavity polarization controller, the spectral bandwidth is continuously tuned in the range of 7.8 to 3.5 nm. We attribute the lower limit of the spectral bandwidth to the nonlinear self-phase modulation requiring narrow pulses in nonlinear polarization rotation mode-locked lasers. These results provide a simple way for generating subpicosecond pulse with variable spectral bandwith or pulse duration without using a saturable absorber.
Programmable and fast wavelength-switchable ultrashort pulses have important applications in optical communication, optical sensing, micro-wave photonics, and other fields. Multi-wavelength mode-locked lasers are commonly developed to achieve wavelength tunability by using tunable optical filters, fiber Bragg gratings, Lyot filters providing the direct spectral manipulation of the pulses. Actually, manual control is essential in process of wavelength switching, which is very time-consuming and sometimes it is difficult to find the appropriate state of polarization for a certain mode-locking state when utilizing polarization adjustment. So a programmable mode-locked laser which can automatically switch to different mode-locking states is desired. Here, we demonstrate a fast electrically-controlled wavelength-switching scheme in ultrafast nonlinear polarization rotation mode-locked lasers. It is achieved by simply introducing an inline polarization beam splitter (PBS) with two output ports and followed by a 1×2 electrically-controlled optical switch in a fiber ring laser. By utilizing the polarization-maintaining-fiber-pigtailed inline PBS and a polarization controller, a nonlinear polarization evolution (NPE) mode-locking effect as well as a tunable Lyot filter are enabled in the fiber cavity. The optical switch could select the optical path with different polarization state for mode-locking at different wavelength.
We demonstrate a passively mode-locked and a passively Q-switched erbium-doped fiber laser respectively by utilizing a same saturable absorber fabricated with tungsten trioxide (WO3). When the WO3 saturable absorber is employed to provide the pulse narrowing effect, Q-switched pulses were observed with a repetition rate of 44.11 kHz and a pulse width of 3.42 μs. Moreover, the Q-switched laser could realize hybrid mode-locking after an in-line polarizer was inserted, which could introduce an additional pulse narrowing effect of nonlinear polarization rotation under a certain polarization state. The 3- dB spectral bandwidth and the repetition rate of mode-locked pulses are about 7.5 nm and 22.51 MHz respectively. The pulse train is stable with a signal to noise ratio of 70 dB.
A hybrid mode-locked Er-doped fiber laser based on single-walled carbon nanotube saturable absorber and nonlinear amplifying loop mirror (NALM) is constructed. At 1564.5 nm, the mode-locked laser is self-started by carefully adjusting the polarization controller, with the repetition frequency of 16.24 MHz, 3-dB spectral width of 8.5 nm and pulse width of 302 fs. Compared with the laser only utilizing single-wall carbon nanotube saturable absorber or NALM mode-locked Er-doped fiber laser, the hybrid one has narrower output pulse width and the mode-locking state is more stable.
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