230-kW peak power femtosecond pulses from a high power tunable source based on amplification in Tm-doped fiber

Imeshev, G.; Fermann, M. E.

doi:10.1364/opex.13.007424

Cited by 145 publications

(66 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…The wide spectral tunability can be obtained by the Raman soliton amplification externally or directly in the amplifier [3,21]. In particular, tunability over 140 nm range was demonstrated after amplification of Raman soliton in external Tm-doped fiber (TDF) [22], 108 fs pulses with energy of 31 nJ and average power of 3.1 W were obtained. The Erdoped fiber laser (EDFL), used in that work as a seed laser, produced 400-fs pulses, which were transformed into Raman solitons in a passive fiber and subsequently amplified.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Flat-Top Supercontinuum and Tunable Femtosecond Fiber Laser Sources at 1.9–2.5 μm

Klimentov

Tolstik

Dvoyrin

et al. 2016

J. Lightwave Technol.

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, Journal of Lightwave Technology Abstract -We report the high-energy flat-top supercontinuum covering the mid-infrared wavelength range of 1.9-2.5 μm as well as electronically tunable femtosecond pulses between 1.98-2.22 μm directly from the thulium-doped fiber laser amplifier. Comparison of experimental results with numerical simulations confirms that both sources employ the same nonlinear optical mechanism -Raman soliton frequency shift occurring inside the Tm-fiber amplifier.To illustrate that, we investigate two versions of the compact diode-pumped SESAM mode-locked femtosecond thulium-doped all-silica-fiber-based laser system providing either broadband supercontinuum or tunable Raman soliton output, depending on the parameters of the system. The first system operates in the Raman soliton regime providing femtosecond pulses tunable between 1.98-2.22 μm. Wide and continuous spectral tunability over 240 nm was realized by changing only the amplifier pump diode current. The second system generates high-energy supercontinuum with the superior spectral flatness of better than 1 dB covering the wavelength range of 1.9-2.5 μm, with the total output energy as high as 0.284 μJ, the average power of 2.1 W at 7.5 MHz repetition rate. We simulate the amplifier operation in the Raman soliton self-frequency shift regime and discuss the role of induced Raman scattering in supercontinuum formation inside the fiber amplifier. We compare this system with a more traditional 1.85-2.53 μm supercontinuum source in the external highly-nonlinear commercial chalcogenide fiber using the Raman soliton MOPA as an excitation source.The reported systems 1 can be readily applied to a number of industrial applications in the mid-IR, including sensing, stand-off detection, medical surgery and fine material processing.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Flat-Top Supercontinuum and Tunable Femtosecond Fiber Laser Sources at 1.9–2.5 μm

Klimentov

Tolstik

Dvoyrin

et al. 2016

J. Lightwave Technol.

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“…[9][10][11][12][13] However, the output pulse repetition rates from these oscillators were usually from a few tens of megahertz to over 100 MHz. Laser pulse trains at such high repetition rates were not convenient to achieve high pulse energy in amplification stage.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Tm-doped fiber amplifiers to boost the pulse energy of ultrafast pulses were also reported. [13][14][15][16] Imeshev et al used a Tm-doped fiber amplifier to boost the Raman shifted pulses from Er/Yb source to the energy of 31 nJ. 13 Haxsen et al used a regular fiber with anomalous dispersion and normaldispersion grating stretcher to obtain maximum energy of 151 nJ.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

High-energy femtosecond 2-μm fiber laser

2013

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Abstract. We describe in detail a high energy, high power ultrafast thulium-doped fiber laser system. The pulse energy of 156 μJ was realized. The laser system is comprised of a mode-locked 2020-nm seed oscillator and multiple-stage power/energy amplifiers. The seed oscillator output pulses at a repetition rate of 2.5 MHz. The seed pulses were stretched with the anomalous dispersion fiber to the duration of 320 ps. An acousto-optic modulator was used as a pulse picker to lower the repetition rate. A two-stage preamplifier was used to boost the pulse energy to 3 μJ. The pulse energies of up to 156 μJ and the average power of 15.6 W were obtained from the final stage of power amplifier at a repetition rate of 100 kHz with a slope efficiency of 26%. The pulse durations of 780 fs were obtained after pulse compression. High optical signal-to-noise ratio (OSNR) and low background noise were also achieved at this low repetition rate. © The Authors. Published by SPIE under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. Distribution or reproduction of this work in whole or in part requires full attribution of the original publication, including its DOI.

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“…Other approaches based on well-established Er:fiber technology may be even more desirable. However, Raman self frequency shifting [10] or supercontinuum (SC) generation in microstructured fibers [11] turned out to be ineffective, since they provide seed pulses flawed by a significant degree of incoherence [3,12].In this Letter, we present a passively phase-locked and ultrabroadband source that is suitable for coherent seeding of both Yb: and Tm:fiber systems. This setup exploits Er:fiber technology combined with frequency conversion in highly nonlinear bulk fibers (HNF).…”

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confidence: 99%

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confidence: 99%

Femtosecond coherent seeding of a broadband Tm:fiber amplifier by an Er:fiber system

et al. 2012

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We generate broadband pulses covering the Yb: and Tm:silica amplification ranges with a passively phase-locked front end based on Er:fiber technology. Full spectral coherence of the octave-spanning output from highly nonlinear germanosilicate bulk fibers is demonstrated. Seeding of a high-power Tm:fiber generates pulses with a clean spectral shape and a bandwidth of 50 nm at a center wavelength of 1.95 μm, pulse energy of 250 nJ, and repetition rate of 10 MHz. © 2012 Optical Society of America OCIS codes: 320.7160, 140.3510, 190.7110. Applications of ultrafast pulsed radiation are increasingly based on fiber laser technology due to its inherent advantages such as compactness, stability, high power, and turn-key operation. Recently, Tm:silica fiber amplifiers are attracting a lot of attention due to their broad gain bandwidth spanning from 1.85 to 2.1 μm [7]. The long wavelength ensures a relatively high threshold for four-wave-mixing and stimulated Raman processes. Simultaneously, it supports single-mode operation at large mode field diameters [8], thus enabling high peak powers. Up to now, exploiting the full amplification bandwidth of Tm:fiber amplifiers has been limited by a lack of ultrabroadband and coherent seed sources. Only recently, a Tm:fiber oscillator has been introduced, delivering pulses with a duration of 78 fs and a spectral width of 130 nm [9]. Other approaches based on well-established Er:fiber technology may be even more desirable. However, Raman self frequency shifting [10] or supercontinuum (SC) generation in microstructured fibers [11] turned out to be ineffective, since they provide seed pulses flawed by a significant degree of incoherence [3,12].In this Letter, we present a passively phase-locked and ultrabroadband source that is suitable for coherent seeding of both Yb: and Tm:fiber systems. This setup exploits Er:fiber technology combined with frequency conversion in highly nonlinear bulk fibers (HNF). It is worth noting that our approach allows phase coherent operation of synchronized multibranch systems at different amplification wavelengths, thus enabling synthesis of intense pulses down to single-cycle durations [13].Figure 1(a) shows the schematic setup of the system. The seed source starts with a solitonic Er:fiber oscillator modelocked via a saturable absorber mirror. It is followed by a passively carrier-envelope phase-locked amplifier system. The output pulses, centered at 1.55 μm with energies up to 8 nJ at a repetition rate of 40 MHz, are available at up to six distinct branches [14]. The key point of our system is the generation of ultrabroadband seed pulses in a highly nonlinear bulk germanosilicate fiber that we demonstrate to exhibit full spectral coherence. In detail, the 8 nJ output of the Er:fiber system is compressed in a silicon (Si) prism sequence and then coupled into a combination of 9 cm polarization maintaining single-mode fiber (PM-SMF) followed by an 8 mm long germanosilicate HNF [15]. The variable insertion of the Si prism in the compressor stage allows f...

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230-kW peak power femtosecond pulses from a high power tunable source based on amplification in Tm-doped fiber

Cited by 145 publications

References 21 publications

Flat-Top Supercontinuum and Tunable Femtosecond Fiber Laser Sources at 1.9–2.5 μm

Flat-Top Supercontinuum and Tunable Femtosecond Fiber Laser Sources at 1.9–2.5 μm

High-energy femtosecond 2-μm fiber laser

Femtosecond coherent seeding of a broadband Tm:fiber amplifier by an Er:fiber system

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