Actively Q-switched and mode-locked Tm^3+-doped silicate 2  μm fiber laser for supercontinuum generation in fluoride fiber

Abstract

A diode-pumped actively Q-switched and actively mode-locked Tm3+-doped double-clad silicate fiber laser is reported providing up to 5 W of average output power at ~60 kHz Q-switch envelope repetition rate and ~8 μJ subpulses with up to 2.4 kW peak power. Using this source as a pump laser for supercontinuum generation in a ZBLAN fiber, over 1080 mW of supercontinuum from 1.9 μm to beyond 3.6 μm was obtained at an overall efficiency of 3.3% with respect to the diode pump power.

High Power Diode-Seeded Fiber Amplifiers at 2 μm—From Architectures to Applications

“…Of all possible materials, heavy metal fluoride glass (ZBLAN) is currently the most attractive choice for constructing practical SCG sources due to its high transparency up to ~ 4.5 µm wavelength, the maturity of the fiber fabrication technology and the commercial availability of highly nonlinear ZBLAN fibers with the required small core diameters. Consequently, SCG in this fiber type has been demonstrated with numerous pumping schemes, predominantly using either femtosecond or nanosecond pulse durations [56][57][58][59][60][61][62].…”

Wavelength and bandwidth tunable passively mode-locked fiber laser based on semiconductor saturable absorber mirror and liquid crystal on silicon device

“…Mode-locked fiber lasers with high peak power and good beam quality have attracted wide attention due to their potential applications in wavelength-division-multiplexed (WDM) communication systems, fiber sensing systems, optical signal processing, spectroscopy, optical instrumentation, and biomedical research [1][2][3]. Compared to conventional mode-locked lasers, a tunable-mode-locked laser with flexibly adjustable mode-locked laser parameters, such as output wavelength, pulse repetition frequency, and pulse width, obviously has a wider application potential [4][5][6][7][8].…”

2-$\mu\hbox{m}$ Tm-Doped All-Fiber Pulse Laser With Active Mode-Locking and Relaxation Oscillation Modulating

“…For some of these applications, pulses of short duration are needed. Mode-locking and Q-switching are two common methods to generate pulse laser [1]- [8]. Most of the reported mode-locked Tm-doped pulse lasers are realized by passive mode-locking, using semiconductor saturable absorber mirror (SESAM) [1]- [4] or graphene saturable absorber (GSA) [5], [6].…”