High power mid-infrared supercontinuum generation in a single-mode ZBLAN fiber with up to 218 W average output power

Abstract

We report high power mid-infrared (mid-IR) supercontinuum (SC) generation in a single-mode ZBLAN (ZrF₄-BaF₂-LaF₃-AlF₃-NaF) fiber with up to 21.8 W average output power from 1.9 to beyond 3.8 μm pumped by amplified picosecond pulses from a single-mode thulium-doped fiber (TDF) master oscillator power amplifier (MOPA). The optical-optical conversion efficiency from the 793 nm pump laser of the last stage thulium-doped fiber amplifier (TDFA) to mid-IR SC output is 17%. It is, to the best of our knowledge, the highest average power mid-IR SC generation from a ZBLAN fiber to date.

Broadband and top-flat mid-infrared supercontinuum generation with 3.52 W time-averaged power in a ZBLAN fiber directly pumped by a 2-µm mode-locked fiber laser and amplifier

“…Further power scaling-up was limited by the damage to the ZBLAN fiber output facet. Both the SC power conversion towards the red wavelengths and flatness of output spectrum are better than the recent results [15][16][17][18][19]. It also shows that applying a SESAM modelocked TDFL&A delivering pulses with tens of picoseconds and a low loss ZBLAN fiber it is possible to develop a high power and super flat mid-IR SC source with very good power distribution towards the mid-IR spectral region.…”

“…When mid-IR spectral region is concerned, soft glass fibers, including tellurite [5,6], fluoride [1,[7][8][9][10][11][12] and chalcogenide [13,14] fibers can be adopted as nonlinear media. However, among all soft glass fibers, only heavy metal fluoride fibers, including fluorozirconate (ZBLAN) [15][16][17][18][19] and fluoroindate (InF 3 ) [20,21] are technologically mature to be used for multi Watt level SC generation. Because they exhibit a zero-dispersion wavelength (ZDW) within the range of ~ 1.5-1.9 µm they can be effectively pumped in the anomalous dispersion region, which facilitates efficient continuum extension towards longer wavelengths.…”

“…The output average power was 13 W, of which 52.69% corresponded to wavelengths beyond 2.5 µm. In 2014 Liu et al reported an SC with an output power of up to 21.8 W and a spectrum spanning from 1.9 to beyond 3.8 µm generated in a ZBLAN fiber pumped by a modelocked TDFL&A operating at ~ 1.93 µm [17]. Soon after that, the same group demonstrated a record 24.3 W SC generation in a single-mode ZBLAN fiber pumped by a 2-µm TDFA with a spectrum spanning from 1.9 to 3.3 µm [18].…”

Growth, structure, and spectroscopic properties of a Cr3+, Tm3+, Ho3+, and Pr3+co-doped LuYAG single crystal for 2.9 μm laser

“…In recent years, mid-infrared (MIR) lasers in the region of 2.7-3 μm have attracted much attention because of their wide applications in the fields of atmospheric monitoring, medical surgery, remote sensing, and scientific research [1][2][3][4][5]. At present, the 2.7-3 μm rare-earth laser crystals have been widely investigated, and various laser crystals with excellent performances have realized laser output in this spectral region, such as Er:YAG (2.94 μm) [6], Er,Pr:GYSGG (2.79 μm) [7,8], Cr,Yb,Ho:YSGG (2.842 μm, 2.888 μm, 2.926 μm, 2.962 μm, 2.973 μm, 3.057 μm) [9], and Ho:YAP (2.844 μm, 2.855 μm, 2.856 μm, 2.920 μm, 3.017 μm) [10] crystals, et al Although the 2.7-3 μm wavelength range is a vibrational absorption band of water, there also exist fine spectral wavebands which have only very weak water absorption, especially at the wavelength of 2.911 μm.…”

High-power linearly polarized thulium-doped all-fiber picosecond master-oscillator power-amplifier

“…High-power ultrafast fiber lasers are important sources for a number of applications including material processing [1], pump source for optical parametric oscillator (OPO) [2], and supercontinuum generation [3].…”