High-power noise-like pulse generation using a 156-µm all-fiber laser system

Abstract

We demonstrated an all-fiber, high-power noise-like pulse laser system at the 1.56-µm wavelength. A low-power noise-like pulse train generated by a ring oscillator was amplified using a two-stage amplifier, where the performance of the second-stage amplifier determined the final output power level. The optical intensity in the second-stage amplifier was managed well to avoid not only the excessive spectral broadening induced by nonlinearities but also any damage to the device. On the other hand, the power conversion efficiency of the amplifier was optimized through proper control of its pump wavelength. The pump wavelength determines the pump absorption and therefore the power conversion efficiency of the gain fiber. Through this approach, the average power of the noise-like pulse train was amplified considerably to an output of 13.1 W, resulting in a power conversion efficiency of 36.1% and a pulse energy of 0.85 µJ. To the best of our knowledge, these amplified pulses have the highest average power and pulse energy for noise-like pulses in the 1.56-µm wavelength region. As a result, the net gain in the cascaded amplifier reached 30 dB. With peak and pedestal widths of 168 fs and 61.3 ps, respectively, for the amplified pulses, the pedestal-to-peak intensity ratio of the autocorrelation trace remains at the value of 0.5 required for truly noise-like pulses.

Recent progress on optical rogue waves in fiber lasers: status, challenges, and perspectives

“…In fact, the narrow peak reflects the typical temporal timescales of the internal noisy pulse packets; the broad baseline suggests that the pulse regime consists of packets with picosecond or subpicosecond range, possessing the fine inner temporal structure with randomly diverse noisy pulse. 119 At this stage, due to the low-level information collection through the traditional measuring scheme, including the averaged spectral measurement and the autocorrelation recording, it has been difficult to figure out the formation of the NLPs. In fact, the majority of chaotic pulses, including NLPs, found in the fiber lasers have not yet been resolved in real time.…”

A review of recent results of mid-infrared quantum cascade photonic devices operating under external optical control

“…Without any specific control, giant pulses are expected to pop up randomly and may not be reliable for applications. Yet, extensive studies about controllable giant pulses can be found in the literature [113][114][115][116] with the view of taking advantage of these sudden bursts for high precision remote-sensing [117] or photonic reservoir computing [118].…”

Incoherent laser

“…Despite chaotic distribution of radiation within noise-like pulses, the overall radiation power of noise-like pulses may be fairly stable [25,31]. Taking into account the possible high energy of noise-like pulses [48] and possible high average power of their radiation [49], such pulses may be considered as promising type of pumping radiation. The only requisite condition is absence of phase relations between the sub-pulses of the pumping radiation and the generated output radiation, and this condition is satisfied in a variety of applications.…”