Interferometric coherence measurement and radio frequency noise characterization of the 1.3 μm femtosecond intense Stokes continuum from a TZDW source

Abstract

Photonic crystal fiber (PCF) with two closely spaced zero dispersion wavelengths (TZDW) offers a unique route to efficient energy transfer to two spectrally localized continua beyond either side of the ZDWs, which we have employed in previous work for mid-IR difference frequency generation and speckle-free red-green-blue generation. In this manuscript, we report the interferometric coherence characterization and radio frequency (RF) noise measurements of the Stokes side TZDW component. With a custom-built 1.3 W, 1035 nm, 40 MHz, 240 fs Yb:fiber chirped pulse amplifier as the pump source, we use 12 cm of commercially available TZDW PCF to excite the dual narrow-band continua from which the Stokes pulse is filtered out with a 1180 nm long wave pass filter. We achieve 0.8 to 3 nJ of narrow-band pulses within the spectral range of 1200 -1315 nm at an average power conversion efficiency of 33%.Employing an un-balanced Michelson interferometer, measured mutual spectral coherence of the Stokes pulse is in excess of 0.76 with pump Soliton order as high as N ~70. Its measured RF noise spectrum at the first harmonic of the laser repetition rate shows less than 8 dBc/Hz increase in relative intensity noise (RIN) compared to that of the power amplifier, which is consistent with reported studies employing sub-100 fs pulses from relatively low noise oscillators. In contrast to the broadband continuum from a single ZDW PCF wherein severe de-coherence is found with pumping at high soliton order and longer pump pulse width, the reported TZDW fiber source shows preservation of intensity stability and phase coherence against variation in pump pulse parameters, which not only attests to the stability of our reported method for mid-IR generation, but also shows promising potential towards an all-fiber, efficient and low noise ultrafast source that can be helpful for applications such as biomedical deep-tissue imaging.