Mode-locking ultrafast solid-state lasers with saturable Bragg reflectors

Tsuda, S.; Knox, Wayne H.; Cundiff, S. T.; Jan, W.Y.; Cunningham, J. E.

doi:10.1109/2944.571744

Cited by 161 publications

(84 citation statements)

References 33 publications

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“…The semiconductor saturable Bragg ref lector (SBR) has been shown to be an efficient mode-locking mechanism for extremely low-gain lasers, owing to its low saturation intensity and introduction of minimal cavity loss. 7 With a SBR, short-cavity mode-locked EDF lasers have produced 250-fs pulses at relatively high fundamental repetition rates ͑200 MHz͒. 8 In this Letter we present a short-cavity erbium/ytterbium (Er/Yb) f iber laser that is passively mode locked with a SBR, producing 270-fs pulses at a fundamental repetition rate of 235 MHz.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Stable multigigahertz pulse-train formation in a short-cavity passively harmonic mode-locked erbium/ytterbium fiber laser

Collings

Bergman

Knox³

1998

Opt. Lett.

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We demonstrate a short-cavity erbium -ytterbium fiber laser that is passively mode locked by a saturable Bragg ref lector with a fundamental repetition rate of 235 MHz. The laser operates in the soliton regime and under passive harmonic mode locking with 11 pulses in the cavity and produces output pulse trains at 2.6 GHz with transform-limited 270-fs pulses and 1.6 mW of average power. Within the cavity the multiple pulses form a stable pattern with fixed, nearly equal pulse-to-pulse temporal spacings, causing the output pulse train to have timing offsets of less than 15 ps. A slow gain-recovery model is proposed to explain the pulse-train self-organization. © 1998 Optical Society of America OCIS codes: 060.2320, 140.3510, 320.0320, 190.5530, 060.2410 Future high-speed and high-capacity optical networks will require sources of ultrashort pulses at ever-increasing repetition rates and output powers. Currently, many research efforts are concentrating on high-repetition-rate mode-locked erbium-doped fiber (EDF) lasers as reliable and compact sources for network transmitters in the 1550-nm spectral region. The wide optical bandwidth generated in a single mode-locked laser pulse can be partitioned into a large number of channels for wavelength-divisionmultiplexed applications, an approach that may be economically advantageous over employing a large bank of individually selected cw sources. 1In construction of a high-repetition-rate, short pulse source, selection of the mode-locking mechanism becomes crucial. Active harmonic mode locking through amplitude modulation of an EDF laser has produced picosecond pulses at a 10-GHz repetition rate.2 Several passive mode-locking techniques have produced subpicosecond pulses 3 ; these techniques include additive-pulse mode locking by use of either an external cavity or nonlinear polarization rotation, 4 saturable-absorber mode locking 5 and a combination of additive-pulse mode locking and saturable absorption. 6 Typically, these mode-locking techniques introduce a large amount of cavity loss and (or) need large intracavity powers to achieve sufficient nonlinearities for stable operation. Thus signif icant lengths of gain f iber are required, resulting in long cavities and low fundamental repetition rates. The semiconductor saturable Bragg ref lector (SBR) has been shown to be an efficient mode-locking mechanism for extremely low-gain lasers, owing to its low saturation intensity and introduction of minimal cavity loss. 7With a SBR, short-cavity mode-locked EDF lasers have produced 250-fs pulses at relatively high fundamental repetition rates ͑200 MHz͒. 8 In this Letter we present a short-cavity erbium/ytterbium (Er/Yb) f iber laser that is passively mode locked with a SBR, producing 270-fs pulses at a fundamental repetition rate of 235 MHz. 9Utilizing the soliton quantization of the total cavity energy for passive harmonic mode locking allows us to reach a repetition rate of 2.6 GHz with only 11 pulses in the cavity, a small number of pulses compared with the hundreds required...

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confidence: 99%

Stable multigigahertz pulse-train formation in a short-cavity passively harmonic mode-locked erbium/ytterbium fiber laser

Collings

Bergman

Knox³

1998

Opt. Lett.

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“…[1] Many passive mode-locking techniques have been presented in the past operating both in normal and anomalous dispersion regimes. Recently semiconductor saturable absorbers in the form of bulk, multiple quantum well (MQW) or single quantum well -saturable Bragg reflector (SBR) have been used to mode-lock linear fiber cavities [2][3][4][5][6][7]. Complex Ginzburg-Landau equations have also been used to model mode-locked laser operation successfully [3,5].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dispersion and Nonlinearity Characterization of a Mode-Locked Erbium-Doped Fiber Laser

Louthain¹,

Hayduk²

2001

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Public reporting burden for this collection of information is estimated to average 1 hour per response, including the time for reviewing instructions, searching existing data sources, gathering and maintaining the data needed, and completing and reviewing the collection of information. 12a. DISTRIBUTION AVAILABILITY STATEMENTAPPROVED FOR PUBLIC RELEASE; DISTRIBUTION UNLIMITED. 12b. DISTRIBUTION CODE ABSTRACT (Maximum 200 words)This report describes the results of dispersion and nonlinearity experiments of the components required for the development of picosecond passively mode-locked fiber lasers. First, we will summarize the interferometric dispersion measurement technique and results for short lengths of fiber (< 1 meter). We measured dispersion of standard fiber at 16.9 +/-1.4 ps/nm and Er-doped fiber at 8.5 +/-1.6 ps/nm at 1550 nm. Next, we measured the group delay of three chirped Bragg gratings using a phase difference method and a tunable laser. These chirped Bragg gratings served as one of the mirrors in the linear fiber laser cavity. Finally, we measured the nonlinearity of five different multiple quantum well saturable absorbers using a z-scan technique. The saturable absorbers served as the mode-locking mechanism in the passively mode-locked fiber laser. The values of the nonlinear absorption ranged from 1 to 3 cm/W. We also measured the refractive nonlinearity of one of the MQW saturable absorbers to be about -4 x 10 cm/W.

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“…The principle technology that has made this possible is the semiconductor saturable absorber, which appears in two variants: semiconductor saturable absorbing mirrors (SESAM) and saturable Bragg reflectors (SBR). [18,19] The differences between these two devices are either great or small depending on the emphasis and who you ask, but they both rely on distributed Bragg reflector stacks and semiconductor saturable absorbing thin films fabricated by epitaxial growth (MBE or MOCVD). For mode-locking of Nd:YAG-like lasers, both approaches have produced similar results.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

High-Power Mid-Infrared Laser Source

Myers¹

2000

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Mode-locking ultrafast solid-state lasers with saturable Bragg reflectors

Cited by 161 publications

References 33 publications

Stable multigigahertz pulse-train formation in a short-cavity passively harmonic mode-locked erbium/ytterbium fiber laser

Stable multigigahertz pulse-train formation in a short-cavity passively harmonic mode-locked erbium/ytterbium fiber laser

Dispersion and Nonlinearity Characterization of a Mode-Locked Erbium-Doped Fiber Laser

High-Power Mid-Infrared Laser Source

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