Passive mode locking by using nonlinear polarization evolution in a polarization-maintaining erbium-doped fiber

Fermann, M. E.; Andrejco, M. J.; Silberberg, Yaron; Stock, M. L.

doi:10.1364/ol.18.000894

Cited by 146 publications

(64 citation statements)

References 15 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Modifications of these initial experiments have resulted in significant improvements in mode-locked performance. A scheme for environmental stability was introduced in [39], and self-starting of a linear cavity was aided by a semiconductor saturable absorber mirror [40]. Diode pumping and addition of a birefringent tuning plate to the ring laser of [29] allowed tuning ranges as wide as 50 nm centered at 1.55 µm [41].…”

Section: Review Of Passive Mode-locking Techniques and Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ultrashort-pulse fiber ring lasers

Nelson¹,

Jones²,

Tamura³

et al. 1997

Applied Physics B: Lasers and Optics

755

385

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract. This paper reviews recent progress on ultrashort pulse generation with erbium-doped fiber ring lasers. The passive mode-locking technique of polarization additive pulse mode-locking (P-APM) is used to generate stable, selfstarting, sub-500 fs pulses at the fundamental repetition rate from a unidirectional fiber ring laser operating in the soliton regime. Saturation of the APM, spectral sideband generation, and intracavity filtering are discussed. Harmonic modelocking of fiber ring lasers with soliton pulse compression is addressed, and stability regions for the solitons are mapped and compared with theoretical predictions. The stretchedpulse laser, which incorporates segments of positive-and negative-dispersion fiber into the P-APM fiber ring, generates shorter (sub-100 fs) pulses with broader bandwidths (> 65 nm) and higher pulse energies (up to 2.7 nJ). We discuss optimization of the net dispersion of the stretched-pulse laser, use of the APM rejection port as the laser output port, and frequency doubling for amplifier seed applications. We also review the analytical theory of the stretched-pulse laser as well as discuss the excellent noise characteristics of both the soliton and stretched-pulse lasers. 42.60F; 42.65; 42.80 Fiber lasers were made possible in the 1960s by the incorporation of trivalent rare-earth ions such as neodymium, erbium, and thulium into glass hosts [1]. Soon thereafter neodymium was incorporated into the cores of fiber waveguides [2,3]. Due to the high efficiency of the Nd +3 ion as a laser, early work focused on Nd +3 -doped silica fiber lasers operating at 1.06 µm [4]. Doping of silica fibers with Er +3 ions was not achieved until the 1980s [5,6]. Since that time Er +3 -doped fiber lasers have received much attention, because the lasing wavelength at 1.55 µm falls within the low-loss window of optical fibers and thus is suitable for optical fiber communications. Rare-earth ions such as Ho +3 [7,8], Tm +3 [9-11], and * Current address: Lucent Technologies/Bell Labs, 791 Holmdel-Keyport Road, Holmdel, NJ, USA * * Current address: NTT Access Network Systems Laboratory, Tokai-mura, Naka-gun, Ibaraki-ken 319-11, Japan Yb +3 [12,13] have also been used as dopants or co-dopants in silica or fluoride fibers, allowing new lasing or pumping wavelengths, and Pr +3 has been incorporated into fluoride fiber, providing emission at 1.3 µm [14,15]. PACS:Among the numerous advantages of fiber lasers are simple doping procedures, low loss, and the possibility of pumping with compact, efficient diodes. The fiber itself provides the waveguide, and the availability of various fiber components minimizes the need for bulk optics and mechanical alignment. Many different cavity configurations can be easily built with fibers and fused-fiber couplers, including linear FabryPerot, ring, and combinations of the two. Enhancement of the fiber nonlinearity due to large signal intensities and long interaction lengths is an additional advantage of fiber lasers that is particularly important for mode-locki...

show abstract

Section: Review Of Passive Mode-locking Techniques and Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ultrashort-pulse fiber ring lasers

Nelson¹,

Jones²,

Tamura³

et al. 1997

Applied Physics B: Lasers and Optics

755

385

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Notwithstanding their relative simplicity of design and of the mathematical models describing them, the lasers with mode-locking achieved due to the effect of non-linear polarisation rotation exhibit an exceptional variety of generation modes and leave unanswered a plethora of questions, which will be the subject of future investigations. The general principle of mode locking in the considered lasers is rather simple (Hofer et al, 1991;Matsas et al, 1992;Fermann et al, 1993). When travelling along a span of optical fibre, laser pulses with sufficiently high power level will rotate their polarisation ellipse due to the Kerr effect (dependence of the refraction index on the radiation intensity).…”

Section: Underlying Physics Of High-energy Pulse Generationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mode-Locked Fibre Lasers with High-Energy Pulses

Smirnov¹,

Kobtsev²,

Kukarin³

et al. 2011

Laser Systems for Applications

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

“…4 In addition to being ideal for long-haul communications applications, 5 solitons have also led to the development of the optical fiber ring laser. [6][7][8][9] For the ring laser configuration in Fig. 1 the Kerr nonlinearity of the birefringent optical fiber generates a nonlinear rotation of the polarization state that depends on the pulse intensity.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Simple devices such as these have been shown experimentally to generate stable and robust solitonlike pulse trains that can be used for a wide variety of telecommunications purposes. [6][7][8][9][10] The two key modeling elements that describe the modelocking dynamics are the inclusion of nonlinear polarization rotation induced by cross-phase modulation, and polarization control through the passive polarizer. In particular, we model optical pulses with coupled NLSs subject to periodic perturbations by the passive polarizer.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Nonlinear dynamics of mode-locking optical fiber ring lasers

et al. 2002

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

We consider a model of a mode-locked fiber ring laser for which the evolution of a propagating pulse in a birefringent optical fiber is periodically perturbed by rotation of the polarization state owing to the presence of a passive polarizer. The stable modes of operation of this laser that correspond to pulse trains with uniform amplitudes are fully classified. Four parameters, i.e., polarization, phase, amplitude, and chirp, are essential for an understanding of the resultant pulse-train uniformity. A reduced set of four coupled nonlinear differential equations that describe the leading-order pulse dynamics is found by use of the variational nature of the governing equations. Pulse-train uniformity is achieved in three parameter regimes in which the amplitude and the chirp decouple from the polarization and the phase. Alignment of the polarizer either near the slow or the fast axis of the fiber is sufficient to establish this stable mode locking.

show abstract

Passive mode locking by using nonlinear polarization evolution in a polarization-maintaining erbium-doped fiber

Cited by 146 publications

References 15 publications

Ultrashort-pulse fiber ring lasers

Ultrashort-pulse fiber ring lasers

Mode-Locked Fibre Lasers with High-Energy Pulses

Nonlinear dynamics of mode-locking optical fiber ring lasers

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About