Widely tunable 70-MHz near-infrared source of ultrashort pulses based on a mode-locked ytterbium laser and a photonic-crystal fiber

Abstract

Soliton self-frequency shift in a highly nonlinear photonic-crystal fiber is shown to enable an efficient wavelength conversion of 100-fs 70-MHz output of a solid-state ytterbium laser, allowing the generation of sub-100-fs laser pulses with a central wavelength tunable from 1060 to 1400 nm. In the single-soliton regime, laser pulses are efficiently converted into isolated wavelength-tunable bands, with a photon-number conversion efficiency of 82% achieved for ytterbium-laser pulses converted to a spectral band at 1125 nm supporting 35-fs transform-limited pulses. For high input powers, the ytterbium-laser pulses are coupled to multiple solitons inside the fiber, enabling efficient supercontinuum generation through involved soliton dynamics.

Experimental Demonstration of Soliton Cascade in Higher-Order-Mode Fibers

“…The final soliton energy was 3.5 nJ, and the pulse duration was 55 fs. The demonstrated pulse energy is nearly an order of magnitude higher than previous experiments using solid core PCFs at a similar wavelength range [15]- [17].…”

Ultrafast multiplex broadband optical switching in the infrared with a fluorinated polymer

“…We show that a reversible optical anisotropy induced by an ultrashort laser pulse in an FP film enables an ultrafast switching of ultrabroadband optical signals in the NIR and SWIR ranges. Experiments presented below in this paper also demonstrate that FP materials can be advantageously integrated into advanced photonic systems and data-processing circuits, including fiber-optic [8][9][10] and silicon-nanowaveguide [11] components, improving the efficiency and enhancing functionalities of such devices.…”

Remote steering of laser beams by radar- and laser-induced refractive-index gradients in the atmosphere

“…The scalar approximation is accurate enough as long as the refractive index varies on a spatial scale much larger than the radiation wavelength, failing for nanowaveguide-type structures [13][14][15].…”