Special erbium fiber amplifiers for short pulse switching, lasers,and propagation

We show that specially tailored erbium-doped fiber amplifiers (EDFA's) can be useful for short-pulse soliton lasers, switching, and propagation. EDFA properties include group-velocity dispersion, birefringence, doping level, and doping distribution; and changing each of these properties enables novel applications. Polarization-maintaining EDFA's can Re used in erbium-doped fiber lasers to avoid intensity-dependent or temperature-dependent state of polarization. We have demonstrated a passively mode-locked erbium-doped fiber laser that generates nearly transform-limited 320 fs pulses with 40 pJ energy using a polarization-maintaining EDFA near the zero dispersion wavelength and a bulk InGaAsP saturable absorber. Moderately birefringent EDFA's can be used to control the walkoff and interaction between orthogonally polarized solitons in all-optical switches. For example, through numerical simulations, we design an all-optical cascadable logic gate with a fanout of 2.7 and energy contrast of 5.5 based on interactions in a soliton period long EDFA. Furthermore, distributed EDFA's can be used for long-distance soliton propagation to shepherd the pulse using bandwidth-limited gain. For picosecond soliton pulses, we show that soliton self-frequency shift and Gordon-Hans effects limit propagation to below 100 km even for low-dispersion fibers. Bandwidth-limited amplification in EDFA may counteract frequency shift due to the soliton self-frequency shift, while frequency filters may suppress the Gordon-Hans effect. Also, because the gain spectral profile for the three-level EDFA changes with pump intensity, complications arise from pump attenuation, and the corresponding changes in the gain spectral profile along the length of the fiber     

高功率光纤激光器发展概况

高功率光纤激光器以其优越的性能和超值的价格,在光通信、印刷、打标、材料加工、医疗等领域有着广阔的应用,将会很大程度上替代传统激光器,并开辟一些新的激光应用领域,扩大激光产业的规模.概述国内外高功率光纤激光器的发展历史与现状.展望了高功率光纤激光器的发展前景.     

Analytical model for rare-earth-doped fiber amplifiers and lasers

An analytical model for two-, three-, and four-level system rare-earth-doped fiber amplifiers and lasers is presented. The theory is applicable to dopants such as erbium, neodymium, thulium; praseodymium, and ytterbium. Fiber-amplifier gain is expressed in terms of attenuation coefficients, intrinsic saturation powers, and cross-saturation powers at the pump and signal wavelengths. These parameters can be directly determined from one- and two-beam fiber-transmission measurements. System-independent formulas are given for the slopes and thresholds of ring and linear fiber lasers. Good agreement between theory and experiment has been shown for erbium-doped fiber amplifiers and lasers and thulium-doped fiber lasers. Because of the finite-pump-level lifetime, three- and four-level models predict a flattening of the fiber laser slope at higher pumping powers when the fiber is shorter than the optimum length. Approximate system-independent solutions are also given for fiber amplifiers with excited-state absorption at either the pump or signal wavelengths. A novel technique, requiring only one tunable light source, is proposed for finding the best pump wavelength when pump ESA is present. The two-level analytical model recently developed for erbium-doped fibers is a special case of this theory     

GaAs-double-heterostructure lasers as optical amplifiers

The results of measurements on a GaAs-double-heterostructure (DHS) laser used as an optical amplifier are reported. The laser's amplifying guide is coupled to an optical fiber with a rectangular core. The laser amplifier can be operated either in the traveling-wave or the resonator mode. The gain, noise, and performance of the amplifier when driven hard into saturation were measured as a function of various parameters.     

高功率光纤激光器研究进展

高功率掺镱双包层光纤激光器由于在效率、散热和光束质量方面的优势,在工业加工、医疗和国防等领域具有广泛的应用前景,是目前国际上激光技术研究的热点之一.首先综述了国际上高功率光纤激光器的研究进展情况,然后重点介绍了中国科学院上海光学精密机械研究所在连续光纤激光和脉冲光纤激光方面所取得的进展,采用双端泵浦技术,在15 m的国产双包层光纤中获得440 W的连续输出,采用MOPA方式,以4 m长的国产光纤作为放大介质,在100 kHz时,获得了133 W的平均功率输出.     

Characterization of efficient dual-wavelength (1050 + 800 nm) pumping scheme for thulium-doped fiber amplifiers

We report on the characterization of a recently introduced dual-wavelength pumping scheme for thulium-doped fiber amplifiers using 800 and 1050 nm. Using a counterpropagating pump configuration, 180 mW of total pump power yielded 27-dB small-signal gain and less than 5-dB noise figure. Furthermore, using optical frequency domain reflectometry, the distributed gain in this configuration was evaluated, allowing for optimization of the doped fiber length.     

Distributed fiber Raman amplifiers with incoherent pumping

Distributed fiber Raman amplifier (DFRA) with incoherent pumping is investigated and its performance is compared to that with the conventional coherent pumping. It is shown that increasing the spectral bandwidth of incoherent pumping source can reduce the Raman gain ripple significantly, and degrade noise figure slightly at short wavelengths, compared to coherent pumping. To achieve the same gain flatness, the number of pumps for broad-band DFRAs with incoherent pumping can be significantly reduced compared to the coherent pumping.     

Dynamic characteristics of double-clad fiber amplifiers for high-power pulse amplification

Based on numerical modeling, the dynamic characteristics of high-power ytterbium-doped double-clad fiber amplifiers during the amplification of nanosecond pulses with kilohertz repetition rates are comprehensively analyzed. The temporal pulse energy, power, upper-level population distribution, amplified spontaneous emission, stored energy, pulse waveform evolution, etc., are emphasized in this paper. Some practical issues in amplification processes, such as the impacts of reflected pulses from the external surfaces and the fluctuation of input pulse energy on the amplifier performance, are also discussed. The models and results are important for the design and development of high-power double-clad fiber amplifiers.     

用于高功率侧向泵浦的透射光栅耦合器

提出一种用于侧面泵浦大功率双包层光纤(DCF)激光器的双凹槽、双槽深的透射光栅耦合器,它可以被直接制作在DCF的侧面内包层上,以实现大功率的激光泵浦。利用严格的电磁场衍射理论对这种结构进行分析,并且通过结合一种梯度优化的拟牛顿算法(quasi-Newton methods)和微型遗传算法(micro-genetic algorithm)对这种结构进行优化,当侧面入射泵浦光分别为TM和TE偏振时,能实现的最大耦合效率分别为81.2%和79.7%,而且选择合适的参数可以做到偏振不敏感,对非偏振光的最大耦合效率可达72.4%,3种情况下光栅耦合器材料的折射率均大于1.8。对光栅的各个结构参数的制作容差γ、LD阵列的出射波长的漂移以及泵浦光的入射角度θ对耦合效率η的影响也进行了分析。     

Performance limitations of high-power DFB fiber lasers

In this letter, we experimentally study several different configurations of high-power single-frequency sources based on distributed-feedback fiber laser (DFB FL). In particular, we have compared two schemes in terms of pumping efficiency, relative intensity noise (RIN) and optical signal-to-noise ratio (OSNR): directly pumped DFB FLs pumped by a high-power fiber-based pump source (stand-alone DFB FL) and a combination of a DFB FL and a power amplifier (amplified DFB FL). At the output powers below 40 mW, a stand-alone DFB FL has the highest OSNR (> 63 dB) and the lowest RIN (< -165 dB/Hz). The net efficiency of a stand-alone DFB FL can be doubled by using an amplified DFB FL at the expense of degraded OSNR and RIN. It is also shown that RIN below -160 dB/Hz and OSNR > 60 dB can be achieved by an amplified DFB with output power greater than 1 W.     

Coherent optical pumping of semiconductor lasers

The influence of coherent optical pumping in semiconductor lasers is investigated theoretically. In particular the mathematical conditions under which an optically pumped system behaves like an electrically (incoherently) pumped system are derived. We show that it is practically impossible to reach the interesting regime where coherent effects are important because of the inherent constraints to absorb photons at the pump frequency and to reach threshold gain at the lasing frequency. The effects of changing the temperature and of reduced dimensionality are discussed     

A metallization scheme for junction-down bonding of high-power semiconductor lasers

High-power semiconductor lasers have found increasing applications in industrial, military, commercial, and consumer products. The thermal management of high-power lasers is critical since the junction temperature rise resulting from large heat fluxes strongly affects the device characteristics, such as wavelength, kink power, threshold current and efficiency, and reliability. The epitaxial-side metallization structure has significant impact on the thermal performance of a junction-down bonded high-power semiconductor laser. In this paper, the influence of the epitaxial-side metal (p-metal) on the thermal behavior of a junction-down mounted GaAs-based high-power single-mode laser is studied using finite-element analysis. It is shown that a metallization structure with thick Au layer can significantly reduce the thermal resistance by distributing the heat flow to wider area laterally, and the thermal resistance of a junction-down bonded laser with thick Au metallization is much less sensitive to the voiding in the die attachment solder interface than a laser with thin Au metallization. A metallization structure of Ti-Pt-thick Au-Ti-Cr-Au is designed and implemented, and the metallurgical stability of this metallization scheme is reported. It was found that, without a diffusion barrier, the thick Au layer in the epi-side metallization would be mostly consumed and form intermetallics with the Sn from the AuSn solder during soldering and thermal aging. The Ti-Pt-thick Au-Ti-Cr-Au metallization scheme prevents the diffusion of Sn into the thick Au layer and preserves the integrity of the metallization system. It is a promising candidate for junction-down bonding of high-power semiconductor lasers for improved thermal management and reliability.     

Multiwavelength lasers based on semiconductor optical amplifiers

Stable multiwavelength lasing is demonstrated with a novel laser, in which a semiconductor optical amplifier offers optical gain and cascaded sampled fiber gratings serve as a comb filter. Five lasing lines are obtained with a fixed wavelength spacing of 0.8 nm. Optical power fluctuations among the lasing lines are improved by adjusting the reflectivity profile through the cascade of two sampled gratings     

Structural and compositional control of the output wavelength of very high power 0.98 mu m GaInAs lasers for pumping fiber amplifiers

The authors report on the design, fabrication, and characterization of high-power strained-layer (SL) InGaAs single-quantum-well (SQW) lasers. The lasers emit a 0.980+or-0.002 mu m. They deliver over 100 mW CW optical power at room temperature in a stable single lateral mode with a beam divergence of 15 approximately=20 degrees . The maximum CW output power measured is 265 mW. The lasers have been successfully used as pump sources for an erbium-doped fiber amplifier.<>     

多泵浦拉曼光纤放大器增益均衡的研究

基于受激拉曼散射原理,根据传输方程,用数值解法计算了单泵浦输入时的拉曼光纤放大器的增益;在此基础上,计算了多信道信号输入时,多泵浦拉曼光纤放大器的增益,并和文献的实验结果做了比较;用遗传算法优化泵浦参数以实现多泵浦拉曼光纤放大器的增益均衡。 1     

Coherent reflectometry of optical fiber amplifiers

The reflectivity of commercially available erbium-doped fiber amplifiers (EDFAs) was measured with coherent optical frequency domain reflectometry (C-OFDR). Reflections at the output isolator as well as the distributed gain along the erbium-doped fiber could be observed thanks to the high amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) rejection due to the coherent detection. Gain figures obtained with the OFDR technique are in good agreement with single-pass direct gain measurements.     

Phase front measurements of high-power diode lasers for optical systems

Phase front measurements of high power index and gain guided diode lasers under CW and pulsed operating conditions have been made. These results are used to calculate the far-field intensity reduction due to wave front aberrations of the diode laser.     

Raman fiber lasers for optical communication application

We review the principle and characteristics of cascaded Raman fiber lasers in their telecommunication applications. The fundamentals of Raman fiber lasers are described, such as pumping scheme, fiber type and reflectors. We explain simple equations forcw laser operation as well as a possible way to calculate spectral width. We investigate the common issues in the use of Raman fiber lasers: theoretical optimization, control of the linewidth, suppression level of the other Stokes orders and relative intensity noise. Finally the more complex multiple-wavelength Raman fiber lasers are reviewed.     

Semiconductor lasers for coherent optical fiber communications

The current status of semiconductor lasers used in coherent optical fiber communications is reviewed for nonexperts in the field. The issues of spectral purity, tuning, modulation, and advanced fabrication methods for photonic integration are discussed, with examples drawn from current experimental devices