Singly Ho/sup 3+/-doped fluoride fibre laser operating at 2.92 /spl mu/m

A singly Ho/sup 3+/-doped fluoride fibre laser that uses energy transfer upconversion to maintain the population inversion has produced 340 mW at 2.92 /spl mu/m. The /spl sim/1100 nm output from a diode-cladding-pumped Yb/sup 3+/-doped silica fibre laser was used as the pump source and a maximum slope efficiency of 5% was obtained.     

210 mW 2.84 /spl mu/m Ho/sup 3+/, Pr/sup 3+/-doped fluoride fibre laser

210 mW of unsaturated continuous-wave output from a Ho/sup 3+/, Pr/sup 3+/-doped fluoride fibre laser is demonstrated using the /spl sim/1100 nm output from a free-running diode-cladding-pumped Yb/sup 3+/-doped silica fibre laser as the pump source. A slope efficiency of 3.2% and an output wavelength of 2.84 /spl mu/m are obtained.     

Multiwavelength diode-cladding-pumped Nd/sup 3+/-doped germano-aluminosilicate fiber laser

Simultaneous multiwavelength oscillation at 1060 and 1090 nm has been produced from a free-running Nd/sup 3+/-doped multicomponent silica fiber laser. As a result of co-doping with both Al/sub 2/O/sub 3/ and GeO/sub 2/, the Nd/sup 3+/ ions are situated at separate sites relating to either Al/sup 3+/-rich or Ge/sup 4+/-rich regions of the germano-aluminosilicate glass. The slope efficiency of the combined /spl sim/1-/spl mu/m output was /spl sim/52% (56%) with respect to the launched (absorbed) pump power. The 1060-nm emission reaches threshold first because of the greater number of Nd/sup 3+/ ions that are located at Al/sup 3+/-rich sites. On chopping the pump light the relaxation oscillations relating to the 1090-nm emission are antiphase with the oscillations observed with the 1060-nm emission. A degree of spectral overlap exists between the fluorescence emitted from Nd/sup 3+/ ions located at each site. Power equalization (to /spl sim/1 W each) of the 1060- and 1090-nm emissions was carried out by way of Raman amplification that occurred either internally or externally to the Nd/sup 3+/-doped silica fiber laser.     

1.47 /spl mu/m Tm/sup 3+/:ZBLAN fibre laser pumped at 1.064 /spl mu/m

A large core area (1257 /spl mu/m/sup 2/) Tm/sup 3+/-doped ZBLAN fibre laser operated at 1.47 /spl mu/m is demonstrated. The pump source is a Nd:YAG laser operated at 1.064 /spl mu/m. A laser output power of 1.56 W continuous wave was obtained for 5.2 W of launched pump power. The slope efficiency with respect to the launched pump power was measured to be 33%.     

High-power broadly tunable Ho/sup 3+/-doped silica fibre laser

Tuning of the 2.1 /spl mu/m Ho/sup 3+/-doped silica fibre laser is demonstrated for the first time. The /sup 5/I/sub 7//spl rarr//sup 5/I/sub 8/ transition provides tuning over 144 nm, from 2019 to 2163 nm, and a maximum pump-limited output power of 1.58 W at 2100 nm was produced.     

85 W Tm/sup 3+/-doped silica fibre laser

An 85 W Tm/sup 3+/-doped silica fibre laser is presented. To the best of the authors' knowledge this is the highest output power achieved by pumping with 793 nm. The slope efficiency was 56%, the threshold 11 W and the output wavelength centred at 2.04 /spl mu/m. The high rate of cross relaxation in this laser provided a quantum efficiency of >130%.     

Pr/sup 3+/-doped fluoride single-mode fiber laser

Laser oscillation at 1.312 mu m was achieved using a Pr/sup 3+/-doped fluoride single-mode fiber laser pumped at 1.017 mu m. The operation of a rare-earth-doped fiber laser at 1.31 mu m, which is one of the central wavelengths in conventional optical telecommunication trunk line systems, was demonstrated for the first time using Pr/sup 3+/ ion as an active ion. The laser cavity consists of a mirror and a cleaved fiber facet used as an output mirror. The maximum output power, threshold pump, and slope efficiency are 26 mW, 370 mW, and 9.86%, respectively.<>     

A 43-W C-band tunable narrow-linewidth erbium-ytterbium codoped large-core fiber laser

The authors report a widely tunable and highly efficient cladding-pumped erbium-ytterbium codoped large-core fiber laser, generating up to 43 W of output power at /spl sim/1.5 /spl mu/m with a narrow linewidth (0.16-nm full-width at half-maximum) and a good beam quality (M/sup 2/<1.7). By use of a tunable narrow-band fiber Bragg grating, the laser wavelength was tuned from 1532 to 1567 nm, limited upwards by the tuning range of the fiber grating. The overall slope efficiency was 32% with respect to launched pump power.     

35-dB gain Tm-doped ZBLYAN fiber amplifier operating at 1.65 /spl mu/m

We demonstrate the first high gain rare-earth-doped fiber amplifier operating at 1.65 /spl mu/m. It consists of ZBLYAN fiber with a Tm/sup 3+/-doped core and Tb/sup 3+/-doped cladding, pumped by 1.22 /spl mu/m laser diodes. It is possible to achieve efficient amplification with Tm/sup 3+/ ions if their amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) in the 1.75 to 2.0 /spl mu/m wavelength region is suppressed by doping Tb/sup 3+/ ions in the cladding. A two-stage-type fiber amplifier is constructed and a signal gain of 35 dB is achieved for a pump power of 140 mW. A gain over 25 dB is realized in the 1.65 /spl mu/m to 1.67 /spl mu/m wavelength region.     

Analysis and optimization of Q-switched operation of a Tm/sup 3+/-doped silica fiber laser operating at 2 /spl mu/m

Analysis and operation of a Q-switched Tm/sup 3+/-doped silica fiber laser in the wavelength region of 2 /spl mu/m is described when pumped with a Nd:YAG laser operating at 1.319 /spl mu/m. A large core of 17-/spl mu/m diameter was used to increase the laser gain volume, allowing high pump-power absorption and an output of high pulse energy and peak power. An acoustooptic modulator was used as Q-switching element and operated at repetition rates up to 30 kHz. A maximum peak output power of greater than 4 kW and a pulse duration at full-width at half-maximum of 150 ns has been obtained. This is the first report of high peak-power operation of the thulium-doped silica fiber laser.     

Efficient upconversion pumping at 1.064 mu m Tm/sup 3+/-doped fluoride fibre laser operating around 1.47 mu m

1.064 mu m upconversion pumping was used to operate a highly efficient CW and Q-switched thulium (Tm/sup 3+/)-doped fluoride fibre laser at around 1.47 mu m. The maximum CW output power was 100 mW for a launched pump power of 570 mW. The threshold power was 200 mW, the slope efficiency 27% and the wavelength width 20 nm. A peak power of 70 W was generated for Q-switching at a launched pump power of 300 mW.<>     

Multi-watt, high efficiency, diffraction-limited Nd:YAG planar waveguide laser

An efficient, longitudinally diode-pumped, diffraction-limited, Nd:YAG double-clad planar waveguide laser was operated on four transitions of the Nd/sup 3+/ ion. Optimized output powers of 4.3, 3.5, and 2.7 W were obtained for absorbed pump powers of /spl sim/7 W, for the transitions at the lasing wavelengths of 1.064 /spl mu/m, 946 nm, and 1.3 /spl mu/m, respectively. Operation of the weak /sup 4/F/sub 3/2//spl rarr//sup 4/I/sub 5/2/ transition, lasing at 1.833 /spl mu/m, was demonstrated at an absorbed pump power threshold of 300 mW and an output power of 400 mW, with a nonoptimized output coupling. Diffraction-limited performance was obtained in both the guided and nonguided axes.     

Plug-in type 1.3-/spl mu/m fiber amplifier module for rack-mounted shelves

We have successfully developed a plug-in type PDFA module for rack mounted shelves which is assembled on a printed-board. In this module, we use a newly developed Pr/sup 3+/-doped high-NA PbF/sub 2//InF/sub 3/-based fluoride fiber and wavelength stabilized 1.017-/spl mu/m laser diodes (LDs). We have obtained a small-signal gain of 24 dB and a noise figure of 6.6 dB at 1.30 /spl mu/m with an LD drive current of 240 mA/spl times/2. We achieved an output power of 10 dBm with a signal input power of 0 dBm. The total power consumption of this module, including that of a Peltier cooler, was 3.5 W when the LD drive current was 240 mA/spl times/2.     

Pr/sup 3+/-doped fluoride fiber amplifier module pumped by a fiber coupled master oscillator/power amplifier laser diode

We constructed the first Pr/sup 3+/-doped fluoride fiber amplifier (PDFA) module pumped by a fiber-coupled master oscillator/power amplifier laser diode (MOPA-LD) operating at 1.017 /spl mu/m. The maximum signal gain and noise figure were 30.5 and 5.5 dB, respectively. An output power of 18 dBm was achieved at an input signal power of 0 dBm. Furthermore, we showed that the use of MOPA-LD pumping, rather than conventional Nd-YLF laser pumping, makes it possible to halve the length of the Pr/sup 3+/-doped fluoride required in the amplifier module and also allows a broader spectral bandwidth to be achieved.     

Power scaling of 2 /spl mu/m ytterbium-sensitised thulium-doped silica fibre laser diode-pumped at 975 nm

An ytterbium-sensitised thulium-doped silica fibre laser that generates up to 75 W of output power in the 2 /spl mu/m wavelength range when cladding-pumped by a 975 nm diode stack is reported. The slope efficiency is 32% with respect to the launched pump power and the beam quality factor (M/sup 2/) is 1.3.     

A high gain, high output saturation power Pr/sup 3+/-doped fluoride fiber amplifier operating at 1.3 mu m

A high net gain of 30.1 dB at 1.309 mu m and an output saturation of 13 dBm are obtained using a Pr/sup 3+/-doped fluoride fiber amplifier pumped at 1.017 mu m. The critical Pr/sup 3+/ concentration at which concentration quenching begins to occur was obtained by fluorescence lifetime measurement. The Pr/sup 3+/ concentration should be less than 1000 ppm to suppress the concentration quenching by cross relaxation. A high signal output power of 17.8 dBm was extracted from the Pr/sup 3+/-doped fluoride fiber. The Pr/sup 3+/-doped fluoride amplifier shows good potential for use in 13. mu m telecommunication systems.<>     

Efficient PDFA module using high-NA PbF/sub 2//InF/sub 3/-based fluoride fiber

The highest reported single-pass gain coefficient of 0.36 dB/mW has been achieved using a newly developed Pr/sup 3+/-doped high-NA PbF/sub 2//InF/sub 3/-based fluoride fiber, with a /spl Delta/n of 6.6%, a core diameter of 1.2 /spl mu/m and a transmission loss of 250 dB/km at 1.2 /spl mu/m. This fiber was used to construct an efficient PDFA module with a MOPA-LD. A small-signal net gain of 22.5 dB was achieved at 1.30 /spl mu/m with a pump power of 23m mW.     

Simultaneous operation of a Raman fiber amplifier and laser pumped by a dual-wavelength Nd/sup 3+/-doped fiber laser

This paper presents an experimental study on the dynamics of Raman fiber lasers that use highly GeO/sub 2/-doped fibers as an active medium and a dual-wavelength (1060 and 1090 nm) Nd/sup 3+/-doped fiber laser as a pump source. The 1090-nm pump wavelength is located within the SiO/sub 2/ Raman gain spectrum relating to the 1060-nm pump wavelength, and competition is observed between Raman amplification of the 1090-nm emission with the 1060-nm emission used as the pump source and Raman lasing, which is independent of the 1090-nm amplification and which is also uses the 1060-nm emission as the pump source. Several pump configurations have been demonstrated to generate specific Stokes emissions generated through Raman lasing or amplification. Changing the gain-to-loss ratio by introducing intracavity loss of Raman emissions or increasing the Raman fiber length within each configuration can force either Raman amplification or lasing to dominate. The maximum slope efficiency as a function of the launched pump power was /spl sim/55% with a total output power of 1.6 W produced. A red shift of both the pump and the Stokes wavelengths is experimentally observed when the launched diode pump power is scaled up.     

Ytterbium-doped large-core fibre laser with 610 W of near diffraction-limited output power

A cladding-pumped ytterbium-doped fibre laser, generating up to 610 W of continuous-wave output power at 1.1 /spl mu/m with slope efficiency of 80% and near diffraction-limited beam quality (M/sup 2/=1.3) is reported. No undesirable roll-over was observed in output power with increasing pump power.     

Ytterbium-doped large-core fibre laser with 272 W output power

A highly efficient cladding-pumped Yb-doped large-core fibre laser, generating up to 272 W of continuous-wave output power at 1.08 /spl mu/m with a beam quality (M/sup 2/) of 3.2, is reported. The slope efficiency was 83% with respect to the launched pump power. No saturation (roll-off) was observed in output power with increasing pump power.