High-power ytterbium-doped fibre master-oscillator power-amplifier at 1018 nm

A high-power master-oscillator power-amplifier (MOPA) at 1018 nm employing ytterbium (Yb)-doped fibres as a gain medium is reported. Utilizing a diffraction grating as a reflector, we could successfully suppress the influence of the broadband amplified spontaneous emission on the master-oscillator or the power-amplifier, resulting in stable amplification of the laser signal at 1018 nm. Based on a simple theoretical simulation on gain spectra and experimental investigation on parasitic lasing thresholds, the Yb fibre MOPA constructed in-house yielded 220 W of output at 1018 nm with a beam propagation factor (M2) of 1.1. The prospects for further power scaling are considered.

Use of symmetric Sagnac dual-ring scheme for tunable single-mode erbium fiber laser

In this paper, an erbium-doped fiber (EDF) laser with symmetric Sagnac dual-ring scheme is experimentally studied to achieve tunable and stable continuous-wave (CW) single-longitudinal-mode (SLM) presentation. In the measurement, the obtained wavelength-tuning bandwidth can be reached from 1518.0 to 1578.0 nm based on a C-band EDF gain-medium. Moreover, the corresponding output power, optical signal to noise ratio (OSNR) and wavelength linewidth of the designed EDF laser are studied and performed simultaneously.

Distributed Kerr Lens Mode-Locked Yb:YAG Thin-Disk Oscillator

Ultrafast laser oscillators are indispensable tools for diverse applications in scientific research and industry. When the phases of the longitudinal laser cavity modes are locked, pulses as short as a few femtoseconds can be generated. As most high-power oscillators are based on narrow-bandwidth materials, the achievable duration for high-power output is usually limited. Here, we present a distributed Kerr lens mode-locked Yb:YAG thin-disk oscillator which generates sub-50 fs pulses with spectral widths far broader than the emission bandwidth of the gain medium at full width at half maximum. Simulations were also carried out, indicating good qualitative agreement with the experimental results. Our proof-of-concept study shows that this new mode-locking technique is pulse energy and average power scalable and applicable to other types of gain media, which may lead to new records in the generation of ultrashort pulses.

Ion-Doped Photonic Crystal Fiber Lasers

Compared with conventional solid-state lasers, fiber lasers have the advantages of small size, simple cooling system, and good output beam quality, enabling them an extended service lifetime in industrialized environments. Periodically arranged photonic crystals have been the most important gain medium for high-power laser applications, which overcame the problems in fiber lasers such as small mode field, low degree of nonlinearity, and non-adjustable dispersion. In this mini-review, we summarize the recent advances of typical ion-doped photonic crystal fiber lasers doped, discuss the challenges, and provide an outlook on the future developments in ion-doped photonic crystal fiber lasers.

Effect of Flow Induced Parameters on the Output of A High Repetition Rate Dye Laser

The factors influencing the optical path stability in a dye laser flow cell are studied numerically and experimentally. A specially designed curved metallic dye flow cell providing a gain medium of 25 mm x 0.5 mm x 0.2 mm along with a compact resonator mechanical assembly is used in the study. The same configuration with gain medium of 15 mm x 0.5 mm x 0.2 mm is successfully used for single mode dye laser. The effects of flow induced vibrations on dye flow cell are studied with and without mechanically coupling it with the resonator structure for flow speeds varying from 1.33 m/s to 6.67 m/s at laser pump position. The effect of the mechanical instability, velocity fluctuation and temperature fluctuations in flowing dye solution on dye laser performance are studied at different flow speeds. These results are compared with the dye laser output parameters and found to be in good agreement. This study is useful in designing a high stability narrowband dye laser.

Saturable absorption and its consequent effects in bistable erbium‐doped fiber ring laser

The linear absorption in erbium-doped fiber contributes to its excellent role in erbium-doped fiber amplifiers and lasers. A nonlinear optical contribution in the absorption of erbium-doped fiber is responsible for optical bistable action when it is present in a laser cavity. To quantify this effect, the variation of absorption coefficient is measured at different signal powers at multiple wavelengths in the C-band for different EDF lengths, and saturable absorption parameters such as the saturation power are extracted. Then the modification in the output characteristics of erbium-doped fiber ring laser with change in fiber length and in the presence of self-induced saturable absorption effect within the gain medium which leads to optical bistability is measured. By comparing the measured parameters obtained from saturable absorption in erbium-doped fiber and optical bistability in erbium-doped fiber ring laser, we estimated the length of the gain medium which acts as the saturable absorber inside the cavity of the laser. This is useful in constructing bistable lasers with optimized conditions. The temporal evolution of cavity loss and gain with the intra-cavity power and up- and down-thresholds helps in understanding why the down-threshold will be lesser than the up-threshold in bistable laser systems.

A Diode Pumped Middle Infrared Laser Based on Ho: GdVO4 Crystal

Ho: GdVO4 crystal is the host material for the production of laser working in the middle infrared range. In this contribution, the characteristic parameters of the Ho: GdVO4 crystal were measured, and the material was used as a gain medium to build a diode-pumped laser for the first time, to reach a laser output at 2047.9 nm. The output beam quality factor M2 was measured to be 1.4 and 1.3 in x-direction and y-direction, respectively. In addition, the influence of the transmittance of the output mirror on the generation of laser was obtained through exploration. The results showed that the laser wavelength blue-shifted as the output transmittance increased.

Quasi-BIC laser enabled by high-contrast grating resonator for gas detection

In this work, we propose and numerically investigate a two-dimensional microlaser based on the concept of bound states in the continuum (BIC). The device consists of a thin gain layer (Rhodamine 6G dye-doped silica) sandwiched between two high-contrast-grating layers. The structure supports various BIC modes upon a proper choice of topological parameters; in particular it supports a high-Q quasi-BIC mode when partially breaking a bound state in the continuum at Γ point. The optically-pumped gain medium provides sufficient optical gain to compensate the quasi-BIC mode losses, enabling lasing with ultra-low pump threshold (fluence of 17 μJ/cm2) and very narrow optical linewidth in the visible range. This innovative device displays distinguished sensing performance for gas detection, and the emission wavelength sensitively shifts to the longer wavelength with the changing of environment refractive index (in order of 5 × 10−4). The achieved bulk sensitivity is 221 nm/RIU with a high signal to noise ratio, and a record-high figure of merit reaches to 4420 RIU−1. This ultracompact and low threshold quasi-BIC laser facilitated by the ultra-narrow resonance can serve as formidable candidate for on-chip gas sensor.