Generation of high-power femtosecond pulses near 1.5 μm using acolor-center laser system

The authors have developed a high-power F-center laser system capable of generating femtosecond pulses with energies exceeding 50 pJ at wavelengths near 1.5 μm. Short pulses (140 fs) from an additive-pulse mode-locked NaCl laser are amplified in a multipass NaCl amplifier at kilohertz repetition rates. The system can generate peak powers approaching 500 MW, with wavelengths tunable from 1.52 to 1.64 μm. The amplified pulses are used to generate a continuum in various solid media without optical damage. The continuum generated in BaF₂ is extremely broad, extending from below 400 nm to 3.5 μm. Construction and operating details are discussed as well as the system's utility for femtosecond measurements in the infrared and high-power experiments     

Generation of 185 fs pedestal-free pulses using a 1.55 μmdistributed feedback semiconductor laser

The authors report the generation of 185 fs pulses from a 1.55 μm distributed feedback semiconductor laser, the shortest pedestal-free pulses ever generated from semiconductor lasers. This has been realised by simultaneously performing soliton-effect compression and intensity discrimination for pedestal removal in a single fibre     

Optical pulse compression in 1.5 μm wavelength region usinglarge-positive-dispersion fibre and grating pair

Optical pulse compression at 1.5 μm has been conducted. 20 ps (FWHM) optical pulses from a Tl:KCl-colour-centre laser were compressed into pedestal-free 1.2 ps pulses using a large-positive-dispersion fibre and a grating pair. In addition, 280 fs pulses were obtained from the resultant 1.2 ps through the soliton compression effect in a negative-dispersion fibre     

Simultaneous generation of wavelength tunable two-coloredfemtosecond soliton pulses using optical fibers

Wavelength tunable two-colored femtosecond (fs) soliton pulse generation is proposed and demonstrated for the first time, using passively mode-locked fs fiber laser and polarization maintaining fibers. The wavelengths of the two soliton pulses can be changed arbitrarily by varying the power and polarization direction of the fiber-input pulse. Ideal two colored soliton pulses in which the pulsewidths are about 200 fs are generated in the wavelength region of 1.56-1.70 μm for 110-m fiber. The generated pulses are almost transform-limited ones     

Color center lasers passively mode locked by quantum wells

Using multiple-quantum-well (MQW) saturable absorbers, a NaCl color center was passively mode locked to produce 275-fs transform-limited, pedestal-free pulses with a peak power as high as 3.7 kW. The pulses are tunable from λ=1.59 to 1.7 μm by choosing MQWs with different bandgaps. The output pulses from the laser were shortened to 25 fs using the technique of soliton compression in a fiber. The steady-state operation of the laser requires the combination of a fast saturable absorber and gain saturation     

Generation of ultrashort pulses from a neodymium glass laser system

A neodymium glass laser system capable of generating high-energy, ultrashort pulses at a convenient repetition rate is described. The effect of nonlinear frequency pulling on active mode locking is discussed. By minimizing the nonlinear frequency pulling, it is possible to routinely generate stable ~10-ps pulses at a 100-MHz repetition rate from the actively mode-locked oscillator. The regenerator amplifier increases the oscillator pulse energy to over 30 μJ at a 370-Hz repetition rate. Using intracavity self-phase modulation, the regenerative amplifier also broadens the pulse bandwidth to ~35 Å. By subsequent pulse compression while maintaining high energy, it is possible to produce 0.55-ps pulses with >10 μJ. An optical fiber pulse compressor further shortens the pulses to 30 fs (30 nJ), the shortest pulses ever generated at 1.054 μm from a neodymium laser system     

Polarisation-maintaining, harmonically modelocked soliton fibrelaser with repetition rate stabilisation using optical pumping ofsaturable Bragg reflector

Well-organised harmonic modelocking with up to 12 pulses in a 1.5 μm polarisation-maintaining erbium soliton fibre laser is achieved. With eight pulses in the cavity, repetition rate timing jitter is suppressed by 7.3 dB through optical pumping above the absorber bandgap. This stabilised laser operates at 463 MHz with nearly transform-limited, 660 fs, 1 pJ pulses     

Experimental demonstration of a low-latency fiber soliton logicgate

We experimentally demonstrate switching in a 50 m-long soliton logic gate with a switching energy of 40 pJ using 490 fs pulses at 1.553 μm from an erbium-doped fiber laser. A full characterization of this gate shows a peak contrast ratio of 4.2:1, a timing window of 1.1 pulse width and cascadable operation. To our knowledge, the gate length of 50 m is at least six times shorter than other designs with comparable switching energies. The low-latency of this gate is possible due to a low-birefringent polarization-maintaining fiber that possesses a high polarization extinction ratio of up to 20 dB with a low birefringence of 2.6×10^-6. The low birefringence leads to a longer walk-off length between two orthogonally polarized pulses, where the walk-off length for 490 fs pulses is 56 m. We also study this gate numerically and find good agreement between the simulations and experiments     

Compact system of wavelength-tunable femtosecond soliton pulsegeneration using optical fibers

Using passively mode-locked femtosecond (fs) fiber laser and polarization maintaining fibers, the compact system of wavelength-tunable femtosecond (fs) fundamental soliton pulse generation is realized. The monocolored soliton pulse, not multicolored ones, with the ideal sech² shape is generated, and its wavelength can be linearly shifted by varying merely the fiber-input power in the wide wavelength region of 1.56-1.78 μm for a 75-m fiber. The soliton pulses of less than 200 fs are generated with the high conversion efficiency of 75%-85%. This system can be widely used as a portable and practical wavelength-tunable fs optical pulse sources     

All-optical switching with low-peak power in microfabricated AlGaAswaveguides

We report all-optical switching with low-peak power in a microfabricated AlGaAs waveguide operating at 1.6 μm. We show that by using a 1-μm long microfabricated strongly-guided waveguide with 0.8 μm by 0.9 μm mode cross-sectional area, switching is achieved with an average power of 1.2 mW for 82-MHz mode-locked 430 fs pulses. The estimated peak pump power and pulse energy inside the microfabricated waveguide were ~30 W and ~14.6 pJ, respectively, which is 5-10 times lower than the values needed with conventional waveguides. In terms of a practicality index defined via switching power times waveguide length, this waveguide has around the best value     

Propagation characteristics of femtosecond pulses in erbium-dopedmonomode optical fibers

The spectral and temporal characteristics of femtosecond optical pulses (durations of ~120 fs, wavelength of 1.5 μm) propagating in erbium-doped monomode fibers have been experimentally studied in detail. Distinct spectral broadening and shifting processes have been observed for three types of fibers (two different dopant concentrations and one erbium-free sample for comparison). Whereas only a small amount of spectral broadening occurs in the Er-free fiber, there is a major spectral extension (1.3-1.7 μm) for the low-doped erbium fiber, in which a self-phase-modulation mediated four-wave-mixing process has been observed. Autocorrelation data for the exiting pulses indicate the existence of strong pulse shaping and breakup effects in the Er-doped fibers     

Modulation instability and soliton-Raman generation inP2O5 doped silica fiber

Generation of high-repetition-rate modulation instability pulse trains and high- energy soliton-Raman pulses of ≃60 fs durations, in a single-mode P₂O₅-doped silica fiber, is reported. The 7 mol.% concentration P₂O₅ fiber was pumped in a single pass arrangement by a Q-switched and mode-locked Nd:YAG laser operated at 1.319 μm. Operating in the region of zero second-order dispersion, modulation instability Stokes sideband seeded resonantly cascade stimulated Raman scattering associated with Si-O-Si and P=0 vibration modes of the fiber. As a result, broad bandwidth and widely tunable 1.36-1.80 μm femtosecond pulses were obtained     

Femtosecond soliton transmission characteristics in an ultralongerbium-doped fiber amplifier with different pumping configurations

The transmission characteristics of femtosecond optical solitons in an 18.2 km-long erbium-doped fiber amplifier (EDFA) have been investigated in detail by changing the pumping configuration. With backward pumping, a lossless transmission of 440 fs solitons at 1.55 μm has been realized with a pump power of 16 mW. The output pulsewidth is determined by the spectrum modified by the soliton self-frequency shift. In a bidirectional pumping configuration, 440-fs soliton pulses have been transmitted for a total pump power of 38 mW, where the output pulse width is determined by the original 1.55 μm spectrum. Although a femtosecond soliton is very weakly trapped in the EDFA-gain bandwidth of 1.55 μm and the soliton self-frequency shift inevitably occurs, the femtosecond pulse component still exists at 1.55 μm, and a pulse can be successfully transmitted with a gain of 11 dB and very little pulse broadening     

Influence of space charges on the impulse response of InGaAsmetal-semiconductor-metal photodetectors

The impulse response of interdigitated metal-semiconductor-metal photodetectors fabricated on an Fe-doped InGaAs absorbing layer and an Fe-doped InP barrier enhancement layer is investigated. For ultra-short pulse excitation of 150 fs at λ=620 nm the photoresponse is found to be less than 13 ps FWHM for detectors with 1 μm finger spacing. Above a certain level of illumination, the peak amplitude increases sublinearly and the relative contribution of the tail to the detector response is appreciably enhanced. The screening of the electric field by photo-generated space charges is responsible for this nonlinearity. For detectors with 5 μm finger spacing illuminated with 1.3 μm light pulses (FWHM=33 ps), space charge perturbation of the impulse response manifests itself by a decrease of the FWHM and an increase of the fall time with increasing illumination level. The practical consequences for the performance of MSM detectors in various applications are discussed     

Tunable infrared generation using a femtosecond 250 kHz Ti:sapphireregenerative amplifier

A mode-locked Ti:sapphire regenerative amplifier system pumped with a single argon ion laser produces μJ energy 100 femtosecond pulses of 800 nm wavelength at 250 kHz repetition rate. Pumping a Type II BaB₂O₄ (BBO) optical parametric amplifiers (OPA) with this output generates 500 nJ infrared pulses and continuous tuning from 1.1 μm to beyond 2.5 μm. Difference frequency generation of the signal idler output from this OPA source in AgGaS₂ produces 60 nJ mid infrared pulses and continuous tuning from 2.4 μm to beyond 12 μm     

Simulation of the generation of ultrafast midinfrared laser pulses

A numerical simulation of an ultrafast semiconductor switch for 10.6 μm CO₂ radiation is presented. It is based on the solution of the Helmholtz electromagnetic wave equation for p-polarized light and the ambipolar diffusion equation. Calculations are performed in various time dependent inhomogeneous plasma profiles. The analysis shows that the temporal reflectivity depends on the initial visible radiation fluence, duration, and diffusion coefficient of the sample. The results support the feasibility of generating midinfrared ultrashort pulses between 100 fs and 65 ps. By proper choice of the laser fluence and the semiconductor material, longer pulses are also possible     

All-optical 1.5 μm to 1.3 μm wavelength conversion in awalk-off compensating nonlinear optical loop mirror

We demonstrate highly efficient all-optical conversion from 1.5 μm to 1.3 μm using a novel nonlinear optical loop mirror that compensates for walk-off. We make the fiber loop by splicing alternating segments of standard single-mode and dispersion-shifted fibers and choose their lengths such that the walk-off of the 1.3 μm and 1.5 μm pulses in one segment is completely reversed in the adjacent segment. We also show that the width of the converted pulses can be tailored by this scheme     

Compact all-diode-pumped femtosecond laser source based on chirpedpulse optical parametric amplification in periodically poledKTiOPO4

1 kHz chirped pulse optical parametric amplification in periodically poled KTiOPO₄ achieving 20 μJ amplified signal pulse energy at 1.573 μm and 320 fs pulse duration after recompression is reported     

Compact fully fibre integrated source of 100 fs pulses at 1.1 /spl mu/m based on compression in holey fibre

A simple, compact, fully fibre integrated source of /spl sim/100 fs pulses at a wavelength of 1.1 /spl mu/m is reported. 4 ps pulses at 1063 nm from a modelocked fibre laser were amplified to 23 mW in a ytterbium-doped fibre amplifier and subsequently propagated through 62 m of holey fibre with a zero dispersion wavelength at 1040 nm. Soliton formation, breakup and self frequency shift resulted in the formation of /spl sim/100 fs pulses at 1.1 /spl mu/m. Wavelength tunability from 1113 to 1220 nm is demonstrated.