G. Anzueto-Sánchez

Linear cavity fiber laser with 100 nm wavelength tuning range

We report a 100 nm widely tunable double-clad Ytterbium doped fiber laser. The fiber laser has a linear cavity configuration, where the feedback is provided by a Sagnac fiber mirror on one side, and an external bulk grating on the other side. On the bulk grating side, the fiber has a balled curved-core-termination that suppress backreflection by roughly 50 dB, and does not affect the pump coupling efficiency. The tuning range goes from 1055 nm through 1155 nm, with a maximum output power of 360 mW at 1080 nm, and 0.3 nm linewidth.

High Sensitivity Fiber Laser Temperature Sensor

This paper presents an erbium-doped fiber laser temperature sensor, which is based on an intracavity fiber filter immersed in glycerol/water solutions. The sensing element is the intracavity fiber filter, consisting of a two-taper fiber Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZFI). The high refractive index dispersion of glycerol/water solutions with temperature allowed the modification of the MZFI spectral characteristics and hence determines the lasing wavelength. The sensitivity of 1089 pm/°C and a signal-to-noise ratio of 50 dB make the proposed sensor suitable for real applications.

Self-pulsing in a large mode area, end-pumped, double-clad ytterbium-doped fiber laser

The characteristics of self-pulsing in a large mode area, end-pumped, double-clad Yb-doped fiber laser are presented. The laser operates in a self-pulsing regime, either by using one or two perpendicularly cleaved ends as the feedback mirrors, while it transforms in a broadband amplified spontaneous emission source when both ends are angle cleaved. In the pulsed regime, up to 2 µs full width at half maximum pulse widths and repetition rates of the order of hundreds of kHz are generated.

Measurement of the refractive index by using a rectangular cell with a fs-laser engraved diffraction grating inner wall

A very simple method to obtain the refractive index of liquids by using a rectangular glass cell and a diffraction grating engraved by fs laser ablation on the inner face of one of the walls of the cell is presented. When a laser beam impinges normally on the diffraction grating, the diffraction orders are deviated when they pass through the cell filled with the liquid to be measured. By measuring the deviation of the diffraction orders, we can determine the refractive index of the liquid.

Arc-induced long-period fiber gratings inscribed in asymmetric transition tapers

Abstract. Long-period fiber gratings (LPFGs) and tapered fibers are spectrally selective devices with important applications in sensing, especially for monitoring chemical and physical parameters. When combined, they can give rise to devices with enhanced characteristics that can be tailored by varying their fabrication parameters. We analyze the characteristics of arc-induced LPFGs written on the longer transition of asymmetric tapers, which provide a variable diameter section whose slope can be adjusted in order to tailor the device performance. In comparison with LPFGs fabricated in nontapered fibers, the grating inscription in the linear taper transition produces deeper notches (>20  dB), whose bandwidth and separation increase with the transition slope. The simplicity of the electric arc technique to fabricate LPFGs, and the degrees of freedom added by the tapered fiber open up the possibility to realize thorough studies on the many possible combinations, to develop devices with characteristics designed on purpose.

Noncontact Optical Fiber Sensor for Measuring the Refractive Index of Liquids

A noncontact optical fiber sensor for measuring the refractive index of transparent liquids is proposed. It operates by calculating the path of a focused laser beam at 635 nm that travels across the boundaries of a liquid sample. The optical power Fresnel reflections are detected and, subsequently, the refractive index is determined as the ratio between the traveled beam paths when the liquid is deposited versus a reference without the liquid sample. Additionally, a mathematical analysis of the geometrical case is included. The theoretical data from our sensor are in good agreement with the experimental results. The resolution achieved by the sensor is better than 10−3 RIU.

Three-wavelength switching in a cladding-pumped ytterbium-doped fiber laser

We present all-fiber double-clad Yb3+-doped fiber laser capable to switch between three different wavelengths. The fiber laser device consists of an array of three fiber Bragg gratings at 1064, 1080, and 1096 nm, spliced to one end of the double-clad Ytterbium-doped fiber, thus forming three laser cavities that share the same gain medium. The selection of a specific wavelength is realized by induced bend loss in the sections between gratings, thus allowing the control of the feedback at each specific wavelength. The device can operate separately at 1064, 1084 and at 1096 nm, with slope efficiencies at these three wavelengths of the order of 48% with respect to the launched pump power.

Combining comb-filters based on tapered fibers for selective lasing performance in erbium-doped fiber lasers

In this work, we report a new method to make a selection between tunable and multi-wavelength switchable operation in an erbium-doped fiber laser. The selective lasing performance is based on two concatenated comb-filters built on tapered optical fibers. By properly adjusting curvature applied to the comb-filters, the lasing wavelength can be selective in two ways: continuous tuning or generating multi-wavelength laser oscillation. The laser exhibits an optical signal to noise ratio of ~30 dB and power stability below 1 dB at room temperature. The main achievement of this proposal is that the laser can be operating independently between tuning and multi-wavelength lasing with a high stability employing a reliable and low-cost comb filters.

Post-shaping optical fiber taper filters

Geometrical shaping of non-adiabatic single tapers is used to modify the filtering characteristics. The fiber tapers are shaped by successive tapering. The taper shaping produces deeper rejection bands. As an application of the shaped tapers, fluidic temperature sensing cells were fabricated. In a first case, the wavelength shift of a single rejection band was monitored, showing a nonlinear response and low sensitivity to temperature changes. In a second case, a shaped taper fluidic cell containing two rejection bands was used, and the wavelength shift of the half intensity points of the transmission band (between the rejection bands) was taken as a measure of the temperature change. In this case, the fluidic cell showed a linear sensitivity of 481.9 pm/°C in a temperature range of 25°C-60°C.

Temperature-tuned erbium-doped fiber ring laser with Mach-Zehnder interferometer based on two quasi-abrupt tapered fiber sections

We present a wavelength tuning of an Erbium-Doped Fiber Ring Laser (EDFRL) based in a Mach-Zehnder fiber interferometer (MZFI) that consists on two tapers fabricated on commercial SMF28 from Corning as an intracavity filter. The MZFI spectral interference pattern is modified by external refractive index changes that alter the light transmission characteristics. In this work, the fiber device is immersed into a glycerol solution with higher dispersion in its refractive index in relation with temperature. Since the temperature sensitiveness of the glycerol is much higher than that of the fiber in a temperature range from 25-110 °C, therefore, the spectral changes are mainly due to the dispersion of glycerol refractive index when heat increases. Also, when this device is inserted into the EDFRL cavity, the gain spectrum of the EDF is modified accordingly and the changes, which can be controlled in an electrical heater, allow the tuning of the laser wavelength determined by the interference fringes. A wavelength shift as high as 180 pm/°C and a tunable range of 12 nm are obtained. The side mode suppression ratio (SMSR) of the fiber laser is around 25-30 dB depending on the notch filtering position. The insertion losses of the filter are below 0.3 dB and the measured wavelength shift has a quasilinear dependence as a function of temperature in the 80-110 °C. This method is very simple, portable and inexpensive over traditional methods to tune a fiber laser.