Lina Duan

Tunable multi-channel wavelength demultiplexer based on MIM plasmonic nanodisk resonators at telecommunication regime

The tunable multi-channel wavelength demultiplexer (WDM) based on metal-insulator-metal plasmonic nanodisk resonators is designed and numerically investigated by utilizing Finite-Difference Time-Domain (FDTD) simulations. It is found that the channel wavelength of WDM is easily tuned by changing the geometrical parameters of the structure and the material filled in the nanodisk resonator. The multi-channel WDM structure consisting of a plasmonic waveguide and several nanodisk resonators increases the transmission up to 70% at telecommunication regime, which is two times higher than the results reported in a recent literature [Opt. Express 18, 11111 (2010)]. Our WDM can find important potential applications in highly integrated optical circuits.

Experimental observation of dissipative soliton resonance in an anomalous-dispersion fiber laser

We have experimentally observed conventional solitons and rectangular pulses in an erbium-doped fiber laser operating at anomalous dispersion regime. The rectangular pulses exhibit broad quasi-Gaussian spectra (~40 nm) and triangular autocorrelation traces. With the enhancement of pump power, the duration and energy of the output rectangular pulses almost increase linearly up to 330 ps and 3.2 nJ, respectively. It is demonstrated that high-energy pulses can be realized in anomalous-dispersion regime, and may be explained as dissipative soliton resonance. Our results have confirmed that the formation of dissipative soliton resonance is not sensitive to the sign of cavity dispersion.

Observations of four types of pulses in a fiber laser with large net-normal dispersion

Four different types of pulses are experimentally obtained in one erbium-doped all-fiber laser with large net-normal dispersion. The proposed laser can deliver the rectangular-spectrum (RS), Gaussian-spectrum (GS), broadband-spectrum (BS), and noise-like pulses by appropriately adjusting the polarization states. These kinds of pulses have distinctly different characteristics. The RS pulses can easily be compressed to femtosecond level whereas the pulse energy is restricted by the trend of multi-pulse shaping with excessive pump. The GS and BS pulses always maintain the single-pulse operation with much higher pulse-energy and accumulate much more chirp. After launching the pulses into the photonic-crystal fiber, the supercontinuum can be generated with the bandwidth of >700 nm by the BS pulses and of ~400 nm by the GS pulses, whereas it can hardly be generated by the RS pulses. The physical mechanisms behind the continuum generation are qualitatively investigated relating to different operating regimes. This work could help to a deeper insight of the normal-dispersion pulses.

Dual-wavelength step-like pulses in an ultra-large negative-dispersion fiber laser

We report on experimental observation of dual-wavelength step-like pulses delivered from an erbium-doped fiber laser operating in ultra-large negative-dispersion regime. The step-like pulses consist of two rectangular pulses with different energies, durations as well as optical spectra, and are distinct from the conventional multi-solitons or bound-state solitons in that each pulse holds the same property. We find the weaker (or stronger) rectangular pulse in step-like pulses is more sensitive to the backward (or forward) pump while is less sensitive to the forward (or backward) pump. Our results demonstrate that the dual-wavelength operation results from the combination of fiber dispersion, fiber birefringence, as well as cavity filtering effect, and the intensity difference between rectangular pulses can be attributed to different gain characteristics of the forward and backward pump.

WS 2 /fluorine mica (FM) saturable absorbers for all-normal-dispersion mode-locked fiber laser

The report firstly propose a new WS(2) absorber based on fluorine mica (FM) substrate. The WS(2) material was fabricated by thermal decomposition method. The FM was stripped into one single layer as thin as 20 μm and deposited WS(2) on it, which can be attached to the fiber flank without causing the laser deviation. Similar to quartz, the transmission rate of FM is as high as 90% at near infrared wavelength from one to two micrometers. Furthermore, FM is a highly elastic material so that it is not easy to break off even its thickness was only 20 μm. On the contrary, quartz is hard to be processed and easy to break off when its thickness is less than 100 μm. Compared to organic matrix such as polyvinyl alcohol (PVA), FM has higher softening temperature, heat dissipation and laser damage threshold than those of organic composites. In our work, the modulation depth (MD) and non-saturable losses (NLs) of this kind of saturable absorber were measured to be 5.8% and 14.8%, respectively. The WS(2)/FM absorber has a high damage threshold of 406 MW/cm(2), two times higher than that of WS(2)/PVA. By incorporating the saturable absorber into Yb-doped fiber laser cavity, a mode-locked fiber laser was achieved with central wavelength of 1052.45 nm. The repetition rate was 23.26 MHz and the maximum average output power was 30 mW. The long term stability of working was proved to be good too. The results indicate that WS(2)/FM film is a practical nonlinear optical material for photonic applications.

Coexistence of unequal pulses in a normal dispersion fiber laser

We experimentally demonstrate unequal pulses delivered from an erbium-doped fiber (EDF) laser with net-normal dispersion. Two types of pulses with different durations, energies, and spectra coexist in the same ring cavity. The output spectrum exhibits a broadband base that corresponds to the main pulse and a small rectangular lump that corresponds to the additional satellite pulse. With the enhancement of pump power, the intensity of main pulse almost keeps unchanged while the satellite pulse nearly increases linearly. Based on experimental results, it is indicated that two different pulse shaping mechanisms coexist in laser cavity, where the nonlinear polarization rotation (NPR) and spectral filtering (SF) effect contribute to the formation of main pulse and satellite pulse, respectively.

Passively mode-locked erbium-doped fiber laser via a D-shape-fiber-based MoS2 saturable absorber with a very low nonsaturable loss

We report on the generation of conventional and dissipative solitons in erbium-doped fiber lasers by the evanescent field interaction between the propagating light and a multilayer molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) thin film. The MoS2 film is fabricated by depositing the MoS2 water-ethanol mixture on a D-shape-fiber (DF) repetitively. The measured nonsaturable loss, saturable optical intensity, and the modulation depth of this device are 13.3%, 110 MW/cm(2), and 3.4% respectively. Owing to the very low nonsaturable loss, the laser threshold of conventional soliton is as low as 4.8 mW. The further increase of net cavity dispersion to normal regime, stable dissipation soliton pulse trains with a spectral bandwidth of 11.7 nm and pulse duration of 116 ps are successfully generated. Our experiment demonstrates that the MoS2-DF device can indeed be used as a high performance saturable absorber for further applications in ultrafast photonics.

Low-temperature growth of cubic GaN by metalorganic chemical-vapor deposition

Low-temperature growth of cubic GaN at 520 degrees C was achieved using CCl4 as an additive by metalorganic chemical-vapor deposition (MOCVD) on GaAs substrate. X-Ray measurement confirmed that the films are single-phase cubic GaN. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and reflection high-energy electron diffraction (RHEED) were also used to analyze the surface morphology and the quality of films. The evolution of surface morphology suggests that CCl4 can reduce the hopping barrier and thus Ga adatoms are able to diffuse easily on the GaN surface

Environmental-adaptability analysis of an all polarization-maintaining fiber-based optical frequency comb

We demonstrate an all polarization-maintaining (PM) fiber-based optical frequency comb and provide the detailed environmental stability analysis results. The frequency comb has been built by commercial available PM fiber completely, and its static uncertainty in optical domain is 350 Hz in 1 s when referenced to a low noise oven controlled crystal oscillator. The acoustic resonant frequencies of the system have been measured. It is proved that acoustic-vibration induced phase noise could be eliminated by low pass vibration-isolation structure. Further, the existence of the optimum working temperature is illustrated. At this temperature (289.6 K), the out-loop integrated phase noise of f(r) and the temperature-drift induced instability of f(CEO) reach the lowest level 31.6 μrad and 0 kHz/(mW∙K) respectively. Finally, the system is proved to be stable under different humidity (18% ~80%) by a 240-day-long record of the f(CEO).

34-fs, all-fiber all-polarization-maintaining single-mode pulse nonlinear amplifier.

We present an all-fiber all-polarization-maintaining (PM) single mode (SM) fiber pulse nonlinear amplification system. The seed laser with a repetition rate of 200 MHz is amplified by two-section erbium-doped PM gain fibers with different peak-absorption rate. The amplified pulse duration can be compressed into 34-fs with 320-mW output power, which corresponds to 1.6-nJ pulse energy and approximate 23.5-kW peak power. In addition, the amplified and compressed pulse is further coupled into the high nonlinear fiber and an octave-spanning supercontinuum generation can be obtained. To the best of our knowledge, it is the highest peak power and the shortest pulse duration obtained in the field of all-fiber all-PM SM pulse-amplification systems.