W. C. Xu

Switchable dual-wavelength passively mode-locked fiber ring laser using SESAM and cascaded fiber Bragg gratings

We propose and demonstrate an efficient and simple wavelength switchable dual-wavelength passively mode-locked fiber ring laser based on a semiconductor saturable absorber mirror (SESAM) and a cascaded sequence of fiber Bragg gratings (FBGs). The efficient self-starting mode-locked operation was realized with a SESAM. Dual-wavelength pulses with a wavelength spacing of 12.49 nm were obtained which was determined by the reflection peaks of the FBGs used in the experiment. In addition, by rotating the polarization controllers (PCs), the switchable dual-wavelength operation was simply achieved via exploiting wavelength-dependent loss mechanism.

Experimental observation of bright-dark pulse emitting in an all-fiber ring cavity laser

We demonstrate the emission of bright pulse and dark pulse in a simple all-fiber ring cavity laser by using self-pulsing technique. The switching between bright pulse and dark pulse can be realized by properly rotating the polarization controller (PC). Meanwhile, the bright-dark pulse can also be generated in the fiber laser and is experimentally verified to be on two different orthogonal polarization axis of the cavity fiber. Our experimental results show that the bright pulse, the dark pulse or the bright-dark pulse can be obtained in an all-fiber laser by using self-pulsing technique.

Wide-band tunable passively Q-switched all-fiber ring laser based on nonlinear polarization rotation technique

A wide-band tunable passively Q-switched all-fiber ring laser based on nonlinear polarization rotation (NPR) technique is demonstrated. The NPR-induced intensity-dependent loss effect acts as an artificial saturable absorber, which was used to achieve the Q-switched operation with a low pump threshold of about 25 mW. Taking advantage of the intracavity birefringence-induced spectral filtering effect, the central wavelength of Q-switched pulse can be continuously tuned from 1543.4 to 1592.4 nm by simply rotating the PCs.

Waveband switchable multi-wavelength erbium-doped fiber ring laser based on wavelength-dependent polarization rotation mechanism

A waveband switchable multi-wavelength erbium-doped fiber ring laser based on wavelength-dependent polarization rotation mechanism and birefringence-based in-line comb filter is proposed and demonstrated. The two lasing wavebands, around 1530 and 1560 nm region, can be efficiently switched by simply rotating the polarization controllers (PCs). The channel spacing is 0.4 nm which was determined by the length of polarization maintain fiber (PMF) used in the experiment. The experimental results show that the waveband switchable is an intrinsic feature of multi-wavelength fiber ring lasers by incorporating a passive polarizer in the laser cavity.

A stable 2 μm passively Q-switched fiber laser based on nonlinear polarization evolution

A passively Q-switched thulium-doped fiber (TDF) laser based on the nonlinear polarization evolution technique was demonstrated with the central wavelength of 1898.4 nm. With the increasing pump power, the pulse repetition frequency of the Q-switched TDF laser from 87.6 to 110.1 kHz was achieved, while the corresponding pulse duration was changed from 1171 to 785.7 ns. The power instability of the TDF laser was measured to be about ±1.5% during 8 h. In addition, the mode-locked phenomenon was also observed in our all-fiber TDF laser by carefully adjusting the polarization controllers.

Passively Q-switched mode-locking Erbium-doped fiber laser with net-normal dispersion using nonlinear polarization rotation technique

We experimentally demonstrate a passively Q-switched mode-locking (QML) operation in an Erbium-doped fiber ring laser with net normal dispersion by using nonlinear polarization rotation technique. A 2 m long section of dispersion compensating fiber (DCF) with extra large positive dispersion was inserted into the cavity to ensure the fiber laser working in the region of net positive dispersion. By carefully adjusting the polarization controller, both uniform dissipative mode-locking pulses with fundamental repetition rate and QML pulse trains with tunable repetition rate from 71.58 to 98.83 kHz are achieved. It is found that the QML operation is caused by the interaction between the polarization state of the pulse and the intracavity polarizer.

Soliton molecule in fiber laser

The soliton molecule is achieved in nonlinear polarization rotation fiber laser. The structure of soliton molecule is heterogeneous diatomic molecule. The soliton molecule originates from the splitting of the high energy soliton. The dips of the soliton molecule spectra show that there is the interaction between the constituents of the soliton molecule, resulting in that the constituents are in the bound state as a unit. The laser bias can change the fine structure of the soliton molecule, which can be observed in the autocorrelator and oscilloscope.

Effect of gain media characteristics on the formation of soliton molecules in fiber laser

Erbium doped fiber and Er3+/Yb3+ codoped phosphate glass fiber are used as the laser media, respectively, to achieve self-started mode-locking based on nonlinear polarization rotation. It is found that the formation of the soliton molecule is the popular phenomenon in fiber laser. The laser media with high gain coefficient and short length is benefit of the formation of the soliton molecule at fundamental repetition rate and will generate evident soliton molecule pulse profile with strong accompanied structures. The achievement of soliton molecule owes to the partial operation of polarization filter effect in laser cavity due to the weak nonlinear polarization rotation in gain media with high gain coefficient and short length.

Sub-100 kHz repetition rate erbium-doped fiber laser in anomalous dispersion regime

We propose and demonstrate a simple but efficient way to generate low repetition rate pulses in an erbium-doped fiber ring laser by using self-pulsing technique. About 2.25 km long single mode fiber is used to elongate in the cavity, providing large anomalous cavity dispersion in the wavelength region around 1550 nm. Self pulses at a repetition rate of 85.3 kHz with single pulse energy as high as 110 nJ are efficiently obtained on the nanosecond time scale. The experimental results demonstrate that the self-pulse fiber laser operating in the anomalous dispersion regime can also realize high-energy pulses at a very low pulse repetition rate.

Recovery of the effect of the third-order dispersion and Raman self-frequency shift on polarization modes of optical pulses in birefringent fibers using temporal and spectral optical phase conjugation

Nonlinear optical pulses with sub-picosecond width will exhibit the phenomena of timing jitter and pulse decay induced by the third-order dispersion and Raman self-frequency shift. The optical phase conjugation is proposed to compensate for the high-order dispersion and high-order nonlinear effect. However, the spectral phase conjugation can’t eliminate the time delay induced by Raman self-frequency shift and the temporal phase conjugation can’t avoid the pulse splitting into two pieces induced by the third order dispersion. Thus, the schemes of the combination of the spectral and temporal phase conjugation are supposed to use for recovering the distorted pulse and reducing the time delay induced by the third-order dispersion and Raman self-frequency shift. There exist the optimized schemes to deploy the relative position between the spectral phase conjugator and the temporal phase conjugator to obtain the optimization transmission qualities with the minimum penalty for timing jitter and pulse distortion. In addition, the spectral phase conjugator and temporal phase conjugator should be settled down after the midway and before the midway, respectively, in order to obtain the residual third-order dispersion to enhance the frequency red-shift trend of two polarization components after the temporal phase conjugator for reducing the time delay.