X. Zhu

Passively Q-Switched 2.8-

A diode-pumped erbium ion-doped single-mode ZBLAN fiber laser passively Q-switched by a Fe2+:ZnSe crystal is reported. Mid-infrared (MIR) pulses at 2.8 μm with a pulse energy of 2.0 μJ and pulse duration of 370 ns, corresponding to a peak power of 5.34 W, are achieved at a repetition rate of 161 kHz. Our experiment demonstrates that Fe2+: ZnSe crystal is a promising Q-switching element for high power pulsed MIR fiber lasers.

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Thin films made from a composite of the polymer polyvinyl-alcohol and cobalt oxide (Co3O4) nanoparticles were fabricated by spin coating. Linear and nonlinear optical properties of thin films with thicknesses of hundreds of nanometers were investigated. The refractive index and absorption coefficient were measured and two direct band gaps (Eg = 1.38 eV and 2.0 eV) were determined from the absorption spectrum. Reversed saturable absorption and saturable absorption were observed when the films were illuminated with the different fluences. Optical nonlinearities corresponding to reverse saturable absorption were measured by the z-scan technique. A nonlinear refractive index (n2) of ~10−10 cm2/W and nonlinear absorption (β) of ~103 cm/GW have been measured from 425 nm to 675 nm. The experimental results show that the Co3O4 nanoparticle/PVA composite is a promising material for nonlinear optical devices in the visible, since it takes advantages of the high optical nonlinearities of transition metal oxides and the superior mechanical properties and convenient fabrication properties of polymers.

Nanosecond Fiber Laser

Micron-sized white light propagation invariant beams generated by a simple and compact fiber device are presented. The all-fiber device is fabricated by splicing a short piece of large-core multimode fiber onto a small-core single mode white light delivery fiber. Because this fiber device offers an inherent spatial coherence, nondiffracting white light beams can be created with a temporally incoherent broadband light source (a halogen bulb) and, most importantly, the surrounding fringes dont fade as the bandwidth of the light source increases because the underlying physics of this fiber device is different from that of the axicon. White light Bessel-like beams have been generated from multimode fibers with core diameters of 50 μm, 105 μm, and 200 μm. The distance of nondiffracting propagation of the white light Bessel beam increases with increasing core size of the multimode fiber. Propagation characteristics of red, green, and blue individual beams are also presented.

Linear and nonlinear optical properties of Co 3 O 4 nanoparticle-doped polyvinyl-alcohol thin films

Holmium (Ho3+)-doped ZBLAN glasses have been investigated for the purpose of achieving efficient fiber lasers at 1.2 μm. Because of the long lifetime of the upper laser level and the small phonon energy in Ho3+-doped ZBLAN glasses, strong fluorescence at 1.2 μm that usually cannot be observed in Ho-doped silica glass has been measured. Fluorescence of 1 mol%, 3 mol%, and 6 mol% Ho3+-doped ZBLAN glasses are reported. The effect of cerium and terbium ions on the emission of Ho3+-doped ZBLAN glass has also been studied. Obstacles to achieving an efficient Ho3+-doped ZBLAN laser are analyzed and discussed. In studies of a commercial Ho3+-doped ZBLAN fiber laser, it was found that the 3 μm four-energy-level laser can easily overwhelm the 1.2 μm laser, which is a three-energy-level system having the same upper laser level with the 3 μm laser. In order to effectively suppress the competiting 3 μm transition, advanced Ho3+-doped ZBLAN fiber has been designed and fabricated for 1.2 μm fiber lasers. Fiber lasers at 1.2 μm using the new Ho3+-doped ZBLAN fiber have been developed. Our experiments demonstrate that the new Ho3+-doped ZBLAN fiber is an efficient gain medium for lasers at 1.2 μm.

White light Bessel-like beams generated by miniature all-fiber device

Linearly polarized wavelength stable single frequency ytterbium (Yb3+) doped fiber lasers below 1 μm, namely threelevel Yb3+ fiber lasers, are highly demanded for nonlinear wavelength conversion to generate coherent blue light or even deep ultraviolet coherent sources. We present performance of a 976 nm single-frequency core-pumped distributed Bragg reflector (DBR) fiber laser consisting of a 2-cm long highly ytterbium-doped phosphate fiber and a pair of silica fiber Bragg gratings (FBGs) and their use for frequency doubling experiment. The high reflection (HR > 99%) and partial reflection (PR = 60%) FBGs were cleaved very close to the index modulation region and directly spliced to a 2-cm-long highly Yb3+-doped phosphate fiber. Over 100 mW of linearly polarized output with a linewidth less than 2 kHz can be obtained when the launched pump power is about 450 mW. The efficiency of the 976 nm single-frequency fiber laser (the output power vs the launched pump power) is about 25%. The relative intensity noise was measured to be -110 dB/Hz at 1 MHz and the variation of the center wavelength is less than 0.0005 nm during a measurement period of 2.5 hours. This single-frequency fiber laser has an SNR of over 50 dB and there is no strong ASE or spurious lasing at long wavelengths even at the maximum pump power. This all-fiber single-frequency DBR laser with attractive features can be used for efficient blue and UV generation through nonlinear frequency conversion. Moreover, this high-performance 976 nm single-frequency fiber laser can be used as a single-frequency, low RIN pump laser for long wavelength Yb3+-, Er3+-, or Yb3+/Er3+-doped fiber lasers and amplifiers.

Holmium-doped ZBLAN fiber lasers at 1.2 μm

Laser beam transformation utilizing the effect of multimode interference in multimode (MM) optical fiber is thoroughly investigated. When a Gaussian beam is launched to an MM fiber, multiple eigenmodes of the MM fiber are excited. Due to interference of the excited modes, optical fields that vary with the MM fiber length and the signal wavelength are generated at the output facet of the MM fiber. Diffractive propagation of these confined fields can yield various desired intensity profiles in free space. Our calculations show that, an input fundamental Gaussian beam can be transformed to frequently desired beams including top-hat, donut-shaped, taper-shaped, and low-divergence Bessel-like within either the Fresnel or the Fraunhofer diffraction range, or even in both ranges. Experiments on a monothic fiber beam transformers consisting of a short piece of MM fiber (~ 10 mm long) and a single-mode signal delivery fiber were carried out. The experimental results indicate the functionality and high versatility of this simple fiber device. The performance of this fiber device can be easily and widely manipulated through parameters including the ratio between the core diameters of the SM and MM fiber segments and the length of the MM fiber segment. In addition, the intensity profile of the output beam can be controlled by tuning the signal wavelength even after the fiber device is fabricated. Most importantly, this technique is highly compatible with the technology of high power fiber lasers and amplifiers and fiber delivery systems.

Single-frequency ytterbium-doped fiber laser at 976 nm

We present the performance of a single frequency, single-polarization holmium (Ho3+)-doped ZBLAN (ZrF4-BaF2-LaF3- AlF3-NaF) fiber laser at 1200 nm. This distributed Bragg reflector (DBR) fiber laser was developed by splicing a 22 mm long highly Ho3+-doped ZBLAN fiber to a pair of silica fiber Bragg gratings (FBG). The successful fusion splicing of silica fiber to ZBLAN fiber, with their very different melting temperatures, was accomplished by using NP Photonics proprietary splicing technique. The 3 mol% Ho3+-doped ZBLAN fiber had a core diameter of 6.5 μm and a cladding diameter of 125 μm. The threshold of this laser was seen to be about 260 mW, and when the pump power was 520 mW, the output power was about 10 mW. The efficiency of the 1200 nm single-frequency fiber laser, i.e. the ratio of the output power to the launched pump power, was about 3.8%. The linewidth of the 1200 nm single-frequency fiber laser was estimated to be about 100 kHz by comparing the measured frequency noise of the 1200 nm single-frequency fiber laser with that of 1 μm NP Photonics single-frequency fiber lasers whose linewidths have been measured to be in the 1- 10 kHz range. The relative intensity noise of this DBR all-fiber laser was measured to be < 110 dB/Hz at the relaxation oscillation peak and the polarization extinction ratio was measured to be > 19 dB. Due to its low phonon energy and long radiative lifetimes, rare-earth-doped ZBLAN allows various transitions that are typically terminated in silica glass, resulting in ultraviolet, visible, and infrared rare-earth doped ZBLAN lasers. Therefore, our results highlight the exciting prospect that the accessible wavelength range of single-frequency DBR fiber lasers can be expanded significantly by using rare-earth-doped ZBLAN fibers.

Gaussian beam shaping based on multimode interference

Mode-locked mid-infrared (mid-IR) fiber lasers are of increasing interest due to their many potential applications in spectroscopic sensors, infrared countermeasures, laser surgery, and high-efficiency pump sources for nonlinear wavelength convertors. Er3+-doped ZBLAN (ZrF4-BaF2-LaF3-AlF3-NaF) fiber lasers, which can emit mid-IR light at 2.65-2.9 μm through the transition from the upper energy level 4I11/2 to the lower laser level 4I13/2, have attracted much attention because of their broad emission range, high optical efficiency, and the ready availability of diode pump lasers at the two absorption peaks of Er3+ ions (975 nm and 976 nm). In recent years, significant progress on high power Er3+- doped ZBLAN fiber lasers has been achieved and over 20 watt cw output at 2.8 μm has been demonstrated; however, there has been little progress on ultrafast mid-IR ZBLAN fiber lasers to date. We report a passively mode-locked Er3+- doped ZBLAN fiber laser in which a Fe2+:ZnSe crystal was used as the intracavity saturable absorber. Fe2+:ZnSe is an ideal material for mid-IR laser pulse generation because of its large saturable absorption cross-section and small saturation energy along with the excellent opto-mechanical (damage threshold ~2 J/cm2) and physical characteristics of the crystalline ZnSe host. A 1.6 m double-clad 8 mol% Er3+-doped ZBLAN fiber was used in our experiment. The fiber core has a diameter of 15 μm and a numerical aperture (NA) of 0.1. The inner circular cladding has a diameter of 125 μm and an NA of 0.5. Both continuous-wave and Q-switched mode-locking pulses at 2.8 μm were obtained. Continuous-wave mode locking operation with a pulse duration of 19 ps and an average power of 51 mW were achieved when a collimated beam traversed the Fe2+:ZnSe crystal. When the cavity was modified to provide a focused beam at the Fe2+:ZnSe crystal, Q-switched mode-locked operation with a pulse duration of 60 ps and an average power of 4.6 mW was achieved. More powerful and narrower pulses are expected if the dispersion of the cavity can be properly managed.

Single-frequency, single-polarization holmium-doped ZBLAN fiber laser

Nonlinear transmission upon the formation of an optically induced photonic band gap (PBG) is demonstrated by using periodic layers of optical polymers doped with highly nonlinear transition metal oxides. The refractive indices of the alternating layers are designed to be close and no PBG is formed at low power densities. Under high power illumination, the index difference becomes large because of the high optical nonlinearities of the transition metal oxides. Consequently, nonlinear transmission is accomplished with the formation and the broadening of the PBG. Compared to typical optical limiters based on a PBG approach, our devices provide a large dynamic range and a broad operation wavelength range. The experiments on a nonlinear Bragg mirror consisting of only 4 pairs of PVA:Co3O4-PVK, each with a layer thickness of 85 nm, show a linear transmittance of greater than 50% throughout the visible, and nonlinear transmission for a 10 ns laser pulse at 523 nm with a threshold of 30 mJ/cm2 and a minimum transmission of about 10%. The minimum transmission reduces to 5% for a 12-pair device. Improving the uniformity of each layer and adding more pairs can result in even lower transmission at high intensities. The threshold can be further reduced through precise design and control of the thickness of each layer. The device and material approach is promising for applications such as protection for broadband detectors and human eyes.

Picosecond passively mode-locked mid-infrared fiber laser

Nonlinear transmission is found to be significantly enhanced by introducing heavy metal atoms on the periphery of macrocycle porphyrin complexes via rhenium selenide clusters that are coordinated to four pyridyl groups. Experiments on 5, 10, 15, 20-tetra(4-pyridyl) porphyrin (H2TPyP), CuTPyP, [Re6(μ3-Se)8(PEt3)5]4(H2TPyP)(SbF6)8 (abbreviated as P5H2TPyP), and [Re6(μ3-Se)8(PEt3)5]4Cu(TPyP)(SbF6)8 (abbreviated as CuP5TPyP) using 10 ns laser pulses at 523 nm show that, in contrast to CuTPyP and P5H2TPyP, which are saturable absorbers at a low fluence of 1-100 mJ/cm2 and become nonlinear absorbers with a threshold larger than 1000 mJ/cm2 at high fluence, CuP5TPyP exhibits an excellent nonlinear transmission performance with a threshold as low as 20 mJ/cm2. A bulky rhenium selenide cluster was coordinated to pyridyl groups in tetrapyridyl porphyrin. The modified copper (II) porphyrin complex CuP5TPyP has strong nonlinear absorption at 523 nm and synergistic interaction between CuTPyP and P5H2TPyP is one of possible mechanisms.