Yazmin E. Bracamontes-Rodríguez

Polarization evolution of vector wave amplitudes in twisted fibers pumped by single and paired pulses

Nonlinear polarization dynamics of single and paired pulses in twisted fibers is experimentally and numerically studied. Accompanying a dramatic difference in the output spectrum when a single- or double-amplified soliton pulse is launched in the fiber, the output polarization for the two cases also reveals very different characteristics.

Initial conditions for dissipative solitons in a strict polarization-controlled passively mode-locked Er-Fiber laser

We report the dynamics of dissipative solitons in a ring cavity passively mode-locked fiber laser with a strict control of the polarization state. We study the relation between the polarization state of the pulses propagating in the cavity and the regimes of generation. We have found that at pulse ellipticities between 5° and 15°, the laser generates one bunch of pulses in the cavity, while at higher ellipticities the laser generates multiple bunches. At constant ellipticity we rotated the polarization azimuth and observed a regime transition from the generation of noise-like pulses (NLP) to that of soliton crystal. The NLP regime was found when the azimuth was rotated towards smaller low-power transmission through the polarizer. The number of solitons in the soliton crystal also depended on the azimuth in a straightforward way: the higher the initial transmission, the bigger the number of solitons.

Complex dynamics of a fiber laser in non-stationary pulsed operation.

Conventional mode locking is characterized by the generation of a stable train of optical pulses. Even in the noise-like pulsing regime of fiber lasers, sometimes described as partial mode locking, a periodic train of waveforms is still generated. In this work we study the dynamics of a figure-eight fiber laser away from the stable noise-like pulsing regime. By analyzing sequences of time-domain measurements performed with ns resolution, we reveal a wide range of puzzling dynamics, in which sub-structures emerge and drift away from the main bunch, decay or grow in a step-like manner, before vanishing abruptly. In some cases, sub-packets also concentrate in the central part of the period, forming one or multiple wide clouds that merge or split over time scales of seconds or minutes. Spontaneous transitions between these multiple states occur in a non-periodic manner, so that no quasi-stationary behavior is found over long time scales. These results provide a dramatic illustration of the extremely rich dynamics taking place in fiber lasers at the frontier of mode locking.

Suppression of noise of soliton pulses using a polarization-imbalanced nonlinear loop mirror

The generation of clean solitons is important for a number of applications such as optical analog-to-digital conversion (ADC) based on soliton self-frequency shift. In real sources the quality of the pulses is deteriorated by dispersive waves, continuous wave (CW), amplified spontaneous emission (ASE). The dispersive waves appear in the spectral profile as side-lobe components that would limit the resolution of ADC. Spectral compression techniques cause the appearance of a pedestal on the spectrum. All of these imperfections of pulses have to be eliminated to improve the performance of alloptical systems. The nonlinear optical loop mirror (NOLM) is a good candidate for these tasks. In the present work we report the implementation of a polarization-imbalanced NOLM for soliton cleaning. The NOLM consists of a nearly symmetrical coupler with a 51/49 coupling ratio, 100 m of twisted OFS Truewave fiber whose dispersion value is 9 ps/nm/km at 1550 nm, and a tunable in-line fiber polarization controller (PC) asymmetrically inserted inside the loop. The use of the nearly symmetrical coupler allows very low transmission for low power components of radiation. At the same time adjustment of the PC allows the adjustment of the nonlinear characteristic to have a maximum transmission for solitons with different durations. We used two sources of pulses, SESAM based and a ring fiber laser. At the appropriate adjustment of PC, we obtained a rejection of ASE by 220 times, rejection of the dispersion waves and the pedestal by more than 200 times. The maximum transmission reached 70%.

Experimental study of multi-pulse generation in a full polarization-controlled passively mode-locked Er-fiber laser

We report the dynamics of multi-pulse in a ring cavity passively mode-locked fiber laser with a strict control of the polarization state. We study the relation between the polarization state of the pulses propagating in the cavity and the regimes of generation. We have found that small ellipticities, the laser generates one bunch of pulses in the cavity, while at higher ellipticities the laser generates multiple bunches. At constant ellipticity we rotated the polarization azimuth and observed a regime transition from the generation of a bunch of solitons to that of noise-like pulses (NLP).

Polarization-Sensitive NALM for Two-Level Amplitude Regeneration

We propose and study analytically and numerically a nonlinear amplifying loop mirror scheme for multilevel amplitude regeneration, whose operation relies on the manipulation of light polarization. Polarization control increases the number of degrees of freedom of the setup, making it easier to meet the demanding requirements for regenerating complex modulation formats. By adjusting one of those additional parameters, namely, the ellipticity of input polarization, if all the other ones are properly set and fixed, the transfer characteristic is shaped for optimal two-level amplitude regeneration for two different state power ratios. The cascadability of the proposed scheme is demonstrated for the optical star-8 quadrature amplitude modulation format as an example.

Dual-wavelength tunable Er/Yb double-clad doped Q-switched fiber laser

A tunable dual-wavelength Q-switched ring cavity fiber laser with Er/Yb double-clad fiber is presented. Laser simultaneous wavelengths tuning is performed by fiber Bragg gratings compression/strain. Maximal laser lines separation is ~4 nm.