All-polarization-maintaining Ho-doped fiber oscillator mode-locked with nonlinear polarization evolution.

We report a self-starting mode-locked all-polarization-maintaining (PM) holmium (Ho)-doped fiber oscillator operating at ∼2.08 µm based on nonlinear polarization evolution (NPE). The oscillator is configured as a linear cavity structure with two output ports exhibiting completely different pulse characteristics. One output port of the oscillator can deliver a stable, clean soliton-like pulse with a pulse duration of 439 fs and an average power of 7.5 mW at a fundamental repetition rate of 61.67 MHz. In contrast, the other port delivers a low-quality pulse with a complex structure. Numerical simulations reveal that the pulse difference between the two ports is mainly caused by the nonlinear optical interactions between the slow-axis and fast-axis modes in the PM fibers. Furthermore, the obtained clean pulses show significant improvements in relative intensity noise and power stability compared to complex pulses. Our study can help researchers obtain high-quality, stable pulses from PM-NPE mode-locked fiber oscillators.

Wavelength-tunable spatiotemporal mode-locking in a large-mode-area Er:ZBLAN fiber laser at 2.8†µm.

We report a tunable spatiotemporally mode-locked large-mode-area Er:ZBLAN fiber laser based on the nonlinear polarization rotation technique. A diffraction grating is introduced to select the operating wavelength. Under the spectral and spatial filtering effects provided by the grating and spatial coupling respectively, stable ps-level spatiotemporally mode-locked pulses around 2.8 µm with a repetition rate of 43.4 MHz are generated. Through a careful adjustment of the grating, a broad wavelength tuning range from 2747 to 2797 nm is realized. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first wavelength-tunable spatiotemporally mode-locked fiber laser in the mid-infrared region.

Frequency-domain-resolved investigation of unitary h-shaped pulses.

We experimentally investigate the generation of h-shaped pulse in an all-polarization-maintaining (PM) and all-normal-dispersion (ANDi) mode-locked fiber laser. The generated pulse is demonstrated to be a unitary pulse, instead of a noise-like pulse (NLP). Furthermore, by employing an external filtering system, the obtained h-shaped pulse can be resolved into rectangular-shaped pulses, chair-like pulses, and Gaussian pulses. The authentic AC traces with a double-scale structure of unitary h-shaped pulses and chair-like pulses are observed on the autocorrelator. The chirp of h-shaped pulses is also proved similar to that of DSR pulses. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time that the existence of unitary h-shaped pulse generation has been confirmed. Moreover, our experimental results reveal the close relationship of formation mechanisms of dissipative soliton resonance (DSR) pulses, h-shaped pulses, and chair-like pulses, which helps to unify the essences of such "DSR-like" pulses.

Mid-infrared ultrashort pulses generated from a hybrid mode-locked Er:ZBLAN fiber laser.

By combining nonlinear polarization rotation (NPR) and semiconductor saturable absorber, we report a hybrid mode-locked Er:ZBLAN fiber oscillator at 2.8 µm. Stable 325-fs mode-locked pulses with an average power of 131 mW and a record signal-to-noise ratio of 79 dB at the fundamental frequency of 55.4 MHz are generated. Numerical simulations are carried out based on the modified coupled nonlinear Schrödinger equations, and offer new insights into the underlying dynamics of pulse generation. The simulations indicate that compared with Er:ZBLAN fiber lasers mode-locked by NPR alone, the hybrid mode-locked Er:ZBLAN fiber oscillator allows a wider range and a lower threshold of the pump power while maintaining the ultrashort pulse width. Moreover, we numerically demonstrate that the hybrid mode-locked oscillator is less sensitive to the variation of polarization states, which will increase its robustness against environmental disturbance. This is the first time that the hybrid mode-locking technique is applied in the mid-infrared, opening up new opportunities for the development of stable ultrafast mid-infrared laser sources and practical applications outside the laboratory.

976†nm all-polarization-maintaining mode-locked fiber laser based on nonlinear polarization evolution.

An all-polarization-maintaining (PM) mode-locked fiber laser based upon nonlinear polarization evolution (NPE) that operates around 976 nm is presented. The NPE-based mode-locking is realized using a special section of the laser which comprises three pieces of PM fibers with specific deviation angles between the polarization axes and a polarization-dependent isolator. By optimizing the NPE section and adjusting the pump power, dissipative soliton (DS) pulses with a pulse duration of ∼6 ps, a spectral bandwidth of >10 nm and a maximum pulse energy of 0.54 nJ are generated. Self-starting, steady mode-locking operation is achievable within a pump power range of ∼2 W. Moreover, by incorporating a segment of passive fiber into the appropriate location in the laser resonator, an intermediate regime between stable single-pulse mode-locking and noise-like pulse (NLP) is realized in the laser. Our work expands the dimension of the research on the mode-locked Yb-doped fiber laser operating around 976 nm.

All-fiber 3.4-W 2.8-µm ultra-short pulse MOPA system seeded by the soliton self-frequency shift of 2-µm pulses.

We report an all-fiber 2.8-µm ultra-short pulse master oscillator power amplifier (MOPA) system seeded by a soliton self-frequency shift from a mode-locked thulium-doped fiber laser. This all-fiber laser source delivers 2.8-µm pulses with an average power of 3.42 W, a pulse width of 115 fs, and a pulse energy of 45.4 nJ. We demonstrate, to the best of our knowledge, the first femtosecond watt-level all-fiber 2.8-µm laser system. A 2.8-µm pulse seed was obtained via the soliton self-frequency shift of 2-µm ultra-short pulses in a cascaded silica and passive fluoride fiber. A novel, to the best of our knowledge, high-efficiency and compact home-made end-pump silica-fluoride fiber combiner was fabricated and used in this MOPA system. Nonlinear amplification of the 2.8-µm pulse was realized, and soliton self-compression was observed accompanied by spectral broadening.

Broadband phase shifter based on SiN-MoS2 integrated racetrack resonator.

As the critical device of microwave photonics and optical communication, the low-loss and high-efficiency optical phase shifter has attracted intense attention in photonic integrated circuits. However, most of their applications are restricted to a particular band. Little is known about the characteristics of broadband. In this paper, an SiN-MoS2 integrated broadband racetrack phase shifter is demonstrated. The coupling region and the structure of the racetrack resonator are elaborately designed to improve the coupling efficiency at each resonance wavelength. The ionic liquid is introduced to form a capacitor structure. Then, the effective index of the hybrid waveguide can be efficiently tuned by adjusting the bias voltage. We achieve a phase shifter with a tunable range covering all the WDM bands and even up to 1900 nm. The highest phase tuning efficiency is measured to be 72.75 pm/V at 1860 nm, and the corresponding half-wave-voltage-length product is calculated as 0.0608 V·cm.

High-energy femtosecond pulse generation from a hybrid mode-locked large-mode-area Er:ZBLAN fiber laser.

We report a hybrid mode-locked fiber laser at 2.8 µm based on a large-mode-area Er:ZBLAN fiber. Reliable self-starting mode-locking is achieved via the combination of nonlinear polarization rotation and a semiconductor saturable absorber. Stable mode-locked pulses with a pulse energy of 9.4 nJ and a pulse duration of 325 fs are generated. To the best of our knowledge, this is the highest pulse energy directly generated from a femtosecond mode-locked fluoride fiber laser (MLFFL) to date. The measured M2 factors are below 1.13, indicating a nearly diffraction-limited beam quality. Demonstration of this laser provides a feasible scheme for the pulse energy scaling of mid-infrared MLFFLs. Moreover, a peculiar multi-soliton mode-locking state is also observed, in which the time interval between the solitons varies irregularly from tens of picoseconds to several nanoseconds.

Research on optimization of magnetic field sensing characteristics of PCF sensor based on SPR.

A photonic crystal fiber utilizing surface plasmon resonance (PCF-SPR) sensor based on refractive index (RI) control of magnetic fluid (MF) is designed. The air holes of the sensor are arranged in a hexagonal shape, and the optical field transmission channels on both sides of the central air hole can effectively confine the energy of the optical field. We use MF as the sensing medium, and coat the inner wall of the central air hole with gold. It can effectively stimulate the SPR effect to achieve the purpose of magneto-refractive modulation. We study the sensing characteristics of the proposed sensor by finite element analysis. The results show that the highest refractive index sensitivity reaches 19520 nm/RIU in the RI range of 1.42-1.435 and the maximum figure of merit (FOM) is 374.3 RIU-1. In addition, the magnetic field and the temperature response characteristics of the designed sensor are also investigated. In the magnetic field range of 50-130 Oe, the magnetic field sensitivity is 590 pm/Oe. In the temperature range of 24.3-144.3 °C, the temperature sensitivity is only -29.7 pm/℃. The proposed sensor has significant advantages such as stable structure, high sensitivity, easy integration, resistance to electromagnetic interference and can be used for weak magnetic magnitude detection. It has wide application prospects in industrial production, military, and medical equipment.

Tunable mode-locked Tm-doped fiber laser based upon cross-phase modulation.

We demonstrate the generation of soliton and dissipative soliton in an ultrafast thulium (Tm) doped fiber laser based upon cross-phase modulation (XPM) induced mode-locking. The mode-locking is realized by periodically modulating the 2-µm signal through XPM that is activated by an injected 1.5-µm pulsed laser. Such a mechanism enables the laser to be mode-locked in various operation regimes without any real or artificial saturable absorbers. Thanks to the XPM pulling effect, the wavelength of the Tm-doped fiber laser can be tuned by adjusting the repetition frequency of the 1.5-µm pulsed laser. The maximum tuning ranges achieved in this work for the soliton and dissipative soliton regimes are respectively 11 nm and 15 nm. The outcomes of this work not only provide a continuously and controllably wavelength-tunable ultrafast laser but also offer a passively synchronized dual-color fiber laser system, which is promised for many important applications such as Raman spectroscopy, nonlinear frequency conversion systems, and multi-color pump-probe systems.

Tunable thulium-doped mode-locked fiber laser with watt-level average power.

We demonstrate a wavelength-tunable, sub-200 fs, and watt-level thulium-doped ultrafast fiber oscillator with a fundamental frequency repetition rate of 509.7 MHz. The wavelength can be tuned between 1918.5 nm and 2031 nm by adjusting the intra-cavity waveplates. When the wavelength is tuned to below 2000 nm, the average output power exceeds 1 W. The oscillator provides a maximum average power of 1.314 W (corresponding to a pulse energy of 2.58 nJ) and a highest peak power of 12.5 kW at 1940 nm. Such a high-power, tunable 2-µm mode-locked fiber laser is an ideal light source candidate for a variety of applications, such as frequency metrology, molecular spectroscopy, and ultrafast pump-probe spectroscopy.

Nonlinear optical response of inverse-designed integrated photonic devices.

Gradient-based optimization combined with the adjoint method has been demonstrated to be an efficient way to design a nano-structure with a vast number of degrees of freedom. However, most inverse-designed photonic devices are applied as linear photonic devices. Here, we demonstrate the nonlinear optical response in inverse-designed integrated splitters fabricated on a SiN platform. The splitting ratio is tunable under different incident powers. The thermo-optical effect can be used as an effective approach for adjusting the nonlinear optical response threshold and modulation depth of the device. These promising results indicate the great potential of inverse-designed photonic devices in nonlinear optics and optical communications.

MoS2 hybrid integrated micro-ring resonator phase shifter based on a silicon nitride platform.

We demonstrate a low-power, compact micro-ring phase shifter based on hybrid integration with atomically thin two-dimensional layered materials, and experimentally establish a low-loss silicon nitride platform. Using a wet transfer method, a large-area few-layer MoS2 film is hybrid integrated with a micro-ring phase shifter, leading to a tuning efficiency of 5.8 pm V-1 at a center wavelength of 1545.294 nm and a half-wave-voltage-length product as low as 0.09 V cm. Our device is designed to provide a hybrid-integration-based active phase modulation scheme for integrated optical communication networks with large-cross-section silicon nitride waveguides.

All-polarization-maintaining NALM mode-locked Er/Yb-doped large-mode-area fiber oscillator.

We report a mode-locked high-power all-polarization-maintaining Er/Yb-doped large-mode-area fiber oscillator based on a bias nonlinear amplifying loop mirror (NALM). The oscillator can generate ∼1-nJ femtosecond pulses without dispersion compensation. By inserting a Martinez-type compensator to provide normal dispersion, it can generate >10-nJ picosecond dissipative solitons (DSs). The measured M2 factors are below 1.5, indicating a good beam quality. When the cavity dispersion is tuned to be ∼0.704 ps2, the oscillator can deliver chirped DSs with an average power as high as 690 mW at a repetition rate of 49.86 MHz, corresponding to a pulse energy of ∼13.8 nJ. The pulse after compression has a near Fourier-limited width of ∼2 ps. Successful demonstration of this laser provides a robust scheme for improving the performance of ultrafast fiber lasers in average power and pulse energy.

Average-power (4.13 W) 59 fs mid-infrared pulses from a fluoride fiber laser system.

We report a high-average-power mid-infrared ultrafast laser system consisting of a fluoride fiber mode-locked oscillator and a nonlinear amplifier. A backward pumping scheme was used in the amplifier to simultaneously realize pulse amplification and self-compression. The input signal polarization was demonstrated to play an important role in the self-compression process. Through the optimization of input polarization, a 4.13 W average-power 59 fs pulse at 2.8 µm was achieved, with an estimated pulse energy of 42.2 nJ and a peak power of 715 kW. To the best of our knowledge, this is the highest average-power pulse with sub-100-fs duration generated from a mid-infrared fiber laser system to date.

Characterization of a Mass-Produced SiPM at Liquid Nitrogen Temperature for CsI Neutrino Coherent Detectors.

Silicon Photomultiplier (SiPM) is a sensor that can detect low-light signals lower than the single-photon level. In order to study the properties of neutrinos at a low detection threshold and low radioactivity experimental background, a low-temperature CsI neutrino coherent scattering detector is designed to be read by the SiPM sensor. Less thermal noise of SiPM and more light yield of CsI crystals can be obtained at the working temperature of liquid nitrogen. The breakdown voltage (Vbd) and dark count rate (DCR) of SiPM at liquid nitrogen temperature are two key parameters for coherent scattering detection. In this paper, a low-temperature test is conducted on the mass-produced ON Semiconductor J-Series SiPM. We design a cryogenic system for cooling SiPM at liquid nitrogen temperature and the changes of operating voltage and dark noise from room to liquid nitrogen temperature are measured in detail. The results show that SiPM works at the liquid nitrogen temperature, and the dark count rate drops by six orders of magnitude from room temperature (120 kHz/mm2) to liquid nitrogen temperature (0.1 Hz/mm2).

Photonic device combined optical microfiber coupler with saturable-absorption materials and its application in mode-locked fiber laser.

We demonstrated a mode-locked fiber laser based on a novel photonic device that combined optical microfiber coupler (OMC) and saturable absorption materials. The stable ultrafast laser was formed based on the interaction between the deposited Indium Antimonide (InSb) and the evanescent field on OMC. Different from optical microfiber (OM), OMC can directly output the mode-locked laser without additional beam splitting devices, which further improves the integrated characteristics of the fiber laser. The pulse duration of the output pulse is 405 fs at the central wavelength of 1560 nm. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time that optical microfiber coupler based saturable absorber (OMC-SA) for mode-locked fiber laser is demonstrated.

Generation of few-cycle pulses from a mode-locked Tm-doped fiber laser.

We report a compact, self-starting dispersion-managed mode-locked thulium-doped fiber oscillator that delivers 2.6 nJ pulses at 2 µm with a repetition rate of 250 MHz. The average output power and spectral bandwidth of the pulses reach impressive values of 648 mW and 103 nm, respectively. The generated pulses are near linearly chirped, capable of linearly compressing to 74 fs in a normal dispersion fiber after power attenuation. Using a nonlinear fiber compression scheme can even compress the pulses to 29 fs (4.3-cycle). The remaining pulse energy is 1.15 nJ, and the corresponding peak power is estimated as 39.4 kW. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first demonstration of nonlinearly compressing the pulse of a 2 µm fiber oscillator to the sub-5 cycle regime. Such a few-cycle fiber laser could be an ideal candidate source for short-wavelength mid-infrared frequency metrology and molecular spectroscopy applications.

Three-band perfect absorber with high refractive index sensing based on an active tunable Dirac semimetal.

In this paper, we designed a three-band narrowband perfect absorber based on bulk Dirac semi-metallic (BDS) metamaterials. The absorber consists of a hollow Dirac semi-metallic layer above, a gold layer below and a photonic crystal slab (PCS) in the middle. The study found that the terahertz wave absorber achieved three perfect absorption rates of more than 95% in the range of 1 to 2.4 THz. The minimum bandwidth (FWHM) is 0.02 THz, and the maximum quality factor (Q) is 106. A reasonable explanation of high absorption can be obtained by impedance matching, electric dipole and other principles. The absorption spectra of the two polarizations show different responses at different incident angles. In addition, we also obtained the influence of the structural parameters of the upper layer of the metamaterial on the absorption performance. We defined the refractive index sensitivity (S) with a maximum sensitivity of 0.1525 THz RIU-1 and a highest quality factor (FOM) of 4.26 in the refractive index range of 1 to 1.8. The maximum adjustable range is 0.06 THz in the Fermi energy range of 60 to 140 meV. Because of its excellent characteristics, our absorber will have good development prospects in the fields of optical switching, biochemical imaging, and space detection.

Sub-200 fs, 344 MHz mode-locked Tm-doped fiber laser.

We demonstrate a compact, self-starting mode-locked thulium-doped fiber laser based on nonlinear polarization evolution (NPE), with a fundamental repetition rate of ∼344MHz and a pulse duration of ∼160fs. The generated pulses centered at ∼1975nm have a maximum output power of ∼560mW, corresponding to a pulse energy of ∼1.63nJ. To the best of our knowledge, the achieved repetition rate represents the highest value of fundamentally NPE mode-locked fiber lasers at ∼2µm, while the average output power is also higher than the previously reported 2 µm ultrafast single-mode fiber oscillators. The timing jitter in the integrated range [5 kHz, 10 MHz] and the integrated relative intensity noise in the range [10 Hz, 10 MHz] reach ∼35fs and ∼0.009%, respectively. Our high-performance laser is an ideal candidate for various applications, including mid-infrared frequency metrology and high-speed optical sampling.