Direct generation of a 635 nm red random laser based on praseodymium (Pr)-doped ZBLAN fiber.

Visible random fiber lasers have garnered significant attention due to their unique emission properties and potential applications in various fields. We first, to the best of our knowledge, demonstrated a compact all-fiber structure, red wavelength, and random fiber laser (RFL) based on a double-clad Pr-doped ZBLAN fiber. The simple half-open cavity consists of a high-reflectivity fiber pigtail mirror and the Pr-doped ZBLAN fiber. The Pr-doped ZBLAN fiber not only served as a gain medium but also offered random backward scattering. We investigated the effects of different lengths on output power and slope efficiency of the RFL. For 21 m Pr-doped fiber, the RFL emitted a maximum output power of 208.50 mW with a slope efficiency of 11.09%. For 15 m Pr-doped fiber, the maximum power decreased to 120.18 mW with the slope efficiency of 7.27%. We are also numerically simulating the output power versus the pump power at different fiber lengths based on power steady-state light propagation equations. This novel RFL has the potential for broad applications in fields such as display technology, spectroscopy, biomedical imaging, and optical sensing due to its unique properties and simple all-fiber structure.

High-efficiency fiber-cladding power stripper based on all-dielectric optical thin films.

Although conventional fiber-cladding power strippers (CPSs) based on the techniques of high-index adhesive or corrosive liquids onto fiber inner cladding have been well developed, they are still facing challenges in special applications such as spaceborne or radiation-environment fiber lasers and amplifiers. In this paper, we propose and fabricate high-efficiency CPSs based on all-dielectric optical thin films. By numerically analyzing the propagation characteristics of cladding light at the thin film interface, we design a high-index T a 2 O 5 CPS and A l 2 O 3 CPS with single- and cascaded-layer films coated onto the fiber inner cladding, respectively. In our experiment, the CPSs are successfully fabricated onto the inner-cladding surface of 10/125 double-clad fiber based on ion-beam-assisted deposition technology. The stripping efficiency for the 976 nm residual cladding power was measured up to 99.38%, and the stripping power of the fiber CPS without active cooling can be 24 W at least. Such CPS could be advantageous for applications in spaceborne-based fiber lasers or amplifiers (e.g., gravitational wave detection, spaceborne lidar).

All-fiber cyan laser at 491.5 nm.

We report, for the first time to our knowledge, a compact continuous-wave all-fiber cyan laser. The all-fiber cavity consists of a 443-nm fiber-pigtail laser diode as pump source, a 4.5-cm single-clad Pr3+-doped fluoride fiber, and two custom-built dielectric-coated fiber-pigtail mirrors in the visible spectral region. Downconversion cyan lasing at 491.5 nm is directly achieved, providing a maximum output power of 97.5 mW with a slope efficiency of 23.7% and a power fluctuation of less than 0.41%. Such a compact all-fiber cyan laser may be of great significance to expand the color reproduction range of laser displays, and has potential applications in fluorescence imaging, underwater communication, and detection.

1.3/1.4 µm dual-wave band dissipative soliton resonance in a passively mode-locked Bi-doped phosphosilicate fiber laser.

We report the 1.3/1.4 µm dual-wave band dissipative soliton resonance (DSR) in a passively mode-locked bismuth-doped phosphosilicate fiber (Bi-PSF) laser. The low-water-peak Bi-PSF with two bismuth active centers associated with silicon and phosphorus supports the O+E-band gain. Using a 1239 nm home-made Raman fiber laser as pump source and nonlinear amplifying loop mirror for initiating mode-locking, stable DSR operation at 1343 and 1406 nm is achieved with the spectral bandwidth of 12 and 16 nm. The pulse duration with the pump power increases from 62 to 270 ps with a repetition frequency of 4.069 MHz. The average power is 11.05 mW corresponding to the maximum energy of 2.7 nJ. This is, to the best of our knowledge, the first demonstration of a mode-locked fiber laser in the ∼1.38 µm water absorption band and the O+E dual-wave band operation for applications in all-spectral-band communications, bio-medical imaging, and terahertz difference frequency generation.

Soliton polarization dynamics in a fiber laser of zero dispersion.

Polarization properties of a soliton generated in a fiber laser of zero dispersion are investigated. Similar to the solitons generated in a fiber laser of all anomalous dispersion, the polarization ellipse of the soliton rotated during pulse evolution inside the cavity. The number of rotations relies on the cavity averaged birefringence with nonlinear bias. The larger the cavity averaged birefringence is, the bigger the bias is. When the period multiplying of solitons appears, the number of rotations depends on both multiplying periods and the cavity averaged birefringence. Multiple polarization states can be observed at a fixed position in the cavity depending on the multiplying period. When the cavity length is equal to n times of the averaged beat length, the polarization ellipse of the soliton rotates n∗m times at a fixed position, where m is equal to the multiplying period.

Potential application of a green fiber laser in laser display systems.

This study explores the application of optical fiber lasers in display systems by integrating a P r3+-doped green all-fiber laser into a laser projection display system. As a control group to compare the results, a 520 nm semiconductor green laser diode module was integrated, similar to the experimental group. The color gamut and speckle performances were studied and compared. The results showed that the experimental group performed slightly better in the color gamut volume. The speckle contrast decreased rapidly in the experimental group when power increased. To our knowledge, this is the first study to apply a fiber laser to a laser display system. The results shed light on developing laser display systems with fewer or no speckle reduction elements.

On-chip mid-IR octave-tunable Raman soliton laser.

Photonic chip-based continuously tunable lasers are widely recognized as an indispensable component for photonic integrated circuits (PICs). Specifically, mid-infrared (mid-IR) laser sources are of paramount importance in applications such as photonic sensing and spectroscopy. In this article, we theoretically investigate the propagation dynamics of mid-IR Raman soliton in Ge28Sb12Se60 chalcogenide glass waveguide. By carefully engineer the waveguide dispersion and nonlinear interaction, we propose a suspended chalcogenide glass waveguide device that allows an octave-tuning, from 1.96 µm to 3.98 µm, Raman soliton source. The threshold pump energy is in the low pico-Joule range. Our result provides a solution to continuously tunable on-chip mid-IR ultrafast laser sources.

Ultra-Small 2D PbS Nanoplatelets: Liquid-Phase Exfoliation and Emerging Applications for Photo-Electrochemical Photodetectors.

2D PbS nanoplatelets (NPLs) form an emerging class of photoactive materials and have been proposed as robust materials for high-performance optoelectronic devices. However, the main drawback of PbS NPLs is the large lateral size, which inhibits their further investigations and practical applications. In this work, ultra-small 2D PbS NPLs with uniform lateral size (11.2 ± 1.7 nm) and thickness (3.7 ± 0.9 nm, ≈6 layers) have been successfully fabricated by a facile liquid-phase exfoliation approach. Their transient optical response and photo-response behavior are evaluated by femtosecond-resolved transient absorption and photo-electrochemical (PEC) measurements. It is shown that the NPLs-based photodetectors (PDs) exhibit excellent photo-response performance from UV to the visible range, showing extremely high photo-responsivity (27.81 mA W-1 ) and remarkable detectivity (3.96 × 1010 Jones), which are figures of merit outperforming currently reported PEC-type PDs. The outstanding properties are further analyzed based on the results of first-principle calculations, including electronic band structure and free energies for the oxygen evolution reaction process. This work highlights promising applications of ultra-small 2D PbS NPLs with the potential for breakthrough developments also in other fields of optoelectronic devices.

2166 nm all-fiber short-pulsed Raman laser based on germania-core fiber.

We report a compact 2166 nm germania-fiber short-pulsed Raman laser based on the cavity matching scheme. The all-fiber Raman cavity is formed by a pair of 2166 nm fiber Bragg gratings. High-power noise-like pulses from a 1981 nm fiber laser are used to pump a 22 m germania-core fiber for providing Raman gain at ∼2166 nm, and readily realizes the Raman-cavity synchronization with high mismatching tolerance. Stable Raman pulses at 2166 nm are therefore generated with the tunable pulse width of 0.9-4.4 ns and the large pulse energy up to 12.15 nJ. This is, to the best of our knowledge, the first demonstration of all-fiber short-pulsed Raman laser in the mid-infrared region.

Compact all-fiber 2.1-2.7 µm tunable Raman soliton source based on germania-core fiber.

Although ultrafast rare-earth-doped fiber lasers mode-locked at near-infrared and ∼3 µm wavelengths have been well developed, it is relatively difficult to achieve ultrafast fiber laser emitting in the 2.1-2.7 µm spectral gap between ∼2 µm (Tm fiber) and ∼2.8 µm (Er or Ho fluoride fiber). In this paper, we report the generation of 2.1-2.7 µm tunable femtosecond Raman solitons from a compact fusion-spliced all-fiber system using a home-made 1.96 µm ultrafast pump source and a MIR-available germania-core fiber. At first, a Tm-doped double-clad fiber amplifier is used to not only boost up the power of 1957 nm femtosecond seed laser, but also to generate the first-order soliton self-frequency shift (SSFS). The first-order Raman solitons can be tuned from 2.036 to 2.152 µm, have a pulse duration of ∼480 fs and can reach a pulse energy of 1.07 nJ. The first-order Raman solitons are further injected into a 94 mol.% germania-core fiber to excite the second-order SSFS. The second-order solitons can be tuned to longer wavelengths, i.e. from 2.157 µm up to 2.690 µm. Our work could provide an effective way to develop compact, all-fiber ultrafast MIR laser sources with the continuous wavelength tuning of 2.1-2.7 µm.

Determining topological charge based on an improved Fizeau interferometer.

We propose a new method to determine topological charge by using an improved Fizeau interferometer. This interferometer is very easy to realize, as well as interference fringes are very distinct. Phases of vortex, Hermite-Gaussian, and elliptical vortex beams are experimentally verified using this method. It provides a convenient way to determine the sign and magnitude of topological charge. This method may have some potential applications in space optical communication.

Direct generation of orthogonally polarized dual-wavelength continuous-wave and passively Q-switched vortex beam in diode-pumped Pr:YLF lasers.

We report on direct generation of an orthogonally polarized dual-wavelength vortex laser, for the first time to our knowledge, by means of a diode-pumped V-shaped Pr:YLF laser platform. A method of misaligning the folded mirror is proposed to realize the simultaneous orthogonally polarized dual-wavelength laser, while a method of orthogonally rotating the laser gain medium is proposed to generate an intracavity vortex beam (LG01 mode). With the two methods, in continuous-wave (CW) mode, we have achieved simultaneous lasing of an orthogonally polarized dual-wavelength vortex laser at 604 and 607 nm with maximum output power of 237.7 mW. Moreover, based on this operation, a simultaneous orthogonally polarized dual-wavelength passively Q-switched vortex laser is also realized by inserting a Co:ASL crystal into the laser resonator as a saturable absorber. This work provides the simplest way for direct generation of an orthogonally polarized dual-wavelength vortex laser for potential applications.

High-efficiency, yellow-light Dy3+-doped fiber laser with wavelength tuning from 568.7 to 581.9 nm.

We report, to the best of our knowledge, the first demonstration of a wavelength-tunable and highly efficient Dy3+-doped fiber laser operating in the yellow spectral region. A 2-m-long Dy3+:ZBLAN fiber pumped by a 447-nm GaN laser diode provides a strong down-conversion gain around 575 nm. A fiber end-facet mirror and a visible reflective grating in the Littrow configuration construct the resonant cavity and introduce the wavelength tunability. A stable yellow laser with a <0.05-nm narrow linewidth is achieved and continuously tuned from 568.7 nm to 581.9 nm, covering more than half of the yellow spectral range. The slope efficiency is as high as 34.9%, and the maximum output power is 142 mW at 576.44 nm, which is 13 times higher than previously reported. It is, to the best of our knowledge, the highest power and conversion efficiency of a yellow-light Dy3+-doped fiber laser with wavelength tunability.

Compact self-Q-switched, tunable mid-infrared all-fiber pulsed laser.

A compact self-Q-switched wavelength-tunable Ho3+:ZBLAN fiber laser around 3 µm is experimentally demonstrated for the first time. The mid-IR all-fiber cavity is formed by a pair of fiber end-facet mirrors. A 2 m-long heavily-doped Ho3+:ZBLAN fiber pumped by a homemade 1.15 µm fiber laser not only provides mid-IR optical gain, but also functions as an equivalent saturable absorber. Stable self-Q-switched pulses around 2.9 µm are generated at a low threshold of 36.6 mW, and the maximum average power obtained is 3.17 mW, corresponding to a pulse width of 1.54 µs and repetition rate of 67.8 kHz, respectively. By simply increasing the incident pump power, the mid-IR laser wavelength can be continuously tunable from 2927 nm to 2960 nm. Furthermore, when the pump power is fixed at 207.7 mW, a 42 nm wavelength tuning (2923 ∼ 2965 nm) from the self-Q-switched all-fiber laser is also achieved by applying the novel loss-adjusting technique.

High-order mode direct oscillation of few-mode fiber laser for high-quality cylindrical vector beams.

Generation of high-order modes with high quality is important for the application of cylindrical vector beams in fibers. We experimentally demonstrated high-order LP11 mode generation and amplification with a broad bandwidth in an all few-mode fiber laser. A wavelength-division-multiplexing (WDM) mode selective coupler (MSC) is proposed to achieve efficient mode conversion from LP01 mode to LP11 mode, but also combine high-order LP11 modes at the wavelengths of 980/1550 nm. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report on the high-order mode oscillation in an all few-mode fiber laser. LP11 mode and cylindrical vector beams including radially and azimuthally polarized beams are obtained with high modal purity. The purity of the generated high-order modes are all in excess of 95%.

Dynamic mode-switchable optical vortex beams using acousto-optic mode converter.

We propose a dynamic scheme to realize mode-switchable generation of LP11a/b modes and ±1-order orbital angular momentum (OAM) modes simultaneously, which are induced by an acoustically induced fiber grating driven by radio frequency modulation. LP11a/b mode degeneration in a few-mode fiber is induced by the geometric irregularity of optical fibers. A dual-wavelength resonance of mode coupling from LP01 to LP11a/b modes is found based on the combined effects of optical and acoustic birefringence. Within the configuration of continuous-wave intra-cavity laser output, we experimentally demonstrate a fast-switchable generation of LP11a/b modes and optical vortex beams with ±1-order OAM at a switching speed up to 4.3 kHz. This approach has potential applications in mode-division multiplexing, particle manipulation, stimulated emission depletion microscopy, and quantum information science.

1.2-W average-power, 700-W peak-power, 100-ps dissipative soliton resonance in a compact Er:Yb co-doped double-clad fiber laser.

Mode-locked pulses in the dissipative soliton resonance (DSR) regime enable extremely high pulse energy, but typically have the limited peak power of <100 W and a nanosecond-long pulse duration. In this Letter, we demonstrate high-peak-power, ultrashort DSR pulses in a compact Er:Yb co-doped double-clad fiber laser. The linear cavity is simply formed by two fiber loop mirrors (FLMs) using a 50/50 optical coupler (OC) and a 5/95 OC. The 5/95 FLM with a short loop length of 3 m is not only used as the output mirror, but also acts as a nonlinear optical loop mirror for initiating high-peak-power DSR. In particular, the mode-locked laser can deliver ∼100 ps DSR pulses with a maximum average power of 1.2 W and a peak power as high as ∼700 W. This is, to the best of our knowledge, the highest peak power of DSR pulses obtained in mode-locked fiber lasers.

716 nm deep-red passively Q-switched Pr:ZBLAN all-fiber laser using a carbon-nanotube saturable absorber.

We experimentally demonstrated a compact single-wall carbon-nanotube (SWNT)-based deep-red passively Q-switched Pr3+-doped ZBLAN all-fiber laser operating at 716 nm. A free-standing SWNT/polyvinyl alcohol composite film embedded between a pair of fiber connectors was employed as a saturable absorber (SA). The deep-red Q-switched operation is attributed to the combination of implementing a pair of fiber end-facet mirrors to achieve the linear laser resonator and incorporating a SWNT-SA into the cavity as a Q-switcher. Stable short-pulse generation with a duration of 2.3 µs was realized. When gradually increasing the incident pump power, the pulse repetition rate can be linearly tuned from 32.6 to 86.5 kHz, corresponding to a maximum average output power of 1.5 mW and the highest single-pulse energy of 18.3 nJ. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first demonstration of SWNT-based SA for a Q-switched laser at a deep-red wavelength ∼716 nm.

Intermode beating mode-locking technique for a rare-earth-doped fiber pulsed laser.

In this paper, we report the intermode beating mode-locking of a 2 µm Tm3+-doped fiber laser (TDFL) pumped by a 1565 nm continuous-wave multi-longitudinal-mode laser. Because strong intermode beating of the 1565 nm pump source induces the periodic modulation of 2 µm intracavity power, stable mode-locking of the TDFL is successfully established by precisely matching the 2 µm cavity frequency with the intermode-beating frequency of the 1565 nm pump source. The mode-locked laser, without requiring any specific mode-locking element, can stably emit the rectangular nanosecond pulses. The mode-locking operation at the center wavelength of 1980.35 nm has a >61 dB signal-to-noise ratio and a 34.496 MHz repetition rate. Although the preliminary results are not better than those of conventional mode-locking, intermode beating mode-locking in combination with rare-earth-doped fiber lasers could provide a promising and alternative solution for compact, low-cost, and high-performance pulsed laser sources.

Bidirectional operation of 100 fs bound solitons in an ultra-compact mode-locked fiber laser.

We report on the experimental observation of bidirectional 100-fs bound solitons from a nanotube-mode-locked dispersion-managed Er-fiber laser with an ultra-simple linear cavity. Two mode-locked pulse trains in opposite directions are delivered simultaneously from the linear cavity. Under the pump power of <74 mW, both the bidirectional outputs of the laser work at the single-soliton state with pulse duration of 173 fs and 182 fs, respectively. Once the pump power is more than 74 mW, both the bidirectional outputs evolve into the two-soliton bound states with soliton separation of 1.53 ps. Interestingly, the bidirectional operations can show the different bound states, i.e. the forward bound solitons with phase difference of + π/2, and the backward ones with phase difference of -π/2. This is, to the best of our knowledge, the first demonstration of such compact bidirectional soliton fiber laser with the sub-200 fs pulses.