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.

All-dielectric thin films based on single silicon materials for angle-insensitive structural colors.

Here we demonstrate a red structural color of a multilayer structure made of all silicon-based materials. By using amorphous silicon (a-Si) and silicon dioxide (SiO2) with a large difference in the refractive index, high reflection efficiency can be achieved with only a few layers. The anti-reflection unit composed of top silicon monoxide (SiO) and SiO2 layers can significantly reduce the reflection intensity of the non-target wavelengths to ensure that the device has good color saturation. The selective absorption of SiO and a-Si layers can further improve the color saturation. By reasonably controlling the thickness of the highly absorbing materials, the device has good angular insensitivity at an incident angle of 0°-60°. Furthermore, the angle-insensitive blue and yellow structural colors are also realized based on the all silicon design idea. This scheme is simple in structure and capable of efficient mass production. This method has enormous potential for diverse applications in display, colorful decoration, anti-counterfeiting, and so forth.

Temperature measurement using a multi-wavelength fiber ring laser based on a hybrid gain medium and Sagnac interferometer.

In this paper, a multi-wavelength fiber ring laser (MWFRL) based on a hybrid gain medium and Sagnac interferometer (SI) used for temperature measurement has been proposed and experimentally demonstrated. Experiments have been carried out with polarization maintaining fibers (PMF) of different lengths, which are incorporated in the SI as sensing elements. Stable multi-wavelength oscillation at 1560 nm band is successfully achieved with the wavelength instability of ±0.08 nm and the signal-to-noise of 42 dB. The experimental results show that the wavelength change of the MWFRL with temperature variation has a good linear response and the temperature sensitivity of 1.8063 ± 0.00933 nm/°C is obtained when the length of the PMF is 1.7 m. As the length of PMF increases, the sensitivity can be improved.

Low threshold continuous-wave lasing of yellow-green InGaN-QD vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers.

Low threshold continuous-wave (CW) lasing of current injected InGaN quantum dot (QD) vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) was achieved at room temperature. The VCSEL was fabricated by metal bonding technique on a copper substrate to improve the heat dissipation ability of the device. For the first time, lasing was obtained at yellow-green wavelength of 560.4 nm with a low threshold of 0.61 mA, corresponding to a current density of 0.78 kA/cm2. A high degree of polarization of 94% were measured. Despite the operation in the range of "green gap" of GaN-based devices, single longitudinal mode laser emission was clearly achieved due to the high quality of active region based on InGaN QDs and the excellent thermal design of the VCSELs.

Power-ratio tunable dual-wavelength laser using linearly variable Fabry-Perot filter as output coupler.

For a linearly variable Fabry-Perot filter, the peak transmission wavelengths change linearly with the transverse position shift of the substrate. Such a Fabry-Perot filter is designed and fabricated and used as an output coupler of a c-cut Nd:YVO4 laser experimentally in this paper to obtain a 1062 and 1083 nm dual-wavelength laser. The peak transmission wavelengths are gradually shifted from 1040.8 to 1070.8 nm. The peak transmission wavelength of the Fabry-Perot filter used as the output coupler for the dual-wavelength laser is 1068 nm and resides between 1062 and 1083 nm, which makes the transmissions of the desired dual wavelengths change in opposite slopes with the transverse shift of the filter. Consequently, powers of the two wavelengths change in opposite directions. A branch power, oppositely tunable 1062 and 1083 nm dual-wavelength laser is successfully demonstrated. Design principles of the linear variable Fabry-Perot filter used as an output coupler are discussed. Advantages of the method are summarized.

High-power high-repetition-rate UV light at 355 nm generated by a diode-end-pumped passively Q-switched Nd:YAG laser.

We describe experimental results with a diode-pumped, passively Q-switched extracavity second- and third-harmonic generation. Cr:YAG is used as a saturable absorber for pulse generation. Taking into account the thermal effects of Nd:YAG at high incident pump power, we use a short plane-to-plane cavity configuration to take advantage of the maximum pump power and obtain the compactness structure. At the same time, we use the type-I critical phase-matched lithium triborate crystal to generate light at 532 nm and mix the residual fundamental at 1064 nm and the second-harmonic wave at 532 nm in the type-II critical phase-matched lithium triborate crystal for UV light generation at 355 nm. A third-harmonic-generation output power of 1.32 W is achieved at the incident pump power of 27.5 W, corresponding to an optical-to-optical efficiency of 4.8%. The instability of the UV laser power is less than 5% for 4 h.