Combined influence of the gain and dispersion of a mode-locked fiber laser on a time-stretching analog-to-digital conversion link.

Abstract

Using theory and experiments, we demonstrated the combined influence of the spectral gain and dispersion of a dissipative soliton mode-locked fiber laser on a time-stretching analog-to-digital conversion link without an optical amplifier. The theoretical and experimental results indicate the following: first, the amplitude and envelope shape of the stretched signal are mainly affected by the spectral gain of the dissipative soliton at different central wavelengths under a radio frequency signal of 10 GHz. Second, at the higher frequency of 25 GHz, the influence of the phase shift induced by the dispersion of different spectral ranges on the amplitude of the stretched signal becomes clearer. The amplitude of the stretched signal across all spectral ranges decrease, and the envelope shape differs from that at 10 GHz. Moreover, the wavelength at the maximum amplitude of the stretched signal changes, for which the influence of the spectral dispersion is greater than that of the spectral gain. Finally, the ratio of the amplitude at 25 GHz to that at 10 GHz at different spectral ranges are different, which indicates that the amplitude of the stretched signal at different spectral ranges is affected by the phase shift by different degrees.