Polarization-dependent relative intensity noise of fiber supercontinuum sources

Dirk-Mathys Spangenberg,Benoît Sierro,Alexander M Heidt,P Helfenstein

doi:10.1051/epjconf/202024317004

Dirk-Mathys Spangenberg, Benoît Sierro + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1051/epjconf/202024317004

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Journal: EPJ Web of Conferences	Publication Date: Jan 1, 2020
License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: University of Bern

Abstract

Detailed experimental polarization-dependent relative intensity noise (RIN) measurements of all-normal dispersion (ANDi) and conventional supercontinuum (SC) sources are presented. We show that the polarization-maintaining ANDi fiber suppresses polarization noise, is robust against pump polarization fluctua- tions, and allows ultra-low noise SC generation with RIN identi- cal to the pump laser (< 0.05%).

Highlights

Coherent and low noise supercontinuum (SC) sources based on nonlinear spectral broadening of femtosecond pulses in all-normal dispersion (ANDi) fibers are attractive for many applications in ultrafast photonics, such as nonlinear bio-photonic imaging, ultrafast spectroscopy, coherent X-ray generation, and lownoise ultrafast fiber laser development, amongst others [1]
While ANDi SC exhibit superior noise properties compared to their conventional counterparts pumped in the anomalous dispersion regime, recent theoretical studies suggest that polarization modulation instability (PMI) can severely degrade their stability [2]
While the SC generated in the non-PM ANDi fiber shows complex, polarization dependent relative intensity noise (RIN) features that are sensitive to environmental conditions, amplifying the pump laser noise by a factor of up to 3, the PM design completely suppresses noise amplification by PMI around the fiber’s principal axes with high environmental stability

Summary

Introduction

Coherent and low noise supercontinuum (SC) sources based on nonlinear spectral broadening of femtosecond pulses in all-normal dispersion (ANDi) fibers are attractive for many applications in ultrafast photonics, such as nonlinear bio-photonic imaging, ultrafast spectroscopy, coherent X-ray generation, and lownoise ultrafast fiber laser development, amongst others [1]. The noise properties of the SC source are of particular importance as fluctuations translate to intensity noise, pulse duration noise, or timing jitter, affecting sensitivity, resolution, or synchronisation of ultrafast experiments.

Results

Conclusion