Harmonic Mode-locked Fiber Laser Research Articles

Low-noise 2-GHz figure-9 fiber laser based on passive harmonic mode-locking.

We have proposed and demonstrated the generation of a high-repetition-rate ultrashort pulse with long-term stability and low noise based on a harmonic mode-locked (HML) figure-9 fiber laser. Different HML orders from the 2nd to the 13th are generated by adjusting the pump power, net dispersion, and wave plate angles. A 2-GHz HML pulse is obtained with a 155-MHz fundamental repetition rate in a Yb-doped fiber laser, and the corresponding supermode suppression level is as high as 50 dB. The average power of the output pulse is nearly 200 mW, and the compressed pulse duration is 535 fs. To the best of our knowledge, 2 GHz and 196 mW represent, respectively, the highest repetition rate and output power in a figure-9 fiber laser. This work offers a potential pathway to achieve high-repetition-rate ultrashort pulses in the GHz range with high power and low noise levels.

Continuous harmonic mode-locked pulsed ultrafast fiber laser based on PtS2 saturable absorber

Saturable absorbers (SAs) play an important role in mode-locked fiber lasers. The search for SAs with excellent modulation properties has become a hot topic in the field of ultrafast photonics. PtS2 is a ideal material for SA due to its suitable band gap and Easily peelable layer structure. We prepared PtS2-SA by liquid-phase exfoliation (LPE) and tapered fiber. Subsequently, we measured the modulation depth of the prepared SA using the two-arm detection method as 6.4 %, and the saturation intensity is 4.5 MW/cm2. By varying the input power in the annular cavity, a conventional solitons (CS) with a center wavelength is 1530.3 nm and a repetition frequency of 6.1 MHz was obtained. Continuing to increase the power, a stable second-fourth orders harmonic mode-locked (HML) was obtained. Our work shows that PtS2-SA has excellent modulation in mode-locked fiber lasers. It also proves that PtS2 has good saturable absorption properties and improves the knowledge of research workers about the performance of PtS2. There is hope in future research work to further exploit the output properties of PtS2.

Ultralow-phase-noise and broadband frequency-hopping coupled optoelectronic oscillator under quiet point operation

Advancements in microwave photonics have yielded novel approaches for generating high-purity microwave sources. Among these, optoelectronic oscillators (OEOs) and coupled optoelectronic oscillators (COEOs) have demonstrated the capability to generate frequency-independent microwaves with exceptionally low phase noise. Nonetheless, the tunability of the oscillators is rather limited due to the necessity for narrowband electronic bandpass filters, presenting challenges in achieving both wide and rapid tuning capabilities. Here, we present a COEO featuring ultralow phase noise, flexible tuning capability, and high robustness. This is achieved through a quiet point (QP)-operated harmonic mode-locked fiber laser, which effectively mitigates optical amplifier noise and supermode competition, thus significantly diminishing the necessity for ultra-narrow electronic filters. Due to the liberated tuning ability, we present an oscillator that can be tuned from 2 GHz to 18 GHz, with phase noise as low as −140 dBc/Hz at 10 kHz under the QP operation. We then illustrate the practical application of the proposed oscillator in generating frequency-hopping signals with consistent spurious modes less than −85 dBc, absolute phase noise below −135 dBc/Hz at 10 kHz, hopping resolution of 1.25 MHz, and fractional frequency stability below 6.1×10−12 at 1 s averaging time when locked to a reference. The presented COEO structure emerges as a compelling solution for agile and low-noise microwave sources in advanced wireless communication and radar systems.

Passively harmonic mode-locked GHz U-band femtosecond pulse generation based on soliton self-frequency shift.

We demonstrate a GHz U-band fiber laser harnessing soliton self-frequency shift (SSFS). The seed source is a passively harmonic mode-locked (HML) fiber laser based on carbon nanotubes (CNTs) polymer film. By adjusting the pump power and polarization controller (PC) appropriately, the repetition rate can be tuned up to 1.104 GHz with a side mode suppression ratio (SMSR) of 42.5 dB. The seed source with different repetition rates can be frequency shifted from C-band to U-band in a piece of dispersion-shifted fiber (DSF) after amplification. We selected three repetition rates (457.8 MHz, 700.1 MHz, and 1104.1 MHz) and systematically studied the impact of different repetition rates on SSFS. The broad tuning range of wavelengths covering the entire U-band can be obtained by adjusting the pump power of the main amplifier. To the best of our knowledge, the demonstrated laser is the first U-band femtosecond fiber laser based on passively HML with a repetition rate over 1 GHz.

171st-order harmonic soliton erbium-doped fiber laser based on 2H-MoTe2 saturable absorber

We have demonstrated a high order harmonic mode-locked erbium-doped fiber laser by utilizing 2H-MoTe2 film as a saturable absorber (SA). The SA is synthesized by depositing 2H-MoTe2 film on a D-shaped fiber. The nonlinear optical properties of the 2H-MoTe2 SA are characterized, showing a modulation depth of 14.7% and a saturation intensity of 3 GW cm−2. Through optimizing the pump power and intra-cavity polarization state, a 171st-order harmonic soliton at 0.9 GHz repetition frequency with a pulse width of 1.06 ps was obtained. The fundamentally mode-locked pulse train had a pulse width of 1.03 ps and a repetition rate of 5.33 MHz. To the best of our knowledge, the 171st-order harmonic soliton is the highest operating repetition frequency that has ever been demonstrated in a 2H-MoTe2 SA mode locked fiber laser. The results indicate the potential of 2H-MoTe2 SA at high repetition rates regimes, which could benefit for future possible application.

Passively harmonic mode-locked erbium-doped fiber laser with a gold nanofilm saturable absorber

We demonstrate a 1.5 GHz harmonic mode-locked erbium-doped fiber laser by incorporating gold nanofilm as a saturable absorber (SA). The high-quality gold nanofilm SA fabricated by the physical vapor deposition method possesses a high modulation depth of 12.9% and a low saturation intensity of 1.69 MW/cm2 at 1.56 µm, facilitating the generation of harmonic mode-locking. The fundamental mode-locked operation was obtained at 1564.7 nm, with a pulse duration of 586 fs and a repetition rate of 34.235 MHz. At the pump power of 610 mW, 44th-order harmonic mode-locking with a repetition rate of 1.506 GHz was achieved, which is the highest yet reported in mode-locked fiber lasers using gold nanomaterials as SAs. Moreover, the gold nanofilm-based harmonic mode-locked fiber laser shows relatively high signal-to-noise ratios, high output power, and good stability. These results highlight the advantage of the gold nanofilm-based SA in realizing high repetition rate laser sources.

Passively harmonic mode-locked erbium-doped fiber lasers based on PbSnS2 saturable absorbers

The two-dimensional (2D) material PbSnS2, a type of transition metal dichalcogenides (TMD), is a highly anisotropic layered compound with potential applications in ultrafast optics. We prepared PbSnS2 nanosheets by liquid phase exfoliation, attached them to microfibers to fabricate saturable absorbers (SAs) by optical deposition method, and successfully applied them to a passive erbium-doped fiber laser (EDFL). In addition, the saturable absorption properties of PbSnS2-based SA were confirmed using a balanced two-detector measurement system. The results demonstrate that the PbSnS2-based SA can realize different stable mode-locked states in the same EDFL cavity, including fundamental frequency conventional soliton and 15th harmonic mode-locked states. Among them, the laser produced fundamental frequency mode-locked state with a signal-to-noise ratio of 59.51 dB (6.58 MHz repetition frequency). The HML pulse with a maximum repetition frequency of 98.71 MHz (corresponding to the 15th harmonic) was obtained. The results demonstrate that PbSnS2 is a candidate material for generating ultrafast pulses and has excellent potential for application in ultrafast lasers.

Repetition rate tunable U-band passively harmonic mode-locked fiber laser

Repetition rate tunable U-band passively harmonic mode-locked fiber laser

2.11 GHz all-fiber harmonic mode-locked laser based on highly nonlinear hybrid multimode interference saturable absorber

This paper proposes a harmonic mode-locked fiber laser based on a novel highly nonlinear hybrid multimode interference saturable absorber (SA). The hybrid multimode interference SA is integrated by tapered graded-index multimode fiber (TA-GIMF) and Bi2Te3. The numerical simulation results show that TA-GIMF can improve the stability of nonlinear multimode interference mode-locking by filtering higher-order transverse modes. In addition, the larger evanescent-wave fields generated by TA-GIMF are more beneficial to the light–matter interaction. By depositing Bi2Te3 on TA-GIMF, the nonlinear saturation absorption properties and nonlinear coefficients in the laser cavity are further improved. Based on the hybrid multimode interference SA, the repetition rate of the fiber laser reached 2.11 GHz, corresponding to the 30th harmonic of the fundamental repetition rate of 70.41 MHz. Our results are the highest repetition rate generated based on the NL-MMI effect and provide novel insights into implementing highly integrated, high repetition-rate mode-locked fiber lasers.

Supermode noise mitigation and repetition rate control in a harmonic mode-locked fiber laser implemented through the pulse train interaction with co-lased CW radiation: publisher's note.

This publisher's note contains corrections to Opt. Lett.47, 5236 (2022)10.1364/OL.472780.

Widely-tunable harmonic mode-locked fiber laser by the combination of spectral filtering and gain management

Controlled flexible ultrafast pulses are of great importance in many application fields, such as metrology. Here, we report a compact pulse width tunable passively harmonic mode-locked fiber laser by exploiting the combination effect of spectral filtering and gain management. The spectral filtering is achieved by adopting a bandwidth tunable filter, resulting in pulse width tunable and changing the harmonic order (i.e., repetition rate). On the other hand, gain management can tune the harmonic order, while the emission pulse width typically remains the same. Thus, a combination of these two effects can make the pulse width tunable in a broad range at a fixed repetition rate. At the 6th-order harmonic mode-locking (76.8 MHz), the pulse width can be tuned from ∼ 0.8 ps to 4.3 ps by adjusting the bandwidth and pump strength. The development of pulse width tunable laser sources at a high-repetition rate would find potential applications in fields such as optical sensing and biomedical imaging.

Supermode noise mitigation and repetition rate control in harmonic mode-locked fiber laser implemented through the pulse train interaction with co-lased CW radiation.

We report on new, to the best of our knowledge, techniques enabling both the mitigation of supermode laser noise and highly precise setting of the pulse repetition rate (PRR) in a soliton harmonically mode-locked (HML) fiber laser employing nonlinear polarization evolution (NPE). The principle of operation relies on resonant interaction between the soliton pulses and a narrowband continuous wave (CW) component cooperatively generated within the same laser cavity. In contrast to our recent findings [Opt. Lett.46, 5747 (2021)10.1364/OL.441630 and Opt. Lett.46, 5687 (2021)10.1364/OL.443042], the new methods are implemented through the specific adjustment of the HML laser cavity only and do not require the use of an external tunable CW laser source.

TaSe2 nanosheets for harmonic mode-locked fiber laser

• It is the first time to achieved a harmonic mode-locking fiber laser based on TaSe 2 . • 128th harmonic mode-locked pulses at 908.8 MHz repetition rate are stably generated. • The work provides a new solution for generating high repetition frequency pulses. Passively harmonic mode locking of an erbium-doped fiber laser based on TaSe 2 nanosheets saturable absorber (SA) is demonstrated. The TaSe 2 nanosheets are prepared by the liquid phase exfoliation technology and then deposited onto side surface of a D-shaped fiber to form a fiber-compatible TaSe 2 SA. The balanced twin-detector method is utilized to measure nonlinear absorption characterization of the fabricated SA, which gives saturable absorption, nonsaturable absorption, and saturation intensity as 5.49%, 24.6%, and 89.2 MW/cm 2 , respectively. Then, TaSe 2 SA is inserted into a passively mode-locked erbium-doped fiber laser, and the fiber laser is demonstrated with a fundamental frequency of 7.1 MHz. By adjusting the polarization controller and pump power, harmonic mode-locking operation is realized. As the pump power increases to 380 mw, 128th harmonic mode-locked pulses at 908.8 MHz repetition rate are stably generated. The results confirm that TaSe 2 is indeed a very desirable photonic material, which can be used in photonics, fiber optic communication, laser material processing and light modulators.

GHz-level all-fiber harmonic mode-locked laser based on microfiber-assisted nonlinear multimode interference

Light-matter interaction can be strongly enhanced in tiny core fibers, and it holds significant potential for stable harmonic mode-locking at gigahertz and a higher repetition rate. In this paper, we propose and demonstrate a GHz harmonic mode-locked fiber laser based on a microfiber-assisted nonlinear multimode interference (NL-MMI), which is achieved by the enhanced mode-filtering of nonlinear self-imaging in multimode fiber with a waist diameter of 12μ m. A stable mode-locked is achieved with a repetition rate of 1.26 GHz at 1560.15 nm, corresponding to the 22nd harmonic of the fundamental frequency. Our results provide new insight into implementing high repetition frequency mode-locking fiber lasers.

Conserved spacing multi-wavelength mode-locked erbium-doped fiber laser based on barium titanate saturable absorber

A compact multi-wavelength harmonic passive mode-locked (MWHML) erbium-doped fiber laser (EDFL) has been demonstrated by integrating a Barium Titanate (BaTiO3) in the ring cavity configuration. The BaTiO3 with 9.5% modulation depth serves as a saturable absorber (SA) and is optically deposited by the Top-Down method to form an end face fiber integrated saturable absorber. Both the saturable absorption property and the large third-order nonlinearity of BaTiO3 assisted in generating a second-order harmonic pulse beside the fundamental frequency. Moreover, in real-time, eight wavelengths around 1560 nm with 0.7 nm wavelength spacing were produced with a maximum output power of 2.7 mW pulse duration of 5.2 ps. These results further suggest that BaTiO3 could be a good candidate for the saturable absorber and high nonlinear photonic device for related applications.

Passively harmonic mode-locked erbium-doped fiber laser based on 2H-MoTe2 saturable absorber

We demonstrated a harmonic mode-locked Erbium-doped fiber laser based on a saturable absorber (SA) of 2H-MoTe2, which is a member of the transition metal dichalcogenides. The SA mode-locker was made by integrating the 2H-MoTe2 into a D-shaped fiber, and then was inserted into an erbium-doped fiber laser for mode-locking. The nonlinear modulation depth and saturation power of 2H-MoTe2-based SA were 10.9% and 19 MW cm−2, respectively. The fundamentally mode-locked pulse train had a pulse width of 577 fs and a repetition rate of 14.32 MHz. The highest order of harmonic mode locking was 55th, which had the repetition rate of 787.6 MHz, pulse width of 820 fs and average output power of 11.8 mW. To the best of our knowledge, this is the highest operating repetition frequency that has ever been demonstrated in a 2H-MoTe2-based fiber laser. The experimental results validate the feasibility of 2H-MoTe2 as a promising SA for generating ultrashort pulses with high repetition rates.

Third-order harmonic mode-locked and Q-switched Er-doped fiber laser based on a Cr2Ge2Te6 saturable absorber.

This paper reports the generation of fundamental solitons and third-order solitons in an erbium-doped fiber laser (EDFL) by a Cr2Ge2Te6-polyvinyl alcohol (CGT-PVA) saturable absorber (SA). Stable fundamental solitons at 1559.09 nm at a repetition frequency of 5.1 MHz were detected, and third-order solitons with a maximum output power of 6.807 mW and narrowest monopulse duration of 615.2 fs were obtained under a repetition frequency of 15.3 MHz by changing pump power. To the best of our knowledge, it is the first time to achieve a Q-switched pulse with a minimum pulse duration of 2.2 µs and maximum single pulse energy of 12.11 nJ in EDFL based on CGT-PVA SA after reducing the cavity length. Its repetition rate monotonically increased from 18.8 kHz to 61.8 kHz with a tuning range of about 43 kHz. The experimental results sufficiently demonstrate that CGT has enormous potential as an ultrafast photonics device.

Dual-wavelength harmonic mode-locked dissipative soliton resonance of Yb fiber laser

Dissipative soliton resonance (DSR) mode-locked fiber lasers have stimulated great interest recent years due to their unique pulse-breaking-free advantage for scaling soliton pulse energy. However, the mechanism accounting for pulse breaking to generate multipulses in DSR fiber lasers has not reached a consensus. Here, we show that harmonic mode-locked DSR 1-μm Yb-doped fiber laser in the dual-wavelength regime can be realized with a semiconductor saturable absorber mirror (SESAM). In the fundamental frequency (3.5 MHz) mode-locked state, the pulse width continuously broadens from 2 to 8.9 ns as the output power increases from 1.26 to 5.1 mW (pulse energy being from 0.36 to 1.46 nJ), while the pulse peak power is clamped at 0.17 W, highlighting the typical characteristics of DSR mode-locking operation. Through simply adjusting the SESAM’s feedback conditions, the DSR fiber laser can transits from the fundamental-frequency mode locking to harmonic mode-locked states. Harmonic states from the 2nd to 9th order have been observed, with pulse repetition rate enhanced from 7 to 31.5 MHz. Under fixed pump power, increasing harmonic orders leads to reduction of the pulse width and pulse energy but does not change the unique quantization feature of the peak power. The status of the SESAM also guarantees the generation of dual wavelengths centered at 1072.5 and 1079.5 nm with spectral widths of 2.7 and 1.9 nm, respectively. This dual-wavelength harmonic mode-locked DSR Yb fiber laser can find applications in various areas.

2 µm sub-GHz harmonic mode-locked soliton generation based on a Bi2S3 saturable absorber.

Saturable absorber (SA) based harmonic mode-locking (HML) techniques at 2 µm waveband are much less reported than those at 1.5 µm waveband, the maximum repetition rate of the harmonic pulse generated by such techniques at 2 µm waveband is also much lower than those generated at 1.5 µm waveband. In this paper, the 39th harmonic with the repetition rate of 908.6 MHz is realized in a Bi2S3-based thulium-doped fiber laser. The fundamental mode-locked pulse has a central wavelength of 1954.2 nm and a 3-dB bandwidth of 5.1 nm. The repetition rate is 23.27 MHz and the pulse width is 902 fs. The characteristics of the material and harmonic mode-locked pulse are investigated. To the best of our knowledge, this is the highest and the closest resonance frequency to GHz among the reported SA-based harmonic mode-locked fiber lasers operating at 2 µm waveband.

Harmonic mode-locked fiber laser based on microfiber-assisted nonlinear multimode interference

A novel harmonic mode-locked fiber laser based on nonlinear multimode interference (NL-MMI) in a microfiber-assisted ultrafast optical switch is proposed in this Letter. The microfiber-assisted ultrafast optical switch can be obtained by tapering the splicing point of the graded-index multimode fiber (GIMF) and single-mode fiber, which not only helps to shorten the self-imaging period in GIMF to relax the strict requirement of NL-MMI on the length of multimode fiber, but also improves the harmonic order. In the experiment, with the waist diameter of ∼15 µm, the repetition rates of the fiber laser can be stably locked at 285 MHz, corresponding to the 16th-order harmonic mode-locking, with the pulse duration of 1.52 ps. Our results provide novel insight into the design of a high-repetition-rate laser and the application of microfibers in the mode-locking device.