Hybrid Fiber Laser Research Articles

C + L band ultra-widely tunable SOA hybrid fiber laser based on acousto-optic add-drop filter induced by polarization conversion

Scientific and industrial applications have put forward new requirements for the wavelength tuning range of continuous-wave lasers. Herein, the constructed filter based on the acoustically-induced polarization conversion in single-mode fiber (SMF) covers the wavelength from 1464.2–1640.8 nm, and the tuning range is about ∼176.6 nm. The lasing wavelength is managed by the acousto-optical interaction in the SMF. Moreover, the gain spectrum of semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) is flat and wide, which can achieve a wide range of laser tuning. Hence, we propose and demonstrate an ultra-widely tuning range ring cavity C + L tunable SOA hybrid fiber laser. Eventually, the tuning channel of the fiber laser is from 1527.3–1613 nm with the tuning range of about ∼85.7 nm, and its tuning range is determined by the gain bandwidth of SOA. The measured output power and center wavelength variations of the proposed fiber laser over a long-term observation are less than 0.11 mW and 0.44 nm, respectively. This work opens up a new way to expand the tuning range of other types of lasers.

Hybrid fiber laser integrating fast and slow active media for accurate synthesis of high-energy arbitrary optical waveforms by cavity dumping

We demonstrate the possibility of the accurate direct laser synthesis of high-energy arbitrary optical waveforms by the programmable driving of partial cavity dumping in a specific continuous-wave fiber laser. To this effect we have developed an original hybrid laser configuration which integrates two different active media. The first medium, a semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA), acts as a saturated lumped preamplifier. It features a relatively fast (sub-nanosecond) gain recovery, and thus effectively suppresses the intracavity power fluctuations induced by cavity dumping. The second active medium, an erbium-doped fiber amplifier (EDFA), acts mainly as a booster amplifier. This distributed inertial amplifying medium effectively accumulates pump energy, thereby providing an enhancement of output energy upon cavity dumping. Our simple proof-of-concept laser setup has allowed the synthesis of nanosecond arbitrary optical waveforms with an energy up to 40 nJ and arbitrarily tunable repetition rate. The proposed combination of a slow (EDFA) and fast (SOA) amplifying stages prevents the laser from strong relaxation oscillations and power flux fluctuations which essentially restrict cavity dumping in conventional rare-earth-doped fiber lasers. The applied two-stage intracavity spectral filtering ensures spectral purity of a rather narrowband (⩽0.1 nm) laser output. For the purpose considered, the integrated SOA-EDFA laser configuration is preferable to a conventional architecture ‘master oscillator—power amplifier’ whose nonlinear gain can obstruct the accurate synthesis of high-energy optical waveforms.

Experimental Demonstration of Software-Configurable Asynchronous Real-Time OFDM Signal Transmission in a Hybrid Fiber-VLLC System

In this paper, a real-time hybrid fiber and visible laser light communication orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) transport system is experimentally demonstrated. Based on virtual input/output technique, the system can be configured dynamically by using software. Although there is an approximate 12-ppm sampling frequency offset (SFO) between the transmitter and receiver, by adjusting the symbols number of one OFDM frame and the mapping scheme, the experiment results show that without SFO compensation, the system can achieve an up to 2.65 Gb/s data rate with a bit error rate at below 1e-3 after 100-km fiber and 6-m free-space transmission. As far as we know, this is the first time a real-time OFDM transmission has been reported in such a hybrid system.

Optoelectronic hybrid fiber laser sensor for simultaneous acoustic and magnetic measurement.

An optoelectronic hybrid fiber optic acoustic and magnetic sensor (FOAMS) based on fiber laser sensing is proposed, which can measure acoustic and magnetic field simultaneously. A static magnetic field signal can be carried by an AC Lorentz force, and demodulated in frequency domain together with acoustic signals. Some experiments of acoustic pressure sensitivity, magnetic field sensitivity, and simultaneous acoustic and magnetic measurement on a fabricated FOAMS were carried out. The acoustic pressure sensitivity was about -164.7 dB (0 dB re 1 pm/μPa) and the magnetic field sensitivity was 0.6 dB (0 dB re 1 pm/ (T•A)). The experiment of simultaneous acoustic and magnetic measurement shows that the detections of acoustic and magnetic field have little effect on each other in dynamic range and simultaneously measuring acoustic and magnetic field is feasible.

On the Microstructural and Mechanical Characterization of Hybrid Laser-Welded Al-Zn-Mg-Cu Alloys

Butt-welded 2-mm-thick high-strength aluminum alloys have been welded using a hybrid fiber laser and pulsed arc heat source system with the ER5356 filler. The microstructure, size of precipitates, texture, grain size and shape, change of strengthening elements, mechanical properties, and surface-based fatigue fracture characteristics of hybrid-welded joints were investigated in detail. The results indicate that the hybrid welds and the unaffected base materials have the lowest and largest hardness values, respectively, compared with the heat-affected zone. It is resonably believed that the elemental loss, coarse grains, and changed precipitates synthetically produce the low hardness and tensile strengths of hybrid welds. Meanwhile, the weaker grain boundary inside welds appears to initiate a microcrack. Besides, there exists an interaction of fatigue cracks and gas pores and microstructures.

Hybrid Fiber Laser – Arc Welding of High Strength Low Alloy Steel

High strength low alloy (HSLA) grade 80 (HSLA-80) steel with a thickness of 9.1-mm was successfully welded in a single pass using a 5-kW fiber laser combined with an arc welding process. It was found that the maximum gap size in the Y-groove butt joint configuration should remain below 0.2 mm for a 9.1-mm section thickness. Sound butt joints with no welding cracks but some minor microporosity were successfully obtained. However, an underfill defect was frequently observed on the top surface of the weldments. Underfilling could be mitigated through increasing the filler wire addition so as to exceed the groove volume; however, due to significant evaporation and expulsion of the molten pool at the high laser power density, the underfill defect would be difficult to fully eliminate. At slow cooling rates, slight softening in the heat affected zone (HAZ) was present in the mid-thickness region but its elimination is possible at high welding speeds.

Near-Field Lasing Dynamics of a Crystal-Glass Core–Shell Hybrid Fiber

Nearly single-mode operation of a low-threshold continuous-wave crystal-glass core–shell hybrid fiber laser based on a multimode Cr4+:Y3Al5O12 double-shell fiber is demonstrated. Nanoscale imaging of the optical intensity across the crystalline core allows for the direct assessment of the modal evolution, propagation modes, and near-field mode-field diameter at different working states. Below the lasing threshold of 60 mW, the near-field spatial modal distributions of the multitransverse modes are resolved and analyzed using a flattened Gaussian model. Above the threshold, nearly single-mode output with a beam quality factor of M2 ∼ 1.1 is achieved by gain filtering, index guiding, and double-shell-based wave confinement, which are shown to agree well with the calculated light distribution.

Hybrid fiber laser – Arc welding of thick section high strength low alloy steel

Hybrid laser – metal active gas (MAG) arc welding is an emerging joining technology that is very promising for shipbuilding applications. This technique combines the synergistic qualities of the laser and MAG arc welding techniques, which permits a high energy density process with fit-up gap tolerance. As the heat input of hybrid laser – arc welding (HLAW) is greater than in laser welding, but much smaller than in MAG arc welding, a relatively narrow weld and restricted heat affected zone (HAZ) is obtained, which can minimize the residual stress and distortion. Furthermore, adding MAG arc can increase the penetration depth for a given laser power, which can translate to faster welding speeds or fewer number of passes necessary for one-sided welding of thick plates. In this work, a new hybrid fiber laser – arc welding system was successfully applied to fully penetrate 9.3 mm thick butt joints using a single-pass process through optimization of the groove shape, size and processing parameters.

Fiber lasers with hybrid birefringence resonators

We propose the combination of low- and high-birefringence fibers (Low-Bi and Hi-Bi, respectively) to form a hybrid birefringence resonator. The transmission characteristics as a function of different parameters for the fibers used within these hybrid resonators are obtained by means of Jones matrix analysis. This yields information on fiber laser features such as polarization mode-beating frequencies (PMB), which are used as readout for polarimetric sensors. We compare theoretical predictions with experimental results on the dependence of PMB frequencies as a function of wavelength and effective birefringence of the laser cavity. Applications of this hybrid fiber laser arrangement for polarimetric sensors and wavelength monitoring through PMB frequencies are also discussed. The results provide a simple way for optimizing fiber laser parameters and increase the sensitivity of PMB signals to wavelength variations.