Mode Instability Threshold Research Articles

1010 nm Directly LD-Pumped 6kW Monolithic Fiber Laser Employing Long-Tapered Yb3+-Doped Fiber

Utilizing long-wavelength laser diodes (LDs) for pumping to achieve high-power fiber laser output is an effective method for attaining high quantum efficiency and excellent thermal management. In this work, we report on a Master Oscillator Power Amplifier (MOPA)-structured long-tapered Yb3+-doped fiber laser directly pumped by long-wavelength laser diodes. By shifting the center wavelength of the pump source to 1010 nm, the heat generation within the fiber laser is effectively controlled, thereby increasing the transverse mode instability (TMI) threshold. Additionally, the use of a long-tapered fiber enlarges the mode area and suppresses stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) effects that typically arise from increased fiber length. As a result, an output of 6030 W is achieved with an optical-to-optical (O–O) efficiency of 83.7%, a SRS suppression ratio exceeding 50 dB, and no occurrence of dynamic TMI. This approach provides a valuable reference for optimizing long-wavelength pumping to suppress nonlinear effects and also holds potential for wide-temperature operational applications.

Observation of modulation instability in a coherently driven active fiber ring resonator at 2 μm wavelength.

We report the first, to our knowledge, observation of the nonlinear phenomenon known as modulation instability (MI) in a coherently driven fiber resonator pumped at 1972 nm. To compensate for the very high losses in this spectral region, we have integrated a thulium-doped fiber amplifier inside the cavity. Lower losses allow a lower MI threshold, leading to the observation of this phenomenon at a moderate input power. The results align closely with the numerical simulations of the system. Our study shows that active compensation of loss can be implemented in the 2 µm wavelength range to construct fiber ring cavities with high finesse. It paves the way to the observation of more complex nonlinear effects optical frequency comb through cavity soliton generation.

Impact of thermal lensing on the TMI threshold powers in rod-type Yb-doped fiber amplifiers

The impact of thermal lensing (TL) on the transverse mode instability (TMI) threshold power in rod-type fiber amplifiers is investigated. Simulations are conducted with a 3D coupled mode analysis on a set of five scaled large pitch fiber (LPF) amplifiers. The LPF fibers are represented by surrogate step-index fibers (SIFs) with scaled cladding diameters, core diameters, and numerical apertures for a fixed normalized frequency V equal to 3.0 and scaled modal field overlap integrals with the core and cladding. It is found that thermal lensing decreases the TMI threshold powers due to increases in the TMI nonlinear gain. This gain increase is attributed to an increase in the nonlinear gain overlap integrals that occurs with the reduction in the fundamental mode effective area. Estimates for the TMI threshold power are in good agreement with measurements; however, the simulations overestimate the mode shrinkage factor. This discrepancy is tentatively attributed to the representation of the LPF by an effective SIF. These results may offer opportunities for fiber designs that increase the TMI threshold powers.

Simplified expression for transverse mode instability threshold in high power fiber lasers.

In this work, we propose an analytical expression for calculating the transverse mode instability (TMI) threshold power, which clearly shows the role of various fiber parameters and system parameters. The TMI threshold expression is obtained by solving the heat conduction equation and the nonlinear coupling equation using the fundamental mode fitted by Gaussian functions. The calculation results of the proposed TMI threshold expression are consistent with the experimental phenomena and simulation results from the well-recognized theoretical model. The influence of some special parameters on the TMI threshold and the power scaling is also investigated. This work will be helpful for fiber design and TMI mitigation of high-power fiber lasers.

Influence of the operating regime of the magnonic active ring oscillator on the performance of the magnonic reservoir computer based on it

A magnonic active ring oscillator based on an yttrium iron garnet (YIG) is a promising hardware platform for physical reservoir computing. It meets the required conditions for the availability of fading memory and nonlinearity. However, its performance still needs further improvement. Two methods can be employed to improve the performance. One is increasing the time of establishing steady self-oscillations in the auto-oscillator. The second one is increasing the amplitude of spin waves propagating in the YIG film. In this work, we achieve an increase of the amplitude of the reservoir response by broadening the available range for the ring gain coefficient. We use a metallized YIG film as a waveguide in which spin waves propagate. This shifts up the amplitude threshold for the development of spin wave modulation instability in the ring. The threshold defines the upper limit of the gain range for the ring. Binary pulse sequence is entered into the ring by switching its gain between upper and lower levels. The modulation instability threshold then sets the upper limit for the higher gain level. In addition, in this work, we set the lower level of the gain to negative values. This is one more improvement with respect to earlier works. Switching the gain between a negative and a positive value increases the amplitude of the reservoir response and the depth of its fading memory. We employ the standard short-term memory and parity-check tests to quantify the performance of the reservoir computer. Both tests demonstrate an increase in the computational efficiency of the magnonic reservoir.

The nonlinear evolution of whistler-mode chorus: modulation instability as the source of tones

We review the modulation stability of parallel-propagating/field-aligned whistler-mode chorus (WMC) waves propagating in a warm plasma from a formal perspective with a focus on wave–particle interactions via ponderomotive forces. The modulation instability criteria are characterised by the group velocity dispersion,$d c_g/dk$, for whistler-mode waves and a condition on the ratio between the group velocity$c_g$and the electron sound speed$c_{s,e}$. We also demonstrate that in order to investigate the spatiotemporal evolution of the envelope and the formation of packets (according to this mechanism), one necessarily needs to account for the motion of ions within the system, leading to an ionic influence on the modulation instability threshold determined by the ion fraction of the plasma. Finally, we demonstrate that chirping may be captured when higher-order effects are included within the spatiotemporal evolution of the amplitude. This yields not only an explicit expression for the sweep rate but also identifies a possible origin for the power band gap that occurs at half the electron gyrofrequency. Numerical validation demonstrates that the interaction between wave packets is a source for the emergence of tones observed within mission data, and such interactions may be a major source of the electron energisation which WMC are responsible for.

Impact of pump pulse duration on modulation instability Kerr frequency combs in fiber Fabry-Pérot resonators.

We report an experimental investigation on the impact of the pump pulse duration on the modulation instability process in fiber Fabry-Pérot resonators. We demonstrate that cross-phase modulation between the forward and the backward waves alters significantly the modulation instability process. By varying the pump pulse duration, we show the modification of the modulation instability threshold and frequency. These experimental observations are in excellent agreement with theoretical predictions.

TMI and polarization static energy transfer in Yb-doped low-NA PM fibers.

In this work, we conduct experimental investigations of transverse mode instabilities (TMI) in a large mode area ultra-low numerical aperture polarization maintaining fiber amplifier. This fiber is few mode in the slow-axis (conventional operation mode), but single mode in the fast-axis. We test the stability of the output beam by changing the input polarization angle and systematically investigate the transverse mode instability threshold in the two principal polarization axes. The lowest TMI threshold at 300 W was found when the input polarization angle was aligned parallel to the slow-axis. Detuning the input polarization angle from the slow-axis led to increased TMI thresholds. For input polarization angle of 90° (parallel to the fast-axis), the output signal was stable up to 475 W and further scaling was limited by the available pump power. However, for fast-axis operation a lower polarization ratio compared to slow-axis operation was observed as well as an unexpected static energy transfer from the fast-axis into the slow-axis above 400 W.

Mitigating mode instabilities by controllable mode beating excitation with a photonic lantern

In this study, a method of stabilizing the output beam of a large-mode-area fiber amplifier operating above the mode instability threshold is demonstrated. A mode control system based on the photonic lantern is used to excite dynamic mode beatings as the seeding stage of a 42/250 µm Yb-doped fiber amplifier. We propose a theoretical explanation for the validity of this method: provided that the mode interference patterns generated by input mode beatings are antisymmetric to those in the main amplifier caused by thermally induced non-linear effects, the refractive index grating will not be formed to indicate the onset of mode instability. Experimentally, significant mode stability and beam quality improvement have been achieved in this system at power levels of up to nearly four times the mode instabilities threshold.

Origin of SRS-induced beam quality distortion under TMI threshold.

In high power fiber lasers, the degradation of beam quality caused by Raman effect has attracted more and more attention in recent years, but its physical mechanism is still unclear. We're going to differentiate between heat effect and nonlinear effect by duty cycle operation. The evolution of beam quality at different pump duty cycles has been studied based on a quasi-continuous wave (QCW) fiber laser. It is found that even if the Stokes intensity is only -6 dB (energy proportion: 26%) lower than that of the signal light intensity, the beam quality has no obvious change with the duty cycle of 5%; on the contrary, when the duty cycle gradually approaches 100% (CW-pumped scheme), the beam quality distortion changes faster and faster with the increase of Stokes intensity. The experimental results are contrary to core-pumped Raman effect theory [IEEE Photon. Technol. Lett.34, 215 (2022)10.1109/LPT.2022.3148999], and further analysis confirms that the heat accumulation in the process of Stokes frequency shift should be responsible for this phenomenon. That is the first time, to the best of our knowledge, for intuitive reveal of the origin of stimulated Raman scattering (SRS)-induced beam quality distortion under transverse mode instability (TMI) threshold in an experiment.

Transverse mode instability considering bend loss and heat load.

Previously, we developed a highly efficient transverse mode instability model by integrating stimulated thermal Rayleigh scattering and quasi-3D fiber amplifier models, enabling the consideration of the 3D gain saturation effect, with its accuracy verified by reasonable fit to experimental data. Bend loss was however ignored. Higher-order-mode bend loss can be very high especially for fibers with core diameters below 25µm and is sensitive to the local heat load. By using a FEM mode solver to account for bend loss and local heat-load-induced bend loss reduction, the transverse mode instability threshold is studied in detail, resulting in some interesting new insights.

Suppressing transverse mode instability through multimode excitation in a fiber amplifier

High-power fiber laser amplifiers have enabled an increasing range of applications in industry, science, and defense. The power scaling for fiber amplifiers is currently limited by transverse mode instability. Most techniques for suppressing the instability are based on single- or few-mode fibers in order to output a clean collimated beam. Here, we study theoretically using a highly multimode fiber amplifier with many-mode excitation for efficient suppression of thermo-optical nonlinearity and instability. We find that the mismatch of characteristic length scales between temperature and optical intensity variations across the fiber generically leads to weaker thermo-optical coupling between fiber modes. Consequently, the transverse mode instability (TMI) threshold power increases linearly with the number of equally excited modes. When the frequency bandwidth of a coherent seed laser is narrower than the spectral correlation width of the multimode fiber, the amplified light maintains high spatial coherence and can be transformed to any target pattern or focused to a diffraction-limited spot by a spatial mask at either the input or output end of the amplifier. Our method simultaneously achieves high average power, narrow spectral width, and good beam quality, which are required for fiber amplifiers in various applications.

Influence of Pre-Radiation and Photo-Bleaching on the Yb-Doped Fiber Laser Radiated with Gamma-ray

To improve the radiation resistance of Yb-doped fiber lasers, we investigate the influence of pre-radiation and photo-bleaching on the gamma-radiated laser’s performance. When the gamma radiation dose is within 10 krad(Si) with a radiation dose rate less than 0.4 rad(Si)/s, compared to the output power of a non-pre-radiated Yb-doped fiber laser, the pre-radiation technique could enhance the radiation resistance against gamma-ray. However, the mode instability threshold was decreased, which was caused by the cumulated radiation-induced attenuation of pre-radiation and radiation. Based on an electronic probe micro-analyzer, the Yb-doped active fiber was Yb-doped aluminophosphosilicate ternary fiber; therefore, the radiated defects were mainly hole-related defects. A laser diode centered at 532 nm was chosen as the photo-bleaching laser source, which could recover 45.2% of the radiated-induced attenuation and increase the mode instability threshold. This work demonstrates the influence of pre-radiation and photo-bleaching on the radiation resistance against the gamma-ray of Yb-doped fiber lasers, which are of significance in the design and fabrication of related fiber lasers.

3.2 kW, 0.22 nm narrow-linewidth MOPA configuration fiber laser with a homemade polarization-maintaining Yb-doped fiber

In this work, a narrow-linewidth linearly polarized fiber amplifier with a record output power of 3.2 kW was achieved based on a homemade polarization-maintaining Yb-doped fiber corresponding to a slope efficiency of 79% and a 3 dB linewidth of 0.2227 nm. By examining various numerical aperture (NA) PMYDFs, the experimental investigation on expanding mode instability (MI) threshold in PM fiber amplifiers was put on display. And the results reveal that the MI threshold is enhanced by more than 370 W for every 0.004 decrease in core numerical aperture. Increasing the seed linewidth from 0.0454 nm to 0.0976 nm by adding 200 m polarization maintaining Ge-doped fiber the stimulated Brillouin scattering threshold increased from 805 W to above 3.2 kW. By applying the MI suppression method, a double-eight-shaped aluminum plate was adopted to coil the gain fiber, and the MI threshold increased by more than 1100 W.

Influence of central wavelength of pump source and pump direction on transverse mode instability threshold of fiber laser

In high-power ytterbium ion-doped fiber lasers where the output power is limited only by the transverse mode instability (TMI), the TMI threshold of fiber lasers with counter-propagating pumping (counter-pumping) structure is usually greater than that of co-propagating pumping (co-pumping), and bidirectional pumping (bi-pumping) is in turn greater than that of counter-pumping. In order to increase the TMI threshold, we optimized the central wavelength of the pump source to a bi-pumped fiber laser oscillator. In the experiment, we found that only the central wavelength of the pump source is changed in the same fiber laser, and the TMI threshold of the bi-pumping structure is sometimes greater than the sum of the TMI thresholds at the time of only co-pumping and only counter-pumping, sometimes approximately equal to, sometimes less. In addition, an interesting phenomenon was also reported that the counter-pump injection power of the fiber laser in the TMI threshold of bi-pumping is larger than the TMI threshold of only counter-pumping. Using the fiber laser simulation software, we explained the above phenomenon from the two directions of thermal effect and population reverse ratio in the active fiber. These research results are helpful to further optimize each device parameter of fiber laser and achieve higher power output.

Bright and dark solitons in the systems with strong light-matter coupling: Exact solutions and numerical simulations.

We theoretically study bright and dark solitons in an experimentally relevant hybrid system characterized by strong light-matter coupling. We find that the corresponding two-component model supports a variety of coexisting moving solitons including bright solitons on zero and nonzero background and dark-gray and gray-gray solitons. The solutions are found in the analytical form by reducing the two-component problem to a single stationary equationwith cubic-quintic nonlinearity. All found solutions coexist under the same set of the model parameters, but, in a properly defined linear limit, approach different branches of the polariton dispersion relation for linear waves. Bright solitons with zero background feature an oscillatory-instability threshold which can be associated with a resonance between the edges of the continuous spectrum branches. "Half-topological" dark-gray and nontopological gray-gray solitons are stable in wide parametric ranges below the modulational instability threshold, while bright solitons on the constant-amplitude pedestal are unstable.

700 W single-frequency all-fiber amplifier at 1064 nm with kHz-level spectral linewidth

In this work, a single-frequency fiber amplifier with output power of 703 W was demonstrated at 1,064.4 nm in an all-fiber configuration. Cascaded Yb3+-doped fiber structure with different dopant concentration and hybrid 915/976 nm pump scheme were employed in power scaling stage to improve the gain saturation for higher transverse mode instability threshold. An overall optical efficiency of 67.5% was achieved at the maximum output power and the M2 was measured to be ∼1.4. A spectral linewidth of 2 kHz was obtained from the 703-W single-frequency laser. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time that a single-frequency all-fiber amplifier with kHz-level spectral linewidth is achieved at such high output power.

Low-numerical aperture confined-doped long-tapered Yb-doped silica fiber for a single-mode high-power fiber amplifier.

A low-numerical aperture (NA) confined-doped long-tapered (LCT) Yb-doped fiber is proposed and fabricated by modified chemical vapor deposition combined with solution doping technique. The LCT fiber owns the core NA of ∼0.05 and the gain dopant doping diameter ratio of ∼77%, with a core/cladding diameter of 25/400 µm at both ends and 37.5/600 µm in the middle. The laser performance is demonstrated by a bidirectional pumping all-fiber amplifier, of which a 4.18-kW single-mode (M2 factor ∼1.3) laser output is achieved with a slope efficiency of ∼82.8%. Compared with the conventional fiber, the co-pumped and counter-pumped transverse mode instability thresholds and beam quality of the LCT fiber are remarkably enhanced. Throughout the continuous operation, the LCT fiber amplifier presents high power stability with fluctuation of < 1%. These results indicate that LCT fiber has great potential in power scaling remaining excellent beam quality.

Stable single transverse mode excitation in 50 µm core fiber using a photonic-lantern-based adaptive control system.

We report on the generation of single transverse mode output in large-mode-area fiber with a core diameter of 50 µm using a 3×1 photonic-lantern-based adaptive spatial mode control system. We have designed and fabricated the photonic lantern composed of a single mode fibers bundle taper region and a multi-segment multimode fiber splicing region. From simulation and experiments, we demonstrate that the quality of the output beam is significantly influenced by the size of the fibers bundle's waist and the segmented splicing scheme of the multimode fiber. Stable single transverse mode output is achieved at 1064 nm with M2 ∼1.4, which will provide a possible technical solution to increase the mode instability threshold in high power large-mode-area fiber systems.

Tapered Yb-doped fiber enabled a 4 kW near-single-mode monolithic fiber amplifier.

In this Letter, we demonstrate a monolithic high-power master oscillator power amplifier by using a home-made double-clad tapered Yb-doped fiber (T-YDF) with an input end of ∼20/400 µm and an output end of ∼30/600 µm. Thanks to perfect core/cladding matching with the fiber components at both ends of the T-YDF, the laser is pumped bidirectionally and an output power of over 4 kW with a high slope efficiency of 84.1% and excellent beam quality M2 ∼ 1.46 is achieved. In contrast to previous work on common fiber lasers, experimental results also reveal that the co-pump scheme has a higher transverse mode instability (TMI) threshold and power-boosting capability than that of a counter-pump scheme. To the best of our knowledge, this is the highest output power demonstrated to date from such a T-YDF with excellent beam quality. This work indicates the great potential of the T-YDF to realize further power scaling, high laser efficiency, and excellent beam quality in high-power fiber lasers.