Mode-locked Oscillator Research Articles

High-power 50 fs Kerr-lens mode-locked Yb:CALGO oscillator

We report on a Kerr-lens mode-locked Yb:CALGO (Yb:CaGdAlO4) oscillator providing 50 fs pulses at 59.4 MHz repetition with an output power of 8.6 W that is pumped by a diode laser coupled to a multimode fiber. The mode-locking was initiated near the cavity stability edge of the CW mode, where the Kerr lensing at the gain crystal in the pulse mode reduces the cavity loss of the spatial mode and suppresses the CW mode build-up. The obtained pulse energy of 0.15 μJ and peak power of 2.5 MW from a simple laser cavity without saturable absorber, pumped by a conventional diode laser, are competitive in comparison to other Yb-doped bulk oscillators. An overview of previously demonstrated mode-locked oscillators reveals that the Yb:CALGO oscillator employing Kerr-lens mode-locking is a promising candidate to achieve ultrashort high-power pulses near 1040 nm.

Recent advance of high-energy ultrafast mode-locked oscillators based on Mamyshev mechanism with different starting modes

The nonlinear effect of fiber limits the further increase in pulse energy, and Mamyshev oscillator shows outstanding advantages in managing nonlinearity in waveguide medium, which is now associated with high peak power and high pulse energy. The potential applications of these laser sources based on Mamyshev mechanism have facilitated aggressive research and innovative ideas by researchers around the world. Here, we focus on the mode-locked principle and starting dynamics of Mamyshev oscillator. The review of Mamyshev technology is summarized from two starting modes of seed source injection and self-starting. Initial research and significant progress in this field, plus new insights and challenges of Mamyshev oscillator for ultrafast fiber laser technology are analyzed.

Dual-loop diode-tuned Fourier domain harmonically mode-locked opto-electronic oscillator with over 50 dB side-mode spur reduction.

We propose and demonstrate a dual-loop harmonic Fourier domain mode-locked optoelectronic oscillator (FDML-OEO) for drastically reducing the side-mode spurs. The frequency domain mode-locking is achieved by synchronizing the scanning period of the filter to an integer fraction of the round trip times of the two loops with a self-made low cost diode-tuned RF filter. We found, for the first time to the best of authors' knowledge, that the frequency scanning bandwidth (FSBW) of the mode-locked output is strongly affected by the length mismatch between the two fiber loops. By using the phase noise of FDML OEO's delayed self-heterodyne signal as a performance indicator, we found experimentally that both the locking bandwidth and the FSBW of the device are inversely proportional to the length mis-match of the two loops. Finally, with dual-loop fiber lengths of 2041m and 2449.2m, including 2039m common fiber loop, we successfully obtained linearly chirped microwave signals around 9GHz with a phase noise of -127dBc/Hz at 10kHz offset from the 9GHz carrier, a FSBW of 0.4GHz, and a chirp rate of 200THz/s at 500.38 kHz repetition rate. More impressively, the side-mode spur ratio of the linear frequency modulated (LFM) signal is reduced to less than -83dB, the lowest ever achieved for a FDML OEO to the best of authors' knowledge, which is more than 50dB improvement over that achieved with a single loop FDML OEO reported previously.

Regeneratively mode-locked optoelectronic oscillator.

A regeneratively mode-locked optoelectronic oscillator is proposed to realize multi-mode phase locking in optoelectronic oscillators by coupling a modulating signal generation loop. To verify the feasibility of the scheme, a numerical simulation model is established. In addition, a proof-of-concept experiment is demonstrated in a single-loop optoelectronic oscillator with a 2.2 km polarization-maintaining single-mode fiber, using an electric amplitude modulator/Mach-Zehnder modulator as an active mode-locking device. The generated microwave pulse signal has a center frequency of 10 GHz and a repetition rate of 95 kHz. We believe this scheme can provide a new approach to overcome the problem of detuning between the modulating frequency and the mode spacing during long-term operation.

Mode-locked laser oscillation with spectral peaks at molecular rovibrational transition lines.

We demonstrate spectral peak formation in a mode-locked solid-state laser that contains a gas cell inside the cavity. Symmetric spectral peaks appear in the course of sequential spectral shaping through resonant interaction with molecular rovibrational transitions and nonlinear phase modulation in the gain medium. The spectral peak formation is explained as that narrowband molecular emissions triggered by an impulsive rovibrational excitation are superposed on the broadband spectrum of the soliton pulse by constructive interference. The demonstrated laser, which exhibits comb-like spectral peaks at molecular resonances, potentially provides novel tools for ultrasensitive molecular detection, vibration-mediated chemical reaction control, and infrared frequency standards.

Consecutive 1015-1105-nm wavelength tunable "figure-of-9" mode-locked Yb:fiber oscillator.

A widely wavelength tunable mode-locked Yb-doped fiber oscillator based on nonlinear amplifier loop mirror (NALM) is reported, in which only a piece of short (∼0.5 m) single-mode polarization-maintaining (PM) Yb-doped fiber is employed, instead of the frequently used long (a few meters) double cladding (DC) fiber in previous papers. Experimentally, the center wavelength can be consecutively tuned from 1015 to 1105 nm by tilting the silver mirror, corresponding to a tuning range of 90 nm. To the best of our knowledge, this is the broadest consecutive tuning range in Yb:fiber mode-locked fiber oscillator. In addition, the mechanism of wavelength tuning is tentatively analyzed and attributed to the combined action of the spatial dispersion induced by a tilting silver mirror and the limited aperture in the system. Specific to the wavelength of 1045 nm, the output pulses with 13-nm spectral bandwidth can be compressed to 154 fs.

The Generation of 1.2 μJ Pulses From a Mamyshev Oscillator Based on a High Concentration, Large-Mode-Area Yb-Doped Fiber

We demonstrate a high-energy and high-average power Mamyshev oscillator based on a high performance large-mode-area step-index germanosilicate-cladding Yb-doped fiber. The oscillation of higher-order modes is effectively suppressed by employing appropriate intracavity spatial mode filtering, allowing significant scaling of single pulse energy. The laser directly generates a nearly diffraction-limited beam with an average power of 17 W operating at the fundamental repetition rate of 14.01 MHz, corresponding to a pulse energy of 1.2 μJ. The pulses could be externally dechirped to ∼58 fs, leading to a peak power of ∼13 MW. To the best of our knowledge, this is the highest pulse energy with sub-100 fs duration ever obtained directly from a mode-locked fiber oscillator.

Multi-carrier broadband signal generation based on a mutually dual-domain mode-locked optoelectronic oscillator

A novel dual-domain mode-locked optoelectronic oscillator (DDML-OEO) is proposed and demonstrated to generate multi-carrier broadband signal. The DDML-OEO is built up by mode-locking a conventional OEO at the time domain and Fourier domain mutually. The Fourier domain mode locking (FDML) is achieved by driving the laser with a period triangular waveform voltage, of which the frequency is synchronized with the round-trip time of the OEO loop. Meanwhile, an electrical signal synchronizing with the free spectrum range (FSR) of the OEO loop is injected to realize the time domain mode locking (TDML) process. Through combined mechanisms of the FDML and TDML, the multi-carrier broadband signal can be directly generated via the DDML-OEO. Thanks to the TDML, different multi-carrier bands of the signal are coherent and the phase noise of the generated broadband waveform is strongly suppressed compared with free-running FDML-OEO. With the proposed scheme, an ultra-low phase noise of −111.1 dBc/Hz at 10 kHz offset for the generated multi-broadband signal waveform is achieved when the cavity length is about 3000 m. The bands interval, the bandwidth and the central frequency tunability are all discussed, which have great potential usage in multi-channel radar transmitter.

High-power 0.4-mJ picosecond CPA system based on an extra-large-mode-area triple-clad fiber.

A high-average-power, high-pulse-energy picosecond chirped pulse amplification (CPA) laser system based on an extra-large-mode-area (XLMA) triple-clad fiber (TCF) was demonstrated. The ultrashort pulses, generated from all-fiber mode-locked oscillator, stretched and then were pre-amplified to 10 W through a series of fiber power amplifiers. Subsequently, the average output power was amplified to 620 W corresponding to a pulse energy of 0.62 mJ via XLMA TCF. Additionally, the amplified pulses were compressed to a pulse duration of 7.6 ps with an average power of 423 W and a compression efficiency of 68.2%. The ultrashort laser is a promising light source for application of water-guided laser processing, albeit with a beam quality factor of 20 and 21 along two orthogonal axes.

Tunable Microwave Pulse Generation Based on an Actively Mode-Locked Optoelectronic Oscillator

A tunable microwave-pulse-generation scheme is proposed and demonstrated by employing an actively mode-locked optoelectronic oscillator (OEO) based on a microwave photonic filter (MPF). The MPF mainly consists of a phase-shifted fiber Bragg grating (PS-FBG) and a phase modulator. The microwave pulse trains with variable repetition rates are achieved by injecting an external signal, of which the frequencies are equal to an integer multiple of the free spectrum range (FSR) of the OEO. The multi-mode oscillation mechanism is discussed in detail theoretically and experimentally. A microwave pulse train with a central frequency of 9.25 GHz and repetition rate of 1.68 MHz is demonstrated by setting the injecting signal frequency to be the same with the FSR of the OEO. A tunable center frequency of the microwave pulses from 5.47 GHz to 18.91 GHz can be easily generated by tuning the laser frequency benefit from adopting the MPF. Furthermore, the microwave pulses with different pulse periods of 297.62 ns, 198.69 ns, and 148.81 ns are also realized by harmonic mode-locking. The proposed tunable microwave-pulse-generation method has potential applications in the pulse Doppler radar and communications.

Influence of disk aberrations on high-power thin-disk laser cavities.

We present a systematic study on the influence of thin-disk aberrations on the performance of thin-disk laser oscillators. To evaluate these effects, we have developed a spatially resolved numerical model supporting arbitrary phase profiles on the intracavity components that estimates the intracavity beam shape and the output power of thin-disk laser oscillators. By combining this model with the experimentally determined phase profile of the thin-disk (measured with interferometry), we can predict the operation mode of high-power thin-disk lasers, including mode degradation, higher-order mode coupling, and stability zone shrinking, all of which are in good agreement with experiment. Our results show that one of the main mechanisms limiting the performance is the small deviation of the disk's phase profile from perfect radial symmetry. This result is an important step to scaling modelocked thin-disk oscillators to the kW-level and will be important in the design of future active multi-pass cavity arrangements.

Generation of 99.8 fs, 25 kW Peak-Power, Dispersion-Managed Pulses Directly from an Yb-Doped Figure-of-9 Fiber Laser.

We reported on the generation of 99.8 fs, 25 kW peak-power, dispersion-managed pulses directly from a passively mode-locked Yb-fiber laser oscillator with a figure-of-9 configuration. The introduction of strongly injected pump power and optical components with a high damage threshold enables high-power operation, while the polarization-maintaining (PM) fiber supports environmentally stable self-started mode-locking. Mode-locking in the soliton-like and negative-dispersion regime is characterized by the dispersion management via tuning the separation distances between a pair of gratings inside the cavity. The oscillator generates stable pulses with up to 40.10 mW average power at a 16.03 MHz repetition rate, corresponding to a pulse energy of 2.5 nJ. To the best of our knowledge, it is the highest peak-power directly obtained by a laser oscillator with a figure-of-9 configuration.

A 1030 nm all-PM SESAM mode-locked dissipative soliton fiber oscillator and its amplification with Yb-doped fiber and a Yb:YAG thin rod

In this research, an all- polarization-maintained semiconductor saturable absorber mirror (SESAM) mode-locked fiber oscillator and its amplification by Yb-doped fiber and a Yb:YAG thin rod are presented. From a ring-type cavity configuration created with commercially accessible components, including SESAM, the dissipative soliton fiber oscillator exhibits stable mode-locking near 1030 nm. Subsequent three-stage fiber amplifiers pumped by single-mode fiber-coupled laser diodes and a single-stage Yb:YAG thin-rod amplifier boost the output power to 11.3 W at a repetition rate of 495 kHz. After pulse compression, a pulse duration of 758 fs is achieved with output power and pulse energy levels of 9 W and 18.2 μJ, respectively.

Experimental Investigation of Ultrafast Yb:fiber Oscillators Based on Several Dominant Mode Locking Methods

To find out which kind of mode-locked fiber oscillator is superior, six kinds of typical mode-locked Yb:fiber oscillators, including nonlinear polarization evolution (NPE)-based oscillators (i.e. conventional NPE-based oscillator, polarization maintaining (PM) NPE-based oscillator), nonlinear amplifying loop mirror (NALM)-based oscillators (i.e. figure-8 oscillator, all-fiber figure-9 oscillator, free-space figure-9 oscillator), and semiconductor saturable absorption mirror (SESAM)-based oscillator, were presented and crosswise compared. Except for the conventional NPE-based one, all the others were constructed with all-PM fiber components. Experimentally, detailed crosswise comparisons were carried out quantitatively and qualitatively for different oscillators in terms of spectral bandwidth, spectral shape, pulse repetition rate, signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), mode-locking threshold, self-starting mode-locking pump power, robustness, component life, construction simplicity, and so on. In addition, subjective sensations on each oscillator were also provided, which could be helpful for decision-making when one wants to make or purchase an oscillator. Finally, the all-fiber figure-9 oscillator was suggested to be the best choice even it needs higher pumping power, which could be an ideal seed for high power ultrafast laser amplifiers.

Carrier envelope phase stabilization with a true common-path collinear ƒ–2ƒ interferometer

A variety of technologies have been so far demonstrated for the carrier-envelope phase (CEP) control of mode-locked oscillators. An instrumental part of these technologies is the configuration of interferometers and the application of feedback control. Of the devices, the collinear ƒ–2ƒ interferometer developed in this work is compact and robust against disturbances because the optical paths of the ƒ and 2ƒ components are collinear within the interferometer. To compensate for the delay time between the ƒ and 2ƒ components, a birefringent time plate made of α-BBO is installed in the interferometer. We achieved an in-loop CEP stability of 27 mrad (rms) using conventional feedback control with an acousto-optic modulator to control the pump power. We believe that the collinear ƒ–2ƒ interferometer offers the best choice as an interferometer for CEP stabilization of the front-end oscillator in the chirped-pulse amplification system.

Dual-Wavelength Mode-Locked Oscillation with Graphene Nanoplatelet Saturable Absorber in Erbium-Doped Fiber Laser

In this work, we demonstrate a dual-wavelength passively mode-locked erbium-doped fiber laser employing graphene nanoplatelet as saturable absorber. The dual-wavelength laser is generated in ~1530 nm and ~1550 nm wavelength regions by splitting the main signal into two separate laser oscillations via a red/blue wavelength division multiplexer. Both the unidirectional and bidirectional dual-wavelength oscillation scheme are investigated, and it is found that the latter is advantageous in providing narrower pulse widths of 890 fs and 980 fs for the respective wavelength region, on top of boosting the pulse energy to the maximum value of 139 pJ and 155 pJ, respectively. It is believed that the bidirectional dual-wavelength oscillation scheme can minimize the overlapping effect between the neighboring pulses that cause pulse distortion as well as signal attenuation compared with unidirectional dual-wavelength oscillation. This work expands the dynamics of cavity structure design for synchronized dual-wavelength mode-locked fiber laser generation.

Stable femtosecond pulse generation relying on a simple NALM-based all PM Tm-doped fiber laser

Herein, an ultrafast mode-locked Tm-doped fiber laser with all polarization-maintaining (PM) fiber relying on nonlinear amplifying loop mirror was firstly presented. The simple all-PM mode-locked oscillator can deliver output power of ∼1.20 mW and pulse repetition of ∼7.267 MHz at central wavelength of ∼1950.2 nm. The pulse duration was measured after boosting the power to ∼20 mW by a fiber amplifier, which shows the full width at half maximum (FWHM) of ∼357 fs. Moreover, the all-PM mode-locked oscillator has exhibited a good power stability with fluctuation of ∼1.08 % during 36 h monitoring. This stable fiber laser might be served as a potential ultrashort pulse seed source for the applications of medical treatment, precision processing and mid-infrared light source.

High power chirped pulse Yb fiber amplifier seeded by mode-locked fiber laser oscillator with multimode interference based saturable absorber

In this research, we demonstrate a novel femtosecond fiber laser system which comprises of ytterbium (Yb) doped mode-locked fiber laser oscillator using nonlinear multimode interference (NL-MMI) based saturable absorber (SA) seeded into a chirped pulse fiber amplifier. The laser pulses from the oscillator centered at a wavelength of 1033.2 nm with a pulse duration of 2.4 ps. Correspondingly, the pulse energy is 120 pJ at the fundamental repetition rate of 21.35 MHz. By integrating the laser oscillator with the amplification system, an output average power of 11 W with compressed pulse duration of 340 fs and pulse energy of 0.51 μJ is achieved. The pulse possesses high stability with signal-to-noise ratio up to 58 dB. These characteristics evince that the fiber amplifier system seeded with NL-MMI based mode-locked laser oscillator results in a highly stable femtosecond laser.

Increasing the amplitude of ultrashort microwave pulses in a passive mode-locked oscillator by the method of double nonlinear filtering

We show the possibility of increasing the amplitude of ultrashort microwave pulses in a passive mode-locked oscillator in a circuit containing a chain of traveling wave tubes (TWTs) one of which operates in the amplification regime and the other two in the nonlinear Kompfner suppression regime. An increase in the number of nonlinear filtering stages makes it possible to enhance the filtering threshold level, below which low background noise is suppressed, while an almost complete transparency is maintained for peak amplitudes of the pulse signal. As a result, with an increase in the length of the amplifier, a linear growth in the peak amplitude of microwave pulses takes place because of the commutative extraction of energy from different electron fractions, along which the pulse is shifted due to the difference in its group velocity from the translational velocity of the particles. With an optimal selection of the parameters of the absorbers, the peak amplitude of the generated periodic sequence of ultrashort pulses can exceed the amplitude of stationary generation by more than an order of magnitude for given parameters of the TWT like current, voltage, and coupling impedance.

Active mode lock optoelectronic oscillator based on the simulated Brillouin scattering effect.

An active mode-locked optoelectronic oscillator (AML-OEO) based on the simulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) effect without an electrical filter is demonstrated here. By using phase modulation and SBS-based selective sideband amplification, the central frequency of the proposed SBS-AML-OEO is easily adjusted by simply changing the pump laser frequency instead of the filters. A microwave frequency comb signal with an adjustable central frequency and fixed bandwidth are generated by injecting a mode-locking external RF synchronizing with the free spectral ranging FSR. In addition, the harmonic SBS-AML-OEO is also achieved by harmonic signal injection. The proposed method reveals a simple solution to tune the central frequency and has the potential to be integrated on a chip since there is no structure changing in the scheme.