Net Anomalous Dispersion Research Articles

Observation of widely separated soliton molecules in a mode-locked Yb-doped fiber laser operating with net anomalous dispersion

This paper investigates the generation and characterization of soliton molecules (SM) in a semiconductor saturable absorber mirror (SESAM) mode-locked Yb-doped fiber laser with a linear cavity. By adjusting the pump power, both single-pulsing (SP) and double-pulsing (DP) states can be achieved. The observed soliton molecules are highly stable, with minimal temporal jitter despite being separated by 1.56ns. While SM have been observed in many different cavities this is one of the few reports in a Fabry–Perot cavity rather than a ring cavity and again most previous observations of soliton molecules having been in the anomalous dispersion regime. This configuration thus provides detailed and valuable insights into the behaviour of SM, shedding light on their formation, stability, and dynamics. This study contributes to understanding long range soliton interactions in fiber lasers, with potential implications for applications such as multi-bit transmission, bit storage, and pump-probe experiments to study the dynamics of chemical reactions.

Cerium oxide/polydimethylsiloxane polymer deposited onto tapered fiber for 1.97 µm mode-locked thulium-doped fiber laser

This work presents the use of cerium oxide (CeO2) as saturable absorber (SA) in the mode-locked pulse fiber laser generation. The CeO2 materials were prepared through sonication which then incorporated into a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) polymer to be coated on a tapered fiber. The CeO2/PDMS-SA exhibited saturation intensity of 44 MW/cm2 and modulation depth of 3.4%, confirming its nonlinear intensity-dependent transmission characteristics. Integrated into a thulium-doped fiber laser cavity, the CeO2/PDMS-SA enabled mode-locking at a pump power of 420 mW, leading to a fundamental mode-locking operation up to 1484 mW within the net anomalous dispersion regime. The laser emitted pulses at wavelength of 1973 nm with signal-to-noise ratio of 54 dB, repetition rate of 9.04 MHz and pulse width of 1.49 ps. The CeO2/PDMS-SA mode-locked fiber laser demonstrated stability of an average 3 dB bandwidth of 2.89 ± 0.08 nm, average central wavelength of 1973.05 ± 0.14 nm and average pulse width of 1.5 ± 0.01 ps for the duration of 120 min. Notably, the CeO2/PDMS-SA demonstrated a high pulse energy of 10.62 nJ and average output power of 96 mW. This investigation suggests their viability for use in future studies. The results also demonstrated the potential of CeO2 for use in various photonics applications in the “eye-safe” region.

Cnoidal waves and their soliton limits in single mode fiber lasers

Cnoidal waves are a type of nonlinear periodic wave solutions of the nonlinear dynamic equations. They are well known in fluid dynamics, but it is not the case in optics. In this paper we show both experimentally and numerically that cnoidal waves could be formed in a fiber laser either in the net normal or net anomalous cavity dispersion regime, especially because, as the pump power is increased, the formed cnoidal waves could eventually evolve into a train of bright (in the net anomalous cavity dispersion regime) or dark (in the net normal cavity dispersion regime) solitons. Numerical simulations of the laser operation based on the extended nonlinear Schrödinger equation (NLSE) have well reproduced the experimental observations. The result not only explains why solitons can still be formed in a fiber laser even without mode locking but also suggests a new effective way of automatic stable periodic pulse train generation in lasers with a nonlinear cavity.

Correction to Semi-Linear All-Polarization-Maintaining Yb-Doped Fiber Laser Oscillator Manifesting Dual Operation Regime at Net Anomalous Dispersion

Correction to Semi-Linear All-Polarization-Maintaining Yb-Doped Fiber Laser Oscillator Manifesting Dual Operation Regime at Net Anomalous Dispersion

Semi-Linear All-Polarization-Maintaining Yb-Doped Fiber Laser Oscillator Manifesting Dual Operation Regime at Net Anomalous Dispersion

Semi-Linear All-Polarization-Maintaining Yb-Doped Fiber Laser Oscillator Manifesting Dual Operation Regime at Net Anomalous Dispersion

Dark pulse generation in mode-locked Erbium-doped fiber laser with Molybdenum Aluminium Boride coated side-polished fiber

We demonstrate the generation of dark pulses from an Erbium-doped fiber laser (EDFL) using a Molybdenum Aluminium Boride (MoAlB) as a saturable absorber for the first time. Molybdenum Aluminium Boride (MoAlB) was coated onto side-polished fiber (SPF) to improve the birefringence and nonlinearity inside the EDFL cavity with net anomalous dispersion. The soliton dark pulses are obtained from the laser cavity based on cubic-quintic nonlinear Schrödinger equation (CQNLSE) mechanism. The laser operated at 1560.6 nm with a pulse duration of 152 ns and repetition rate of 1.87 MHz as the pump power is set within 200 mW to 370 mW. At the maximum pump power, the average output power and pulse energy are recorded at 6.93 mW and 3.77 nJ, respectively. We think that this research is the first to show MoAlB 's potential for dark pulse generation.

Tungsten trioxide nanocomposite for conventional soliton and noise-like pulse generation in anomalous dispersion laser cavity

Abstract This work demonstrates the employment of tungsten trioxide/polydimethylsiloxane nanocomposite saturable absorber (WO3/PDMS-SA) in realizing mode-locked conventional soliton (CS) and noise-like pulse (NLP) laser generation in net anomalous dispersion. The switching formation from CS regime of 970.0 fs pulse duration to NLP regime of 182.0 fs coherent spike with 65.3 ps pedestal was achieved by varying its pump power. The pulse laser exhibited good stability of 50.76 and 49.82 dB signal-to-noise ratio at 9.09 MHz fundamental repetition rate and trivial variation during stability test for CS and NLP regime, respectively. This work expresses the feasibility of WO3/PDMS-SA in attaining various types of mode-locked pulse phenomena using a fixed cavity configuration conceivably beneficial for compact dual-purpose laser systems.

2.1 μm Band Dissipative Soliton Resonance Mode-Locked Ho-Doped Tunable Fiber Laser

We report a 2.1 μm band mode-locked holmium-doped fiber (HDF) laser with tunable wavelength and pulse width in dissipative soliton resonance (DSR) region for the first time to our knowledge. A piece of HDF is pumped by a home-made 1.9 μm band fiber source, and a nonlinear-amplifying-loop-mirror structure is used to realize mode-locking operation with net anomalous dispersion. The repetition rate of pulse is 8.97 MHz. The pulse duration can be adjusted from 1.16 to 3.93 ns with the increase of pump power, while maintains a constant peak power. At the maximum pump power of 2.1 W, the pulse energy is up to 2 nJ. Moreover, the central wavelength is in the tunable range from 2054.4 to 2076 nm by appropriately adjusting the polarization controllers. We also explore the nonlinear correlation characteristic of DSR pulse by changing the length of high nonlinear fiber.

Cerium oxide/polydimethylsiloxane composite tapered fiber saturable absorber for mode-locked pulsed erbium-doped fiber laser

This investigation demonstrates the nonlinear saturable absorption of cerium oxide (CeO2) nanoparticles; a lanthanide allotrope oxide material and its employment as a saturable absorber (SA) for the generation of stable mode-locked pulsed fiber laser. The CeO2 nanoparticles were simply prepared by sonicating its bulk solution and incorporating a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) polymer to form a thin film nanocomposite on tapered optical fiber for the fabrication of CeO2/PDMS-SA. The nonlinear intensity-dependent transmission characteristic of this material was confirmed with a modulation depth of 0.66% and saturation intensity of 77 MW/cm2. The SA was integrated into an erbium-doped fiber laser cavity, where mode-locking operation self-started at 35 mW pump power with stable soliton operation up to 250 mW in net anomalous dispersion regime. The pulse laser centered at 1561 nm wavelength with a constant repetition rate of 7.64 MHz, shortest pulse width of 800 fs, and highest signal to noise ratio of 54.2 dB. The highest pulse energy of 0.645 nJ and average power of 4.92 mW were measured at 250 mW pump power. Based on its simple preparation and stable pulse generation, this investigation suggests the viability of CeO2 nanoparticles as a new SA material for ultrashort pulse generation.

Group-velocity-locked vector solitons and dissipative solitons in a single fiber laser with net-anomalous dispersion

Laser cavities which can generate different types of ultrashort pulses are attractive for practical applications and the study of pulse dynamics. Here, we report the first experimental observation of both conventional solitons (CS) and dissipative solitons (DS) generated from a single all-fiber laser with net-anomalous dispersion. A birefringence-related intracavity Lyot filter with an adjustable extinction ratio enables the switching between the two types of ultrashort pulses. Depending on the polarization controller settings and the pump power, either chirp-free CS with a pulse energy of 406 pJ and a spectral bandwidth of 5.1 nm or up-chirped DS with a pulse energy of 5.1 nJ and an optical bandwidth of 9.6 nm can be generated. Similar polarization features are observed when the laser switches between different soliton operations as both CS and DS are group-velocity-locked vector solitons. Our work paves a novel way to generate dissipative solitons with a relatively high pulse energy (one order of magnitude larger than for CS) and a large chirp directly from an all-fiber net-anomalous-dispersion cavity through birefringent filter management.

Graded-index multimode fiber in nonlinear absorbing loop mirror as saturable absorber for noise-like pulse generation in 2 μm region

This investigation explores the potential use of graded-index multimode fiber (GIMF) in a nonlinear absorbing loop mirror (NAbLM) as an artificial saturable absorber for ultrashort pulse generation. The saturable absorption mechanism of GIMF-NAbLM was based on a combination of nonlinear phase shift and multimodal interference that was satisfied by the asymmetric positioning of the GIMF in the single-mode fiber loop mirror. The proposed saturable absorber was integrated in a mode-locked thulium-doped fiber laser with figure-of-eight cavity. A noise-like pulse of 164 fs spike pulse duration at 1950 nm central wavelength was attained in the net anomalous dispersion with a 10 m long GIMF. The GIMF-NAbLM structure demonstrates immense prospects as an effective saturable absorption device for generating stable ultrashort pulse in the 2 µm region due to its simplicity.

Real-time observation of chaotic and periodic explosions in a mode-locked Tm-doped fiber laser.

We experimentally characterize the dynamics of soliton explosions in a transient chaotic state between a single and double pulsing state, as well as periodic explosions induced by soliton collisions in a dual wavelength soliton state. These explosions occurring in a thulium-doped linear fiber laser with net anomalous dispersion are characterized with real-time measurements based on a modified time-stretched dispersive Fourier transform method relying on second-harmonic generation.

Q-switched mode locking noise-like pulse generation from a thulium-doped all-fiber laser based on nonlinear polarization rotation

Q-switched mode locking (QML) noise-like pulse (NLP) emission from an all-fiber thulium-doped laser based on the nonlinear polarization rotation effect is reported. The QML emission is obtained in a cavity with net anomalous dispersion in a pump power interval in between the CW laser threshold and the threshold of the NLP regime. Highest-energy QML pulses were observed with a repetition rate of 812 kHz with a pump power of 520 mW at the optical wavelength of 1881.09 nm. A maximum overall energy of 460 nJ at an average output power of 6.4 mW was reached, which corresponds to a burst of mode-locked noise-like sub-pulses with 8.7 ns of pulse duration within a QML envelope of 11 µs. These results demonstrate unconventional pulse operation regime of NLPs and provide insights into the dynamics of mode-locked fiber lasers.

Generation of domain-wall solitons in an anomalous dispersion fiber ring laser* *Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 11874040, 11904327, and 61905222), Foundation for Leading Talents of Minhang, Shanghai, and the Specialized Research Fund for the Doctoral Program of Zhengzhou University of Light Industry (Grant No. 0170-13501050036).

We report experimental observations performed using a net anomalous dispersion Er-doped fiber ring laser without polarization-selective elements, highlighting the domain-wall solitary pulses generated under the incoherent polarization coupling. By adjusting the pump power and the polarization state appropriately, bright and dark solitons can stably co-exist in the cavity, both centered at 1562.16 nm with a 3-dB spectral width of ∼ 0.15 nm and a repetition rate of 3.83 MHz. Moreover, the 0.8 mm long thulium-doped fiber (TDF) facilitated the mode-locking and self-starting of the laser. This is the first demonstration of a laser being used to generate bright and dark solitons synchronously while using TDF as the saturable absorber (SA). Except possessing the all-fiber structure, the laser exhibits good stability, which may have a significant influence on improvement of the pulse-laser design, and may broaden practical applications in optical sensing, optical communication, and soliton multiplexed systems.

Numerical study of the polarization proprieties in a ring cavity with total polarization control

We report the numerical study of the polarization properties of a net anomalous dispersion ring cavity with total polarization control. As a mode locker, we use the nonlinear polarization rotation (NPR) method. The initial ellipticity and azimuth were fixed to 13° and 0°, respectively. The simulations, made by the split-step Fourier method, show changes in polarization with respect to initial conditions, after the mode-lock process such as previously reported in the literature. It was found that polarization changes are caused by non-linear birefringence. The pulsed laser produces solitonic pulses with 0.4 ps FWHM and 240 W peak power.

Generation of dissipative soliton resonance in a fiber laser based on a nonlinear optical loop mirror

We experimentally demonstrate generation of mode-locked pulses in dissipative soliton resonance (DSR) regime. The DSR pulses are obtained from a passively mode-locked figure-8 Er:Yb doped fiber laser operating in large net anomalous dispersion regime. The modelocked laser emission is based on a polarization-imbalanced nonlinear optical loop mirror (NOLM), acting as artificial saturable absorber. Stable square DSR pulses, obtained by carefully adjusting the NOLM properties, increase their duration from 2.47 ns to 46.52 ns as the pump power is increased from 0.68 to 6.31 W. With the maximum pump power launched, average output power of 73.95 mW with pulse energy of 53.39 nJ is achieved.

Dark-bright soliton trapping in a fiber laser.

We report, to the best of our knowledge, the first experimental observation of coexistence of scalar dark and bright solitons in a fiber laser operating in the near zero-dispersion regime. We show that because of the incoherent cross coupling, under suitable conditions a bright soliton formed in the net anomalous cavity dispersion regime could bind with a dark soliton formed in the net normal cavity dispersion regime in a fiber laser. The properties of the dark and bright solitons, as well as their bound states, are experimentally investigated. The numerical simulations based on the coupled Ginzburg-Landau equations have reproduced the experimental results well.

Towards CW modelocked laser on chip - a large mode area and NLI for stretched pulse mode locking.

Integrated modelocked lasers with high power are of utmost importance for next generation optical systems that can be field-deployable and mass produced. Here we study fully integrated modelocked laser designs that have the potential to generate ultrashort, high power, and high quality pulses. We explore a large mode area laser for high power pulse generation and study the various mode-locking regimes of dispersion managed soliton pulses in net anomalous and net normal dispersion cavities. Furthermore, we study numerically and experimentally general properties and tunability of a fast integrated saturable absorber based on low loss silicon nitride nonlinear interferometer. We believe this work guides the exploration of the future for integrated high power modelocked lasers.

All polarization-maintaining passively mode-locked fiber-ring ytterbium-doped laser; from net-normal to net-anomalous dispersion

We investigated the behavior of a fiber-ring polarization-maintaining passively mode-locked ytterbium-doped laser in a broad range of dispersion values; i.e. from highly net-normal to net-anomalous, with a special emphasis near the zero of chromatic dispersion. Different lengths of an ad hoc polarization-maintaining photonic crystal fiber were used as intracavity dispersion compensator to shift the operation of this laser from net-normal to the net-anomalous regime. The laser generated the shortest light pulses around the zero of dispersion: 6 ps/7ps for—0.023 ps2/0.045 ps2; in both cases, pulses were not transform-limited, being theoretically possible an out-of-cavity recompression down to 170 fs/220 fs, respectively. In the net-normal regime, we obtained a stable, ultra-low frequency, emission at 1.19 MHz, with pulses with a FWHM of 162 ps and pulse energy of 115 pJ. This laser presents a somewhat symmetrical behavior at both sides of the zero of dispersion thanks to its simple filter-free configuration. The laser is also environmentally robust, insensitive against temperature variations and mechanical vibrations, due to its integrated all-polarization-maintaining design.

Polarization dynamics of a vector cavity soliton in a birefringent fiber resonator

We investigate theoretically the polarization dynamics of vector cavity solitons in a birefringent fiber resonator exhibiting net anomalous dispersion. The well-known Lugiato-Lefever equation is adopted to capture the intracavity field dynamics when two orthogonal modes are coupled via nonlinear cross-phase modulation. Numerical simulations reveal the coexistence of different nonlinear states, such as cavity solitons (CSs) with a modulation instability pattern, two identical CSs, or a nonidentical pair of CSs depending on the external parameters. We distinguish three different types of coexisting CSs based on their polarization properties. Stokes parameters and Jones vector analysis are employed to extract the spatial energy flux distribution and the complex electric field associated with each polarization mode, respectively. We observe that the group-velocity mismatch affects the individual CS dynamics which has direct consequences of their polarization states. Our detailed findings with the polarization properties of CSs will enrich the understanding of dissipative vector CS dynamics in a passive birefringent fiber resonator.