Unsaturated Output Power Research Articles

Wavelength extension beyond 3 µm in a Ho3+/Pr3+ co-doped AlF3-based fiber laser.

In this Letter, we report continuous-wave (CW) lasers with wavelengths beyond 3 µm in homemade Ho3+/Pr3+ co-doped AlF3-based glass fibers. The laser cavity was established through the integration of a dichroic mirror (DM, HR@3-3.1 µm) positioned at the pump end and a partial reflectivity (PR) fiber Bragg grating (FBG) situated at the laser emission end. The FBGs in AlF3-based glass fibers were fabricated by a fs laser direct-writing method, and the resonant wavelengths were 3.009, 3.036, and 3.064 µm, respectively. Under the pump of 1.15 µm laser, a maximum unsaturated output power of 1.014 W was obtained at 3.009 µm with an overall laser efficiency of 11.8% and FWHM bandwidth of 0.88 nm. Furthermore, in order to enhance the optical-thermal stability, the FBG was heat-treated at 200°C for 30 min, and a higher output power of 1081 mW (348 mW without heat treatment) at 3.036 µm was achieved. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first demonstration of 3-3.1 µm lasers by using FBGs in Ho3+/Pr3+ co-doped AlF3-based fibers.

Efficient 2075-nm laser emission from Ho3+-doped fluorotellurite glass in a compact all-fiber structure.

In this Letter, we report an Ho3+-doped fluorotellurite glass all-fiber laser at 2075 nm. The gain fiber is pumped in-band with a 1976-nm fiber laser and connected by fusion splicing. A high-quality fusion splicing point with a loss of < 0.1 dB was obtained by finely adjusting the splicing power and offset. In addition, by optimizing the writing parameters, a third-order fiber Bragg grating (FBG) with a reflectivity of 98% was achieved at 2075 nm using the femtosecond laser direct-writing method. Using the FBG as the laser cavity mirror and a relatively short 28-cm-long home-made Ho3+-doped fluorotellurite fiber as the laser medium, a laser with a maximum unsaturated output power of 7.33 W was obtained, and the corresponding slope efficiency was as high as 93.4%. The first, to the best of our knowledge, demonstration of the fluorotellurite glass all-fiber ∼2.1-µm laser presented in this work may pave the way for a high-power 2.1-µm fiber laser with a compact structure.

2.3 µm lasing in Tm3+ doped fluoroaluminate glass fibers with an upconversion pumping scheme

Tm3+ doped fluoroaluminate glass fibers are fabricated by using a rod-in-tube method based on AlF3-BaF2-YF3-MgF2-PbF2 glasses. By using a 1400/1570 nm dual-wavelength upconversion pump technique, lasing at ∼2.3 µm is obtained from a 2.3 m long Tm3+ doped fluoroaluminate glass fiber. The measured maximum unsaturated output power is ∼111 mW for a pump power of 1.5/0.14 W at 1400/1570 nm, and the corresponding slope efficiency is ∼11%. The effect of the gain fiber length on lasing at ∼2.3 µm is also investigated. Our results indicate that Tm3+ doped fluoroaluminate glass fibers are promising gain media for constructing ∼2.3 µm fiber lasers.

Two-watt mid-infrared laser emission in robust fluorozirconate fibers.

To the best of our knowledge, we report here the first demonstration of 2.9 µm laser emission from in-house fabricated Ho3+/Pr3+ co-doped ZBYA glass fiber. The fiber was fabricated based on the ZBYA glass with compositions of ZrF4-BaF2-YF3-AlF3-PbF2-HoF3-PrF3. Under the pump of a 1150 nm Raman fiber laser, the maximum unsaturated output power of 2.16 W was obtained in a 15 cm long gain fiber with a slope efficiency of 24%. The influence of rare-earth doping concentration on laser performance was also investigated. The result indicates that ZBYA glass fibers have potential for using as a fluorozirconate glass gain fiber for mid-infrared fiber lasers.

The Development of broadband millimeter-wave and terahertz gyro-TWAs

The gyrotron travelling wave tube amplifiers (gyro-TWAs) presented in this paper can operate with high efficiency (30%), huge powers and wide bandwidths at high frequencies that no other amplifier can provide. In principle, this is a technology that can be scaled to &gt;1 THz and operate with 20% bandwidths. Resonant coupling of two dispersive waveguide modes in a helically corrugated interaction region (HCIR) can give rise to a non-dispersive eigenwave over a wide frequency band. The synchronism between the ideal wave and an electron cyclotron mode, either fundamental or harmonic, of a large orbit electron beam contributes to the broadband amplification. An electron beam of 55 keV, 1.5 A with a velocity pitch angle of ~1 generated by a thermionic cusp gun is used in our 100 GHz gyro-TWA experiment, which achieves an unsaturated output power of 3.4 kW and gain of 36–38 dB. The design and experimental results of the many components making the gyro-TWA will be presented individually and then the whole system will be introduced. The amplification of a swept signal by the W-band gyro-TWA is demonstrated showing its capabilities in the field of telecommunications. Furthermore, the design studies of a cusp electron gun in the triode configuration and the realization of a 3-fold HCIR operating at 372 GHz will also be displayed.

A W-Band Balanced Power Amplifier Using Broadside Coupled Strip-Line Coupler in SiGe BiCMOS 0.13-&lt;inline-formula&gt; &lt;tex-math notation="LaTeX"&gt;$\mu\text{m}$ &lt;/tex-math&gt; &lt;/inline-formula&gt; Technology

Load-variation insensitivity, for impedance matching between power amplifiers (PAs) and transmitting antennas, contributes to challenging the design of millimeter-wave wireless systems. In this paper, a $W$ -band two-way balanced PA based on a compact quadrature coupler with a broadside coupled strip-line (BCSL) as the core is presented to enhance the load-variation insensitivity and stability. The proposed coupler is truly broadband with low amplitude and phase imbalance. The proposed $W$ -band balanced PA achieves higher power-added efficiency (PAE) and unsaturated output power ${P} _{\mathrm{ sat}}$ over wide frequency bandwidth. The $W$ -band balanced PA is implemented in a 0.13- $\mu \text{m}$ SiGe BiCMOS process and achieves a measured ${P} _{\mathrm{ sat}}$ of 16.3 dBm and a peak PAE of 14.1% at 100 GHz (with 1.6-V power supply). The measured ${P} _{\mathrm{ sat}}$ with 1-dB bandwidth is from 91 to 102 GHz. The measured results present the feasibility of the compact quadrature coupler. The total chip surface area (with pads) is 0.64 mm2, where the size of the proposed quadrature coupler area is only 0.04 mm2.

Broadband Amplification of Low-Terahertz Signals Using Axis-Encircling Electrons in a Helically Corrugated Interaction Region.

Experimental results are presented of a broadband, high power, gyrotron traveling wave amplifier (gyro-TWA) operating in the (75-110)-GHz frequency band and based on a helically corrugated interaction region. The second harmonic cyclotron mode of a 55-keV, 1.5-A, axis-encircling electron beam is used to resonantly interact with a traveling TE_{21}-like eigenwave achieving broadband amplification. The gyro-TWA demonstrates a 3-dB gain bandwidth of at least 5.5GHz in the experimental measurement with 9GHz predicted for a wideband drive source with a measured unsaturated output power of 3.4kW and gain of 36-38dB. The approach may allow a gyro-TWA to operate at 1THz.

Ho3+-doped AlF3–TeO2-based glass fibers for 2.1 µm laser applications

Ho3+-doped AlF3–TeO2-based glass fibers based on AlF3–BaF2–CaF2–YF3–SrF2–MgF2–TeO2 glasses are fabricated by using a rod-in-tube method. The glass rod including a core and a thick cladding layer is prepared by using a suction method, where the thick cladding layer is used to protect the core from the effect of surface crystallization during the fiber drawing. By inserting the glass rod into a glass tube, the glass fibers with relatively low loss (~2.3 dB m−1 @ 1560 nm) are prepared. By using a 38 cm long Ho3+-doped AlF3–TeO2-based glass fiber as the gain medium and a 1965 nm fiber laser as the pump source, 2065 nm lasing is obtained for a threshold pump power of ~220 mW. With further increasing the pump power to ~325 mW, the unsaturated output power of the 2065 nm laser is about 82 mW and the corresponding slope efficiency is up to 68.8%. The effects of the gain fiber length on the lasing threshold, the slope efficiency, and the operating wavelength are also investigated. Our experimental results show that Ho3+-doped AlF3–TeO2-based glass fibers are promising gain media for 2.1 µm laser applications.

High Power Photodiodes for Microwave Applications

High Power Photodiodes for Microwave Applications

Ceramic-based thin-film blue LEDs with high operation voltage and unsaturated output power at 1800 W/cm2

III–nitride blue (λ = 450 nm) LEDs were fabricated on ceramic substrates using thin-film and high-voltage processes. The device, comprising sixteen cascaded sub-LEDs, exhibits excellent current spreading and thermal resilience. Under the driving power of 1800 W/cm2 (J = 450 A/cm2), the high-voltage thin-film LED delivers unsaturated output power and alleviated efficiency droop, which is not achievable with devices fabricated on Si or sapphire substrates with identical epitaxial structure.

A High-Power Broadband Passive Terahertz Frequency Doubler in CMOS

To realize a high-efficiency terahertz signal source, a varactor-based frequency-doubler topology is proposed. The structure is based on a compact partially coupled ring that simultaneously achieves isolation, matching, and harmonic filtering for both input and output signals at <i xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">f</i> <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">0</sub> and 2 <i xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">f</i> <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">0</sub> . The optimum varactor pumping/loading conditions for the highest conversion efficiency are also presented analytically along with intuitive circuit representations. Using the proposed circuit, a passive 480-GHz frequency doubler with a measured minimum conversion loss of 14.3 dB and an unsaturated output power of 0.23 mW is reported. Within 20-GHz range, the fluctuation of the measured output power is less than 1.5 dB, and the simulated 3-dB output bandwidth is 70 GHz (14.6%). The doubler is fabricated using 65-nm low-power bulk CMOS technology and consumes near zero dc power.

Diode Pumped Erbium Cascade Fiber Lasers

Cascading the 4I11/2→4I13/2 transition at 2.8 μm and 4I13/2→4I15/2 transition at 1.6 μm offers a solution to the thermal management of high power Er3+-doped fluoride fiber lasers. We demonstrate an output power of 8.2 W at 2.8 μm from an Er3+-doped fluorozirconate fiber laser with 56 W of launched pump power at 975 nm by cascade laser operation with the 1.6-μm ground-state transition. By careful selection of the Er3+ concentration that prevents significant interaction between Er3+ ions, it is shown that cascade lasing can occur from simple resonator arrangements including Fresnel reflection from the ends of the fiber only. The unsaturated output power suggests that no competing transitions are oscillating which advocates that radiative quenching of the metastable 4I13/2 level provides an elegant way of reducing undesired heat generation. We show that core temperature increases at the tip of the pumped end of the fiber can be an order of magnitude lower than fiber lasers employing single transition oscillation. The potential of further power scaling is demonstrated and the experimental results are verified with the use of a numerical model.

Linearly polarized ytterbium fiber laser based on intracore femtosecond-written fiber Bragg gratings

We report the inscription of a fiber Bragg grating (FBG) into a polarization maintaining Yb-doped fiber using IR femtosecond pulses and a phase-mask scanning technique for the first time to our knowledge. This FBG was used to realize a stable, linearly polarized, compact fiber laser with a slope efficiency of 27% and an unsaturated output power of 100 mW.

Blue Up-Conversion Fibre Laser Pumped by a 1120-nm Raman Fibre Laser

A Tm3+-doped ZrF4–BaF2–LaF3–AlF3–NaF(ZBLAN) fibre up-conversion laser pumped by a 1120-nm Raman fibre laseris demonstrated with blue output power levels up to 116 mW. For theoutput mirror with 80% reflectivity, the slope efficiency is about15%, the optical-to-optical conversion efficiency is 11%, and themaximum un-saturated output power is 116 mW. For 60% reflectivity, theslope efficiency is about 18% and the optical-to-optical conversionefficiency is 12%, whilst the maximum saturated output power is about80 mW due to the existence of photo-degradation effect in Tm3+doped ZBLAN glass fibre.

Air-clad fibre laser with internal Bragg grating

An air-clad fibre laser using a Bragg grating written directly into the Yb3+ doped core as the end reflector is presented. For an unsaturated output power of 12 W and slope efficency of 34%, there is a saturated laser wavelength shift of approximately 0.4 nm.

Traveling-Wave Photodetectors With High Power–Bandwidth and Gain–Bandwidth Product Performance

Traveling-wave photodetectors (TWPDs) are an attractive way to simultaneously maximize external quantum efficiency, electrical bandwidth, and maximum unsaturated output power. We review recent advances in TWPDs. Record high-peak output voltage together with ultrahigh-speed performance has been observed in low-temperature-grown GaAs (LTG-GaAs)-based metal-semiconductor-metal TWPDs at the wavelengths of 800 and 1300 nm. An approach to simultaneously obtain high bandwidth and high external efficiency is a traveling-wave amplifier-photodetector (TAP detector) that combines gain and absorption in either a sequential or simultaneous traveling-wave structure.

150 mW unsaturated output power at 3 μm from a single-mode-fiber erbium cascade laser

We report on an erbium cascade laser in a fluorozirconate fiber. Lasing on the transition 4I11/2→4I13/2 at 2.71 μm is supported by colasing on the transition 4S3/2→4I9/2 at 1.72 μm. This recycles the excitation that is lost via excited-state absorption and avoids the saturation of the output power. Threshold at 2.71 μm is 33 mW launched pump power at 791 nm. The measured slope efficiency of 22.6% is relatively close to the 29.1% stokes-efficiency limit. An output power of 158 mW is obtained, limited only by the 1.43 W power available from the Ti: sapphire pump laser. Output power is 15 and slope efficiency 2.5 times higher than reported in previous publications.

Prebunched high-harmonic gyrotron

A scheme for harmonic wave generation using a prebunched electron beam has been demonstrated. The prebunched electron beam has been used to further increase the efficiency of the authors' axis-encircling high-harmonic gyrotron. The proof-of-principle experiment was performed at the third harmonic with a TE/sub 312/ mode at 27.7 GHz. The conversion power of 6.7 kW was significantly greater than that used in the nonprebunched experiment. Also, mode competition was effectively suppressed. As expected, the unsaturated output power is proportional to the square of the electron beam current and the start of oscillation current is essentially zero. A linear theory, derived by taking into account the spread of the guiding center and the spread of the axial velocity, gives good agreement with the experimental results. >

Millimeter-wave gyroklystron amplifier experiment using a relativistic electron beam

A fundamental-mode TE/sub 111/ degrees two-cavity intense-beam gyroklystron amplifier experiment, operating at an accelerating voltage of 1 MV, is reported. The two cavities that were tested are designed to serve as bunching cavities for a high-power output cavity. The two-cavity amplifier has demonstrated a linear gain of 15 dB and an unsaturated output power of approximately 40 kW, with the intracavity gain and power approximately 4 dB higher. The frequency of the second cavity has been found to track the frequency of the driven cavity over a range of 300 MHz around a center frequency of 35 GHz. Stable amplifier operation was achieved with beam currents as large as 150 A and a velocity pitch ratio of 0.36. The stable operating range was limited by spurious oscillation in the TE/sub 112/ degrees mode. Theoretical calculations indicate that higher gains might be attainable if this mode could be suppressed.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>