In this paper, narrow-band emission lines are generated by means of two random distributed feedback fiber laser schemes. Spectral line-widths as narrow as 3.2 pm have been measured, which significantly improves previous reported results. The laser is analyzed with the aim of obtaining a spectral line-width as narrow as possible. Additionally a variation of this setup for multi-wavelength operation is also validated. Both schemes present a simple topology that use a combination of phase-shifted fiber Bragg gratings and regular fiber Bragg gratings as filtering elements.
Gain dynamics study provides an attractive method to understand the intensity noise behavior in fiber amplifiers. Here, the gain dynamics of a medium power (5 W) clad-pumped Yb-fiber amplifier is experimentally evaluated by measuring the frequency domain transfer functions for the input seed and pump lasers from 10 Hz to 1 MHz. We study gain dynamic behavior of the fiber amplifier in the presence of significant residual pump power (compared to the seed power), showing that the seed transfer function is strongly saturated at low Fourier frequencies while the pump power modulation transfer function is nearly unaffected. The characterization of relative intensity noise (RIN) of the fiber amplifier is well explained by the gain dynamics analysis. Finally, a 600 kHz bandwidth feedback loop using an acoustic-optical modulator (AOM) controlling the seed intensity is successfully demonstrated to suppress the broadband laser intensity noise. A maximum noise reduction of about 30 dB is achieved leading to a RIN of −152 dBc/Hz (~1 kHz-10 MHz) at 2.5 W output power.
14 November 2013 in IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Quantum Electronics
This paper presents a new stable dual-wavelength fiber-ring laser based on erbium-doped fiber amplification. The wavelength selection is made by a combination of fiber Bragg gratings and phase shift fiber Bragg gratings. Two laser emission lines were obtained simultaneously in single-longitudinal-mode operation showing a power-instability lower than 0.35 dB, an OSNR higher than 55 dB, a narrow-linewidth of 13 KHz and an optical output power around 0 dBm for both wavelengths. This proposed configuration allows the individual control of the loss of each channel.
We propose and demonstrate two ultra-long range fiber Bragg grating (FBG) sensor interrogation systems. In the first approach four FBGs are located 200 km from the monitoring station and a signal to noise ratio of 20 dB is obtained. The second improved version is able to detect the four multiplexed FBGs placed 250 km away, offering a signal to noise ratio of 6–8 dB. Consequently, this last system represents the longest range FBG sensor system reported so far that includes fiber sensor multiplexing capability. Both simple systems are based on a wavelength swept laser to scan the reflection spectra of the FBGs, and they are composed by two identical-lengths optical paths: the first one intended to launch the amplified laser signal by means of Raman amplification and the other one is employed to guide the reflection signal to the reception system.
We have developed a Watt-level single-frequency tunable fiber laser in the 915–937 nm spectral window. The laser is based on a neodymium-doped fiber master oscillator power amplifier architecture, with two amplification stages using a 20 mW extended cavity diode laser as seed. The system output power is higher than 2 W from 921 to 933 nm, with a stability better than 1.4% and a low relative intensity noise.
We have developed a watt-level random laser at 532 nm. The laser is based on a 1064 nm random distributed ytterbium (Yb) gain-assisted fiber laser seed with a 0.35 nm linewidth and 900 mW polarized output power. A study for the optimal length of the random distributed mirror was carried out. A Yb-doped fiber master oscillator power amplifier architecture is used to amplify the random seeder laser without additional spectral broadening up to 20 W. By using a periodically poled lithium niobate crystal in a single-pass configuration, we generate in excess of 1 W random laser at 532 nm by second-harmonic generation (SHG) with an efficiency of 9%. The green random laser exhibits an instability , an optical signal-to-noise ratio , a 0.1 nm linewidth, and excellent beam quality.