Tunable high repetition rate actively mode-locked fiber laser at 2 μm

Ma Wanzhuo; Wang Tianshu; Wang Furen; Wang Chengbo; Zhang Jing; Jiang Huilin

doi:10.12086/oee.2018.170662

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Ma Wanzhuo, Wang Tianshu, Wang Furen, et al. Tunable high repetition rate actively mode-locked fiber laser at 2 μm[J]. Opto-Electronic Engineering, 2018, 45(10): 170662. doi: 10.12086/oee.2018.170662

Citation:

Ma Wanzhuo, Wang Tianshu, Wang Furen, et al. Tunable high repetition rate actively mode-locked fiber laser at 2 μm[J]. Opto-Electronic Engineering, 2018, 45(10): 170662. doi: 10.12086/oee.2018.170662

Tunable high repetition rate actively mode-locked fiber laser at 2 μm

1.
National and Local Joint Engineering Research Center of Space Optoelectronics Technology, Changchun University of Science and Technology, Changchun, Jilin 130022, China
2.
College of Opto-Electronic Engineering, Changchun University of Science and Technology, Changchun, Jilin 130022, China
3.
College of Science, Changchun University of Science and Technology, Changchun, Jilin 130022, China

Fund Project: Supported by National Science Foundation of China (91338116)

More Information

Corresponding author: Wang Tianshu, E-mail:wangts@cust.edu.cn

Received Date 10 December 2017

Revised Date 31 January 2018

Published Date 01 October 2018

Abstract

Abstract

We demonstrate a tunable actively mode-locked fiber laser at 2 μm band. A segment of 4 m Tm-Ho-co-doped fiber is used as gain medium. Active mode locking pulse is realized by using intensity modulation and the signal source is high frequency sinusoidal signal. A tunable narrow bandwidth optical filter is used to narrow laser linewidth, suppress noise and achieve wavelength tuning. Stable actively mode-locked pulses with up to 2.2 GHz repetition rate is obtained, corresponding to 649 order harmonic mode-locked pulse train. The pulse width is about 200 ps. The signal-to-noise ratio of RF spectrum is 68 dB. The optical tuning range is 1907 nm~1927 nm.
- fiber laser /
- actively mode-locked /
- Tm-Ho-co-doped fiber /
- high repetition rate /
- tunable laser

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References

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Overview

Overview

Overview: Recently the research on 2 μm mode-locked fiber laser has made rapid progress. However, comparing with 1.55 μm and 1 μm mode-locked fiber laser, 2 μm mode-locked fiber laser is seriously wanting on the parameters of repetition rate, pulse width and tuning range. This problem is limited by the large dispersion of silica fibers at 2 μm and the difficulty of the corresponding fabrication of fiber devices. The advantage of active mode locked fiber laser is that it can realize high repetition frequency, high frequency and waveform controlling. Therefore, it has important application value in large capacity high speed optical communication, broadband signal processing, high-speed optical frequency comb generation and other fields. At present, the research on actively mode-locked fiber laser is mainly focused on 1.55 μm and 1 μm bands. There are fewer reports on the 2 μm actively mode-locked fiber laser. In 2013, Wang Xiong et al. reported an all-fiber actively mode-locked thulium-doped laser. It realizes mode-locked pulses with 11.884 MHz and 12.099 MHz repetition rate. In 2015, C. Kneis et al. reported a wavelength tunable, high average output power actively mode-locked thulium-doped fiber laser. In 2016, Y. Wang reported a pump modulation actively mode-locked thulium-doped fiber laser. It can be seen from the reported research, it is still difficult to realize the 2 μm actively mode-locked pulses in an all-fiber cavity with GHz magnitude repetition rate。
We demonstrate a tunable actively mode-locked fiber laser at 2 μm band. A segment of 4 m Tm-Ho-co-doped fiber is used as gain medium. Active mode locking pulse is realized by using intensity modulation and the signal source is high frequency sinusoidal signal. A tunable narrow bandwidth optical filter is used to narrow laser linewidth, suppress noise and achieve wavelength tuning. Stable actively mode-locked pulses with up to 2.2 GHz repetition rate is obtained, corresponding to 649 order harmonic mode-locked pulse train. The pulse width is about 200 ps. The signal-to-noise ratio of RF spectrum is 68 dB. The optical tuning range is 1907 nm~1927 nm. This fiber laser has the great value in applications such as high speed optical communication, optical frequency comb and mid-infrared source generation.