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Pulse trains at 2.5 W incident pump power showing sequentially (a)–(b) the QML, (c)–(d) a transition regime and (e)–(f) the stable CML regime over long and short time scales.
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We report the first stable mode-locking from an Er 3 + : fluoride glass fiber laser linear cavity operating near 3 μm to the best of our knowledge. The linear cavity includes a saturable absorber mirror and a fiber Bragg grating to provide a controlled and wavelength selective feedback. The pulse train has a 51.75 MHz repetition rate, an estimated...
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Citations
... Compact, high-power, and efficient 2.8 µm Er:ZBLAN fiber lasers, which are pumped by commercially available InGaAs laser diodes at 0.97 µm, have been demonstrated [10,11]. Table 1 presents an overview of passively mode-locked Er:ZBLAN fiber lasers reported recently [12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20]. The first stable continuous-wave mode-locking (CW ML) of an Er:ZBLAN fiber laser was demonstrated in 2014 by Haboucha et al. employing a commercial SESAM and a fiber Bragg grating in a linear cavity configuration [13]. ...
... Table 1 presents an overview of passively mode-locked Er:ZBLAN fiber lasers reported recently [12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20]. The first stable continuous-wave mode-locking (CW ML) of an Er:ZBLAN fiber laser was demonstrated in 2014 by Haboucha et al. employing a commercial SESAM and a fiber Bragg grating in a linear cavity configuration [13]. The laser generated stable, self-starting pulse trains at 2.80 µm with a repetition rate of 51.8 MHz and a pulse duration of 60 ps. ...
A GaSb-based SEmiconductor Saturable Absorber Mirror (SESAM) enables continuous-wave picosecond mode-locked operation with excellent stability of a polarization-maintaining mid-infrared Er:ZBLAN fiber laser. The GaSb-based SESAM mode-locked fiber laser delivers an average output power of 190 mW at 2.76 µm at a repetition rate of 32.07 MHz (corresponding to a pulse energy of ∼6 nJ) and exhibits a high signal-to-noise ratio of ∼80 dB. The polarization extinction ratio is more than 23 dB. By employing an intracavity diffraction grating, the laser wavelength is continuously tunable across 2.706–2.816 µm. Passively Q-switched operation of this laser is also demonstrated.
... A simpler design with a semiconductor saturable absorber mirror (SESAM), non-linear mirrors and two-dimensional materials have been used to achieve picosecond mode-locked fiber lasers emitting around 2.8 µm [20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28], and even up to 3.5 µm [29,30]. In reference [31], the use of a chirped FBG in combination with a SESAM reported stable mode-locking of a linear cavity producing relatively long pulses of 60 ps duration. Recently, a mode-locked all-fiber laser has even been demonstrated with a black phosphorus layer deposited directly onto the active fiber tip [32] and another one was demonstrated with a home-made MXene saturable absorber butt-coupled to the gain fiber [33]. ...
... However, the higher reflectance of the FBG also lowers the output power of the laser, thus lowering the lasing efficiency. The performance of this laser cavity is also consistent with a previous demonstration using similar parameters [31]. ...
Ultrafast mid-infrared fiber lasers have been intensely studied in the last decade for the generation of high harmonics, molecular spectroscopy, material processing and remote sensing. Different designs have been investigated but most of them lacked the ease of use and reliability needed for their democratization. In this paper, we demonstrate a self-starting mode-locked mid-IR erbium-doped fiber laser based on a SESAM and a broadband uniform FBG that produces pulses as short as 15 ps. Different laser cavities were tested with varying FBG peak reflectance, spectral bandwidth and active fiber length. In addition, one cavity uses a pump combiner instead of injecting free-space the pump power through the fiber tip. The results of this study confirm that the FBG spectral bandwidth can efficiently control the duration of the almost Fourier-transform-limited pulses up to a limit seemingly dictated by the presence of water vapor in the laser cavity acting as narrow spectral filters. To a lower effect, the active fiber length influences the pulse duration. Finally, the use of an all-fiber pump combiner allows for a more compact and rugged design without altering the laser performances. This study represents a step towards the development of robust mid-infrared ultrafast all-fiber lasers.
... Subsequently, Hu et al. demonstrated 497-fs pulses using a similar NPR mode-locking method [4]. Moreover, 2.8-µm mode-locked Er-doped ZBLAN fiber lasers based on real saturable absorbers such as semiconductor saturable-absorber mirrors (SESAMs) [5,6], graphene [7], and black phosphorus [8] have also produced good results. Er-doped ZBLAN fiber amplifiers have been used to boost the 2.8-µm pulse seed to the level of a few watts, accompanied by pulse nonlinear compression [9][10][11]. ...
We report an all-fiber 2.8-µm ultra-short pulse master oscillator power amplifier (MOPA) system seeded by a soliton self-frequency shift from a mode-locked thulium-doped fiber laser. This all-fiber laser source delivers 2.8-µm pulses with an average power of 3.42 W, a pulse width of 115 fs, and a pulse energy of 45.4 nJ. We demonstrate, to the best of our knowledge, the first femtosecond watt-level all-fiber 2.8-µm laser system. A 2.8-µm pulse seed was obtained via the soliton self-frequency shift of 2-µm ultra-short pulses in a cascaded silica and passive fluoride fiber. A novel, to the best of our knowledge, high-efficiency and compact home-made end-pump silica-fluoride fiber combiner was fabricated and used in this MOPA system. Nonlinear amplification of the 2.8-µm pulse was realized, and soliton self-compression was observed accompanied by spectral broadening.
... In addition, the perpendicularly cleaved fiber end can enable the stable CWML operation in our laser system. In many previous works [47][48][49][50][51][52], the grating or higher feedback OC were generally applied to provide higher intra-cavity pulse energy with controlled and wavelength-selective reflections in free-running pulsed fiber lasers. Nevertheless, higher cavity feedback could lead to the decay of slope efficiency due to the reduction of the output portion. ...
Mid-infrared (MIR) pulsed lasers near a 3 µm waveband show great potential for the high absorption of water molecules and many important gas molecules. A passively ${{Q}}$ Q -switched mode-locked (QSML) ${\rm{E}}{{\rm{r}}^{3 +}}$ E r 3 + -doped fluoride fiber laser with a low laser threshold and high slope efficiency around a 2.8 µm waveband is reported. The improvement is achieved by depositing bismuth sulfide ( ${\rm{B}}{{\rm{i}}_2}{{\rm{S}}_3}$ B i 2 S 3 ) particles onto the cavity mirror directly as a saturable absorber and using the cleaved end of the fluoride fiber as output directly. -QSML pulses begin to appear with the pump power of 280 mW. The repetition rate of the QSML pulses reaches a maximum of 33.59 kHz with the pump power of 540 mW. When the pump power is further increased, the output of the fiber laser switches from the QSML to the continuous-wave mode-locked operation with the repetition rate of 28.64 MHz and the slope efficiency of 12.2%. The results indicate that ${\rm{B}}{{\rm{i}}_2}{{\rm{S}}_3}$ B i 2 S 3 is a promising modulator for the pulsed lasers near a 3 µm waveband, which paves the way for further development of various applications in MIR wavebands, including material processing, MIR frequency combs, and modern healthcare.
... It can be observed that there is a small region for a combination of doping concentration and fiber length where stable mode-locking can be achieved for a pump power of 4 W. Since this region is small, it can also be inferred that for a particular doping and fiber length, the range of pump powers over which stable mode-locking can be achieved will also be narrow. This is confirmed experimentally in [26,27]. For a doping concentration of 2 mol.%, mode-locking is not achieved until the fiber length is increased to around 5 m. ...
We present a numerical model for mode-locked lasers and ultrafast nonlinear amplifiers in which the saturated gain profiles along active fibers are judiciously computed using experimental pump powers as input. This eliminates the need for approximating the gain profile by using a small-signal gain coefficient and saturation energy to simulate pulse propagation in active fibers. Our model shows good agreement with experiments involving mode-locked cavities at 1 µm with a silica glass host doped with ytterbium ions. Accurate results are also obtained for continuous-wave and mode-locked laser cavities around 2.8 µm, which uses ZBLAN fiber doped with erbium ions. In the case of Er:ZBLAN fiber, we use the model to show regions of stable mode-locking delivering a single pulse as output and how the spectral width changes with variation in doping concentration and fiber lengths. Our model enables accurate numerical modeling of mode-locked fiber lasers and ultrafast amplifiers, and can be useful in guiding the design of new architectures, understanding complex intracavity laser dynamics, and optimizing device output.
... Different kinds of SAs were used to modulate the cavity loss. Besides traditional bulk SA modulators, such as semiconductor saturable absorber mirrors (SESAM) [11][12][13][14] and Fe 2+ :ZnSe crystals [15], two-dimensional (2D) materials are widely investigated, including graphene [16,17], black phosphorous [18], topological insulator [19,20], magnetite (Fe3O4) [21,22], antimonene [23], transmission metal dichalcogenides [24,25], and gold nanorods [26]. ...
We experimentally demonstrate a passively Q-switched wavelength tunable 2.8 μm erbium-doped fiber laser. Fe3O4 nanoparticles deposited on a gold mirror are used as a saturable absorber (SA). Stable Q-switched pulses within the tunable range of 2710–2810 nm are obtained. At the wavelength of 2760 nm, a maximum Q-switched output power of 188 mW is achieved with a repetition rate of 115.8 kHz and a pulse width of 1.3 μs. The corresponding pulse energy is 1.68 μJ. This demonstration shows the ability of Fe3O4 to function as a broadband mid-infrared SA.
... In the perspective of somehow coping with the current lack of robust and ideally fiberized mid-IR components, efforts were made to simplify the design of mid-IR mode-locked fiber lasers, namely by adopting linear cavities that are taking advantage of the strength and simplicity of CW laser's architecture. Some promising results were obtained with a linear laser cavity making use of an FBG as output coupler to stabilize the laser emission wavelength in 2015 [157]. This demonstration was followed by another take on a linear architecture that could generate much shorter pulses with a duration of 25 ps [139]. ...
Mid-infrared fiber sources, emitting between 2.5 µm and 5.0 µm, are interesting for their great potential in several application fields such as material processing, biomedicine, remote sensing and infrared countermeasures due to their high-power, their diffraction-limited beam quality as well as their robust monolithic architecture. In this review, we will focus on the recent progress in continuous wave and pulsed mid-infrared fiber lasers and the components that bring these laser sources closer to a field deployment as well as in industrial systems. Accordingly, we will briefly illustrate the potential of such mid-infrared fiber lasers through a few selected applications.
... In recent years, mode-locked fluoride fiber lasers (MLFFLs), have attracted wide attention as ultrashort MIR sources due to their compact structure and high beam quality [15][16][17][18][19][20][21]. Kilowatt-level femtosecond MLFFLs at 2.8 µm have been achieved with a nonlinear polarization rotation (NPR) technique [22]. ...
We report on a scheme of pulse amplification and simultaneous self-compression in fluoride fiber for generating a high-peak-power pulse at 2.8-µm wavelength. We find dispersion management plays a key role for the amplification and self-compression process. Through dispersion management with a Ge rod, pulse amplification and simultaneous pulse self-compression were realized in the small anomalous dispersion region. A 2-MW peak-power pulse was achieved through amplification and self-compression in Er:ZBLAN fiber, with pulse energy of 101 nJ and pulse duration of 49 fs. To the best of our knowledge, this is the highest peak power obtained from fluoride fiber at 2.8 µm, and will benefit a series of applications.
... Until 2012, however, the first, to the best of our knowledge, commercial SESAM available for the mid-infrared was developed and started to serve the ∼3 µm mode-locked fiber oscillator [9]. In the following decade, its excellent reliability and stability and the ability of customizing the parameters always kept it favorable [10,[20][21][22] despite the limited operation wavelength of close to 3.5 µm [23], although many contemporaneously emerged nonlinear nanomaterials, e.g., graphene, BP, WSe 2 , gold nanowires [18,[24][25][26][27], were also employed as mid-infrared mode lockers. Using a SESAM, the maximum average power of the ∼3 µm picosecond (ps)-scale mode-locked pulses from a fiber oscillator has reached the recorded 1.05 W [10]. ...
In this Letter, a high-stability, linearly polarized mode-locked polarization-maintaining (PM) ${\rm{E}}{{\rm{r}}^{3 +}}$ E r 3 + -doped fluoride fiber oscillator at ${\sim}{2.8}\;{\rm{\unicode{x00B5}{\rm m}}}$ ∼ 2.8 µ m is presented for the first time, to the best of our knowledge, where an InAs-based semiconductor saturable absorber mirror is used as the mode locker, and a film polarizer is employed for maintaining the linearly polarized oscillation. In the free-running state, stable linearly polarized mode-locked pulses ( $\tau = {{44}}\;{\rm{ps}}$ τ = 44 p s and ${\rm{P}} = {{446}}\;{\rm{mW}}$ P = 446 m W ) at 2.795 µm, with a high polarization extinction ratio of ${\gt}{{23}}\;{\rm{dB}}$ > 23 d B and a low integrated relative intensity noise of 0.087% [1 Hz–10 MHz], have been achieved, which can be strongly immune to external mechanical perturbations. By introducing a ruled reflective diffraction grating into the cavity in a Littman configuration, the continuous wavelength tuning of the linearly polarized mode-locked pulses in the range of 2717–2827 nm is obtained as well. To the best of our knowledge, this marks the first demonstration of a linearly polarized PM fiber oscillator in the ${\gt}{2.5}\;\unicode{x00B5}{\rm m}$ > 2.5 µ m mid-infrared region.
... These technologies generally are divided into three types. The first type is the true saturable absorber (SA) based mode-locking, that is, the laser is modulated by a SA, such as SESAMs [7][8][9], graphene [10][11][12], and some other nonlinear optical materials [13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23]. This type of technology can easily realize the self-started mode-locking owing to the SAs' low saturation intensity. ...
We numerically investigate a hybrid mode-locked erbium-doped fluoride fiber laser in the mid-infrared region. Based on the coaction of nonlinear polarization rotation (NPR) and semiconductor saturable absorber mirror (SESAM), uniform mode-locked soliton pulse with 155 fs pulse duration, 14.78 kW peak power, and 2.29 nJ pulse energy can be achieved. For comparison, the single SESAM mode-locking and NPR mode-locking of the erbium-doped fluoride fiber laser are simulated, respectively. The effect of all kinds of parameters including gain fiber length, saturable energy of the gain fiber, linear cavity phase delay bias, and small-signal gain on the hybrid mode-locking laser are also investigated.
