This paper demonstrates a few-picosecond and high-peak-power mode-locked fiber laser, using an erbium-doped fiber as a gain medium and zinc oxide (ZnO) element as a new passively saturable absorber (SA). The ZnO element was synthesized using a seeding solution and amended with a polyvinyl alcohol to form a film. The ZnO has been identified as an ideal SA due to its high nonlinear optical response, high sustainability to damage threshold, and fast recovery time. Self-started mode-locked laser pulses have been generated at a relatively low pump power of 42 mW with a fundamental repetition rate and pulse duration of 3.26 MHz and 2.60 ps, respectively. The proposed laser operates at 1599.5 nm with a 3 dB spectral bandwidth of 1.12 nm. A maximum output power, pulse energy, and peak power of about 6.91 mW, 2.12 nJ, and 0.82 kW, respectively, are obtained at a maximum pump power of 159 mW. From these findings, we confirm that the proposed laser can be viewed as a promising light source in the emerging optical communication system.

A few-picosecond and high-peak-power passively mode-locked erbium-doped fibre laser based on zinc oxide polyvinyl alcohol film saturable absorber

We report on the development of, to the best of our knowledge, the first ultrafast burst-mode laser system operating at a central wavelength of approximately 2 μm, where water absorption and, consequently, the absorption of most biological tissue is very high. The laser comprises a harmonically mode-locked 1-GHz oscillator, which, in turn, seeds a fiber amplifier chain. The amplifier produces 500 ns long bursts containing 500 pulses with 1 GHz intra-burst and 50 kHz inter-burst repetition rates, respectively, at an average power of 1 W, corresponding to 40 nJ pulse and 20 μJ burst energies, respectively. The entire system is built in an all-fiber architecture and implements dispersion management such that output pulses are delivered directly from a single-mode fiber with a duration of 340 fs without requiring any external compression. This gigahertz-repetition-rate system is intended for ablation-cooled laser material removal in the 2 μm wavelength region, which is interesting for laser surgery due to the exceptionally high tissue absorption at this wavelength.

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Burst-mode thulium all-fiber laser delivering femtosecond pulses at a 1 GHz intra-burst repetition rate.

Saturable absorber incorporating graphene oxide polymer composite through dip coating for mode-locked fiber laser

We demonstrate alternate wavelength switching in a widely tunable, dual-wavelength Tm $^{3+} $ -doped fiber laser operating at 1900 nm A comb filter based on a Sagnac loop incorporating a length of high-birefringence fiber is used to define the lasing wavelengths By simple variation of a polarization controller within the laser cavity, alternate and sequential switching between single- and dual-wavelength output, as well as tunable operation over a range of 70 nm, is obtained

Alternate Wavelength Switching in a Widely Tunable Dual-Wavelength Tm $^{3+}$ -Doped Fiber Laser at 1900 nm

Tunable and switchable thulium-doped fiber laser utilizing Sagnac loops incorporating two-stage polarization maintaining fibers

A multiwavelength tunable fiber laser operating at 1.9 µm is demonstrated. A 4 m long Tm-doped single-mode fiber is pumped by a 1.57 µm fiber laser. A Sagnac fiber loop is used in the fiber laser cavity as a tunable filter, and the fiber loop consists of a 3-dB coupler, a polarization controller (PC), and a segment of polarization-maintaining fiber. Adjusting the PC state and pump power, multiwavelength laser with wavelength spacing of 2.5 nm 1895–1915 nm is observed. The number of output wavelength can be tuned precisely from one to four by adjusting the PC state. The 3-dB linewidth and side-mode suppression ratio are 0.045 nm and 45 dB, respectively. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 57:401–403, 2015

Multiwavelength tunable ring fiber laser operating at 1.9 μm

We experimentally demonstrate a passively mode-locking thulium-doped fiber laser based on the combination of the nonlinear polarization rotation (NPR) and the semiconductor saturable absorber mirror (SESAM). In contrast to SESAM mode-locking merely, the fiber lasers based on NPR working together with SESAM have more advantages. By using two mode-locking mechanisms, the nonlinear effect can be enhanced tremendously; then, the threshold of high-order harmonic mode-locking (HML) pulse trains can be decreased, and the pulses width can be compressed. The shapes of the pulses can also be reshaped better, and the HML pulse trains stability can be improved. The high repetition rate of 1.78 GHz is obtained by both NPR and SESAM in the experiment. Because of the variation of the gain-and-loss distribution in the cavity, the output wavelength of mode-locking fiber laser can be tuned from 1839 to 1890 nm, and the multiwavelength HML is also observed in the experiment.

Mode-Locking Thulium-Doped Fiber Laser With 1.78-GHz Repetition Rate Based on Combination of Nonlinear Polarization Rotation and Semiconductor Saturable Absorber Mirror

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.

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

We demonstrate an actively mode-locked Ho-doped fiber laser. Actively mode-locked pulses are obtained with up to 5.039 GHz repetition rate. The shortest pulse width is 31 ps. Wavelength can be tuned from 2037nm to 2050nm.

All-fiber wavelength tunable actively mode-locked Ho-doped fiber laser

A laser and microwave hybrid transmission system based on dual-wavelength Brillouin fiber laser is proposed and demonstrated. Laser and microwave hybrid transmission is achieved through experimental analysis.

Ma Wanzhuo

Papers

Multiwavelength tunable ring fiber laser operating at 1.9 μm

Mode-Locking Thulium-Doped Fiber Laser With 1.78-GHz Repetition Rate Based on Combination of Nonlinear Polarization Rotation and Semiconductor Saturable Absorber Mirror

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

All-fiber wavelength tunable actively mode-locked Ho-doped fiber laser

Hybrid Transmission of Laser and Microwave Based on Dual-wavelength Brillouin Fiber Laser