Thanks to the unique properties such as spatially coherent, broadband emission spectrum, and high temporal stability, superfluorescent fiber source (SFS) has shown tremendous potential in wide applications of sensing, imaging, spectroscopy, and material processing. The fast development of active fiber and pump diode provides unprecedented opportunity for the performance scaling of SFS. In this paper, the new horizon opened by the recently developed SFS will be reviewed. First, the output power scaling of SFS with different architectures will be summarized, and a kilowatt-level high power SFS based on a tandem pumping technique will be demonstrated for the first time. Second, spectrum manipulation of SFS, including coverage extending and spectrum shaping, will be introduced in detail. What is more, the spectrum evolution of narrowband SFS in power scaling will be numerically modeled and evaluated. Third, several novel applications of SFS, including midinfrared laser generation, nonlinear effect suppression, sensing, and imaging, will be given, indicating the versatile performance of SFS compared with traditional fiber laser oscillators. Based on the new developed SFS, we will present the first hundred-watt level linearly polarized random fiber laser. In the last section, future endeavors on SFS will be presented.

Exploration in Performance Scaling and New Application Avenues of Superfluorescent Fiber Source

Lasers have enabled scientific and technological progress, owing to their high brightness and high coherence. However, the high spatial coherence of laser illumination is not always desirable, because it can cause adverse artefacts such as speckle noise. To reduce spatial coherence, new laser cavity geometries and alternative feedback mechanisms have been developed. By tailoring the spatial and spectral properties of cavity resonances, the number of lasing modes, the emission profiles and the coherence properties can be controlled. In this Technical Review, we present an overview of such unconventional, complex lasers, with a focus on their spatial coherence properties. Laser coherence control not only provides an efficient means for eliminating coherent artefacts but also enables new applications in imaging and wavefront shaping. High spatial coherence of laser illumination is not always desirable, because it can cause adverse artefacts such as speckle noise. This Technical Review describes unconventional lasers that have inherently low and/or tunable spatial coherence.

Complex lasers with controllable coherence

Light sources with high radiance are increasingly required for full-field real-time imaging. Conventional lasing sources are poorly suited for such imaging due to their high spatial or temporal coherence, which generates a speckle that deteriorates image quality. Here, a random fiber laser with multitransverse modes is used as an illumination light source to effectively reduce the speckle in imaging. Low spatial coherence and low temporal coherence of the random fiber laser give birth to significant reduction in the speckle. Under the power-limited condition, the multimode random fiber laser is verified to have a comparable or even better imaging quality compared to a multimode amplified spontaneous emission source. Furthermore, its potential to generate ultrahigh power of up to hundreds of Watts with extremely-high spectral density would make a breakthrough in the development of a new generation of high-power low-coherence light sources for many speckle-free imaging applications, where conventional light sources are not usable. As the multimode random fiber laser can naturally inherit all the advantages of single-mode random fiber lasers, including flexible wavelength, robust structure, and high power, this paper may provide a platform to develop powerful low-coherence light sources to meet wide range requirements of the full-field real-time speckle-free imaging.

Multimode Random Fiber Laser for Speckle-Free Imaging

A fiber laser based on random distributed feedback has attracted increasing attention in recent years, as it has become an important photonic device and has found wide applications in fiber communications or sensing. In this article, recent advances in high-power random distributed feedback fiber laser are reviewed, including the theoretical analyses, experimental approaches, discussion on the practical applications and outlook. It is found that a random distributed feedback fiber laser can not only act as an information photonics device, but also has the feasibility for high-efficiency/high-power generation, which makes it competitive with conventional high-power laser sources. In addition, high-power random distributed feedback fiber laser has been successfully applied for midinfrared lasing, frequency doubling to the visible and high-quality imaging. It is believed that the high-power random distributed feedback fiber laser could become a promising light source with simple and economic configurations.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/andp.201600099

High-power random distributed feedback fiber laser: From science to application

A high-power multi-transverse modes random fiber laser (RFL) is investigated by combining a master oscillator power-amplifier (MOPA) configuration with a segment of extra-large mode area step-index multimode fiber (MMF). Spatial coherence of the high-power multi-transverse modes RFL has been analyzed, which shows that speckle contrast is reduced dramatically with the output power increasing. In this way, considerably low speckle contrast of ~0.01 is achieved under high laser power of ~56 W, which are the records for multi-transverse modes RFLs in both spatial coherence and output power. This work paves a way to develop high-power RFLs with very low spatial coherence for wide-range speckle-free imaging and free-space communication applications.

High-power low spatial coherence random fiber laser

We design and demonstrate a fiber-based amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) source with low spatial coherence, low temporal coherence, and high power per mode. ASE is produced by optically pumping a large gain core multimode fiber while minimizing optical feedback to avoid lasing. The fiber ASE source provides 270 mW of continuous wave emission, centered at λ=1055  nm, with a full width at half-maximum bandwidth of 74 nm. The emission is distributed among as many as ∼70 spatial modes, enabling efficient speckle suppression when combined with spectral compounding. Finally, we demonstrate speckle-free full-field imaging using the fiber ASE source. The fiber ASE source provides a unique combination of high power per mode with both low spatial and low temporal coherence, making it an ideal source for full-field imaging and ranging applications.

Low-spatial-coherence high-radiance broadband fiber source for speckle free imaging

We designed and demonstrate a fiber-based amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) source with low spatial coherence, low temporal coherence, and high power per mode. ASE is produced by optically pumping a large gain core multimode fiber while minimizing optical feedback to avoid lasing. The fiber ASE source provides 270 mW of continuous wave emission, centered at {\lambda}=1055 nm with a full-width half-maximum bandwidth of 74 nm. The emission is distributed among as many as ~70 spatial modes, enabling efficient speckle suppression when combined with spectral compounding. Finally, we demonstrate speckle-free full field imaging using the fiber ASE source. The fiber ASE source provides a unique combination of high power per mode with both low spatial and low temporal coherence, making it an ideal source for full-field imaging and ranging applications.

Low-spatial-coherence broadband fiber source for speckle free imaging

The present disclosure relates more to mode mixing optical fibers useful, for example in providing optical fiber laser outputs having a desired beam product parameter and beam profile In one aspect, the disclosure provides a mode mixing optical fiber that includes a core having a refractive index profile; and a cladding disposed about the core The core of the mode mixing optical fiber supports at least two (eg, at least five) guided modes at the wavelength The mode mixing optical fiber is configured to substantially distribute optical radiation having the wavelength propagating therein (eg, input at its input end or generated or amplified within the core) among a plurality of the guided modes (eg, to distribute a substantial fraction of the optical radiation having the wavelength propagating therein from its lower-order guided modes to its higher-order guided modes)

Mode mixing optical fibers and methods and systems using the same

We present the development of a high-power laser source operating at 532 nm produced by frequency doubling a Ybdoped fiber amplifier. The fiber amplifier has a multistage design, and uses large mode area Yb-doped fibers as the gain medium to produce > 2 kW of laser power at 1064 nm. The amplifier design is optimized to reduce non-linear effects, and operates at linewidths as narrow as 45 GHz. By focusing the fiber amplifier output into an LBO crystal, more than 1 kW of 532 nm light is produced. Single pass conversion efficiencies as high as 54% are achieved providing a unique combination of high power and high quality 532 nm laser source. The 532 nm laser is fiber coupled, making it an ideal source for industrial applications.

Generating kW laser light at 532 nm via second harmonic generation of a high power Yb-doped fiber amplifier

The present disclosure relates more particularly to active optical fibers, amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) sources using such active optical fibers, and imaging and detection systems and methods using such ASE sources. In one aspect, the disclosure provides an active optical fiber that includes a rare earth-doped gain core configured to emit radiation at at least a peak wavelength emitted wavelength when pumped with pump radiation having a pump wavelength; a pump core surrounding the gain core; and a cladding surrounding the pump core, wherein the value M=16R 2 (NA) 2 /λ 2 in which R is the gain core radius, NA is the active optical fiber numerical aperture, and λ is the peak emitted wavelength, is at least 50, or at least 100. The present disclosure also provides an optical source that includes the optical fiber coupled to a pump source.

Peyman Ahmadi

Papers

Low-spatial-coherence high-radiance broadband fiber source for speckle free imaging

Low-spatial-coherence broadband fiber source for speckle free imaging

Mode mixing optical fibers and methods and systems using the same

Generating kW laser light at 532 nm via second harmonic generation of a high power Yb-doped fiber amplifier

Optical fibers, sources of optical radiation and methods for providing low-speckle optical radiation