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Frequency-doubling of a cladding-pumped Er3+/Yb3+ femtosecond fiber laser system using a periodically-poled LiNbO3

Frequency-doubling of a cladding-pumped Er3+/Yb3+ femtosecond fiber laser system using a periodically-poled LiNbO3
Frequency-doubling of a cladding-pumped Er3+/Yb3+ femtosecond fiber laser system using a periodically-poled LiNbO3
As real-world ultra-fast optical devices proliferate, there is a growing need for highly reliable and compact sources of femtosecond pulses [1]. Currently most of these applications require moderate power sources operating around 800 nm, which is ideally compatible with frequency-doubling of femtosecond Er3+-fiber lasers. Previously integrated high-power fiber laser systems were developed based on chirped-pulse amplification schemes relying on chirped fiber gratings for pulse stretching and compression to minimize the nonlinearities of femtosecond fiber amplifiers [2]. The component count of such systems can be considerably reduced and the optical efficiency increased by implementing aperiodically poled lithium niobate [3] (APPLN), as APPLN allows a unique integration of chirped pulse amplification with frequency-doubling.
Here we demonstrate the first system application of a APPLN frequency-doubler in conjunction with a high-power cladding-pumped Er3+/Yb3+ fiber laser.
The experimental set-up is shown in Fig. 1. The fiber seed system is based on an environmentally stable fiber soliton laser [1] and generates bandwidth-limited 250 fsec pulses with pulse energies of 300 pJ at a repetition rate of 40 MHz at a wavelength of 1.56µm. To operate the cladding pumped power amplifier in saturation the pre-amplifier is used, which boosts the average signal power to 35 mW. Prior to amplification in the cladding-pumped power amplifier the pulses are stretched to ~ 1.7 psec in a 2.9 m length of positive dispersion fiber.
Using a coupled pump power of ~6 W at 980 nm into the power amplifier, we obtain a signal power of 600 mW. After frequency-doubling in a length of 2 cm of APPLN an average power of 180 mW is obtained at 780 nm. The frequency-doubled pulse energy is 4.5 nJ. Note that the crystal was not AR-coated and the internal SH power was ~210 mW. The internal SH conversion efficiency was 40 %.
An autocorrelation trace and the corresponding pulse spectra at the frequency-doubled wavelength are shown in Fig, 2. The pulse width is 290 fsec and assuming a gaussian pulse shape the time bandwidth product is 0.51, i.e. the pulses were within 20% of the bandwidth limit.
Since currently APPLN allows the recompression of pulses up to 15 psec in width [3], we can expect that this technology may be upscaled to producing femtosecond pulses at Watt-level powers at 780 nm.
Fig. 1: High-power frequency-doubled Er/Yb fiber laser. Fig. 2: Autocorrelation and spectrum of the pulses generated at 780 nm. The pulse width is 290 fsec and the time-bandwidth product is 0.51 assuming a Gaussian shape.
IEEE
Fermann, M.E.
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Galvanauskas, A.
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Harter, D.
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Minelly, J.D.
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Caplen, J.E.
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Arbore, M.A.
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Fejer, M.M.
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Fermann, M.E.
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Galvanauskas, A.
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Harter, D.
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Minelly, J.D.
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Caplen, J.E.
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Arbore, M.A.
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Fejer, M.M.
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Fermann, M.E., Galvanauskas, A., Harter, D., Minelly, J.D., Caplen, J.E., Arbore, M.A. and Fejer, M.M. (1997) Frequency-doubling of a cladding-pumped Er3+/Yb3+ femtosecond fiber laser system using a periodically-poled LiNbO3. In Proceedings of Conference on Lasers and Electro- Optics/Pacific Rim '97. IEEE..

Record type: Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)

Abstract

As real-world ultra-fast optical devices proliferate, there is a growing need for highly reliable and compact sources of femtosecond pulses [1]. Currently most of these applications require moderate power sources operating around 800 nm, which is ideally compatible with frequency-doubling of femtosecond Er3+-fiber lasers. Previously integrated high-power fiber laser systems were developed based on chirped-pulse amplification schemes relying on chirped fiber gratings for pulse stretching and compression to minimize the nonlinearities of femtosecond fiber amplifiers [2]. The component count of such systems can be considerably reduced and the optical efficiency increased by implementing aperiodically poled lithium niobate [3] (APPLN), as APPLN allows a unique integration of chirped pulse amplification with frequency-doubling.
Here we demonstrate the first system application of a APPLN frequency-doubler in conjunction with a high-power cladding-pumped Er3+/Yb3+ fiber laser.
The experimental set-up is shown in Fig. 1. The fiber seed system is based on an environmentally stable fiber soliton laser [1] and generates bandwidth-limited 250 fsec pulses with pulse energies of 300 pJ at a repetition rate of 40 MHz at a wavelength of 1.56µm. To operate the cladding pumped power amplifier in saturation the pre-amplifier is used, which boosts the average signal power to 35 mW. Prior to amplification in the cladding-pumped power amplifier the pulses are stretched to ~ 1.7 psec in a 2.9 m length of positive dispersion fiber.
Using a coupled pump power of ~6 W at 980 nm into the power amplifier, we obtain a signal power of 600 mW. After frequency-doubling in a length of 2 cm of APPLN an average power of 180 mW is obtained at 780 nm. The frequency-doubled pulse energy is 4.5 nJ. Note that the crystal was not AR-coated and the internal SH power was ~210 mW. The internal SH conversion efficiency was 40 %.
An autocorrelation trace and the corresponding pulse spectra at the frequency-doubled wavelength are shown in Fig, 2. The pulse width is 290 fsec and assuming a gaussian pulse shape the time bandwidth product is 0.51, i.e. the pulses were within 20% of the bandwidth limit.
Since currently APPLN allows the recompression of pulses up to 15 psec in width [3], we can expect that this technology may be upscaled to producing femtosecond pulses at Watt-level powers at 780 nm.
Fig. 1: High-power frequency-doubled Er/Yb fiber laser. Fig. 2: Autocorrelation and spectrum of the pulses generated at 780 nm. The pulse width is 290 fsec and the time-bandwidth product is 0.51 assuming a Gaussian shape.

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Published date: 1997
Venue - Dates: Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics (CLEO)/Pacific Rim '97, Baltimore, United States, 1997-07-14 - 1997-07-18

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Local EPrints ID: 76730
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/76730
PURE UUID: e9c977a1-33a9-4c54-9723-51aa80449bca

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Date deposited: 11 Mar 2010
Last modified: 13 Mar 2024 23:32

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Contributors

Author: M.E. Fermann
Author: A. Galvanauskas
Author: D. Harter
Author: J.D. Minelly
Author: J.E. Caplen
Author: M.A. Arbore
Author: M.M. Fejer

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