320mW Nd³⁺-doped single-mode fibre superfluorescent source

Abstract

Superfluorescent, SF single-mode Nd³⁺ doped fiber sources are of interest for us in a number of applications where a high brightness source of low temporal coherence is required. These include sensors such a fiber gyroscopes and medical diagnostic Such sources are similar to fiber lasers, but suppression of round-trip feedback prevent. the formation of discrete longitudinal cavity modes. The amplified spontaneous emission thus maintains a continuous spectrum. By pumping special doubleclad fibers with multistripe diode arrays, powers of up to 80 mW have been achieved. However, the output power is limited by a tendency to lase around line center when the product of the fiber gain and the effective reflection induced by Rayleigh backscattering exceeds unity. In this paper we report a scheme whereby the limitation is overcome by injecting light from a relatively low-power fiber SF seed source into a high-gain fiber amplifier. Using this technique we have demonstrated output power approximately four times that previously reported.

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