Raman fiber laser pumped by a semiconductor disk laser and mode locked by a semiconductor saturable absorber mirror

Abstract

A 1.6µm mode-locked Raman fiber laser pumped by a 1480nm semiconductor disk laser is demonstrated. Watt-level core pumping of the single-mode fiber Raman lasers with low-noise disk lasers together with semiconductor saturable absorber mirror mode locking represents a highly practical solution for short-pulse operation.

Nonlinear mixing and mode correlations in a short Raman fiber laser

“…Mode interactions leading to specific time dynamics of the quasi-CW fiber lasers are of great interest In particular, the pulsed operation can be achieved via controlling the phase relations between different modes as it has been recently shown in RFLs using semiconductor saturable absorber mirror 12 or carbon nanotubes 13 . Time dynamics in free-running Raman lasers, when no special measures are taken to lock phased of the modes, may differs considerably from both single-mode lasers operating in CW regime and mode-locked lasers, and depends on the amount of stochasticity in phase relations between different modes.…”

Ultrafast Raman laser mode-locked by nanotubes

“…The most attractive feature of Raman-based amplification in silica fiber is that gain is available at any wavelength across the transparency window of the medium (300-2300 nm), given a suitable pump source [3]. With advances in high-power fiber laser pump technology and in cascaded Raman fiber lasers, efficient pump systems are now available throughout this entire band.There have been a number of reports utilizing Raman gain in ultrafast sources [4][5][6][7][8]. However, to date, none of these systems has reached a level of performance comparable with state-of-the-art rare-earth-based lasers.…”

“…While this is useful for some applications, the high repetition rate limits the delivered peak power. Nonlinear loop mirrors [5,6] and nonlinear polarization evolution [8] have also been used to provide saturable absorption, but such systems suffer from instabilities due to fluctuations in ambient temperature, and often exhibit poor self-starting performance [5,6,8].Recently, a Raman mode-locked laser using a semiconductor saturable absorber mirror (SESAM) was reported [7]. While the use of a SESAM improves self-starting and robustness against environmental perturbations, there is limited spectral operation from a single device.…”

“…There have been a number of reports utilizing Raman gain in ultrafast sources [4][5][6][7][8]. However, to date, none of these systems has reached a level of performance comparable with state-of-the-art rare-earth-based lasers.…”

“…Recently, a Raman mode-locked laser using a semiconductor saturable absorber mirror (SESAM) was reported [7]. While the use of a SESAM improves self-starting and robustness against environmental perturbations, there is limited spectral operation from a single device.…”