Widely Wavelength-Tunable Mid-Infrared Fluoride Fiber Lasers

Abstract

Abstract-We demonstrate widely wavelength-tunable continuous-wave (CW) and Q-switched Er 3+ -doped ZBLAN fluoride fiber lasers operating around 3 μm enabled by a volume Bragg grating (VBG). In the CW operation regime, a total wavelength tuning range of over 160 nm spanning from 2694 nm to 2854 nm has been achieved. For the Q-switched mode of operation, a slightly modified resonator configuration, incorporating a passive Q-switcher, topological insulator Bi2Te3 nanosheets, can produce stable pulse trains with a pulse width of 880 ns at a repetition rate of 81 kHz, while maintaining a wavelength tuning range of 62 nm from 2762 nm to 2824 nm through adjusting the VBG. In both operation regimes, the output spectral width is measured to be <0.3 nm (FWHM) over the whole tuning range. Our work both demonstrates the great wavelength-tuning potential of the Er 3+ -doped fluoride fiber laser, and also paves a way for the development of a range of high performance mid-infrared laser sources.Index Terms-Mid-infrared, wavelength tunable, Q-switched, topological insulator, fiber lasers.

PMMA Sandwiched Bi2Te3 Layer as a Saturable Absorber in Mode-Locked Fiber Laser

“…Third, the saturable absorber device can be effectively protected from oxidation, since it is isolated from air and water due to the double PMMA sandwich structure. Also, this mode-locked result shows no distinct different with previous reports [28][29][30], which means that this transfer process has no adverse effect to the Bi 2 Te 3 based saturable absorber. All of these results lead to a conclusion: the PMMA sandwiched structure could protect well the Bi 2 Te 3 based saturable absorber and ensure no recede of the performance of saturable absorber.…”

Design of an Efficient Pulsed Dy3+: ZBLAN Fiber Laser Operating in Gain Switching Regime

“…In particular, the market availability of efficient laser diodes as pumping sources has allowed significant advances in the construction of both continuous-wave (CW) and pulsed ZBLAN fiber lasers close to 3 μm wavelength. As an example, in [24] a Q-switched Er 3+ -doped ZBLAN fluoride fiber laser has been proposed. Nonlinear polarization rotation (NPR) method [25] and gain switching [26]- [28] constitute further approaches in order to obtain high-energy pulsed laser operation.…”

Mid-Infrared Tunable Laser-Based Broadband Fingerprint Absorption Spectroscopy for Trace Gas Sensing: A Review

“…MIR tunable laser technology has undergone tremendous development in the past decade, which involves QCL, ICL, difference frequency generator (DFG) [37], optical parametric oscillator (OPO) [38], fluoride fiber lasers [39], hollow-core fiber gas laser [40], VCSEL [41], and II-VI chalcogenides-based MIR lasers [42]. As there have been many excellent reviews of MIR light sources [25,[43][44][45], here we present only a brief overview of the newly developed, highly reliable, and most widely used in spectroscopy, focusing on QCL, ICL, VCSEL, and optical frequency comb (OFC).…”