High-power single-frequency fiber lasers

Single frequency laser sources are desired in many applications. Various architectures for achieving high power single frequency fiber laser outputs have been investigated and demonstrated.;Axial gain apodization can affect the lasing threshold and spectral modal discrimination of DFB lasers. Modeling results show that if properly tailored, the lasing threshold can be reduced by 21% without sacrificing modal discrimination, while simultaneously increasing the differential output power between both ends of the laser.;A dual-frequency 2 cm silica fiber laser with a wavelength spacing of 0.3 nm was demonstrated using a polarization maintaining (PM) fiber Bragg grating (FBG) reflector. The output power reached 43 mW with the optical signal to noise ratio (OSNR) greater than 60 dB. By thermally tuning the overlap between the spectra of PM FBG and SM FBG, a single polarisation, single frequency fibre laser was also demonstrated with an output power of 35 mW. From the dual frequency fiber laser, dual frequency switching was achieved by tuning the pump power of the laser. The dual frequency switching was generated by the thermal effects of the absorbed pump in the ytterbium doped fiber.;Suppression and elimination of self pulsing in a watt level, dual clad ytterbium doped fiber laser was demonstrated. Self pulsations are caused by the dynamic interaction between the photon population and the population inversion. The addition of a long section of passive fiber in the laser cavity makes the gain recovery faster than the self pulsation dynamics, allowing only stable continuous wave lasing.;A single frequency, hybrid Brillouin/ytterbium fiber laser was demonstrated in a 12 m ring cavity The output power reached 40 mW with an OSNR greater than 50 dB. To scale up the output power, a dual clad hybrid Brillouin/ytterbium fiber laser was studied. A numerical model including third order SBS was used to calculate the laser power performance. Simulation shows that 5 W single frequency laser output can be achieved with a side mode suppression ratio of greater than 80 dB. Experimentally, a 1 W single frequency dual-clad fiber laser was demonstrated with an OSNR of greater than 55 dB.