Fiber Optic Devices Pumped with Semiconductor Disk Lasers

The aim of this thesis is to investigate the advantages of pumping fiber optic oscillators utilizing a special type of lasers – semiconductor disk lasers. Relatively novel semiconductor disk laser technology offers low relative intensity noise levels combined with scalable output power, stable operation and nearly diffraction-limited beam quality valuable for an efficient fiber coupling (70- 90%). This pumping technique was applied for optical pumping of fiber lasers. Low-noise fiber Raman amplifier in co-propagation configuration for pump and signal was developed in the 1.3 μm spectral range. A hybrid Raman-bismuth-doped fiber amplifier scheme for an efficient pump light conversion was proposed and demonstrated. Semiconductor disk lasers operating at 1.29 μm and 1.48 μm were used as the pump sources for picosecond Raman fiber lasers at 1.38 and 1.6 μm. The 1.38 μm passively modelocked Raman fiber laser produced 1.97 ps pulses with a ring cavity configuration. The 1.6 μm linear cavity fiber laser with the integrated SESAM produced 2.7 ps output. A picosecond semiconductor disk laser followed by the ytterbium-erbium fiber amplifier offered supercontinuum generation spanning from 1.35 μm to 2 μm with an average power of 3.5 W. By utilizing a 1.15 μm semiconductor disk laser, a pulsed Ho3+-doped fiber lasers for a 2 μm spectral band were demonstrated. 118 nJ pulses at the repetition rate of 170 kHz and central wavelength of 2097 nm were produced by a holmium fiber laser Q-switched by a carbon nanotube saturable absorber. Sub-picosecond holmium-doped fiber laser modelocked with a broadband carbon nanotube saturable absorber and a SESAM were developed. Using the former saturable absorber, ultrashort pulse operation with the duration of ~ 890 fs in the 2030-2100 nm wavelength range was obtained. The results in the presented dissertation demonstrate the potential of the semiconductor disk laser technology for pumping fiber amplifiers and ultrafast lasers

Ultrafast Raman laser mode-locked by nanotubes

We demonstrate passive mode-locking of a Raman fiber laser using a nanotube-based saturable absorber coupled to a net normal dispersion cavity. This generates highly chirped 500 ps pulses. These are then compressed down to 2 ps , with 1.4 kW peak power, making it a simple wavelength-versatile source for various applications

Development of a 850 nm Swept Source based on a Resonant Scanner Spectral Filter

We present a swept source based on a semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) as a light emitter as well as a gain medium at 850 nm, equipped with a diffraction grating and a 16 kHz resonant scanner. The developed swept source is bidirectional, capable of 32 kHz operation, with a linewidth of 0.08 nm and a tuning range of 12 nm

Talbot self-imaging and two-photon interference in ring-core fibers

Wave propagation on the surface of cylinders exhibits interferometric self-imaging, much like the Talbot effect in the near-field diffraction at periodic gratings. We report the experimental observation of the cylindrical Talbot carpet in weakly guiding ring-core fibers for classical light fields. We further show that the ring-core fiber acts as a higher-order optical beamsplitter for single photons, whose output can be controlled by the relative phase between the input light fields. By also demonstrating high-quality two-photon interference between indistinguishable photons sent into the ring-core fiber, our findings open the door to applications in optical telecommunications as a compact beam multiplexer as well as in quantum information processing tasks as a scalable realization of a linear optical network.publishedVersionPeer reviewe

Carbon nanotubes for ultrafast fibre lasers

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) possess both remarkable optical properties and high potential for integration in various photonic devices. We overview, here, recent progress in CNT applications in fibre optics putting particular emphasis on fibre lasers. We discuss fabrication and characterisation of different CNTs, development of CNT-based saturable absorbers (CNT-SA), their integration and operation in fibre laser cavities putting emphasis on state-of-the-art fibre lasers, mode locked using CNT-SA. We discuss new design concepts of high-performance ultrafast operation fibre lasers covering ytterbium (Yb), bismuth (Bi), erbium (Er), thulium (Tm) and holmium (Ho)-doped fibre lasers

Fiber Optic Devices Pumped with Semiconductor Disk Lasers

The aim of this thesis is to investigate the advantages of pumping fiber optic oscillators utilizing a special type of lasers – semiconductor disk lasers. Relatively novel semiconductor disk laser technology offers low relative intensity noise levels combined with scalable output power, stable operation and nearly diffraction-limited beam quality valuable for an efficient fiber coupling (70- 90%). This pumping technique was applied for optical pumping of fiber lasers. Low-noise fiber Raman amplifier in co-propagation configuration for pump and signal was developed in the 1.3 μm spectral range. A hybrid Raman-bismuth-doped fiber amplifier scheme for an efficient pump light conversion was proposed and demonstrated. Semiconductor disk lasers operating at 1.29 μm and 1.48 μm were used as the pump sources for picosecond Raman fiber lasers at 1.38 and 1.6 μm. The 1.38 μm passively modelocked Raman fiber laser produced 1.97 ps pulses with a ring cavity configuration. The 1.6 μm linear cavity fiber laser with the integrated SESAM produced 2.7 ps output. A picosecond semiconductor disk laser followed by the ytterbium-erbium fiber amplifier offered supercontinuum generation spanning from 1.35 μm to 2 μm with an average power of 3.5 W. By utilizing a 1.15 μm semiconductor disk laser, a pulsed Ho3+-doped fiber lasers for a 2 μm spectral band were demonstrated. 118 nJ pulses at the repetition rate of 170 kHz and central wavelength of 2097 nm were produced by a holmium fiber laser Q-switched by a carbon nanotube saturable absorber. Sub-picosecond holmium-doped fiber laser modelocked with a broadband carbon nanotube saturable absorber and a SESAM were developed. Using the former saturable absorber, ultrashort pulse operation with the duration of ~ 890 fs in the 2030-2100 nm wavelength range was obtained. The results in the presented dissertation demonstrate the potential of the semiconductor disk laser technology for pumping fiber amplifiers and ultrafast lasers