A Directly-Written Monolithic Waveguide-Laser Incorporating a DFB Waveguide-Bragg Grating

We report the fabrication and performance of the first C-band directly-written monolithic waveguide-laser. The waveguide-laser device was created in an Erbium and Ytterbium doped phosphate glass host and consisted of an optical waveguide that included a distributed feedback Bragg grating structure. The femtosecond laser direct-write technique was used to create both the waveguide and the waveguide-Bragg grating simultaneously and in a single processing step. The waveguide-laser was optically pumped at approximately 980 nm and lased at 1537nm with a bandwidth of less than 4 pm.Comment: 6 pages, 13 references, 4 figure

Suppression of self-pulsing behavior in erbium-doped fiber lasers with resonant pumping: experimental results

Experimental results are presented showing that resonant pumping can significantly improve the stability of erbium-doped fiber lasers. In particular, it is observed that an erbium fiber laser that exhibits sustained spiking behavior when pumped at 980nm will revert to stable cw operation when pumped at 1510 nm

The laminar-turbulent transition in a fibre laser

Studying the transition from a linearly stable coherent laminar state to a highly disordered state of turbulence is conceptually and technically challenging, and of great interest because all pipe and channel flows are of that type. In optics, understanding how a system loses coherence, as spatial size or the strength of excitation increases, is a fundamental problem of practical importance. Here, we report our studies of a fibre laser that operates in both laminar and turbulent regimes. We show that the laminar phase is analogous to a one-dimensional coherent condensate and the onset of turbulence is due to the loss of spatial coherence. Our investigations suggest that the laminar-turbulent transition in the laser is due to condensate destruction by clustering dark and grey solitons. This finding could prove valuable for the design of coherent optical devices as well as systems operating far from thermodynamic equilibrium

Similarity of Traveling-Wave Delays in the Hearing Organs of Humans and Other Tetrapods

Transduction of sound in mammalian ears is mediated by basilar-membrane waves exhibiting delays that increase systematically with distance from the cochlear base. Most contemporary accounts of such “traveling-wave” delays in humans have ignored postmortem basilar-membrane measurements in favor of indirect in vivo estimates derived from brainstem-evoked responses, compound action potentials, and otoacoustic emissions. Here, we show that those indirect delay estimates are either flawed or inadequately calibrated. In particular, we argue against assertions based on indirect estimates that basilar-membrane delays are much longer in humans than in experimental animals. We also estimate in vivo basilar-membrane delays in humans by correcting postmortem measurements in humans according to the effects of death on basilar-membrane vibrations in other mammalian species. The estimated in vivo basilar-membrane delays in humans are similar to delays in the hearing organs of other tetrapods, including those in which basilar membranes do not sustain traveling waves or that lack basilar membranes altogether