High-Power Thulium-Doped All-Fiber Superfluorescent Sources

Power scaling of broadband and narrowband thulium-doped all-fiber superfluorescent sources based on master-oscillator power-amplifier configuration is reported. For scaling the output-power of broadband superfluorescent fiber source, a stable low-power broadband superfluorescent fiber seed source and a two-stage cladding-pumped thulium-doped fiber amplifiers were adopted. The thulium-doped fiber power amplifier yielded 122 W of broadband superfluorescence output, and the wavelength range spanned from 1935-2075 nm with a full width at half maximum (FWHM) of 25 nm. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first demonstration of superfluorescence power exceeding 100 W from thulium-doped fiber amplifiers at 2 μm. In addition, we also investigate the power scaling of narrowband thulium-doped superfluorescent fiber source based on a tunable narrowband superfluorescent fiber seed source by selecting a small region out of a broadband superfluorescence spectrum using a narrowband fiber Bragg grating. The two-stage cladding-pumped thulium-doped all-fiber amplifiers were used directly to boost average power to 120 W, the center wavelength and the FWHM were 1963.5 and 1.2 nm, respectively. The presented high power broadband and narrowband superfluorescent fiber source could be of great interest and open up the prospect of many new applications such as laser materials processing and metrology.

[1]  J K Sahu,et al.  110 W double-ended ytterbium-doped fiber superfluorescent source with M2 = 1.6. , 2006, Optics letters.

[2]  Yongmin Jung,et al.  Thulium-doped fiber amplifier for optical communications at 2µm , 2013, 2013 Optical Fiber Communication Conference and Exposition and the National Fiber Optic Engineers Conference (OFC/NFOEC).

[3]  T. King,et al.  Broadband amplified spontaneous emission double-clad fibre source with central wavelengths near 2 μm , 2006 .

[4]  J K Sahu,et al.  Broadband Tm-doped superfluorescent fiber source with 11 W single-ended output power. , 2008, Optics express.

[5]  David J. Richardson,et al.  Diode-pumped Wideband Thulium-doped Fiber Amplifiers for Optical Communications in the 1800 - 2050 nm Window , 2013 .

[6]  R. P. Novak,et al.  High-resolution reflectometry in biological tissues. , 1992, Optics letters.

[7]  Aimin Wang.  High Stability Er-Doped Superfluorescent Fiber Source Improved by Incorporating Bandpass Filter , 2011, IEEE Photonics Technology Letters.

[8]  Sheng-Ping Chen,et al.  Watt-level L band superfluorescent fiber source. , 2005, Optics express.

[9]  Deyuan Shen,et al.  High power Er,Yb-doped superfluorescent fiber source with over 16 W output near 1.55 μm. , 2012, Optics express.

[10]  Qirong Xiao,et al.  High-power all-fiber superfluorescent source with fused angle-polished side-pumping configuration. , 2011, Applied optics.

[11]  E. M. Dianov,et al.  Superfluorescent 1.44-μm bismuth-doped fiber source , 2012, 2012 17th Opto-Electronics and Communications Conference.

[12]  David Jones,et al.  High power , 1994, Nature.

[13]  Y. Jeong,et al.  Ytterbium-doped large-core fiber laser with 1.36 kW continuous-wave output power. , 2004, Optics express.

[14]  Pu Wang,et al.  Power Scaling of Ytterbium-doped Fiber Superfluorescent Sources , 2007, IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Quantum Electronics.

[15]  A Tünnermann,et al.  High power narrow-band fiber-based ASE source. , 2011, Optics express.

[16]  W. Marsden.  I and J , 2012 .

[17]  O. Okhotnikov,et al.  Double clad tapered fiber for high power applications. , 2008, Optics express.

[18]  B. Samson,et al.  Tm-Doped Fiber Lasers: Fundamentals and Power Scaling , 2009, IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Quantum Electronics.

[19]  P Wang,et al.  High-power, single-mode, linearly polarized, ytterbium-doped fiber superfluorescent source. , 2007, Optics letters.

[20]  W. Clarkson,et al.  High-Power Broadband Ytterbium-Doped Helical-Core Fiber Superfluorescent Source , 2007, IEEE Photonics Technology Letters.

[21]  D. Richardson,et al.  Diode-pumped wideband thulium-doped fiber amplifiers for optical communications in the 1800 - 2050 nm window. , 2013, Optics express.

[22]  Pu Wang,et al.  High-Power Broadband Thulium-Doped All-Fiber Superfluorescent Source at 2 $\mu{\rm m}$ , 2013, IEEE Photonics Technology Letters.

[23]  M. Pal,et al.  Wideband Spectrum-Sliced ASE Source Operating at 1900-nm Region Based on a Double-Clad Ytterbium-Sensitized Thulium-Doped Fiber , 2012, IEEE Photonics Journal.

[24]  H. J. Shaw,et al.  Characteristics of erbium-doped superfluorescent fiber sources for interferometric sensor applications , 1994 .

[25]  Sheng-Ping Chen,et al.  Resonantly pumped high power flat L-band erbium-doped superfluorescent fiber source. , 2008, Optics express.

[26]  Qian Wang,et al.  High average power picosecond pulse generation from a thulium-doped all-fiber MOPA system. , 2012, Optics express.

[27]  Yan Li,et al.  High Stability Er-Doped Superfluorescent Fiber Source Incorporating an Er-Doped Fiber Filter and a Faraday Rotator Mirror , 2013, IEEE Photonics Technology Letters.