Improvements to Long-Duration Low-Power Gain-Switching Diode Laser Pulses Using a Highly Nonlinear Optical Loop Mirror: Theory and Experiment

This work presents an experimental and theoretical study on the improvements to pulsed diode laser gain-switched (GS) optical sources. Simultaneous compression and reshaping of the limited quality pulses obtained with this technique are reported using a highly nonlinear optical loop mirror (HNOLM) directly coupled to the diode laser source, without any previous pulse conditioning. The HNOLM is based on the use of a microstructured optical fiber and a highly nonlinear semiconductor optical amplifier; it is compact and offers benefits in terms of reduced system complexity. The experimental observations are compared to a theoretical model of the system, and excellent agreement is observed.

[1]  Wei Zhao,et al.  Compact tunable high power picosecond source based on Yb-doped fiber amplification of gain switch laser diode. , 2008, Optics express.

[2]  Jesper Mørk,et al.  Saturation induced by picosecond pulses in semiconductor optical amplifiers , 1997 .

[3]  Hiromichi Horinaka,et al.  Pulse-shaping of gain-switched pulse from multimode laser diode using fiber Sagnac interferometer. , 2008, Optics express.

[4]  Haymen Shams,et al.  Demonstration and optimization of an optical impulse radio ultrawideband distribution system using a gain-switched laser transmitter , 2009 .

[5]  G. Agrawal.  Chapter 2 – Pulse Propagation in Fibers , 2006 .

[6]  R. Trebino.  Frequency-Resolved Optical Gating: The Measurement of Ultrashort Laser Pulses , 2000 .

[7]  S. Wen,et al.  Effect of gain bandwidth on the amplification of ultrabroad bandwidth pulse in an erbium-doped nonlinear amplifying fibre loop mirror , 2006 .

[8]  Hiroyuki Yokoyama,et al.  Two-photon fluorescence imaging with a pulse source based on a 980-nm gain-switched laser diode. , 2007, Optics express.

[9]  N. Olsson,et al.  Self-phase modulation and spectral broadening of optical pulses in semiconductor laser amplifiers , 1989 .

[10]  E J Greer,et al.  Pulse amplification and shaping using a nonlinear loop mirror that incorporates a saturable gain. , 1992, Optics Letters.

[11]  Govind P. Agrawal,et al.  Self-Phase Modulation , 1995 .

[12]  Horacio Lamela,et al.  Optimum design of NOLM for compression of low power gain-switching pulses , 2007, SPIE OPTO.

[13]  A. Rundquist,et al.  Temporal decorrelation of short laser pulses , 1998 .

[14]  S. Frisken,et al.  All-optical pulse compression using amplifying Sagnac loop , 1991 .

[15]  N. Doran,et al.  Nonlinear-optical loop mirror. , 1988, Optics letters.

[16]  P. Petropoulos,et al.  Full Characterization of Low-Power Picosecond Pulses From a Gain-Switched Diode Laser Using Electrooptic Modulation-Based Linear FROG , 2008, IEEE Photonics Technology Letters.

[17]  S. C. Pinault,et al.  Analytic and numerical study of pulse broadening in nonlinear dispersive optical fibers , 1986 .

[18]  Optical pulse compression in a polarization insensitive non-linear loop mirror , 2004 .

[19]  O. Pottiez,et al.  Large signal-to-noise-ratio enhancement of ultrashort pulsed optical signals using a power-symmetric Nonlinear Optical Loop Mirror with output polarisation selection , 2009 .

[20]  Ian H. White,et al.  Fast phenomena in semiconductor lasers , 2000 .

[21]  E. Delevaque,et al.  250-fs optical pulse generation by simultaneous soliton compression and shaping in a nonlinear optical loop mirror including a weak attenuation. , 1994, Optics letters.

[22]  G. Agrawal.  Pulse propagation in fibers , 2013 .

[23]  A. Weiner,et al.  Ambiguity of ultrashort pulse shapes retrieved from the intensity autocorrelation and the power spectrum , 2001 .

[24]  A. Johnston,et al.  Picosecond optical pulse generation at gigahertz rates by direct modulation of a semiconductor laser , 1981 .

[25]  Gregory E. Hall,et al.  CW autocorrelation measurements of picosecond laser pulses , 1980 .

[26]  W. Freude,et al.  Temporal Dynamics of the Alpha Factor in Semiconductor Optical Amplifiers , 2007, Journal of Lightwave Technology.

[27]  Laurent Schares,et al.  Phase modeling based on the /spl alpha/-factor in bulk semiconductor optical amplifiers , 2003 .

[28]  Govind P. Agrawal,et al.  Chapter 4 – Self-Phase Modulation , 1989 .