Wavelength-tunable Q-switched fiber laser based on a 45° tilted fiber grating

Hu Xiaolin; Yan Zhijun; Huang Qianqian; Zou Chuanhang; Wang Tianxing; Mou Chengbo

doi:10.12086/oee.2018.170741

Article navigation > Opto-Electronic Engineering > 2018 Vol. 45 > No. 10 > 170741

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Hu Xiaolin, Yan Zhijun, Huang Qianqian, et al. Wavelength-tunable Q-switched fiber laser based on a 45° tilted fiber grating[J]. Opto-Electronic Engineering, 2018, 45(10): 170741. doi: 10.12086/oee.2018.170741

Citation:

Hu Xiaolin, Yan Zhijun, Huang Qianqian, et al. Wavelength-tunable Q-switched fiber laser based on a 45° tilted fiber grating[J]. Opto-Electronic Engineering, 2018, 45(10): 170741. doi: 10.12086/oee.2018.170741

Wavelength-tunable Q-switched fiber laser based on a 45° tilted fiber grating

1.
Key Laboratory of Specialty Fiber Optics and Optical Access Networks, Shanghai Institute for Advanced Communication and Data Science, Joint Laboratory of International Cooperation for Specialty Optical Fiber and Advanced Communication, Shanghai University, Shanghai 200444, China
2.
The School of Optical and Electronic Information, National Engineering Laboratory for Next Generation Internet Access System, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, Hubei 430074, China

Fund Project: Supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) (61605107, 61505244), Young Eastern Scholar Program at Shanghai Institutions of Higher Learning (QD2015027), and "Young 1000 Talent Plan" Program of China

More Information

^*Corresponding author: Mou Chengbo, E-mail:mouc1@shu.edu.cn

Received Date 30 December 2017

Revised Date 02 February 2018

Published Date 01 October 2018

Abstract

Abstract

A continuously tunable Q-switched all-fiber Er-doped laser based on a 45° tilted fiber grating and tunable bandpass filter is demonstrated. The 45° tilted fiber grating is used to achieve the nonlinear polarization rotation (NPR) along with two polarization controllers (PCs), Q-switching is realized due to the fact that the NPR effect induced intensity-dependent loss. Under the pump power of 655 mW, the Q-switched optical spectrum can be continuously tuned from 1512 nm to 1552 nm by simply rotating the tunable bandpass filter. During the wavelength tuning process, the average output power increases from 0.282 mW to 4.884 mW while the repetition rate enhances from 27.3 kHz to 119 kHz. To the best of our knowledge, this is the widest continuously tunable range of Q-switched fiber Lasers based on nonlinear polarization rotation effect and spectral bandpass filter.
- fiber laser /
- Q-switched laser /
- fiber grating /
- tunable laser

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References

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Overview

Overview

Overview: Wavelength tunable Q-switched fiber lasers have important applications in the fields of communication, medicine, ranging finding and laser processing. Generally speaking, Q-switched fiber lasers can be divided into two types using either active or passive system. There are several kinds of saturable absorber can be used to realize passively Q-switched in fiber lasers, including semiconductor saturable absorber mirrors (SESAMs), transition metal-doped crystals and single-wall carbon nanotubes (SWNTs). However, the method of using nonlinear polarization rotation (NPR) technology which is an artificial saturable absorber to realize passively Q-switched can not only maintain all-fiber structure of fiber lasers, but also change the width of Q-switched pulses by adjusting the states of polarization controllers. By regulating commercial bandpass filter, the central wavelength of the Q-switched pulses can be adjusted continuously in a larger range.
In this paper, a continuously tunable Q-switched all-fiber Er-doped laser based on a 45°-tilted fiber grating and tunable bandpass filter is demonstrated. The 45°-tilted fiber grating is used to achieve the nonlinear polarization rotation (NPR) along with two polarization controllers (PCs). In this experiment, the fiber grating is equivalent to an ideal in-fiber polarizer because it has strong polarization-dependent loss (PDL), then the Q-switched pulses can be easily observed by properly adjusting the polarization controllers. Under the pump power of 655 mW, stable Q-switched pulses with central wavelength of 1548 nm, average output power of 4.45 mW, repetition rate of 105 kHz, and signal to noise ratio (SNR) of 39.89 dB are obtained. Furthermore, the Q-switched optical spectrum can be continuously tuned from 1512 nm to 1552 nm by simply rotating the tunable bandpass filter with 655 mW pump power. As far as we know, this is the widest tunable range of tunable Q-switched fiber Lasers based on nonlinear polarization rotation effect and tunable bandpass filter.