Title :
Theory of the frequency comb output from a femtosecond fiber laser
Author :
Newbury, Nathan R. ; Washburn, Brian R.
Author_Institution :
Nat. Inst. of Stand. & Technol., Boulder, CO, USA
Abstract :
The output of a femtosecond fiber laser will form a frequency comb that can be phase-locked through feedback to the cavity length and pump power. A perturbative theory is developed to describe this frequency comb output, in particular for a solitonic fiber laser. The effects of resonant dispersion, saturation of the self-amplitude modulation, cavity loss, third-order dispersion, Raman scattering, self-phase modulation, and self-steepening on the spacing and offset of the fiber-laser frequency comb are given. The mechanisms by which the pump power, cavity length and cavity loss control the frequency comb spacing and offset are identified. Transfer functions are derived for the comb response to change in cavity length, pump power or cavity loss. This theory can potentially be applied to other frequency comb sources as well.
Keywords :
Raman spectra; amplitude modulation; fibre lasers; high-speed optical techniques; laser cavity resonators; laser frequency stability; laser mode locking; optical losses; optical pumping; optical solitons; perturbation theory; self-phase modulation; Raman scattering; cavity length; cavity loss; femtosecond fiber laser; frequency comb output; perturbative theory; phase locking; resonant dispersion; self-amplitude modulation; self-phase modulation; self-steepening; solitonic fiber laser; third-order dispersion; transfer functions; Dispersion; Fiber lasers; Frequency; Laser excitation; Laser feedback; Laser theory; Optical fiber theory; Output feedback; Power lasers; Pump lasers; Frequency measurement; laser stability; optical fiber lasers; optical fiber measurement applications;
Journal_Title :
Quantum Electronics, IEEE Journal of
DOI :
10.1109/JQE.2005.857657
