DocumentCode :
2273554
Title :
High-energy femtosecond stretched-pulse fiber laser with a nonlinear optical loop mirror
Author :
Ilday, F.O. ; Wise, E.
Author_Institution :
Dept. of Appl. Phys., Cornell Univ., Ithaca, NY, USA
fYear :
2002
fDate :
24-24 May 2002
Firstpage :
518
Abstract :
Summary form only given. Fiber lasers have two primary drawbacks: environmental stability is not sufficient for operation outside the laboratory owing to uncontrolled birefringence and pulse energy is limited by excessive nonlinear phase shifts. Stretched-pulse lasers utilizing nonlinear polarization evolution (NPE-SPL) currently offer the best performance. Environmentally-stable lasers could be built with polarization maintaining (PM) fiber, but then NPE cannot be used. Nonlinearity limits pulse energy through soliton dynamics and by saturation of NPE. We consider the use of a nonlinear optical loop mirror (NOLM) to address the latter issue. We present the highest-energy femtosecond pulses obtained to date with a laser that uses NOLM (NOLM-SPL). The main benefits are two-fold: NOLM can function with PM fiber, and saturation of NOLM can be prevented through the choice of proper fiber length. NOLM operation derives from the nonlinear loop only, whereas the entire cavity contributes in the case of NPE.
Keywords :
birefringence; fibre lasers; laser mirrors; laser stability; nonlinear optics; optical fibre polarisation; optical pulse generation; optical saturation; optical solitons; environmental stability; excessive nonlinear phase shifts; fiber length; high-energy femtosecond pulses; high-energy femtosecond stretched-pulse fiber laser; nonlinear optical loop mirror; nonlinear polarization evolution; polarization maintaining fiber; pulse energy limit; soliton dynamics; uncontrolled birefringence; Birefringence; Fiber lasers; Fiber nonlinear optics; Laser stability; Mirrors; Optical fiber polarization; Optical pulses; Optical saturation; Optical solitons; Ultrafast optics;
fLanguage :
English
Publisher :
ieee
Conference_Titel :
Lasers and Electro-Optics, 2002. CLEO '02. Technical Digest. Summaries of Papers Presented at the
Conference_Location :
Long Beach, CA, USA
Print_ISBN :
1-55752-706-7
Type :
conf
DOI :
10.1109/CLEO.2002.1034273
Filename :
1034273
Link To Document :
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