Advanced – State of the Art – Fiber solutions and LiNbO3 Modulators and pulse generators for Fiber Lasers
Dr Shuo ZHANG iXblue Photonics [email protected] High-Technology Independent Company
750+ employees
80% export 140+ M€ turnover Founded in 2000 iXblue in France
Lannion Saint-Germain-en-Laye 8 industrial Specialty Fibers Navigation sites Navigation Headquarters
Besançon 100% of R&D Integrated optics Brest Bonneuil- and production Underwater Acoustic sur-Marne Positioning Motion Systems as well as Acoustic Labcom 90% of suppliers located in France
St Etienne Bordeaux Hardened optical fibers Labcom Cold Atoms Labcom Joint Research Laboratories
La Ciotat Sonars Sea Operations Shipyard 1- AFL Topic 1: Fiber and Fiber based devices - Fiber and Fiber based devices offer for the laser world - Key Electro-optic modulation solutions for the laser world
2- AFL Topic 2: High power fiber laser - The laser seeder for the high Energy Industrial Lasers - Pump seeder source for Petawatt lasers based on OPCPA - The laser seeder for scientific High Energy Density Lasers TABLE OF - The diagnosis fibers for scientific High Energy Density Lasers 3- AFL Topic 3: Ultrafast fiber laser and nonlinear fiber optics CONTENT - Femtoscond Fiber Lasers and fibers solutions 4- AFL Topic 5: Beam combination of fiber lasers - The right electro-optical modulator for Coherent Beam Combining (CBC) lasers - The electro-optical modulators offer for Spectral Beam Combining (SBC) lasers
4- AFL Topic 6: Fiber laser application - 2 µm Fibre lasers for medical and defense application - Lidar: single-frequency fiber laser in sensing - Fiber based laser and free-space communication - Electro-optic based laser and free-space communication AFL Topic 1 Fiber and Fiber based devices Fiber and fiber based device Laser fiber design and fabrication Design, fabrication, and characterization of specialty optical fibers Fiber-based components and devices Fiber and Fiber based devices offer for the laser world Overview
Thulium Holmium Erbium Neodynium Ytterbium Erbium/Ytterbium Thulium/Holmium Phosphorous
1900nm 2000 nm 2100 nm 2200 nm 910 nm 1015 nm 1130 nm 1240 nm 1480 nm 1530 nm 1625 nm
Standards Fibers from stock Custom fiber Master in-house the entire fiber manufacturing process 3 days delivery
Fiber Type High reliability Coating Single, Double, Triple Clad, All Glass, Multicore High temperature coating available
Matched Passive Fibers Core Diameter From 350 to 2200 nm Up to 30 µm, LMA
Polarisation Maintening FBG Lasers Mirros Pairs Panda Design available HR relectivity up to 99,99% Frequency doubling HR FWHM from 0.5 to 2nm Key Electro-optic modulation solutions for the laser world The need for EOMs in functional sub-system: expected optical performances
MX, MXER, MXAN NIR-MPX800 NIR-MPX950 NIR-MPX MX1300 MPZ, MPX MX200 NIR-MX800 NIR-MX950 NIR-MX MPX1300 MXIQ, MXIQER MPX2000
760 nm 850 nm 960 nm 1150 nm 1270 nm 1330 nm 1625 nm 2050 nm
Wavelength selected modulator Optical Power handling Capability (HOP) To ensure the best optical performances to each laser To ensure the highest optical power modulated signal
Low insertion Loss (LIL) To ensure the highest optical power modulated signal
High Static Extinction Ratio (HSER) For Single photon lasers and pulsed lasers sources Low Residual Amplitude Modulation (LRAM) LiNbO3 For PDH frequency laser technique Modulators
High Polarization Extinction Ratio (HPER) For ultimate performances
Optical performance Stability vs optical power (IL, PER, ER) Because of our Annealed Proton Exchange process quality Key Electro-optic modulation solutions for the laser world Manufacturing process on Lithium Niobate substrates
● APE technology + co-doped LiNbO3 substrate: makes it possible to increase the modulator optical power handling prior to trigging photo-refractive effects.
● The APE process makes the waveguide polarizing: only TE propagation. High PER by construction.
● Patent to reduce the Insertion Loss based on adapted optical waveguide size
Optical Input Power: CW 300 mW @1064 nm Phase Modulators Amplitude Modulators Max deviation of 0,3 dB over time over 400 days IL ∼ 2,3 dB IL ∼ 3,2 dB LIL < 2 dB LIL < 2,5 dB Key Electro-optic modulation solutions for the laser world
The ModBox systems based on external LiNbO3 modulation means
30 ps to several 100 ns optical pulse widths Strong background and High competences laser physics field For single photon laser souce Dedicated products
Square Pulses, Arbitrary waveforms Waveform control flexibility
Selected LiNbO3 modulator for ultimate performance The ModBox ensures the highest performances level Spectrum broadening solution ModBox Anti-Brillouin solutions
Turn key and agile optical transmitter This is the ModBox DNA AFL Topic 2: High power fiber laser
High power CW and pulsed fiber lasers High powerRaman fiber lasers High power narrow-linewidth and single-frequency fiber lasers Other types of high power fiber lasers Mode instability in high power fiber laser Beam characterization for high power fiber laser Pump sources for high power fiber laser The laser seeder for the high Energy Industrial Lasers Modulator, Fibers and ModBox Solutions
● Pulses from 1 - 10 ns, 10 to 100 J
● Material hardening by laser-induced shock wave (peening)
● Plasma and shock physics
Seeder source
t Ti:Sa (800 nm), Ytt glass 1030 nm) Neodym glass (1053 nm), YAG (1064 nm) Optical fiber Output Fibered laser Amplitude Diode or flash EOM amplifier pumped amplifier amplified t seeder signal
Optical ns Pulse Shaper fibered laser source: Fibered ns Front-End
● Seeder source - key LiNbO3 modulators specification: ● Seeder source – ModBox-Front-End specification:
● NIR Modulators with very high optical Extinction Ratio ● ns NIR high optical pulse contrast stabilized over time
● Low Insertion Loss & high Optical Power Handling Capability ● Temporal optical pulse shaping to compensate the amplifiers’ distortions
● Optical fiber amplification to reach pulse energy in the range of nJ
● Optical amplifier uses LMA fiber Pump seeder source for Petawatt lasers based on OPCPA Petawatt class lasers Modulator, Fibers and ModBox Solutions ● Pulses shorter than a picosecond (ELI-Beamlines), up to 10 PW x
● Warm dense matter
● Plasma physics
● Acceleration of ions and electrons Synchro OPCPA pump Seeder
t Ti:Sa (800 nm), Ytt glass 1030 nm) Neodym glass (1053 nm), YAG (1064 nm)
Amplitude Optical fiber Diode or flash ns-OPCPA Output NIR DFB laser EOM amplifier pumped amplifier amplifier amplified seeder signal
Optical ns Pulse Shaper fibered laser source: Fibered ns Front-End
● OPCPA pump source - key LiNbO3 modulators specification and fibers: ● OPCPA pump source – ModBox-Front-end specification:
● NIR Modulators with very high optical Extinction Ratio ● ns NIR high optical pulse contrast stabilized over time
● Low Insertion Loss & high Optical Power Handling Capability ● Temporal optical pulse shaping to compensate the amplifiers’ distortion and optimize the overlap between the pump and seeder signals ● Optical amplifier uses LMA fiber ● Optical fiber amplification to reach pulse energy in the range of nJ
● Very low jitter to warrant the best overlap between the pump and seed signals
● Optical amplifier uses LMA fiber The laser seeder for scientific High Energy Density Lasers High Energy and Power laser Modulator, Fibers and ModBox Solutions
● Few nanosecond optical pulse lasers, En > kJ (GSI, RAL, AWE, LULI, LLNL, SIOM), En > 1 MJ (LMJ, NIF)
●Inertial confinement fusion and plasma science
●Research in nuclear and particle physics,… Copyright «LULI2000 © Barande Jérémy / Ecole Polytechnique»
Seeder source Ti:Sa (800 nm), Ytt glass 1030 nm) Neodym glass (1053 nm), t F F YAG (1064 nm) Phase Pulse optical Phase Flash pumped NIR Low phase Amplitude Optical fiber amplifier noise DFB laser EOM amplifier EOM fiber amplifier EOM
SBS: Stimulated Higher Peak SSD: Smoothing Optical ns Pulse Shaper fibered laser source: Fibered ns Front-End Brillouin Suppression Power Amplifier by Spectral Dispersion
● Seeder source - key LiNbO3 modulators specification and fibers: ● Seeder source and optical amplifiers –ModBox-Front-End and fibers:
● High optical Extinction Ratio ● ns NIR high optical pulse contrast stabilized over time, high PER
● Low Insertion Loss & high Optical Power Handling Capability ● Temporal optical pulse shaping to compensate the amplifiers’ distortion
● Optical amplifier uses LMA fiber ● Optical fiber amplification to reach pulse energy in the range of nJ
● High Polarization Extinction Ratio to reduce the FM to AM conversion ● Very low jitter
● Low Vπ phase modulator ● SSB & SSD modulations based on spectrum broadening
● High PER: need of Polarizing fiber (PZ fiber) ● High PER: need of Polarizing fiber (PZ fiber) The laser seeder specifications The best performances today available on the market
Arbitrary Optical Waveform Time jitter: • 125 ps to 100 ns Pulse width • Jitter 7 ps RMS • Single Shot to 100 kHz • Low-Jitter option < 7 ps-pp • 12 bits vertical resolution • 800 samples
Extinction Ratio: Output optical power: • Single MZ: > 35 dB • 1030 nm, 1053 nm, 1064 nm • Double MZ: > 60 dB • < 1 % RMS. • High stability contrast < 1 %rms Energy levels: • 1 nJ / 1 ns – ER 35 dB • 300 pJ / 1 ns – ER 60 dB The diagnosis fibers for scientific High Energy Density Lasers
Fibers Solutions High Energy and Power laser
• Polarizing fibers : for pure single polarisation pulses propagation
Copyright «LULI2000 © Barande Jérémy / Ecole Polytechnique» • Multimode Graded index fibers (MMGI) up to 400µm core - To transport info to photo-receptor - Low attenuation and low dispersion to prevent any distortion.
• Radiation resistant version available AFL Topic 3: Ultrafast fiber laser and nonlinear fiber optics
Ultrafast fiber laser Nonlinear effects and dynamics in fiber Raman fiber laser Femtoscond Fiber Lasers and fibers solutions Dedicated products for multitude applications
• 9xx nm:to replace YAG laser in 2 photons microscopy
o Unique PM double clad Neodynimum fiber o 5/80 µm, 20/80 µm and 30/125 µm o No 1060 nm emission
• 1560 nm and 780 nm:
o Erbium doped fiber based Frequency-quadrupled Nd-doped fiber laser source in the deep-UV at 226 nm o For Terahertz generation Nd 30/125 PM o For supercontinuum or 2-photon excitation 24 W @ 905 nm, 175 mW @226 nm oTailored absorption & dispersion PM erbium fiber
• 1030 and 1045 nm
o Ytterbium based o For life science oSingle clad Yb or double clad 11/130 Yb PM
• October 2020- OSA Laser Congress AFL Topic 5: Beam combination of fiber lasers High power fiber laser coherent combination High power fiber laser spectral combination Other high power fiber laser combination Research on high performance device for high power fiber laser combination High Energy The right EOM for Coherent Beam Combining (CBC) lasers laser The need of dedicated EOM for CBC lasers
● CW lasers 10 - 100 kW ● Directed Energy laser weapon (missiles, drones,…) ● Industrial lasers, heating for hardening (peening), melting for welding and cladding, material removal for drilling,…
● The phase modulators array equalize the optical path for each beam ● Key LiNbO3 Phase modulators specification: ● A maximum of energy / power is achieved by constructive interference ● Low Insertion Loss & high Optical Power Handling Capability ● One phase modulator is required per beam ● DC to 200 MHz ● A low frequency modulation is necessary ● Pure Phase modulation required and no amplitude wanted High Energy The right EOM for Coherent Beam Combining (CBC) lasers laser The need of dedicated EOM for CBC lasers
• Incomparable optical waveguide and the key optical performances reached:
o Annealed Proton Exchange process on a selected LiNbO3 doped wafer. o Very low insertion loss : IL < 3 dB. Gaussian distribution with a 2 dB typical mean. o High optical power handling capability of up to 300 mW. o High resistance to refractive index effect and Pyro-electric effect. ⇒ iXblue offers the best LiNbO3 phase modulators optical performances. ⇒ High optical performances stable over the temperature range and over the time 300 mW optical input power Max deviation of 0,3 dB over time power (dBm) • Very low Vπ: π o Modulator V is proportional to the Electro-Optical bandwidth optical o The NIR-MPX-LN-0.1 features a Vπ of only 1,5 V @ 50 MHz
⇒ Low Vπ at low frequencies minimizes RF to minimize the power consumption Output
Time (Hours) • Mitigate the RAM effect: o The NIR-MPX-LN-0.1 is a DC coupled device: a permanent DC signal can be applied w/o modulator damages o Applying a constant DC voltage allows to reduce the RAM from typically 30dB to near 40dB (patented technique) ⇒ Residual amplitude modulation can be strongly reduced thanks to a permanent DC voltage High Energy The EOMs offer for Spectral Beam Combining (SBC) lasers laser The need of dedicated EOM for SBC lasers
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● The power scaling of high-power narrow linewidth fiber amplifier is mainly limited by stimulated Brillouin Scattering (SBS)
● Four typical phase modulation seeds: o Sinusoidal, o White Noise Source (WNS), o Pseudo Random Bit Sequence (PRBS), o Top-hat shaped spectrum. High Energy The EOMs offer for Spectral Beam Combining (SBC) lasers laser The need of dedicated EOM for SBC lasers
• Incomparable electro-optical efficiency: o Very low Vπ o Adapted EO-Bandwidth with 3 GHz, 12 GHz and 18 GHz o High optical power handling capability of up to 300 mW. o High RF power handling up to 2 W – 3W ⇒ iXblue offers the best LiNbO3 phase modulators to avoid the Stimulated Brillouin Scattering (SBS) in optical fibers ⇒ High optical performances stable over the temperature range and over the time
NIR-MPX-LN-05 NIR-MPX-LN-02
NIR-MPX-LN-10 High Energy Other solution for coherent beam combining laser Multicore doped Fiber
• Example: 12 core ErYb o High efficiency - shared MM pump o Low phase distortion between lasers ⇒ Custom base solution available at other wavelength range , / other doping material AFL Topic 6: Fiber laser application High energy fiber laser applications in manufacturing and material processing Single-frequency fiber laser applications in sensing, metrology, LIDARs and cooling Fiber laser applications in imaging, illumination and free-space communication Special fiber laser applications 2 µm Fibre lasers for medical and defense application A comprehensive and dedicated 2 µm fibers offer
• Largest portfolio of Thulium, Holmium and Thulium/Holmium doped fibers • Single Clad, Double and Triple Clad design • High Power FBGs Laser mirrors available at 1908, 1940,1950, 2050, 2090, 2120 nm
• Applications: counter-measure, gaz sensing, medical, plastic welding…
• Latest 2020 releases and results:
o Double Clad Thulium Fiber 25-400, state of the art efficiency and beam quality
o Double Clad Thulium/holmium PM 20-300 : 195 W @2090 nm with 45% efficiency (ISL OSA Laser congress)
o Triple Clad Holmium Fiber 20/250/300: 90 W @ 2120 with 50% efficiency (Onera-Optics letter)
o Single clad 5 µm core PM Thulium fiber ina 2 stages amplifier: 2,2W @ 1909 nm (Cybel)
o Single Clad Holmium fiber 8µm: 122 W@2090 nm
o Combination of double Clad Thulium PM 20-250, highly doped and single clad PM 20µm core Hlomium fiber: 30 W average power at 100kHz@2090 nm (Thales) Lidar: single-frequency fiber laser in sensing Fiber solution for pulsed lasers and amplifiers
• Pioneer in Er/Yb fiber for 1,5µm Lidar
o Autonomous driving- on xxx car o Wind Measurement- WW record with Onera based on LMA fiber
• High pulse contrast C-Band Amplitude modulator Lidar: single-frequency fiber laser in sensing Fiber solution for pulsed lasers and amplifiers
● Detection of turbulences, wind gusts… based on doppler effect • Long-range Lidar measurement: FEYMOUS projet (iXblue/Onera/Thales)
oDevelopment of LMA Erbium/Ytterbium co-doped fibers: low NA, PM, low 1 µm emission
o25-250 and 30-300 PM fibers now commercially available
Wind Speed Measurement over 16km in 0,1s average time
• Laser Long measurement range enable turbine control and power curve measurement
o Very low Vπ C-Band 1 GHz Phase modulator Lidar: single-frequency fiber laser in sensing Fiber solution for pulsed lasers and amplifiers
• Pioneer in Er/Yb fiber for 1,5 µm Lidar
o Autonomous driving-on xxx car o Wind Measurement-WW record with Onera based on LMA fiber
• Solutions available for o Harsh environment: T°, radiation 85 °C 120 °C o Small footprint ⇒ New All Glass design
• 30 Er/Yb fiber references
• Highest efficiency, low 1µm emission
• Fibers also available for 2 µm and 1 µm Fiber based laser and free-space communication Fiber space graded solutions
• 18 years R&D in developing Radiation resistant Erbium, Erbium/Ytterbium and Ytterbium fibers for space mission
• Strong collaboration with CNES
• Joint laboratory on radiation resistant fiber labH6
• TRL9 data from more than 30 satellites flying
• More than 30 private customers and space agency WW
• From LNOA to 20 W booster
• Two product families:
o RAD, radiation test on each preform
o NS, COTS- cost-effective solution (constellation projects ) Electro-optic based laser and free-space communication
LiNbO3 space graded solutions
• iXblue is a world-leading manufacturer of high-reliability LiNbO3 modulators for space market • iXblue first study and modulator prototypes for space started in 2002 • iXblue Modulators have been already launched in space through more than 13 missions since 2009
• With ESA, iXblue established a Standard / Norm of the LiNbO3 qualification for a space application • The iXblue modulators passed successfully all the tests of reliability to be used in space (radiations, vibrations, mechanical shocks, endurance tests such as thermal cycling and life tests in vacuum,…). • The iXblue modulators address the market of space applications with highly reliable solutions for a wide range of application:
o Gyroscop for all orbits
o Inertial Navigation System (INS) for launcher
o Inter-satellite communication (LEO-GEO-Ground)
o Laser stabilization (PDH technic)
• iXblue masters both Ti:InDifusion / APE processes and provide Space Grade TRL9 LiNbO3 modulators:
o 850 nm / 1064 nm / 1550 nm Phase and amplitude modulator
o MXER: High Extinction Ratio Modulator, ER from 23 dB up to 30 dB
o EO-bandwidth from 10 kHz up to 40 GHz For any questions and support, please contact: [email protected]
For products details and data-sheet, Technical and Application notes, please visit: www.photonics.ixblue.com/