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Fiber Based Mode Locked Fiber Laser Using Kerr Effect

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Fiber Based Mode Locked Fiber Laser Using Kerr Effect ` FIBER BASED MODE LOCKED FIBER LASER USING KERR EFFECT Dissertation Submitted to The School of Engineering of the UNIVERSITY OF DAYTON In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for The Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Electro-Optics By Long Wang UNIVERSITY OF DAYTON Dayton, Ohio May, 2016 ` FIBER BASED MODE LOCKED FIBER LASER USING KERR EFFECT Name: Wang, Long APPROVED BY: _______________________ _______________________ Joseph W. Haus, Ph.D. Andy Chong, Ph.D. Advisor Committee Member Committee Chairman Assistant Professor Professor Physics Department and Electro-Optics Graduate Program Electro-Optics Graduate Program __________________________ _______________________ Imad Agha, Ph.D. Jay Mathews, Ph.D. Committee Member Committee Member Assistant Professor Assistant Professor Physics Department and Physics Department and Electro-Optics Graduate Program Electro-Optics Graduate Program __________________________ Muhammad Usman, Ph.D. Committee Member Associate Professor Department of Mathematics __________________________ __________________________ John G. Weber, Ph.D. Eddy M. Rojas, Ph.D., M.A., P.E. Associate Dean Dean, School of Engineering School of Engineering ii ` © Copyright by Long Wang All rights reserved 2016 iii ` ABSTRACT FIBER BASED MODE LOCKED FIBER LASER USING KERR EFFECT Name: Wang, Long University of Dayton Advisor: Joseph W. Haus This dissertation reports on the research to design and build a pulsed fiber laser with the Er doped fiber based on a new mode locking technique. The numerical simulations begin by launching an optical wave in a fiber which will be amplified during propagation. The device to mode-lock the waves is outside the fiber, but connecting to fibers at both ends; it is a nonlinear optical material that can reshape the beam as it propagates using a nonlinear change of the refractive index, which is called a Kerr effect. The device is made with a nonlinear material sandwiched between two fiber ends; it takes an optical field from one end of the fiber and propagates it to the other fiber end. In between the two ends, a nonlinear medium will be used to balance the diffraction through Kerr effect (which can lead to Self-focusing of the optical beam). With the second fiber end working as a soft aperture, the combination of the self-focusing effect through the nonlinear medium and the aperture will act as an intensity dependent coupling loss; this effect is referred to as a fast saturable absorber which means that higher intensity iv corresponds to higher coupling efficiency and thus the cavity modes will be gradually phase locked together to form pulses. The saturable absorber action is calculated using different nonlinear mediums (퐶푆2, 퐴푠2푆2 and 퐴푠40푆푒60) and the fibers used are assumed to be of the same size. Whole cavity simulation is then conducted using the proposed SA design and the pulse energy produced from the laser cavity is generally below 1 nJ. In those simulations the pulse peak power is weak and the saturable absorber action is not strong. Experiments are designed to test the mode locking idea with the chalcogenide glass plate (퐴푠40푆푒60). Firstly, a mode locked laser is constructed from a ring fiber laser cavity with an Er doped fiber as the gain fiber. Three modes from this cavity are routinely generated. Two modes have pulse durations of 220 fs and 160 fs with spectral width of about 30 nm and 40 nm, respectively. Mode 3 is more interesting since it covers a huge spectrum range (1490 to 1640 nm) and the pulse duration is estimated to be about 40 fs from the transform limited pulse calculated from the spectrum, which could be the shortest pulse ever reported from an Er doped fiber laser. Further efforts are needed to better dechirp the pulse to verify the transform limited calculation. Due to the weak saturable absorber action from the original design, we use a telescope design to test our SA idea in experiment; the ChG 퐴푠40푆푒60 plate is placed inside a telescope which is then inserted into the laser cavity explained in previous paragraph. The telescope design is used to focus the pulse so that higher level of nonlinearity is induced. Then an iris is placed behind the glass plate to create a transmission discrimination mechanism against different powers (Kerr lens mode v locking). Mode locking is not obtained but strong mode locking sign is identified. Q- switched pulse laser is obtained by using ChG 퐴푠40푆푒60 plate only. vi ` ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I want to render thanks to my mentor, Dr. Joseph W. Haus, for being an excellent advisor. Even though he is very busy, he still gives of his precious time to me. From him, I have learnt a many research methods, a right scientific research attitude and a wide range of communication skills. But more importantly, he sets us an extremely well example of being patient and integral. His advices and supports have been decisive in the discussions about the topics covered and the process of writing this dissertation. I will be in his debt forever. I would like to give special thanks to Dr. Andy Chong, whose supports with the experimental equipments have been unconditional and extremely helpful. In spite of his busy schedule, he spends countless time to talk to me about the simulations, walk me through each step of building a mode locked fiber laser. His indisputable passion and strict attitude towards scientific research have been very inspiring. Also I want to thank all of the professionals of for sharing their time and insights with me. Last but not least, my loving family who’s always loving and sincere support and constant bolster morale has been always there, despite the distance and little calls from my part. vii ` TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ....................................................................................................................... iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .............................................................................................. vii LIST OF FIGURES ........................................................................................................... xi LIST OF TABLES ........................................................................................................... xvi CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................ 1 CHAPTER 2 MODE LOCKING TECHNIQUE ................................................................ 9 2.1 Active Mode Locking.............................................................................. 11 2.2 Passive Mode Locking ............................................................................ 15 2.2.1 Slow saturable absorber mode locking.............................................. 16 2.2.2 Fast saturable absorber mode locking ............................................... 17 2.2.3 Kerr lens mode locking ..................................................................... 18 CHAPTER 3 PULSE FORMATION AND PROPAGATION IN FIBER LASERS ....... 21 3.1 Soliton Mode Locking ............................................................................. 22 3.2 Dispersion Managed Soliton ................................................................... 26 viii 3.3 Similariton Mode Locking ...................................................................... 27 3.4 Dissipative Soliton Mode Locking .......................................................... 31 CHAPTER 4 NUMERICAL STUDY OF THE NEW SATURABLE DESIGN ............. 34 4.1 Numerical Study of the Fundamental Mode in Fibers ............................ 38 4.2 Numerical Study of the New Mode Locker ............................................ 41 4.2.1 Simulation with carbon disulfide (퐶푆2) ............................................ 42 4.2.2 Simulation with chalcogenide glass .................................................. 50 4.2.3 퐶푆2 or ChG: which one to use?......................................................... 54 CHAPTER 5 NUMERICAL STUDY OF THE FIBER LASER CAVITY USING NEW SATURABLE ABSORBER DESIGN ................................................................... 57 5.1 Optical Elements in Cavity ..................................................................... 57 5.1.1 Pulse propagation in fibers ................................................................ 57 5.1.2 Pulse propagation through saturable absorber .................................. 61 5.1.3 Pulse propagation through a spectral filter ........................................ 63 5.1.4 Pulse propagation through output coupler ........................................ 65 5.2 Whole Cavity Simulation ....................................................................... 66 5.2.1 Andi laser simulation ........................................................................ 66 5.2.2 Simulation with 3 mm of 퐴푠40푆푒60 .................................................. 70 CHAPTER 6 EXPERIMENTS ......................................................................................... 74 6.1 Build a Mode Locked Er Fiber Laser. ..................................................... 74 ix 6.2 Mode Locking with ChG Glass Plate. ..................................................... 81 6.3 Mode Locking with a Telescope Design ................................................. 84 6.4 Mode Locking with Pin Hole in the Telescope ....................................... 86 6.5 Q-switching with the 퐴푠40푆푒60 Glass Plate ............................................ 87 CHAPTER 7 SUMMARY ................................................................................................ 91 REFERENCES
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