2.6 Q-Switched Erbium-Doped Fiber Laser
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Development, characterisation and analysis of an active Q-switched fiber laser based on the modulation of a fiber Fabry-Perot tunable filter By KABOKO JEAN-JACQUES MONGA DISSERTATION Submitted for partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in ELECTRICAL AND ELECTRONIC ENGINEERING SCIENCES in the FACULTY OF ENGINEERING at the UNIVERSITY OF JOHANNESBURG STUDY LEADERS: Dr. Rodolfo Martinez Manuel Pr. Johan Meyer April 2018 Abstract The field of fiber lasers and fiber optic devices has experienced a sustained rapid growth. In particular, all-fiber Q-switched lasers offer inherent advantages of relatively low cost, compact design, light weight, low maintenance, and increased robustness and simplicity over other fiber laser systems. In this thesis, a design of a new Q-switching approach in all-fiber based laser is proposed. The Q-switching principle is based on dynamic spectral overlapping of two filters, namely fiber Bragg grating based filter and fiber Fabry-Perot tunable filter. When the spectra overlap, the filter system has the maximum transparency, the laser cavity has minimal losses and it can release the stored power in the form of the giant pulse. Using this Q-switching technique, experimental construction of an all-fiber active Q-switched Erbium-doped fiber lasers is successfully demonstrated in both ring cavity and linear cavity fiber laser configurations. The output peak power of 9.7 W and time duration of 500 ns are obtained at 1 kHz of repetition rate for ring cavity Q-switched Erbium-doped fiber laser; and 5.6 W output peak power with a 450 ns pulse time duration are achieved for linear cavity Q-switched Erbium-doped fiber laser at the same repetition rate. The repetition rate of the pulses can be continuously varied from a single shot to a few kHz. KABOKO Jean-Jacques MONGA Page i Furthermore, the characteristics of designed all-fiber lasers like output power stability, extinction ratio and linewidth fiber laser are evaluated. The effects of fiber laser cavities parameters such as Erbium-doped fiber length, Erbium ion concentration, pump power and coupling ratio on the fiber laser output are reported. Techniques to produce stable and narrow linewidth fiber laser are investigated. Using a saturable absorber based un-pumped Erbium-doped fiber, under optimized fiber laser cavity; extinction ratio up 40 dB is obtained. Linewidth of 10 kHz and 16 kHz are demonstrated for ring and linear cavity fiber laser, respectively. A novel theoretical model is derived to validate the Q-switching approach introduced in this project. Numerical simulation is performed to demonstrate the Q-switching behavior in Erbium-doped fiber ring laser. The output peak power and pulse duration are characterized with respect to the pump power, cavity length and scanning speed of the spectral overlap between fiber Bragg grating and Fabry-Perot filter. Simulation results agree well with the experimental investigation. The proposed fiber laser systems provide a simple and cost-effective approach to realize a stable, high extinction ratio and narrow linewidth fiber laser systems suitable for application in the field of optical fiber sensor and optical communication. KABOKO Jean-Jacques MONGA Page ii Dedication To my late parents KABOKO Jean and KANENA Jacqueline Jean-Jacques MONGA KABOKO KABOKO Jean-Jacques MONGA Page iii Acknowledgements It is a great privilege to have had the opportunity to directly experience the depth of theoretical and experimental knowledge from many gifted people during the path of my doctorate studies. This experience will always be with me for the rest of my journey. The magnificent time could not have been possible without the support of all the people I worked with at the University of Johannesburg. First, praise to the almighty GOD who gave me the opportunity to do a doctorate project. The God of my heart has always been there to support, guide, and strengthen me in each step of this project. I gratefully acknowledge my supervisors, Dr. Rodolfo Martinez Manuel. He has been my invaluable mentor and guide. His valuable advices, assistance in my experimental work, and availability in orientating me when things could not breakthrough are highly appreciated. I will never fail to remember his sincerity and encouragement. I own the deepest appreciation to my co-supervisor, Professor Johan Meyer who provided to me the opportunity to join the photonics research group of the University of Johannesburg and work on such an active research area. Throughout the years, Professor Johan Meyer has offered invaluable guidance, support, and let me mature as KABOKO Jean-Jacques MONGA Page iv a researcher. He is my personal role model for efficient communication and hard- working. I present my gratitude to all the individuals that have unconditionally assisted and helped me in any way during my research. Justice Sompo and Dr Diethelm Schmieder are acknowledged for their helpful suggestions, for being there helping me during this project. I have enjoyed the time working with them and have highly developed my knowledge. I thank Shantelle Sass, Dudu Kanyi, University of Johannesburg officers who have written many letters for me, for visas and scholarships applications, during the past years. My sincere wish is to see them continuing to cooperate well with other people like they did with me. I am particularly grateful to the past and present members of the Photonics research group of the University of the Johannesburg; Michael Gobbler, Della Tamin, Stephanie Mukarugina, Mulundumina Shimaponda. I am deeply indebted to my family; especially to my wife KINUA Ghislaine MONGA, my children SCHONS-ARCHE MONGA, SCOTT-BLISS MONGA and SKY- TRINITY MONGA, who have accepted to pay the price of great sacrifice as this research took me a lot of time away from them. KABOKO Jean-Jacques MONGA. KABOKO Jean-Jacques MONGA Page v Table of content Abstract i Dedication iii Acknowledgements iv Table of content vi List of figures x List of tables xvii List of acronyms xviii Chapter 1 Introduction 1 1.1 Background ........................................................................................................ 2 1.2 Project motivation .............................................................................................. 7 1.3 Research objectives .......................................................................................... 10 1.4 Research methodology ..................................................................................... 11 1.5 Layout of the dissertation ................................................................................. 13 Chapter 2 Fiber lasers and Q-switched fiber lasers 16 2.1 Introduction ...................................................................................................... 17 2.2 Rare-earth doped fibers .................................................................................... 17 2.3 Erbium-doped fiber .......................................................................................... 20 2.3.1 Emission and absorption cross-section 21 2.3.2 Lifetimes of the Erbium-doped fiber levels 23 2.4 Basics of fiber lasers ......................................................................................... 25 2.4.1 Erbium-doped fiber laser configurations 31 2.4.2 Pumping process in Erbium-doped fiber lasers 34 KABOKO Jean-Jacques MONGA Page vi 2.5 Theoretical model of Erbium-doped fiber lasers .............................................. 35 2.6 Q-Switched Erbium-doped fiber laser .............................................................. 39 2.6.1 Q-Value of a fiber laser cavity 40 2.6.2 Principle of Q-switching in fiber laser 40 2.7 Q-switched fiber laser pulse characteristics ..................................................... 42 2.7.1 Output pulse energy 46 2.7.2 Pulse time duration 47 2.7.3 Peak power characteristic for a train of Q-switched fiber laser pulses 48 2.8 State of the art of all-fiber actively Q-Switched lasers ............................... 51 2.9 Summary .......................................................................................................... 61 Chapter 3 Implementation all–fiber Q-witched Erbium-doped ring laser 62 3.1 Introduction ................................................................................................ 63 3.2 Construction of an all-fiber Erbium-doped fiber ring laser ........................ 63 3.2.1 Fiber Fabr-Perot tunable filter 64 3.2.2 Experimental characterisation of the fiber Fabry-Perot tunable filter 67 3.2.3 Fiber Bragg grating 70 3.2.4 Characterisation of a fiber Bragg grating 72 3.2.5 All-Fiber Q-switching device 74 3.3 All-fiber active Q-switched