Synchronous nanosecond and femtosecond pulses delivered from a low-repetition-rate Er-doped fiber laser mode-locked by nonlinear polarization evolution is experimentally proposed. Here, the repetition rate is set as ~4.5 MHz by introducing sufficiently long fiber in a ring cavity. By fully exploiting long fiber and anti-saturation absorption characteristics, it is experimentally observed that dissipative-soliton-resonance pulse with the nanosecond-level pulsewidth and femtosecond soliton pulse synchronously propagate in the same cavity. Besides, the pulsewidth of dissipative-soliton-resonance pulse and laser output power could be tailored by finely configuring the bidirectional pump powers. These results provide deep understanding of low-repetition-rate pulse laser and an intriguing way to obtain tunable dual-scale synchronous pulses, indicating the high potential for multiple-pulse laser processing and so on.
We proposed the emission of wavelength-switchable dual-wavelength-comb pulses in a practical-filter-free cavity. Based on the polarization dependent loss based gain profile tuning, lasings in triple independent gain subregions, i.e. ~1530-, ~1543- and ~1555-nm gain subregions, of erbium-doped fiber, are experimentally observed. Mode-locked by hybrid mechanisms combining carbon nanotube and nonlinear polarization evolution, triple types of dual-wavelength pulses distributed in different dual gain subregions are experimentally obtained. They are distributed in above triple gain subregions and could be switched by adjusting the intracavity polarization controller. These results provide a simple yet effective route to obtain dual-wavelength-comb pulses without additional practical filter and show the high potential in the applications of single-cavity dual-comb metrology.
We investigated a stable single-cavity dual-wavelength-comb fiber laser with significant difference of pulse characteristics. Switchable single/dual-wavelength pulses across 1530- and 1550-nm gain regions are obtained by adjusting the intracavity linear loss. In the dual-wavelength operation, the repetition rates fluctuate and drift in more than 145 Hz, while the standard deviation of the repetition rate difference is measured as 64 mHz in 1000-second monitoring. The passive mutual coherence between pulses is comparable or somewhat better than the reported one under the similar disturbance and monitoring condition. Meanwhile, the significant difference of dual-wavelength pulse characteristics, including spectral bandwidth, pulse energy and dispersion is observed and discussed. The qualified stability is also attributed to the significant pulse difference, which could suppress the nonlinear pulse interaction induced instability. These results provide further physical understanding of the construction of dual-wavelength-comb pulse fiber laser, showing the high potential to promote the performance improvement of dual-comb metrology such as dual-comb spectroscopy, and ranging.
We proposed an absolute distance measurement method with a large non-ambiguity range based on a polarization-multiplexed dual-comb fiber laser. By fully exploiting the intracavity linear loss based gain profile tilting and residual birefringence, polarization-multiplexed dual-comb pulses with tunable repetition rate difference and overlapping spectra in the 1530-nm gain region are obtained. The repetition frequency difference could be continuously tuned from ~89 to ~194 Hz. The alternative sampling under different repetition rate difference is experimentally verified to be effective approach to extend the non-ambiguity range in the single-cavity dual-comb ranging. The non-ambiguity range could reach thousands of kilometer while the precision could reach at least on the order of hundreds of micrometers. These results indicate a simple and intriguing route with a free-running laser source to obtain ranging with large non-ambiguity range, showing high potential in the applications such as satellite formation flying, large-scale 3D surface morphology measurement and so on.
We experimentally demonstrated a fast and effective intelligent optimization algorithm to obtain the self-correcting ultrashort pulse emission from a nonlinear polarization rotation mode-lock fiber laser. The temporal trace corresponding to the optical spectrum is measured by the time-stretched dispersive Fourier transform technique, which functions as the monitoring signal. Subsequently, the genetic algorithm is proposed to finely control the electronic polarization controller for self-correcting pulse generation. The target state could be realized after five generations of iterations. By combining dispersive Fourier transform technique and genetic algorithms, the total adjustment time can be minimized to six seconds. These findings indicate an effective route to obtain robust and self-correcting ultrashort fiber lasers.
Based on PbS quantum dots and single-walled carbon nanotube, we have successfully demonstrated a Er-doped fiber laser capable of switching between two different types of output pulses. By finely adjusting both the pump power and the states of polarization controller, flexible switchable Q-switched and mode-locked pulses can be achieved. At pump power of 29 mW, Q-switched pulses are obtained at a central wavelength of 1560.2 nm. When the pump power increases from 29 mW to 92 mW, the Q-switched rate varies from 25 kHz to 75.22 kHz. Accordingly, the output pulse energy rises from 3 nJ to 5.46 nJ, and the output power changes from 0.08 mW to 0.41 mW. When the pump power is set in the ranges of 92 mW to 107 mW, the fiber laser enters the transition region of Q-switching operation. In this region, evident Q-switched instability with large fluctuations is observed, which is independent of the polarization states. When the laser pump power exceeds 107 mW, the Q-switched pulse disappears, and mode-locked pulses are obtained by altering the state of the polarization controller. The central wavelength of the mode-locked pulses output spectrum is 1561.1 nm, and the corresponding 3 dB spectral bandwidth is 4.22 nm. Coupled Ginzburg-Landau equation are provided to reveal the underlying principles of the transition of these pulse trains. Our work provides a new prospect for achieving fiber lasers capable of flexibly switching output pulse types, further expanding their applications in fields such as laser microprocessing, optical communication and medical lasers.
We experimentally investigated the build-up dynamics of single-cavity dual-wavelength-comb pulses emitted from a ring fiber cavity with Lyot filter configuration. Dual-wavelength lasers are firstly observed by adjusting the polarization controller to control Lyot filter effect. When the pump powers of the bidirectional pumps are set as 57 mW and 49 mW respectively, dual-wavelength pulses with the center wavelengths of 1546.2 nm and 1563.6 nm and spectral bandwidths of 2 nm and 1.6 nm are obtained. Subsequently, time-stretched dispersive Fourier transform spectroscopy is adopted to monitor the build-up process of dual-wavelength pulses. When switching on the pump diode, the three-stage build-up process from background noise to stable dual-wavelength pulses is experimentally observed. The build-up time is at the level of hundreds of milliseconds. These results provide a deep understanding of single-cavity dual-wavelength-comb pulse generation and contribute to the design and control of the single-cavity dual-comb pulses.
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