Fiber laser system based on solitonic passive mode-locking

A fiber laser system based in solitonic passive mode-locking, comprising:

• a semiconductor laser diode configured to emit and deliver to a fiber laser cavity a continuous wave optical signal of a given first wavelength and power, wherein said wavelength and power are configured to optically pump a doped active fiber of the fiber laser cavity;
• wherein the fiber laser cavity is configured to receive the emitted continuous wave optical signal and to emit a pulsed optical signal of a given second wavelength generating laser light by the doped active fiber, the fiber laser cavity consisting of:
• the doped active fiber,
• a dichroic mirror located at a first end of the doped active fiber,
• a semiconductor saturable absorber mirror (SESAM) located at a second end, opposite to the first end, of the doped active fiber, and
• an index matching material on the dichroic mirror's and/or the SESAM's surface in contact with the active fiber end/ends,
• wherein said dichroic mirror and SESAM are configured to reflect resonantly the light generated by the doped active fiber, allowing the gain of the fiber laser cavity to be higher than the losses, to obtain laser emission in the fiber laser cavity, which is generated in the form of mode-locked ultrashort pulses;
• and
• a unit configured to couple the semiconductor laser diode to the fiber laser cavity separating the continuous wave optical signal of the semiconductor laser diode received by the unit from the light generated by the doped active fiber;
• wherein the doped active fiber is a single fiber of a single-type and is a polarization maintaining fiber,
• wherein the properties of the doped active fiber are selected to provide dispersion, nonlinear coefficient, gain and state of polarization parameters required for solution of solitonic mode-locked emission, so that the fiber laser cavity yields:
• pulse to pulse period-relative time jitters below 0.024%, an optical spectral power variation of 0.2 dB or below for all wavelengths within Full Width at Half Maximum (FWHM) emission bandwidth in continuous measurements of one hour or below, and an average output power standard deviation of 0.25% or below in continuous measurement of 48 hours or below;
• wherein the power of the continuous wave optical signal and of the laser light reaching the SESAM is below a thermal damage threshold of the SESAM;
• said mode-locked ultrashort pulses are solitonic mode-locked ultrashort pulses of a pulse width between 100 fs and 10 ps with repetition rates of hundreds of MHz to tens of GHz;
• and the system further comprises:
• an isolator device configured to protect the fiber laser cavity from back reflections.

A fiber laser system based in solitonic passive mode-locking, comprising:

• a semiconductor laser diode configured to emit and deliver to a fiber laser cavity a continuous wave optical signal of a given first wavelength and power, wherein said wavelength and power are configured to optically pump a doped active fiber of the fiber laser cavity;
• wherein the fiber laser cavity is configured to receive the emitted continuous wave optical signal and to emit a pulsed optical signal of a given second wavelength generating laser light by the doped active fiber, the fiber laser cavity comprising:
• the doped active fiber,
• a dichroic mirror located at a first end of the doped active fiber, and
• a semiconductor saturable absorber mirror (SESAM) located at a second end, opposite to the first end, of the doped active fiber,
• wherein said dichroic mirror and SESAM are configured to reflect resonantly the light generated by the doped active fiber, allowing the gain of the fiber laser cavity to be higher than the losses, to obtain laser emission in the fiber laser cavity, which is generated in the form of mode-locked ultrashort pulses;
• and
• a unit configured to couple the semiconductor laser diode to the fiber laser cavity separating the continuous wave optical signal of the semiconductor laser diode received by the unit from the light generated by the doped active fiber;
• wherein the light propagates inside the laser cavity through an all-fiber arrangement formed by a single fiber that is not constructed by joining, attaching, splicing, connecting or fusing together different types of optical fibers, the all-fiber arrangement being entirely composed of said doped active fiber which is the single fiber of a single-type and is a polarization maintaining fiber,
• wherein the properties of the doped active fiber are selected to provide dispersion, nonlinear coefficient, gain and state of polarization parameters required for solution of solitonic mode-locked emission, so that the fiber laser cavity yields:
• pulse to pulse period-relative time jitters below 0.024%, an optical spectral power variation of 0.2 dB or below for all wavelengths within Full Width at Half Maximum (FWHM) emission bandwidth in continuous measurements of one hour or below, and an average output power standard deviation of 0.25% or below in continuous measurement of 48 hours or below;
• wherein the power of the continuous wave optical signal and of the laser light reaching the SESAM is below a thermal damage threshold of the SESAM;
• said mode-locked ultrashort pulses are solitonic mode-locked ultrashort pulses of a pulse width between 100 fs and 10 ps with repetition rates of hundreds of MHz to tens of GHz;
• and the system further comprises:
• an isolator device configured to protect the fiber laser cavity from back reflections.