Multistability and hysteresis phenomena in passive mode-locked lasers (original) (raw)
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Journal of Optics A: Pure and Applied Optics, 2004
We investigate theoretically a fiber laser passively mode-locked with nonlinear polarization rotation. A unidirectional ring cavity is considered with a polarizer placed between two sets of a halfwave plate and a quarterwave plate. A master equation is derived and the stability of the continuous and mode-locked solutions is studied. In particular, the effect of the orientation of the four phase plates and of the polarizer on the mode-locking regime is investigated.
Applied Physics B: Lasers and Optics, 2003
The properties of an ytterbium-doped double-clad fiber laser, passively mode-locked by nonlinear polarization rotation are investigated in this work. Cartographies of modelocking regime versus halfwave plates orientations are presented for several values of the total cavity dispersion and for different pump powers. Bistability between the continuous and the mode-locking regimes is pointed out. The effect of the total group velocity dispersion is described with a master modelocking equation.
Models for Passively Mode-Locked Fiber Lasers
Fiber and Integrated Optics, 2008
We give a review of theoretical approaches we have recently developed for the description of passively modelocked fiber lasers. Mode-locking is assumed to be obtained with nonlinear polarization rotation. The first approach takes the form of a cubic Ginzburg-Landau equation where the coefficients take into account the orientation of the phase plates. A fully analytical study can be performed. The second model includes gain saturation allowing to investigate multiple pulse behaviour and multistability phenomena. Under some approximations this model reduces to a complex quintic Ginzburg-Landau equation. Passive harmonic modelocking can also be obtained with a suitable adaptation of the model.
Chinese Optics Letters, 2017
An elliptical initial polarization state is essential for generating mode-locked pulses using the nonlinear polarization rotation technique. In this work, the relationship between the ellipticity ranges capable of maintaining mode-locked operation against different pump power levels is investigated. An increasing pump power, in conjunction with minor adjustments to the polarization controller's quarter waveplate, results in a wider ellipticity range that can accommodate mode-locked operation. Other parameters such as noise, pulsewidth, and average output power are also observed to vary as the ellipticity changes.
Physical Review A, 2002
We consider an Yb-doped double-clad fiber laser in a unidirectional ring cavity containing a polarizer placed between two half-wave plates. Depending on the orientation of the phase plates, the laser operates in continuous, Qswitch, mode-lock or unstable self-pulsing regime. An experimental study of the stability of the mode locking regime is realized versus the orientation of the half-wave plates. A model for the stability of self-mode-locking and cw operation is developed starting from two coupled nonlinear Schrödinger equations in a gain medium. The model is reduced to a master equation in which the coefficients are explicitly dependent on the orientation angles of the phase plates. Analytical solutions are given together with their stability versus the angles.
Internal nonlinear transmission in an Yb mode-locked fiber laser through bifurcations
Optics Communications, 2019
Mode-locked fiber lasers are rich dynamical systems that may present several different types of pulsed operating modes, depending on external control parameters such as pump power. A systematic experimental characterization of such regimes is a challenging problem. Here single pulse regimes of ytterbium mode-locked fiber laser are explored and related to the nonlinear amplitude modulation affecting the pulses inside the laser cavity. To understand the full dynamics of this system, average power measurements (slow time scale) have been performed and compared to simultaneous time-resolved measurements (fast time scale). The average nonlinear transmission resulting from the amplitude modulation is measured, allowing to relate the transitions between dynamical regimes to the system's nonlinearity.
Nonlinear pulse shaping and polarization dynamics in mode-locked fiber lasers
2014
We review our recent progress on the study of new nonlinear mechanisms of pulse shaping in passively mode-locked fiber lasers. These include a mode-locking regime featuring pulses with a triangular distribution of the intensity, and spectral compression arising from nonlinear pulse propagation. We also report on our recent experimental studies unveiling new types of vector solitons with processing states of polarization for multipulse and tightly bound-state soliton (soliton molecule) operations in a carbon nanotube (CNT) mode-locked fiber laser with anomalous dispersion cavity.
Nonlinear pulse shaping and polarization dynamics in mode-locked fibre lasers
2013
We review our recent progress on the study of new nonlinear mechanisms of pulse shaping in passively modelocked fibre lasers. These include a mode-locking regime featuring pulses with a triangular distribution of the intensity, and spectral compression arising from nonlinear pulse propagation. We also report on our recent experimental studies unveiling new families of vector solitons with precessing states of polarization for multipulsing and bound-state soliton operations in a carbon nanotube mode-locked fibre laser with anomalous dispersion cavity.
Physical Review E, 2006
By numerically solving the coupled laser Ginzburg-Landau equations and using the pulse tracing technique to incorporate the cavity effect in the simulation, we have explicitly calculated the soliton polarization ellipses throughout the cavity of a fiber-ring laser mode-locked by the nonlinear polarization rotation technique, and investigated the soliton polarization dynamics in laser cavities. It was found that in a conventional stable soliton operation state, although the soliton polarization varies as the pulse propagates, at a fixed position inside the laser cavity the soliton polarization is invariant with time. However, in the presence of laser dynamics, at a fixed location within the cavity the soliton could either have multiple alternating fixed polarization states or no fixed polarization state at all, depending on the soliton dynamics.