Tunable, stable source of femtosecond pulses near 2 υm via supercontinuum of an Erbium mode-locked laser

Published

November 7, 2014

Author(s)

Andrew M. Klose, Gabriel G. Ycas, Daniel I. Maser, Scott A. Diddams

Abstract

Ultrashort pulses of light in the 2 υm region were generated using supercontinuum broadening from an erbium fiber system. The output of a mode-locked erbium oscillator was polarized and used as a seed for a polarization maintaining erbium fiber amplifier which in turn was launched into polarization maintaining highly nonlinear fiber. The output spectrum spanned 1000 nm - 2200 nm with an average power of 250 mW. A pulse width of 39 fs for part of the spectrum in the 2000 nm region, corresponding to less than six optical cycles, was achieved. A heterodyne measurement of the free-running mode-locked laser with a narrow-linewidth continuous wave laser resulted in a near shot noise-limited beat note with a signal-to-noise ratio of 45 dB was observed in a 10 kHz resolution bandwidth. The relative intensity noise of the broadband system was investigated over the entire supercontinuum, and the integrated intensity noise of the 2000 nm portion of the spectrum was 2x10^-3. The long-term stability of the system was characterized, and intensity fluctuations in the spectrum were found to be highly correlated throughout the supercontinuum. The output spectrum was stable at the percent level over a time scale of days.

Citation

Optics Express

Volume

22

Issue

23

Pub Type

Journals

Keywords

Supercontinuum generation, Ultrafast nonlinear optics

Citation

Klose, A. , Ycas, G. , Maser, D. and Diddams, S. (2014), Tunable, stable source of femtosecond pulses near 2 υm via supercontinuum of an Erbium mode-locked laser, Optics Express (Accessed April 19, 2024)