학술논문

Scaling Fiber Lasers to Large Mode Area: An Investigation of Passive Mode-Locking Using a Multi-Mode Fiber
Document Type
Periodical
Source
IEEE Journal of Quantum Electronics IEEE J. Quantum Electron. Quantum Electronics, IEEE Journal of. 47(5):597-606 May, 2011
Subject
Engineered Materials, Dielectrics and Plasmas
Photonics and Electrooptics
Cavity resonators
Laser mode locking
Mathematical model
Laser theory
Couplings
Equations
Ring lasers
Large mode area fibers
mode-locked lasers
multi-mode fibers
solitons
Language
ISSN
0018-9197
1558-1713
Abstract
The mode-locking of dissipative soliton fiber lasers using large mode area fiber supporting multiple transverse modes is studied experimentally and theoretically. The averaged mode-locking dynamics in a multi-mode fiber are studied using a distributed model. The co-propagation of multiple transverse modes is governed by a system of coupled Ginzburg–Landau equations. Simulations show that stable and robust mode-locked pulses can be produced. However, the mode-locking can be destabilized by excessive higher-order mode content. Experiments using large core step-index fiber, photonic crystal fiber, and chirally-coupled core fiber show that mode-locking can be significantly disturbed in the presence of higher-order modes, resulting in lower maximum single-pulse energies. In practice, spatial mode content must be carefully controlled to achieve full pulse energy scaling. This paper demonstrates that mode-locking performance is very sensitive to the presence of multiple waveguide modes when compared to systems such as amplifiers and continuous-wave lasers.