High-Energy YB-Doped Femtosecond Fiber Lasers

• Main Author: Kotb, Hussein
• Other Authors: Anis, Hanan
• Language: en
• Published: Université d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa 2015
• Subjects: Femtosecond fiber lasers; Mode-locking; Dissipative soliton; Similariton
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10393/32861; http://dx.doi.org/10.20381/ruor-4142

The main objective of the thesis is to understand the parameters that contribute in limiting the pulse energy and spectral bandwidth of the mode-locked femtosecond fiber lasers. I have focused on studying the impact of the parameters of the saturable absorber and the bandwidth of the lumped spectral filter on the temporal and spectral profiles of the pulse. Therefore, I developed two models that can help us to optimize the pulse characteristics such as the pulse energy, spectral bandwidth and de-chirped pulse width. I also introduce two techniques that result in increasing the pulse peak power and spectral bandwidth. The nonlinear transmission coefficient of the saturable absorber is one of the main limitations to achieving high-energy pulses. Throughout my research, I have used two types of saturable absorbers. The first is a lumped semiconductor saturable absorber mirror (SESAM) and the second is based on the nonlinear polarization rotation (NPR) that is considered an artificial saturable absorber with distributed effect. The first model introduced in this thesis is an analytical model, which provides closed form relations for the pulse characteristics of all-normal dispersion fiber laser. It shows how the spectral bandwidth of the lumped filter inserted inside the cavity affects the pulse characteristics. Also, it illustrates the influence of the saturable absorber parameters on the pulse characteristics. I show that increasing the small signal saturable absorber loss and decreasing the saturation power leads to the increase in pulse energy and spectral bandwidth. Numerical simulation and experimental results are in agreement with the results of the analytical models. The second model, which is called the semi-vector model, is applicable to all-normal dispersion mode-locked fiber laser with high output coupling ratio. Nonlinear polarization rotation is employed for mode-locking. The model shows the relationship between the location of the overdriving point of the saturable absorber and the output pulse energy. The results of this model are in agreement with those of the full-vector model, but with a much reduced simulation time. In addition, the experimental results show the accuracy of the proposed model. In this thesis, I mitigate the peak power limitation, caused by the accumulated nonlinear phase shift, by replacing the short high-doped Yb3+ fiber with a long low-doped one. This results in an increase of the peak power by a factor that depends on the ratio between the gain coefficient of the high- and low-doped Yb3+ fiber. The length of the nonlinear section is kept unchanged by reducing the length of the single mode fiber after the long low-doped Yb3+ fiber. Numerical simulation and experimental results validate the idea. The location of narrow bandwidth lumped spectral filter, in an active Similariton laser, has proved to have a distinct effect on the pulse energy, spectral bandwidth and de-chirped pulse width and peak power. The proximity of the spectral filter to the input of the Yb3+-doped fiber leads to increasing the pulse spectral bandwidth and peak power of the de-chirped pulse as well as shortening the de-chirped pulse, but at the expense of reducing the pulse energy.