All-in-one fiber laser based on a liquid crystal transducer

Xinyue Lei*, Christoph Wieschendorf, Josiah Firth, Francois Ladouceur, Leonardo Silvestri, Alex Fuerbach

*Corresponding author for this work

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    2 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    We report a new method of generating continuous-wave (cw) radiation, Q-Switched as well as mode-locked laser pulses from a single linear fiber laser cavity. The three operating modes can be selected by the electric signal that is applied to an intracavity liquid crystal (LC) transducer cell. In addition, this is the first demonstration of using an LC modulator as an active mode-locking device in a fiber laser oscillator to date. In the proof-of-principle experiments presented here, the Q-Switched laser pulses with a duration of 1.3 µs , a maximum energy of 2.7 µJ , and a peak power of 1.93 W were generated at low repetition rates ranging from 0.2 to 6 kHz. In mode-locked operation, pulse trains with repetition rates as high as 944.5 kHz and a shorter duration of 65 ns were achieved. Finally, a slight modification of the LC cell allows for a direct comparison between amplitude modulation (AM) and frequency modulation (FM) mode-locking.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)1409-1412
    Number of pages4
    JournalIEEE Photonics Technology Letters
    Volume31
    Issue number17
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 1 Sept 2019

    Keywords

    • electrooptic transducers
    • Liquid crystals
    • mode locked lasers
    • optical fiber lasers
    • Q-switched lasers

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