Ultrafast Raman fiber laser: a review and prospect

Jiaqi Zhou^{1, 2},
Weiwei Pan^{1, 2},
Weiao Qi^{1, 2},
Xinru Cao¹,
Zhi Cheng^{1, 3},
Yan Feng^{1, 2, 4}

1.
Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Solid State Laser and Application, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, 201800, China
2.
Center of Materials Science and Optoelectronics Engineering, University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China
3.
School of Optical, Electronic Information &Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics, Optics Valley Laboratory, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430074, China
4.
Hangzhou Institute for Advanced Study, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hangzhou, China

Funds: This work was supported by Youth Innovation Promotion Association, Chinese Academy of Sciences (No. 2022247), National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 62075226, 62175244) and Natural Science Foundation of Shanghai (No. 21ZR1472200). Youth Innovation Promotion Association, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 2022247, Jiaqi Zhou, National Natural Science Foundation of China, 62075226, Yan Feng, 62175244, Jiaqi Zhou, Natural Science Foundation of Shanghai, 21ZR1472200, Jiaqi Zhou.

摘要

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Abstract: Ultrafast Raman fiber laser has been proved to be an effective method to obtain ultrafast optical pulses at special wavelength. Yet, compared with conventional rare-earth doped counterparts, it is challenging for Raman fiber lasers to generate pulses with high pulse energy and short pulse duration. Here, we review three categories of ultrafast Raman fiber laser technologies and give detailed discussions on the advantages and challenges of each. In regards to mode-locking, different saturable-absorbers-based fiber lasers are compared and their common problem resulting from long cavity length are discussed. In terms of synchronously-pumping, several approaches to match the repetition rate of pulsed pump with the length of Raman fiber cavity are discussed, while the technical complexity of each method is analyzed. Moreover, the recently developed technology termed as nonlinear optical gain modulation (NOGM) is introduced, which turns out to be a simple and quality solution to generate high-energy femtosecond pulses with wavelength agility. Compared with the others, NOGM gathers various advantages including simple structure, long-term stability, high pulse energy and short pulse duration, which may effectively promote application expansion of ultrafast Raman fiber laser in the near future.
- Ultrafast lasers /
- Raman fiber lasers /
- Mode-locking /
- Synchronously-pumping /
- Nonlinear optical gain modulation

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