All-fiber chirped pulse amplification systems

• US 10,096,962 B2
• Filed: 05/19/2015
• Issued: 10/09/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 06/03/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: IMRA America Incorporated (Aisin Corp.)
• Original Assignee: IMRA America Incorporated (Aisin Corp.)
• Inventors: Fermann, Martin E.
• Primary Examiner(s): Bolda, Eric L
• Application Number:
  US14/716,369
• Publication Number:
  US 20150255942A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,239 Days
• CPC Class Codes: H01S 3/0057 Temporal shaping, e.g. pulse compression, frequency chirping soliton generation and propagation G02F1/3513, H01S3/063 and H01S3/108
• CPC Class Codes: H01S 3/0064 Anti-reflection devices, e.g. optical isolaters absorbing layers for marking or protecting purposes in laser working B23K26/50; magneto-optical non-reciprocal devices G02F1/093, G02F1/0955
• CPC Class Codes: H01S 3/0078 Frequency filtering
• CPC Class Codes: H01S 3/06712 Polarising fibre; Polariser
• CPC Class Codes: H01S 3/06725 Fibre characterized by a specific dispersion, e.g. for pulse shaping in soliton lasers or for dispersion compensating [DCF]
• CPC Class Codes: H01S 3/06741 Photonic crystal fibre, i.e. the fibre having a photonic bandgap
• CPC Class Codes: H01S 3/06754 Fibre amplifiers H01S3/06708 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H01S 3/06758 Tandem amplifiers
• CPC Class Codes: H01S 3/094007 Cladding pumping, i.e. pump light propagating in a clad surrounding the active core
• CPC Class Codes: H01S 3/1086 using scattering effects, e.g. Raman or Brillouin effect
• CPC Class Codes: H01S 3/1608 erbium
• CPC Class Codes: H01S 3/1618 ytterbium
• CPC Class Codes: H01S 3/2308 Amplifier arrangements, e.g. MOPA
• CPC Class Codes: H01S 3/2316 Cascaded amplifiers
• CPC Class Codes: H01S 3/302 in an optical fibre

Abstract

By compensating polarization mode-dispersion as well chromatic dispersion in photonic crystal fiber pulse compressors, high pulse energies can be obtained from all-fiber chirped pulse amplification systems. By inducing third-order dispersion in fiber amplifiers via self-phase modulation, the third-order chromatic dispersion from bulk grating pulse compressors can be compensated and the pulse quality of hybrid fiber/bulk chirped pulse amplification systems can be improved. Finally, by amplifying positively chirped pulses in negative dispersion fiber amplifiers, a low noise wavelength tunable seed source via anti-Stokes frequency shifting can be obtained.

Claims

1. A chirped pulse amplification system, comprising:

a seed pulse source producing short optical pulses;

a chirped fiber Bragg grating pulse stretcher system (CFBGS) for stretching the pulses;

a plurality of concatenated sections of predominantly polarization maintaining fiber, at least one which is also an amplifier; and

at least one chirped fiber Bragg grating compressor,

wherein said chirped fiber Bragg grating pulse stretcher system (CFBGS) is arranged such that self-phase modulation (SPM) induced in one or more fiber elements of said chirped pulse amplification system is compensated via modification of a dispersion of a fiber grating disposed in said CFBGS.

2. The chirped pulse amplification system as in claim 1, wherein the dispersion inside the CFBGS/fiber grating compressor assembly is adjusted to obtain nearly optimum compressed pulses after propagation of the pulses through a coupled functional end-use system having at least one optical assembly.

3. The chirped pulse amplification system as in claim 1, wherein at least one of said chirped fiber Bragg gratings of said compressor is nonlinearly chirped.

4. The chirped pulse amplification system as in claim 1, further comprising a circulator.

5. The chirped pulse amplification system as in claim 1, wherein dispersion inside the CFBGS is adjusted such that compressed pulses are obtained at a target downstream from said fiber grating pulse compressor, wherein the optical beam-path between said fiber pulse compressor and said target further contains additional optical elements other than air.

6. The chirped pulse amplification system as in claim 1, wherein said beam path between said pulse compressor and a target comprises single-mode fibers.

7. The chirped pulse amplification system as in claim 1, further comprising optical beam delivery fiber(s).

8. The chirped pulse amplification system as in claim 7, wherein said delivery fiber(s) comprise a single-mode fiber, a multi-mode fiber operated with a single-mode output, a holey fiber, a photonic crystal fiber, or a fiber with a guiding air-hole core.

9. The chirped pulse amplification system according to claim 1, wherein said at least one amplifier has a core diameter>

15 um.

10. The chirped pulse amplification system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said pulse compressor further comprises a holey or photonic bandgap fiber, wherein the holey or photonic bandgap fiber performs partial pulse compression.

11. The chirped pulse amplification system as claimed in claim 1, further comprising at least one polarizer between sections of predominantly PM fiber.

12. The chirped pulse amplification system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said CFBGS is configured to produce stretched pulses having a group delay ripple less than about 10 ps.

13. The chirped pulse amplification system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said SPM compensation is static (non-adaptive) and a fiber grating dispersion modification is made based on a measurement of pulse quality.

14. The chirped pulse amplification system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said SPM compensation is adaptive and implemented via feedback to a control parameter related to pulse quality.

15. The chirped pulse amplification system as claimed in claim 1, wherein at least a portion of said SPM is induced in said at least one fiber amplifier.

16. The chirped pulse amplification system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said dispersion of a fiber grating is modified by controlling the temperature, pressure, or stress of said fiber grating.

17. A chirped pulse amplification system, comprising:

a chirped fiber Bragg grating pulse stretcher system (CFBGS), said chirped fiber Bragg grating pulse stretcher system configured to produce stretched pulses;

at least one amplifier following said stretcher system; and

a pulse compressor configured to compress said stretched pulses from said amplifier to produce compressed pulses,

wherein at least a portion of said chirped fiber Bragg grating pulse stretcher system (CFBGS) is arranged such that self-phase modulation (SPM) induced in one or more fiber elements of the chirped pulse amplification system is compensated via modification of a dispersion of a grating disposed in said CFBGS.

18. The chirped pulse amplification system as claimed in claim 17, wherein said chirped pulse amplification system comprises at least one polarization maintaining fiber.

19. The chirped pulse amplification system as claimed in claim 17, wherein said at least one amplifier includes a fiber amplifier constituting one of said fiber elements.

20. The chirped pulse amplification system as claimed in claim 17, wherein said SPM compensation is static (non-adaptive) and a fiber grating dispersion modification is made based on a measurement of pulse quality.

21. The chirped pulse amplification system as claimed in claim 17, wherein said SPM compensation is adaptive and implemented via feedback to a control parameter related to pulse quality.

22. The chirped pulse amplification system as claimed in claim 17, wherein at least a portion of said SPM is induced in said at least one fiber amplifier.

23. The chirped pulse amplification system as claimed in claim 17, wherein said dispersion of a fiber grating is modified by controlling the temperature, pressure, or stress of said fiber grating.