Extreme chirped pulse amplification and phase control

• US 7,777,940 B1
• Filed: 02/08/2008
• Issued: 08/17/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 02/09/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: University of Central Florida Research Foundation Inc. (State University System of Florida)
• Original Assignee: University of Central Florida Research Foundation Inc. (State University System of Florida)
• Inventors: Rozzo, Scott, Delfyett, Peter J.
• Primary Examiner(s): BOLDA, ERIC L
• Application Number:
  US12/028,417
• Time in Patent Office: 921 Days
• Field of Search: 359/333, 359/341.4, 372/25, 372/29.011
• US Class Current: 359/341.4
• 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 3/0675 Resonators including a grating structure, e.g. distributed Bragg reflectors [DBR] or distributed feedback [DFB] fibre lasers
• CPC Class Codes: H01S 3/06754 Fibre amplifiers H01S3/06708 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H01S 3/06791 Fibre ring lasers fibre laser gyrometers G01C19/72
• CPC Class Codes: H01S 3/1301 in optical amplifiers
• CPC Class Codes: H01S 3/1302 by all-optical means, e.g. gain-clamping
• CPC Class Codes: H01S 3/1307 Stabilisation of the phase

Abstract

Methods and systems for optical chirped pulse amplification and phase dispersion, the system including an active dispersion controller for receiving an input optical pulse from a modelocked laser and controlling a third and fourth order dispersion property of the input optical pulse to produce an optical output pulses, a stretching re-circulating loop for stretching the optical output pulses in time, an optical amplifier for amplifying the stretched optical output pulses, a compressing re-circulating loop for compressing the amplified stretched optical output pulse to produce a compressed optical output pulse, and a feedback loop for feeding a feedback optical signal to the active dispersion controller.

Claims

1. An optical system for chirped pulse amplification and phase dispersion comprising:

a active dispersion controller for receiving an input optical pulse from a mode locked laser and controlling a third and fourth order dispersion property of the input optical pulse to produce an optical output pulses;

a stretching re-circulating loop serially connected to the active dispersion controller for stretching the optical output pulses in time;

an optical amplifier serially connected to the stretching circuit for amplifying the stretched optical output pulses;

a compressing re-circulating loop serially connected to the output of the optical amplifier for compressing the amplified stretched optical output pulse to produce a compressed optical output pulse; and

a feedback loop connected between an output of the compression re-circulating loop and the active dispersion controller for feeding a feedback optical signal to the active dispersion controller for adjusting the third and fourth order dispersive property of the active dispersion controller to actively fine tune the optical output pulses.

2. The optical system of claim 1, wherein the stretching re-circulating loop comprises:

a first switch for coupling the stretching re-circulating loop between the mode locked laser output and the optical amplifier input to inject the input optical pulse into the stretching re-circulating loop;

an stretching optical amplifier connected to the first switch having for receiving and amplifying the input optical pulse;

a stretching circulator connected with an output of the stretching optical amplifier for receiving an amplified stretched optical pulse;

a stretching chirped fiber Bragg grating; and

a circulator connected to an output of the stretching optical amplifier and coupled with the stretching chirped fiber Bragg grating for stretching of the output optical pulse.

3. The optical system of claim 2, wherein the compressing re-circulating loop comprises:

a second switch for coupling the compressing re-circulating loop between the optical amplifier output and the feedback loop to inject the amplified stretched optical signal into the compressing re-circulating loop, the compressing re-circulating loop producing the compressed output pulse;

a compression optical amplifier for receiving and amplifying the amplified stretched optical pulse;

a compressing circulator connected with an output of the compressing optical amplifier for re-circulating the compressed optical signal within the compressing re-circulating loop; and

a compression chirped fiber Bragg grating coupled between the feedback loop and the compressing circulator for outputting a compression feedback pulse.

4. The optical system of claim 3, wherein the feedback loop comprises:

an intensity auto correlation diagnostic device connected with an output of the second switch for receiving a portion of the compressed optical output pulse;

a first proportional/integral/differential controller coupled with the compression chirped fiber Bragg grating for receiving a coupled portion of the compressed optical pulse for adjusting a third and fourth order dispersive property of the compression feedback pulse; and

a second feedback proportional/integral/differential controller connected with the output of the first proportional/integral/differential controller and the intensity auto correlation diagnostic device for receiving a controlled compression feedback pulse for adjusting a third and fourth order dispersive property of the controlled compression feedback pulse to produce the feedback optical pulse coupled into the stretching re-circulating loop via the stretching chirped fiber Bragg grating.

5. The optical system of claim 1, wherein the stretching and compressing re-circulating loops comprise:

a first switch for coupling the stretching re-circulating loop between the active dispersion controller and the optical amplifier input for injecting the optical output pulse into the stretching re-circulating loop;

a stretching optical amplifier for amplifying the re-circulating stretched optical pulse;

a second switch for coupling the compressing re-circulating loop between the optical amplifier output and the feedback loop for outputting the compressed output optical pulse;

a compression optical amplifier for amplifying the re-circulating compressed optical pulse within the compression re-circulating loop;

a chirped fiber Bragg grating; and

a first and second circulator for coupling the stretching re-circulating loop and the compressing re-circulating loop, respectively, to the chirped fiber Bragg grating.

6. The optical system of claim 3, wherein the feedback loop comprises:

an intensity auto correlation device connected to the second switch for receiving a portion of the compressed output pulse; and

a proportional/integral/differential controller connected between the output of the auto correlation diagnostic device and the active dispersive controller for generating the feedback optical signal.

7. The optical system of claim 1, wherein the optical amplifier comprises:

an erbium doped fiber amplifier.

8. A method for generating an optical output pulse stretched in time, amplified and compressed comprising the steps of:

producing an input optical pulse from a mode locked laser;

adjusting a dispersive property of the input optical pulse;

stretching the adjusted optical pulse in a stretching re-circulating loop;

amplifying the stretched optical pulse;

compressing the amplified stretched optical pulse in a compression re-circulating loop to produce a compressed output optical pulse; and

feeding back a portion of the compressed output optical pulse to at least one of the stretching and compressing re-circulating loops to actively fine tune the compressed output optical pulse.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the stretching step comprises the steps of:

injecting the adjusted optical pulse into the stretching re-circulating loop;

stretching the optical pulse;

amplifying the stretched optical pulse within the stretching re-circulating loop;

re-circulating the amplified stretched optical pulse within the stretching re-circulating loop; and

coupling the amplified stretched optical pulse into the compressing re-circulating loop.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the compressing step comprises the steps of:

compressing the amplified stretched optical pulse

amplifying the compressed optical pulse;

re-circulating the compressed optical pulse; and

outputting the compressed optical pulse as an output optical pulse.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the feedback step comprises the steps of:

characterizing a portion of the output pulse into an autocorrelation device;

generating a feedback pulse; and

actively re-adjusting the dispersive property of the input optical pulse to maximize an optical intensity autocorrelation measurement.

12. The method of claim 8, wherein the feeding back step comprises the steps of:

characterizing a portion of the compressed output optical pulse;

adjusting a dispersive property of the characterized output optical pulse; and

coupling the adjusted optical pulse into the stretching and compressing re-circulating loops.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the stretching step comprise the steps of:

inputting the input optical pulse into the stretching re-circulating loop;

stretching the input optical pulse;

amplifying the stretched optical pulse within the stretching re-circulating loop;

mixing the amplified stretched optical pulse with the adjusted optical pulse;

re-circulating the amplified stretched optical pulse within the stretching re-circulating loop; and

outputting the adjusted stretched optical pulse.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein the compressing step comprise the steps of:

inputting the amplified stretched optical pulse into the compressing re-circulating loop;

compressing the stretched optical pulse;

amplifying the compressed optical pulse within the compressing re-circulating loop;

mixing the amplified compressed optical pulse with the adjusted optical pulse;

re-circulating the amplified compressed optical pulse within the compressing re-circulating loop; and

outputting the adjusted compressed optical pulse.