Widely and Continuously Tunable Continuum Generation From CW-Pumped Cascaded Fibers

Author

Chunyu Guo ; Jun Yu ; Shuangchen Ruan ; Deqin Ouyang ; Huaiqin Lin ; Weiqi Liu ; Yewang Chen ; Peiguang Yan ; Xuejuan Hu ; Ping Hua

Author_Institution

Shenzhen Key Lab. of Laser Eng., Shenzhen Univ., Shenzhen, China

Volume

7

Issue

4

fYear

2015

fDate

Aug. 2015

Firstpage

1

Lastpage

7

Abstract

A tunable continuum with multiwatt output power is demonstrated for the first time through the pumping of cascaded fibers by using a continuous-wave (CW) ytterbium fiber laser. The central wavelength of the output continuum can be tuned continuously and monotonically by varying input pump power, with a wide wavelength-tunable range from 1.2 to 1.4 μm and a 3-dB bandwidth of tens of nanometers. Two configurations of the cascaded fibers both display the power-dependent wavelength tunability. The output spectral characteristics are presented, and the generation of the CW-pumped tunable continuum is tentatively attributed to the seed-dependent Raman amplification.

Keywords

Raman spectra; fibre lasers; laser tuning; optical pumping; ytterbium; CW-pumped cascaded fibers; Yb; continuous-wave ytterbium fiber laser; continuously tunable continuum generation; multiwatt output power; power-dependent wavelength tunability; seed-dependent Raman amplification; spectral characteristics; wavelength 1.2 mum to 1.4 mum; widely tunable continuum generation; Fiber lasers; Laser excitation; Optical fiber communication; Optical fiber dispersion; Optical fiber polarization; Quantum cascade lasers; Wavelength-tunable optical source; photonic crystal fiber (PCF); stimulated Raman scattering (SRS); supercontinuum (SC);

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Photonics Journal, IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1943-0655

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/JPHOT.2015.2445091

Filename

7128803