Noise Properties in SESAM-Based Mode-Locked Laser With Intracavity Pump Reflection Coating

Author

Di Yang ; Kan Wu ; Ming Tang ; Shum, Perry Ping ; Songnian Fu ; Deming Liu

Author_Institution

Wuhan Nat. Lab. for Optoelectron., Huazhong Univ. of Sci. & Technol., Wuhan, China

Volume

27

Issue

11

fYear

2015

fDate

June1, 1 2015

Firstpage

1200

Lastpage

1203

Abstract

We investigate the intensity noise and microwave phase noise properties in an SESAM-based mode-locked fiber laser operating at 1.55 μm with intracavity pump reflection coating. Two lasers with similar design are made for comparison with one having a pump reflection coating whereas the other one has not. The noise conversion from pump relative intensity noise (RIN) to the RIN and phase noise of two lasers is evaluated experimentally. It is found that although the laser with pump reflection coating has much lower self-starting pump power and higher slope pumping efficiency, the pump-RIN-to-laser-RIN conversion scales as the square of the slope efficiency at low-frequency region and thus is increased by ~7 dB in the laser with coating. The pump-RIN-to-laser-phase-noise conversion is also increased due to the existence of the slow saturable absorber effect.

Keywords

laser mirrors; laser mode locking; laser noise; optical films; optical pumping; optical saturable absorption; semiconductor lasers; RIN; SESAM-based mode-locked laser; intracavity pump reflection coating; microwave phase noise; noise conversion; pump reflection coating; pump relative intensity noise; saturable absorber effect; self-starting pump power; slope efficiency; slope pumping efficiency; wavelength 1.55 mum; Laser excitation; Laser mode locking; Laser noise; Measurement by laser beam; Pump lasers; Reflection; Laser noises; mode-locked lasers; ultrafast lasers;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Photonics Technology Letters, IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1041-1135

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/LPT.2015.2414882

Filename

7063916