High-efficiency picosecond mode-locked laser using a thulium-doped nanoengineered yttrium-alumina-silica fiber as the gain medium

Y W Lee; J Y Chuang; C C Lin; M C Paul; S Das; A Dhar

doi:10.1364/OE.422947

High-efficiency picosecond mode-locked laser using a thulium-doped nanoengineered yttrium-alumina-silica fiber as the gain medium

Opt Express. 2021 May 10;29(10):14682-14693. doi: 10.1364/OE.422947.

Authors

Y W Lee, J Y Chuang, C C Lin, M C Paul, S Das, A Dhar

PMID: 33985185
DOI: 10.1364/OE.422947

Abstract

We report the theoretical and experimental investigation of a self-starting mode-locked fiber laser with a nanoengineered Tm³⁺-doped yttrium-alumina-silica (YAS) fiber as the gain medium. The YAS fiber exhibits a higher capability of Tm³⁺ cluster elimination than commercial silica fibers. The Tm³⁺ fluorescence properties and YAS dispersion are well characterized. As a result, an efficient picosecond mode-locked fiber laser is demonstrated with a slope efficiency of 14.14% and maximum pulse energy of 1.27 nJ. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first mode-locked fiber laser based on a Tm³⁺-doped YAS fiber. The experimental observation is also supported by the numerical analysis.