Hollow-core photonic crystal fibers (HC-PCFs) provide an ideal transmission medium and experimental platform for laser-matter interaction. Here, we report a cascaded all-fiber gas Raman laser based on deuterium (D2)-filled HC-PCFs. D2 is sealed into a gas cavity formed by a 49 m-long HC-PCF and solid-core fibers, and two homemade fiber Bragg gratings (FBGs) with the Raman and pump wavelength, respectively, are further introduced. When pumped by a pulsed fiber amplifier at 1540 nm, the pure rotational stimulated Raman scattering of D2 occurs inside the cavity. The first-order Raman laser at 1645 nm can be obtained, realizing a maximum power of ~0.8 W. An all-fiber cascaded gas Raman laser oscillator is achieved by adding another 1645 nm high-reflectivity FBG at the output end of the cavity, reducing the peak power of the cascaded Raman threshold by 11.4%. The maximum cascaded Raman power of ~0.5 W is obtained when the pump source is at its maximum, and the corresponding conversion efficiency inside the cavity is 21.4%, which is 1.8 times that of the previous configuration. Moreover, the characteristics of the second-order Raman lasers at 1695 nm and 1730 nm are also studied thoroughly. This work provides a significant method for realizing all-fiber cascaded gas Raman lasers, which is beneficial for expanding the output wavelength of fiber gas lasers with a good stability and compactivity.
Keywords: fiber laser; hollow-core fiber; laser–matter interaction.