Rare Earth Doped Optical Fibers with Multi-section Core

Chongyuan Huang; Jihong Geng; Tao Luo; Jiali Han; Qing Wang; Rongguang Liang; Shanhui Fan; Shibin Jiang

doi:10.1016/j.isci.2019.11.017

Rare Earth Doped Optical Fibers with Multi-section Core

iScience. 2019 Dec 20;22:423-429. doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2019.11.017. Epub 2019 Nov 15.

Authors

Chongyuan Huang¹, Jihong Geng², Tao Luo², Jiali Han³, Qing Wang², Rongguang Liang⁴, Shanhui Fan⁵, Shibin Jiang⁶

Affiliations

¹ AdValue Photonics Inc., Tucson, AZ 85706, USA; College of Optical Sciences, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA.
² AdValue Photonics Inc., Tucson, AZ 85706, USA.
³ Department of Systems and Industrial Engineering, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA.
⁴ College of Optical Sciences, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA.
⁵ Department of Electrical Engineering, Ginzton Laboratory, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA.
⁶ AdValue Photonics Inc., Tucson, AZ 85706, USA. Electronic address: sjiang@advaluephotonics.com.

Abstract

The gain bandwidth of a single-mode fiber is limited by the atomic transitions of one rare earth gain element. Here we overcome this long-standing challenge by designing a new single-mode fiber with multi-section core, where each section is doped with different gain element. We theoretically propose and experimentally demonstrate that this configuration provides a gain bandwidth well beyond the capability of conventional design, whereas the inclusion of multiple sections does not compromise single-mode operation or the quality of the transverse modal profile. This new fiber will be beneficial in realizing all fiber laser systems with few-cycle pulse duration or octave tunability.

Keywords: Fiber Optics; Optical Materials; Optics.