TY - JOUR

T1 - Gain-controlled broadband tuneability in self-mode-locked Thulium-doped fibre laser

AU - Kirsch, Dennis C.

AU - Bednyakova, Anastasia

AU - Varak, Petr

AU - Honzatko, Pavel

AU - Cadier, Benoit

AU - Robin, Thierry

AU - Fotiadi, Andrei

AU - Peterka, Pavel

AU - Chernysheva, Maria

N1 - Funding Information: D.C.K. and M.C. acknowledge the support of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG—German Research Foundation, Project No. CH 2600_1-1). A.B. acknowledges the support of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation (Project No. FSUS-2021-0015). A.F. acknowledges the support of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation (Project No. 075-15-2021-581) and Russian Science Foundation (Project No. 18-12-00457P). Publisher Copyright: © 2022, The Author(s).

PY - 2022/12

Y1 - 2022/12

N2 - Ensuring self-driven mode-locking and broadband wavelength tuneability in all-fibre-integrated femtosecond laser sources enables a new level of their versatility and extends areas of their applications. Principle limitations for this are traditionally available ultrafast modulators and tuneability techniques. Here, we exploit Thulium-doped fibre to perform three roles in the cavity: laser gain, saturable absorber, and tuneability element via controlling its excitation level. We confirmed that Tm-doped fibre saturable absorption is defined by a reinforced quenching of Tm3+ pairs. As a result, we present both numerically and experimentally a highly stable sub-picosecond pulse generation with a ~90 nm tuneability range spanning from 1873 to 1962 nm via adjusting the cavity feedback. The maximum laser efficiency corresponds to 25% cavity feedback, enabling the highest output energy of 1 nJ in 600-fs solitons at 1877 nm. Overall, the presented laser system establishes a compact and straightforward approach for ultrafast generation, which can be translated to other fibre laser operation wavelengths.

AB - Ensuring self-driven mode-locking and broadband wavelength tuneability in all-fibre-integrated femtosecond laser sources enables a new level of their versatility and extends areas of their applications. Principle limitations for this are traditionally available ultrafast modulators and tuneability techniques. Here, we exploit Thulium-doped fibre to perform three roles in the cavity: laser gain, saturable absorber, and tuneability element via controlling its excitation level. We confirmed that Tm-doped fibre saturable absorption is defined by a reinforced quenching of Tm3+ pairs. As a result, we present both numerically and experimentally a highly stable sub-picosecond pulse generation with a ~90 nm tuneability range spanning from 1873 to 1962 nm via adjusting the cavity feedback. The maximum laser efficiency corresponds to 25% cavity feedback, enabling the highest output energy of 1 nJ in 600-fs solitons at 1877 nm. Overall, the presented laser system establishes a compact and straightforward approach for ultrafast generation, which can be translated to other fibre laser operation wavelengths.

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85136227717&partnerID=8YFLogxK

UR - https://www.mendeley.com/catalogue/5af4062d-2f92-3e40-b191-4e0f1443bcef/

U2 - 10.1038/s42005-022-00989-x

DO - 10.1038/s42005-022-00989-x

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85136227717

VL - 5

JO - Communications Physics

JF - Communications Physics

SN - 2399-3650

IS - 1

M1 - 219

ER -