Current Optics and Photonics

Optical Society of Korea (한국광학회)
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Ultralow Intensity Noise Pulse Train from an All-fiber Nonlinear Amplifying Loop Mirror-based Femtosecond Laser

  • Dohyeon Kwon (Greenhouse gas Metrology Team, Advanced Instrumentation Institute, Korea Research Institute of Standards and Science) ;
  • Dohyun Kim (Department of Laser & Electron Beam Technologies, Korea Institute of Machinery & Materials)
  • Received : 2023.07.06
  • Accepted : 2023.09.08
  • Published : 2023.12.25
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Abstract

A robust all-fiber nonlinear amplifying loop-mirror-based mode-locked femtosecond laser is demonstrated. Power-dependent nonlinear phase shift in a Sagnac loop enables stable and power-efficient mode-locking working as an artificial saturable absorber. The pump power is adjusted to achieve the lowest intensity noise for stable long-term operation. The minimum pump power for mode-locking is 180 mW, and the optimal pump power is 300 mW. The lowest integrated root-mean-square relative intensity noise of a free-running mode-locked laser is 0.009% [integration bandwidth: 1 Hz-10 MHz]. The long-term repetition-rate instability of a free-running mode-locked laser is 10-7 over 1,000 s averaging time. The repetition-rate phase noise scaled at 10-GHz carrier is -122 dBc/Hz at 10 kHz Fourier frequency. The demonstrated method can be applied as a seed source in high-precision real-time mid-infrared molecular spectroscopy.

Keywords

Acknowledgement

This study was supported by the National Research Council of Science and Technology [Project number: NK242G, 2023, Korea].

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