Research on Rare-Earth-Doped Fiber Lasers

A special issue of Photonics (ISSN 2304-6732). This special issue belongs to the section "Lasers, Light Sources and Sensors".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 September 2025 | Viewed by 5265

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Wyant College of Optical Sciences, The University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA
Interests: optical networks and optical communication; fiber optics; fiber lasers and amplifiers; organic photonics; 3D holographic display and 3D telepresence; nonlinear photonics; optical modulators and switches; laser spectroscopy; nanostructures and quantum dots
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Guest Editor
Wyant College of Optical Sciences, The University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA
Interests: fiber lasers and devices; solid-state laser; nonlinear optics

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Since the first demonstration of laser operation in a nyeodium-doped phosphate fiber by Koester and Snitzer in 1964, tremendous developments in all aspects of laser performance have been achieved with rare-earth-doped optic fibers over the past six decades. Compared to other laser platforms, fiber lasers have the advantages of outstanding heat-dissipating capability, excellent beam quality, high optical conversion efficiency and high single-pass gain. Relying on the transitions between different energy levels of trivalent rare-earth ions, fiber lasers are able to produce lasers at wavelengths ranging from ultraviolet to visible/near-infrared, and even to mid-infrared. The output power levels of fiber lasers have also undergone tremendous scaling after double-clad rare-earth-doped fibers were invented. A kW-level continuous-wave output can now be easily obtained with a ytterbium-doped double-clad silica fiber. Additionally, pulsed fiber lasers employing different pulse generation techniques have also been developed and ultrashort pulses (shorter than 10 femtoseconds) have been achieved. Nevertheless, rare-earth-doped fiber lasers face many challenges for novel applications.

This Special Issue invites manuscripts that introduce the recent advances in rare-earth-doped fiber lasers. All theoretical, numerical and experimental papers are accepted. Topics include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • Novel rare-earth-doped fiber lasers;
  • Advanced kW-class fiber laser design and development;
  • New power scaling techniques;
  • Visible fiber lasers;
  • Mid-IR fiber lasers;
  • Single-frequency fiber lasers;
  • Pulsed fiber lasers;
  • Fiber-laser-pumped nonlinear conversion lasers;
  • Multi-core and multimode fiber lasers;
  • New rare-earth-doped fiber fabrication techniques.

Prof. Dr. Nasser Peyghambarian
Prof. Dr. Xiushan Zhu
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • fiber lasers
  • rare-earth-doped fibers
  • continuous-wave fiber lasers
  • pulsed fiber lasers
  • mode-locked fiber lasers
  • visible fiber lasers
  • upconversion fiber lasers
  • mid-infrared fiber lasers
  • fiber-laser-pumped nonlinear conversion lasers
  • single-frequency fiber lasers
  • multicore fiber lasers
  • phosphate fiber lasers
  • germanate fiber lasers
  • fluoride fiber lasers
  • chalcogenide fiber lasers

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Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

11 pages, 3252 KiB  
Article
5.3 W/265 μJ Mid-IR All-Fiber Er3+:ZBLAN Gain-Switched Laser Based on Dielectric Fiber Mirror and Fiber-Tip Protection
by Tingting Chen, Jue Su, Wenbo Zhong, Yu Ding, Lu Huang, Yikun Bu, Jianfeng Li and Zhengqian Luo
Photonics 2024, 11(8), 700; https://doi.org/10.3390/photonics11080700 - 28 Jul 2024
Viewed by 796
Abstract
We report a 2.8 μm all-fiber high-power and high-energy gain-switched Er3+:ZBLAN laser based on dielectric fiber mirror and fiber-tip protection. The fiber pigtail mirror, specifically designed for dichroic operation (i.e., anti-reflection at 976 nm pump wavelength and high-reflection around 2.8 μm [...] Read more.
We report a 2.8 μm all-fiber high-power and high-energy gain-switched Er3+:ZBLAN laser based on dielectric fiber mirror and fiber-tip protection. The fiber pigtail mirror, specifically designed for dichroic operation (i.e., anti-reflection at 976 nm pump wavelength and high-reflection around 2.8 μm laser wavelength), shows high damage density of >10 MW/cm2. An anti-reflection protective film is coated on the input tip of Er3+:ZBLAN fiber and an AlF3 endcap is spliced to the output tip of Er3+:ZBLAN fiber for mitigating the fiber-tip photodegradation and high-power catastrophic failure at 2.8 μm. The compact all-fiber cavity is formed by efficiently connecting the Er3+:ZBLAN fiber with dielectric fiber mirror using the standard FC/PC fiber adaptor. When the 976 nm pump operates in pulsed regime, the all-fiber mid-infrared gain-switched laser can be attained with two states of single-pulse and pulse-burst output. The extracted maximum pulse energy is 4.8 μJ in the single-pulse state, and the shortest pulse width is 426 ns. The pulse-burst mode can generate a maximum average power of 5.291 W and burst energy of 264.55 μJ. This work may offer a promising way to realize the low-cost, all-fiber, high-power and high-energy gain-switched laser at MIR wavelengths. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Research on Rare-Earth-Doped Fiber Lasers)
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8 pages, 3121 KiB  
Article
Experimental Study on Transverse Mode Instability of All-Fiber Single-Frequency Amplifier Based on Tapered Yb-Doped Fiber
by Yue Tao, Zhengfei Mo, Pengrui Kang, Man Jiang, Can Li, Jinyong Leng, Pu Zhou and Zongfu Jiang
Photonics 2024, 11(8), 696; https://doi.org/10.3390/photonics11080696 - 26 Jul 2024
Viewed by 864
Abstract
We experimentally studied the transverse mode instability (TMI) threshold of a linearly polarized single-frequency fiber laser amplifier constructed with tapered ytterbium-doped fiber (TYDF) under different bending diameters. The TMI threshold increased from 333 W to 451 W by reducing the bending diameter from [...] Read more.
We experimentally studied the transverse mode instability (TMI) threshold of a linearly polarized single-frequency fiber laser amplifier constructed with tapered ytterbium-doped fiber (TYDF) under different bending diameters. The TMI threshold increased from 333 W to 451 W by reducing the bending diameter from 16 cm to 12 cm, which was accompanied by the deterioration of the beam quality from 1.47 to 1.67. The anomalous characteristics between the TMI threshold, bending diameter, and beam quality are mainly attributed to the decreased bending loss of higher-order mode (HOM) content as a result of the increased system heat loads caused by a tight bending-induced loss of amplification efficiency. It is believed that the presented results will provide useful guidelines for the design of high-power single-frequency fiber amplifiers. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Research on Rare-Earth-Doped Fiber Lasers)
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10 pages, 3323 KiB  
Article
Single Trench Fiber-Enabled High-Power Fiber Laser
by Yi An, Fengchang Li, Huan Yang, Xiao Chen, Liangjin Huang, Zhiping Yan, Min Jiang, Baolai Yang, Peng Wang, Zhiyong Pan, Zongfu Jiang and Pu Zhou
Photonics 2024, 11(7), 615; https://doi.org/10.3390/photonics11070615 - 28 Jun 2024
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 924
Abstract
As a novel design of large-mode-area fiber, the single trench fiber (STF) providing high higher-order-mode suppression with a large mode area for the fundamental mode shows potential for high-power and high-brightness applications. However, the output power of STFs has remained relatively low over [...] Read more.
As a novel design of large-mode-area fiber, the single trench fiber (STF) providing high higher-order-mode suppression with a large mode area for the fundamental mode shows potential for high-power and high-brightness applications. However, the output power of STFs has remained relatively low over the past decade. In this paper, we first conducted a design process for STFs and determined the optimal ratio of the fiber structural parameters. Following this ratio, we fabricated an ytterbium-doped STF and demonstrated an all-fiberized fiber amplifier. The system achieved an output power of 2.5 kW with an M2 factor of 1.396. To the best of our knowledge, the power of the STF in this study is approximately three times higher than the previous single-mode power record. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Research on Rare-Earth-Doped Fiber Lasers)
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9 pages, 4367 KiB  
Communication
Gain-Switched Er-Doped Fluoride Fiber Laser at ~3.75 μm
by Lu Zhang, Shijie Fu, Quan Sheng, Xuewen Luo, Junxiang Zhang, Wei Shi, Qiang Fang and Jianquan Yao
Photonics 2024, 11(5), 449; https://doi.org/10.3390/photonics11050449 - 11 May 2024
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1635
Abstract
We demonstrate a pulsed Er-doped ZBLAN fiber laser operating at 3.75 μm based on the gain-switching scheme. A diffraction grating is introduced as a wavelength selection component to enable stable lasing in this long-wavelength region that deviates from the emission peak of 4 [...] Read more.
We demonstrate a pulsed Er-doped ZBLAN fiber laser operating at 3.75 μm based on the gain-switching scheme. A diffraction grating is introduced as a wavelength selection component to enable stable lasing in this long-wavelength region that deviates from the emission peak of 4F9/24I9/2 transition in Er3+. Different from the conventional gain-switching behavior where the pulse repetition frequency of the output laser is same as the that of the pump, the gain-switched laser demonstrated here shows a variable pulse repetition frequency, which accounts for 1/n (n = 4, 3, 2) of the pump pulse repetition frequency, in response to the 1950 nm pump power. The output pulse characteristics, including average output power, repetition frequency, pulse duration, and peak power, are investigated in detail. Over 200 mW average output power at 3.75 μm was obtained at 12 W of 1950 nm pump power. This work demonstrates that the Er-doped ZBLAN fiber laser, in combination with gain-switched scheme, is a feasible and promising approach to generate powerful pulsed emission > 3.7 μm. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Research on Rare-Earth-Doped Fiber Lasers)
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