Ultrashort Generation Regimes in the All-Fiber Kerr Mode-Locked Erbium-Doped Fiber Ring Laser for Terahertz Pulsed Spectroscopy

Abstract

Many femtosecond engineering applications require for a stable generation of ultrashort pulses. Thus, in the terahertz pulsed spectroscopy a measurement error in the refractive index is strongly dependent on the pulse duration stability with allowable variation of few femtoseconds. The aim of this work is to study the ultrashort pulses (USP) regimes stability in the all – fiber erbium doped ring laser with Kerr mode-locking. The study was conducted at several different values of the total resonator intra-cavity dispersion. Three laser schemes with the intra-cavity dispersion values from -1.232 ps2 to +0.008 ps2 have been studied. In the experiment there were two regimes of generation observed: the stretched pulse generation and ordinary soliton generation. Main attention is focused on the stability of regimes under study. The most stable regime was that of the stretched pulse generation with a spectrum form of sech2 , possible pulse duration of 490 fs at least, repetition rate of 2.9 MHz, and average output power of 17 mW. It is worth noting, that obtained regimes had characteristics suitable for the successful use in the terahertz pulsed spectroscopy. The results may be useful in the following areas of science and technology: a high-precision spectroscopy, optical frequency standards, super-continuum generation, and terahertz pulsed spectroscopy. The future system development is expected to stabilize duration and repetition rate of the obtained regime of ultra-short pulse generation.

Keywords

• femtosecond fiber laser
• mode locking
• pulses stability
• group velocity dispersion
• stretched pulse
• classical soliton
• terahertz pulse spectroscopy