Self‐Starting Switchable Multifunctional Solitons Fiber Laser

Abstract

Modern solitons fiber lasers systems sought for imaging, micromachining, metrology, spectroscopy, and sensing applications, require multifunctional light sources with fully controlled switching features to avail the necessary optical signal. Existing single cavity fiber laser systems have limitations on the generation of multistate solitons due to the intrinsic dispersion, nonlinearity, filtering, gain, and loss. Herein, for the very first time, a compact multifunctional solitons fiber laser controlled by the 3D maneuvering of the polarization beam splitter (PBS) to select the appropriate polarization state for various mode‐locked operations is demonstrated. For single soliton state operation, conventional solitons (CSs), quasi‐coherent noise‐like pulses (QC‐NLPs) and harmonic mode‐locking (HML) are achieved independently, and these different states can be easily and efficiently switched by steering the PBS position. Versatile hybrid dual‐wavelength mode‐locked operations (2‐CSs states, 1‐CS state and 1‐QC‐NLP state, and 2‐QC‐NLPs states) are additional functionalities achievable when the PBS position is steered to suitable positions. The hybrid dual‐wavelength mode‐locked operation has excellent long‐term stability even functioning at maximum output power. It is envisaged that the proposed work provides a compact switchable multifunctional solitons fiber laser system that can be potentially applied in optics signal processing, micromachining, spectroscopy, and optical sensing, etc.

Keywords

• mode-locked fiber lasers
• nonlinear optics
• solitons lasers
• switchable multifunctional solitons