Efficient generation of 1.9 W yellow light by cascaded frequency doubling of a distributed Bragg reflector tapered diode.

Watt-level yellow emitting lasers are interesting for medical applications, due to their high hemoglobin absorption, and for efficient detection of certain fluorophores. In this paper, we demonstrate a compact and robust diode-based laser system in the yellow spectral range. The system generates 1.9 W of single-frequency light at 562.4 nm by cascaded single-pass frequency doubling of the 1124.8 nm emission from a distributed Bragg reflector (DBR) tapered laser diode. The absence of a free-space cavity makes the system stable over a base-plate temperature range of 30 K. At the same time, the use of a laser diode enables the modulation of the pump wavelength by controlling the drive current. This is utilized to achieve a power modulation depth above 90% for the second harmonic light, with a rise time below 40 µs.

Nineteen-port photonic lantern with multimode delivery fiber.

We demonstrate efficient multimode (MM) to single-mode (SM) conversion in a 19-port photonic lantern with a 50 µm core MM delivery fiber. The photonic lantern can be used within the field of astrophotonics for coupling MM starlight to an ensemble of SM fibers in order to perform fiber-Bragg-grating-based spectral filtering. An MM delivery fiber spliced to the photonic lantern offers the advantage that the delivery fiber guides the light from the focal plane of the telescope to the splitter. Therefore, it is no longer necessary to have the splitter mounted directly in the focal plane of the telescope. The coupling loss from a 50 µm core MM fiber to an ensemble of 19 SM fibers and back to a 50 µm core MM fiber is below 1.1 dB.

Mode field diameter preserving fiber tapers.

An approach for preserving the mode field diameter (MFD) in fiber tapers is demonstrated. The approach utilizes concentric dual-core fibers, which couple light from an inner core to an outer core through a taper. Fibers with a 6 µm MFD feedthrough and a 15 µm polarization maintaining feedthrough are demonstrated experimentally. Simulations of the MFD in the tapered dual-core fibers are also presented.

Gain-switched CW fiber laser for improved supercontinuum generation in a PCF.

We demonstrate supercontinuum generation in a PCF pumped by a gain-switched high-power continuous wave (CW) fiber laser. The pulses generated by gain-switching have a peak power of more than 700 W, a duration around 200 ns, and a repetition rate of 200 kHz giving a high average power of almost 30 W. By coupling such a pulse train into a commercial nonlinear photonic crystal fiber, a supercontinuum is generated with a spectrum spanning from 500 to 2250 nm, a total output power of 12 W, and an infrared flatness of 6 dB over a bandwidth of more than 1000 nm with a power density above 5 dBm/nm (3 mW/nm). This is considerably broader than when operating the same system under CW conditions. The presented approach is attractive due to the high power, power scalability, and reduced system complexity compared to picosecond-pumped supercontinuum sources.

Multi-mode to single-mode conversion in a 61 port Photonic Lantern.

Efficient multi-mode (MM) to single-mode (SM) conversion in a 61 port splitter or "Photonic Lantern" is demonstrated. The coupling loss from a 100 microm core diameter MM section to an ensemble of 61 SM fibers and back to another 100 microm core MM section is measured to be as low as 0.76 dB. This demonstration shows the feasibility of using the Photonic Lanterns within the field of astrophotonics for coupling MM star-light to an ensemble of SM fibers in order to perform fiber Bragg grating based spectral filtering.