OSA's Digital Library

Optics Express

Optics Express

  • Editor: C. Martijn de Sterke
  • Vol. 20, Iss. 23 — Nov. 5, 2012
  • pp: 25275–25283

Optics InfoBase > Optics Express > Volume 20 > Issue 23 > Page 25275

Difference frequency generation of femtosecond mid infrared pulses employing intense Stokes pulses excitation in a photonic crystal fiber

Yuhong Yao and Wayne H. Knox  »View Author Affiliations


Optics Express, Vol. 20, Issue 23, pp. 25275-25283 (2012)
http://dx.doi.org/10.1364/OE.20.025275


View Full Text Article

Enhanced HTML    Acrobat PDF (1102 KB)


Advanced Search

Browse Journals / Lookup Meetings

Browse by Journal and Year


   


Lookup Conference Papers

Close Browse Journals / Lookup Meetings

Article Tools

Share
Citations

Abstract

We demonstrate a novel method of generating milli-watt level mid-IR (MIR) pulses based on difference frequency mixing of the output from a 40 MHz Yb fiber Chirped Pulse Amplifier (CPA) and the intense Stokes pulses generated in a photonic crystal fiber (PCF) with two closely spaced zero dispersion wavelengths (ZDW). By taking advantage of the unique dispersion profile of the fiber, high power narrowband Stokes pulses are selectively generated in the normal dispersion region of the PCF with up to 1.45 nJ of pulse energy. Mixing with 12 nJ of pump pulses at 1035 nm in a type-II AgGaS2 crystal yields MIR pulses around 5.5 µm wavelength with up to 3 mW of average power and 75 pJ of pulse energy. The reported method can be extended to generation of other MIR wavelengths by selecting PCFs with different second ZDWs or engineering the fiber dispersion profile via longitudinal tapering.

© 2012 OSA

OCIS Codes
(140.0140) Lasers and laser optics : Lasers and laser optics
(190.4370) Nonlinear optics : Nonlinear optics, fibers
(190.7110) Nonlinear optics : Ultrafast nonlinear optics

ToC Category:
Lasers and Laser Optics

History
Original Manuscript: August 24, 2012
Revised Manuscript: October 11, 2012
Manuscript Accepted: October 12, 2012
Published: October 22, 2012

Citation
Yuhong Yao and Wayne H. Knox, "Difference frequency generation of femtosecond mid infrared pulses employing intense Stokes pulses excitation in a photonic crystal fiber," Opt. Express 20, 25275-25283 (2012)
http://www.opticsinfobase.org/oe/abstract.cfm?URI=oe-20-23-25275


Sort:  Author  |  Year  |  Journal  |  Reset  

References

  1. F. Tittel, D. Richter, and A. Fried, “Mid-infrared laser applications in spectroscopy solid-state mid-infrared laser sources,” in Solid-State Mid-Infrared Laser Sources I. Sorokina, and K. Vodopyanov, eds. (Springer 2003).
  2. A. Schliesser, N. Picque, and T. W. Hansch, “Mid-infrared frequency combs,” Nat. Photonics6(7), 440–449 (2012). [CrossRef]
  3. R. A. Kaindl, D. C. Smith, M. Joschko, M. P. Hasselbeck, M. Woerner, and T. Elsaesser, “Femtosecond infrared pulses tunable from 9 to 18 μm at an 88-MHz repetition rate,” Opt. Lett.23(11), 861–863 (1998). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
  4. M. R. X. de Barros, R. S. Miranda, T. M. Jedju, and P. C. Becker, “High-repetition-rate femtosecond mid-infrared pulse generation,” Opt. Lett.20(5), 480–482 (1995). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
  5. S. M. Foreman, D. J. Jones, and J. Ye, “Flexible and rapidly configurable femtosecond pulse generation in the mid-IR,” Opt. Lett.28(5), 370–372 (2003). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
  6. S. Ehret and H. Schneider, “Generation of subpicosecond infrared pulses tunable between 5.2 μm and 18 μm at a repetition rate of 76 MHz,” Appl. Phys. B66(1), 27–30 (1998). [CrossRef]
  7. R. Hegenbarth, A. Steinmann, S. Sarkisov, and H. Giessen, “Milliwatt-level mid-infrared (10.5-16.5 μm) difference frequency generation with a femtosecond dual-signal-wavelength optical parametric oscillator,” Opt. Lett.37(17), 3513–3515 (2012). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
  8. R. Romero-Alvarez, R. Pettus, Z. Wu, and D. Strickland, “Two-color fiber amplifier for short-pulse, mid-infrared generation,” Opt. Lett.33(10), 1065–1067 (2008). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
  9. A. M. Al-Kadry and D. Strickland, “Generation of 400 μW at 17.5 μm using a two-color Yb fiber chirped pulse amplifier,” Opt. Lett.36(7), 1080–1082 (2011). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
  10. M. Hajialamdari and D. Strickland, “Tunable mid-infrared source from an ultrafast two-color Yb:fiber chirped-pulse amplifier,” Opt. Lett.37(17), 3570–3572 (2012). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
  11. C. Erny, K. Moutzouris, J. Biegert, D. Kühlke, F. Adler, A. Leitenstorfer, and U. Keller, “Mid-infrared difference-frequency generation of ultrashort pulses tunable between 3.2 and 4.8 microm from a compact fiber source,” Opt. Lett.32(9), 1138–1140 (2007). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
  12. A. Gambetta, R. Ramponi, and M. Marangoni, “Mid-infrared optical combs from a compact amplified Er-doped fiber oscillator,” Opt. Lett.33(22), 2671–2673 (2008). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
  13. D. G. Winters, P. Schlup, and R. A. Bartels, “Subpicosecond fiber-based soliton-tuned mid-infrared source in the 9.7-14.9 microm wavelength region,” Opt. Lett.35(13), 2179–2181 (2010). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
  14. T. W. Neely, T. A. Johnson, and S. A. Diddams, “High-power broadband laser source tunable from 3.0 μm to 4.4 μm based on a femtosecond Yb:fiber oscillator,” Opt. Lett.36(20), 4020–4022 (2011). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
  15. A. Ruehl, A. Gambetta, I. Hartl, M. E. Fermann, K. S. E. Eikema, and M. Marangoni, “Widely-tunable mid-infrared frequency comb source based on difference frequency generation,” Opt. Lett.37(12), 2232–2234 (2012). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
  16. X. Liu, C. Xu, W. H. Knox, J. K. Chandalia, B. J. Eggleton, S. G. Kosinski, and R. S. Windeler, “Soliton self-frequency shift in a short tapered air-silica microstructure fiber,” Opt. Lett.26(6), 358–360 (2001). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
  17. J. K. Ranka, R. S. Windeler, and A. J. Stentz, “Visible continuum generation in air-silica microstructure optical fibers with anomalous dispersion at 800 nm,” Opt. Lett.25(1), 25–27 (2000). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
  18. K. M. Hilligsøe, T. Andersen, H. Paulsen, C. Nielsen, K. Mølmer, S. Keiding, R. Kristiansen, K. Hansen, and J. Larsen, “Supercontinuum generation in a photonic crystal fiber with two zero dispersion wavelengths,” Opt. Express12(6), 1045–1054 (2004). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
  19. M. Frosz, P. Falk, and O. Bang, “The role of the second zero-dispersion wavelength in generation of supercontinua and bright-bright soliton-pairs across the zero-dispersion wavelength,” Opt. Express13(16), 6181–6192 (2005). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
  20. A. Aguirre, N. Nishizawa, J. Fujimoto, W. Seitz, M. Lederer, and D. Kopf, “Continuum generation in a novel photonic crystal fiber for ultrahigh resolution optical coherence tomography at 800 nm and 1300 nm,” Opt. Express14(3), 1145–1160 (2006). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
  21. S. Murugkar, C. Brideau, A. Ridsdale, M. Naji, P. K. Stys, and H. Anis, “Coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering microscopy using photonic crystal fiber with two closely lying zero dispersion wavelengths,” Opt. Express15(21), 14028–14037 (2007). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
  22. P. Klarskov, A. Isomäki, K. P. Hansen, and P. E. Andersen, “Supercontinuum generation for coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering microscopy with photonic crystal fibers,” Opt. Express19(27), 26672–26683 (2011). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
  23. A. M. Heidt, “Pulse preserving flat-top supercontinuum generation in all-normal dispersion photonic crystal fibers,” J. Opt. Soc. Am. B27(3), 550–559 (2010). [CrossRef]
  24. F. Lu, Y. Deng, and W. H. Knox, “Generation of broadband femtosecond visible pulses in dispersion-micromanaged holey fibers,” Opt. Lett.30(12), 1566–1568 (2005). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
  25. P. Falk, M. Frosz, and O. Bang, “Supercontinuum generation in a photonic crystal fiber with two zero-dispersion wavelengths tapered to normal dispersion at all wavelengths,” Opt. Express13(19), 7535–7540 (2005). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
  26. S. P. Stark, A. Podlipensky, and P. St. J. Russell, “Soliton blueshift in tapered photonic crystal fibers,” Phys. Rev. Lett.106(8), 083903 (2011). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
  27. D. Strickland and G. Mourou, “Compression of amplified chirped optical pulses,” Opt. Commun.55(6), 447–449 (1985). [CrossRef]
  28. Y. Deng and W. H. Knox, “Self-starting passive harmonic mode-locked femtosecond Yb3+-doped fiber laser at 1030 nm,” Opt. Lett.29(18), 2121–2123 (2004). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
  29. http://www.nktphotonics.com/files/files/NL-1050-ZERO-2.pdf .
  30. J. C. Knight, “Photonic crystal fibres,” Nature424(6950), 847–851 (2003). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
  31. T. A. Birks, J. C. Knight, and P. S. J. Russell, “Endlessly single-mode photonic crystal fiber,” Opt. Lett.22(13), 961–963 (1997). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
  32. J. H. Lee, J. van Howe, C. Xu, S. Ramachandran, S. Ghalmi, and M. F. Yan, “Generation of femtosecond pulses at 1350 nm by Cerenkov radiation in higher-order-mode fiber,” Opt. Lett.32(9), 1053–1055 (2007). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
  33. I. Noda, “Two-dimensional infrared (2D IR) spectroscopy: theory and applications,” Appl. Spectrosc.44(4), 550–561 (1990). [CrossRef]

Cited By

 Alert me when this paper is cited

OSA is able to provide readers links to articles that cite this paper by participating in CrossRef's Cited-By Linking service. CrossRef includes content from more than 3000 publishers and societies. In addition to listing OSA journal articles that cite this paper, citing articles from other participating publishers will also be listed.

Figures

Fig. 1 Fig. 2 Fig. 3
 
Fig. 4
 

« Previous Article  |  Next Article »

OSA is a member of CrossRef.

CrossCheck Deposited