1.61–1.85 $\mu$m Tunable All-Fiber Raman Soliton Source Using a Phosphor-Doped Fiber Pumped by 1.56 $\mu$m Dissipative Solitons

• Main Authors: Qiujun Ruan, Zhengqian Luo, Xiaojiao Wan, Runhua Yang, Zhiteng Wang, Bin Xu, Zhiping Cai, Huiying Xu
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: IEEE 2017-01-01
• Series: IEEE Photonics Journal
• Subjects: Fiber laser; ultrafast laser; Raman soliton; soliton self-frequency shift.
• Online Access: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/7858587/
• ISSN: 1943-0655

We demonstrate soliton self-frequency shift (SSFS) of more than 15.5% of the optical frequency in a phosphor-doped silica fiber for the first time. This fiber shows great potential for supporting Raman-shift solitons above 1.8 μm with a 1.56 μm pumping, which is superior to the SSFS previously reported in conventional single-mode silica fiber. In our experiment, when the amplified dissipative-soliton pulses at 1.56 μm are injected into a 960 m phosphor-doped silica fiber, SSFS is efficiently initiated, and the output spectrum of Raman solitons can be continuously tuned from 1.61 to 1.85 μm. The Raman solitons have the shortest pulse duration of ~800 fs and the pulse energy of ~1 nJ. This 1.61-1.85 μm ultrashort laser source can not only fill in the spectral gap between Er³⁺ and Tm³⁺ emissions but has potential applications in multiphoton microscopy and optical tomography as well.