Fiber Laser fOr ultRafast InfrareD Applications

Project Information

FLORIDA

Grant agreement ID: 891017

DOI

10.3030/891017

Project closed

EC signature date 28 March 2020

Start date 27 March 2021

End date 30 April 2023

Funded under

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Total cost

€ 224 933,76

EU contribution

€ 224 933,76

Coordinated by

ASTON UNIVERSITY
United Kingdom

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - FLORIDA (Fiber Laser fOr ultRafast InfrareD Applications)

Reporting period: 2021-03-27 to 2023-03-26

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Ultrafast lasers are of interest for a wide range of applications in fundamental research and their advent opened widespread applications in laser marking, laser machining, optical metrology, and spectroscopy, to name a few. Nowadays, ultrafast lasers are taking over significant market shares, especially for bright high-power ultrafast fiber lasers that own advantages of high peak power, sub-50 fs pulse duration, ease of use, and maintenance-free operation, which is crucial for industrial applications, linking directly to job creation. Tremendous progress has been made in the development of ultrafast fiber lasers in terms of the pulse peak power, the pulse duration as well as the temporal and spectral characteristics, but the maximum pulse peak power and pulse energy that can be obtained in ultrafast fiber lasers are currently limited by the maximum nonlinear phase that the pulses can tolerate. This is deeply rooted into nonlinear dynamics, which puts forward a strong demand for understanding the nonlinear dynamics of ultrafast fiber lasers, deepening the understanding of ultrafast fiber lasers and enhancing the performances of ultrafast fiber lasers that can drive the science and applications towards new frontiers.
The project of FLORIDA has been to address the challenge of providing a general understanding of the rich nonlinear dynamics of ultrafast fiber lasers, which allows helping design of powerful ultrafast fiber lasers, enhancing the stability of nonlinear systems. The implementation of the project will also provide an essential tool for monitoring the laser stability and also develops early warning for applications requiring stable ultrashort pulse operation.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

Work was performed via 4 work packages (WPs). WP1 comprised 3 qualitative research studies that yields 4 Journal publications to date with 1 manuscript under way. WP2 involved developing a powerful theoretical tool for simulation works in FLORIDA. The simulation was followed by building the laser and testing it. In WP3, regarding the research tanning and knowledge transfer, the fellow attended 30 intensive training workshops and multiday conferences. To transfer knowledge, the fellow conducted for researchers and educators. During the grant, he was given a full professor position at Anhui University – one of the top 100 universities in China. The project was managed in WP4.

Main results of FLORIDA are reported in: (1) journal paper on spectral pulsations of dissipative solitons in ultrafast fiber lasers; (2) journal paper on the generation of structures in bidirectional ultrafast fiber lasers,; (3) journal paper on the generation of dissipative Kerr solitons in a passive fiber Kerr resonator with a fast saturable absorber; (4) journal paper on the behavior of dissipative Kerr solitons in a fiber Kerr resonator under noise injection; (5) forthcoming paper on the characterization of soliton and soliton molecule in ultrafast fiber lasers by using nonlinear Fourier transform technology.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

Personally, the successful completion of the project has already helped the Fellow to attain a leading position as a full professor in a Chinese university (Anhui University) and the fellow has already started to build his own research group that will innovate in the field of ultrafast nonlinear optics there. Besides the professional skills, a number of complementary competencies including project management, presentation skills, grant writing, pa-tenting, and the ability to train, supervise and teach students as well as knowledge transfer and international collaboration that have trained and acquired by the Fellow in the FLORIDA project will promote the knowledge transfer and the colorations between research institutes in EU countries and China, which is one of the main purposes of the project.

From the professional view, this MSCA has pushed the frontiers of nonlinear dynamics in the field of ultrafast fiber lasers, which has reflected in: (1) providing a more general understanding of the period-doubling bifurcation in ultrafast laser systems while highlighting their potentially intricate combinations with complex bifurcations, which may be exclusively observable from the spectral domain; (2) spotlighting the simultaneous formation of coherent and incoherent dissipative solitons in an Er-doped bidirectional ultrafast fiber laser; (3) providing guidance for the experimental realization of the generation of DKSs in SA-based fiber Kerr resonators; and (4) confirming the robustness of DKSs against noise perturbations and providing new insights into the DKS dynamics in Kerr resonators, thus opening a new way to achieve different DKS states in fiber Kerr resonators; and (5) showing the potential of novel method - NFT - for laser characterization. These results will deeply impact the laser design and laser performance improvement, directly linking to the job creation and industry that require ultrafast lasers.

Building ultrafast fiber laser and testing it