Final Report Summary - MIDFIL (Mid-Infrared Fibre Lasers)
This IIF fellowship has provided an international collaboration platform for long-term collaboration between the host Aston University and the IIF fellow’s University of Electronic Science and Technology of China (UESTC). In the return period (12 months) after the completion of Dr. Li’s IIF returning back to China, his group has achieved a number of new results in mid-IR fibre lasers, as listed below:
(1) We have presented a passively switched dual wavelength pulsed fiber laser operating at ~3 µm and ~2 µm using SESAM for the first time. In this case, controllable repetition rates, pulse durations and time delay between two pulses were obtained.
(2) We have firstly demonstrated a tunable passively Q-switched Ho3+-doped fluoride fiber laser based on Fe2+:ZnSe crystal around 3 μm.
(3)We have demonstrated a topological insulator (TI) passively Q-switched Ho3+-doped ZBLAN fiber laser around 3 µm for the first time.
(4) We used a black phosphorus saturable absorber to achieve both Q-switching and mode-locking in fluoride fiber lasers at 3 µm waveband for the first time.
(5) We have firstly demonstrated passively Q-switched and mode-locked Ho3+/Pr3+ co-doped fluoride fiber lasers using Cd2As3 at 3 µm waveband.
(6) We have presented a high power cascaded Er3+-doped fluoride fiber laser at room temperature with the recorded power of 15.2 W at 2.88 µm.
(7) We have demonstrated a high power fiber amplifier at 2.8 µm seeded by a SESAM-based passively Q-switched Er3+-doped fluoride fiber laser with the maximum output power of 4.2 W and pulse energy of 58 µJ.
(8) We have presented a passively Q-switched Tm3+-doped fiber laser at 2 µm waveband using a black phosphorus deposited micro-fiber as the saturable absorption device for the first time.
(9) We have realized a wavelength switchable hybrid mode-locked Tm3+-doped fiber laser among 2022.15 nm, 1956.6 nm and 1969.75 nm based on a self-fabricated FBG array for the first time.
(10) We have firstly designed 3-bridges suspended-core As2S3 and As2Se3 chalcogenide fibers with shifted zero-dispersion wavelengths at around 1.5 μm, 2 μm and 2.8 μm, respectively. Based on these fibers, supercontinuum generation was performed numerically with the longest extended long wavelength edge of 15.5 µm.
Knowledge transfer from Dr. Li to the host AIPT have been conducted by giving talks to the group and post-docs and Ph. D students using net meeting system. Dr. Li has also assigned one of his Ph. D students in UESTC to AIPT to perform the knowledge transfer. He has given two talks on the results of his research work based on this project as follows:
(1)“Mid-infrared pulsed fiber laser using novel 2D material”, 7th of September, 2015, 17:00-18:00 (Beijing Time), 2th floor, School of Optoelectronics information, UESTC.
(2) “Recent progress on high power and energy mid-infrared fiber lasers”, 4th of March, 2016, 17:00-18:00 (Beijing Time), 2th floor, School of Optoelectronics information,UESTC.
Knowledge transfer to European co-hosts through some workshops and research collaborations. He has invited the research groups of Prof. Zhang of Aston University and Prof. Selleri of Parma University to UESTC to perform knowledge transfer and given two talks “Passively Q-switched mid-infrared fiber lasers” and “Recent investigations on mid-infrared supercontinuum generation using micro-structure chalcognide fibre”.
(1) We have presented a passively switched dual wavelength pulsed fiber laser operating at ~3 µm and ~2 µm using SESAM for the first time. In this case, controllable repetition rates, pulse durations and time delay between two pulses were obtained.
(2) We have firstly demonstrated a tunable passively Q-switched Ho3+-doped fluoride fiber laser based on Fe2+:ZnSe crystal around 3 μm.
(3)We have demonstrated a topological insulator (TI) passively Q-switched Ho3+-doped ZBLAN fiber laser around 3 µm for the first time.
(4) We used a black phosphorus saturable absorber to achieve both Q-switching and mode-locking in fluoride fiber lasers at 3 µm waveband for the first time.
(5) We have firstly demonstrated passively Q-switched and mode-locked Ho3+/Pr3+ co-doped fluoride fiber lasers using Cd2As3 at 3 µm waveband.
(6) We have presented a high power cascaded Er3+-doped fluoride fiber laser at room temperature with the recorded power of 15.2 W at 2.88 µm.
(7) We have demonstrated a high power fiber amplifier at 2.8 µm seeded by a SESAM-based passively Q-switched Er3+-doped fluoride fiber laser with the maximum output power of 4.2 W and pulse energy of 58 µJ.
(8) We have presented a passively Q-switched Tm3+-doped fiber laser at 2 µm waveband using a black phosphorus deposited micro-fiber as the saturable absorption device for the first time.
(9) We have realized a wavelength switchable hybrid mode-locked Tm3+-doped fiber laser among 2022.15 nm, 1956.6 nm and 1969.75 nm based on a self-fabricated FBG array for the first time.
(10) We have firstly designed 3-bridges suspended-core As2S3 and As2Se3 chalcogenide fibers with shifted zero-dispersion wavelengths at around 1.5 μm, 2 μm and 2.8 μm, respectively. Based on these fibers, supercontinuum generation was performed numerically with the longest extended long wavelength edge of 15.5 µm.
Knowledge transfer from Dr. Li to the host AIPT have been conducted by giving talks to the group and post-docs and Ph. D students using net meeting system. Dr. Li has also assigned one of his Ph. D students in UESTC to AIPT to perform the knowledge transfer. He has given two talks on the results of his research work based on this project as follows:
(1)“Mid-infrared pulsed fiber laser using novel 2D material”, 7th of September, 2015, 17:00-18:00 (Beijing Time), 2th floor, School of Optoelectronics information, UESTC.
(2) “Recent progress on high power and energy mid-infrared fiber lasers”, 4th of March, 2016, 17:00-18:00 (Beijing Time), 2th floor, School of Optoelectronics information,UESTC.
Knowledge transfer to European co-hosts through some workshops and research collaborations. He has invited the research groups of Prof. Zhang of Aston University and Prof. Selleri of Parma University to UESTC to perform knowledge transfer and given two talks “Passively Q-switched mid-infrared fiber lasers” and “Recent investigations on mid-infrared supercontinuum generation using micro-structure chalcognide fibre”.