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 Astro Ltd Laser Physics
Laser Phys. 24 (2014) 045104 (6pp) doi:10.1088/1054-660X/24/4/045104

Optimized flat supercontinuum generation

in high nonlinear fibers pumped by a
nanosecond Er/Yb Co-doped fiber amplifier
D Q Ouyang1 , C Y Guo1 , S C Ruan1 , P G Yan1 , H F Wei2 and J Luo2
1
Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Laser Engineering, Key Laboratory of Advanced Optical Precision
Manufacturing Technology of Guangdong Higher Education Institutes, College of Electronic Science
and Technology, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518060, People’s Republic of China
2
State Key Laboratory of Optical Fiber and Cable Manufacture Technology, Yangtze Optical Fiber and
Cable Company Ltd R&D center, Wuhan 430073, People’s Republic of China

E-mail: [email protected] and [email protected]

Received 20 December 2013, revised 12 January 2014

Accepted for publication 23 January 2014
Published 17 March 2014

Abstract
Flat supercontinuum generation has been demonstrated in high nonlinear fibers with zero
dispersion wavelengths at 1480 and 1500 nm, which were pumped by a MOPA structured
Er/Yb co-doped fiber amplifier based on a modulated nanosecond seed laser with the
wavelength of 1552 nm. The spectra and output powers affected by the zero dispersion
wavelengths, fiber lengths and pump pulse widths were investigated experimentally. A flat
spectrum with 5 dB bandwidth from 1220 nm to beyond 1700 nm (assuming the pump peak
was filtered) in the optical spectrum analyzer detectable range was finally obtained by
optimizing the fiber length and pump pulse width. The maximum output power was 1.02 W,
including the peaks near 1550 nm.

Keywords: high nonlinear fiber, supercontinuum generation, Er/Yb co-doped fiber amplifier
(Some figures may appear in colour only in the online journal)

1. Introduction co-doped fiber [13, 14]. For the 2–5 µm SCG, thulium doped
fiber lasers operating at ∼2000 nm have become the optimal
In the past decades, supercontinuum generation (SCG) has pump sources [15].
seen great progress made in relation not only to the output Nonlinear media have also seen great progress, from
power but also the spectrum bandwidth [1, 2]. Owing to bulk media [16, 17] to conventional fiber [18], and then
the wide bandwidth and high intensity, supercontinuum (SC) photonic crystal fiber (PCF) [19–23] for visible light, near-
source has been widely used in many applications such infrared and mid-infrared SCG. The supercontinua based on
as optical coherence tomography, frequency metrology and PCFs have been investigated widely due to the controllable
wavelength division multiplexing systems [3–5]. zero dispersion wavelengths (ZDWs) and high nonlinearity.
With the development of rare-earth doped fiber lasers, However, the splicing loss between PCF and pigtail fiber of the
especially Yb-doped fiber lasers operating at high power with pump source is higher because of different transverse structure,
short pulse width, the spectrum bandwidth and the output especially for high power operation. Furthermore, the design
power of SC have been increased dramatically [6–8]. Er-doped and manufacture of PCF is complex (consequently resulting
or Er/Yb co-doped fiber lasers operating around 1550 nm in a high cost). Due to this consideration, high nonlinear fibers
are also suitable pump sources for near-infrared SCG [9–12], (HNLFs) have been used as the medium for SCG due to
although the output power is limited by the pump sources due its high nonlinearity and low loss splice with conventional
to the ion-clustering of Er3+ ions in purely Er-doped fiber and fibers [24]. By reason of the special ZDWs, most of the
the Yb amplified spontaneous emission (Yb-ASE) in Er/Yb pump sources are Er-doped fiber lasers or Raman fiber lasers

1054-660X/14/045104+06$33.00 1 c 2014 Astro Ltd Printed in the UK

Laser Phys. 24 (2014) 045104 D Q Ouyang et al

(∼1596, ∼1455 nm) [25, 26]. Supercontinua from HNLFs 3. Experimental results and discussion
pumped by ultra-short femtosecond or picosecond pulses have
been reported [9, 10, 24, 27, 28]. However, the output powers Because of the low repetition frequency of the seed source and
were limited by the pump sources. SCG based on HNLFs the small core diameter of the active fiber (Er/Yb co-doped
pumped by submicrosecond pulse and CW has also been double cladding fiber with a inner core of 6 µm, used as gain
investigated [25, 29–32]. Nevertheless, long fibers and high medium in the power amplifier stage), modulation instability
pump powers should be utilized for wide bandwidth and flat (MI) can easily occur in the MOPA structured laser amplifier,
spectrum generation, and the saturation effect of the spectrum which can influence the output spectra. The output spectra of
as well as the power would occur. the fiber amplifier with increasing pump power at different
In this paper, an SC source has been achieved with pulse widths were measured first, as illustrated in figure 2(a).
high output power and very flat spectrum output, based on a It can be seen that the spectrum deteriorates severely because
nanosecond MOPA structured Er/Yb co-doped fiber amplifier of the strong effect of MI, especially at the pulse width of
and HNLFs. To the best of our knowledge, this is the flattest 30 ns. The wavelengths of the MI peaks are 1548.8 nm and
SCG in HNLFs. Two kinds of HNLFs with different ZDWs 1556.6 nm, respectively, in good agreement with the condition
were utilized for SCG. By selecting the fiber length and
of four wave mixing (FWM), ω1 + ω2 = 2ωsignal , where ω1
pump pulse, a flat SC with a 5 dB bandwidth from 1220 nm
and ω2 are the angle frequency at the two peaks of MI and
to beyond 1700 has been obtained in the optical spectrum
ωsignal is the angle frequency of the signal light. The spectrum
analyzer (OSA) detectable range assuming that the peaks
near 1550 nm were filtered. The maximum output power is behaves with the same characteristics as in [34]. When the seed
1.02 W including residual pump energy. The flat SCG with pulse is 30 ns, a flat SC is generated at longer wavelength with
different ZDWs, pulse widths and fiber lengths has been a 5 dB bandwidth of 135 nm from 1565 to 1700 nm. However,
investigated experimentally, which is meaningful for achieving if a segment of shorter-ZDW HNLF were to be cascaded with
better performance of SCG based on HNLFs. Meanwhile, this the amplifier (the pump wavelength located in the anomalous
SC source has an all-fiber structure composed of low-cost dispersion regime), the blue side of the SC would broaden
nanosecond pump source and HNLFs, which is suitable for further.
commercial manufacture and applications. The power properties of the Er/Yb co-doped fiber ampli-
fier are illustrated in figure 2(b). The maximum amplifier
2. Experimental setup and fiber characteristics power increases with the increasing pulse width. The slope
efficiency drops owing to the Yb-ASE and MI. Maximum
The experimental setup is illustrated in figure 1. The pump output powers of 2.15 W, 2.11 W and 1.78 W were obtained at
source is an Er/Yb co-doped fiber amplifier consisting of a the pulse widths of 100 ns, 50 ns and 30 ns at the same pump
seed laser and three amplifier stages. The seed is a modulated power (15 W), respectively.
nanosecond pulsed fiber laser with a wavelength of 1552 nm, For the blue side broadening of the SC, two kinds of
and has tunable pulse duration of 30–300 ns with a tunable HNLFs were utilized as nonlinear fibers and pumped by the
repetition frequency of 100–300 kHz. The repetition frequency Er/Yb co-doped fiber amplifier as stated above. The evolutions
is set to 200 kHz in our experiments. The first two stages (pre- of the SC with increased output powers at different pump
amplifier) are Er-doped fiber amplifiers (EDFAs). Through pulse widths from 165 m HNLF-P and 165 m HNLF-Z were
the two pre-amplifiers, the power of seed laser (∼10 mW) investigated experimentally, see figure 3. It can be seen that
has been amplified to 200 mW to feed the third stage (power the SC moves sharply and continuously to both the blue and
amplifier stage). The third stage is an Er/Yb co-doped fiber red side with the increasing pump power. Wavelengths longer
amplifier (EYDFA). Each stage is separated by an isolator than 1700 nm cannot be measured because of the upper limit
(ISO) which protects the prior stage from back-scattered light. of the OSA measurement range. The small peak around the
The output port is angle cleaved to avoid Fresnel reflection. wavelength of 975 nm is the residual pump power of the Er/Yb
The spectrum is measured by an OSA (Yokogawa AQ6370B, co-doped fiber amplifier. The highest peak around 1552 nm is
600–1700 nm). The output power is measured by an optical the residual power of the amplifier.
power meter (OPM). The pigtail fiber of the amplifier is a
The SCG evolutions were quite different between HNLF-
kind of all-solid photonic bandgap fiber for Yb band parasitic
P and HNLF-Z. For the fiber of HNLF-P, the SCG was initiated
lasing suppression in Er/Yb co-doped fiber amplifier with a
by MI, which is manifested. Then the FWM was dominant, and
mode field diameter (MFD) of 10.9 µm at the wavelength of
1550 nm [33]. two peaks appeared at the wavelength of 1330 and 1130 nm.
Two kinds of HNLFs named as HNLF-P and HNLF-Z The modulation effectively breaks the original pump pulse into
manufactured by Yangtze Optical Fibre and Cable Company multiple ultra-short pulses. After that the evolution of SCG
Ltd are used for SCG. The total length of each of the undergoes the same process as when pumped by ultra-fast
two kinds of HNLFs is 165 m. The fiber parameters of pulses in the anomalous dispersion regime. As illustrated in
the utilized HNLFs are listed in table 1. The splice losses figure 3(b), the 5 dB spectrum bandwidth is 620 nm from 1080
between the pigtail fiber of the amplifier and the HNLFs are to 1700 nm at the OSA measurement range with an output
2.35 dB and 2.23 dB for HNLF-P and HNLF-Z through repeat power of 237 mW (the powers measured in our experiment all
arc-discharges, respectively. The losses are high due to the include the residual pump power of the amplifier). However,
large MFD mismatching between the pigtail fiber of amplifier the 5 dB bandwidth was not improved at the pulse width
and the HNLFs. of 30 ns, see figure 3(a). Furthermore, the maximum output

2
Laser Phys. 24 (2014) 045104 D Q Ouyang et al

Figure 1. Experimental setup.

Figure 2. Spectra (a) and output power (b) of the amplifier versus the pump power at different pulse widths.

Table 1. Parameters of the HNLFs.

Fiber type HNLF-P HNLF-Z

MFD@1550 nm ∼3.6 µm ∼3.8 µm
Dispersion slope@1550 nm ≤0.035 ps nm−2 km−1 ≤0.030 ps nm−2 km−1
Dispersion@1550 nm 2.5 ± 1.0 ps nm−1 km−1 0.0 ± 0.3 ps nm−1 km−1
Nonlinear coefficient@1550 nm ≥10 W−1 km−1 ≥10 W−1 km−1
Zero dispersion wavelength 1480 nm 1550 nm

power was almost halved. This shows that the pump pulse the nonlinear effects to flatten the spectrum. For the 100 ns,
width (peak power) can be optimized for better performance 50 ns and 30 ns pulse widths, the peak powers are 107.65 W,
of SCG. A negative peak was observed around 1480 nm. 210.6 W and 296.17 W, respectively.
The frequency difference between the pump and the negative For HNLF-Z, the SCG was quite different due to the
peak is ∼10 THz in the spectrum, which can be a sign of different ZDWs. The HNLF-Z has a ZDW at 1550 nm, which
stimulated Raman interaction [28]. The MI stimulated Raman is only 2 nm from the pump wavelength. At the three pulse
solitons red-shift; meanwhile, the dispersive wave is generated widths, the SCG were first initiated by MI, but with the
at short wavelengths, so around the ZDW of the HNLF-P, the increase of pump power, the Raman effect was dominant (see
intensity is lower, which is seen as a dip in the spectrum. figures 3(d)–(f)). Two pairs of Raman Stokes and anti-Stokes
At higher pump powers, the depth of the dip decreased due peaks appeared with wavelengths of 1455 nm, 1668 nm,
to heterogeneous nonlinear effects at this wavelength region. and 1507 nm and 1609 nm, respectively. The Raman Stokes
Although the output power is higher, the spectra evolution of and anti-Stokes peaks grew weaker with the increasing pump
the SC with different pulse widths shows that the flatness is power due to other nonlinear effects such as nanosecond pulse
a little worse at large pulse width (see figures 3(a)–(c)). The fission, MI-induced soliton self-frequency shift and FWM.
main reason is that the peak power is not strong enough for One interesting phenomenon is that the intensity of shorter

3
Laser Phys. 24 (2014) 045104 D Q Ouyang et al

Figure 3. Pulse width dependent spectra evolution of 165 m HNLF-P and 165 m HNLF-Z at different output powers. HNLF-P: (a) 30 ns,
(b) 50 ns, (c) 100 ns. HNLF-Z: (d) 30 ns, (e) 50 ns, (f) 100 ns.

wavelengths grows stronger than longer wavelengths with the of the spectra exhibit a saturation phenomenon in both cases,
increased output power, especially at shorter pulse width. As especially in the fiber of HNLF-P.
with HNLF-P, the short wavelength limit was increased with Considering the saturation effect in SCG, spectra with
the decreased pulse width for higher peak powers. Although different fiber lengths as well as pulse widths were measured
the flatness of the SC is good, the 5 dB bandwidth is 510 nm, for comparison as shown in figure 4. Substantial spectral
from 1190 to 1700 nm, narrower than that from HNLF-P at broadening can be seen even with the fiber length of 55 m.
the same pump condition. The spectrum dip around the ZDW With the increase of fiber length as well as the pulse peak
is not observed for the closer ZDW to the pump wavelength, power, the bandwidth of SC was not broadened apparently
and the flatness is better at longer pulse width compared with although the spectra show a good flatness at longer lengths.
HNLF-P. The intensities of SC based on HNLF-Z in these Furthermore, the blue side intensity turning points are always
three cases are higher than for HNLF-P due to the lower splice the same in all the cases, located at ∼1220 nm and ∼1100 nm
loss between the pigtail fiber of the amplifier and HNLF-Z as for the HNLF-Z and HNLF-P, respectively. This confirmed the
well as the narrower spectra bandwidth. Also, the evolutions existence of spectrum saturation effect in our experiments.

4
Laser Phys. 24 (2014) 045104 D Q Ouyang et al

Figure 4. Fiber length and pulse width dependent SCG at the maximum output power. (a) HNLF-Z, (b) HNLF-P.

The power properties were also investigated, as shown in power can be scaled by the power improvement of the Er/Yb
figure 5. The powers tend to be saturated at higher pump co-doped fiber amplifier as well as the splicing joint between
powers. With the elongated fiber, the roll-off in the slope the HNLF and the pigtail fiber of the amplifier.
efficiency became more and more apparent. Meanwhile, the
maximum output power decreased monotonically at the same 4. Conclusions
pulse width. This is caused by the O–H bonds at 2200 nm [35].
Unfortunately, the spectrum at longer wavelength cannot be In summary, we studied SCG from two kinds of HNLFs
measured. The output powers saturated slowly at longer pulse, pumped by a nanosecond fiber amplifier. A flat SC with a
but very fast at short pulse (the output power goes to saturation 5 dB bandwidth from 1220 to 1700 nm (assuming the pump
at the pump power only of 3 W when the pulse width is peak was filtered) in the OSA detectable range with the output
30 ns). This can be explained by the spectra evolution. For power of 1.02 W was finally obtained. The spectrum and
the short pulse width, the spectrum broadens faster, and the output power properties affected by ZDWs, fiber lengths and
longer wavelength limit would first reach the O–H bonds.
pump peak powers were investigated experimentally. To avoid
Comparing the HNLF-P and HNLF-Z, the output power of
the power and spectrum saturation effect, the appropriate
the former is lower. It can be said that the saturation effect is
fiber length and pulse peak energy can be optimized for
more serious for HNLF-P at the same pump pulse width due to
the better performance of SCG, meanwhile keeping a good
its broader spectrum width as shown in figure 3. For the SCG
flatness, which is beneficial to for scaling the output power
utilizing 55 m HNLF-Z with 100 ns pulse width, the maximum
and spectrum performance of the SCG. Furthermore, the
output power is 1.02 W; meanwhile the spectrum maintains
configuration is an all-fiber structure, and all of the components
a flat 5 dB bandwidth of 480 nm (from 1220 to 1700 nm)
can be fusion spliced together directly. Without the utilization
assuming that the peak around 1552 nm was filtered. However,
of PCFs, the cost is decreased sharply, and the robust structure
the spectrum flatness of 55 m HNLF-P was weakened with
a 15 dB bandwidth of 630 nm (from 1070 to 1700 nm) at is suitable for commercial production in the application fields
the same pump condition, and the maximum output power is of optical coherence tomography, frequency metrology and
0.93 W. This indicates that the flatness and spectrum bandwidth wavelength division multiplexing systems.
can be affected by the ZDWs of the nonlinear fiber.
All of the above shows that for the best performance of Acknowledgments
SCG, the fiber ZDW, the fiber length as well as the pump
condition can be optimized. For the continuous wave pumped This research was supported by the NSFC (Grant Nos
SCG, the fiber length would be longer for the broader spectrum. 61308049 and 61275144), the National High Technology
Our experiments confirmed that the flat and broad bandwidth Research and Development Program of China (Grant Nos
SC can also be obtained in short fiber length (55 m) pumped 2013AA031201 and 2012AA041203), the Improvement and
by a nanosecond fiber amplifier. The SC conversion efficiency Development Project of Shenzhen Key Lab (Grant No. ZDSY
can be as high as 80% neglecting the splicing loss. The output 20120612094924476), the Science and Technology Project

5
Laser Phys. 24 (2014) 045104 D Q Ouyang et al

Figure 5. Fiber length and pulse width dependent power evolution. (a) HNLF-Z, (b) HNLF-P.

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