Brian R. Washburn
Kansas State University
Monday, September 28, 2009
4:00 p.m.
Cardwell 102
Holey Fibers & Nanotubes!
Advances for Fiber Lasers & Fiber Laser-Based Frequency Combs
Photonic
crystal fibers have made a substantial impact in optics, specifically for
nonlinear fiber optics, laser physics, and optical frequency metrology.
In this colloquium, I will discuss how we implement hollow-core photonic
crystal fibers for novel fiber laser and fiber amplifier design.
I will introduce a mode-locked fiber laser that uses carbon nanotubes for
a saturable absorber, which we have phase stabilized this laser for the first
time. We also developed a novel
parabolic amplifier that uses a low-dispersion-slope photonic crystal fiber in
order to produce near transform-limited sub-33 fs pulses.
These pulses were used to generate the supercontinuum needed for phase
stabilization of the carbon nanotube fiber laser.
To investigate the stability of the comb produced by this fiber laser, we
mixed it against a continuous-wave laser stabilized to an acetylene-filled
photonic crystal fiber reference.
These measurements resulted in an upper limit on the comb’s instability of 1.2 x
10-11 in 1 s. Finally, I
discuss our work on a new class of continuous wave lasers that will be made
through the amalgamation of hollow fiber and optically pumped gas technologies.
This laser will have a molecular gas lasing medium in a photonic crystal
fiber so it will have the advantages of a gas laser with a cavity compatible
with optical fiber technology.