High power tunable mid-infrared optical parametric oscillator enabled by random fiber laser

Area of Science:

• Photonics and Laser Technology
• Mid-Infrared (MIR) Spectroscopy
• Nonlinear Optics

Background:

• Random fiber lasers offer unique advantages like wavelength flexibility and output stability.
• Optical parametric oscillators (OPOs) are crucial for generating tunable light sources.
• Integrating these technologies presents opportunities for novel MIR emission.

Purpose of the Study:

• To demonstrate a tunable optical parametric oscillator (OPO) for the first time, pumped by a random fiber laser.
• To achieve continuous tuning of mid-infrared (MIR) idler light using this novel setup.
• To explore new avenues for MIR generation and expand random fiber laser applications.

Main Methods:

• Utilized a tunable random fiber laser as the pump source for an optical parametric oscillator (OPO).
• Employed Raman gain and random distributed feedback within the fiber laser.
• Characterized the output spectrum and power of the idler light.

Main Results:

• Achieved continuous tuning of the idler light central wavelength from 3977.34 to 4059.65 nm.
• Demonstrated stable temporal average output power.
• Reached a maximal output power of 2.07 W.

Conclusions:

• This study presents the first demonstration of a continuous-wave tunable OPO pumped by a tunable random fiber laser.
• The developed system provides a new method for tunable MIR emission.
• This work broadens the application scope of random fiber lasers in MIR generation.