Supermode lasing and light amplification in multicore bismuth-doped fiber

Area of Science:

• Optical Engineering
• Materials Science
• Telecommunications

Background:

• Multicore fibers offer unique light propagation for diverse applications.
• Intra-cavity coherent beam combining in fiber lasers faces power scalability challenges, especially with low-gain media.
• Stable supermode propagation in long multicore fibers is crucial for in-phase beam combining.

Purpose of the Study:

• To design and fabricate a multicore bismuth-doped fiber for efficient intra-cavity light amplification and stable lasing.
• To investigate the supermode selection approach for stable operation in the E-telecom band.
• To demonstrate the advantages of the proposed multicore fiber design over single-core fibers for laser performance.

Main Methods:

• Conceptual design and fabrication of a multicore bismuth-doped fiber.
• Experimental analysis and simulation of light amplification and lasing performance.
• Cladding-pumped configuration utilizing a supermode selection approach.

Main Results:

• The proposed multicore bismuth-doped fiber enables stable intra-cavity lasing in the E-telecom band.
• The fiber design provides considerable advantages in output power and slope efficiency compared to single-core fibers.
• Successful demonstration of enhanced laser performance in a cladding-pumped configuration.

Conclusions:

• The developed multicore bismuth-doped fiber is a promising platform for advanced fiber laser technology.
• This advancement opens opportunities for efficient bismuth-doped fiber amplifiers and lasers across multiple telecom bands (O+E+S+C+L+U).
• The findings are significant for developing next-generation multiband optical transmission systems.