Ultrastable harmonically mode-locked erbium-doped waveguide laser

M. L. Fanto; R. K. Erdmann; B. T. Wysocki; J. E. Malowicki; T. A. McEwen

doi:10.1117/12.721613

7 May 2007 Ultra-stable harmonically mode-locked erbium-doped waveguide laser

M. L. Fanto, R. K. Erdmann, B. T. Wysocki, J. E. Malowicki, T. A. McEwen

Proceedings Volume 6572, Enabling Photonics Technologies for Defense, Security, and Aerospace Applications III; 65720C (2007) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.721613
Event: Defense and Security Symposium, 2007, Orlando, Florida, United States

Abstract

Generation of stable pulses and a frequency stabilized optical comb are two key requirements for Fourier Based Arbitrary Waveform Generation (AWG) techniques. The longitudinal mode spacing of the laser must remain as stable as possible to permit effective isolation and processing of the modes for waveform synthesis. The short and long term temporal stability ultimately limits the system's precision as well as its operability in fielded systems. A packaged erbium-doped waveguide provided a highly compact gain medium for the harmonically mode-locked laser design. Stability was achieved by use of an intracavity etalon for frequency stabilization of the optical comb, a Pound-Drever- Hall (PDH) method, and an active bias feedback loop for low frequency noise suppression. The temperature was controlled to limit cavity length variation, and the contribution to stability of each method is quantitatively assessed. The system's stable operating time was increased from hours to greater than a day, and the timing jitter is demonstrated to be lower than that of commercially available erbium-doped fiber laser (EDFL) systems. Applications to optical signal synthesis and Laser Radar are briefly discussed.

Citation Download Citation

M. L. Fanto, R. K. Erdmann, B. T. Wysocki, J. E. Malowicki, and T. A. McEwen "Ultra-stable harmonically mode-locked erbium-doped waveguide laser", Proc. SPIE 6572, Enabling Photonics Technologies for Defense, Security, and Aerospace Applications III, 65720C (7 May 2007); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.721613

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