We demonstrate a cost effective, linearly tunable fiber optical parametric oscillator based on a home-made photonic crystal fiber pumped with a mode-locked ytterbium-doped fiber laser, providing linely tuning ranges from 1018 nm to1038 nm for the idler wavelength and from 1097 nm to 1117 nm for the signal wavelength by tuning the pump wavelength and the cavity length. In order to obtain the desired fiber with a zero dispersion wavelength around 1060 nm, eight samples of photonic crystal fibers with gradually changed structural parameters are fabricated for the reason that it is difficult to accurately customize the structural dimensions during fabrication. We verify the usability of the fabricated fiber experimentally via optical parametric generation and conclude a successful procedure of design, fabirication, and verification. A seed source of home-made all-normal-dispersion mode-locked ytterbium-doped fiber laser with 38.57 ps pulsewidth around the1064 nm wavelength is used to pump the fiber optical parametric oscillator. The wide picosecond pulse pump laser enables a larger walk-off tolerance between the pump light and the oscillating light as well as a longer photonic crystal fiber of 20 m superior to the femtosecond pulse lasers, resulting in a larger parametric amplification and a lower threshold pump power of 15.8 dBm of the fiber optical parametric oscillator.
The development of fiber optical parametric oscillators （FOPO） based on highly nonlinear dispersion- shifted fiber is reviewed in this paper. Firstly, the background and motivation are introduced, and it is pointed out that the FOPO is promising to act as optical source in non-conventional wavelength bands. Subsequently, the context focuses principally on the problem of inherent multiple-longitudinal-mode characteristic of FOPO and the corresponding solutions to it. The primary technique is by locking the phase of multiple longitudinal modes. The first reported actively mode locked FOPO is also presented in this article. However, it is not probable to realize passively mode locked FOPO because of the random phase dithering of the pump required for suppressing stimulated Brillouin scattering. Furthermore, a regeneratively mode locked FOPO is demonstrated, which can generate wide band tunable radiation in non- conventional wavelengths. Besides mode locked FOPO, the single-longitudinal-mode FOPO is also introduced. Finally, potential future directions are discussed.
Sigang YANGKenneth K. Y. WONGMinghua CHENShizhong XIE
