Long-Term Stabilization of an Actively Mode-Locked Er-Doped Fiber-Ring Laser via Dynamic Intracavity Loss Feedback

• Published in: Journal of lightwave technology Vol. 34; no. 17; pp. 3959 - 3965
• Main Authors: Zhang, Yaolin, Qian, Cheng, Li, Dawei, Zhang, Shuangyou, Zhao, Jianye
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York IEEE 01.09.2016; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: Actively mode-locked laser; Cavity resonators; Electric potential; Frequency modulation; Frequency stability; Laser mode locking; Laser stability; Lasers; long-term; Modulators; Optical fibers; Optical pulses; optical-microwave phase detector; Phase error; phase locked loop; residual frequency stability; Stabilization; timing jitter; Voltage
• ISSN: 0733-8724; 1558-2213
• DOI: 10.1109/JLT.2016.2597294

We demonstrate a long-term stabilized all-fiber actively mode-locked laser (AMLL) by locking the optical pulse train to a mode locker. By dynamically controlling the bias voltage of the intracavity electrooptical modulator, we established an optoelectronic phase-locked loop and achieved long-term phase stabilization of the AMLL. With the help of an optical-microwave phase detector, sensitive phase error signal is obtained and used for the phase stabilization. With this approach, the AMLL achieved long-term stable operation, and the residual fractional frequency stability is significantly improved from 1.8 × 10 -13 to 2.8 × 10 -15 at 1 s and from 2.1 × 10 -16 to 6.8 × 10 -19 at 4000 s.