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Published November 13, 2017 | Published
Journal Article Open

Unveiling multi-scale laser dynamics through time-stretch and time-lens spectroscopies

Abstract

Spectro-temporal studies on the nonlinear physics of complex laser dynamics are essential in approaching its ultimate performance as well as understanding interdisciplinary problems. Unfortunately, it has long been limited by the insufficient spectro-temporal resolving power of conventional temporal and spectral analyzers, particularly when an indefinite optical signal ensemble contains polychromatic mixtures of continuous-wave (CW) and short pulse. In this work, we propose a real-time optical spectro-temporal analyzer (ROSTA) with three synchronized processing channels (i.e., multi-core) for single-shot studies on laser dynamics. It simultaneously provides temporal resolutions of ~70 ps in the time domain and 10's ns (or 10's MHz frame rate) in the spectral domain, as well as a high spectral resolution for multiscale optical inputs, i.e., ranging from CW to fs pulses. Its non-trivial record length of up to 6.4 ms enables continuous observations of non-repetitive optical events over an extensive time period ― equivalent to a propagation distance of ~1900 km. To showcase its practical applications, ROSTA is applied to visualize the onset of passive mode-locking of a fiber laser, and interesting phenomena, i.e., evolution from quasi-CW noise burst to strong shock, transition from fluctuation to mode-locking, and coexistence of CW and mode-locked pulses, have been spectro-temporally observed in a single-shot manner for the first time. It is anticipated that ROSTA will be a powerful technology for spectro-temporal optical diagnosis in different areas involving polychromatic transients.

Additional Information

© 2017 Optical Society of America. Received 11 Sep 2017; revised 1 Nov 2017; accepted 1 Nov 2017; published 8 Nov 2017. Funding: Research Grants Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China (Project Nos. HKU 17205215, HKU 17208414, and CityU T42-103/16-N); National Natural Science Foundation of China (N_HKU712/16); Innovation and Technology Fund (GHP/050/14GD); University Development Fund of HKU.

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August 19, 2023
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