Researchers at the NSU Division of Laser Physics and Innovative Technologies studied a new type of hybrid (fiber-semiconductor) laser. This resulted in the effective conversion of short electrical pulses into optical pulses with the same shape and duration. The researchers, Boris Nyushkov, Sergey Kobtsev, Alexey Ivanenko, and Sergey Smirnov, published an article presenting their work, "Programmable Optical Waveform Generation in a Mode- Locked Gain-Modulated SOA-Fiber Laser", in the well-known international “Journal of the Optical Society of America”.
Nyushkov, Leading Researcher at the NSU Division of Laser Physics and Innovative Technologies and Candidate of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, described their research,
The development of energy-efficient methods for generating short laser pulses and pulse patterns with programmable arbitrarily complex envelope (i.e. arbitrary optical waveforms) is one of the most urgent problems in laser physics, a modern scientific and technical challenge requiring new non-standard approaches and solutions. Our method for controlling the shape of laser pulses through programmable profiling of electrical pump pulses does not require the use of any conventional optical modulators. This makes it possible to create a compact and energy-efficient fiber-semiconductor laser that generates periodic pulses with arbitrary shapes, high beam quality and stable spectral characteristics.
Ivanenko, Senior Researcher at the Division and Candidate of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, added,
Arbitrary-shaped electric pulse generators are ordinary devices that have not surprised anyone for a long time. Generators of arbitrary shape optical pulses are in the initial stage of development. Their efficiency is poor and the existing methods for controlling the shape and structure of optical pulses is complex and imperfect. Our unique approach to generating laser pulses of any shape, breaks the stereotypes prevailing in this field of photonics.
Smirnov, Senior Researcher at the Division and Candidate of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, provided more detail,
The conversion of electrical pulses into optical ones while preserving the time profile, opens up interesting prospects for the scientific and practical applications of laser pulses with a programmable shape and structure. In the laser we developed, the conversion became possible as a result of using an active medium with a short response time; its role is played by a semiconductor optical amplifier. Now we are exploring the possibilities of controlling the temporal profile of laser pulses with different types of active media and have already obtained interesting results that will be published in the near future in well-known international journals.
Sergei Kobtsev, NSU Head of the Division of Laser Physics and Innovative Technologies and Doctor of Physics and Mathematics, talked about this research,
Ideas that appear at the junction of new laser technologies - fiber, semiconductor, solid-state discrete and others, often lead to fundamentally new solutions that generate qualitatively new properties of laser radiation. This work confirmed our approach. The results were presented and well received by experts at “Photonics Asia 2019”, one of the largest international photonics conferences.
