Title of Paper: High Performance Fiber Lasers for Atmospheric Sensing

Principal Author: Dr. Jin Kang

Abstract: Fiber lasers have made significant advances in recent years such that they are now capable of generating high output powers with high stability from compact packaging. Thus, they are becoming a source of choice for various optical sensors, optical telecommunications and laboratory applications. In this talk, we will discuss our recent results on continuous wave multi-wavelength and high power Q-switched Er-doped fiber lasers for applications in atmospheric sensing. We will also discuss nonlinear frequency generation technique using periodically poled LiNbO3 crystals to generate wavelengths from UV to IR with the fiber laser as a pump source. The fiber lasers are configured in the standard ring laser setup and consist of all-PM or partially PM components. The CW version of the lasers can be configured to output any desired number of wavelength outputs from one to eight. They can also be Q-switched to produce high power pulses. The dual wavelength version of this type of lasers can be especially useful for application in differential absorption lidar systems (DIAL). The linewidth of these CW lasers can be less than 10 kHz with power in excess of several Watts. The wavelength outputs of the lasers are simultaneously tunable and the channel separation can be also tunable. The pulsed version of the lasers is capable of generating few microseconds based on Q-switched lasers to a few hundred femtosecond based on passively modelocked lasers with the peak power in excess of tens of kilowatts.