Fiber Optic Devices Pumped with Semiconductor Disk Lasers

The aim of this thesis is to investigate the advantages of pumping fiber optic oscillators utilizing a special type of lasers – semiconductor disk lasers. Relatively novel semiconductor disk laser technology offers low relative intensity noise levels combined with scalable output power, stable operation and nearly diffraction-limited beam quality valuable for an efficient fiber coupling (70- 90%). This pumping technique was applied for optical pumping of fiber lasers. Low-noise fiber Raman amplifier in co-propagation configuration for pump and signal was developed in the 1.3 μm spectral range. A hybrid Raman-bismuth-doped fiber amplifier scheme for an efficient pump light conversion was proposed and demonstrated. Semiconductor disk lasers operating at 1.29 μm and 1.48 μm were used as the pump sources for picosecond Raman fiber lasers at 1.38 and 1.6 μm. The 1.38 μm passively modelocked Raman fiber laser produced 1.97 ps pulses with a ring cavity configuration. The 1.6 μm linear cavity fiber laser with the integrated SESAM produced 2.7 ps output. A picosecond semiconductor disk laser followed by the ytterbium-erbium fiber amplifier offered supercontinuum generation spanning from 1.35 μm to 2 μm with an average power of 3.5 W. By utilizing a 1.15 μm semiconductor disk laser, a pulsed Ho3+-doped fiber lasers for a 2 μm spectral band were demonstrated. 118 nJ pulses at the repetition rate of 170 kHz and central wavelength of 2097 nm were produced by a holmium fiber laser Q-switched by a carbon nanotube saturable absorber. Sub-picosecond holmium-doped fiber laser modelocked with a broadband carbon nanotube saturable absorber and a SESAM were developed. Using the former saturable absorber, ultrashort pulse operation with the duration of ~ 890 fs in the 2030-2100 nm wavelength range was obtained. The results in the presented dissertation demonstrate the potential of the semiconductor disk laser technology for pumping fiber amplifiers and ultrafast lasers.