Two Color Nonlinear Fiber Amplification
Dean Eaton (University of Waterloo)
Nonlinear laser fiber amplification is a powerful technique that has drawn a lot of recent attention in the world of laser physics. Single color gain managed nonlinear amplification is known for generating broad spectrums at high average power, with pulses that can be compressed very close to their Fourier transform limits. There are many applications which require the use of two-color laser beams, such as those using pump and probe dynamic. Originally, a single-color broad spectrum was used as the two-color input. This method neglects that most of the power in the laser beam is wasted at the wrong wavelengths. Now, the two-colors are isolated first and then amplified to make use of the full power of the laser. The current two-color amplification method relies on chirped pulse amplification (CPA). The CPA method has been shown to cause spectral narrowing and issues with pulse compressibility. To overcome these drawbacks, we focus our objective on the construction of a compact two-color nonlinear fiber amplifier. This amplifier is part of the front-end system for two main future research projects: multi-frequency Raman generation experiments and a tunable mid-infrared generation. Simulations of the two-color nonlinear amplifier are based on the gain-rate equation and the generalized multi-mode nonlinear Schrodinger equation. Early results suggest the nonlinear amplification method combats spectral narrowing while maintaining high compressibility while operating at a high average power. The results are still being validated through experiments.
