A novel 2-μm pulsed fiber laser based on a supercontinuum source and its application to mid-infrared supercontinuum generation

A new method to achieve 2-μm pulsed fiber lasers based on a supercontinuum (SC) is demonstrated. The incident pump light is a pulsed SC which contains a pump light and a signal light at the same time. The initial signal of the seed laser is provided by the incident pump light and amplified in the cavity. Based on this, we obtain a 2-μm pulsed laser with pulse repetition rate of 50 kHz and pulse width of 2 ns from the Tm-doped fiber laser. This 2-μm pulsed laser is amplified by two stages of fiber amplifiers, then the amplified laser is used for mid-infrared (mid-IR) SC generation in a 10-m length of ZrF₄-BaF₂-LaF₃-AlF₃-NaF (ZBLAN) fiber. An all-fiber-integrated mid-IR SC with spectrum ranging from 1.8 μm to 4.3 μm is achieved. The maximal average output power of the mid-IR SC from the ZBLAN fiber is 1.24 W (average output power beyond 2.5 μm is 340 mW), corresponding to an output efficiency of 6.6% with respect to the 790-nm pump power.