Tailoring the efficiency and spectrum of a green random laser generated by frequency doubling of random fiber lasers

Abstract

Frequency doubling of random fiber lasers could provide an effective way to realize visible random lasing with the spectrum filled with random frequencies. In this paper, we make a comprehensive study on the efficiency and spectral manipulation of a green random laser generated by frequency doubling of an ytterbium-doped random fiber laser (YRFL). To tailor the efficiency of green random lasing generation, the ytterbium-doped random fiber lasing is filtered at different spectral positions, and then amplified to watt-level to serve as the fundamental laser source for frequency doubling in a periodically poled lithium niobate (PPLN) crystal. We found that by selecting different spectral components of ytterbium-doped random fiber lasing, the temporal intensity fluctuations of the filtered radiations vary dramatically, which plays an important role in enhancing the efficiency of frequency doubling. By fixing the filtering radiation wavelength at 1064.5 nm and tuning the central wavelength of YRFL, we experimentally demonstrate that, compared to the filtered radiation in the center of the spectrum, the efficiency of frequency doubling can be nearly doubled by utilizing the filtered ytterbium-doped random fiber lasing in the wings of the spectrum. As a result, the conversion efficiency of the generated green random laser at 532.25 nm can be more than 11% when the input power of the polarized 1064.5 nm fundamental light is 2.85W. For spectral manipulation, we realize a spectral tunable green random laser in the range of 529.9 nm to 537.3 nm with >100 mW output power for the first time by tuning the wavelength of YRFL and the temperature of PPLN simultaneously. The system can be naturally modified to simultaneously realize the efficiency enhancement and wavelength tuning, thus providing a new route to generate high efficiency and tunable visible random laser via frequency doubling that are potentially useful for imaging, sensing and visible light communication applications.