Search

The burgeoning advances of spatial mode conversion in few-mode fibers emerge as the investigative hotspot in novel structured light manipulation, in that, high-order modes possess a novel fundamental signature of various intensity profiles and unique polarization distributions, especially orbital angular momentum modes carrying with phase singularity and spiral wave front. Thus, control of spatial mode generation becomes a crucial technique especially in fiber optics, which has been exploited to high capacity space division multiplexing. The acousto-optic interactions in few-mode fibers provide a potential solution to tackle the bottleneck of traditional spatial mode conversion devices. Acousto-optic mode conversion controlled by microwave signals brings tremendous new opportunities in spatial mode generation with fast mode tuning and dynamic switching capabilities. Besides, dynamic mode switching induced by acousto-optic effects contributes an energy modulation inside a laser cavity through nonlinear effects of multi-mode interaction, competition, which endows the fiber laser with new functions and leads to the exploration of new physical mechanism. In this review, we present the recent advances of controlling mode switch and generation employing acousto-optic interactions in few-mode fibers, which includes acousto-optic mechanisms, optical field manipulating devices and novel applications of spatial mode control especially in high-order mode fiber lasers.

We experimentally obtain a lower frequency shift based on mode conversion by using a mode-selective coupler (MSC) and an acoustically induced fiber grating (AIFG) for optical heterodyne micro-vibration measurement. Through efficient conversion between LP11 and LP01 core modes in a few-mode fiber, a mode conversion frequency shifter (MCFS) can be achieved and the magnitude of frequency shift is several hundred kHz, which is generally challenging for traditional bulk acousto-optic frequency shifter. Moreover, the signal-to-signal beating interference (SSBI) can be eliminated by using the MCFS without requirement of guard band. The scheme of optical heterodyne micro-vibration measurement based on the MCFS has a high-quality signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) over 85 dB. An all-fiber Bragg grating (FBG) scheme is also designed to improve the measurement sensitivity of heterodyne detection, which has a measurable vibration frequency range of 1 Hz to 300 kHz and minimal detectable amplitude of 0.019 nm. The all-fiber MCFS has the advantages of compactness, easy integration and can be applied directly to satellite ground station and laser feedback tomography.

We demonstrate a real-time transverse-mode switching of ultrafast pulse via a cascading mode conversion. The cascading all-fiber mode converter is comprised of a mode-selective coupler (MSC) and an acoustically induced fiber grating (AIFG), which functions as a broadband and controllable beam shaper, and offers a real-time mode switching between LP11 and LP21 modes with $\sim ~190~\mu \text{s}$ switching time. Such a transverse mode-switchable all-fiber laser presents a pulse duration of 1.4 ps and flexible transverse-mode switching. We believe that this compact and robust all-fiber laser source would find promising applications in the field of ultrafast optics and structured light microscope.

We demonstrate that the mode-locked all-fiber laser can simultaneously emit two-color broadband LP11 transverse mode in the near-infrared region by sharing a common mode-selective coupler (MSC). The MSC mode converter is designed to achieve simultaneous dual-channel mode conversion corresponding to the wavelength regions at 1.0 and $1.5~\mu \text{m}$ , in which each channel possesses broadband mode conversion from LP01 to LP11 mode with high mode purity. As a proof of concept, we implement an all-fiber ytterbium (Yb)- and erbium (Er)-doped fiber lasers with a mode-locked two-color LP11 modal output. The laser consists of two ring cavities combined with a common MSC mode converter. The generated LP11 modal pulses have a full width at half maximum of 11 and 8.1 nm for Yb- and Er-doped fiber laser, respectively. The presented fiber laser would represent a promising light source in the field of structured light and ultrafast optics.

We propose an all-fiber configuration of tunable bandpass filter (TBPF), consisting of a mode selective coupler (MSC) and an acoustically induced fiber grating (AIFG). Either the MSC or the AIFG can act as high-order mode converters in a few-mode fiber. The working wavelengths of the MSC and the AIFG are chosen to achieve complete conversion cycle between the core-mode linearly polarized (LP01) mode and the LP11 mode. The tunability of the TBPF is achieved by changing the frequency of the radio frequency signal. An all-fiber tunable ring laser based on the TBPF is used to generate a stable continuous-wave laser with 3-dB bandwidth of around 0.8 nm. The tunable wavelength ranges from 1530 to 1580 nm. Furthermore, the TBPF is introduced into the cavity of a mode-locked fiber laser. Wavelength-tunable mode locking pulses are obtained at central wavelengths from 1530 to 1560 nm.

We introduce an efficient approach to generate vortex Bessel-like beams based on high-order fiber mode, which can produce radially polarized Bessel-Gauss beams. Anti -diffraction properties of the produced Bessel-like beams are investigated. © 2020 The Author(s)

Fiber lasers operating in on-demand spatial transverse modes have recently gained extensive attention due to their great flexibility in practical applications. Typically, free-form mode converters are widely used to generate flexible transverse modes in solid-state or fiber lasers, which call for a strict calibration and are susceptible to mechanical perturbations [1]. Recently, fiber-based few-mode fiber Bragg grating (FMF-FBG) has been developed and applied to transverse-mode switchable mode-locked all-fiber lasers [2]. However, FMF-FBG usually has a narrow-band mode conversion resulting in picoseconds pulse duration. Moreover, most FMF-FBG based fiber lasers operate at the lowest transverse modes (LP 01 and LP 11 modes).

Cylindrical vector beam (CVB) fiber lasers have attracted great attentions due to their promising applications in optical communications, super-resolution imaging and optical trapping. Recently, it has been proved that mode-selective coupler (MSC) is an efficient method for generating CVBs in all-fiber lasers [1–3]. However, to date, the reported MSC-assisted CVB lasers have a common feature that the fundamental transverse mode (LP 01 ) oscillates in the laser cavity whereas the high-order modes are outside the laser cavity. To some extent, such cylindrical vector lasers belong to the external mode conversion, rather than the direct generation of high-order modes inside the laser cavity.

Ultrafast high-order mode (HOM) lasers are a relatively new class of ultrafast optics. They play a significant role in the fieldsof scientific research and industrial applications due to the high peak power and unique properties of spatial intensity and polarization distribution. Generation of ultrafast HOM beams in all-fiber systems has become an important research direction. In this paper, all-fiber mode conversion techniques, pulsed HOM laser strategies, and few-mode/multi-mode fiber (FMF/MMF) lasers are reviewed. The main motivation of this review is to highlight recent advances in the field of all-fiber ultrafast HOM lasers, for example, generating different HOM pulses based on fiber mode converters and mode-locking in the FMF/MMF lasers. These results suggest that mode selective coupler can be used as a broad bandwidth mode converter with fast response and HOM can be directly oscillated in the FMF/MMF laser cavity with high stability. In addition, spatiotemporal mode-locking in the FMF/MMF is also involved. It is believed that the development of all-fiber ultrafast HOM lasers will continue to deepen, thus laying a good foundation for future applications.