Jitter-free, dual-wavelength, ultrashort-pulse, energetic fiber sources using soliton self-mode conversion

We demonstrate an energetic dual-wavelength ultrashort pulsed source by exploiting the inherent features of the newly discovered process of soliton self-mode conversion (SSMC) in a multimode fiber. The generated pulses are at wavelengths of 1205 nm and 1273 nm, respectively, and the pulse energies are approximately 30 nJ.

The natural group-velocity-locking feature of SSMC ensures minimal relative timing jitter, hence highlighting the utility of exploiting the new degrees of freedom afforded by field of multimode nonlinear fiber optics. The relative timing jitter is evaluated by measuring the power fluctuations of generated sum-frequency signals.

When compared to a conventional fiber based dual-wavelength source based on traditional frequency-shifted solitons, the relative timing jitter is found to be reduced by greater than 11 dB. Since this process is wavelength-agnostic within the transparency window of optical fibers, our source provides an attractive means of achieving integrated multi-color ultrashort pulse sources for a variety of applications.