Apparatus for providing optical radiation (9), which apparatus comprises; a first seed source (1) for providing first seeding radiation (11); a second seed source (2) for providing second seeding radiation (12); a coupler (3) connected to the first seed source (1) and the second seed source (2) for coupling the first seeding radiation (11) and the second seeding radiation (12) together; and at least one amplifier (4) for amplifying the first seeding radiation (11) and the second seeding radiation (12).

A fiber laser device includes a first optical fiber, a second optical fiber, and a third optical fiber configured by polarization maintaining fibers. The first optical fiber includes at least one first part and at least two second parts alternatively disposed with the first part. The first part and the second part adjacent to each other are connected to each other such that a fast axis of the first part coincides with a slow axis of the second part at a connection point. A total length of the first part is equal to a total length of the second parts. A mode field diameter of the first optical fiber is smaller than each of a mode field diameter of the second optical fiber and a mode field diameter of the third optical fiber.

A radially polarized optical parametric amplifier insensitive to polarization is provided by the present invention, which comprises a laser module and a nonlinear crystal satisfying the type-II phase matching or the type-II quasi-phase matching condition, wherein the laser module is configured to generate two laser beams, namely the pump light and the signal light with an arbitrary polarization state, the wavelengths of the pump light and the signal light are degenerate or nearly degenerate; and the nonlinear crystal is provided in the emergent beamline of the laser module to perform optical parametric amplification of the signal light by using the pump light.

Multi-Channels coherent beam combining (CBC) using a mechanism for phase and/or polarization locking that uses a reference optical beam and an array of optical detectors each detector being configured and located to detect overall intensity of an optical interference signal caused by interfering of the reference beam and a beam of the respective channel, where the fast intensity per-channel detection allows simultaneous and quick phase/polarization locking of all channels for improving beam combining system performances.

The invention discloses a multi-wavelength and single-frequency Q-switching optical fiber laser device. The laser device comprises a saturable absorber, a high gain optical fiber, a polarization-maintaining multi-wavelength narrow-band fiber Bragg grating, a resonant cavity temperature control module, a polarization-maintaining wavelength division multiplexer, a pump source and a polarization-maintaining light isolator. By taking a highly doped phosphate optical fiber as a laser gain medium, two ends of the optical fiber device are connected with the saturable absorber and the polarization-maintaining multi-wavelength narrow-band fiber Bragg grating respectively to form a short linear laser cavity. A short cavity length of the short linear laser cavity can realize single longitudinal mode operation of laser in the resonant cavity, and meanwhile, a stable multi-wavelength and single-frequency pulse laser output is realized in the resonant cavity by combining multi-wavelength resonance caused by the polarization-maintaining multi-wavelength narrow-band fiber Bragg grating with passive Q-switching performance of the saturable absorber in the cavity. The multi-wavelength single-frequency Q-switching optical fiber laser device of the invention realizes output of a plurality of wavelength pulse laser with adjusted repeated frequency simultaneously, and the laser in each wavelength is maintained in single-frequency operation, such that the multi-wavelength single-frequency Q-switching optical fiber laser device can be widely applied to aspects of laser radar, laser sensing, gas detection and the like.

A hybrid optical amplifier is proposed that includes a preamplifier element formed of single-clad Ho-doped optical fiber and a power amplifier element formed of single-clad Tm-doped (or Tm—Ho co-doped) optical fiber. The preamplifier is used to impart gain to an input signal propagating at a wavelength λ.sub.S in the presence of a first pump beam operating at λ.sub.P1, creating an amplified output over a defined transmission bandwidth. The power amplifier element is disposed at the output of the preamplifier element and provides an additional level of gain to the output of the preamplifier element in the presence of a second pump beam operating at λ.sub.P2. A passband filter may be used between the preamplifier and the power amplifier to ensure that only wavelength components within the defined transmission bandwidth are applied as an output to the power amplifier.

A tunable source includes a short-cavity laser optimized for performance and reliability in SSOCT imaging systems, spectroscopic detection systems, and other types of detection and sensing systems. The short cavity laser has a large free spectral range cavity, fast tuning response and single transverse, longitudinal and polarization mode operation, and includes embodiments for fast and wide tuning, and optimized spectral shaping. Disclosed are both electrical and optical pumping in a MEMS-VCSEL geometry with mirror and gain regions optimized for wide tuning, high output power, and a variety of preferred wavelength ranges; and a semiconductor optical amplifier, combined with the short-cavity laser to produce high-power, spectrally shaped operation. Several preferred imaging and detection systems make use of this tunable source for optimized operation are also disclosed.

Provided are a nonlinear polarization filtering method, device, and apparatus. The device comprises a pump source, a coupler, a birefringent medium, and several polarizers; wherein the pump source is applied to output a pump laser, so as to make a photo-induced birefringence effect occur at the birefringent medium; the polarizer is applied to polarize a signal light according to a preset polarizing angle; and the coupler is applied to couple the pump laser and the signal light into the birefringent medium, wherein an angle except 0° exists between the birefringent medium and the preset polarizing angle of the polarizer.

An apparatus (such as a laser-based system) and method for providing optical pulses in a broad range of pulse widths and pulse energies uses a pulse slicer which is configured to slice a predefined portion having a desired pulse width of each of the one or more output optical pulses from a laser oscillator, in which timings of a rising edge and a falling edge of each sliced optical pulse relative to a time instance of a maximum of the corresponding each of the one or more output optical pulses from the laser oscillator, are chosen at least to maximize amplification efficiency of the optical amplifier, which may be located after the pulse slicer, and to provide the one or more amplified output optical pulses each having the desired pulse energy and pulse width.

A tunable narrow-linewidth photo-generated microwave source based on polarization control includes a high-reflectivity fiber grating, a high-gain fiber, a low-reflectivity polarization-maintaining fiber grating, a stress adjusting device, a single-mode semiconductor pump laser, an optical wavelength division multiplexer, a polarization beam splitter, a polarization controller, an optical coupler, and a photoelectric detector. Birefringence distribution in the low-reflectivity polarization-maintaining fiber grating is controlled by adjusting a stress magnitude of the stress adjusting device to the low-reflectivity polarization fiber grating, thereby controlling a laser frequency working in different polarization modes in a resonant cavity, and a tunable narrow-linewidth photo-generated microwave source is generated by a beat-frequency technology using a dual-wavelength narrow-linewidth laser with variable frequency intervals.