A device for the generation of ultrashort pulses, wherein an oscillator is formed by: a first and a second non-overlapping transmission band-pass filter, which can serve as reflecting end element of the oscillator; optically transparent means with non-linear Kerr coefficient χ.sup.(3) different from zero configured to achieve a spectral broadening by self-phase modulation of the signal transiting through these means; an optical waveguide that produces a positive gain; a node configured to receive a trigger signal designed to activate the operation of the oscillator; a trigger signal generating device comprising: a laser source, for example a microchip, configured to generate a laser pulse, preferably with a minimum bandwidth, having a duration of hundreds of ps, up to the ns; a coupling system designed to introduce the pulse of the trigger laser into a waveguide made of an optically transparent material characterised by a non-linear Kerr coefficient χ.sup.(3) different from zero, which is configured to produce two distinct effects in order to spectrally broaden the pulse of the trigger laser, and precisely: a) self-phase modulation four-wave mixing; the output of the waveguide supplies the trigger signal to the node. The pulses produced by the oscillator typically have a duration of the order of the picosecond and are easily reduced to the Fourier limit of circa 100 femtoseconds by means of a dispersive device.

In some implementations, a device may apply a modulation to an electrical current to derive a modulated electrical current. The device may supply the modulated electrical current to an optical pump source for an optical amplifier to cause the optical pump source to emit light based on the modulated electrical current. The device may generate a signal based on an optical power of the light emitted by the optical pump source. The device may filter the signal with respect to a feedback signal that is to result from the modulated electrical current to derive a filtered signal. The device may process the filtered signal to identify whether the feedback signal is present in the filtered signal based on a power indicated by the filtered signal. Whether the feedback signal is present indicates a state of the optical pump source.

Disclosed herein are methods and systems for automatically configuring a raman amplifier. One exemplary system may be provided with the raman amplifier, a user device, and a network administration device. A processor of the network administration device executes instructions that cause the network administration device to generate a machine learning model using machine learning techniques and deploy the machine learning model to a controller of the raman amplifier. When a desired gain profile is communicated from the user device to the controller of the raman amplifier, instructions stored in non-transitory computer readable memory cause a processor of the controller to automatically assess the desired gain profile using the machine learning model to determine raman pump configurations for each of a plurality of raman pumps of the raman amplifier and send the determined raman pump configurations to each of the plurality of raman pumps of the raman amplifier.

An electrodeless laser-driven light source includes a laser that generates a CW sustaining light. A pump laser generates pump light. A Q-switched laser crystal receives the pump light generated by the pump laser and generates pulsed laser light at an output in response to the generated pump light. A first optical element projects the pulsed laser light along a first axis to a breakdown region in a gas-filled bulb comprising an ionizing gas. A second optical element projects the CW sustaining light along a second axis to a CW plasma region in the gas-filled bulb comprising the ionizing gas. A detector detects plasma light generated by a CW plasma and generates a detection signal at an output. A controller generates control signals that control the pump light to the Q-switched laser crystal so as to extinguish the pulsed laser light within a time delay after the detection signal exceeds a threshold level.

A passively, Q-switched laser operating at an eye safe wavelength of between 1.2 and 1.4 microns is described. The laser may operate at a lasing wavelength of 1.34 microns and use a gain element of Nd:YVO.sub.4 and a saturable absorber element of V:YAG. The systems and methods to produce short pulses having a pulse duration less than 1 ns and high energy pulses having pulse energies greater than 2 μJ are described.

An electrodeless laser-driven light source includes a laser that generates a CW sustaining light. A pump laser generates pump light. A Q-switched laser crystal receives the pump light generated by the pump laser and generates pulsed laser light at an output in response to the generated pump light. A first optical element projects the pulsed laser light along a first axis to a breakdown region in a gas-filled bulb comprising an ionizing gas. A second optical element projects the CW sustaining light along a second axis to a CW plasma region in the gas-filled bulb comprising the ionizing gas. A detector detects plasma light generated by a CW plasma and generates a detection signal at an output. A controller generates control signals that control the pump light to the Q-switched laser crystal so as to extinguish the pulsed laser light within a time delay after the detection signal exceeds a threshold level.

A laser oscillator includes a first structure disposed with an optical section, a second structure disposed with a power source section, and an electric cable that electrically connects the optical section and the power source section. The first structure is removably coupled to the second structure, the electric cable is removably connected to at least one of the power source section and the optical section, and the optical section is allowed to be replaced.

The present invention is to provide a backscattered light amplification device, an optical pulse test apparatus, a backscattered light amplification method, and an optical pulse test method for amplifying a desired propagation mode of Rayleigh backscattered light with a desired gain by stimulated Raman scattering in a fiber under test having the plurality of propagation modes. The backscattered light amplification device according to the present invention is configured to control individually power, incident timing, and pulse width of a pump pulse for each propagation mode when the pump pulse is incident in a plurality of propagation modes after the probe pulse is input to the fiber under test in any propagation mode.

Disclosed herein are methods and systems for configuring a raman amplifier. One exemplary system may be provided with a raman amplifier having a plurality of raman pumps and a controller, and a network administration device. The network administration device generates and deploys a first machine learning model and a second machine learning model to the controller of the raman amplifier. A desired gain profile may be automatically assessed using the first machine learning model to determine raman pump configurations for each of the plurality of raman pumps of the raman amplifier. The raman pump configurations for each of the plurality of raman pumps of the raman amplifier may be processed with the second machine learning model to produce an output gain profile. The determined raman pump configurations are deployed only if the output gain profile and the desired gain profile match to within a margin of error.

Photonic chip includes an external cavity (EC) optical circuit to provide wavelength-selective optical feedback to a length of active optical fiber. Light generated in the active optical fiber may be coupled from the EC circuit to a light processing circuit of the photonic chip, such as an optical modulator or an optical mixer. The EC circuits may include single-frequency and multi-frequency optical filters, which may include ring resonators, dual-ring resonators, and optical modulators to support multi-frequency lasers. The EC circuits may further include pump combiners and optical isolators.