Vortex soliton oscillation in a mode-locked laser based on broadband long-period fiber grating
Linping Teng, Jiafeng Lu, Yang He, Longtao Wang, Xianglong Zeng
Abstract
Optical vortex beams (OVBs) have attracted much attention in diverse applications and spatiotemporal mode locking for optical soliton formation. In this Letter, a compact mode-locked (ML) vortex fiber laser is demonstrated based on a broadband long-period fiber grating near the dispersion turnaround point, where the group velocities between the core modes of ${{\rm LP}_{01}}$ and ${{\rm LP}_{11}}$ in a two-mode fiber are matched. The OVB pulses with first-order orbital angular momentum are oscillated through broadband mode conversion inside the cavity. The time-stretch dispersive Fourier transform method is also employed for the observation of vortex soliton buildup dynamics. The study of vortex soliton oscillation motivates the development towards controlling vortex modes in the ML fiber lasers.