Noise performance and long-term stability of near- and mid-IR gas-filled fiber Raman lasers

TL;DR

This paper investigates the noise characteristics and long-term stability of near- and mid-IR gas-filled fiber Raman lasers, revealing how pulse energy influences noise and how heat affects stability, providing insights for spectroscopic applications.

Contribution

It presents the first detailed analysis of noise and stability in gas-filled fiber Raman lasers, highlighting the relationship between pulse energy, noise, and heat-induced drift.

Findings

Higher Raman pulse energy reduces noise.

Pulse peak intensity noise is lower than pulse energy noise.

Heat release during Stokes generation causes long-term drift.

Abstract

In this letter, the characteristics of noise and long-term stability of near- and mid-infrared (near-IR and mid-IR) gas-filled fiber Raman lasers have been investigated for the first time. The results reveal that an increase in Raman pulse energy is associated with a decrease in noise, and that the relative pulse peak intensity noise (RIN) is always lower than the relative pulse energy noise (REN). We also demonstrate that long-term drift of the pulse energy and peak power are directly linked with the high amount of heat release during the Raman Stokes generation. The demonstrated noise and long-term stability performance provide necessary references for potential spectroscopic applications as well as further improvements of the emerging mid-IR gas-filled hollow-core fiber (HCF) Raman laser technology.