阅读说明：本技术 一种半导体激光器的稳频系统 (Frequency stabilization system of semiconductor laser ) 是由 张尚剑 赵音哲 何禹彤 刘永 于 2020-05-19 设计创作，主要内容包括：本发明提供一种稳定半导体激光器频率的方法。本方案主要利用受激布里渊散射的泵浦光频率与布里渊频移量的对应关系构建鉴频曲线从而进行激光器的主动稳频与频率调谐。稳频方案由半导体激光器、环形器、耦合器、掺铒光纤放大器、光电探测器、伺服控制器构成。泵浦光经过掺铒光纤放大器进行功率放大,然后通过环形器输出,通过耦合器上下两路经过两段光纤进行受激布里渊散射,两路后向散射光合束后通过环形器到达光电探测器拍频能够产生一个低频的电信号,根据所获取的电信号与泵浦光对应的关系来获得泵浦光频率,利用伺服控制器反馈控制激光器从而达到稳频控频的目的。本方案基于受激布里渊散射的特性,能够将泵浦光频率线性映射到低频电信号上,系统简单,成本低廉,在稳频控频方面具有较好的应用价值。(The invention provides a method for stabilizing the frequency of a semiconductor laser. The scheme mainly utilizes the corresponding relation between the pump light frequency of stimulated Brillouin scattering and the Brillouin frequency shift amount to construct a frequency discrimination curve so as to carry out active frequency stabilization and frequency tuning of the laser. The frequency stabilization scheme is composed of a semiconductor laser, a circulator, a coupler, an erbium-doped fiber amplifier, a photoelectric detector and a servo controller. The pump light is subjected to power amplification through the erbium-doped optical fiber amplifier, then is output through the circulator, stimulated Brillouin scattering is carried out through the upper path and the lower path of the coupler through the two sections of optical fibers, after the two paths of backscattered light are combined, beat frequency reaches the photoelectric detector through the circulator, a low-frequency electric signal can be generated, the frequency of the pump light is obtained according to the corresponding relation between the obtained electric signal and the pump light, and the servo controller is utilized to feedback control the laser, so that the purpose of frequency stabilization and frequency control is achieved. The scheme is based on the characteristic of stimulated Brillouin scattering, can linearly map the frequency of the pumping light to the low-frequency electric signal, has simple system and low cost, and has better application value in the aspects of frequency stabilization and frequency control.)

1. A frequency stabilization system for a semiconductor laser, the system comprising: the device comprises a semiconductor laser (1), an erbium-doped fiber amplifier (2), a fiber circulator (3), a fiber coupler (4), a scattering medium fiber (5), a scattering medium fiber (6), a photoelectric detector (7) and a servo controller (8).

The semiconductor laser (1) is connected with an erbium-doped fiber amplifier (2), pump light emitted by the laser enters a port (3a) of an optical fiber circulator (3) after being amplified by the erbium-doped fiber amplifier, then reaches an optical fiber coupler (4) through a second port (3b) of the optical fiber circulator (3) and is divided into an upper path and a lower path, the upper path (4a) and the lower path (4b) of the optical fiber coupler (4) are respectively connected with a scattering medium optical fiber (5) and a scattering medium optical fiber (6), light waves enter two paths of scattering media and generate stimulated Brillouin scattering to generate two paths of backscattered Stokes light, the two paths of scattered light are combined by the coupler (4) and then enter the circulator through a second port (3b) of the optical fiber circulator, and then exit from a third port (3c) of the circulator to reach a photoelectric detector (7) for beat frequency, the photoelectric detector (7) is connected with a servo controller (8), the frequency of the beat frequency signal is related to the laser frequency of the laser, and the servo controller compares the obtained beat frequency signal frequency with the reference frequency to obtain an error reference signal, so that the frequency of the laser is subjected to feedback control by utilizing the error reference signal, and the aim of stabilizing the frequency of the laser is fulfilled.

2. A frequency stabilization system of a semiconductor laser comprises the following operation processes and working characteristics:

(1) firstly, pump light emitted by a laser is subjected to power amplification through an erbium-doped fiber amplifier so as to reach a power threshold value for generating stimulated Brillouin scattering, the amplified laser reaches a coupler through a circulator and is divided into an upper path and a lower path, the upper path and the lower path are connected with two paths of optical fibers to serve as scattering media, and the pump light enters the two paths of optical fibers to generate stimulated Brillouin scattering;

(2) the pump light generates stimulated Brillouin scattering in the scattering media, the nonlinear coefficients of the two scattering media have slight difference, and the frequency of the scattered light generated by the stimulated Brillouin effect also has slight difference. The two paths of scattered light are combined into one path through the coupler and reach the photoelectric detector for beat frequency, and low-frequency signals of frequency difference frequency of the two paths of scattered light are obtained. The signal is input into a servo controller for detection;

(3) the stimulated brillouin scattering process is a process related to the frequency of the pump laser. Changing the frequency of the pump light, changing the frequency of the obtained beat frequency signal, recording the frequency of the pump light and the frequency of the beat frequency signal, and obtaining a group of low-frequency relations corresponding to the frequency of the pump laser, wherein the relation curve can be used for laser frequency discrimination;

(4) the frequency of the laser light is known from the discrimination curve, which is also fixed when the scattering medium is determined. The laser frequency can be controlled according to the frequency discrimination curve, when the frequency of the laser deviates, the frequency of the beat frequency signal deviates from the original reference frequency point, the servo controller learns the change and correspondingly adjusts the frequency of the laser by feeding back and controlling parameters such as the current of the laser and the like, so that the frequency of the beat frequency signal is restored to the reference point again, and the purpose of frequency stabilization is achieved.

3. The frequency stabilization system of a semiconductor laser as claimed in claim 1, wherein the servo controller comprises a data acquisition card and a single chip computer, the data acquisition card acquires the frequency of the electrical signal detected by the photodetector in real time and transmits the frequency to the single chip computer, and the single chip computer controls the frequency of the laser by a proportional-integral-derivative control method.

Technical Field

The invention relates to the technical field of photoelectron, in particular to a frequency stabilization system of a semiconductor laser.

Background

The laser is an indispensable basic component in an optical system, and the semiconductor laser has the advantages of small volume, light weight, long service life, low power consumption, low price, easiness in modulation and the like, and is widely applied to an optical fiber communication system. With the continuous development of optical communication, the requirement on the frequency stability of a semiconductor laser is higher and higher, but the output of the semiconductor laser is unstable when the semiconductor laser runs freely, the output frequency fluctuates greatly along with time, and the frequency stability is poor, so that the method for actively stabilizing the frequency of the semiconductor laser has important significance.

In general, the active frequency stabilization technique of the laser is lamb dip method, atomic molecule saturated absorption spectrum frequency stabilization method, PDH (Pound-Drever-Hall) frequency stabilization method based on optical cavity resonance, and the like. The lamb dip frequency stabilization method is to utilize the hole burning effect of a non-uniform widened linear gain curve, take the center frequency of the gain curve as a reference frequency, but has a range, cannot stabilize the laser frequency at one point, is easily influenced by the discharge condition, and has poor reproducibility. The saturated absorption spectrum frequency stabilization method can stabilize the frequency only aiming at certain laser with specific wavelength because the transition spectral line of atomic molecules is generally fixed, and the application is limited. The PDH method requires an additional reference signal, a modulator, a mixer, and other devices, and for signals with different frequencies, the resonant cavity needs to be adjusted, which results in a complex structure and high cost. At present, it is necessary to develop a scheme capable of satisfying any frequency stability while reducing the complexity of the whole system. In order to solve the problems, the linear relationship between stimulated Brillouin frequency shift and the frequency of the pump light is utilized, the stimulated Brillouin scattering of the pump light occurs in two transmission media, two paths of Stokes light with different frequencies generated by backscattering are subjected to beat frequency, the corresponding relationship between the electrical signal obtained by beat frequency and the frequency of the pump light is used as a frequency discrimination curve for frequency stabilization, and the frequency discrimination curve has the advantages of being capable of stabilizing any frequency, simple in structure, low in cost and convenient to integrate.

Disclosure of Invention

The invention aims to provide a system and a method for stably controlling the laser frequency output by a laser, wherein the system comprises: the device comprises a semiconductor laser (1), an erbium-doped fiber amplifier (2), a fiber circulator (3), a fiber coupler (4), a scattering medium fiber (5), a scattering medium fiber (6), a photoelectric detector (7) and a servo controller (8). The pump light emitted by the laser is subjected to power amplification through the erbium-doped fiber amplifier so as to reach a power threshold value required by stimulated Brillouin scattering, the amplified pump light reaches the coupler through the circulator and is divided into an upper path and a lower path, and the upper path and the lower path are respectively connected with two paths of optical fibers to serve as scattering media of the stimulated Brillouin scattering. The nonlinear characteristics of the two optical fibers have small difference, the two paths of scattered light are synthesized into one path by the coupler, the one path of scattered light is emitted to the photoelectric detector through the optical fiber circulator to carry out beat frequency, the servo controller collects beat frequency signals of the detector to obtain frequency information of electric signals, the computer calculates the frequency of the corresponding laser according to a frequency discrimination curve, when the frequency of the pump light drifts, the frequency of the beat frequency signals is changed to deviate from a reference signal, the servo controller obtains an error reference signal, the obtained electric signals are locked on frequency points corresponding to the frequency discrimination curve through feedback control of the laser, and frequency stabilization of the laser is completed.

A frequency stabilization system of a semiconductor laser mainly comprises the following steps:

firstly, pump light emitted by a laser is subjected to power amplification through an erbium-doped fiber amplifier so as to reach a power threshold value for generating stimulated Brillouin scattering, the amplified laser reaches a coupler through a circulator and is divided into an upper path and a lower path, the upper path and the lower path are connected with two paths of optical fibers to serve as scattering media, and the pump light enters the two paths of optical fibers to generate stimulated Brillouin scattering;

the pump light generates stimulated Brillouin scattering in the scattering media, the nonlinear coefficients of the two scattering media have slight difference, the frequencies of the scattered light generated by the stimulated Brillouin effect also have slight difference, the two paths of scattered light are combined into one path through the coupler to reach the photoelectric detector for beat frequency, so that low-frequency signals of the frequency difference frequency of the two paths of scattered light are obtained, and the signals are input into the servo controller for detection;

thirdly, the stimulated Brillouin scattering process is a process related to the frequency of the pump laser, the frequency of the pump light is changed, the frequency of the obtained beat frequency signal is changed, the frequency of the pump light and the frequency of the beat frequency signal are recorded, a group of low-frequency relations corresponding to the frequency of the pump laser can be obtained, and the relation curve can be used for laser frequency discrimination;

fourthly, the frequency of the laser can be known according to the frequency discrimination curve, and when the scattering medium is determined, the frequency discrimination curve is also fixed. The laser frequency can be controlled according to the frequency discrimination curve, when the frequency of the laser deviates, the frequency of the beat frequency signal deviates from the original reference frequency point, the servo controller learns the change and correspondingly adjusts the frequency of the laser by feeding back and controlling parameters such as the current of the laser and the like, so that the frequency of the beat frequency signal is restored to the reference point again, and the purpose of frequency stabilization is achieved.

Compared with the prior art, the invention has the beneficial effects that:

(1) the invention does not need to use an additional signal source for frequency stabilization, does not need expensive devices such as a frequency spectrograph and the like, and has the advantages of simple structure and low cost;

(2) the laser can be stabilized at any frequency in a photoelectric feedback mode and is not limited by specific wavelength;

(3) the invention can be used as a wavelength meter by utilizing the linear mapping relation between the pump light and the obtained electric signal, and can regulate and control the frequency of the laser at any time and stabilize the frequency by changing the set point.

Drawings

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of the system architecture of the present invention.

Fig. 2 is a frequency discrimination curve obtained in an example of the present invention.

Wherein FIG. 1 is numbered: the device comprises a 1-semiconductor laser, a 2-erbium-doped fiber amplifier, a 3-fiber circulator, a 4-fiber coupler, a 5-scattering medium fiber, a 6-scattering medium fiber, a 7-photoelectric detector and an 8-servo controller.

Detailed Description

The present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

The frequency stabilization system of the semiconductor laser is shown in fig. 1, and laser emitted by the semiconductor laser (1) is amplified by an erbium-doped fiber amplifier (2) so as to reach the power threshold of stimulated Brillouin scattering. Amplified light waves enter a circulator (3) through a port (3a) of the circulator, the light waves are emitted from a second port (3b) of the circulator to reach a coupler (4) and are divided into an upper branch (4a) and a lower branch (4b), the upper branch (4a) and the lower branch (4b) of the coupler (4) are respectively connected with an optical fiber (5) and an optical fiber (6) to serve as scattering media, pumping light is emitted into the two branches of optical fibers to generate stimulated Brillouin scattering, two paths of backward Stokes scattering light with different frequencies are generated, the two paths of scattering light are combined through the coupler (4), the two paths of scattering light are input into the circulator through the second port (3b) of the circulator and then emitted through the third port (3c) to reach a photoelectric detector (7) to carry out beat frequency, the photoelectric detector (7) is connected with a servo controller (8), beat frequency signals are input into the servo controller to be monitored, when the frequency of the laser drifts, the frequency of the beat frequency signal is changed, and the servo controller compares the obtained beat frequency signal frequency with the reference frequency to obtain an error reference signal, so that the frequency of the laser is subjected to feedback control by utilizing the error reference signal, and the aim of stabilizing the frequency of the laser is fulfilled.

For a further understanding of the inventive arrangements, the principles of the invention are set forth:

when light propagates in an optical fiber, stimulated Brillouin scattering can be generated when power reaches a certain threshold, and Brillouin frequency shift quantity is as follows:

wherein E, k and rho are parameters related to sound velocity, are only related to the optical fiber, and under the condition that the temperature and the strain are unchanged, the Brillouin frequency shift quantity is inversely proportional to the wavelength and directly proportional to the frequency.

The laser emitting frequency is f₀The laser is amplified by the erbium-doped fiber amplifier, is divided into two beams of light with equal power by the coupler after being emitted by the circulator, the upper arm and the lower arm are connected with two paths of optical fibers, and the pump light enters the optical fibersStimulated Brillouin scattering occurs, and the generated Stokes light frequencies are respectively as follows:

f₁＝f₀-v_B1＝f₀-k₁f₀

f₂＝f₀-v_B2＝f₀-k₂f₀

wherein f is₁、f₂Stokes light frequency f generated by stimulated Brillouin scattering of pump light on upper and lower arms respectively₀For the frequency of the pump light, k₁、k₂Corresponding frequency shift coefficients for different fibers.

The two arms produce backscattered stokes light, which is transmitted back through the coupler and then returned to the circulator. The light emitted from the circulator passes through a photoelectric detector to carry out beat frequency to generate a frequency k₁-k₂f₀I.e. k₀f₀The generated electrical signal is proportional to the pump light frequency, thereby mapping the high frequency optical signal to the low frequency electrical signal.

By varying the frequency f of the pump light₀Obtaining the corresponding electric signal, obtaining a straight line as a frequency discrimination curve to obtain a parameter k₀The frequency of the pump light is in one-to-one correspondence with the obtained electric signal in a linear relationship, the frequency discrimination curve is irrelevant to the laser, the frequency discrimination curve obtained by the system determination is determined, k₀The decision of the error signal can be made directly from this relationship after the determination. The frequency of the laser and the frequency of the obtained electric signal are in a linear relation, so that the frequency of a reference electric signal corresponding to the frequency to be locked can be calculated, when the frequency of the laser drifts, the electric signal detected by the detector can deviate from the reference electric signal, an error signal is obtained, the frequency of the laser is changed by the servo controller through adjusting the pumping current of the laser until the error signal disappears, the frequency of the detected electric signal returns to the reference electric signal, and the frequency of the laser is stabilized to the required frequency.