Ultralow-quantum-defect Raman laser based on the boson peak in phosphosilicate fiber

Quantum defects (QDs) have always been a key factor of the thermal effect in high-power fiber lasers. Much research on low-QD fiber lasers has been reported in the past decades, but most of it is based on active fibers. Besides, Raman fiber lasers based on the stimulated Raman scattering effect in passive fiber are also becoming an important kind of high-power fiber laser for their unique advantages, such as their significantly broader wavelength-tuning range and being free of photon darkening. In this paper, we demonstrate an ultralow-QD Raman fiber laser based on phosphosilicate fiber. There is a strong boson peak located at a frequency shift of 3.65 THz in the Raman gain spectrum of the phosphosilicate fiber we employed. By utilizing this boson peak to provide Raman gain and adopting an amplified spontaneous emission source at 1066 nm as the pump source, 1080 nm Stokes light is generated, corresponding to a QD of 1.3%. The spectral purity at 1080 nm can be up to 96.03%, and the output power is 12.5 W, corresponding to a conversion efficiency of 67.2%. Moreover, by increasing the pump wavelength to 1072 nm, the QD is reduced to 0.74%, and the output power at 1080 nm is 10.7 W, with a spectral purity of 82.82%. To the best of our knowledge, this is the lowest QD ever reported for Raman fiber lasers. This work proposes a promising way of achieving high-power, high-efficiency Raman fiber lasers.