IEEE PHOTONICS JOURNAL, VOL. 13, NO.
4, AUGUST 2021
Theoretical Investigation of a Multistage Cascaded
Fiber Raman Soliton Frequency Shift System in
Mid-Infrared Region
Yiwei Hou, Xiaodong Wu, Qi Wu, Fei Liu, Hongyu Luo, Francois Ouellette, and Jianfeng Li , Senior Member, IEEE
Abstract—We demonstrate numerically a novel repeater-based
three-stage cascaded soliton self-frequency shift (SSFS) structure
including a germania-core fiber, an Er3+ ZBLAN fiber amplifier,
and an indium fluoride (InF3 ) or TeO2 -Bi2 O3 -ZnO-Na2 O (TBZN)
fiber. Wide wavelength tunability of 2–4.4 µm and 2–5.0 µm was
achieved with a 5 m-long InF3 and a 0.2 m-long TBZN fiber,
respectively. Numerical results show that with the same input
pulses, stronger SSFS effect with longer wavelength edge occurred
in TBZN fiber with shorter fiber length, while Raman solitons with
higher energy, conversion efficiency and shorter pulse duration
were generated in InF3 fiber. Compared with the commonly used
single frequency shift structure, both the energy and conversion
efficiency of Raman solitons in the designed repeater-based three-
stage cascaded structure were significantly higher when the same
tunable range was achieved. Our work could provide an efficient
way to simultaneously improve the tunability, output energy, and
conversion efficiency of the existing all-fiber laser sources with a
lower operation energy.
Index Terms—Mid-infrared region, soliton self-frequency shift,
cascaded structure, numerical demonstration.
I. INTRODUCTION
N RECENT years, rapid progress has been made with mid-
I infrared (MIR) laser sources covering the 2–5 μm spectral
region, due to the urgent requirements in scientific research,
military, and civilian applications. Fiber-based MIR pulse laser
sources with ultrashort pulse duration and wavelength tunability
are of great significance for fields such as attosecond pulse
generation, directional infrared countermeasures, laser surgery,
Manuscript received July 27, 2021; accepted July 28, 2021. Date of pub-
lication August 4, 2021; date of current version September 8, 2021. This
work was supported in part by the National Natural Science Foundation of
China under Grants U20A20210, 61722503, 62005040, in part by Fundamental
Research Funds for the Central Universities under Grants ZYGX2019Z012,
ZYGX2020KYQD003, in part by Science and Technology Project of Sichuan
Province under Grant 21YYJC2977, in part by Sichuan Province Science and
Technology Support Program under Grant 2019YFH0091, and in part by the
National College Student Innovation and Entrepreneurship Training Program.
(Yiwei Hou and Xiaodong Wu contributed equally to this work). (Corresponding
author: Jianfeng Li.)
The authors are with the State Key Laboratory of Electronic Thin
Films and Integrated Devices, School of Optoelectronic Science and
Engineering, University of Electronic Science and Technology of
China, Chengdu, Sichuan 610054, China (e-mail: 1207713124@qq.com;
201822050521@std.uestc.edu.cn; 625339383@qq.com; feiliu_ly@126.com;
yuhl_198904@163.com; fouellette58@yahoo.ca; lijianfeng@uestc.edu.cn).
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/JPHOT.2021.3101508
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License. For more information, see https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
1501108
and polymer machining [1]– [4]. Such sources have been demon-
strated extensively, including tunable mode-locked oscillators
with wavelength selection devices, quantum cascade lasers,
optical parametric wavelength converters, and Raman soliton
laser systems [5]– [7]. Of all those sources, Raman soliton laser,
which is realized by the soliton self-frequency shift (SSFS) effect
in optical fibers [8], is a most promising candidate for 2–5 μm
tunable MIR femtosecond pulse generation. It possesses high
output beam quality, continuous wavelength tunability, and a
compact structure.
Nowadays, different fibers such as thulium-doped [17],
germanium-doped [9]–[11], fluoride [13], [14] and tellurite
fibers [15], [16] have been used to build Raman soliton laser
covering the 2–5 μm spectral region. Initially, much research
focused on the SSFS process based on single frequency shift
structures. For example, by using the frequency shift ability of
the germania-core fiber, Du et al. [9] built a femtosecond Raman
soliton source covering 2.01–2.42 μm spectrum range. Li et al.
[10] demonstrated a compact all-fiber Raman soliton source
covering 2.1–2.7 μm based on germania-core fiber. Anashk-
ina et al. [11] demonstrated a widely tunable Raman soliton
source covering 2–3 μm in a germania-core silica-cladding
fiber. These works have verified that the germania-core fibers
offer an efficient SSFS effect in the 2–3 μm spectrum region.
However, wavelength extension longer than 3 μm is hard to be
achieved in germania-core fibers due to the rapidly increasing
fiber loss. Soft glass fibers such as fluoride and tellurite fibers
are promising candidates for SSFS when the soliton wavelength
exceeds 3 μm for their low photon energies [12]. Duval et al.
[13] achieved a watt-level tunable Raman soliton source in a
22 m-long erbium-doped fluoride glass fiber by pumping at
2.8 μm. Although the low nonlinearity of erbium-doped fluoride
glass fiber benefited the generation of Raman solitons with high
output power and conversion efficiency, only a 2.8–3.6 μm
wavelength tunability was realized. An impressive result of
2–4.3 μm wavelength tunability in a 2 m-long indium fluoride
(InF3 ) fiber was achieved by Tang et al. [14] in 2016, which
manifested the enormous potential of the InF3 fiber for the
generation of widely tunable MIR femtosecond lasers. However,
conversion efficiency lower than 3.5% was reported due to the
generation of higher-order solitons and dispersive waves under
high input power that greatly separated the energy. Koptev et al.
[15] achieved a wavelength tunability from 1.6 to 2.65 μm in
1501108
Fig. 1. Schematic of the designed three-stage cascaded SSFS structure. GeO2 :
94 mol.% germania-core fiber; EDFA: Er3+ ZBLAN fiber amplifier; InF3 :
indium fluoride fiber; TBZN: TeO2 -Bi2 O3 -ZnO-Na2 O tellurite fiber.
a microstructure TeO2 -WO3 -La2 O3 fiber. However, the output
energy was sub-50-pJ and the conversion efficiency was lower
than 2%, mostly due to the high nonlinearity of the fiber. Han
et al. [16] numerically demonstrated the possibility of extending
the soliton wavelength to 6.0 μm in a TeO2 -Bi2 O3 -ZnO-Na2 O
(TBZN) fiber. Nevertheless, the high nonlinearity of TBZN
fiber caused a low conversion efficiency of 20.1%. Moreover,
it demanded a seed pulse source at 3.5 μm, which has not been
achieved yet. One of the main challenges to this field is to simul-
taneously improve the tunability and conversion efficiency of the
Raman soliton source. Most all-fiber SSFS systems at present
are based on single frequency shift structures, in which wide tun-
ability and high conversion efficiency are negatively correlated.
On the one hand, to achieve a wide tunability, the Raman shifter
fiber pumped by high power pulses would inevitably produce
higher-order solitons and cause energy separation, resulting
in low output energy and conversion efficiency. On the other
hand, to achieve high conversion efficiency, low nonlinearity
fibers and low operation energy are desirable, which would be
beneficial for controlling the soliton order. Such behavior would
conversely confine the frequency shift effect and cause weak
tunability.
In this work, we demonstrate numerically a novel repeater-
based three-stage cascaded Raman soliton frequency shift struc-
ture. Wavelength tunability of 2–4.4 μm and 2–5.0 μm with
output energy of 7.8 and 3.8 nJ, and conversion efficiency of 46%
and 19% at the longest wavelength have been achieved using an
InF3 or TBZN fiber as the main Raman shifter fiber, respectively.
Numerical results show that compared with the single frequency
shift structure with InF3 fiber, when the frequency shift from 2
to 4.4 μm was achieved, the repeater-based three-stage cascaded
structure produces soliton pulse with 2.2 nJ higher energy and
32% higher conversion efficiency in InF3 fiber.
II. NUMERICAL MODELING
Fig. 1 shows the schematic of the designed repeater-based
three-stage cascaded SSFS structure consisting of a seed pulse
source, a fiber amplifier, and Raman shifter fibers. The system
starts with a seed pulse source at ∼2 μm, which could be
achieved by a mode-locked structure. The generated seed pulses
are coupled into a 0.3 m-long 94 mol.% germania-core fiber with
a 6/125 μm core/cladding diameter [10] as the first-stage shifter
to preliminarily extend the soliton wavelength. The output pulses
from the first-stage require energy compensation for further
wavelength extension, which could be achieved by a repeater as
the second-stage. An erbium-doped fiber amplifier (EDFA) with
IEEE PHOTONICS JOURNAL, VOL. 13, NO. 4, AUGUST 2021
a 980 nm pump and a 4 m-long double-clad zirconium fluoride
fiber (Le Verre Fluoré) that consists of 7% mol. erbium-doped
core with a core diameter of 15 μm acts as the second-stage of
the SSFS system. The obtained pulses from the germania-core
fiber are amplified with a minor frequency shift in EDFA for
further wavelength extension in the next stage. The soliton
pulses amplified by Er3+ ZBLAN fiber are coupled into a 5
m-long InF3 fiber (Thorlabs) or a 0.2 m-long TBZN fiber [16],
which acts as the third-stage to obtain longer wavelength pulses.
Both the InF3 fiber and the TBZN fiber have a core/cladding
diameter of 9/125 μm. With properly chosen geometrical pa-
rameters, the employed fibers all work in the anomalous dis-
persion region and possess a relatively high nonlinear coeffi-
cient in the operating spectrum to efficiently excite the SSFS
effect.
Fig. 2 shows fiber loss and group velocity dispersion (GVD)
parameter β 2 of the three Raman shifter fibers we employed. The
position of zero-dispersion wavelength (ZDW) is marked by a
vertical green line. As shown in Fig. 2(a), the fiber loss of the 94
mol.% germania-core fiber is less than 1 dB/m in the region of
2–2.5 μm but increases rapidly when the wavelength approaches
3 μm, indicating its inefficiency for wavelength extension longer
than 3 μm. The ZDW of the 94 mol.% germania-core fiber is
located at 1.4 μm and the β 2 value is −115.39 ps2 /km at 1.97μm,
which manifests a strong anomalous dispersion effect and is
efficient to excite the SSFS effect. Figs. 2(b) and (c) display the
loss and β 2 values of the InF3 and TBZN fiber, respectively.
Both the InF3 and TBZN fiber have a relatively low loss (e.g.,
0.6 dB/m @ 5 μm for InF3 fiber and 2.1 dB/m @ 5 μm for
TBZN fiber) in MIR, implying that it is possible to obtain soliton
pulses with longer wavelength through SSFS effect in the two
fibers. The ZDW of InF3 and TBZN fiber is located at 1.7 μm
and 2.3 μm, respectively. At 2.8 μm, the β 2 values of InF3 and
TBZN fiber are -57.3 ps2 /km and −162.2 ps2 /km, respectively,
which indicates that it is possible to effectively excite the SSFS
effect in these two fibers.
We used a generalized nonlinear Schrödinger equation
(GNLSE) to model the pulse propagation in optical fibers [17]:
∂A(z, T ) α  in+1 ∂ n
= − A(z, T ) + βn A(z, T )
∂z 2 n≥1
n! ∂T n
+ iγ(1 + iτshock )
  +∞ 
× A(z, T ) R(t )|A(T − t )|2 dt (1)
−∞
where A(z,T) is the complex field envelope in the time domain, α
is the fiber loss, β n is the dispersion coefficient associated with
the Taylor expansion of the propagation constant at the reference
frequency, γ is the nonlinear coefficient, and τ shock is the addi-
tional shock time. R(t) is the Raman response function includes
both instantaneous electronic and delayed Raman contributions
and usually modeled as [18]:
R (t) = (1 − fR ) δ (t) + fR hR (t) (2)
where fR is the Raman contribution to the total nonlinear re-
sponse and hR (t) is the delayed Raman response usually modeled
HOU et al.: THEORETICAL INVESTIGATION OF A MULTISTAGE CASCADED FIBER RAMAN 1501108

Fig. 2. Loss spectrum and group velocity dispersion parameter β 2 of (a) 94 mol.% germania-core fiber, (b) InF3 fiber, (c) TBZN fiber.

by a single Lorentzian approach [17]: where A(ω) is the Fourier transform of A(z,T) and g(ω) is the
  frequency-dependent gain term modeled by Gaussian shape with
τ1 2 +τ2 2 t t spectral width of 100 nm.
hR (t) = 2
exp − sin (3)
τ1 +τ2 τ1 τ1 The numerical study in [22] modeled the gain coefficient g(ω)
where for 94% mol germania-core fiber, τ 1 = 12 fs, τ 2 = 83 fs as a constant with the increase of pulse energy. However, this
[19]. For InF3 fiber, τ 1 = 16.67 fs, τ 2 = 20.32 fs [16]. method neglects the saturation of the fiber amplifier as the energy
For Er3+ ZBLAN and TBZN fiber, hR is commonly con- of the amplified pulse increases. Therefore, we modified the
structed based on the intermediate-broadening model for the small gain coefficient g(ω) as a saturable term [23]:
 2
Raman gain spectrum [19], [20]: |A (z, T )| dT
  g = g0 exp − (7)
8
 Es
Γi t 2
hR (t) = Ai exp(−γi t) exp − sin(ωv,i t) (4)
i=1
4 where g0 is the maximum gain coefficient and Es is the saturation
energy related to the pump energy injected to fiber amplifier. In
where Ai is the peak intensity, ω v,i , γ i , and Γi are related to the this model, as the pulse is continuously amplified, the gain coef-
Gaussian component position, Lorentzian and Gaussian full- ficient decreases gradually. This approach is better in modeling
width of half maximum, respectively. the realistic case. At each calculation step, the gain coefficient
The splicing coupling efficiency between each stage was should be recalculated through (7) and substituted to the GNLSE
estimated to be [11]: in the next step.
  In our numerical simulation, the GNLSE was solved by the
Ein 4 Aef f i + Aef f j
=  2 (5) split-up Fourier method. To ensure the accuracy of numerical
Eo Aef f i + Aef f j simulation, a fourth-order Runge-Kutta algorithm was used and
where Eo is the output energy of the prior stage, Ein is the the dispersion coefficient was expanded to the 8th order.
energy coupled into the next stage, Aeff i and Aeff j are mode
effective areas of two cascaded stages. The calculated coupling III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
efficiency between germania-core fiber and Er3+ ZBLAN fiber The seed pulse source of the designed three-stage cascaded
was 29%, mainly due to the large difference of their mode SSFS system was established by launching a 1.96 μm seed pulse
effective areas. And the coupling efficiencies from Er3+ ZBLAN with the pulse width of ∼700 fs at the full width at half max-
fiber to InF3 fiber and TBZN fiber were calculated as 76% and imum (FWHM) into a thulium-doped fiber amplifier (TDFA)
69%, respectively. for pre-amplification. The seed pulse was obtained using the
To model the pulse propagation in fiber amplifier, a gain term hybrid mode-locking method combining NPR and single-walled
was added in GNLSE [22]: carbon nanotubes (SWCNT) saturable absorbers. The 1% port
output of a 99/1 optical coupler was used to monitor the pulse
∂A(z, T ) α
= − A(z, T ) domain shape by connecting with an optical detector. Fig. 3(a)
∂z 2 displays the stable oscilloscope trace of the ∼700 fs seed pulse

+∞
g(ω)  in+1 ∂ n with the repetition rate of ∼13.8 MHz. The measured output
+ A(ω)eiωT dω + βn
−∞ 2 n≥1
n! ∂T n spectrum from TDFA with an output power of 114 mW, and the
  simulation result are shown in Fig. 3(b). The numerical result
i was in good agreement with the experiment. We could see from
× A(z, T ) + iγ 1 +
ω0 this figure that the soliton was about to spill up in the spectrum.
  +∞  The pulse width of the output seed pulse decreased with the
× A(z, T )   2 
R(t )|A(T − t )| dt (6) increase in pump power and was ∼120 fs when the output
−∞ power was 114 mW. If the seed pulse was further amplified,
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Fig. 3. (a) The oscilloscope trace captured in the seed pulse, (b) measured output spectrum from TDFA with output power of 114 mW and the simulation result.
Fig. 4. Simulation results of the (a) spectral output and (b) temporal output of the most shifted soliton pulse in 0.3 m-long 94 mol.% germania-core fiber with
the change of input energy.
the first soliton would gradually shift out of the amplification
region. Simultaneously, the residual would still be amplified
and produce nosier solitons in the spectrum [12]. Therefore,
a higher pump power was not used. The realization of the seed
pulse source at ∼2 μm forms a solid foundation for the following
simulations.
The amplified pulses from TDFA were regarded as seed pulses
of the following 94 mol.% germania-core fiber, which acts as
the first-stage to preliminarily extend the wavelength. In high
nonlinear fiber such as the germania-core fiber, the soliton would
shift swiftly in a short propagation distance. Then the speed of
frequency shift would reduce gradually with the process of tem-
poral broadening and energy loss in the following propagation
distance. The loss of germania-core fiber increases rapidly when
the wavelength approaches 2.8 μm (e.g., 1.8 dB/m @2.7 m),
indicating that it is inefficient to excite the SSFS effect beyond
2.8 μm. Besides, in the designed three-stage cascaded system,
the soliton pulse is expected to shift to 2.8 μm as close as possible
in the germania-core fiber for the subsequent amplification in
Er3+ ZBLAN fiber. Based on the above two observations, the
fiber length of germania-core fiber was optimized to 0.3 m
through simulations, which is long enough for the expected
frequency shift to 2.8 μm and simultaneously solves the above
problem.
IEEE PHOTONICS JOURNAL, VOL. 13, NO. 4, AUGUST 2021
The nonlinear coefficient and β 2 value of 94 mol.% germania-
core fiber at 1.97 μm are 12.4 W−1 /km and −115.39 ps2 /km, re-
spectively, which are efficient to excite the SSFS effect even with
relatively low input energy. Figs. 4(a) and 4(b) show simulation
results of the spectral and temporal output of the most shifted
Raman soliton as a function of input energy. The soliton order
can be calculated using the formula N2 = γP0 T0 2 /|β 2 | [17]. In
each input case, the soliton order N was all ∼6, for higher output
energy from TDFA accompanied with shorter pulse width. The
new spectral component (i. e. Raman soliton) was generated
in germania-core fiber through the effect of stimulated Raman
scattering. The SSFS effect caused the redshift of fundamental
soliton and temporal separation in the germania-core fiber. As
shown in Fig. 4(a), by changing the input energy, the wavelength
of the Raman soliton could be continuously tunable from 2
to 2.83 μm. In the initial stage, the frequency shift of soliton
increased rapidly with the increase of input energy. When we
further increased the input energy, the speed of frequency shift
reduced gradually due to larger anomalous dispersion and higher
fiber loss. A second soliton was generated in the spectrum when
the input energy reached 4.8 nJ. As shown in Fig. 4(b), the pulse
width started from 107 fs. When we increased the input energy
to 1.6 nJ, soliton fission occurred and caused pulse compression
in the temporal domain. When the input energy was further
HOU et al.: THEORETICAL INVESTIGATION OF A MULTISTAGE CASCADED FIBER RAMAN 1501108

Fig. 5. Simulation results of the (a) spectral output, (b) temporal output and (c) variation of the gain coefficient value with the propagation distance in 4 m-long
Er3+ ZBLAN fiber as a function of saturation energy.

increased, the soliton shifted to a longer wavelength and the

pulse width increased due to larger anomalous dispersion and
lower nonlinearity [25]. At the maximum input energy, the most
shifted soliton reached a maximum wavelength of 2.83 μm with
an energy of 2.1 nJ and FWHM pulse width of 121 fs. We
paid special attention to the case when the input energy was
5.7 nJ, in which the wavelength of the most shifted soliton
approached 2.8 μm. It was exactly located at the gain center
of the EDFA, thus was perfectly suitable for the subsequent
amplification.
The 2.0 nJ pulse at 2.8 μm with FWHM pulse width of 114 fs
obtained from the 0.3 m-long 94 mol.% germania-core fiber was
then injected into a 4 m-long Er3+ ZBLAN fiber. It acted as the
second-stage to boost up the pulse energy for further wavelength
extension in the following Raman shifter fiber. The maximum
gain coefficient g0 of the EDFA was set as 20 dB/m according to
experimental results [12]. The spectral and temporal output of
the Er3+ ZBLAN fiber as a function of the saturation energy is
shown in Fig. 5. We could see from Fig. 5(a) that with increasing
saturation energy, the output energy of soliton pulses increased
correspondingly and gradually saturated at ∼17 nJ. A minor
frequency shift was observed in Er3+ ZBLAN fiber for short
fiber length. It should be noted that the soliton fission could occur Fig. 6. Simulation results of the (a) spectral output and (b) temporal output
in the Er3+ ZBLAN fiber with a long enough fiber length [12]. of the most shifted soliton in 5 m-long InF3 fiber; (c) spectral output and
But here we mainly used the Er3+ ZBLAN fiber as a repeater (d) temporal output of the most shifted soliton in 0.2 m-long TBZN fiber with
the change of input energy.
for better SSFS performance in the third-stage. As shown in
Fig. 5(b), the pulse width of the output pulse started from 212 fs
at FWHM, which was longer than the width of pulse obtained investigated spectrum is rather wide, the frequency dependence
from 94 mol.% germania-core fiber due to large abnormal of parameters in GNLSE should be considered appropriately. For
dispersion. As the saturation energy increased, the pulse width the InF3 fiber, we used a correction to τ shock term in GNLSE to
gradually decreased, eventually reaching 125 fs. As shown in model the frequency-dependent mode effective area [24]. For
Fig. 5(c), the value of the gain coefficient decreased gradually the TBZN fiber, the correction method is less effective due
when the pulse was constantly amplified and propagated in the to its rapidly varying mode effective area and large nonlinear
fiber. Higher saturation energy helped maintain a higher gain coefficient in this spectrum region. Therefore, we recalculated
coefficient through the propagation distance, thus leading to γ and substituted it into the GNLSE at each propagation step.
higher output energy. This method exactly described the propagation of the longest
The Er3+ ZBLAN fiber was consecutively spliced to a 5 m- wavelength Raman soliton [25].
long InF3 fiber or a 0.2 m-long TBZN fiber as the third-stage for Fig. 6 displays simulation results in 5 m-long InF3 fiber
further wavelength extension. The amplified pulses from EDFA and 0.2 m-long TBZN fiber. In the calculation, the coupling
could be regarded as the seed pulses of the two fibers. Since the efficiencies from Er3+ ZBLAN to the InF3 fiber and TBZN fiber
1501108
were taken as 76% and 69%, respectively. In the figure, input
energy represents the output energy from EDFA before coupling.
As shown in Fig. 6(a), by changing the input energy, the Raman
soliton could be continuously tunable from 2.8 to 4.4 μm in
5 m-long InF3 fiber. When the input energy reached 17.0 nJ, the
calculated soliton order N was ∼3 and the soliton shifted to a
maximum wavelength of 4.4 μm with an energy of 7.8 nJ. The
conversion efficiency considering the coupling loss was up to
46%, indicating nearly half energy was transferred to the shifted
soliton pulse. It should be noted that better SSFS performance
could be achieved by increasing the length of the InF3 fiber at
the cost of reducing output energy and conversion efficiency.
Fig. 6(b) shows the temporal output of the most shifted Raman
soliton in InF3 fiber. When the input energy was relatively low,
the pulse width of the output soliton was shorter than the input
seed pulse due to soliton fission. When the soliton shifted to
a longer wavelength with more input energy, as observed in
the germania-core fiber, the pulse width increased for lower
nonlinearity and larger anomalous dispersion. When the soliton
shifted to a maximum central wavelength of 4.4 μm, the pulse
width was 234 fs at FWHM.
Fig. 6(c) shows the output spectra in 0.2 m-long TBZN fiber
as the change in input energy. Impressive wavelength tunability
from 2.8 to 5.0 μm was achieved in this fiber. The coupling
efficiency from Er3+ ZBLAN fiber to TBZN fiber is close to
that of InF3 fiber. In this spectrum region, the nonlinearity of
TBZN fiber (21.5 W−1 /km @ 2.8 μm) is much higher than
that of InF3 fiber (0.7 W−1 /km @ 2.8 μm), and TBZN fiber
possesses a larger Raman contribution (fR = 0.20 for InF3 fiber
and 0.51 for TBZN fiber), resulting in more frequency shift in
shorter fiber length. When the input energy increased to 17.0 nJ,
the calculated soliton order N was ∼7 and the soliton shifted
to the longest wavelength of 5.0 μm with an energy of 3.8 nJ. The
conversion efficiency considering the coupling loss was merely
19%, which was much lower than that in InF3 fiber, mostly due
to its higher nonlinearity and background loss. Fig. 6(d) displays
the temporal output of the most shifted Raman soliton in TBZN
fiber. The anomalous dispersion of TBZN fiber in this region,
as shown in Fig. 2, is much larger than that of InF3 fiber, which
led to a stronger temporal broadening effect in TBZN fiber and
resulted in longer pulse width with shorter fiber length. At the
maximum input energy, the FWHM pulse width of the most
shifted soliton pulse was 315 fs. By increasing the fiber length
of TBZN fiber, output pulses with a longer wavelength could
be achieved. However, as shown in Fig. 2(c), the fiber loss in-
creases rapidly when the wavelength exceeds 5.0 μm, indicating
that it is inefficient to use TBZN fiber for further wavelength
extension.
The above discussions suggest that compared with tellurite
fibers, fluoride fibers are more desirable for MIR Raman soliton
generation with a short pulse width, high conversion efficiency,
and high output energy. Tellurite fibers are more advantageous
for longer wavelength extension and compact all-fiber system.
To further explore the advantages of this repeater-based
multistage cascaded structure on the SSFS performance, we
conducted numerical simulations on the single frequency shift
IEEE PHOTONICS JOURNAL, VOL. 13, NO. 4, AUGUST 2021
structure as a comparison. The ZDW of the TBZN fiber we
used is located at 2.3 μm, indicating that it is impossible to
cover the wavelength lower than 2.3 μm in TBZN fiber through
the SSFS effect. Here we focus on the InF3 fiber, which has
the potential to solely cover the 2–5 μm spectrum range via the
SSFS effect. To compare the SSFS characteristics of the two
structures with InF3 fiber, we launched the same seed pulses
at 1.97 μm to a 5 m-long InF3 fiber. By changing the input
energy, shifted soliton pulses with different central wavelengths
were generated in the single frequency shift structure with InF3
fiber. Figs. 7(a) and 7(b) show the output energy and conversion
efficiency of the most shifted soliton pulse in two structures at
the same frequency shift level. It is clear that both the energy and
conversion efficiency of the most shifted solitons in three-stage
cascaded structure were higher than those in the single frequency
shift structure. For example, to achieve frequency shift from 2
to 2.8 μm, the single frequency shift structure with InF3 fiber
produced a 1.8 nJ soliton at 2.8 μm with a conversion efficiency
of 22%. In comparison, the 2–2.8 μm wavelength coverage was
achieved by the 0.3 m-long 94 mol.% germania-core fiber in the
three-stage cascaded system. The energy of the most shifted soli-
ton at 2.8 μm was 2.0 nJ and the calculated conversion efficiency
was 34%, both of which are higher than those obtained in the
single frequency shift structure. At the maximum input energy, a
frequency shift from 2 to 4.4 μm was achieved. The energy of the
most shifted soliton was 5.6 nJ and the conversion efficiency in
InF3 fiber was 14% in the single frequency shift structure, which
was much lower than the 7.8 nJ, 46% outcome obtained from
the three-stage cascaded structure. Fig. 7(c) shows the FWHM
pulse width of the most shifted soliton pulse in two structures at
the same frequency shift level. Below 2.8 μm, the output soliton
pulse from the three-stage cascaded structure had a shorter pulse
width than the single InF3 fiber. Beyond 2.8 μm, when the same
frequency shift was achieved, the output pulse width of the
single frequency shift structure was generally shorter than that
obtained from the three-stage cascaded structure. For example,
when achieving frequency shift from 2 to 4.4 μm, the FWHM
pulse width for the single InF3 fiber was 197 fs, which was
shorter than the 234 fs FWHM pulse width obtained from the
three-stage cascaded structure.
The density plots in Fig. 8 show spectral evolution in
two SSFS structures when a 2–4.4 μm tunable range was
achieved, which could help understand the underlying mecha-
nism. Fig. 8(a) shows the simulation results of launching a 40 nJ
seed pulse with FWHM pulse width of 120 fs at 1.97 μm into a 5
m-long InF3 fiber. The calculated soliton number N for the input
pulse was ∼19. Supercontinuum was not formed for insufficient
input energy. Higher-order solitons were formed in the initial
stage and broke up into several constituent fundamental solitons
caused by the Raman scattering and higher-order dispersion.
Dispersive waves in the normal dispersion regime were ob-
served. The most shifted Raman soliton located at 4.4 μm had
an energy of 5.6 nJ and FWHM pulse width of 197 fs. The
conversion efficiency of this structure was only 14%, largely
caused by energy separation to the constituent fundamental
solitons and dispersive waves.
HOU et al.: THEORETICAL INVESTIGATION OF A MULTISTAGE CASCADED FIBER RAMAN 1501108

Fig. 7. Simulation results of the (a) output energy, (b) conversion efficiency and (c) FWHM pulse width of the most shifted soliton pulse in the three-stage
cascaded structure and single frequency shift structure as a function of the central wavelength of the most shifted soliton pulse.

Fig. 8. Simulation results of the pulse evolution in (a) single 5 m-long InF3 fiber, (b) 0.3 m-long 94 mol.% germania-core fiber and 5 m-long InF3 fiber of the
repeater-based three-stage cascaded system by pumping at 1.97 µm.

Fig. 8(b) shows the pulse evolution in the 0.3 m-long 94 mol.%
germania-core fiber and the 5 m-long InF3 fiber of the repeater-
based three-stage cascaded structure. A 1.97 μm and 5.7 nJ seed
pulse with FWHM pulse width of 120 fs was launched into the
0.3 m-long 94 mol.% germania-core fiber. The calculated soliton
order N in germania-core fiber was ∼6. Only a second soliton
was observed in the spectrum and the energy of the most shifted
Raman soliton was 2.0 nJ. Compared with the single frequency
shift structure, in 2–2.8 μm spectrum region the 94 mol.%
germania-core fiber possesses one order higher nonlinearity,
which is more effective for Raman soliton frequency conversion.
In addition, the energy was controlled at a relatively low level,
which prohibited the generation of higher-order solitons and
dispersive waves. The most shifted soliton pulse obtained from
germania-core fiber was amplified by the Er3+ ZBLAN fiber
which acted as a repeater. When the saturation energy was
6.0 nJ, as shown in Fig. 5, the output energy of the soliton
pulse was 17.0 nJ and the FWHM pulse width was 125 fs.
The output pulse was consecutively coupled into the 5 m-long
InF3 fiber. Since in the cascaded structure we pump deeper in
the anomalous region of InF3 fiber than the single frequency
shift structure, the β 2 value was higher and the nonlinear co-
efficient was lower. Besides, the input energy was much lower,
resulting in a much lower soliton order which prohibited energy
dissipation of the fundamental soliton. All of the advantages of
the repeater-based three-stage cascaded structure contributed to
a better SSFS performance. The wavelength of the output Raman
soliton was 4.4 μm, same as the single frequency shift struc-
ture. However, the repeater-based cascaded structure produced
a Raman soliton pulse with 2.2 nJ higher output energy and the
conversion efficiency in InF3 fiber was 32% higher. If the InF3
fiber was lengthened or consecutively spliced to another Raman
shifter fiber (e.g., chalcogenide fiber), the cascaded structure
will achieve a wider tunable range than the single frequency
shift structure due to its much higher output energy. Moreover,
the operation energy in the cascaded structure was much lower,
which is beneficial for the stability and durability of the system.
The pulse obtained from the three-stage cascaded structure had
a little wider pulse duration than the single structure, mainly
due to a stronger temporal broadening effect caused by larger
anomalous dispersion of the InF3 fiber at the pumping wave-
length.
IV. CONCLUSION
We have designed a repeater-based three-stage cascaded SSFS
structure and conducted a theoretical investigation. The seed
pulse source of the cascaded structure at ∼2 μm is realized in
1501108
the experiment. The simulation of the SSFS effect in TDFA
is in high consistency with the experiment. Using an InF3 or
TBZN fiber as the main Raman shifter fiber of the cascaded
structure, we achieve the wavelength tunability of 2–4.4 μm
and 2–5.0 μm with an output energy of 7.8 and 3.8 nJ, and
conversion efficiency of 46% and 19% at the longest wave-
length, respectively. Our numerical results show that fluoride
fibers are more suitable for MIR Raman soliton generation with
short pulse width, high conversion efficiency, and output energy.
Tellurite fibers have advantages for longer wavelength extension
and building compact all-fiber system. We also compare the
SSFS performance of the designed cascaded structure with the
commonly used single frequency structure using InF3 fiber as
the main Raman shifter fiber. When the 2–4.4 μm tunable range
is achieved, the repeater-based three-stage cascaded structure
produces a soliton pulse with 2.2 nJ higher energy and 32%
higher conversion efficiency in InF3 fiber. Moderate soliton
order in the three-stage cascaded structure greatly benefits its
SSFS performance. Our work demonstrates that with the same
tunable range, the cascaded frequency shift structure is a promis-
ing candidate to improve both the output energy and conver-
sion efficiency of the commonly used single frequency shift
structure.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
Yiwei Hou and Xiaodong Wu wrote the simulation program,
prepared the paper, and discussed with Jianfeng Li, Hongyu
Luo and Francois Ouellette. Qi Wu collected and provided all
the fiber parameters required in the work. Fei Liu provided good
suggestions for the simulation and paper writing.
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