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Photonics
Special Issues
Progress in Ultra-Stable Laser Source and Future Prospects
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Progress in Ultra-Stable Laser Source and Future Prospects

A special issue of Photonics (ISSN 2304-6732). This special issue belongs to the section "Lasers, Light Sources and Sensors".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 June 2026 | Viewed by 1567

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Guanjun Xu

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
National Time Service Center, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 3 East Shuyuan Road, Xi’an 710600, China
Interests: optical cavity; gravitational wave detection; dark matter theory and detection; Brownian thermal noise theory; ultra-stable lasers and their applications
Dr. Dongdong Jiao

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
National Time Service Center, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 3 East Shuyuan Road, Xi’an 710600, China
Interests: ultra-stable laser; optical cavity; optical frequency transfer; automatic frequency stabilization; optical clock
Dr. Lingqiang Meng

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Hangzhou Institute for Advanced Study, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hangzhou 310024, China
Interests: single frequency lasers; ultra-stable lasers; spaceborne gravitational wave detection; Fabry–Perot cavities; whispering gallery mode cavities

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

An ultra-stable laser is a high-performance optical frequency oscillator, which boasts advantages such as low frequency noise, narrow linewidth, and excellent coherence.

Ultra-stable lasers are widely used in fundamental scientific fields such as gravitational wave detection, gravitational redshift measurement, relativistic tests, high-precision spectroscopy, and very long baseline interferometry. They also have important applications in industrial fields such as laser gyroscopes, navigation and communication, laser ranging, coherent communication, and optically generated ultra-stable microwave sources.

This Special Issue aims to provide a broad overview of the research trends in ultra-stable lasers, with a particular emphasis on advancements in stable laser sources and future prospects. We invite researchers to submit manuscripts to this Special Issue. Research areas may include (but are not limited to) the following:

  • Optical cavity;
  • Optical frequency transfer;
  • Optical frequency comb;
  • Atomic clock;
  • Fiber-stabilized laser;
  • Gravitational wave detection;
  • Quantum network;
  • Precision measurement of Rydberg atoms;
  • Optical microcavity.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Guanjun Xu
Dr. Dongdong Jiao
Dr. Lingqiang Meng
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Photonics is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • optical cavity
  • ultra-stable laser
  • optical frequency transfer
  • optical frequency comb
  • atomic clock
  • fiber-stabilized laser
  • optical microcavity
  • automatic frequency stabilization

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Further information on MDPI's Special Issue policies can be found here.

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

13 pages, 1346 KB  
Article
High-Stability Thulium-Doped All-Fiber Laser at 2050 nm
by Hanchuang Peng, Zhipeng Ding, Di Xin, Fengxin Dong, Xuyan Zhou, Hongbo Zhang and Wanhua Zheng
Photonics 2026, 13(5), 482; https://doi.org/10.3390/photonics13050482 - 13 May 2026
Viewed by 399
Abstract
High-power thulium-doped fiber lasers (TDFLs) operating near 2050 nm are of great interest for applications including atmospheric gas sensing and free-space optical communication owing to the favorable atmospheric transmission and the strong absorption bands of carbon dioxide (CO2). Here, we report [...] Read more.
High-power thulium-doped fiber lasers (TDFLs) operating near 2050 nm are of great interest for applications including atmospheric gas sensing and free-space optical communication owing to the favorable atmospheric transmission and the strong absorption bands of carbon dioxide (CO2). Here, we report an all-fiber high-power TDFL based on a 793 nm-pumped master oscillator power amplifier (MOPA) architecture. The system comprises a custom-built linear-cavity seed laser and two amplification stages. With a maximum pump power of 818 W, the final amplifier delivers 501 W at 2050 nm with a slope efficiency of 51%. Stable operation is confirmed over two hours at full power, with an RMS power fluctuation of only 0.47%. The measured beam quality factors M2 are 1.31 and 1.27 in the horizontal and vertical directions, respectively, indicating near-diffraction-limited performance. The demonstrated system combines high output power, excellent stability, and good beam quality, and thus provides a promising laser source for 2 μm high-performance applications. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Progress in Ultra-Stable Laser Source and Future Prospects)
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16 pages, 5134 KB  
Article
Development of a Compact Laser Collimating and Beam-Expanding Telescope for an Integrated 87Rb Atomic Fountain Clock
by Fan Liu, Hui Zhang, Yang Bai, Jun Ruan, Shaojie Yang and Shougang Zhang
Photonics 2026, 13(2), 142; https://doi.org/10.3390/photonics13020142 - 31 Jan 2026
Viewed by 702
Abstract
In the rubidium-87 atomic fountain clock, the laser collimating and beam-expanding telescope plays a key role in atomic cooling and manipulation, as well as in realizing the cold-atom fountain. To address the bulkiness of conventional laser collimating and beam-expanding telescopes, which limits system [...] Read more.
In the rubidium-87 atomic fountain clock, the laser collimating and beam-expanding telescope plays a key role in atomic cooling and manipulation, as well as in realizing the cold-atom fountain. To address the bulkiness of conventional laser collimating and beam-expanding telescopes, which limits system integration and miniaturization, we design and implement a compact laser collimating and beam-expanding telescope. The design employs a Galilean beam-expanding optical path to shorten the optical path length. Combined with optical modeling and optimization, this approach reduces the mechanical length of the telescope by approximately 50%. We present the mechanical structure of a five-degree-of-freedom (5-DOF) adjustment mechanism for the light source and the associated optical elements and specify the corresponding tolerance ranges to ensure their precise alignment and mounting. Based on this 5-DOF adjustment mechanism, we further propose a method for tuning the output beam characteristics, enabling precise and reproducible control of the emitted beam. The experimental results demonstrate that, after adjustment, the divergence angle of the output beam is better than 0.25 mrad, the coaxiality is better than 0.3 mrad, the centroid offset relative to the mechanical axis is less than 0.1 mm, and the output beam diameter is approximately 35 mm. Furthermore, long-term monitoring over 45 days verified the system’s robustness, maintaining fractional power fluctuations within ±1.2% without manual realignment. Compared with the original telescope, all of these beam characteristics are significantly improved. The proposed telescope therefore has broad application prospects in integrated atomic fountain clocks, atomic gravimeters, and cold-atom interferometric gyroscopes. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Progress in Ultra-Stable Laser Source and Future Prospects)
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