Historical datasets (1950-2022) of monthly water balance components for the Laurentian Great Lakes.

This study develops a 73-year dataset of water balance components from 1950 to 2022 for the Laurentian Great Lakes Basins. This is carried out using the Large Lakes Statistical Water Balance Model (L2SWBM), which provides a Bayesian statistical framework that assimilates binational input datasets sourced from the United States and Canada. The L2SWBM infers feasible water balance component estimates through this Bayesian framework by constraining the output with a standard water balance equation.

1.7 W holmium-doped fluoroindate fiber laser at 3920 nm.

A monolithic fiber laser emitting 1.7 W at 3920 nm is experimentally demonstrated in a Ho:InF fiber. The cavity comprises a pair of highly reflective fiber Bragg gratings written in the active fiber with the femtosecond phase-mask scanning technique and is spliced to the pump diode with a robust silica-to-fluoride fiber splice.

Recent developments in lanthanide-doped mid-infrared fluoride fiber lasers [Invited].

Mid-infrared fiber sources, emitting between 2.5 µm and 5.0 µm, are interesting for their great potential in several application fields such as material processing, biomedicine, remote sensing and infrared countermeasures due to their high-power, their diffraction-limited beam quality as well as their robust monolithic architecture.

Dysprosium-doped silica fiber as saturable absorber for mid-infrared pulsed all-fiber lasers.

We report on a mid-infrared Q-switched erbium-doped all-fiber laser using a dysprosium-doped silica fiber as saturable absorber for the first time in this wavelength range. Moreover, we demonstrate the use of a highly reflective chirped fiber Bragg grating written in a silica fiber as the input coupler for such lasers. This Q-switched all-fiber laser generates a stable pulse train centered at 2798 nm with a maximum average power of 670 mW at a repetition rate of 140 kHz with a pulse duration of 240 ns and a pulse energy of 4.

15 W monolithic fiber laser at 3.55 µm.

We report a dual-wavelength-pumped all-fiber continuous-wave (CW) laser operating at 3.55 µm that reached an output power of 14.9 W, which is, to the best of our knowledge, a record.

Widely tunable silicon-fiber laser at 2 µm.

Laser sources operating in the 2 µm spectral region play an important role for sensing and spectroscopy, and potentially for optical communication systems. In this work, we demonstrate a widely tunable hybrid silicon-fiber laser operating in the 2 µm band. By introducing a silicon-integrated Vernier filter in a fiber laser, we achieved continuous wavelength tuning over a range of 100 nm, from 1970 to 2070 nm.

Dual stage fiber amplifier operating near 3 µm with milijoule-level, sub-ns pulses at 5 W.

We report a 2800 nm -doped fluoride fiber amplifier that delivers 1 mJ pulses with an average power of 5 W and pulse duration of 1 ns at 5 kHz repetition rate. To the best of our knowledge, this is the highest pulse energy achieved from a fluoride-fiber-based system operating near 3 µm, and the W-level average power and short pulse lengths make the system a promising tool for biomaterials processing.

Great Lakes Runoff Intercomparison Project Phase 3: Lake Erie (GRIP-E).

Hydrologic model intercomparison studies help to evaluate the agility of models to simulate variables such as streamflow, evaporation, and soil moisture. This study is the third in a sequence of the Great Lakes Runoff Intercomparison Projects. The densely populated Lake Erie watershed studied here is an important international lake that has experienced recent flooding and shoreline erosion alongside excessive nutrient loads that have contributed to lake eutrophication.

2.3 W monolithic fiber laser operating in the visible.

We report, to the best of our knowledge, the first monolithic visible fiber laser pumped by a pigtailed diode. The robust cavity design proposed is based on a highly reflective fiber Bragg grating spliced to a double-clad praseodymium-doped fiber. The laser signal generated at 635.

Fuseless side-pump combiner for efficient fluoride-based double-clad fiber pumping.

We report a novel technique for side-pumping fluoride-based double-clad fibers, allowing a record coupling efficiency of 93% and a maximum power handling near 100 W at 981 nm. Our simple technique is based on wrapping a silica taper around a fluoride fiber and, therefore, does not require any complex fusion between these two dissimilar fibers. Under passive cooling, pump combiners made of undoped and erbium-doped fluoride fibers were successfully operated during several hours at respective incident powers of 91 and 44 W.

1.4 W in-band pumped Dy-doped gain-switched fiber laser at 3.24 µm.

In this Letter, we report, to the best of our knowledge, the first demonstration of an in-band pumped gain-switched -doped fiber laser operating at 3.24 µm. The monolithic cavity bounded by two fiber Bragg gratings was pumped by a gain-switched -doped fiber system.

High resolution temperature sensor based on frequency beating between twin DFB fiber lasers.

We present a high resolution temperature sensor using the beat frequency between the longitudinal modes of twin single-mode distributed feedback fiber lasers. The lasers are made by femtosecond inscription of π-shifted fiber Bragg gratings in a thulium-doped fiber. Combining the light from two single frequency fiber lasers on a photodetector produces a rf beat frequency signal which is dependent on temperature.

Nonlinear increase, invisibility, and sign inversion of a localized fs-laser-induced refractive index change in crystals and glasses.

Multiphoton absorption via ultrafast laser focusing is the only technology that allows a three-dimensional structural modification of transparent materials. However, the magnitude of the refractive index change is rather limited, preventing the technology from being a tool of choice for the manufacture of compact photonic integrated circuits. We propose to address this issue by employing a femtosecond-laser-induced electronic band-gap shift (FLIBGS), which has an exponential impact on the refractive index change for propagating wavelengths approaching the material electronic resonance, as predicted by the Kramers-Kronig relations.

High-power supercontinuum generation in the mid-infrared pumped by a soliton self-frequency shifted source.

We report the demonstration of a fiber-based supercontinuum source delivering up to 825 mW of average output power between 2.5 and 5.0 µm generated in all-normal dispersion regime.

Direct Inscription of on-surface waveguides in polymers using a mid-ir fiber laser.

A detailed study of photo-inscribed optical waveguides in PMMA and polycarbonate using a mid-IR laser is presented. The wavelength of the laser is tuned near the absorption peaks of stretching C-H molecular bonds and the focused beam is scanned onto the surface of planar polymer samples. For the first time, we report the formation of optical waveguides in both polymers through resonant absorption of the laser beam.

Endcapping of high-power 3 µm fiber lasers.

Fiber tip photodegradation through OH diffusion currently limits the long term operation of high-power fiber lasers and amplifiers operating near 3 µm. To address this issue, we investigate the resistance to OH diffusion of fluoride and oxide endcaps manufactured out of ZrF$_4$, AlF$_3$, GeO$_2$, SiO$_2$ and Al$_2$O$_3$ fibers. To this extent, the endcaps are spliced at the output of a 20 W continuous-wave fiber laser operating at 2.

3.42 µm lasing in heavily-erbium-doped fluoride fibers.

In this paper, we investigate laser emission at 3.4μm in heavily-erbium-doped fluoride fibers using dual-wavelength pumping. To this extent, a monolithic 7 mol% erbium-doped fluoride fiber laser bounded by intracore fiber Bragg gratings at 3.

10-W-level monolithic dysprosium-doped fiber laser at 3.24 μm.

We report, to the best of our knowledge, the first entirely monolithic dysprosium (Dy)-doped fluoride fiber laser operating in the mid-IR region. The system delivers 10.1 W at 3.

Ultrafast Dy:fluoride fiber laser beyond 3 μm.

We report a passively mode-locked Dy:fluoride fiber laser emitting around 3.1 μm based on the nonlinear polarization evolution technique in a ring configuration, using in-band pumping at 2.8 μm.

Towards power scaling of 2.8 μm fiber lasers.

We report the demonstration of a 2824 nm passively cooled erbium-doped fluoride fiber laser delivering a record average output power of 41.6 W in continuous-wave operation. The splice-less cavity is based on intra-core fiber Bragg gratings written directly in the active erbium-doped fluoride fiber, which is bidirectionally pumped at 980 nm to reduce heat load.

10 W-level gain-switched all-fiber laser at 2.8 μm.

We report a simply designed gain-switched all-fiber laser emitting a maximum average output power of 11.2 W at 2.826 µm.

High-energy picosecond pulses from a 2850 nm fiber amplifier.

We report the demonstration of a 2850 nm diode-pumped Ho, Pr co-doped fluoride fiber amplifier that delivers pulses with an average power of 2.45 W, 122 μJ energy, and 500 ps duration at a repetition rate of 20 kHz. To the best of our knowledge, the average power and pulse energy are the highest to be obtained from a sub-nanosecond fiber source operating in the 3 μm spectral region.

Gain-switched fiber laser at 3.55 μm.

We report, to the best of our knowledge, the first demonstration of a gain-switched fiber laser operating near 3.5 μm. A dual-wavelength pumping scheme consisting of a 1976 nm Q-switched fiber system and a continuous-wave 976 nm laser diode were used to gain-switch a monolithic erbium-doped fluorozirconate fiber laser cavity at 3.

5.6 W monolithic fiber laser at 3.55 μm.

We report, to the best of our knowledge, the first monolithic erbium-doped fluorozirconate fiber laser bounded by two fiber Bragg gratings (FBGs) operating at 3.55 μm. Its output power and total optical efficiency are 5.

Compact 3-8 μm supercontinuum generation in a low-loss AsSe step-index fiber.

A mid-infrared supercontinuum source spanning from 3 to 8 μm is demonstrated using a low-loss AsSe commercial step-index fiber. A maximum average output power of 1.5 mW is obtained at a low repetition rate of 2 kHz.