Double Brillouin frequency spaced multiwavelength Brillouin-erbium fiber laser with 50 nm tuning range

A 50 nm tuning range multiwavelength Brillouin-erbium fiber laser (MWBEFL) with double Brillouin frequency spacing is presented. Two separated gain blocks with symmetrical architecture, consisted by erbium-doped fiber amplifiers (EDFAs) and Brillouin gain media, are used to generate double Brillouin frequency spacing. The wider tuning range is realized by eliminating the self-lasing cavity modes existing in conventional MWBEFLs because of the absence of the physical mirrors at the ends of the linear cavity. The Brillouin pump (BP) is preamplified by the EDFA before entering the single-mode fiber (SMF), which leads to the reduction of threshold power and the generation enhancement of Brillouin Stokes (BS) signals. Four channels with 0.176 nm spacing are achieved at 2 mW BP power and 280 mW 980 nm pump power which can be tuned from 1525 to 1575 nm.     

High-efficiency hybrid brillouin/ytterbium fiber laser

A high-efficiency hybrid Brillouin/ytterbium fiber laser (BYFL) is demonstrated using a 41.5-cm-longhighly ytterbium-doped fiber and a 10-m-long single-mode optical fiber. The BYFL operates at 1 052.92nm, and the difference between it and the Brillouin pump (BP) wavelength matches the expected stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) Stokes shift. Its output power reaches 70.1 mW, which is more than seven times higher than the seeded BP power. The BYFL has an optical signal-to-noise ratio that is greater than 65 dB and has many potential applications, such as in controllable optical delay lines, sensing, and RF photonics.     

Multi-wavelength Brillouin fiber laser using dual-cavity configuration

A simple technique for achieving multi-wavelength tunable multi-wavelength Brillouin fiber laser (BFL) based on dual-pass configuration is demonstrated. The BFL uses a piece of 10 km long non-zero dispersion shifted fiber (NZ-DSF) as a Brillouin gain medium to obtain odd-order Brillouin Stokes waves as an output with the line spacing of 0.16 nm (20 GHz) between each two consecutive waves by employing even-order Brillouin Stokes to improve output performance of the laser. With a BP of 15.3 dBm, at least 15 odd-order Brillouin Stokes and anti-Stokes lines are generated. The laser is room temperature stable, tunable over 50 nm wavelength range and has an optical signal to noise ratio of more than 30 dB at 1560 nm region. This Brillouin fiber laser can operate at any wavelength depending on the Brillouin pump (BP) wavelength used.     

A tunable multi-wavelength Brillouin–erbium fiber laser with fourfold Brillouin frequency spacing

We have experimentally demonstrated a tunable multi-wavelength Brillouin–erbium fiber laser with over 40 GHz spacing utilizing two cascaded double Brillouin-frequency-spacing cavities. In this laser configuration, two segments of 25 km-long single-mode fibers are used as Brillouin gain medium in each ring cavity, and a segment of 8 m-long erbium-doped fiber with 980 nm pump is employed to amplify Brillouin pump (BP). At BP wavelength of 1550 nm, BP power of 8.3 dBm (6.8 mW) and the maximum 980 nm pump power of 27.78 dBm (600 mW), seven output channels with fourfold Brillouin-frequency spacing, and the tuning range of 15 nm from 1545 to 1560 nm are achieved. The proposed multi-wavelength Brillouin–erbium fiber laser has wide applications, such as in microwave signal generation and optical communications.     

Broadly tunable multiwavelength fiber laser with bismuth-oxide EDF using large effective area fiber

A multiwavelength laser comb using 2.49 m Bismuth-oxide erbium-doped fiber (Bi-EDF) with different lengths of large effective area fiber (LEAF) in a ring cavity configuration is realized. The Bi-EDF is used as the linear gain medium and LEAF is used as the non-linear gain medium for stimulated Brillouin scattering. Out of the four different lengths, the longest length of 25 km LEAF exhibits the widest tuning range of 44 nm (1576 to 1620 nm) in the L-band at 264 mW pump power and 5 mW Brillouin pump power. In addition, a total of 15 output channels are achieved with total average output power of −8 dBm from this laser structure. All Brillouin Stokes signals exhibit high peak power of above −20 dBm per signal and their optical signal-to-noise ratio of greater than 15 dB.     

Linear cavity Brillouin fiber laser with improved characteristics

A configuration for linear cavity Brillouin fiber laser (BFL) generation is demonstrated using a standard single-mode fiber, two optical circulators, a 3 dB coupler, and a 95/5 coupler to allow high efficiency. With a Brillouin pump (BP) power of 13 dBm, the laser peak power is 12.3 dB higher than a conventional linear cavity BFL at an upshifted wavelength of 0.086 nm from the BP wavelength. In addition, it is revealed that the BFL peak power can be higher than the transmitted BP peak power when the BP power exceeds the second Brillouin Stokes threshold power.     

Simple tunable multiwavelength Brillouin/Erbium fiber laser utilizing short-length photonic crystal fiber

We have demonstrated a simple ring cavity tunable multiwavelength Brillouin/Erbium fiber laser (MWBEFL), in which 70 m highly nonlinear photonic crystal fiber (HNL-PCF) is used as the Brillouin gain medium. The fiber laser utilizes recycling mechanism to enhance stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS). The configuration that consists of only 3 optical components is easy to be integrated and improves the practicality. At the maximum 1480 nm pump power of 110 mW and the Brillouin pump power of 3 dBm, 10 stable output channels with more than 10 dB optical signal to noise ratio (OSNR) and 0.078 nm channel spacing could achieve 10 nm tuning ranges.     

Investigation on stimulated Brillouin scattering characteristics in a highly doped Bismuth-based Erbium-doped fiber

Stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) characteristics in a 49 cm long highly doped Bismuth-based Erbium doped fiber (Bi-EDF) is investigated in the ring and linear cavity configurations. At Brillouin pump (BP) power of 6 dBm, the Brillouin laser peak power of the optimized ring Brillouin Erbium fiber laser (BEFL) is obtained at 23 dB higher than the peak power of the conventional linear cavity at an up shifted wavelength of 0.08 nm. This Bi-EDF ring cavity operates at nearly 1563 nm wavelength region, which is up-shifted by 0.08 nm from the Brillouin pump wavelength with the side mode suppression ratios (SMSR) of 29 and 23 dB in the forward and backward directions, respectively.     

Directivity influence of signals propagation through EDFA gain medium of Brillouin-erbium fiber laser

We experimentally demonstrate a multiwavelength Brillouin-erbium fiber laser in two configurations; uni-directional and bi-directional propagation of Brillouin pump and Brillouin Stokes signals through an Erbium-doped fiber gain. The influence of these configurations on the performance of the output parameters in terms of lasing threshold, output channel generation and tuning range of the generated output channels are investigated. We discovered that there is a trade-off between these two fiber laser configurations. The uni-directional amplifier configuration provides greater tuning range of 46.8 nm against 23 nm at maximum Brillouin pump power of 2 mW and 1480-nm pump power of 130 mW. On the other hand, the bi-directional amplifier configuration provides 13 output channels against 6 output channels obtained from the uni-directional amplifier configuration at the same pumping powers. Nevertheless, the bi-directional amplifier configuration requires much lower pump power to initiate lasing.     

Self-excited brillouin–erbium fiber laser for DWDM applications

The operation of the self-excited Brillouin/erbium fiber laser (BEFL) is experimentally demonstrated. It uses a forward pumped erbium-doped fiber (EDF) as a gain medium to generate a Brillouin-pump (BP) and amplify the Stokes frequency signals generated in a single-mode fiber (SMF). The operating wavelength varies with changes of coupling ratio of the looping arm. The optimum BEFL operation is obtained with a center wavelength at 1567.5 nm by looping back 20% of BEFL output into the other end of the SMF. The BEFL output power and number of lines increases gradually as 980-nm pump power increases. At the maximum 980-nm pump power of 118 mW, a stable and strong BEFL comb of up to 16 lines with 11 GHz spacing is demonstrated. The self-excited BEFL has the potential to be used in the future dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) communication system.     

Multi-wavelength generation using a bismuth-based EDF and Brillouin effect in a linear cavity configuration

The generation of a multiple wavelength source using a bismuth-based erbium-doped fiber (Bi-EDF) in a linear cavity configuration is demonstrated. The configuration uses a pair of optical circulators at the input and output ends of the cavity to form a resonator for multi-wavelength generation in conjunction with optical couplers to inject the Brillouin pump (BP) and to tap the output at the two ends. The Brillouin erbium fiber laser (BEFL) comb with a 2.15 m of Bi-EDF has a wavelength spacing of 0.09 nm and operates in long-wavelength (L-) band region. A stable output laser comb of 50 lines is obtained at a BP of 1568.2 nm and 5 dBm and two 1480 nm pumps at 120 mW. The injected BP wavelength and power as well as the 1480 nm pump powers have a great effect on the number of lines and output power of the BEFL. This configuration is compact due to the use of the significantly shorter Bi-EDF as the linear gain medium, and can be made more compact by replacing the single-mode fiber with highly non-linear fibers such as holey fibers.     

0.16 nm spaced multi-wavelength Brillouin fiber laser in a figure-of-eight configuration

A stable and compact multi-wavelength Brillouin fiber laser (BFL) operating at room temperature is experimentally demonstrated using a 100 m long photonic crystal fiber (PCF) in conjunction with a figure-of-eight configuration. At a Brillouin pump (BP) level of 15.3 dBm, 7 simultaneous lines with 20 GHz or 0.16 nm line spacing is achieved by removing the odd-order Stokes lines. The anti-Stokes lines are also generated via four wave mixing process in the laser cavity. Compared with the Erbium-based multi-wavelength laser, this BFL has advantages in term of channel spacing and flexibility in the choice of operating wavelength. The output spectrum of the proposed BFL can be tuned by 80 nm, dependent on the availability of an appropriate BP source. The multi-wavelength BFL shows a good stability with power fluctuations of less than 0.5 dB over more than 3 h.     

可用于产生微波信号的间隔可调双波长光纤激光器

为了获得不同间隔双波长信号输出,提出一种基于受激布里渊效应产生双波长激光的实验装置,利用不同间隔双波长输出信号进行拍频实验可获得可调的微波信号输出;利用一段10 km长普通单模光纤（SMF）作为布里渊增益介质,一个线宽为5 kHz分布反馈激光器（DFB）作为布里渊抽运源,一段未泵浦的保偏掺铒光纤用作饱和吸收体抑制边模,通过改变未泵浦保偏掺铒光纤的长度,可获得不同间隔输出的双波长光纤激光器,实验获得波长间隔为0.170 nm和0.085 nm的激光信号输出,分别对应20 GHz和10 GHz的微波信号。     

A high-efficiency Brillouin fiber ring laser

A high-efficiency Brillouin fiber ring laser is demonstrated using the standard single-mode fiber. The laser exhibits a 3.6-mW threshold. The output power is 22 mW with 40-mW pump power, and the maximum optical-to-optical efficiency is 5570. The output is single wavelength with a 3-dB linewidth of 5 MHz, and the interval of center frequency between the laser and the pump light is 11 GHz （0.088 nm）. It is shown that the stimulated Brillouin scattering threshold of ring resonator is lower and the energy transfer efficiency is higher than those in fiber.     

Optimization of Brillouin pump wavelength location on tunable multiwavelength BEFL

Optimization of Brillouin pump (BP) wavelength location on tunable multiwavelength Brillouin-erbium fiber laser (BEFL) with BP pre-amplified technique is experimentally investigated. The tunable multiwavelength BEFL is achieved by utilization a tunable band-pass filter in a laser cavity. The optimum BP power and BP wavelength location within the filter bandwidth is determined in order to obtain the maximum stable output channels. Optimum distance of launching the BP wavelength is found at 0.80 nm shorter from the center wavelength of the filter bandwidth. 15 stable output channels are achieved from the tunable fiber laser system within the optimum range of BP power which is found to be between 5.2 to 5.7 dBm.     

Broadly tunable multiwavelength Brillouin-erbium fiber laser using a twin-core fiber coupler

A tunable multiwavelength Brillouin-erbium fiber laser (MW-BEFL) using a twin-core fiber (TCF) coupler is proposed and demonstrated. The TCF coupler is formed by splicing a section of TCF between two single-mode fibers. By simply applying bending curvature on the TCF coupler, the peak net gain is shifted close to the Brillouin pump (BP), which has advantage for suppressing self-lasing cavity modes with low-BP-power injection. In this work, the dependency of the Stokes signals tuning range on the free spectral range (FSR) of TCF coupler is studied. It is also found that the tuning range of MW-BEFL can exceed the FSR of TCF coupler by adopting proper BP power and 980-nm pump power. Up to 40 nm tuning range of MW-BEFL in the absence of self-lasing cavity modes is achieved.     

Multi-wavelength Brillouin fiber laser generation using dual-pass approach

A simple and compact multi-wavelength tunable Brillouin fiber laser (BFL) in conjunction with dual-pass approach is proposed and experimentally compared with the output of a conventional single ring cavity architecture. This BFL source is demonstrated using 10 km long non-zero dispersion shifted fiber (NZ-DSF) as a Brillouin gain medium. By single ring cavity configuration, odd-order Brillouin Stokes lines appear in the backward direction with the line spacing 0.16 nm (∼20 GHz) between each two consecutive waves. However, this single ring cavity in conjunction with dual-pass configuration is able to generate Brillouin Stokes lines with 0.08 nm spacing by providing bi-directional oscillations of Brillouin waves in both forward and backward directions. With a Brillouin pump power of 15.3 dBm, approximately up to 17 Brillouin Stokes lines are generated which is tunable over 40 nm tuning range.     

Dual-wavelength Brillouin ring-cavity fiber laser with tunable channel spacing

We experimentally demonstrate a dual-wavelength Brillouin fiber laser configured a pre-amplified Brillouin pump and FBG filter in a ring-cavity. The Brillouin laser can generate 21 Brillouin Stokes with 0.084 nm spacing, the first-Stoke has a peak power of 2.19 dBm. By adjusting the TLS wavelength and FBG’s reflection wavelength from circulating in the ring-cavity, the generated output dual-wavelength is stabile and the channel spacing is tunable, the widest and narrowest channel spacing obtained is approximately 1.12 nm (139 GHz) and 0.084 nm (10.5 GHz).     

Threshold reduction of stimulated Brillouin scattering in photonic crystal fiber

A simple configuration for the reduction of stimulated Brillouin scattering threshold in photonic crystal fiber is presented. The threshold reduction is contributed by the bidirectional pumping scheme through the reflection of transmitted Brillouin pump back to the gain medium. The pump recycling scheme has greatly reduced the Brillouin threshold of a 200-m long of photonic crystal fiber from 50 to 30 mW of Brillouin pump power.     

A novel double-Brillouin-frequency spaced multi-wavelength Brillouin erbium-doped fiber laser based on non-linear amplified fiber loop mirror

In the paper, a ring double-Brillouin-frequency spaced multi-wavelength Brillouin erbium-doped fiber laser based on non-linear amplified fiber loop mirror filter is demonstrated, in which the non-linear amplified fiber loop mirror (AFLMF) is used as a filter. At the 980 nm pump power of 10.29 dBm, the tunable laser source center wavelength of 1563 nm and power of −3 dBm, up to 12 even output channels with 0.16 nm spacing are achieved. At the same time, we study the influence of 980 nm pump power, the polarization controller and the tunable laser source center wavelength on the number of Stokes light wave.