Continuous True-Time-Delay System Employing a Novel Tunable Chirped Fiber Grating Delay Line and a Sampled Grating Based Multiwavelength Fiber Laser

A photonics true-time-delay system for phased array antenna beam steering employing a novel tunable chirped fiber grating delay line and a multi-wavelength erbium-doped fiber ring laser source based on a sampled grating filter is proposed. The tunable chirped fiber grating, which act as a continuous time-delay element, is achieved by bending a uniform fiber Bragg grating bonded at a slant onto the lateral surface of a simply supported beam. This technique allows the dynamic control of the chirp rate and spectral width of the grating without center wavelength shift. By adjusting the chirp rate of the fiber grating via bend strain, this kind of tunable chirped fiber grating could achieve very low and adjustable delay times, therefore provides higher angle resolution for scanning microwave beam, even the wavelengths of laser source are fixed and un-tunable. The true-time-delay system using proposed tunable chirped fiber grating delay element and sampled grating based laser source is constructed and demonstrated experimentally.     

Switchable erbium-doped fiber ring laser based on Sagnac loop mirror incorporating few-mode high birefringence fiber

Without the need of any other additional filtering device, a triple-wavelength switchable erbium-doped fiber ring laser based on Sagnac loop mirror incorporating a piece of few-mode high birefringence fiber is newly proposed and experimentally demonstrated. Three potential lasing wavelengths at about 2.0 nm interval with the side mode suppression ratio higher than 40 dB can be switched mainly by adjusting a polarization controller next to the few-mode high birefringence fiber in the Sagnac loop. In addition to the stable single-line lasing operation, simultaneous dual- and triple-line oscillations are also highly stable at room temperature with suppressing the intrinsic homogeneous gain broadening of the erbium-doped fiber.     

基于半导体纳米线和金属脊的混合表面等离子体波导模式特性分析

波长可开关光纤激光器可以选择多波长光纤激光器中的一个或多个波长输出,支持光网络中多个波长的动态分配,适应现代光纤通信系统信道数越来越多的波分复用和密集波分复用的发展方向.本文提出并实现了一种自激发多波长可开关掺铒光纤激光器.该激光器通过一个980 nm泵浦进行抽运,使用掺铒光纤作为增益介质,产生1 550 nm光谱,并通过一个环形结构返回,从而实现自激发的过程,降低了实验成本.实验使用一个含有两段保偏光纤的Sagnac环作为滤波器.通过调整Sagnac环形滤波器内偏振控制器的角度,改变Sagnac环形滤波器的腔内增益,可以让光纤光栅反射出来的波长选择性通过,从而实现波长的开关功能.实验证明,通过调整Sagnac滤波器的腔内增益而让多波长选择性通过,是一种有效的实现波长可开关功能的方法.     

Dual-wavelength switchable erbium-doped fiber ring laser based on merged sagnac and intermodal interferences in sagnac loop mirror

A simple but novel concept of switchable dual-wavelength erbium-doped fiber ring laser is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. It is based on a Sagnac loop mirror incorporating a high birefringence few-mode fiber and polarization controller (PC). Since its transmission properties depend on the PC state, the proposed fiber ring laser can operate in the random combination of two wavelengths by adjusting only the PC settings. The potential lasing lines are determined by simultaneous occurrence of the Sagnac and intermodal interferences in the Sagnac loop mirror. All lasing emissions have the optical signal to noise extinction ratio higher than 45 dB and their power fluctuations lower than 0.5 dB.     

Tunable multiwavelength SOA-fiber ring laser based on Sagnac loop mirror incorporating few-mode high birefringence fiber

A tunable multiwavelength fiber ring laser based on a semiconductor optical amplifier and Sagnac loop mirror incorporating a piece of few-mode high birefringence fiber (FM-HBF) is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. It is accomplished by simply adjusting a polarization controller in the Sagnac loop mirror because birefringence of the FM-HBF is polarization dependent. Tunable multiwavelength operation up to 11 oscillating lines at about 2.1 nm interval is stably achieved with an optical side-mode suppression ratio over 35 dB.     

Switchable multiple lasing oscillations in an erbium-doped fiber ring laser using a single stage of a Sagnac loop mirror

A simple scheme for a switchable multi-wavelength erbium-doped fiber (EDF) ring laser is investigated by using a single stage of a Sagnac loop mirror. The multiple lasing outputs are obtained and switched readily by controlling the state of polarization (SOP). Since the transmission characteristics of the Sagnac loop mirror in terms of peak wavelengths and peak powers strongly depend on the SOP, the switching performance of the proposed multi-wavelength EDF laser can be effectively obtained. The proposed multi-wavelength EDF laser has versatile lasing outputs in states of a single-, dual-, triple-, and quadruple-wavelength oscillations. The multiple outputs are effectively switchable by adjusting the SOP.     

Temperature-sensitive dual-segment polarization maintaining fiber Sagnac loop mirror

A new temperature-sensitive fiber Sagnac loop mirror (FLM) is proposed using two segments of polarization maintaining fiber (PMF). The proposed dual-segment FLM provides greater temperature sensitivity in the spectral spacing detuning compared to the conventional single-segment configuration. Besides, the proposed configuration also enables both efficient positive and negative spectral spacing detuning by rising the temperature of one of the PMF segments. The experimental results show that the proposed configuration has achieved a great improvement in increasing spectral spacing variation range by 6.6 times and an increment of temperature sensitivity as much as 337.6% as compared to the conventional configuration.     

A linearly-polarized tunable Yb-doped fiber laser using a polarization dependent fiber loop mirror

A Ytterbium-doped linearly-polarized fiber laser is constructed with a polarization maintaining fiber Sagnac loop mirror. The fiber loop mirror made of polarization maintaining fiber coupler has a polarization dependent reflectivity, which provides the necessary polarization discrimination between the slow and fast axes. With a fiber Bragg grating written in normal polarization maintaining fiber as an output coupler, laser output of up to 5.6 W at 1070 nm is generated with a polarization extinction ratio of > 20 dB and an overall efficiency of 55%. The broadband polarization dependent reflection of the fiber loop mirror offers advantages of easy spectral tuning and simple linearly-polarized laser generation.     

基于二阶保偏光纤Sagnac环光纤激光器的振动检测研究

提出了一种可用于振动检测的新型光纤光栅传感技术. 用偏振控制器和高双折射保偏光纤构建成Sagnac环, 结合掺铒光纤、单模光纤和隔离器, 形成了单波长光纤激光器, 由粘有光纤Bragg光栅的悬臂梁作为传感探头, 并利用Sagnac环本身的线性边缘, 解调振动信号. 阐述了Sagnac环原理及其产生的边缘效应, 并进行了数值模拟计算, 对振动信号进行了检测实验, 检测系统从L₁到L₁+L₂之间对应的周期可调, 灵敏度高达38.2 μ W/nm, 线性度为0.9996, 动态范围在40–70 dB, 可满足振动传感检测的技术参数要求. 关键词： 光纤光学 振动检测 保偏光纤Sagnac环 光纤激光器     

Comparisons of multi-wavelength oscillations using Sagnac loop mirror and Mach-Zehnder interferometer for ytterbium doped fiber lasers

A multiwavelength Ytterbium-doped fiber ring laser operating at 1030 nm region is demonstrated using a Sagnac loop mirror and a Mach-Zehnder interferometer. We report the Performance comparisons of multi-wavelength oscillations in Yb³⁺ doped fiber lasers (YDFL) with typical commercial ytterbium doped silica fibers. By adjusting the polarization controller (PC), a widely tunable laser range of 22 nm from 1030 nm to 1050 nm is obtained. The Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI) design has exhibited simplicity in the operation for controlling the smallest wavelength spacing compared to Sagnac loop mirror method. In our observations, the smallest achieved stable wavelength spacing in Sagnac loop mirror setup and MZI setup were 2.1 nm and 0.7 nm, respectively. In case of nine-wavelength operation with a MZI setup, the stability, Full Width at Half Maximum (FWHM) and side mode suppression ratio (SMSR) of laser lines are not affected by increasing pump power, While for above four wavelength operation, the laser stability with Sagnac loop mirror becomes worse specially for higher input pump power and the power fluctuation among the wave-lengths would be also slightly larger.     

Broad tunability of erbium-doped fiber ring laser based on few-mode polarization maintaining fiber Sagnac interferometer

A highly stable erbium-doped fiber (EDF) ring laser with broad tunability is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. It is accomplished by using a few-mode polarization maintaining fiber (FM-PMF) Sagnac interferometer, in which simultaneous Sagnac and modal interferences occur. Continuously tunable output is obtained by exerting the longitudinal strain on the FM-PMF in combination with adjusting a polarization controller (PC) next to the FM-PMF in the Sagnac interferometer. In addition, the adverse impact of uneven EDF gain distribution on the laser output power uniformity may be offset by the PC-dependent transmission loss of the FM-PMF Sagnac interferometer and reflected backward C-band amplifier spontaneous emission from the pumped EDF. During the whole tuning process, the tunable span covers more than 40 nm with the output power flatness better than 1 dB, 3 dB spectral linewidth narrower than 0.1 nm and optical signal-to-noise extinction ratio higher than 45 dB.     

Tunable Chirped Fiber Grating Based Variable Time-Delay Network for Phased-Array Antenna Beamforming

In this paper, we present a photonics continuous beamforming system for optically controlled phased-array antenna based on a tunable fiber ring laser source and a novel variable true-time delay network consisting of one single-mode fiber delay line and four tunable chirped grating delay lines. The chirp rate of each chirped grating is tuned by bending a uniform fiber Bragg grating (FBG) bonded at a slant onto the lateral surface of a simply supported beam. This kind of variable true-time delay network can provide five-channel time-delayed signals that can be fed to an antenna array to achieve continuously beam scanning. The proposed true-time-delay unit with 5-element phased array steerer is suitable for phased-array antenna beamforming at frequencies up to 12 GHz.     

Switchable multi-wavelength erbium-doped fiber ring laser based on cascaded polarization maintaining fiber Bragg gratings in a Sagnac loop interferometer

A switchable multi-wavelength erbium-doped fiber (EDF) ring laser based on cascaded polarization maintaining fiber Bragg gratings (PMFBGs) in a Sagnac loop interferometer as the wavelength-selective filter at room temperature is proposed. Due to the polarization hole burning (PHB) enhanced by the PMFBGs, stable single-, dual-, three- and four-wavelength lasing operations can be obtained. The laser can be switched among the stable single-, dual-, three- and four-wavelength lasing operations by adjusting the polarization controllers (PCs). The optical signal-to-noise ratio (OSNR) is over 50 dB.     

Stable SOA-based multi-wavelength fiber ring laser using Sagnac loop mirror incorporating a high-birefringence photonic crystal fiber

Multi-wavelength fiber laser using semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) and Sagnac loop mirror (SLM) incorporating a newly designed high-birefringence photonic crystal fiber (HB-PCF) is experimentally demonstrated. The modal birefringence of the fabricated HB-PCF is estimated to be 1.1 × 10⁻³. Mainly, by adjusting a polarization controller in the fiber ring laser, the proposed fiber laser can operate at six lasing wavelengths with 2.7 nm intervals, the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of around 30 dB. The output power stability is 0.8 dB. In addition, we obtained near-perfect temperature independence in our multi-wavelength fiber laser system. The temperature dependence of the SLM is around 3 pm/°C.     

A novel wavelength switchable fiber laser source and its application in photonics beamforming for optically controlled phased array antenna

A novel wavelength-switchable fiber laser source that can individually scan 14 required wavelengths within 40 ms, and its application in photonics true time delay beamforming is presented in this paper. The laser source is constructed using a unidirectional fiber ring cavity, a tunable fiber Fabry–Perot filter and two cascaded sampled fiber Bragg gratings with the wavelength spacing of 1.6 nm. A five-channel true-time-delay system using the proposed fiber laser source cooperating with a single-mode fiber and four chirped-grating-based is constructed and demonstrated for the application of phased array antenna beam steering. Continuous beam steering at the microwave frequency up to 20 GHz has been achieved. PACS 42.55.Wd; 42.81.Wg; 84.40.Ba     

Wideband wavelength tunable fiber ring laser with flattened output power spectrum

A wavelength tunable erbium-doped fiber ring laser with flattened output power spectrum over a broadband is proposed and demonstrated. The power flattening is achieved using a high-birefringence fiber loop mirror, in which a number of high-birefringence fiber sections and polarization controllers are used to get a reflection spectrum that can compensate for the output power spectrum. The wavelength tuning is realized by compressing or stretching the FBGs in the laser cavity. A 1×3 switchable fiber Bragg grating array is incorporated into the fiber ring to get a wideband tuning range of 38 nm, from 1527 to 1565 nm. Within this range, the output power uniformity is controlled within ±0.8 dB. The total output power is about 4 dBm, the 3-dB linewidth is 0.01 nm, and the side mode suppression ratio is more than 48 dB.     

Electro-optic wavelength-tunable fiber ring laser based on cascaded composite Sagnac loop filters

A continuous wavelength-swept fiber ring laser with a lithium niobate waveguide electro-optic polarization controller in an intracavity fiber Sagnac loop is experimentally demonstrated. Composite fiber Sagnac loop filters are cascaded to demonstrate discrete wavelength switching of a single-wavelength fiber ring laser. Stable single-longitudinal-mode operation is achieved by use of a Sagnac loop saturable-absorber filter.     

Polarization controlled multiwavelength switchable erbium-doped fiber laser based on high birefringence few-mode fiber loop mirror

A multiwavelength switchable erbium-doped fiber laser with linear cavity is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. It is based on a fiber loop mirror incorporating a piece of high birefringence few-mode fiber and polarization controller. Due to dependence of its reflection properties on the polarization controllers, the fiber laser can operate in the random combination of three wavelengths by only adjusting the polarization controllers in the linear cavity. The wavelengths involved in the switching operation are determined by the merged Sagnac and intermodal interferences elicited in the fiber loop mirror. The optical signal to noise extinction ratio of every oscillation line is higher than 40 dB and power fluctuation less than 0.5 dB.     

Performance of a wavelength-tunable erbium-doped fiber laser using a Sagnac interferometer

We experimentally demonstrate a wavelength-tunable erbium-doped fiber laser that is composed of a ring cavity and a single-mode fiber Sagnac interferometer in a new and simple arrangement. We find that the fiber laser output wavelength is tunable by adjusting the filter effect of the Sagnac fiber loop through a fiber polarization controller set there. The quasi-single-wavelength continuously tunable laser outputs could be achieved within some wavelength range. The multi-wavelength laser outputs could also be observed under some appropriate settings of the polarization controller. A theoretical demonstration of the wavelength tunability about the transmission-type Sagnac loop filter has also been achieved using the Jones calculus theory.     

Multiwavelength Linear-Cavity Fiber Laser Source Using a Sagnac Interferemetric Filter and a Strain-Induced Chirped Fiber Grating

A novel multiwavelength linear-cavity fiber laser source using a strain-induced chirped fiber Bragg grating, a Sagnac interferemetric filter, and Erbium-Ytterbium codoped fibers is proposed and demonstrated for the first time. The Sagnac interferemetric filter, which acts as a full-reflecting mirror, consists of a polarization-maintaining directional coupler and two pieces of polarization-maintaining fibers. The strain-induced chirped FBG, which acts as a partial-reflecting mirror, is achieved by bending a uniform FBG bonded at a slant onto the lateral surface of a simply supported beam. By tuning the strain-induced chirped FBG, desirable lasing wavelength and number can be easily achieved.