A reconfigurable multiwavelength fiber laser with switchable wavelength channels and tunable wavelength spacing

We report the experimental demonstration of a reconfigurable multiwavelength fiber laser source with switchable wavelength channels and tunable wavelength spacing by spectrum slicing a broadband light source using a tunable comb filter. The tunable comb filter is based on a thermally-induced linearly-chirped fiber Bragg grating (LCFBG). As an example to demonstrate the effectiveness of the method, two wavelength channels with various wavelength spacings and eight wavelength channels with ∼1.6 nm wavelength spacing were experimentally demonstrated. All the wavelength channels have rejection ratios of greater than 20 dB, and very small 3-dB linewidths of ∼10 pm. The multiwavelength optical source has such unique advantages as simple all-fiber structure, switchable wavelength channels, tunable wavelength spacing, very narrow linewidths, and stable room-temperature operation.     

Thermally switchable and discretely tunable comb filter with a linearly chirped fiber Bragg grating

We propose and experimentally demonstrate a novel switchable and discretely tunable comb filter based on a thermally induced linearly chirped fiber Bragg grating. Experimentally we achieved a thermally induced optical bandpass filter that has eight switchable passband peaks with peak separations of 1.6 and 3.2 nm, a very narrow bandwidth (as small as 10 pm) of each peak, a tunable range of 16.5 nm, and a greater than 25 dB rejection ratio. Two spectral peaks separated by only 0.8 nm were also obtained with this comb filter. This filter provides the unique advantages of an all-fiber structure, switchable spectral peaks, independent tuning of the center wavelength and wavelength spacing of the spectral peaks, low polarization sensitivity, simple structure, ease of fabrication, and low cost.     

Transmission characteristics of Mach–Zehnder interferometer comb filter based on thermal operation

We propose and experimentally demonstrate switchable and tunable transmission characteristics of a Mach–Zehnder interferometer comb filter based on thermal operation. Its temperature characteristics are investigated to reveal a shift in the peak wavelength position from 0.003 to 0.004 nm/°C and a tunable range of wavelength spacing of 0.76–0.90 nm for maximum and minimum effective lengths, respectively. This configuration provides the unique advantages of an all-fiber structure, tunable wavelength spacing, switchable spectral peaks, independent tuning of the center wavelength and wavelength spacing of the spectral peaks, and low polarization sensitivity. It is relatively simple to fabricate and expected to have applications in temperature fiber optic sensors and multiwavelength fiber laser sources.     

Compact tunable three-dimensional polymer optical waveguide comb filter

A compact channel spacing tunable polymeric three-dimensional (3D) comb filter has been designed and fabricated. This comb filter is made of three waveguides laid in two different but parallel layers: one is in the lower layer and the other two are in the upper layer. These two waveguides in upper layer do not cross each other but instead each twice cross over the waveguide in the lower layer. At each crossing point an electrode heater is deposited on the top surface to adjust the coupling ratio between these guides. By supplying power to each heater pair, respectively, the channel spacing can be selected to be either 1.6 nm or 0.8 nm; in addition a flat-top spectral response may be obtained at the 1.6 nm channel spacing if power is supplied to both the heater pairs simultaneously.     

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.     

Wavelength switchable all-fiber comb filter using a dual-pass Mach-Zehnder interferometer and its application in multiwavelength laser

A novel wavelength switchable all-fiber comb filter based on a dual-pass Mach-Zehnder (M-Z) interferometer is proposed and demonstrated. The proposed filter consists of a rotatable polarizer and a standard dual-pass M-Z interferometer composed of two 3-dB fiber couplers with a polarization controller (PC) in one arm. When the PC is properly set, the wavelength switchable operation is achieved by adjusting the polarization state of the input light. Theoretical calculation is verified by the experimental results. As applications, the proposed comb filter is incorporated into a fiber ring laser to generate wavelength switchable multiwavelength lasing.     

Theory and experiment of flat-top all-fiber comb filter based on two high birefringence fiber Sagnac loop filters

A simple flat-top all-fiber comb filter based on two high birefringence fiber (HBF) Sagnac loop filters is presented. The proposed flat-top comb filter consists of two HBF Sagnac loop filters with two polarization controllers (PCs) and a fiber circulator. According to the theoretical analysis, with proper settings of the polarization state of the PCs, the comb filter can realize flat-top passband and the channel spacing also can be switched when the comb filter is convex spectrum. The 0.3 dB bandwidth of the flat-top passband is 0.49 nm with a free spectral range of 1.4 nm. The maximum extinction ratio is nearly 20 dB. The comb filter with switchable channel spacing can be obtained from 0.7 nm to 1.4 nm.     

Design and fabrication of arrayed waveguide grating using fluoropolymer PFS-co-GMA

A 33×33 polymer arrayed waveguide grating (AWG) multiplexer is optimized and fabricated. This device is made of polymeric materials named 2,3,4,5,6-pentafluorostyrene-co-glycidylmethacrylate (PFS-co-GMA). The central wavelength and wavelength spacing are designed to be 1550.918 and 0.8 nm, respectively. The calculated results are: the 3-dB bandwidth is about 0.24 nm, insertion loss is about 8.4 dB and crosstalk is −33.7 dB. The corresponding measured results are: the center wavelength is about 1550.85 nm, wavelength channel spacing is about 0.81 nm, 3-dB bandwidth is about 0.35 nm, crosstalk is about −20 dB, insertion loss is between 10.4 dB for the central port and 11.9 dB for the edge ports.     

Electro-optic polarization converter with programmable spectral output in lithium niobate

An electro-optic polarization converter with programmable spectral output produced on lithium niobate at the 1530 nm wavelength regime is reported. Programmability is achieved by applying spatially periodic weighted voltages on interdigital electrode sets to independently adjust the coupling coefficients, and is controlled electronically via a personal computer interface. The operation of a device with 16 electrode sets as a programmable tunable wavelength filter is demonstrated. The number of selectable channels depends on the number of electrode sets. A 3-dB bandwidth ∼1 nm and a tuning range of 10 nm are measured. Nearest side lobes ?18 dB below the main peak are realized with apodization.     

Switchable dual-wavelength erbium-doped fiber-ring laser based on one polarization maintaining fiber Bragg grating in a Sagnac loop interferometer

A switchable erbium-doped fiber-ring laser providing dual-wavelength outputs with orthogonal polarizations when operating at room temperature is proposed. One polarization-maintaining fiber Bragg grating (PMFBG) in a Sagnac loop interferometer is used as the wavelength-selective filter. Due to the enhancement of the polarization hole burning (PHB) by the PMFBG, the laser can be designed to operate in stable dual-wavelength or wavelength-switching modes with a wavelength spacing of 0.336 nm at room temperature by adjusting a polarization controller (PC). The optical signal-to-noise ratio (OSNR) is over 42 dB. The amplitude variation over 90 min is less than 0.6 dB for both wavelengths.     

Modeling of arrayed waveguide grating for wavelength interrogation application

We have proposed and discussed a design of arrayed waveguide grating (AWG) for the application of wavelength interrogation. The spectral responses of a silica-based 16 channel AWG with channel spacing 1.6 nm have been simulated when different receiver waveguide spacing are used. It was found that the 3-dB bandwidth is reduced about 50% as the receiver waveguide spacing increasing from 20 μm to 30 μm. The effect of bandwidth of the spectral response on wavelength resolution of AWG based interrogator has been estimated and discussed.     

C-band three-port tunable band-pass thin film optical filter with low polarization-sensitivity

According to the oblique incidence characteristics of thin film narrowband filter, the stack of 100 GHz DWDM four cavities angle-tuned thin film filter has been designed and optimized. The two polarization modes’ central wavelengths of the thin film filter can be centered at the same one in oblique incidence, and it has a stable tuning range of 20 nm without the phenomenon of polarization central wavelength separation. Using this kind of angle-tuned thin film filter and the polarization beam-splitters, the tuning range of the angle-tuned thin film filter can be further expanded due to the reason that it can transmit only the s-polarization light. In this paper we also developed a three-port bandpass tunable filter device with new structure, which tuning range can cover the whole C-band and its adjacent channel isolation degree is high. The experiments show that the three-port tunable filter has an effective tuning range of 33 nm, and its adjacent channel isolation degree is more than 35 dB. It has a bright application opportunity for its flexibility and effective performance.     

Waveband switchable multi-wavelength erbium-doped fiber ring laser based on wavelength-dependent polarization rotation mechanism

A waveband switchable multi-wavelength erbium-doped fiber ring laser based on wavelength-dependent polarization rotation mechanism and birefringence-based in-line comb filter is proposed and demonstrated. The two lasing wavebands, around 1530 and 1560 nm region, can be efficiently switched by simply rotating the polarization controllers (PCs). The channel spacing is 0.4 nm which was determined by the length of polarization maintain fiber (PMF) used in the experiment. The experimental results show that the waveband switchable is an intrinsic feature of multi-wavelength fiber ring lasers by incorporating a passive polarizer in the laser cavity.     

Flexibly switchable multi-wavelength fiber optical parametric oscillator based on a Lyot-Sagnac filter

We experimentally demonstrate a flexibly switchable multi-wavelength fiber optical parametric oscillator (MW-FOPO) by employing a highly nonlinear dispersion-shifted fiber (HNL-DSF) as the gain medium and a Lyot-Sagnac fiber ring as the comb filter. The wavelength spacing and the number of channels in the switchable MW-FOPO are adjustable by controlling the effective length of polarization maintaining fiber (PMF) segments in the intracavity Lyot-Sagnac filter. We achieve 36 lasing channels with 0.5 nm-spacing and 22 lasing channels with 0.8 nm-spacing in a wavelength range from 1541 to 1559 nm at room temperature. A comparison of the output spectra between the dual-pump MW-FOPO and single-pump MW-FOPO is presented as well.     

Switchable and tunable dual-wavelength ultrashort pulse generation in a passively mode-locked erbium-doped fiber ring laser

A simple switchable and tunable dual-wavelength passively mode-locked erbium-doped fiber ring laser based on nonlinear polarization rotation (NPR) effect is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. The NPR effect effectively induces wavelength- and intensity-dependent loss to readily implement stable dual-wavelength passively mode-locked operation. The wavelength switching and tuning of the dual-wavelength ultrashort pulse laser are achieved only by appropriately rotating the polarization controllers. The side-mode suppression ratio of the output pulse is larger than 41 dB over a wavelength-tuning range of 43.4 nm. Moreover, triple-wavelength ultrashort pulse can also be observed.     

Ytterbium femtosecond fiber laser without dispersion compensation tunable from 1015 nm to 1050 nm

We report on a widely tunable ytterbium fs-fiber laser without dispersion compensation. The all-normal dispersion laser contains a spectral filter for wavelength tuning and for generating additional amplitude modulation to support the nonlinear polarization evolution as mode-locking mechanism. By tilting the interference filter the center wavelength of the laser can be tuned from 1015 nm to 1050 nm with a pulse energy up to 2.0 nJ. The pulses can be dechirped externally to 108 fs.     

Stable multiwavelength fiber ring laser with equalized power spectrum based on a semiconductor optical amplifier

We experimentally demonstrated a new structure of a multiwavelength semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) ring laser based on a fiber Sagnac loop filter that can generate up to 25 stable output lasing wavelengths at room temperature. By varying the length of a polarization-maintaining (PM) fiber within the Sagnac loop filter, the wavelength spacing between the output lasing wavelengths can be changed to a desired value. By tuning a polarization controller (PC) within the Sagnac loop filter, stable multiwavelength 1550-nm operation with up to 17 lasing lines within 3 dB power level variation and with a wavelength spacing of ∼0.8 nm was achieved. The optical signal-to-noise ratios (OSNRs) of all the lasing wavelengths are greater than 40 dB.     

Stable wavelength tunable fiber ring laser for true-time delay system

In this paper, we propose and experimentally demonstrate a novel wavelength tunable fiber ring laser source for a photonic beamforming system to control phased-array antenna. In this fabrication, a Sagnac loop composed of a polarization-maintaining (PM) coupler and a piece of high-birefringence (Hi-Bi) PM fiber is acted as a comb filter to make the frequency spacing equal. The wavelength of the output signal is controlled by the tunable filter outside the Sagnac loop. The intensities of the output signals with different wavelengths increased or decreased at the same frequency spacing are equal. A five-channel true-time delay system consisting of this tunable fiber source and five grating delay lines for discrete beamsteering has been demonstrated. In the experiment, the output signals of the tunable fiber ring with the equal frequency spacing have the same intensity of about 5.9 dBm and the same high signal to noise ratio (SNR) of 40 dB. If the tunable filter in this laser is replaced by a micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) tunable filter, the speed of switching wavelength will increase rapidly.     

Tunable 19 × 10 GHz L-band FP-SOA based multi-wavelength mode-locked fiber laser

We present a multi-wavelength mode-locked fiber ring laser incorporating a semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) and a Fabry-Perot semiconductor optical amplifier (FP-SOA). Because the gain of the SOA is depleted by an external injection optical signal, the SOA acts as a loss modulator. The FP-SOA serves as a tunable comb filter. The presented laser source can generate 19 synchronized wavelength channels with the extinction ratio of about 21 dB, each mode-locked at 10 GHz, and mode-locked pulse width is about 40 ps. Oscillation wavelengths band can be tuned by adjusting the bias current of the SOA, and wavelength spacing also can be changed by using a tunable optical delay line (ODL) or a temperature controller. The polarization-insensitive devices ensure that the output power is rather stable. This fiber laser has potential applications in longer waveband (L-band) within the low-attenuation window.     

Flat output and switchable fiber laser using AWG and broadband FBG

The switchable multiwavelength fiber laser (SMWLSs) using AWG and broadband FBG with tuning range 11.7 nm and 0.75 nm spacing are demonstrated. The switchable lasers for every channel shows flatness output power with variation 3.7 dBm and peak power around −6.1 dBm. The side mode suppression ratio (SMSR) of the laser is significantly improved for every channel when using broadband FBG. The improvement is about 27.7 dBm. The laser for every channel also shows the good stability within the 2 h operation.