Stabilization of a multiwavelength erbium-doped fiber laser using a nonlinear silicon waveguide

We propose and demonstrate a multiwavelength erbium-doped fiber laser stabilized by four-wave mixing (FWM) in a nonlinear silicon-on-insulator (SOI) waveguide. The optical gain was provided by an erbium-doped fiber amplifier, and the wavelength selectivity was achieved by a Fabry–Pérot comb filter in the ring cavity. The FWM in the SOI waveguide was enhanced by applying a reverse-biased p-i-n diode structure to reduce free-carrier absorption. Making use of the nonlinearity of the SOI waveguide, a multiwavelength laser with six output wavelengths at 0.8 nm spacing was achieved. The power difference among modes was equalized within a range of 1.8 dB. The power fluctuation of each mode was stabilized to <0.65 dB during 20 min observation at room temperature.     

Graphene-assisted all-fiber multiwavelength erbium-doped fiber laser functionalized with evanescent field interaction

An all-fiber multiwavelength erbium-doped fiber laser (MEDFL) functionalized with evanescent-field-interacting graphene is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. Graphene-polymer nanocomposites were deposited around the waist region of a fiber taper fabricated by flame-stretching method. Using the graphene-deposited fiber taper (GDFT) to induce four-wave mixing (FWM) as a power-equalizing device for suppressing the unstable mode competition in MEDFL, stable multiwavelength lasing around 1530 nm was obtained with a wavelength spacing of 0.56 nm, an extinction ratio of 33 dB, and a narrow linewidth per channel of <0.01 nm. The output spectrum of the multiwavelength laser has a good flatness, and the power fluctuation of each wavelength is less than 1.5 dB. Comparing with the traditional methods, such evanescent-field-interaction based graphene stabilizing mechanism for multiwavelength generation possesses unique advantages: (1) it can avoid the graphene thermal damage, (2) it’s a real all-fiber integrated structure, and (3) it provides a longer interaction length for exciting FWM more efficiently.     

Influence of degenerate four-wave mixing on the performance of supercontinuum-based multiwavelength optical source

The influence of degenerate four-wave mixing (FWM) on the performance of supercontinuum-based multiwavelength optical source has been investigated in detail experimentally and theoretically. Numerical simulation results show that the degenerate FWM effect has a deteriorative influence on the spectral uniformity and the optical signal-to-noise ratio (OSNR) of supercontinuum-based optical source, and by suppressing degenerate FWM effect the performance enhancement of the supercontinuum can be achieved successfully. These results are also confirmed by our experiments. Experimentally, by suppressing degenerate FWM the crosstalk of adjacent channels to the filtered channel can be reduced by as much as 15 dB, and consequently the measured receiver sensitivity at 10 Gbit/s for the filtered optical source is improved from $-1.7$ to $-17.8$~dBm.     

A pump power controlled 1,060 nm multiwavelength fiber ring laser using nonlinear polarization rotation of SOA

We propose and experimentally demonstrate a both channel spacing and wavelength-tunable 1,060 nm multiwavelength fiber laser using nonlinear polarization rotation of semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA). The SOA in the cavity can not only provide the gain but also generate a pump power controlled phase-shift between two orthogonal linear states of polarization. The experimental result shows that the fast and continuous wavelength tuning is achieved with external light injection, while the channel spacing of the multiwavelength laser can be varied by adjusting the length of polarization maintaining fiber. When an external laser source with 13 dBm power is injected into the SOA as a control pump, optically tunable operation of up to 20 wavelength channels, from 1,042 to 1,058 nm, with a wavelength spacing of 0.8 nm has been demonstrated with the signal-to-spontaneous-noise ratio over 40 dB at room temperature. The lasers are stable with a maximum power fluctuation per channel of less than 0.5 dB during 2-h test.     

Investigation of tunable trap filter utilizing intense signal four wave mixing model in highly non-linear fiber

Tunable trap filter based on highly non-linear fiber (HNLF) utilizing degenerate four wave mixing (FWM) model has been proposed and investigated. The output powers in a FWM configuration are calculated as a function of the input signal power, with the result that new-wavelength is efficiently generated, leading to about −26 dB signal depletion. The signal loss spectra are also simulated under the condition of different initial signal powers, injected wavelengths, and fiber lengths.     

Broad bandwidth SOA-based multiwavelength laser incorporating a bidirectional Lyot filter

We demonstrate a broad bandwidth multiwavelength laser based on a bidirectional Lyot filter and a semiconductor optical amplifier with a mechanism of intensity-dependent loss as the flatness agent. A wide bandwidth of a multiwavelength spectrum of 32.9 nm within a 5 dB uniformity is obtained under optimized polarization parameters. For this case, the number of generated lasing lines is 329 with a fixed wavelength separation of 0.1 nm. The power stability of this multiwavelength laser is less than 1.35 dB within 200 min time frame. This shows that the bidirectional Lyot filter provides an alternative option for multiwavelength generation in laser systems.     

Investigation of a multiwavelength raman fiber laser based on few-mode fiber Bragg gratings

We propose and experimentally demonstrate a simple multiwavelength Raman fiber laser based on few-mode fiber Bragg gratings without additional multichannel filters. The multiwavelength Raman laser output has a high extinction ratio of more than 45 dB. The multiwavelength output is so stable that the peak power fluctuation is less than 0.5 dB. The number of lasing wavelengths can be adjusted, corresponding to the properties of few-mode Bragg gratings with multiple resonant wavelengths. By the thermal tuning method, the lasing wavelength of each channel can be effectively controlled, and the laser's tunability is measured to be 10.5 pm/ degrees C.     

A bandwidth-efficient channel allocation scheme for mitigating FWM in ultra-dense WDM-PON

In this paper, we investigate four-wave mixing (FWM) effects in the ultra-dense wavelength division multiplexing passive optical network (UDWDM-PON) system and propose an efficient channel allocation scheme to mitigate the FWM impact. This scheme is formed by grouping signal channels into several blocks with different channel spacing. Through numerical analysis and simulations, our proposed scheme is verified to be able to reduce the FWM effects and have higher bandwidth efficiency than the traditional unequal channel allocation scheme. The simulation results also demonstrate that our proposed scheme can achieve nearly 4 dB increases in optical power budget of the UDWDM-PON systems at the BER of 1e−3, in comparison with the equal spaced channel scheme.     

四波混频光相位运算器原理及其噪声性能研究

推导了抽运消耗情形下简并和非简并四波混频(FWM)闲频光幅度和相位的统一解析表达式.采用极限方法,计算证明了非相敏放大模式下闲频光相位与输入光初始相位之间的关系,揭示了FWM相位加减混合运算器的工作原理.以四相相移键控信号为例,对基于非简并FWM的相位运算器进行了设计,重点分析了三种基本加减混合运算的噪声转移性能及其对光纤长度、输入光波长和功率的依赖特性.计算表明:该运算器的噪声指数约为1.1 dB;当输入光信号的信噪比大于24 dB时无纠错编码的符号错误率可低于10~(-3).     

FDTD simulation of wavelength conversion of ultrashort pulses utilizing intersubband absorption in AlGaN/GaN quantum wells

The four-wave mixing (FWM) characteristics of 500-fs pulses in nonlinear optical waveguides utilizing the saturation of the intersubband absorption at 1.55 μm in nitride multiple quantum wells are calculated by a one-dimensional finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method combined with three-level rate equations describing the intersubband carrier dynamics. Efficiency for a 100-nm wavelength conversion in a 160-μm waveguide is predicted to be higher than 3% both for up- and down-conversions. The extinction ratio is higher than 20 dB. As for the short-pulse application, however, the conversion efficiency is strongly dependent on the phase difference between the pump and signal pulses, especially when the efficiency is high. This causes ambiguity in the output power. Therefore, the cross-loss-modulation (XLM) converter is preferable to the FWM converter for OTDM application. The FWM converters are considered to be applicable to simultaneous conversion of WDM signals.     

Generation of multiorder Stokes and anti-Stokes lines in a Brillouin erbium-fiber laser with a Sagnac loop mirror

We have demonstrated a novel multiwavelength lasing scheme in which a Brillouin erbium-fiber laser with a Sagnac loop mirror and a metal-coated planar mirror were used. The Sagnac loop permitted the simultaneous presence of a stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) pump and Stokes lines within the loop and thus generated high-order Stokes and anti-Stokes waves through a four-wave mixing (FWM) process. A total of 34 lines of Stokes and anti-Stokes waves with 0.08-nm line spacing was generated through the SBS and FWM processes with 1.5-mW SBS pump power at 1561 nm and 80-mW erbium-doped-fiber pump power.     

一种无磁化的5 T磁共振射频功率放大器设计

本文介绍了一种可以不接环形器，并在扫描间使用的5 T磁共振射频功率放大器（RFPA）.该RFPA基于驻波高耐受的横向扩散金属氧化物半导体（LDMOS）功率管进行设计，共包含三级放大电路.针对传统磁共振RFPA中带磁芯的传输线变压器进行了无磁化的设计，加强了对反射功率的监控，采用模拟负反馈技术实现了对RFPA非线性的自动矫正.测试结果显示该RFPA的输出功率为2 kW，在负载扰动（反射系数Г < 0.5）时，40 dB动态输入范围，其增益线性度≤ 1 dB，相位线性度≤ 10˚，满足成像需求，验证了该设计方案的合理性与可行性.     

A novel method degrading the combined effect of FWM and ASE noise in WDM systems containing in-line optical amplifiers

In this paper, a novel method degrading the combined effect of four-wave mixing (FWM) and amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) noise of the amplifier on the most heavily affected channel in an equally channel spaced wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) system containing in-line optical amplifiers is proposed. FWM effect is directly related to input powers of channels. So, FWM effect can be degraded by controlling channel input powers. In the proposed method, varying the input power of each channel in an optical fiber, the output optical signal to noise ratio (OSNR) values are evaluated and input powers of all channels are optimized in order to maximize the OSNR value of the channel having the lowest OSNR. To interpret the results obtained, output OSNR values for the minimum optical input power launched to the system by each channel are also computed. Being compared to the computed results for minimum optical input powers, the lowest output OSNR value among all channels for optimized input powers shows a 5.1867 dB increase in a 5-channel system, a 3.5988 dB increase in a 9-channel system, a 3.0855 dB increase in a 15-channel system and a 1.6795 dB increase for a 21-channel system. Furthermore, output OSNR values of all channels exhibit a significant increase.     

Wavelength-spacing tunable multiwavelength erbium-doped fiber laser based on four-wave mixing of dispersion-shifted fiber

We experimentally demonstrate a wavelength-spacing tunable multiwavelength erbium-doped fiber laser based on degenerate four-wave mixing in a dispersion-shifted fiber incorporating multiple-fiber Bragg gratings. We have achieved stable operation of the multiwavelength erbium-doped fiber laser, which has 0.8 nm spacing ten-channel lasing wavelengths and a high extinction ratio of more than approximately 45 dB, at room temperature. The output power of the multiwavelength erbium-doped fiber laser is stable, so the peak fluctuation is less than approximately 0.2 dB. By changing the properties such as loss and polarization state of multiple fiber Bragg grating cavities, we can exercise flexible control of the wavelength spacing of the multiwavelength output. We can also obtain switchable multiwavelength lasing operation by elimination of the effects of alternate single-fiber Bragg gratings.     

Quantum cascade structure for mid-IR four-wave mixing

The design and modeling of a quantum cascade optical amplifier (QCOA) using intra-cavity non-linear interactions to achieve wavelength conversion is proposed. The model is based on the nonlinear equation coupled with Maxwell wave equations for different emission modes. In the proposed structure, four wave mixing (FWM) output exhibits a peak as a function of pump and probe frequency if they are tuned to the energy levels of the QC structure subbands. Results demonstrate that the FWM output signal power significantly depends on how subbands are engineered and interact with optical pulses which propagate in multi layer medium. In addition, we show that by adjusting pump and probe signal frequencies, FWM output power can be tuned.     

Continuously wavelength-spacing-tunable and idler-output multiwavelength fiber optical parametric oscillator

We demonstrate a continuously wavelength-spacing-tunable and high-power multiwavelength fiber optical parametric oscillator based on the multiwavelength idler-output technique. The laser cavity for multiwavelength idler outputs is constructed by a pumped highly-nonlinear dispersion-shifted fiber as parametric gain medium, two highly-reflective chirped fiber Bragg gratings (CFBGs) and a superimposed CFBG as comb-like filter. At a pump power of 1.1 W, the idler output of 10 wavelengths around 1.56 μm is achieved with a wavelength spacing of 0.39 nm. The wavelength spacing can be continuously tuned from 0.39 to 1.0 nm by utilizing a cantilever beam-based chirp tuning method to change the FSR of the superimposed CFBG. Our experimental results show that the designed multiwavelength idler-output scheme can significantly increase the multiwavelength output power with a total output power of 98 mW and each idler-channel power of 16.3 mW.     

High-power master-oscillator power-amplifier with optical vortex output

A high-power master-oscillator power-amplifier with optical vortex output is reported. The master oscillator for an optical vortex seed beam is a simple two-mirror Nd:YAG laser using a fiber-based pump beam conditioning scheme. The seed is amplified in a double-clad multimode fiber amplifier end-pumped by a high-power diode laser at 975 nm yielding 10.7 W of continuous-wave output at 1064 nm in the first-order Laguerre–Gaussian beam with M ² ≈ 2.11 for an absorbed pump power of 17.5 W, corresponding to a slope efficiency of ~59 %. The ring-shaped intensity profile and the wave front handedness of the seed beam were well preserved in the fiber amplifier. The prospects of power scaling via this approach are discussed.     

Flat amplitude multiwavelength Brillouin–Raman random fiber laser with a half-open cavity

In this paper, we experimentally demonstrate a novel configuration of multiwavelength Brillouin–Raman random fiber laser (MBRRFL) utilizing a half-open cavity. The laser resonator is formed by fiber loop mirror at the Brillouin pump (BP) side and random distributed Rayleigh backscattering in a 10 km dispersion compensating fiber. As a result, we are able to obtain a flat amplitude bandwidth of 16.8 nm from 1,550.0 to 1,566.8 nm built-in 210 uniform Brillouin Stokes lines with 0.08 nm spacing and an average OSNR of 13.5 dB. We also studied the influence of BP power and wavelength on the MBRRFL’s performance. Furthermore, comparing with the open cavity configuration, the discrepancies in power level and linewidth between neighboring channels are overcome by using the half-open cavity.     

Improved light uniformity and SNR employing new LED distribution pattern for indoor applications in VLC system

In this paper, a new LED arrangement design using 16 LED array in an indoor VLC system is introduced. The performance of the proposed design is investigated and compared with other different (previously introduced) designs using the same number of LED arrays. Our aim is to increase light uniformity and decrease power and SNR fluctuations across the room without increasing number of LED arrays. The received power and SNR were calculated to evaluate the system performance, while the root mean square delay spread was calculated to analyze the intersymbol interference impact on the system performance. The power standard deviation (STD) was calculated as well to measure uniformity of distributed power. The received power fluctuations under our proposed LED lamp arrangement were reduced from 4.46 to 0.93 dBm, the STD is decreased from 1.01 to 0.23, and the SNR fluctuations were reduced from 9 to 1.8 dB leading to almost identical communication across the entire room with high quality.     

Self-seeded multiwavelength Brillouin-erbium laser using NOLM-NALM

In this paper, we demonstrate a new architecture of a self-seeded multiwavelength Brillouin-erbium laser by using a nonlinear optical-loop mirror and a nonlinear amplifying-loop mirror (NOLM-NALM). A stable operation of 61 Brillouin-Stokes lines with a 0.08-nm spacing was obtained and the laser exhibited satisfied the flatness of the output spectrum with a low-threshold pump power. It is shown that the four-wave mixing (FWM) contributes to the generation of high-order Brillouin-Stokes and anti-Stokes and, consequently, results in the increase of the Stokes number and the reduction of its peak power.