Double-pass erbium-doped zirconia fiber amplifier for wide-band and flat-gain operations

The double-pass erbium-doped zirconia fiber amplifier (EDZFA) is proposed and demonstrated to provide a wide-band amplification as well as flat-gain operation in both the C- and L-band regions using only a single-gain medium. The proposed amplifier utilizes an erbium-doped zirconia fiber (EDZF) with erbium ion concentration of 2800 ppm as a gain medium. The medium is fabricated in a ternary glass host, zirconia-yttria-aluminum codoped silica fiber through solution doping technique along with modified chemical vapor deposition (MCVD). Compared to a single-pass operation, the double-pass EDZFA shows a better gain performance. At input signal power of 0 dBm and the optimum EDZF length of 2 m, a flat gain of around 16 dB is achieved by the proposed double-pass amplifier with gain variation of approximately 2.5 dB throughout the wavelength range from 1530 to 1590 nm. However, the noise figure of the double-pass amplifier is slightly higher than that of the single-pass due to inefficient population inversion at the input part of the amplifier.     

Experimental and theoretical studies on a double-pass C-band bismuth-based erbium-doped fiber amplifier

Performance of a Bismuth-based Erbium-doped fiber amplifier is experimentally and theoretically investigated using 1480 nm pumping with double-pass scheme. In the theoretical analysis, the rate and power propagation equations are solved to examine the optimum length for the C-band operation as well as the gain and noise figure characteristics. The calculated small signal gain is 38 dB with gain variation of less than 3 dB. The measured gain is 4 dB lower due to spurious reflections which were ignored in the theoretical analysis. At input signal power of 0 dBm, a gain of 14.5 dB is obtained experimentally with gain variation of less than 1 dB within the wavelength region from 1530 to 1565 nm. The noise figure is less than 12 dB within this region.     

Tunable double-clad ytterbium-doped fiber laser based on a double-pass Mach-Zehnder interferometer

We have demonstrated an adjustable double-clad Yb³⁺-doped fiber laser using a double-pass Mach-Zehnder interferometer. The laser is adjustable over a range of 40 nm from 1064 nm to 1104 nm. By adjusting the state of the polarization controller, which is placed in the double-pass Mach-Zehnder interferometer, we obtained central lasing wavelengths that can be accurately tuned with controllable spacing between different tunable wavelengths. The laser has a side mode suppression ratio of 42 dB, the 3 dB spectral width is less than 0.2 nm, and the slope efficiencies at 1068 nm, 1082 nm and 1098 nm are 23%, 32% and 26%, respectively. In addition, we have experimentally observed tunable multi-wavelengths lasing output.     

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.     

A theoretical study of double-pass thulium-doped fiber amplifiers

An efficient fluoride-based thulium-doped fiber amplifier (TDFA) is theoretically demonstrated using a double-pass scheme. A reflector is incorporated in the double-pass TDFA to allow double propagation of the test signal in the gain medium and thus improve the gain of the TDFA. The small signal gain improvement of more than 15 dB is obtained in the 1465 nm region. A gain as high as 42 dB is obtained in this region with 300 mW of 1050 nm pump using 20 m of thulium-doped fiber. However, a noise figure penalty of approximately 1 dB is also obtained in this wavelength region. Differential equations are solved using the Runge-Kutta method in the theoretical analysis. The theoretical result is in agreement with the experimental result.     

Noise reduction of tunable laser based on mutual injection-locked reflective semiconductor optical amplifiers

A tunable laser source based on mutual injection-locked reflective semiconductor optical amplifiers (MIL-RSOAs) using a tunable bandpass filter was investigated to reduce relative-intensity noise (RIN) and improve the carrier-to-noise ratio (CNR) without additional optoelectronic compensation. Compared with laser based on self-injection-locked RSOAs (SIL-RSOAs), the laser based on MIL-RSOAs reduced RIN by as much as 16 dB and improved CNR by as much as 20 dB. The proposed method improved sensitivity for 1.25 Gb/s transmission by >15 dB compared with using traditional laser based on SIL-RSOAs.     

Wavelength-tunable erbium fiber ring laser in single-frequency operation utilizing Fabry-Perot laser with Sagnac cavity

We propose and demonstrate experimentally a stabilized and wavelength-selective erbium-doped fiber ring laser in single-longitudinal-mode operation with Fabry-Perot laser diode (FP-LD) and using a tunable bandpass filter (TBF) inside and outside a Sagnac ring cavity. The side-mode suppression ratios of 21 dB and 36.5 dB and the output power of -3.6 dB m and -8.7 dB m in the wavelengths of 1524.45-1562.35 nm and 1531.07-1562.35 nm with the tuning step of 1.4 nm can be achieved when the TBF outside and inside Sagnac loop, respectively. The output wavelength variation of zero and the output power fluctuation of <0.1 dB are also obtained. Moreover, the transmission efficiency of the ring laser has also been performed experimentally under a 1.25, 2.5 and 10 Gb/s external modulation, respectively.     

Injection locked multi-section gain-coupled dual mode DFB laser for terahertz generation

A dual mode multi-section gain-coupled distributed feedback laser with tunable mode spacing is subharmonically injection locked at 0.315 THz. The injected signal consists of an optical comb with harmonics 35 GHz apart and a bandwidth of approximately 1.9 THz. The optical comb is a result of strong four-wave mixing in a highly-nonlinear dispersion-shifted fiber. In order to observe locking of the multi-section laser, the output is optically downconverted to RF frequencies using the same optical comb. The locked multi-section DFB laser is a coherent and tunable optical source suitable for continuous-wave terahertz generation systems.     

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.     

Widely tunable, high-repetition-rate, dual signal-wave optical parametric oscillator by using two periodically poled crystals

This paper reports on a high-repetition-rate dual signal-wave (DSW) optical parametric oscillator (OPO) operating at the 1.5 μm band with tunable wavelength intervals from 2.5 nm to 69.1 nm. Two periodically poled crystals, a periodically poled lithium niobate (PPLN) with multiple gratings and a single grating MgO-doped PPLN (PPMgOLN), are cascaded in the same OPO cavity to generate dual signal-waves by using quasi-phase-matched (QPM) technique. The pump source was a Q-switched diode-pumped Nd:YVO₄ laser operating at 50 kHz. At an incident pump power of 3 W, an average output power of 169.6 mW at 1489.2 nm and 1558.3 nm has been achieved.     

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.     

Effect of steady-state conditions on self-pulsing characteristics of Yb-doped cw fiber lasers

Fiber laser resonator configurations have been analyzed theoretically on the basis of steady-state rate equations to optimize the laser conversion efficiency. Evolution of the pump- and signal powers and the saturated gain coefficient along the length of the laser medium has been simulated for high- and low-finesse resonators in forward- and backward pumping schemes. The corresponding fiber laser configurations have been setup to verify the results of simulation. Backward pumping configuration in an Yb-doped fiber laser has been found to be the most efficient, and in this configuration a maximum cw output power of 10.75 W in single transverse mode with an optical-to-optical conversion efficiency of 62.5% has been achieved. The laser output spectrum was peaked at 1093 nm with full-width at half-maximum (FWHM) line-width of about 9 nm. In the low-finesse resonator configuration, it has been found that experimental observations differ from theoretical simulation results. In this case, output power from both ends ceases to increase linearly beyond 1.8 W, and starts fluctuating due to the onset of strong random self-pulsing phenomenon. Our investigation shows that a non-uniform steady-state gain along the fiber length facilitates the self-pulsing process.     

High-power 3.8 μm tunable optical parametric oscillator based on PPMgO:CLN

The experimental results of a high-power 3.8 μm tunable laser are presented on a quasi-phase-matched single-resonated optical parametric oscillator in PPMgO:CLN pumped by a 1064 nm laser of an elliptical beam. Theoretical analyses of the PPMgO:CLN wavelength tuning are presented. The pump source was an acousto-optical Q-switched cw-diode-side-pumped Nd:YAG laser. The beam polarization matched the e-ee interaction in PPMgO:CLN. When the crystal was operated at 90 °C and the pump power was 150 W with a repetition rate of 10 kHz, average output power of 22.6 W at 3.86 μm and 63 W at 1.47 μm was obtained. The slope efficiency of the 3.86 μm laser with respect to the pump laser was 17.8%. The M² factors of the 3.86 μm laser were 1.74 and 4.86 in the parallel and perpendicular directions, respectively. The mid-IR wavelength tunability of 3.7-3.9 μm can be achieved by adjusting the temperature of a 29.2 μm period PPMgO:CLN crystal from 200 °C to 30 °C, which basically is accorded with the theoretic calculation.     

Visible-to-near infrared standard source generation using acetylene (C2H2)-stabilized comb-injection-locked technique

An ultra-stable visible laser source (VLS) was generated by the second harmonic of a selectively injection-locked distributed feedback (DFB) laser from an optical frequency comb with acetylene-stabilized laser seeding. For the second-harmonic generation (SHG) of the injection-locked DFB laser, we used periodically poled lithium niobate (PPLN) crystal and generated the VLS at a region of 771 nm, which was discretely locked to a spacing of 25 GHz within the PPLN bandwidth (180 GHz). The frequency stability of this source was estimated to be 1.1 × 10^− 12 with an average time of 1 s.     

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.     

Thermally tunable microfiber knot resonator based erbium-doped fiber laser

A compact and tunable erbium-doped fiber laser is demonstrated using a highly doped fiber and a microfiber knot resonator (MKR) structure which is laid on the surface of a small peltier. The MKR functions as both a reflector and a tunable filter where tunability is achieved by varying the temperature of the resonator by heating the peltier. A stable laser output is achieved at the 1533 nm region with an optical signal to noise ratio (OSNR) of 27 dB using a 65 mW of 980 nm pump power. The operating wavelength of the laser can be tuned from 1532.60 nm to 1533.49 nm as the temperature is increased from the room temperature of 24 to 90 °C. It is observed that the operating wavelength shifts to a longer wavelength as the temperature increases with an efficiency of 12.4 pm/°C. This is due to the thermally induced optical phase shift attributable to the changes in effective refractive index and optical path length of the MKR loop.     

Semiconductor optical amplifier based swept wavelength source at 1060 nm using a scanning Fabry-Perot filter and an YDFA-based booster amplifier

We demonstrate a tuneable laser operating in the 1-1.1 μm wavelength region with a tuning range of 43 nm (FWHM), an output power of 19 mW and coherence length of 14 mm. The source is based on a master laser consisting of a cavity tuned ring configuration with a fibre Fabry-Perot filter used as a tuning element and a semiconductor amplifier as gain medium. The output of the master laser is subsequently power boosted using an Ytterbium doped fibre amplifier (YDFA). In addition to providing a power boost, we demonstrate that by tailoring the gain spectrum of the YDFA it is possible to increase the FWHM scanning range by 7 nm compared to that of the master laser.     

Experimental investigation of the impact of optical injection on vital parameters of a gain-switched pulse source

An analysis of optical injection on a gain-switched distributed feedback (DFB) laser and its impact on pulse parameters that influence the performance of the pulse source in high-speed optical communication systems is presented in this paper. A range of 10 GHz in detuning and 5 dB in injected power has been experimentally identified to attain pulses, from an optically injected gain-switched DFB laser, with durations below 10 ps and pedestal suppression higher than 35 dB. These pulse features are associated with a side mode suppression ratio of about 30 dB and a timing jitter of less than 1 ps. This demonstrates the feasibility of using optical injection in conjunction with appropriate pulse compression schemes for developing an optimized and cost-efficient pulse source, based on a gain-switched DFB laser, for high-speed photonic systems.     

A dual pumped double-pass L-band EDFA with high gain and low noise

This paper presents an efficient pumping scheme for L-band erbium-doped fiber (EDFA) amplifier to reach high gain and low noise performance in a double-pass configuration. The main L-band amplifier is composed of two sections of EDFs. A 980 nm and a 1480 nm pump lasers are used to pump the first section of EDF bi-directionally. The generated backward C-band amplified spontaneous emission noise from this EDF is used to pump a subsequent un-pumped section of EDF. In the double-pass scheme, a narrow-band fiber Bragg grating at each channel wavelength is used to back-reflect the L-band signal to make it amplified twice by the pair of EDFs. Compared with its conventional counterpart, this new double-pass configuration provides a lower noise figure and a higher gain. The pump conversion efficiency can be improved by more than 50% in a 3-channel demonstration by using the proposed configuration.     

Tunable microwave generation based on a Brillouin fiber ring laser and reflected pump

A simple approach for photonic generation of a tunable microwave signal is proposed and successfully demonstrated. By mixing the output from a single-longitudinal-mode Brillouin fiber ring laser with the reflected laser pump at photodetector, a microwave signal at the Brillouin shift can be obtained. Since the Brillouin shift can be changed by tuning the pump wavelength, tunable microwave can be generated. As a result a microwave signal tunable from 10.39 to 10.67 GHz has been achieved, with linewidth less than 600 KHz.