A widely tunable dual-wavelength erbium-doped fiber ring laser operating in single longitudinal mode

A new mechanism to induce polarization hole burning effect in Er-doped fiber ring lasers is presented. By using this effect, incorporating with the counter-propagation of the two light beams, the inhomogeneous in the gain medium broadening was significantly increased, and thus a stable dual-frequency Er-doped fiber ring laser operating in single longitudinal mode and single-frequency was demonstrated. Frequency spacing was tunable from 0.47 GHz to THz.     

Stable single longitudinal mode fiber ring laser based on polarization maintaining erbium doped fiber

A stable single longitudinal mode (SLM) fiber ring laser that incorporates polarization maintaining erbium doped fiber (PM EDF) acting as gain medium and saturable absorber is proposed and demonstrated. Both theoretical deviation and experimental result prove that optical intensity is time invariant when the laser operates in single longitudinal mode, the SLM operation can be approximately verified by optical intensity analysis, which is practical to analyze longitudinal mode in the application of engineering. The linewidth of the fiber ring laser is measured by the delayed self-heterodyne interferometery, and an acousto-optic frequency shifter is employed to shift the lasing frequency and eliminate zero frequency interfere. The SLM operation is verified by the scanning Fabry–Perot interferometer, whereas the lasing frequency drift slowly during a period of 2 h, PM EDF is proved to be effective on suppressing mode hopping and selecting longitudinal mode.     

Photonic generation of tunable microwave signals by beating a dual-wavelength single longitudinal mode fiber ring laser

A novel method of generating tunable microwave signals in the photonic domain is proposed. Eighteen pairs of stable dual-wavelength single longitudinal mode lasings are achieved by incorporating a fiber Bragg grating based Fabry–Pérot filter and a tunable fiber grating into a fiber ring cavity. The frequency of the generated microwave signal obtained by beating the dual-wavelength laser with a photodetector can be tuned simply through configuring the working wavelength of the laser. A series of microwave frequencies of 9.4885, 9.572, 9.7111, 9.8498, 9.9598 and 10.0712 GHz are generated experimentally. The proposed method is useful in applications such as wireless access networks, sensor networks, radio-over-fiber systems and software-defined radio. PACS 41.20.-q; 42.55.Wd; 41.81.-i     

Physics and technology of tunable pulsed single longitudinal mode dye laser

Design and technology demonstration of compact, narrow bandwidth, high repetition rate, tunable SLM dye lasers in two different configurations, namely Littrow and grazing incidence grating (GIG), were carried out in our lab at BARC, India. The single longitudinal mode (SLM) dye laser generates single-mode laser beams of ∼400 MHz (GIG configuration) and ∼600 MHz (Littrow configuration) bandwidth. Detailed performance studies of the Littrow and GIG dye laser resonators showed that GIG dye laser results in narrower linewidth and broad mode hop free wavelength scanning over 70 GHz. In this paper we present experimental studies carried out on the high repetition rate SLM dye laser system.     

20-GHz broadly tunable and stable mode-locked semiconductor amplifier fiber ring laser

We present an actively mode-locked fiber ring laser that uses a single active semiconductor optical amplifier device to provide both gain and gain modulation from an external optical pulse train. The laser source generated 4.3-ps pulses at 20 GHz over a 16-nm tuning range and is stable against environmental changes and simple to build.     

Stable single longitudinal mode erbium-doped silica fiber laser based on asymmetric linear three-cavity structure

We present a stable linear-cavity single longitudinal mode (SLM) erbium-doped silica fiber laser. It consists of four fiber Bragg gratings (FBGs) directly written in a section of photosensitive erbium-doped fiber (EDF) to form asymmetric three-cavity structure. The stable SLM operation at a wavelength of 1545.112 nm with a 3-dB bandwidth of 0.012 nm and an optical signal-to-noise ratio (OSNR) of about 60 dB is verified experimentally. In laboratory condition, the performance of power fluctuation of less than 0.05 dB observed from the power meter for 6 h and wavelength variation of less than 0.01 nm obtained from the optical spectrum analyzer (OSA) for about 1.5 h are demonstrated. The gain fiber length is no longer limited to only several centimeters for SLM operation because of the excellent mode-selecting ability of the asymmetric three-cavity structure. The proposed scheme provides a simple and cost-effective approach to realizing a stable SLM fiber laser.     

High power dual-wavelength tunable fiber laser in linear and ring cavity configurations

We describe and compare the performances of two crucial configurations for a tunable dual-wavelength fiber laser, namely, the linear and ring configurations. The performances of these two cavities and the tunability in the dual-wavelength output varied from 0.8 to 11.9 nm are characterized. The ring cavity provides a better performance, achieving an average output power of 0.5 dBm, with a power fluctuation of only 1.1 dB and a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of 66 dB. Moreover, the ring cavity has minimal or no background amplified spontaneous emission (ASE).     

Employing dual-saturable-absorber-based filter for stable and tunable erbium-doped fiber ring laser in single-frequency

In this demonstration, a stable and wavelength-tunable erbium-doped fiber (EDF) ring laser using dual-saturable-absorber-based (DSAB) filter inside loop cavity is proposed and experimentally investigated. The proposed DSAB filter not only can filter the side-mode in single-frequency output, but also can obtain the flattened output power spectrum within 1 dB variation in the effectively range of 1529 to 1563 nm. In addition, the output stabilities of wavelength and power are also measured experimentally and discussed.     

Stable single longitudinal mode erbium-doped silica fiber laser based on an asymmetric linear three-cavity structure

We present a stable linear-cavity single longitudinal mode (SLM) erbium-doped silica fiber laser. It consists of four fiber Bragg gratings (FBGs) directly written in a section of photosensitive erbium-doped fiber (EDF) to form an asymmetric three-cavity structure. The stable SLM operation at a wavelength of 1545.112 nm with a 3-dB bandwidth of 0.012 nm and an optical signal-to-noise ratio (OSNR) of about 60 dB is verified experimentally. Under laboratory conditions, the performance of a power fluctuation of less than 0.05 dB observed from the power meter for 6 h and a wavelength variation of less than 0.01 nm obtained from the optical spectrum analyzer (OSA) for about 1.5 h are demonstrated. The gain fiber length is no longer limited to only several centimeters for SLM operation because of the excellent mode-selecting ability of the asymmetric three-cavity structure. The proposed scheme provides a simple and cost-effective approach to realizing a stable SLM fiber laser.     

A stable dual-wavelength fiber laser with tunable wavelength spacing using a polarization-maintaining linear cavity

We propose and experimentally demonstrate a stable dual-wavelength erbium-doped polarization-maintaining (PM) fiber laser with tunable wavelength spacing using an all-PM linear cavity that makes use of two reflection peaks from the PM fiber Bragg grating (PM-FBG). Experimental results show stable dual lasing lines with a wavelength separation of ∼0.22 nm and a large optical signal-to-noise ratio (OSNR) of over 40 dB under room temperature. By applying axial strain to the PM-FBG, the center wavelengths of the two lasing lines can be tuned over several nanometers and the wavelength separation between the lasing lines can also be tuned to as small as 0.05 nm, which, to our knowledge, is the smallest wavelength spacing ever obtained from a stable room-temperature dual-wavelength fiber laser. The proposed laser configuration has the advantages of simple structure, low loss, stable dual-wavelength operation and a very small lasing linewidth of ∼5 kHz . PACS 42.55.Wd; 42.81.-i; 42.81.Gs     

All-fiber tunable ytterbium-doped double-clad fiber ring laser

We have designed and realized a cw all-fiber tunable Yb-doped double-clad fiber laser in a unidirectional ring cavity. The side-pumping V-groove technique is used, yielding very good launching efficiency of the high-power pumping laser diode, together with a compact configuration. The fiber laser delivers as much as 800 mW of power and is tunable in the spectral range 1.04-1.10 microm . The laser linewidth is ~0.1 nm .     

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.     

Wavelength tunable erbium-doped fiber ring laser operating in L-band

We describe a novel erbium-doped fiber ring laser utilizing the backward amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) power as a secondary pump source so that it can operate in L-band stably. The output wavelength can be tuned in a wide range of 45 nm, from 1560 to 1605 nm. We also compared this scheme with the condition of not using the ASE as secondary pump source, and found this scheme could improve the performance of the laser when using the same components.     

环形腔声光可调谐掺铒光纤激光器调谐范围的研究

介绍了一种基于声光可调谐滤波器(AOTF)的可调谐掺铒光纤激光器。从掺铒光纤放大器的速率方程和传输方程出发,推导出声光可调谐掺铒光纤激光器的输出公式,理论上解释了该环形腔声光可调谐掺铒光纤激光器调谐范围仅决定于掺铒光纤的增益带宽;并在实验中测得该激光器调谐范围为1 526.05 nm到1 560.63 nm,这个区间对应着实验所得掺铒光纤自发辐射谱的增益区间,从而验证了理论推导所得结论。     

Widely tunable Raman ring laser using highly nonlinear fiber

An all-optical widely tunable Raman fiber laser has been realized by incorporating a highly nonlinear fiber in a ring cavity. By feedback a portion of Raman Stokes wave back into the highly nonlinear gain medium, a Raman fiber laser is generated. We found that the lasing wavelength of Raman fiber laser can be tuned from 1537 to 1568 nm with peak power fluctuation within 1 dB, giving a total wavelength tunability of 31 nm. The optical signal-to-noise ratio is found to be wavelength dependent, and the highest optical signal-to-noise ratio of about 59 dB is recorded. The lasing threshold of the Raman fiber laser with this configuration is found to be as low as 300 mW.     

A novel tunable polarization mode dispersion compensator with strain chirped fiber Bragg gratings

A tunable polarization mode dispersion (PMD) compensator based on strain-ckirped fiber Bragg gratings (FBGs) is proposed. It natures in flexible designing, large tuning range, without using linear or nonlinear chirped phase mask, fast tuning response time, continuously adjustable, all-fiber based, compact, and cheap.     

A novel tunable polarization mode dispersion compensator with strain chirped fiber Bragg gratings

A tunable polarization mode dispersion (PMD) compensator based on strain-chirped fiber Bragg gratings (FBGs) is proposed. It natures in flexible designing, large tuning range, without using linear or nonlinear chirped phase mask, fast tuning response time, continuously adjustable, all-fiber based, compact, and cheap.     

Toward passive mode locking by nonlinear polarization evolution in a cascaded Raman fiber ring laser

We demonstrate a cascaded Raman fiber ring laser delivering a pulsed fourth-order Stokes component. Periodic emission of subnanosecond pulses is achieved from the interplay between nonlinear polarization evolution and Raman cascade process.