Numerical study of a harmonic mode-locked semiconductor optical amplifier fiber ring laser

An improved harmonic mode-locked Semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) fiber ring lasers has been presented and numerically investigated based on the self-reproduction theory. The numerical result shows that a narrower optical pulse train with a more symmetrical-temporal shape can be obtained, when the modulation SOA is DC biased on high current, whereas the gain SOA is DC biased on the low current functions as a gain compensator in the experimental setup. Also, the system parameters effects on the characteristic of the harmonic mode-locked pulse have been investigated.     

Multiwavelength actively mode-locked fiber ring laser with a dispersion compensated cavity

A multiwavelength actively mode-locked fiber ring laser that utilises a single semiconductor optical amplifier as both a gain and mode-locking element is presented. It is verified experimentally that the number of mode-locked wavelengths may be maximised by compensating for the anomalous intra-cavity dispersion. This is achieved through the inclusion of an appropriate length of normal dispersion fiber in the laser cavity. Using this technique, the number of wavelengths simultaneously mode-locked at 10 GHz was increased from 2 to 5.     

A novel actively and passively mode-locked semiconductor optical amplifier fiber ring laser

A novel actively and passively mode-locked semiconductor optical amplifier fiber ring laser was presented, where semiconductor optical amplifier provided cavity gain and introduced nonlinear polarization rotation, whereas, intensity modulator not only acted as modulator but also polarizer. The pulses with duration below 3 ps (FWHM) and peak power about 16 mW at a repetition rate of 10 GHz can be obtained in our system and the system stability may be enhanced. To investigate system parameters effects on mode-locked pulses, a theoretical model was developed.     

Multiwavelength pulse generation in semiconductor-fiber ring laser using a sampled fiber grating

A novel multiwavelength scheme has been demonstrated using a sampled fiber grating in semiconductor-fiber ring laser. By using semiconductor optical amplifier as an inhomogeneously broadened gain medium, three wavelength channels of 10 GHz are simultaneously generated. The number of the lasing channels can be changed through the polarization state adjustment in the cavity.     

Influence of the bias current on the output characteristics of a mode-locked fiber ring laser consisting of two SOAs

In this paper, after obtaining the mode-locked pulse shape with self-reproduction theory, the influence of the bias current on the output characteristics of a backward-optical-injection harmonic mode-locked fiber ring laser consisting of two semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOAs) has been numerically investigated. The results show that the mode-locked pulse with high peak power and narrow width can be obtained through reasonably adjusting the bias currents of the two SOAs.     

Experimental and theoretical studies of a high repetition rate fiber laser, mode-locked by external optical modulation

An experimental and theoretical study of a high repetition rate laser source operating on a novel mode-locking technique is presented. This technique relies on the fast saturation and recovery of a semiconductor optical amplifier induced by an external optical pulse and has been used to obtain 4.3 ps pulses at 20 GHz. A complete mathematical model of the fiber ring laser is presented describing the mode-locking process in the laser oscillator and providing solutions for the steady-state mode-locked pulse profile. The critical parameters of the system are defined and analyzed and their impact on the formation of the mode-locked pulses is examined. The comparison between the theoretical results and the experimental data reveals very good agreement and has allowed the optimization of the performance of the system in terms of its critical parameters.     

SOA-fiber ring laser and its application to electric field sensing in frequency domain

We have developed a novel optical fiber ring laser using a semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) as the gain medium, and taking advantage of polarization anisotropy of its gain. The laser can control the oscillation frequency difference between two counterpropagating lights by incorporating a birefringent medium into the ring resonator. Since the frequency difference is proportional to the birefringence, it can be measured to detect the beat frequency generated by combining two counterpropagating lights and the laser can be applied to an optical fiber sensor whose detecting signal is in frequency domain. Electric field sensor was demonstrated with a lithium niobate crystal as a sensing probe.     

Eleven-wavelength switchable fiber ring laser with a dispersion compensation fiber and a delayed interferometer

We demonstrate a fiber ring laser with a dispersion compensation fiber (DCF) and a delayed interferometer (DI) with temperature control, which is able to switch eleven wavelengths one by one. In ring cavity, DCF supplies different effective cavity lengths for different wavelengths, DI generates a wavelength comb corresponding to the ITU grid, a flat-gain erbium-doped fiber amplifier (EDFA) provides uniform gain for each lasting wavelength, and a semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) not only acts as active modulator, but also alleviates homogeneous broadening effect of EDFA. Stable pulse trains with a pulsewidth about 40 ps at 10 GHz have been obtained by injecting external optical control signals into the laser. Wavelength switching process among eleven wavelengths is achieved by merely tuning an intracavity optical delay line.     

40 Gbit/s all-optical clock recovery based on the injection mode-locked fiber ring laser

All-optical clock recovery is a key technology in all-optical 3R (Re-timing, Re-shaping, Re-amplifying) regeneration. In this paper, we demonstrate an all-optical clock recovery circuit based on injection mode-locked fiber laser. We have successfully extracted 40 GHz optical clock pulse from 40 Gb/s pseudorandom signal. Before the injected signal goes into the ring cavity, we make it pass a Mach–Zender interferometer (MZI) firstly. And thereby the clock component in the injected signal has been increased relatively, which is benefit to the clock recovery. We obtain firstly 10 GHz clock signal with perfect waveform from 10 Gb/s pseudorandom data stream, and then we extract 40 GHz clock signal from 40 Gb/s pseudorandom signal.     

SOA-based actively mode-locked fiber ring laser by forward injecting an external pulse train

An actively mode-locked fiber ring laser based on cross-gain modulation (XGM) in a semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) is demonstrated to operate stably with a simple configuration. By forward injecting an easily-generated external pulse train, the mode-locked fiber laser can generate an optical-pulse sequence with pulsewidth about 6 ps and average output power about 7.9 mW. The output pulses show an ultra-low RMS jitter about 70.7 fs measured by a RF spectrum analyzer. The use of the proposed forward-injection configuration can realize the repetition-rate tunability from 1 to 15 GHz for the generated optical-pulse sequences. By employing a wavelength-tunable optical band-pass filter in the laser cavity, the operation wavelength of the designed SOA-based actively mode-locked fiber laser can be tuned continuously in a wide span between 1528 and 1565 nm. The parameters of external-injection optical pulses are studied experimentally to optimize the mode-locked fiber laser.     

Ultrafast mode-locked dual-wavelength thulium-doped fiber laser using a Mach-Zehnder interferometric filter

A simple and robust method to generate a dual-wavelength mode-locked laser using a tunable Mach-Zehnder filter (TMZF) and a single-wall carbon nanotube (SWCNT) based saturable absorber (SA) is proposed and demonstrated. The proposed laser uses a thulium-doped fiber for lasing in the two-micron region and exploits the interferometric spectrum of the TMZF to produce dual peaks with nearly equal magnitude. SWCNT based SA enables mode-locking at a threshold value of 150.4?mW with distinct dual-wavelength peaks at 1919.2?nm and 1963.7?nm. The peaks have a calculated pulse width of 1.8?ps and 1.6?ps, respectively with a repetition rate of 9.1?MHz with a relatively high optical-signal-to-noise ratio value of 59.1?dB. The output is also observed to remain unchanged over time, indicating high stability. The proposed laser has a promising application, particularly in ultrafast gas molecular spectroscopy and sensing.     

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.     

Design optimization of all-optical actively mode-locked ring laser based on cross-gain modulation in a semiconductor optical amplifier

A complete and detailed model is presented that describes the main physical phenomena that occur in an actively mode-locked fiber ring laser based on cross-gain modulation in a semiconductor optical amplifier employed as both the gain medium and mode-locking element. The relationship between key laser parameters and the output pulse characteristics is numerically analyzed to provide simple design rules and derive a set of necessary operational conditions. The adoption of these rules and the satisfaction of these conditions enables the optimization of the laser performance and the generation of short and high energy mode-locked output pulses.     

Passively mode-locked ytterbium fiber laser utilizing chirped-fiber-Bragg-gratings for dispersion control

A robust, self-starting picosecond pulse source based on ytterbium (Yb³⁺) doped fiber laser is described. Utilizing a chirped-fiber-Bragg-grating (C-FBG) for dispersion control, solitary mode-locking is obtained without bulk dispersion compensation elements. A semiconductor saturable absorber (SESAM) is used for stable self-starting. 3.6 ps pulses are produced, with 45 MHz basic repetition-rate and mW scale average output power at 1060 nm. Detailed numerical simulations based on the modified nonlinear Schrödinger equation agree well with the experimental results and are used as a design tool for the solitary mode-locked picosecond laser. The presented design can be simply employed in an all-fiber environmentally-stable system.     

Performance investigation of ring network topology in the presence of semiconductor optical amplifiers

The performance of 60 user ring network topology is investigated in the presence of semiconductor optical amplifiers. This ring network topology is evaluated by considering the signal quality factor, eye closure and received power for different signal input power. Further, this ring network topology is investigated with multiple numbers of spans. It is reported that, the maximum number of nodes supported by this ring network is >300 with acceptable quality and received power.     

飞秒被动锁模环形腔掺Er3＋光纤激光器

在考虑增益、损耗、群速度色散、自相位调制、快速可饱和吸收体等各种参数同时作用情况下，分析了非线性偏振旋转效应自启动锁模机理，研究了腔体参数与锁模脉冲之间的关系，并给出飞秒被动锁模环形腔掺Er3＋光纤激光器实验原理。实验采用性能稳定的980nm半导体激光器作为抽运源，高掺杂短长度掺Er3＋光纤作为增益介质，利用非线性偏振旋转锁模技术，得到了稳定的飞秒自起振锁模光脉冲。抽运功率为23mW时，激光器输出锁模脉冲中心波长1552nm，3dB带宽为7.6nm，重复频率14.0MHz，平均输出功率0.43mW，自起振锁模泵浦阈值功率11.5mW,并观测到了稳定的高阶锁模脉冲输出。该激光器与报道过的相同结构光纤激光器相比,自起振泵浦阈值低、脉冲能量高、稳定性好，且频谱边带幅度小。     

基于单端半导体光放大器的可调谐超短光脉冲源理论与实验研究

超短光脉冲源是光时分复用(OTDM)系统中的关键器件.提出了一种基于单端半导体光放大器(SOA)的注入型主动锁模光纤激光器产生超短光脉冲的方案，建立了该方案的理论模型.实验实现了高消光比稳定的重复频率10—40GHz皮秒级光脉冲的输出，输出波长在30nm范围内连续可调. 关键词： 超短光脉冲 单端半导体光放大器 主动锁模     

用于全光缓存的光阈值门理论和实验研究

提出了一种基于光阈值门的全光缓存方案,采用两个非对称的SOA环形腔激光器耦合构成光阈值门,其输出光可以在两种波长上切换,可控制波长转换器实现光包路由,从而将需缓存的数据包路由到缓存端口,避免了复杂的包头处理.建立了光阈值门的理论模型,对10 Gbit/s的光阈值门的动态特性进行了数值模拟和实验研究,实验结果和理论计算结果相符合,实验也表明光阈值门两种输出状态的消光比可达30dB.     

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.     

Direct intensity modulation of a rectangular ring laser with bidirectional lasing characteristics

The direct intensity modulation of a three-guide coupled rectangular ring laser having bidirectional lasing characteristics is reported for the first time. The rectangular laser cavity consists of four low loss total internal reflection mirrors and an output coupler made out of three passive coupled waveguides. The laser is fabricated using a total cavity length of 580 μm with active section lengths of 250 μm. For both the clockwise and counterclockwise circulating directions, a lasing threshold of around 38 mA is obtained at room temperature under continuous wave operation. A maximum 3-dB modulation bandwidth of approximately 3.2 GHz is observed in both circulating directions.