A tunable multi-wavelength Brillouin–erbium fiber laser with fourfold Brillouin frequency spacing

We have experimentally demonstrated a tunable multi-wavelength Brillouin–erbium fiber laser with over 40 GHz spacing utilizing two cascaded double Brillouin-frequency-spacing cavities. In this laser configuration, two segments of 25 km-long single-mode fibers are used as Brillouin gain medium in each ring cavity, and a segment of 8 m-long erbium-doped fiber with 980 nm pump is employed to amplify Brillouin pump (BP). At BP wavelength of 1550 nm, BP power of 8.3 dBm (6.8 mW) and the maximum 980 nm pump power of 27.78 dBm (600 mW), seven output channels with fourfold Brillouin-frequency spacing, and the tuning range of 15 nm from 1545 to 1560 nm are achieved. The proposed multi-wavelength Brillouin–erbium fiber laser has wide applications, such as in microwave signal generation and optical communications.     

Multi-wavelength Brillouin fiber laser using dual-cavity configuration

A simple technique for achieving multi-wavelength tunable multi-wavelength Brillouin fiber laser (BFL) based on dual-pass configuration is demonstrated. The BFL uses a piece of 10 km long non-zero dispersion shifted fiber (NZ-DSF) as a Brillouin gain medium to obtain odd-order Brillouin Stokes waves as an output with the line spacing of 0.16 nm (20 GHz) between each two consecutive waves by employing even-order Brillouin Stokes to improve output performance of the laser. With a BP of 15.3 dBm, at least 15 odd-order Brillouin Stokes and anti-Stokes lines are generated. The laser is room temperature stable, tunable over 50 nm wavelength range and has an optical signal to noise ratio of more than 30 dB at 1560 nm region. This Brillouin fiber laser can operate at any wavelength depending on the Brillouin pump (BP) wavelength used.     

Brillouin lasing in a single-mode tellurite fiber

We demonstrate Brillouin lasing in a single-mode TeO(2)-Bi(2)O(3)-ZnO-Na(2)O tellurite fiber. A peak value of Brillouin gain coefficients of 1.6989 x 10(-10) m/W is measured on the basis of gain characteristics. An all-fiber Brillouin laser with a maximum unsaturated power of 54.6 mW at 1550 nm and a slope efficiency of 38.2% are achieved from a 200 m tellurite fiber by employing a ring cavity. In addition, a tunable Brillouin comb tellurite fiber laser is demonstrated.     

Multi-wavelength Brillouin fiber laser generation using dual-pass approach

A simple and compact multi-wavelength tunable Brillouin fiber laser (BFL) in conjunction with dual-pass approach is proposed and experimentally compared with the output of a conventional single ring cavity architecture. This BFL source is demonstrated using 10 km long non-zero dispersion shifted fiber (NZ-DSF) as a Brillouin gain medium. By single ring cavity configuration, odd-order Brillouin Stokes lines appear in the backward direction with the line spacing 0.16 nm (∼20 GHz) between each two consecutive waves. However, this single ring cavity in conjunction with dual-pass configuration is able to generate Brillouin Stokes lines with 0.08 nm spacing by providing bi-directional oscillations of Brillouin waves in both forward and backward directions. With a Brillouin pump power of 15.3 dBm, approximately up to 17 Brillouin Stokes lines are generated which is tunable over 40 nm tuning range.     

Dual-wavelength Brillouin ring-cavity fiber laser with tunable channel spacing

We experimentally demonstrate a dual-wavelength Brillouin fiber laser configured a pre-amplified Brillouin pump and FBG filter in a ring-cavity. The Brillouin laser can generate 21 Brillouin Stokes with 0.084 nm spacing, the first-Stoke has a peak power of 2.19 dBm. By adjusting the TLS wavelength and FBG’s reflection wavelength from circulating in the ring-cavity, the generated output dual-wavelength is stabile and the channel spacing is tunable, the widest and narrowest channel spacing obtained is approximately 1.12 nm (139 GHz) and 0.084 nm (10.5 GHz).     

A high-efficiency Brillouin fiber ring laser

A high-efficiency Brillouin fiber ring laser is demonstrated using the standard single-mode fiber. The laser exhibits a 3.6-mW threshold. The output power is 22 mW with 40-mW pump power, and the maximum optical-to-optical efficiency is 5570. The output is single wavelength with a 3-dB linewidth of 5 MHz, and the interval of center frequency between the laser and the pump light is 11 GHz （0.088 nm）. It is shown that the stimulated Brillouin scattering threshold of ring resonator is lower and the energy transfer efficiency is higher than those in fiber.     

An Efficient Photonic Crystal Fiber-Based Brillouin Erbium Fiber Laser Using a Fiber Bragg Grating for Multi-Wavelength Generation

Abstract

An efficient multi-wavelength Brillouin erbium fiber laser is demonstrated using an improved configuration with a broadband fiber Bragg grating and a piece of photonic crystal fiber. The laser generates more than 55 lines of optical comb with a line spacing of approximately 0.09 nm in a 1,565-5 nm region using pump powers of 3 dBm and 150 mW for the Brillouin and 980-nm pumps, respectively. The Brillouin erbium fiber laser with a fiber Bragg grating's reflectivity of 50% obtained a higher number of comb lines compared to that of 99% reflectivity.     

An Enhanced Bismuth-Based Brillouin/Erbium Fiber Laser with Linear Cavity Configuration

A multi-wavelength Brillouin/erbium-doped fiber laser (BEFL) which operates in 1594 nm region is demonstrated using a 215 cm long Bismuth-based EDF and SMF. Two optical circulators were used at the output ends of the system to form a linear cavity to produce a cascaded Brillouin Stokes and anti-Stokes. A stable output laser comb of more than 20 lines was obtained with a spacing of approximately 0.089 nm at a Brillouin pump power of 4 dBm and two 1,480-nm pumps at powers of 100 mW. The number of lines is relatively higher compared with the ring cavity BEFL.     

Double Brillouin frequency spaced multiwavelength Brillouin-erbium fiber laser with 50 nm tuning range

A 50 nm tuning range multiwavelength Brillouin-erbium fiber laser (MWBEFL) with double Brillouin frequency spacing is presented. Two separated gain blocks with symmetrical architecture, consisted by erbium-doped fiber amplifiers (EDFAs) and Brillouin gain media, are used to generate double Brillouin frequency spacing. The wider tuning range is realized by eliminating the self-lasing cavity modes existing in conventional MWBEFLs because of the absence of the physical mirrors at the ends of the linear cavity. The Brillouin pump (BP) is preamplified by the EDFA before entering the single-mode fiber (SMF), which leads to the reduction of threshold power and the generation enhancement of Brillouin Stokes (BS) signals. Four channels with 0.176 nm spacing are achieved at 2 mW BP power and 280 mW 980 nm pump power which can be tuned from 1525 to 1575 nm.     

Multiwavelength L-band fiber laser with bismuth-oxide EDF and photonic crystal fiber

A multiwavelength laser comb using a bismuth-based erbium-doped fiber and 50 m photonic crystal fiber is demonstrated in a ring cavity configuration. The fiber laser is solely pumped by a single 1455 nm Raman pump laser to exploit its higher power delivery compared to that of a single-mode laser diode pump. At 264 mW Raman pump power and 1 mW Brillouin pump power, 38 output channels in the L-band have been realized with an optical signal-to-noise ratio above 15 dB and a Stokes line spacing of 0.08 nm. The laser exhibits a tuning range of 12 nm and produces stable Stokes lines across the tuning range between Brillouin pump wavelengths of 1603 nm and 1615 nm.     

Multi-wavelength generation using a bismuth-based EDF and Brillouin effect in a linear cavity configuration

The generation of a multiple wavelength source using a bismuth-based erbium-doped fiber (Bi-EDF) in a linear cavity configuration is demonstrated. The configuration uses a pair of optical circulators at the input and output ends of the cavity to form a resonator for multi-wavelength generation in conjunction with optical couplers to inject the Brillouin pump (BP) and to tap the output at the two ends. The Brillouin erbium fiber laser (BEFL) comb with a 2.15 m of Bi-EDF has a wavelength spacing of 0.09 nm and operates in long-wavelength (L-) band region. A stable output laser comb of 50 lines is obtained at a BP of 1568.2 nm and 5 dBm and two 1480 nm pumps at 120 mW. The injected BP wavelength and power as well as the 1480 nm pump powers have a great effect on the number of lines and output power of the BEFL. This configuration is compact due to the use of the significantly shorter Bi-EDF as the linear gain medium, and can be made more compact by replacing the single-mode fiber with highly non-linear fibers such as holey fibers.     

15波长输出的布里渊掺铒光纤激光器

多波长布里渊掺铒光纤激光器是一种新型的多波长光纤激光器,其原理是利用受激布里渊增益和掺铒光纤的线性增益,可以在常温下得到波长间隔约为0．08nm(～10GHz)的多波长输出。报道的布里渊掺铒光纤激光器,在布里渊抽运功率为1．7mW、980nm抽运功率为300mW的情况下得到稳定的15个波长(间隔～10GHz)的输出,这种激光器用作光传感器、光谱分析仪以及密集波分复用系统的光源。实验发现,输出波长的个数随着980nm抽运功率的增大而增加。另外,布里渊掺铒光纤激光器的信号功率主要来自于掺铒光纤的增益,而布里渊增益对它的影响不大。     

0.16 nm spaced multi-wavelength Brillouin fiber laser in a figure-of-eight configuration

A stable and compact multi-wavelength Brillouin fiber laser (BFL) operating at room temperature is experimentally demonstrated using a 100 m long photonic crystal fiber (PCF) in conjunction with a figure-of-eight configuration. At a Brillouin pump (BP) level of 15.3 dBm, 7 simultaneous lines with 20 GHz or 0.16 nm line spacing is achieved by removing the odd-order Stokes lines. The anti-Stokes lines are also generated via four wave mixing process in the laser cavity. Compared with the Erbium-based multi-wavelength laser, this BFL has advantages in term of channel spacing and flexibility in the choice of operating wavelength. The output spectrum of the proposed BFL can be tuned by 80 nm, dependent on the availability of an appropriate BP source. The multi-wavelength BFL shows a good stability with power fluctuations of less than 0.5 dB over more than 3 h.     

Stable dual-wavelength erbium-doped fiber laser using novel fabricated side-polished arc-shaped fiber with deposited ZnO nanoparticles

A dual-wavelength fiber laser operating at the 1550 nm region using a side-polished arc-shaped fiber with deposited ZnO nanoparticles is proposed and demonstrated. The arc-polished fiber is fabricated by using a simple but novel approach in which a silicon carbide paper polishes one side of a conventional single-mode fiber. An arc-polished fiber with a length of 2.25 mm and an insertion loss of 0.95 dB is obtained and deposited with ZnO nanoparticles by the drop-cast method. A stable dual-wavelength output is obtained at 1562.5 and 1563.4 nm at peak powers of-9.3 and-10.1 dBm, respectively, as well as a signal-to-noise ratio of 28.4 dB and a channel spacing of 0.9 nm. Both lasing wavelengths also have narrow linewidths of between 0.045 and 0.049 nm and show little to no wavelength or power fluctuations over continued testing.     

Stable double spacing multiwavelength Brillouin-Erbium doped fiber laser based on highly nonlinear fiber

A double frequency spaced multiwavelength Brillouin-Erbium doped fiber laser (BEDFL) with figure-of-eight cavity have been successfully developed and tested. Double frequency spacing is achieved by using a piece of 2 km of highly nonlinear fiber (HNLF) as a gain medium. Figure-of-eight configuration removes the odd order Stokes signals via a four-port circulator. Fifteen Stokes channels are simultaneously generated with a spacing of 0.154 nm that is around 20 GHz, when the Brillouin pump and 980 nm pump powers are fixed at the optimized values of 6 dBm and 40 mW, respectively. Fourteen anti stoke channels are also obtained, which are generated through four wave mixing (FWM) process in the laser cavity. The output is smooth triangular comb. The BEFL can also be tuned from 1526.5 to 1567.5 nm.     

Bismuth-based erbium-doped fiber as a gain medium for L-band amplification and Brillouin fiber laser

Bismuth-based erbium-doped fiber (Bi-EDF) is demonstrated as an alternative medium for optical amplification and nonlinear applications. The bismuth glass host provides the opportunity to be doped heavily with erbium ions to allow a compact optical amplifier design. The bismuth-based erbium-doped fiber amplifier (Bi-EDFA) is demonstrated to operate at wavelength region from 1570 to 1620 nm using only a 215 cm long of gain medium. The maximum gain of 15.8 dB is obtained at signal wavelength of 1610 nm with the corresponding noise figure of about 6.3 dB. A multi-wavelength laser comb is also demonstrated using a stimulated Brillouin scattering in the 215 cm long Bi-EDF assisted by the 1480 nm pumping. The laser generates more than 40 lines of optical comb with a line spacing of approximately 0.08 at 1612.5 nm region using 152 mW of 1480 nm pump power.     

A novel-configuration multi-wavelength Brillouin erbium fiber laser and its application in switchable high-frequency microwave generation

A novel configuration of compound-cavity multi-wavelength Brillouin erbium fiber laser is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. With an incident optical carrier power of 8 dBm, at least 14 lasing lines are obtained with a wavelength spacing of ∼0.08 nm. Stability and power uniformity of the multi-wave-length lasing are ensured by the flat hybrid gain of Brillouin and erbium, the compound-cavity structure, and the four-wave mixing suppression using a long (10 km) single-mode fiber. A stable and frequency-switchable microwave can be achieved by incorporating a fiber Bragg grating filter to select the desired nth-order Stokes wave and beating it with the optical carrier at a photodetector. In our experiment, the 1st-4th-order Stokes waves are filtered respectively and hence a high-quality microwave with a switchable frequency from ∼10 to ∼40 GHz and a tuning step of ∼10 GHz is achieved. The signal-to-noise ratio is measured to be >25 dB.     

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.     

基于受激布里渊散射的波长间隔可变多波长光纤激光器

提出了一个基于自激发受激布里渊散射的波长间隔可变多波长光纤激光器.利用单模光纤中自激发产生的非线性布里渊增益和掺铒光纤的线性增益组成混合增益光纤激光器,从而使光纤激光器在室温下产生稳定的多波长输出.改变双折射光纤环镜滤波器中保偏光纤的长度,可以实现波长间隔可变多波长激光产生,提高了多波长光纤激光器操作的灵活性和实用性.实验实现了波长间隔从0.8 nm至0.076 nm可变的多波长激光产生,波长数随波长间隔减小而增加,间隔为0.08 nm的激光波长数达86.     

Multi-wavelength Brillouin-Raman ring-cavity fiber laser with 22-GHz spacing

We experimentally demonstrate a multi-wave length Brillouin-Raman fiber laser configured in a ring-cavity resonator. Interactions between stimulated Brillouin scattering and Raman amplification in a dispersion compensating fiber, attributed to the generation of 16 output channels at injected Raman pump unit power of 650 mW and Brillouin pump power of 2.0 mW. The first output channel has a peak power of 14.8 mW. By discriminating the even-order Brillouin Stokes signals from circulating in the resonator, the generated output channels were found to have wavelength spacing of ∼22 GHz. The output channels were also found to have average optical signal-to-noise ratio value of 11.7 dB.