Widely tunable linear-cavity multiwavelength fiber laser with distributed Brillouin scattering

We demonstrate a multiple wavelength Brillouin/erbium fiber laser in a linear cavity configuration.The laser cavity is made up of a fiber loop mirror on one end of the resonator and a virtual mirror generated from the distributed stimulated Brillouin scattering effect on the other end.Due to the weak reflectivity provided by the virtual mirror,self-lasing cavity modes are completely suppressed from the laser cavity.At Brillouin pump and 1480-nm pump powers of 2 and 130 mW,respectively,11 channels of the demonstrated laser with an average total power of 7.13 dBm can freely be tuned over a span of 37-nm wavelength from 1530 to 1567 nm.     

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.     

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.     

Broadband Brillouin slow light with multiple-longitudinal-mode,tunable pump

We propose and demonstrate broadband Brillouin slow light using a multiple-longitudinal-mode tunable fiber laser as Brillouin pump. A tunable broadband Brillouin pump with a tuning range from 1 520 to 1 555 nm is generated using a fiber ring laser with a semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) as its gain medium. The pump spectrum consists of a large number of longitudinal modes separated by 6 MHz. The 3-dB bandwidth is about 11.5 GHz, and its fluctuation is less than 100 MHz within the tuning range. An 8-Gb/s data signal can be delayed by up to 83.0 ps (bit error rate < 10 9) at 17-dBm pump power.     

S-band multiwavelength Brillouin Raman Fiber Laser

In this paper we propose and demonstrate an S-band Brillouin-Raman Fiber Laser (BRFL). The S-band BRFL utilizes a Dispersion Compensating Fiber (DCF) as the non-linear gain medium in a linear cavity configuration and amplified by two 1425 nm, 380 mW pumped Raman Fiber Amplifiers (RFAs). A Brillouin Pump (BP) signal of 1515 nm at 12 dBm in power is injected into the setup to generate Stokes lines via the Stimulated Brillouin Scattering (SBS) process. The S-band BRFL is able of generating a Brillouin comb with 32 Stokes lines with a flat peak output power of − 18 dBm. The best BP to Stokes power ratio of the system is determined to be 50:50, while a ratio of 70:30 is observed to generate Stokes with a higher peak power, but at the expense of the number of wavelengths. The S-band BRFL has many potential applications as multiwavelength sources for communications and sensors.     

Switchable Brillouin frequency multiwavelength and pulsed fiber laser

Switchable single and double Brillouin multiwavelength and pulsed laser is successfully demonstrated. Brillouin spacing can be switched from single(0.08 nm) to double spacing(0.16 nm) or vice versa by swapping the ports of the coupler in the proposed configuration. The proposed configuration can also be used to produce pulsed laser by inserting a home-made carbon nanotubes saturable absorber into the laser cavity. The proposed system is very versatile and flexible as it can be used as a multiwavelength laser or pulsed laser to cater for different types of applications.     

Influences of pump wavelength and environment temperature on the dual-peaked Brillouin property of a small-core microstructure fiber

The influences of the pump wavelength and temperature on the dual-peaked Brillouin property of a piece of a small-core microstructure fiber are investigated using the heterodyne method. The experimental results indicate that the dispersion characteristics of the acoustical modes participating in the Brillouin scattering are formed by the coupling of two acoustical modes with different acoustical field distributions. The influence of the pump wavelength can contribute to the variation of the acoustical mode wave vectors. On the other hand, the influence of the environment temperature can contribute to the shift of acoustical mode dispersion map by the variation of the material mechanical parameters and thermal expansion. The model and experiment results demonstrate that the height ratio of the two Brillouin peaks can be controlled by adjusting the pump wavelength or environment temperature.     

Ultrafine optical-frequency tunable Brillouin fiber laser based on fiber strain

We present an ultrafine tunable single-frequency Brillouin fiber laser in which the fiber Brillouin gain also acts as a high-precision tunable filter. Controlling the strain on the fiber, the Stokes frequency shift may be precisely changed, and thus the lasing frequency can be tuned. Assisted by the frequency pulling effect, this method provides continuous ultrafine tuning ability for ~30% of the free spectral range without mode hopping, and can cover 271 MHz. The experiments showed that the laser achieves tuning step of 60 kHz.     

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.     

抽运功率密度对布里渊放大的影响

利用瞬态包含抽运抽空的SBS理论模型对布里渊放大器进行了数值模拟,给出了能量提取效率、Stokes种子光放大率、Stokes种子光脉宽压缩率和抽运光脉宽压缩率随抽运功率密度的变化规律.并用实验进行了验证,理论与实验符合得较好. 关键词： 布里渊放大器 能量提取效率 抽运功率密度     

A low-threshold multiwavelength Brillouin fiber laser with double-frequency spacing based on a small-core fiber

We demonstrate multiwavelength Brillouin fiber lasers (MWBFLs) with double-frequency spacing based on a small-core fiber (SCF) and a standard single-mode fiber (SMF), which have core diameters of 5 and 8.8 μm, respectively. Experimental results show that the SCF-based MWBFL exhibits a higher laser output power and a lower pump threshold. The output powers of the SCF-based MWBFL are > 1.4 times those of the SMF-based MWBFL. Moreover, the threshold power required to generate each channel of the SCF-based MWBFL is 59% that of the SMF-based MWBFL. When the same pump power of 180 mW is injected, the number of laser channels generated for the SCF-based MWBFL is 13, which is twice that generated for the SMF-based MWBFL. In addition, the SCF-based MWBFL exhibits good wavelength tunability from 1535 to 1565 nm and temporal stability over an hour.     

抽运光参数对受激布里渊散射的影响

受激布里渊散射（SBS）系统中,具有一定带宽的抽运激光中会含有一定比例的Stokes散射光成分，此Stokes散射光成分经SBS介质后表面反射后，将形成种子光与抽运光联合入射，构成自种子光式SBS放大器.通过数值求解此SBS放大器型耦合波方程组，探讨了抽运光脉冲中所含Stokes散射光成分的比例、抽运激光波长、抽运光能量大小、入射的聚焦高斯光脉冲脉宽、相互作用时间等激光参数对SBS特征参数（Stokes散射光脉冲波形、材料内部最大应力的时间演化及空间分布、脉宽压缩效果、能量提取效率及Stokes散射光的共轭保真度）的影响.同时发现，SBS过程中产生的超声应力不仅会对SBS介质前表面造成破坏，还可能对焦点附近造成破坏；调整各激光参数还会使焦点附近优于前表面先破坏.数值模拟中采用的抽运光是聚焦高斯光束. 关键词： 受激布里渊散射 斯托克斯散射光 冲击应力 能量反射率     

紫外可调谐辐射的波长自动跟踪研究

脉冲染料激光器的可见光波段辐射通过共线倍频和非共线混频实现紫外波段的连续可调谐输出.本文报道了一种闭环跟踪方法;在调谐起始波长处,将取样光束在垂直相位匹配方向分割成等光强的两部分,然后在波长调谐时比较和平衡这两部分光强.对该方法在理论上作了分析并在实验中得到成功的验证.获得的自动跟踪效率大于90%.     

抽运光对双布里渊放大池放大控制脉冲波形的影响

在传统的独立双池结构的受激布里渊相位共轭镜中,引入修整放大池,采用主放大池与修整放大池相结合的双布里渊放大池结构控制脉冲波形,主放大池控制脉冲的整体波形,而修整放大池对脉冲波形进行微调. 研究了抽运光功率密度对双布里渊放大池放大控制脉冲波形的影响,得到了不同抽运光功率密度下,脉冲波形随双池间距的变化规律. 研究表明,抽运光功率密度决定了种子光的放大效率,是控制脉冲波形的重要参数. 关键词： 受激布里渊散射 布里渊放大 脉冲波形控制     

Discretely tunable and multiwavelength erbium doped fibre lasers with Fabry-Perot etalon

Modern WDM telecommunication systems require stable and calibrated laser sources. In this paper, we present examples of such lasers based on erbium doped fibres, i.e., discretely tunable and multiwavelength ring lasers. For the first case, tuning is possible due to a tunable Bragg grating overlapping spectrally the third telecommunication window (1550 nm). When a Fabry-Perot etalon is inserted into the cavity, discrete tunable operation with appropriate spacing between operating wavelengths is possible. Different free spectral ranges (FSR) of applied etalons ensured operation at a wavelength spacing 0.4 nm, 0.8 nm or 1.6 nm, respectively. When an acoustooptical Bragg frequency shifter was inserted together with the Fabry-Perot etalon, the stable simultaneous multiwavelength operation covering the erbium doped gain range was achieved.     

A stable multiwavelength SOA-based fiber ring laser with ultra-narrow wavelength spacing

This investigation demonstrates a stable multiwavelength fiber ring laser with ultra-narrow wavelength spacing using a semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA). A delay interferometer and a mirror are used as a double-pass interferometer to improve the signal-to-noise ratio in this experiment. Up to 181 stable lasing wavelengths with a wavelength spacing of 10.7 GHz and a signal-to-noise ratio of over 24 dB are produced at room temperature.     

Optimization of the idler wavelength tunable cascaded optical parametric oscillator based on chirp-assisted aperiodically poled lithium niobate crystal

We present the numerical results for the optimization of the pump-to-idler conversion efficiencies of nanosecond idler wavelength tunable cascaded optical parametric oscillators(OPO) in different wavelength tuning ranges, where the primary signals from the OPO process are recycled to enhance the pump-to-idler conversion efficiencies via the simultaneous difference frequency generation(DFG) process by monolithic aperiodically poled, magnesium oxide doped lithium niobate(APMg LN) crystals. The APMg LN crystals are designed with different chirp parameters for the DFG process to broaden their thermal acceptance bandwidths to different extents. The idler wavelength tuning of the cascaded OPO is realized by changing the temperature of the designed APMg LN crystal and the cascaded oscillation is achieved in a single pump pass singly resonant linear cavity. The pump-to-idler conversion efficiencies with respect to the pump pulse duration and ratio of OPO coefficient to DFG coefficient are calculated by numerically solving the coupled wave equations. The optimal working conditions of the tunable cascaded OPOs pumped by pulses with energies of 350 μJ and 700 μJ are compared to obtain the general rules of optimization. It is concluded that the optimization becomes the interplay between the ratio of OPO coefficient to DFG coefficient and the pump pulse duration when the idler wavelength tuning range and the pump pulse energy are fixed. Besides, higher pump pulse energy is beneficial for reaching higher optimal pump-to-idler conversion efficiency as long as the APMg LN crystal is optimized according to this pump condition. To the best of our knowledge,this is the first numerical analysis of idler wavelength tunable cascaded OPOs based on chirp-assisted APMg LN crystals.     

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.     

Broadly tunable multiwavelength Brillouin-erbium fiber laser using a twin-core fiber coupler

A tunable multiwavelength Brillouin-erbium fiber laser (MW-BEFL) using a twin-core fiber (TCF) coupler is proposed and demonstrated. The TCF coupler is formed by splicing a section of TCF between two single-mode fibers. By simply applying bending curvature on the TCF coupler, the peak net gain is shifted close to the Brillouin pump (BP), which has advantage for suppressing self-lasing cavity modes with low-BP-power injection. In this work, the dependency of the Stokes signals tuning range on the free spectral range (FSR) of TCF coupler is studied. It is also found that the tuning range of MW-BEFL can exceed the FSR of TCF coupler by adopting proper BP power and 980-nm pump power. Up to 40 nm tuning range of MW-BEFL in the absence of self-lasing cavity modes is achieved.     

高速宽波长范围可调谐光纤激光器

研制了一台高速波长连续扫描光纤激光器。使用SOA作为增益介质,用高速可调谐法珀滤波器作为波长调谐器件,构成的环形腔激光器。测量结果表明,激光器的平均输出功率2.6mW,波长扫描范围40nm,波长扫描范围内功率波动范围小于±0.4dBm,线宽小于0.01nm,扫描速度达到2kHz。