Graphene-assisted all-fiber multiwavelength erbium-doped fiber laser functionalized with evanescent field interaction

An all-fiber multiwavelength erbium-doped fiber laser (MEDFL) functionalized with evanescent-field-interacting graphene is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. Graphene-polymer nanocomposites were deposited around the waist region of a fiber taper fabricated by flame-stretching method. Using the graphene-deposited fiber taper (GDFT) to induce four-wave mixing (FWM) as a power-equalizing device for suppressing the unstable mode competition in MEDFL, stable multiwavelength lasing around 1530 nm was obtained with a wavelength spacing of 0.56 nm, an extinction ratio of 33 dB, and a narrow linewidth per channel of <0.01 nm. The output spectrum of the multiwavelength laser has a good flatness, and the power fluctuation of each wavelength is less than 1.5 dB. Comparing with the traditional methods, such evanescent-field-interaction based graphene stabilizing mechanism for multiwavelength generation possesses unique advantages: (1) it can avoid the graphene thermal damage, (2) it’s a real all-fiber integrated structure, and (3) it provides a longer interaction length for exciting FWM more efficiently.