Broadly tunable dual-wavelength thulium-doped fluoride fiber laser covering S-band region from 1472 to 1506 nm

Abstract

Dual-wavelength fiber lasers have gained the interest of researchers in practical applications such as fiber-optic sensors and optical telecommunication. This work demonstrated a broadly tunable dual-wavelength thulium-doped fluoride fiber laser (TDFFL) at the S-band region. Two tunable-bandpass filters (TBPFs) were incorporated in the TDFFL cavity to achieve dual-wavelength fiber laser (DWFL) operation. Two identical peaks with a balanced signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) were acquired by tuning TBPFs and an attenuator within the cavity. The DWFL covers a significant portion of S-band TDFFL gain from 1472.9 to 1506.5 nm with a wide tunability in wavelength spacing from 0.95 to 33.6 nm. The narrowest possible DWFL was achieved with the spacing of 0.95 nm at the operating wavelengths of 1489.2 and 1490.15 nm, with a frequency bandwidth of 128 GHz. The broadest spacing of 33.6 nm was achieved at operating wavelengths of 1472.9 and 1506.5 nm, with a frequency bandwidth of 4.79 THz.