Generation of a multi-wavelength Brillouin erbium fiber laser with low threshold in multiple frequency spacing configurations

Abstract

Brillouin fiber lasers are a promising optical source technology for industrial and academic purposes that have experienced continuous progress in recent years. Currently, part of this development is focused on proposing laser solutions with low resonator loss, relatively low pump threshold, high efficiency, small linewidth, and multi-wavelength architecture. In this context, we experimentally demonstrate the generation of a cascaded multi-wavelength Brillouin erbium fiber laser source with low threshold at multiple configurations. By employing a laser source of narrow linewidth and a fiber with high nonlinearity, compact all-fiber setups with low loss, single, double, and triple frequency spacing configurations are obtained using a Brillouin pump (BP) power as low as 1 mW. In these proposed configurations, we obtain up to 15, 15, and 11 Stokes channels within a 30 dB range and with frequency spacing between two adjacent lasing lines of 0.08 nm, 0.16 nm, and 0.32 nm, respectively. All laser source configurations investigated exhibit stable temporal behavior without prominent signs of wavelength shifts or power fluctuations. In this way, these multi-wavelength fiber laser sources demonstrated in this paper could be considered experimental and potential source to support dense wavelength division multiplexing systems.