Multi-wavelength lasing oscillation based on polarization hole burning effect in an Erbium-doped fiber laser

Abstract

A novel multi-wavelength switchable laser system is proposed and demonstrated, which is based on polarization hole burning (PHB) effect in an erbium-doped fiber (EDF) laser (EDFL). In this EDFL, multiple fiber Bragg gratings with different wavelengths are used as comb filter. The PHB effect is enhanced by polarization separating of the multi-wavelength lasing lines through adjusting the polarization controllers (PCs). So the lasing lines with different wavelength, different polarization state can consume the erbium-doped particles with different polarization, leading to a suppression of the mode competition effect in the EDF and a stable multi-wavelength lasing operation. In the experiment, we obtain four-wavelength stable lasing oscillation.