Single-/dual-wavelength switchable and tunable compound-cavity erbium-doped fiber laser with super-narrow linewidth

Abstract

A single-/dual-wavelength switchable and tunable erbium-doped fiber laser (EDFL) with super-narrow linewidth has been proposed and experimentally demonstrated at room temperature. The fiber laser is based on a compound cavity simply composed of a ring main cavity and a two-ring subring cavity (TR-SC). Regardless of single- or dual-wavelength operation, the EDFL could always work well in single-longitudinal-mode (SLM) state at every oscillating wavelength. In dual-wavelength operation, the spacing could be tuned from 0 nm to 4.83 nm. In single-wavelength operation, the EDFL could lase at a fixed wavelength of 1 543.65 nm or another wavelength with a tunable range of 4.83 nm. The super-narrow linewidths of 550 Hz and 600 Hz for two wavelengths are obtained. The proposed EDFL has potential applications in microwave/terahertz-wave generation and high-precision distributed fiber optical sensing.