Switchable 10 nm-spaced dual-wavelength SLM fiber laser with sub-kHz linewidth and high OSNR using a novel multiple-ring configuration

Abstract

A switchable dual-wavelength (10 nm spacing) single-longitudinal-mode (SLM) erbium-doped fiber laser (EDFL) that uses a multiple-ring configuration was demonstrated experimentally. A novel theoretically lossless triple-ring passive secondary cavity composed of three optical couplers was utilized to select the SLM from the dense main cavity longitudinal modes for the first time. Using two superimposed fiber Bragg gratings as one compact mode-restricting element and introducing the nonlinear polarization rotation effect to alleviate the strong mode competition for the fiber laser, a highly stable dual-wavelength mode-hop-free SLM operation with sub-kHz linewidths and optical signal to noise ratios (OSNRs) of >69 dB was achieved for both lasing wavelengths. By adjusting the polarization controllers, the dual-wavelength operation could be easily switched to single-wavelength lasing with a linewidth of <1 kHz and an OSNR of >72 dB. The proposed EDFL may find many important applications, such as the generation of very pure terahertz waves.