Tunable and switchable multiwavelength erbium-doped fiber ring laser based on a modified dual-pass Mach-Zehnder interferometer

Abstract

A tunable and switchable multiwavelength erbium-doped fiber ring laser based on what we believe to be a new type of tunable comb filter is proposed and demonstrated. By adjusting the polarization controllers, the dual-function operation of the channel-spacing tunability and the wavelength switching (interleaving) can be readily achieved. Up to 29 stable lasing lines with 0.4 nm spacing and 14 lasing wavelengths with 0.8 nm spacing in 3 dB bandwidth were obtained at room temperature. In addition, the lasing output, including the number of the lasing lines, the lasing evenness, and the lasing locations, can also be flexibly adjusted through the wavelength-dependent polarization rotation mechanism.