Abstract
In this article, a precisely controlled, switchable thulium-doped fiber laser (TDFL) with high optical signal-to-noise ratio (OSNR) is proposed and demonstrated. A home-made multimode fiber Bragg grating (MMFBG) with multireflection peaks was used as an optical filter to select the desired lasing channel. Using a manually controlled fusion splicer, the axial misalignment was applied between the single mode fiber and the MMFBG to switch the output wavelength. In the experiment, the number of switchable lasing lines was up to 12, and the fluctuation of the center wavelength and output power was less than 0.03 nm and 0.67 dB, respectively. A maximum slope efficiency of 1.3% was obtained when the axial misalignment was 0 μm, and the OSNR was higher than 65 dB. In addition, the proposed fiber laser was used as an optical fiber laser sensor to quantify the strain applied on the MMFBG, and a sensitivity of 1.16 pm/μ∈ was obtained.
Highlights
The thulium-doped fiber laser (TDFL) has attracted widespread interest due to the favorable characteristics of thulium-doped fiber (TDF)
The axial misalignment was applied to the single mode fiber (SMF) and multimode fiber Bragg grating (MMFBG)
Due to the core mismatch of the SMF and MMFBG, the optical loss in the cavity increased, which led to the decreased output power when new laser lines were generated
Summary
The thulium-doped fiber laser (TDFL) has attracted widespread interest due to the favorable characteristics of thulium-doped fiber (TDF). The wide lasing range (1700-2100 nm) [1] of TDF emitting at a 2 μm wavelength band makes the TDFL a potential light source in optical communication systems [2,3,4]. The characteristic of being readily absorbed by certain gas molecules facilitates the application of the TDFL in sensing gases, such as hydrocarbon gas [5] and CO2 [6]. The lasing wavelength at this waveband can be highly absorbed by water, which leads to substantial heating in small areas of biological tissue. The TDFL has wide applications, such as in material processing [9], coherent Doppler lidar [10] and pump source in generating Mid-Infrared Super Continuum [11]. The TDFL is currently in great demand and needs to be further developed
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