Widely tunable erbium doped fiber ring laser based on loop and double-pass EDFA design

Abstract

This study presents two novel tunable erbium doped fiber ring laser (EDFRL) configurations based on loop EDFA design and double-pass EDFA design, respectively to achieve an ultra-wideband tuning range and stable single-longitudinal-mode lasing operation. A micro-electro-mechanical system (MEMS) based optical tunable band pass filter was utilized as the wavelength selection element. Output spectral and power characteristics of these EDFRLs were experimentally analyzed and discussed. The EDFRLs had moderate and stable output power level (~-3 dBm) over 70 nm tuning range that covers C+L band. Moreover, the proposed EDFRLs could also suppress the undesired multi-longitudinal-modes successfully and have a high (~60 dB) OSNR level in whole tuning range.