Multiwavelength Fiber Laser Research Articles

Tunable multiwavelength Erbium-doped fiber laser based on in-fiber Fabry-Perot interferometer fiber Bragg gratings in linear and ring cavity configurations

Multiwavelength Erbium-doped fiber laser (MWEDFL) in the ring and linear cavities operating at 1.5-μm wavelength region was demonstrated. The multiwavelength fiber laser comprises a 3-m Erbium-doped fiber as an active gain medium, an in-fiber Fabry-Perot interferometer Fiber Bragg Gratings (FPI FBG) as a filter, and a 10-km dispersion compensating fiber (DCF) as a nonlinear gain medium. A comparison investigation was conducted. The MWEDFL in the linear cavity generates 12 stable lasing lines, with an optical signal-to-noise ratio (OSNR) of 45 dB. In the case of MWEDFL operated in a ring cavity, 8 stable lasing lines were generated, with an OSNR of 47 dB. The free spectral range (FSR) of 0.08 nm was measured for the FPI FBG in both linear and ring cavities MWEDFL spectrum. Besides, the stability measurement was conducted for 150 min for both MWEDFL cavities. Both lasers had a peak power fluctuation of less than 1.0 dB and negligible wavelength drifts below 0.1 nm. Furthermore, the wavelength tunability of MWEDFL in both configurations was performed by heating the FPI FBG from 28 °C to 100 °C. At the temperature of 100 °C, the MWEDFL shows a wavelength shift of 1.0 nm, and this can be further increased by heating the FPI FBG to its highest temperature limit. This MWEDFL employs in-fiber FPI FBG offers a compact, highly tunable, and simple design applicable for optical communications and optical sensing applications.

Tunable and switchable multi-wavelength random distributed feedback fiber laser based on SMF and a cascaded Sagnac ring filter.

A tunable and switchable multi-wavelength random distributed feedback fiber laser based on cascaded Sagnac loops is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. The random distribution feedback of the laser is provided by the Rayleigh scattering generated by the single-mode fiber (SMF). The cascaded Sagnac loops act as a filter and a reflector in the half-open cavity laser. The single-, dual-, three-, and four-wavelength channels can be realized by adjusting the angle of the polarization controller at the pump power of 300 mW. In the single-, dual-, and three-wavelength channels, the wavelength spacing can be maintained, and the laser wavelength position can be changed at the same time. The maximum wavelength tuning ranges of single-, dual-, and three-wavelength outputs are about 4.5 nm, 2.6 nm, and 1 nm, respectively. The proposed multi-wavelength random fiber laser has the advantages of simple structure and low threshold, and it has good application prospects in remote sensing and imaging systems.

Tunable and interval-adjustable multiwavelength Erbium-doped fiber laser based on a compound filter

We propose and experimentally demonstrate a multiwavelength erbium-doped fiber laser (EDFL) based on a compound filter. The compound filter is composed of polarization controllers (PCs), polarizers and a piece of home-made polarization-maintaining photonic crystal fiber (PM-PCF). Due to the high birefringence and few-mode properties of the PM-PCF, Lyot filter and multimode interference filter can be realized simultaneously in the compact structure. Hence, the EDFL can achieve flexible lasing output. By adjusting PCs, the lasing can obtain single-, dual-, triple- and quad-wavelength output, respectively. The tuning range of single-wavelength lasing output can exceed 20 nm with side-mode suppression ratio (SMSR) above 40 dB. For dual-wavelength lasing output, the tuning range with fixed interval can reach 16 nm. Besides, the wavelength interval can be adjusted from 2.5 nm to 17.4 nm. The great interval adjustability is also observed in triple-wavelength output. The wavelength interval can be adjusted from 8.2 nm to 14.7 nm. Compact structure, flexible lasing output, and good stability make our proposed EDFL more convenient and practical to the applications such as sensing and wavelength division multiplexing.

Tunable multi-wavelength SBS Q-switched random fiber laser based on SMF

Tunable multi-wavelength SBS Q-switched random fiber laser based on SMF

Highly stable multi-wavelength fiber laser based on hybrid enclosed two-armed fiber filter

A compact multi-wavelength fiber laser (MWFL) with high stability based on hybrid enclosed two-armed fiber filter (HETAFF) is demonstrated. The HETAFF composes of an enclosed Mach-Zehnder interferometer with an in-line polarization controller (PC) in one arm of optical couplers #1 (OC1) and a section of polarization maintaining fiber with two PCs in OC2 loop. By using the HETAFF in proposed fiber laser, a lasing state switchable and wavelength-interval adjustable MWFL is obtained. It can be switched in single-, dual-, triple-, quadruple- and quintuple-wavelength states. The wavelength-interval can be adjusted as it operates in dual-, triple- and quadruple-wavelength states. Its optical signal to noise ratio (OSNR) is more than 36.03 dB, and the lasing wavelength shift and power fluctuation are less than 0.08 nm and 0.94 dB, respectively. The output characteristics, such as abundant laser states and high stability, are inseparable from the unique performance of the HETAFF.

Selectable multiwavelength thulium-doped fiber laser based on parallel Lyot filter

This paper demonstrates a selectable wavelength spacing of thulium-doped fiber laser (TDFL) based on a parallel Lyot filter. An intensity-dependent loss (IDL) mechanism acts as an amplitude equalizer to flatten and stabilize the multiwavelength spectrum. The IDL mechanism is obtained at a specific polarization state from the combination of highly nonlinear fiber and polarizer. The wavelength spacing of the TDFL can be selected to either 0.9 nm or 1.8 nm when the polarization controllers (PCs) in each branch of the parallel Lyot filter are adjusted. The wavelength spacing is selected by adjusting PC2 and PC3 to suppress or transmit the light at each branch. Up to 4 and 9 lasing lines are generated based on wavelength spacing of 0.9 nm and 1.8 nm, respectively. Lower pump power has disappeared lasing lines, while different half-wave plate angle of PC has shown variation in the laser performances.

Ultralong wavelength operation of a tunable multiwavelength Brillouin-Raman fiber laser in 1.65 μm band

A tunable multiwavelength Brillouin-Raman fiber laser (MW-BRFL) operated at an ultralong wavelength band (U-band) is presented in this work. The MW-BRFL was configured in a full-open linear cavity consisting of 11.2 km long dispersion compensating fiber that functioned as a Brillouin frequency shifter and Raman amplification gain medium. At Raman and Brillouin pump powers of 930 mW and 11.8 dBm, respectively, a stable multiwavelength generation with wavelength spacing of 0.17 nm was generated over a wavelength span of 53 nm. The generated channels covered a spectral range of 1630–1683 nm corresponding to 314 channels. The channels could also be tuned over 10 nm with an average optical signal-to-noise ratio greater than 26 dB. The laser system exhibited power fluctuation of less than 0.25 dB over 3 h. In a nutshell, the proposed MW-BRFL is promising with respect to its performance, simplicity and flexibility.

Six-Wavelength-Switchable SLM Thulium-Doped Fiber Laser Enabled by Sampled FBGs and 3 × 3 Coupler Based Dual-Ring Compound Cavity Filter

A switchable and tunable six-wavelength single-longitudinal mode (SLM) thulium-doped fiber laser in the 2050 nm band is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. Two cascaded sampled fiber Bragg gratings (SFBGs), acted as an integrated six-channel reflector, are to define the lasing wavelength channels in a multi-wavelength switchable fiber laser for the first time. The switchability of the fiber laser was realized by polarization-dependent loss modulation. SLM lasing in each channel was guaranteed by a novel passive dual-ring compound cavity (DRCC), composed of two symmetric 3 × 3 optical couplers (OCs). Six single-wavelength operations are easily obtained and switched, with the high optical signal-to-noise ratios of >71 dB, >72 dB, >62 dB for <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">λ</i> <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">11</sub> – <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">λ</i> <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">13</sub> and > 65 dB, >61 dB, >59 dB for <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">λ</i> <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">21</sub> – <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">λ</i> <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">23,</sub> respectively. The maximum power and wavelength fluctuations are as low as 0.56 dB and 0.01 nm, respectively. The measured laser linewidths ranged from 7.5 to 9.2 kHz, calculated by the β-separation line method based on the measured frequency noise spectra. Nine switchable dual-wavelength operations with different wavelength intervals and two triple-wavelength operations were also obtained. Our proposed fiber laser has great potential in free-space optical communication.

Widely tunable and switchable multiwavelength erbium-doped fiber laser based on a single ring cavity

In this paper, we propose and demonstrate through numerical simulations a novel, to the best of our knowledge, widely tunable and switchable multiwavelength erbium-doped fiber laser (EDFL) operating in the 1524–1650 nm wavelength range covering the C-, L-, and U-bands. The EDFL is based on a single ring cavity and a single forward pump source operating at 980 nm wavelength. The length of the erbium-doped fiber and pumping configuration is optimized, enabling a wide tuning of 126 nm with an average lasing power of 15 dBm. Switchable multiple wavelengths are generated from the EDFL through an intracavity tunable optical filter (TOF) and a specially designed out-of-cavity comb filter (CF). Forty-nine wavelengths having average optical power and linewidth of around −10 dBm and 0.01 nm, respectively, are obtained at the output of the CF. Moreover, the free spectral range among the multiple wavelengths is adjusted easily by simply varying the frequency of sinusoidal radio frequency signal used to modulate the lasing signal obtained by tuning the intracavity TOF at a particular wavelength with the help of a dual-drive Mach–Zehnder modulator. The proposed EDFL is low cost, efficient, and highly stable with an average output power of around 15 dBm for 10% output coupling ratio over a 126 nm wide tuning range covering C-, L- and U-bands.

Generation of a multi-wavelength Brillouin erbium fiber laser with low threshold in multiple frequency spacing configurations

Brillouin fiber lasers are a promising optical source technology for industrial and academic purposes that have experienced continuous progress in recent years. Currently, part of this development is focused on proposing laser solutions with low resonator loss, relatively low pump threshold, high efficiency, small linewidth, and multi-wavelength architecture. In this context, we experimentally demonstrate the generation of a cascaded multi-wavelength Brillouin erbium fiber laser source with low threshold at multiple configurations. By employing a laser source of narrow linewidth and a fiber with high nonlinearity, compact all-fiber setups with low loss, single, double, and triple frequency spacing configurations are obtained using a Brillouin pump (BP) power as low as 1 mW. In these proposed configurations, we obtain up to 15, 15, and 11 Stokes channels within a 30 dB range and with frequency spacing between two adjacent lasing lines of 0.08 nm, 0.16 nm, and 0.32 nm, respectively. All laser source configurations investigated exhibit stable temporal behavior without prominent signs of wavelength shifts or power fluctuations. In this way, these multi-wavelength fiber laser sources demonstrated in this paper could be considered experimental and potential source to support dense wavelength division multiplexing systems.

A Multi-Wavelength Thulium-Doped Fiber Laser Using a Photonic Crystal Fiber-Based Sagnac Loop

A multi-wavelength thulium-doped fiber laser incorporating a photonic crystal fiber (PCF) Sagnac loop was presented and experimentally demonstrated. In the laser cavity, the Sagnac loop mirror used a 0.5 m PCF as a comb filter. A nonlinear polarization rotation (NPR)-based 600 m single-mode fiber (SMF) was used to suppress the mode competition. By adjusting the polarization controllers (PCs), up to nine stable wavelength outputs near the 2 μm spectrum were obtained at room temperature with an optical signal-to-noise ratio (OSNR) of up to 30 dB. The channel spacing of this fiber laser is 4.88 nm, and the 10 dB bandwidth encompasses 1950.39 to 1989.43 nm.

Multi-wavelength thulium-doped fiber laser at 2.05 μm incorporating a superimposed polarization-maintaining fiber Bragg grating

A switchable multi-wavelength thulium-doped fiber laser with a high optical signal-to-noise ratio (OSNR) and stability is proposed and experimentally demonstrated at 2.05 μm. For the first time, a superimposed polarization-maintaining fiber Bragg grating (SI-PM-FBG) was utilized as a multi-channel narrow bandwidth filter to select the lasing wavelengths in the laser cavity in the 2-μm band. It also introduced polarization hole burning (PHB) to inhibit the strong wavelength competition induced by homogeneous gain broadening in the thulium-doped fiber. By adjusting the two polarization controllers (PCs), four stable switchable single-wavelength operations were obtained. The OSNR reached 72 dB at a pump power of 2.89 W, and the maximum wavelength and power fluctuations were 0.01 nm and 0.162 dB, respectively. Four combinations of dual-wavelength operations were obtained by adjusting the PCs. The polarization states between each dual-wavelength lasing were orthogonal. The stability of the dual-wavelength operation was investigated in detail. The proposed laser also has the capability for three- or four-wavelength operation. The excellent performance enables this fiber laser to be used in atmospheric sensing and free-space optical communication.

Multi-Wavelength and Narrow Linewidth Fiber Laser Based on Composite Resonator

Multi-Wavelength and Narrow Linewidth Fiber Laser Based on Composite Resonator

Tunable and wavelength interval precisely controlled erbium-doped fiber laser by employing the fused taper technology

A tunable multi-wavelength erbium-doped fiber laser with precise wavelength interval control is reported theoretically and experimentally in this paper. It is made up of a Mach–Zehnder interferometer (MZI) filter and a Sagnac filter and supplemented by the four-wave-mixing effect. Compared with other filters, the proposed MZI filter based on the fused taper technology can change the wavelength interval more flexibly. The experiment result shows that wavelength tuning can be achieved, and the tuning range can reach ∼15 nm. Moreover, the variation in the number of wavelengths is also realized. The maximum side-mode suppression ratio can reach 39 dB.

Spectral Optimization of Stokes Channels for Multi-Wavelength Brillouin Fiber Lasers

Spectral Optimization of Stokes Channels for Multi-Wavelength Brillouin Fiber Lasers

1.5 μm multi-wavelength single-frequency fiber laser based on four-wave mixing effect (Invited)

1.5 μm multi-wavelength single-frequency fiber laser based on four-wave mixing effect (Invited)

Flat Multi-Wavelength Brillouin Erbium-Doped Fiber Laser Based on a Sagnac Loop with an Unpumped Erbium-Doped Fiber

Flat Multi-Wavelength Brillouin Erbium-Doped Fiber Laser Based on a Sagnac Loop with an Unpumped Erbium-Doped Fiber

Switchable Multi-Wavelength Thulium-Doped Fiber Laser Using a Cascaded or Two-Segment Sagnac Loop Filter

A switchable multi-wavelength thulium-doped fiber laser (TDFL) using either two-stage cascaded or two-segment Sagnac loop filters are proposed and analyzed. Both filters incorporate a 3-m and 1.7-m long polarization-maintaining fiber, which acts as a comb filter. By adjusting two polarization controllers, when the TDFL used a cascaded Sagnac loop filter, eight stable single-wavelength operations were obtained with easy switching among them. The wavelength range was 16.36 nm during the single-wavelength switchable operation, with the optical signal-to-noise ratio up to 55 dB. This TDFL can achieve at most quintuple-wavelength operation. When the TDFL used a two-segment Sagnac loop filter, we achieved single-wavelength and dual-wavelength switchable. This TDFL can achieve at most stable quadruple-wavelength operation. In dual-wavelength switchable operation, the maximum and minimum wavelength spacings were 21.78 nm and 1.50 nm. Due to its abundant range of wavelengths, the proposed TDFLs has great potential in wavelength-division multiplexing.

Low threshold multi-wavelength erbium-doped fiber ring laser with NOLM and Lyot filter

In this paper, the performance of a switchable multi-wavelength erbium-doped fiber laser (MWEDFL) incorporating Lyot filter and nonlinear optical loop mirror (NOLM) is described. The NOLM consisting of a polarization controller (PC2) and a single-mode fiber is effective to suppress the mode competition caused by the homogeneous broaden line in the erbium-doped fiber amplifier (EDFA). The comb filter is developed by using PC1 and polarization-maintained fiber (PMF). The wavelength interval can be switched among 0.08 nm, 0.34 nm, and 0.89 nm using different lengths of PMF via careful adjusting of the PCs. When the pump power is 45mW, the laser can emit 12 stable lasing lines within the 3 dB bandwidth, and the side mode suppression ratio (SMSR) is greater than 25 dB. The spectral power and wavelength fluctuations of 1.9 dB and 0.16 nm, respectively. Experimental results reveal that the demonstrated laser has good stability and low threshold power.

Design of L-Band Multiwavelength Laser for TDM/WDM PON Application

This paper presents on the design of L-Band Multiwavelength laser for Hybrid Time Division Multiplexing/ Wavelength Division Multiplexing (TDM/WDM) Passive Optical Network (PON) application. In this design, an L-band Mulltiwavelength Laser is designed as the downstream signals for TDM/WDM PON. The downstream signals ranging from 1569.865 nm to 1581.973 nm with 100GHz spacing. The multiwavelength laser is designed using OptiSystem software and it is integrated into a TDM/WDM PON that is also designed using OptiSystem simulation software. By adapting multiwavelength fiber laser into a TDM/WDM network, a simple and low-cost downstream signal is proposed. From the simulation design, it is found that the proposed design is suitable to be used in TDM/WDM PON for up to 64 Optical Network Units (ONUs).