Tunable Fiber Filter Research Articles

A Linearly Polarized Wavelength-Tunable Q-Switched Fiber Laser with a Narrow Spectral Bandwidth of 112 MHz.

A tunable and narrow-bandwidth Q-switched ytterbium-doped fiber (YDF) laser is investigated in this paper. The non-pumped YDF acts as a saturable absorber and, together with a Sagnac loop mirror, provides a dynamic spectral-filtering grating to achieve a narrow-linewidth Q-switched output. By adjusting an etalon-based tunable fiber filter, a tunable wavelength from 1027 nm to 1033 nm is obtained. When the pump power is 1.75 W, the Q-switched laser pulses with a pulse energy of 10.45 nJ, and a repetition frequency of 11.98 kHz and spectral linewidth of 112 MHz are obtained. This work paves the way for the generation narrow-linewidth Q-switched lasers with tunable wavelengths in conventional ytterbium, erbium, and thulium fiber bands to address critical applications such as coherent detection, biomedicine, and nonlinear frequency conversion.

All-optical tunable fiber filter based on a few-mode optical fiber mode interferometer coated with graphene epoxy resin composite material

A compact all-optical tunable fiber filter based on a few-mode optical fiber modal interferometer coated with graphene epoxy resin composite material is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. The interferometer is constructed with a 2-cm FMF connected to two single mode fibers. After coating the graphene epoxy resin composite material on the outside of the interferometer, it shows the all-optical wavelength tunability, and experimental results show that the wavelength shift changes quasilinearly with the pump power changing. The wavelength tunable range reaches 5.062 nm with a step of 0.016 nm/mw. It is expected to have practical application in optical communication, fiber sensing, fiber laser and optical spectrum analysis.

Tunable Fiber Laser Using an Er/Yb Codoped Fiber Based Modal Interferometer Filter

A tunable erbium-doped fiber laser (EDFL) is proposed and demonstrated experimentally. It is based on a tunable fiber filter using the pump induced refractive index change characteristics of the Er/Yb codoped phosphosilicate fiber (EYDF) based modal interferometer (MI). The laser achieves a tunability of 2.39 nm and 1.60 nm, with the wavelength linearly tuned from 1534.05 nm to 1536.44 nm and from 1554.36 nm to 1555.96 nm by changing the pump power injected into the MI. Its side mode suppression ratios are 30 dB and 33 dB, respectively. The stability of the tunable EDFL is getting better with the continuous improvement of the power of pump 1, and the dual-wavelength power fluctuations are less than 0.22 dB and 0.12 dB within 20 min at 250 mW of pump 1, respectively.

Novel fabrication technique for phase-shifted fiber Bragg gratings using a variable-velocity scanning beam and a shielded phase mask.

A new method is proposed and demonstrated for fabricating phase-shifted fiber Bragg gratings (FBGs) using a variable-velocity scanning UV laser beam in combination with a shielded phase mask. The transmission properties of phase-shifted FBGs were analyzed based on coupled-mode theory and a transfer matrix method. The grating is divided into three parts to allow for easier analysis of FBG properties. These segments included a uniform FBG1 and FBG2 which were separated by a shielded section. A novel phase-shifted FBG was fabricated using this method, in which the refractive indices of FBG1 and FBG2 were different. Transmission properties of these phase-shifted FBGs were simulated numerically using MATLAB, and the experimental results and simulated results are in good agreement. In addition to the length and effective refractive index of the shielded section, the phase shift value of a phase-shifted FBG was also found to be dependent on the lengths and effective refractive indices of FBG1 and FBG2. Moreover, we predicted that changing the scanning velocity for fabricating FBG2 would adjust phase shift value, which exhibits a positive linear relationship with the scanning velocity. These results can provide guidelines for fabricating any phase shift value FBGs. This technique is simple, convenient, and may be developed further for use in fabricating novel tunable fiber filters or DFB fiber lasers.

Thermo-tunable hybrid photonic crystal fiber based on solution-processed chalcogenide glass nanolayers.

The possibility to combine silica photonic crystal fiber (PCF) as low-loss platform with advanced functional materials, offers an enormous range of choices for the development of fiber-based tunable devices. Here, we report a tunable hybrid silica PCF with integrated As2S3 glass nanolayers inside the air-capillaries of the fiber based on a solution-processed glass approach. The deposited high-index layers revealed antiresonant transmission windows from ~500 nm up to ~1300 nm. We experimentally demonstrate for the first time the possibility to thermally-tune the revealed antiresonances by taking advantage the high thermo-optic coefficient of the solution-processed nanolayers. Two different hybrid fiber structures, with core diameter 10 and 5 μm, were developed and characterized using a supercontinuum source. The maximum sensitivity was measured to be as high as 3.6 nm/°C at 1300 nm. The proposed fiber device could potentially constitute an efficient route towards realization of monolithic tunable fiber filters or sensing elements.

Tunable fiber laser based on the refractive index characteristic of MMI effects

Abstract A tunable erbium-doped all-fiber laser has been demonstrated. This tunable laser is based on a tunable fiber filter using the refractive index characteristics of multimode interference effects. A thinner no-core fiber with a diameter of 104 μm is used to fabricate the tunable fiber filter. The joint point of the thinner no-core fiber with SMF is a taper, which improves its sensitivity for refractive index changes. The filter exhibits a very sensitive response to the change of the environmental refractive index, which is about 1000 nm/RIU in the RI range from 1.418 to 1.427. The tunable fiber laser based on the filter achieved a tunability of 32 nm, with the wavelength tuned from 1532 nm to 1564 nm covering the full C-band. The 3 dB bandwidth of the tunable laser is less than 0.02 nm with the signal-to-noise ratio of about 40 dB.

A Tunable Acousto-Optic Fiber Filter Based on Two Simultaneous Mode Coupling Processes

A dynamically tunable fiber filter realizing complex spectra of phase-shifted long period fiber gratings (LPFGs) is proposed and demonstrated experimentally. The principle of the filter is based on two acousto-optic coupling processes occurring simultaneously. The first coupling process acts as a normal LPFG, while the second makes the coupling direction of the first process change continuously, leading to a similar transmission spectrum with the phase-shifted LPFGs, in which the changing of coupling direction is realized by the discrete phase shifts of the index modulation. By adjusting the acoustic drive signals, its transmission spectrum can be dynamically tuned to realize the phase-shifted LPFGs' spectra under different phase shift numbers and locations.