Abstract

A wavelength-switchable single-longitudinal-mode (SLM) dual-wavelength erbium-doped fiber laser (EDFL) incorporating a novel high-finesse ring filter is proposed and demonstrated. The ring filter consists of two optical couplers and a section of pumped erbium-doped fiber (EDF). Thanks to the gain generated by the EDF, the ring filter has spectral response with a high finesse. The incorporation of the ring filter leads to the suppression of undesirable modes in the dual-wavelength EDFL. An experiment is carried out. Two SLM wavelengths are generated. The side mode suppression ratio is greater than 50 dB. The wavelength spacing of the two wavelengths is tunable with a tuning step of ~10 GHz. A frequency switchable microwave signal from ~10 to ~40 GHz is thus generated by beating the two wavelengths at a photodetector (PD). The spectral width of the generated microwave signal is measured to be less than 5 kHz.

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History
Original Manuscript: May 8, 2009
Manuscript Accepted: June 24, 2009
Revised Manuscript: June 16, 2009
Published: July 2, 2009

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Author Affiliations

Shilong Pan, Jianping Yao

Microwave Photonics Research Laboratory, School of Information Technology and Engineering, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, K1N 6N5, Canada

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