Abstract

In this paper, we investigate a flexibly tunable multiwavelength fiber ring laser with a continuous wavelength spacing tunability, incorporating a superimposed chirped fiber Bragg grating (CFBG) at room temperature. We exploit versatile gain media such as erbium-doped fiber (EDF) and Raman amplifiers in generating the multiwavelength fiber ring laser. The wavelength spacing of a superimposed CFBG can be continuously controlled by modifying the chirp ratio of the grating with the specially designed apparatus. After configuring a fiber ring cavity with the proposed multichannel filter, we realize stable multiwavelength fiber ring lasers at room temperature, which are based on an EDF amplifier incorporating a highly nonlinear dispersion-shifted fiber or a Raman amplifier using a dispersion-compensated fiber. Power fluctuation is less than ~0.6 dB. No lasing wavelength change is severally observed for the whole tuning range. For the multiwavelength EDF laser, stable 11-wavelength simultaneous operation spaced at 0.51 nm, with a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of more than ~45 dB at room temperature, is achieved. A high-quality multiwavelength Raman laser output with stable 30 lasing wavelengths spaced at 0.51 nm with a high SNR of more than ~45 dB is also realized. By applying the proposed tuning technique to both the multiwavelength EDF and Raman lasers, a wide and continuous tunability of lasing wavelength spacing is successfully achieved, which is measured to be ~±0.033 nm/mm. By controlling the pump power in the multiwavelength Raman fiber ring laser, we can control the number of lasing channels at a wavelength spacing of 0.51 nm.

© 2007 IEEE

Continuously spacing-tunable multiwavelength semiconductor-optical-amplifier-based fiber ring laser incorporating a superimposed chirped fiber Bragg grating

Young-Geun Han, Francesco Fresi, Luca Poti, Ju Han Lee, and Xinyong Dong
Opt. Lett. 32(9) 1032-1034 (2007)

Wavelength-spacing tunable multiwavelength erbium-doped fiber laser based on four-wave mixing of dispersion-shifted fiber

Young-Geun Han, Thi Van Anh Tran, and Sang Bae Lee
Opt. Lett. 31(6) 697-699 (2006)

Channel-spacing-tunable multi-wavelength fiber ring laser with hybrid Raman and Erbium-doped fiber gains

Daru Chen, Shan Qin, and Sailing He
Opt. Express 15(3) 930-935 (2007)

Multiwavelength Raman fiber laser with a continuously-tunable spacing

Xinyong Dong, P. Shum, N. Q. Ngo, and C. C. Chan
Opt. Express 14(8) 3288-3293 (2006)

Voltage-tuned multiwavelength Raman ring laser with high tunability based on a single fiber Bragg grating

Young-Geun Han, Sang Bae Lee, Chang-Seok Kim, and Myung Yung Jeong
Appl. Opt. 47(32) 6099-6102 (2008)