A. P. Luo

Wavelength switchable all-fiber comb filter using a dual-pass Mach-Zehnder interferometer and its application in multiwavelength laser

A novel wavelength switchable all-fiber comb filter based on a dual-pass Mach-Zehnder (M-Z) interferometer is proposed and demonstrated. The proposed filter consists of a rotatable polarizer and a standard dual-pass M-Z interferometer composed of two 3-dB fiber couplers with a polarization controller (PC) in one arm. When the PC is properly set, the wavelength switchable operation is achieved by adjusting the polarization state of the input light. Theoretical calculation is verified by the experimental results. As applications, the proposed comb filter is incorporated into a fiber ring laser to generate wavelength switchable multiwavelength lasing.

Polarization-Controlled Tunable All-Fiber Comb Filter Based on a Modified Dual-Pass Mach–Zehnder Interferometer

We propose and demonstrate a novel tunable all-fiber comb filter based on a modified dual-pass Mach-Zehnder (M-Z) interferometer. The proposed filter consists of a polarization-dependent isolator, a polarization controller (PC), and a modified dual-pass M-Z interferometer composed of a standard 3-dB and a non-3-dB fiber coupler with a PC in one arm. By adjusting the polarization state of the input light, dual-function operation, the spectral spacing tunable and the wavelength switching (interleaving) operation can be easily achieved. The theoretical prediction is verified by the experimental results.

Switchable dual-wavelength passively mode-locked fiber ring laser using SESAM and cascaded fiber Bragg gratings

We propose and demonstrate an efficient and simple wavelength switchable dual-wavelength passively mode-locked fiber ring laser based on a semiconductor saturable absorber mirror (SESAM) and a cascaded sequence of fiber Bragg gratings (FBGs). The efficient self-starting mode-locked operation was realized with a SESAM. Dual-wavelength pulses with a wavelength spacing of 12.49 nm were obtained which was determined by the reflection peaks of the FBGs used in the experiment. In addition, by rotating the polarization controllers (PCs), the switchable dual-wavelength operation was simply achieved via exploiting wavelength-dependent loss mechanism.

Multi-wavelength erbium-doped fiber ring laser based on wavelength-dependent polarization rotation with a phase modulator and an in-line comb filter

A stable room-temperature multi-wavelength erbium-doped fiber ring laser has been proposed and investigated experimentally. A phase modulator composed of a piece of fiber wrapped around a cylindrical piezoelectric transducer is used to suppress the mode competition. And the combined action between optical fiber and polarization-dependent isolator provides the wavelength-dependent loss induced by wavelength-dependent polarization rotation mechanism to flatten the output spectrum, tune the locations and improve the number of the lasing lines. Stable multi-wavelength lasing with wavelengths up to 23 and the wavelength spacing of 0.4 nm is demonstrated. Moreover, the pulse train output was also observed.

Wide-band tunable passively Q-switched all-fiber ring laser based on nonlinear polarization rotation technique

A wide-band tunable passively Q-switched all-fiber ring laser based on nonlinear polarization rotation (NPR) technique is demonstrated. The NPR-induced intensity-dependent loss effect acts as an artificial saturable absorber, which was used to achieve the Q-switched operation with a low pump threshold of about 25 mW. Taking advantage of the intracavity birefringence-induced spectral filtering effect, the central wavelength of Q-switched pulse can be continuously tuned from 1543.4 to 1592.4 nm by simply rotating the PCs.

Waveband switchable multi-wavelength erbium-doped fiber ring laser based on wavelength-dependent polarization rotation mechanism

A waveband switchable multi-wavelength erbium-doped fiber ring laser based on wavelength-dependent polarization rotation mechanism and birefringence-based in-line comb filter is proposed and demonstrated. The two lasing wavebands, around 1530 and 1560 nm region, can be efficiently switched by simply rotating the polarization controllers (PCs). The channel spacing is 0.4 nm which was determined by the length of polarization maintain fiber (PMF) used in the experiment. The experimental results show that the waveband switchable is an intrinsic feature of multi-wavelength fiber ring lasers by incorporating a passive polarizer in the laser cavity.

A stable 2 μm passively Q-switched fiber laser based on nonlinear polarization evolution

A passively Q-switched thulium-doped fiber (TDF) laser based on the nonlinear polarization evolution technique was demonstrated with the central wavelength of 1898.4 nm. With the increasing pump power, the pulse repetition frequency of the Q-switched TDF laser from 87.6 to 110.1 kHz was achieved, while the corresponding pulse duration was changed from 1171 to 785.7 ns. The power instability of the TDF laser was measured to be about ±1.5% during 8 h. In addition, the mode-locked phenomenon was also observed in our all-fiber TDF laser by carefully adjusting the polarization controllers.

Passively Q-switched mode-locking Erbium-doped fiber laser with net-normal dispersion using nonlinear polarization rotation technique

We experimentally demonstrate a passively Q-switched mode-locking (QML) operation in an Erbium-doped fiber ring laser with net normal dispersion by using nonlinear polarization rotation technique. A 2 m long section of dispersion compensating fiber (DCF) with extra large positive dispersion was inserted into the cavity to ensure the fiber laser working in the region of net positive dispersion. By carefully adjusting the polarization controller, both uniform dissipative mode-locking pulses with fundamental repetition rate and QML pulse trains with tunable repetition rate from 71.58 to 98.83 kHz are achieved. It is found that the QML operation is caused by the interaction between the polarization state of the pulse and the intracavity polarizer.

Sub-100 kHz repetition rate erbium-doped fiber laser in anomalous dispersion regime

We propose and demonstrate a simple but efficient way to generate low repetition rate pulses in an erbium-doped fiber ring laser by using self-pulsing technique. About 2.25 km long single mode fiber is used to elongate in the cavity, providing large anomalous cavity dispersion in the wavelength region around 1550 nm. Self pulses at a repetition rate of 85.3 kHz with single pulse energy as high as 110 nJ are efficiently obtained on the nanosecond time scale. The experimental results demonstrate that the self-pulse fiber laser operating in the anomalous dispersion regime can also realize high-energy pulses at a very low pulse repetition rate.