Antoine Bellemare

Room temperature multifrequency erbium-doped fiber lasers anchored on the ITU frequency grid

Room temperature multifrequency erbium-doped fiber (EDF) lasers anchored on the ITU frequency grid and using frequency periodic filters are presented. The multifrequency operation is demonstrated both theoretically and experimentally by adding a frequency shifter in the ring cavity to prevent steady-state laser operation and single-frequency oscillation.

Continuous-wave silica-based erbium-doped fibre lasers

Abstract This review paper on erbium-doped fibre laser (EDFL) covers a broad range of designs and applications related to the field of optical fibre telecommunication. After a brief historical overview of EDFL technology in Section 1, Section 2 will present the theoretical background necessary to appreciate the experimental results and applications discussed later. A detailed review of EDFL developments will be given in Section 3, which is divided in three parts. The first part will focus on tuneable EDFLs, while the second part is concerned with multifrequency EDFLs. The third sub-section will be devoted to superfluorescent fibre sources. Throughout Section 3, illustrative examples of various EDFL designs and applications will be presented. Section 4 will conclude this review by recalling the key issues related to EDFL development and will offer some insights concerning future research trends.

Erbium-doped fiber ring lasers step-tunable to exact multiples of 100 GHz (ITU-grid) using periodic filters

Step-tunable erbium-doped fiber lasers using either sampled Bragg gratings (SBG) or Fabry-Perot micro etalons (FPME) are presented. The lasers are widely tunable and in precise concordance with the ITU-grid. Two different types of 100 GHz step-tunable Er-doped fibre ring laser (EDFRL) based on periodic filters have been realized. The first one is based on a SBG and is tunable from 192.0 to 193.5 THz. The second one is based on a FPME and is tunable from 191.0 to 196.9 THz.

Multifrequency erbium-doped fiber ring lasers anchored on the ITU frequency grid

Multifrequency erbium-doped fiber lasers anchored on the ITU frequency grid and using periodic filters are presented. The multifrequency operation is obtained by adding a frequency shifter in the ring cavity.

Use of a sampled Bragg grating as an in-fiber optical resonator for the realization of a referencing optical frequency scale for WDM communications

Standardization for absolute laser frequency assignment in projected dense wavelength-division multiplexing (DWDM) networks has become a very important issue. Recently, we have proposed a referencing scale of standard optical frequencies that are exact multiples of 100 GHz. Such a scale is independent of the atomic or molecular reference used to set the absolute value and is uniformly applicable to all spectral ranges. Here, we propose the use of sampled Bragg gratings to realize the optical resonator. This resonator is adaptable, robust, potentially cost efficient and readily compatible with the fiber network.

100 GHz frequency step-tunable hybrid laser based on a vernier effect between a Fabry-Perot cavity and a sampled fiber Bragg grating

Frequency step-tunability is demonstrated in a hybrid fiber grating external cavity laser for the first time. This new configuration uses an in-fiber sampled Bragg grating (SBG) as the frequency selective element allowing the laser to be tuned by 100 GHz frequency steps from 1551.09 to 1556.66 nm. In this demonstration, the wavelength can be set to the eight strongest SBG reflection peaks giving a laser SMSR better than 25 dB and a linewidth of about 130 kHz.

Erbium-doped fiber ring laser step-tunable to exact multiples of 100 GHz (ITU-grid) using a sampled Bragg grating

A single-frequency fiber laser for frequency referencing in DWDM communication systems is presented. The frequency selective element is a sampled fiber Bragg grating and the laser can be step-tuned to exact multiples of 100 GHz over 16 lines between 192.0 and 193.5 THz.

Broadband discrete and continuous wavelength tuning of erbium-doped fiber ring lasers

Broadband discrete and continuous tuning of erbium-doped fiber lasers is demonstrated in this paper. First, an exact multiple of 100 GHz frequency step-tunable L band erbium-doped fiber ring laser is presented. Precise multiple of 100 GHz step-tunability is obtain by proper angle positioning of a 100 GHz Fabry-Perot micro etalon in the laser cavity. Secondly, continuous tuning over 90 nm is shown in a laser using gain-band switching between C and L band EDFAs. Lastly, a tunable laser design that uses a single gain medium to obtain 100 nm of tuning in the C and L bands is demonstrated.

100-GHz step-tunable single-frequency erbium-doped fiber lasers

Novel step-tunable single-frequency fiber lasers in ring or linear configurations are presented. The frequency discriminating elements are periodic filters, either sampled fiber Bragg gratings or Fabry-Perot micro-etalons. The lasers can be step-tuned to exact multiples of 100 GHz and they find applications in frequency referencing for DWDM communication systems.