Tunable and programmable fiber ring laser based on digital-controlled chirped fiber Bragg grating

Abstract

This paper proposed and experimentally demonstrated an all-fiber tunable and programmable bandpass filter using a linearly chirped fiber Bragg grating (CFBG). The center wavelength and spacing of the transmission peaks could be independently tuned via computer. The tunable range is about 18 nm. With this filter we demonstrated a tunable fiber ring laser which has an output power of about -7 dBm, full-width at half-maximum linewidth of ~0.017 nm which is limited by the resolution of the optical spectrum analyzer (OSA). Furthermore, a spacing tunable dual-wavelength fiber laser was achieved with the same setup. This all-fiber laser features advantages like simple structure, low cost, flexible and digital tuning capability.

Keywords

chirped fiber Bragg grating (CFBG) / tunable filter / fiber ring laser / phase shift

References

[1] Yamashita S, Nishihara M. Widely tunable erbium-doped fiber ring laser covering both C-band and L-ban. IEEE Journal on Selected Topics in Quantum Electronics, 2001, 7(1): 41-43

[2] Song Y W, Havstad S A, Starodubov D, Xie Y, Willner A E, Feinberg J. 40-nm-wide tunable fiber ring laser with single-mode operation using a highly stretchable FBG. IEEE Photonics Technology Letters, 2001, 13(11): 1167-1169

[3] Li S Y, Ngo N Q, Zhang Z R. Tunable fiber laser with ultra-narrow linewidth using a tunable phase-shifted chirped fiber grating. IEEE Photonics Technology Letters, 2008, 20(17): 1482-1484

[4] Sinefeld D, Marom D M. Flexible grid multi-line fiber ring laser with an intra-cavity filter using a phase LCoS modulator. In: Proceedings of Optical Fiber Communication Conference, 2012, OW1C

[5] Sinefeld D, Marom D M. High resolution tunable fiber laser employing two-dimensional dispersion and a phase LCoS modulator. In: Proceedings of Lasers and Electro-Optics (CLEO), 2011, CTuI5

[6] Sinefeld D, Marom D M. Tunable fiber ring laser with an intracavity high resolution filter employing two-dimensional dispersion and LCoS modulator. Optics Letters, 2012, 37(1): 1-3

[7] Othonos A. Fiber Bragg gratings. Review of Scientific Instruments, 1997, 68(12): 4309-4341

[8] Ngo N Q, Liu D, Tjin S C, Dong X, Shum P. Thermally switchable and discretely tunable comb filter with a linearly chirped fiber Bragg grating. Optics Letters, 2005, 30(22): 2994-2996 (J)

[9] Liu D, Ngo N Q, Tjin S C. A reconfigurable multiwavelength fiber laser with switchable wavelength channels and tunable wavelength spacing. Optics Communications, 2008, 281(18): 4715-4718 (J)

[10] Li S Y, Ngo N Q, Tjin S C, Shum P, Zhang J. Thermally tunable narrow-bandpass filter based on a linearly chirped fiber Bragg grating. Optics Letters, 2004, 29(1): 29-31 (J)

[11] Ngo N Q, Li S Y, Binh N, Tjin S C. A phase-shifted linearly chirped fiber Bragg grating with tunable bandwidth. Optics Communications, 2006, 260(2): 438-441 (J)

[12] Petermann I, Helmfrid S, Gunnarsson O, Kjellberg L. Tunable and programmable optical bandpass filter. Journal of Optics A, Pure and Applied Optics, 2007, 9(11): 1057-1061 (J)

[13] Tang M, Minamide H, Wang Y, Notake T, Ohno S, Ito H. Tunable Terahertz-wave generation from DAST crystal pumped by a monolithic dual-wavelength fiber laser. Optics Express, 2011, 19(2): 779-786

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 61107087) and the National High Technology Research and Development Program of China (863 Program) (No. SS2012AA010407).

RIGHTS & PERMISSIONS

2014 Higher Education Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg