Room-temperature multiwavelength erbium-doped fiber ring laser based on phase modulation of semiconductor optical amplifier with lasing-wavelength and spacing tunability

Abstract

We have experimentally investigated a stably tunable multiwavelength erbium- doped fiber ring laser based on phase modulation of a semiconductor optical amplifier with lasing wavelength and spacing tunability at room temperature. Stable multiwavelength operation is obtained by direct modulation of the bias current in the amplifier. We demonstrate such a laser incorporating a tunable Lyot-Sagnac filter with two segments of polarization-maintaining fibers with wavelength-spacing and lasing wavelength tunability. We successfully achieved 1.0-nm-spacing eight-channel and 0.8-nm-spacing ten-channel lasing wavelengths at room temperature. The lasing wavelength of the laser can be also controlled by a polarization controller. (C) 2007 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers.