A stable multiwavelength erbium-doped fiber laser (EDFL) based on random distributed feedback (RDFB) is presented. The random EDFL consists of a half-opened linear cavity in which a mirror forms one end, while the other end is connected to RDFB of a 25-km-long single mode fiber. In the laser cavity, the instability caused by the RDFB and cascaded stimulated Brillouin scattering is successfully mitigated by four wave mixing effect in a 2-kmlong highly nonlinear fiber. Experimental results indicate the generation of 24 stable laser lines at the pump power of 350 mW. The recorded peak power fluctuation for the laser is less than 0.7 dB in a 60-min duration, illustrating the stability of the multiwavelength random fiber laser.

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A multiwavelength Brillouin-erbium fiber laser with enhanced output uniformity is demonstrated and its performance with and without the assistance of four wave mixing (FWM) is compared. The presence of FWM effect is proven by the generation of anti-Stokes wave and higher-order Stokes wave. This scheme is successful in flattening the multiwavelength output. At Brillouin pump wavelength of 1,550 nm, between the first and the last output channel, peak power differences of 4.59 and 8.32 dB are recorded for the scheme with and without the assistance of FWM, respectively. This represents 3.73 dB improvement in the multiwavelength output power uniformity.

A cost effective method of generating multi-wavelength based on the cascaded four wave mixing effect is experimentally demonstrated. The proposed scheme is free from external tunable laser sources and pump modulators, resulting from the use of a broadened linewidth tunable dual wavelength erbium-doped fiber laser as intracavity pump. In this configuration, the number of four wave mixing cascades becomes larger in tandem with the increment of erbium-doped fiber amplifier output power. When its output power is set at 20.57 dBm, six waves having optical signal to noise ratio larger than 10 dB are generated. The six waves are stable with peak power fluctuations less than 1 dB within 30 minutes period and tunable with wavelength spacing ranging from 1.03 nm to 11.31 nm.