Internal modulation of a random fiber laser

Abstract

A characterization of a modulated random mirror laser has been experimentally carried out. Unlike conventional internally modulated fiber lasers, no distortion of the modulating frequency or self-mode-locking effects were measured. The behavior of the laser using pulsed and analog modulation up to 12 GHz is shown.

Recent advances in fundamentals and applications of random fiber lasers

“…The rich variety of demonstrated random fiber lasers is due to a combination of several factors: (a) the numbers of possible laser system configurations (tunable operation ( [28,50]), filter-based configurations [49,51,64], half-open cavity setups [34,70], and others; (b) various gain mechanisms [73,90,95]; (c) varied output wavelengths [45,52,67,70,81,157]; (d) different operational regimes (CW, pulsating [106,107]), Q-switched random fiber lasers [158]; and (e) a range of fiber bases [37,45,68,103]. 175 km Φ-OTDR with hybrid distributed amplification: (a) experimental setup and (b) calculated Rayleigh backscattering signal in the case of an ultralong Raman fiber laser (URFL) configuration and the configuration based on a random fiber laser with hybrid distributed amplification (HDA).…”

“…In conventional internally modulated Raman fiber lasers, the length of the laser cavity distorts the analog internal modulation and determines the repetition rate of generated pulses. In random fiber lasers, the feedback does not correspond to a fixed length, so there is no distortion of the modulating frequency or self-mode-locking effects [106]. The flat frequency behavior of the proposed random mirror laser is remarkable in comparison to the periodic frequency response of the linear cavity (Fig.…”

“…Such CW output power could be internally modulated by incorporating into the cavity an electro-optical modulator placed into the loop mirror [106]. The modulator has been operated at frequencies up to 500 MHz.…”

Output Characterization of Random Fiber Laser Formed by Dispersion Compensated Fiber

“…Firstly, a multi-wavelength fiber laser using DCF as dual-random mirrors was presented [16], [17]. Secondly, a modulated random mirror laser was experimentally realized by utilizing a ∼2.5 km DCF, in which no distortion of the modulating frequency or self-mode-locking effects were measured [18]. Manuscript In addition, by adding FBGs to the hybrid SMF/DCF cavity 2nd-order RFL was also obtained [19].…”

Fiber laser sensor system based on a random mirror and a compound ring resonator for displacement measurements

“…This allows reducing significantly the required length of fiber up to a few km [3]. The second mirror can be used to modify the RDFB spectrum in order to achieve a multi-wavelength laser, as in [4] where a photonic crystal fiber loop mirror is used for this purpose, or in [5] where a mirror structure including a modulator was used for the internal modulation of the RDFB laser.…”