Semiconductor optical amplifier-based multi-wavelength ring laser utilizing photonic crystal fiber

Abstract

A multi-wavelength laser source is demonstrated with a semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) as a gain medium. A multi-wavelength comb with equal spacing is achieved due to Fabry-Pe´rot modes of the SOA which oscillates in the ring cavity. A 100 m long photonics crystal fiber (PCF) is inserted in the ring cavity to provide a nonlinear gain by four-wave mixing (FWM) so that the output comb spectrum can be greatly broadened and flattened. The stability of the ring laser is also increased due to the efficient FWM phenomenon occurring in the PCF. The SOAbased laser can generate 35 lasing lines with equal spacing of 0.28 nm and extinction ratios of more than 30 dB at room temperature. The number of channels of the multi-wavelength laser can be controlled flexibly by changing the ratio of the coupler used in the ring cavity configuration as well as controlling the polarization state of the oscillating laser.

All-fiber lasers through photonic crystal fibers

“…Ytterbium-doped fiber lasers were developed: pumping a highly nonlinear PCF with zero-dispersion [89], or using a 20 m PCF to provide four-wave mixing [90], or through a polarization maintaining PCF for dispersion compensation [91], or even with an anomalous dispersion PCF [92]. Multiwavelength fiber ring lasers based on semiconductor optical amplifiers have been developed: using 100 m highly nonlinear PCF [93], or incorporating a PCF in order to improve the nonlinear polarization rotation effect [94], or even through a twin-core PCF based in-line comb filter [95].…”

Ultra-Wideband Multiwavelength Light Source Utilizing Rare Earth Doped Femtosecond Fiber Oscillator

“…Specialty fibers such as photonic crystal fibers (PCFs) have high nonlinearity with a managed dispersion profile, and thus, can be used to generate supercontinuum (Parvizi et al, 2010;Russell, 2003). The first supercontinuum generation in a microstructured fiber was reported in 2000 by Ranka et al Zero dispersion and anomalous dispersion regions could have contributed in higher order soliton generation, pulse compression and ultrabroadband continuum extending from the ultraviolet to the infrared spectral regions.…”

“…Multiwavelength sources are expected to play a major role in future photonic networks, where optical time-division multiplexing (OTDM) and wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) are employed (Teh et al, 2002;Ye et al, 2010;Liu et al, 2006;Parvizi et al, 2011;Harun et al, 2010;Zhong et al, 2010). Various approaches have been taken to develop this source such as by exploiting the nonlinear effects in an optical fiber as well as spectral slicing of a supercontinuum source.…”

Fiber optical based parametric amplifier in a highly nonlinear fiber (HNLF) by using a ring configuration

“…This phenomenon relies on the relative phase between three interacting waves propagating in the same direction in an alloptical waveguide. The generation of the FWM in optical fibers is typically through the exploitation of the nonlinear properties of certain optical materials, such as photonic crystal fibers (PCFs) [8] and highly nonlinear fibers (HNLFs) whereby the interaction of three wavelengths traveling in the optical waveguide interact via the scattering of incident photons to generate a fourth wavelength. When the phase matching conditions are met, the FWM effect can be utilized to provide amplification [9], whereby the energy from the strong pump field to the weak signal field as well as generating an idler field [10]; this is the underlying principal in the operation of the FOPA.…”