Open AccessTunable and Switchable Multiwavelength Passively Mode-Locked Fiber Laser Based on SESAM and Inline Birefringence Comb Filter
Author(s) -
Zhi-Chao Luo,
Ai-Ping Luo,
Wen-Cheng Xu
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
ieee photonics journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.725
H-Index - 73
eISSN - 1943-0655
pISSN - 1943-0647
DOI - 10.1109/jphot.2010.2102012
Subject(s) - engineered materials, dielectrics and plasmas , photonics and electrooptics
A tunable and switchable multiwavelength passively mode-locked fiber laser by using a semiconductor saturable absorber mirror (SESAM) and an inline birefringence fiber filter is proposed and demonstrated. By properly rotating the polarization controllers (PCs), up to 7-wavelength mode-locked pulses in 3-dB bandwidth with 3.65-nm channel spacing are obtained. The wavelength switchable operation is determined by the characteristics of the comb filter used in the experiment. Taking advantage of an intensity-dependent loss mechanism caused by the nonlinear polarization rotation (NPR) effect, the mode competition is efficiently suppressed. In addition, the lasing locations of multiwavelength mode-locked pulses can be flexibly tuned via the wavelength-dependent loss mechanism.