L-Band Brillouin-Erbium Fiber Laser

• Main Authors: Harun, Sulaiman Wadi, Tamchek, Nizam, Poopalan, Prabakaran, Ahmad, Harith
• Format: Article
• Published: IOP Publishing 2003
• Subjects: Q Science (General); QC Physics; TK Electrical engineering. Electronics Nuclear engineering
• Online Access: http://eprints.um.edu.my/19640/; http://pleiades.online/cgi-perl/search.pl?type=abstract&name=lasphys&number=9&year=3&page=1161

The operation of the Brillouin-erbium fiber laser (BEFL) in the long wavelength band (L-band) is experimentally demonstrated. It uses a 50-m-long erbium-doped fiber (EDF) with a 400 ppm ion concentration as a gain medium to amplify the Stokes frequency signal generated in single-mode fiber (SMF). The Stokes frequency is shifted 10 GHz from its Brillouin pump with a tunability from 1598-1612 nm for a single wavelength BEFL. Multiple wavelength generation in the BEFL is realized by adding two 3-dB couplers joined in a reverse-S arrangement to take a portion of the generated BEFL signal and reinject it into the SMF to seed a cascaded BEFL line in the same direction as the first BEFL line. Twenty lines, including the anti-Stokes lines, are obtained with a maximum Brillouin pump and a 980-nm pump power of 8.8 mW and 92 mW, respectively. The L-band BEFL has the potential to be used in the future wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) communication system.