Isolator-free, widely tunable thulium/holmium fiber laser
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.11113/mjfas.v14n0.1273Keywords:
Tunable fiber laser, thulium, holmium, theta cavity, isolator-freeAbstract
An isolator-free thulium/holmium-doped fiber laser with a broadly tunable wavelength output is proposed and demonstrated for the first time. A theta resonator configuration is implemented in order to produce rectification of lasing direction without the need for an optical isolator, thus, making it a more cost-effective setup in comparison to the conventional ring resonator. Over 160 nm of wavelength tunability can be generated, which covers a huge range of the two-micron region starting from 1888 nm up to a maximum of 2048 nm. The laser exhibits excellent wavelength control with its short-range wavelength tuning capability, whereby the shortest tuning spacing obtainable is as small as ~0.1 nm. The tunable laser peaks maintain a strong optical-signal-to-noise (OSNR) value for the whole tuning range, reaching more than 60 dB, also a full-width half-maximum (FWHM) value less than ~0.2 nm with a maximum output power of 6.82 mW. The isolator-free cavity indicates a significant improvement in the slope efficiency of the laser in comparison to a ring cavity setup with similar components. The proposed laser would have substantial use as a laser seed for application in sensing and spectroscopy.
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