Multi-wavelength laser

Abstract

The multi-wavelength laser is a ring laser source working at room temperature. The laser has an inner cavity disposed in an outer cavity. A pair of circulators disposed in the inner cavity is configured to assure counter-propagation of light between the inner cavity and the outer cavity. A gain-clamped semiconductor optical amplifier (GC-SOA) is formed by combining a SOA and a Fiber Fabry-Perot Tunable Filter (FFP-TF) with the circulator pair. This configuration in the laser cavity results in an improvement in terms of transient gain excursions by applying an optical feedback. This attribute of the GC-SOA enables realizing a stable multi-wavelength laser source.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0001]1. Field of the Invention[0002]The present invention relates to optical laser technology, and particularly to a multi-wavelength laser configured to provide stable multi-lasing over a variety of temperatures and time durations.[0003]2. Description of the Related Art[0004]Fiber ring lasers have been extensively investigated in the recent past. Hitherto, many applications of multi-wavelength fiber lasers have been found in optical fiber sensors, optical communications and optical instrument testing. These light sources are attractive, as their compact size and increased number of wavelengths per component make them very cost-effective. Various methods have been put forward for the generation of such sources. Typically, Erbium-Doped-Fiber (EDF) lasers using a comb filter are seen to be a potential candidate in generating multi-wavelength laser sources, since the EDF provides large gain, high saturation power and a relatively low noise figure. However, d...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0008]The multi-wavelength laser is a ring laser source working at room temperature. The laser has an inner cavity disposed in an outer cavity. A pair of circulators disposed in the inner cavity is configured to assure counter-propagation of light between the inner cavity and the outer cavity. A gain-clamped semiconductor optical amplifier (GC-SOA) is formed by combining a semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) and a Fiber Fabry-Perot Tunable Filter (FFP-TF) where the circulator pair is inside the inner cavity. This configuration in the laser cavity provides an improvement in terms of transient gain excursions by applying optical feedback. This attribute of the GC-SOA enables realizing a stable multi-wavelength laser source.

Problems solved by technology

However, due to the homogenous broadening mechanism of the EDF laser at room temperature, the number of lasing modes is limited to generally less than four.

In addition, the mode competition leads to fluctuating and unstable laser powers.

Overcoming these issues requires either cooling the EDF with liquid nitrogen or using costly twin-core EDFs, both of which are complex and costly methods, which are not practically viable.

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