Switching-wavelength pulse source constructed from a dispersion-managed SOA fiber ring laser

Author

Lee, K.L. ; Shu, C.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electron. Eng., Chinese Univ. of Hong Kong, China

Volume

15

Issue

4

fYear

2003

fDate

4/1/2003 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

513

Lastpage

515

Abstract

A new approach to generate switching-wavelength picosecond pulses is developed based on a dispersion-managed semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) fiber laser cavity. Gain modulation on a 1.55-μm SOA is used together with subharmonic gating of pulses in the cavity. An 8-GHz, eight-wavelength output is obtained with a constant spacing of 0.91 nm between neighboring wavelengths. The wavelength channels have nearly identical peak powers. The total amplitude and time jitter of the output is measured to be smaller than 0.4 ps. The spacing and the number of output wavelengths can be easily tuned by changing the operating frequency and the subharmonic ratio without modifying the optical cavity.

Keywords

fibre lasers; laser cavity resonators; laser mode locking; optical fibre dispersion; optical pulse generation; ring lasers; semiconductor optical amplifiers; telecommunication network management; timing jitter; 0.4 ps; 1.55 micron; constant spacing; dispersion-managed SOA fiber ring laser; dispersion-managed semiconductor optical amplifier fiber laser cavity; eight-wavelength output; gain modulation; nearly identical peak powers; operating frequency; optical cavity; output wavelengths; subharmonic gating; subharmonic ratio; switching-wavelength picosecond pulses; switching-wavelength pulse source; time jitter; total amplitude; wavelength channels; Fiber lasers; Jitter; Optical pulse generation; Optical pulses; Pulse amplifiers; Pulse modulation; Ring lasers; Semiconductor lasers; Semiconductor optical amplifiers; Time measurement;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Photonics Technology Letters, IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1041-1135

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/LPT.2003.809315

Filename

1190187