Generation and wavelength switching of picosecond pulses by optically modulating a semiconductor optical amplifier in a fiber laser with optical delay line

A novel actively mode-locked fiber laser having a semiconductor optical amplifier playing the roles of both a gain element and an optically controlled mode-locker and eight cascaded fiber Bragg gratings playing the role of the wavelength selecting element is proposed and demonstrated. Stable amplitude equalized pulse trains with a pulsewidth about 43 ps at 2.5 GHz have been obtained by injecting optical control signals into the laser. Wavelength switching among eight wavelengths is achieved by merely tuning an intracavity optical delay line. This all-optical generation and wavelength-switching scheme should be useful in applications where picosecond pulse trains at high repetition rates are desired.