Stable and broad bandwidth multiwavelength fiber ring laser incorporating a highly nonlinear photonic crystal fiber

A stable and broad bandwidth multiwavelength fiber ring laser suitable for use in dense wavelength-division-multiplexing systems is demonstrated. A highly nonlinear photonic crystal fiber is inserted in the ring cavity to stabilize the power fluctuation and broaden the output spectrum. A thin-film Fabry-Pe´rot etalon filter is used to get stable wavelength lasing. A Sagnac filter is employed to achieve uniform power distribution at each wavelength at the laser output. A laser with a power fluctuation about 0.1 dB in each wavelength within 20 min and with wavelength shift of less than 0.016 nm within 10 min is achieved. A stable 24-wavelength lasing operation with wavelength spacing of 0.8 nm within the 3-dB spectral range of 1573-1594 nm and signal-to-noise ratio better than 48 dB is observed experimentally.