A widely tunable laser based on semiconductor optical amplifier in a highly birefringent fiber ring cavity

Summary form only given. A fast and widely tunable single-mode laser source is a useful component in wavelength-division multiplexing networks. We demonstrate a novel semiconductor ring laser that has the potential to tune the laser wavelength over more than 100 channels with nanosecond tuning time. The setup consists of a traveling-wave semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) as the gain medium, a rotating linear polarizer, a polarization independent isolator, and a polarization loop controller. All of the components in the setup are fiber pigtailed. The 500-/spl mu/m-long index-guided buried heterostructure SOA has a fiber-to-fiber gain of 15 dB at a bias current of 90 mA and a gain 3-dB bandwidth of 30 nm.