Single-frequency Ho3+-doped ZBLAN fiber laser at 1200 nm

A single-frequency (SF) fiber laser at 1200 nm was developed with a distributed Bragg reflector (DBR) configuration by splicing a 22 mm long highly holmium-doped ZBLAN (ZrF4-BaF2-LaF3-AlF3-NaF) fiber with a pair of silica fiber Bragg gratings. The linewidth was estimated to be less than 100 kHz based on the measured frequency noise. The relative intensity noise was measured to be < 110 dB/Hz at the relaxation oscillation peak and the polarization extinction ratio was measured to be >19 dB. Our results highlight the exciting prospect that wavelength coverage of SF DBR fiber lasers can be expanded significantly by using rare-earth-doped ZBLAN fibers. (C) 2012 Optical Society of America