C-band wavelength-swept single-longitudinal-mode erbium-doped fiber ring laser

A wavelength-swept single-longitudinal-mode erbium-doped fiber ring laser capable of operating at sweeping frequency in the order of a few kHz is designed and demonstrated by using a fiber Fabry-Perot tunable filter and a Sagnac loop incorporated with a 3.5-meter unpumped erbium-doped fiber. The laser operates in continuous-wave (CW) mode and can sweep approximately 45 nm over the entire C-band (1520nm-1570nm) window with linewidth less than 0.7 kHz. The optimum wavelength sweeping frequency in order to achieve the best output power stability was found to be similar to 20Hz with sweeping-induced power fluctuation of only 0.1%. (C) 2008 Optical Society of America.