Comparative study of ring and random cavities for fiber lasers

An experimental comparison of three fiber laser structures with the same Raman gain medium is presented in order to establish the main pros and cons of each basic scheme. The first fiber laser is based on a hybrid ring-random fiber laser, the second one is a pure ring fiber laser, and the last one is a random fiber laser. Several aspects have been taken into account in the study. First, from the optical point of view, the parameters of interest compared are output power, lasing threshold, slope efficiency, power fluctuations, and the longitudinal modes have been analyzed. Second, the possible utilization of fiber lasers in digital modulated optical communication systems is also studied. (C) 2014 Optical Society of America