Multiwavelength Brillouin Generation in Bismuth-Doped Fiber Laser With Single- and Double-Frequency Spacing

• Published in: Journal of lightwave technology 2020-12, Vol.38 (24), p.6886-6896
• Main Authors: Ahmad, Harith, Samion, Muhamad Z., Kamely, Aizuddin A., Wang, Siyi, Wang, Yu, Sahu, Jayanta K.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Bismuth; Bismuth-doped fiber laser; Configurations; Doped fibers; double-frequency spacing; Fiber lasers; Lasers; multiwavelength; Optical communication; Optical fiber amplifiers; Optical fiber communication; Optical fiber dispersion; Pump lasers; Scattering; single-frequency spacing; stimulated Brillouin Scattering; Tunable lasers
• ISSN: 0733-8724; 1558-2213
• DOI: 10.1109/JLT.2020.3020057

Multiwavelength fiber lasers operating in the 1.3 μm wavelength region are of great interest as they complement existing systems in the conventional optical communication band of 1.55 μm. In this work, a multiwavelength Brillouin fiber laser with single- and double-Brillouin frequency spacings operating in 1.3 μm is proposed and demonstrated using a dispersion compensating fiber (DCF) as the Brillouin gain medium. A bismuth-doped fiber serves as the laser gain medium. At the maximum pump power of 1021 mW and with the Brillouin pump set at 11 dBm, up to 7 Brillouin Stokes lines with a wavelength spacing of 0.074 nm are obtained in the single-spaced configuration. In the case of the double-spaced configuration, 14 Stokes lines are generated with a wavelength spacing of 0.15 nm between the even Stokes lines. By tuning the central wavelength of the Brillouin pump, both laser configurations are wavelength-tunable with a range of 93 nm and 19 nm for the single-spaced and double-spaced Brillouin lasers respectively. This is, to the best of the author's knowledge, the first demonstration of a multiwavelength/Brillouin laser using a bismuth-doped fiber as the laser gain medium.