C and L band fiber lasers enhanced by ultrafast laser inscribed artificial backscatter reflectors

Abstract

This letter presents an experimental comparison between two linear-cavity erbium-doped fiber lasers (EDFL) assisted by two different artificial backscatter fiber-based reflectors. Both reflectors were inscribed by femtosecond laser direct writing, one of them within a single-mode fiber (SMF) and the other one within a multi-mode fiber (MMF). Although the erbium-doped fiber amplifier (EDFA) used in both structures was the same and both reflectors were manufactured under the same parameters, the reflection spectrum of each was clearly different due to their different physical properties. The first linear-cavity EDFL, consisting of an SMF-based reflector with 9µm core and 125µm cladding, resulted in a single laser emission line located in the C-band and centered at 1564.4 nm, exhibiting an optical signal-to-noise ratio (OSNR) of 52dB when pumped at 100mW. On the other hand, a single laser emission line with a similar OSNR but in L-band (centered at 1574.5nm) was obtained when using an MMF-based reflector with 50µm core and 125µm cladding.