Tunable fiber laser using a broad-band fiber mirror and a tunable FBG as laser-cavity ends

By using a broad-band fiber mirror (BFM) and a tunable fiber-Bragg-grating at either end of laser cavity, a wavelength tunable erbium-doped fiber laser is demonstrated. In a forward pump scheme using 100 mW pump power at 1480 nm, stable lasing output power of 21.14-mW measured at 1544.8 nm is obtained with a threshold pump power of 4.7 mW. A side-mode suppression ratio as high as 57.9 dB, wavelength tuning range up to 30 nm with step resolution of 0.2 nm and power variation less than 1.0 dB are achieved. For a backward pump scheme, the BFM acts as a broad-band reflector both for the lasing signal and pump source. The high performance, cost-effective BFM based tunable fiber laser may play an important role in fiber optics communication and fiber sensing applications.