Tunable self-seeded multiwavelength Brillouin-Erbium fiber laser with enhanced power efficiency

We have demonstrated a tunable multiwavelength Brillouin-Erbium fiber laser (BEFL), which is internally self-excited without additional Brillouin pump. With the use of a birefringence loop mirror filter, the laser output wavelength can be tuned through modifying the filtering profile of the birefringence filter. As a result, the generation of more than 70-wavelength combs with uniform power distribution has been obtained in similar to 11-nm tuning range. And the wavelength of combs can be tuned in the bandwidth of the Sagnac loop filter. Also, utilizing the spare port of the 3-dB coupler as the output port, the laser output power efficiency has been enhanced by 13 dB. (c) 2007 Optical Society of America.