100-mW linear polarization single-frequency all-fiber seed laser for coherent Doppler lidar application

A compact short-cavity fiber laser configured with Er(3+)/Yb(3+) highly co-doped phosphate glass fiber with stable linear polarization and single frequency output is proposed and investigated experimentally. The fiber laser is composed of a high-reflectivity fiber Bragg grating (HRFBG) and a polarization-maintaining fiber Bragg grating (PMFBG) with the matched wavelengths at 1540.3 nm, which aims at one of the center wavelengths of the atmospheric transmission windows and may be used as the local oscillator (LO) of the coherent Doppler lidar (CDL). The output power of the laser reaches more than 114-mW, the signal-to-noise ratio is larger than 70 dB and the laser linewidth is about 4.1-kHz. Moreover, the linear polarization with 40.5 dB extinction ratio, the power fluctuation of less than +/- 0.25% and the frequency fluctuation of less than +/- 80 MHz are also obtained. Compared with the DFB fiber laser, the proposed fiber laser is more suitable for the CDL applications. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.