Ultra-wide wavelength tuning of a cascaded Raman random fiber laser

An ultra-broadband tunable cascaded Raman random fiber laser pumped by a tunable (1020-1080 nm) ytterbium-doped fiber laser is investigated. By continuously adjusting the pump laser wavelength, the Raman random laser tunes accordingly due to the Raman gain competition. By increasing the pump power, up to the 5th order Raman random laser is achieved. As a result, 300 nm of continuous wavelength tuning from 1070 to 1370 nm is achieved by adjusting the pump wavelength and power altogether. The highest output power is 1.8 W at 1360 nm with an optical efficiency of 15% from 1080 nm. To the best of our knowledge, this is the widest wavelength tuning range reported for a random fiber laser so far. (C) 2016 Optical Society of America