Wide and Fast Wavelength-Swept Fiber Laser Based on Dispersion Tuning for Dynamic Sensing

We have developed a unique wide and fast wavelength-swept fiber laser for dynamic and accurate fiber sensing. The wavelength tuning is based on the dispersion tuning technique, which simply modulates the loss/gain in the dispersive laser cavity. By using wideband semiconductor optical amplifiers (SO...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Shinji Yamashita, Yuichi Nakazaki, Ryosei Konishi, Osamu Kusakari
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Hindawi Limited 2009-01-01
Series:Journal of Sensors
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2009/572835
Description
Summary:We have developed a unique wide and fast wavelength-swept fiber laser for dynamic and accurate fiber sensing. The wavelength tuning is based on the dispersion tuning technique, which simply modulates the loss/gain in the dispersive laser cavity. By using wideband semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOAs), the sweep range could be as wide as ∼180 nm. Since the cavity contains no mechanical components, such as tunable filters, we could achieve very high sweep rate, as high as ∼200 kHz. We have realized the swept lasers at three wavelength bands, 1550 nm, 1300 nm, and 800 nm, using SOAs along with erbium-doped fiber amplifiers (EDFAs), and in two laser configurations, ring and linear ones. We also succeeded in applying the swept laser for a dynamic fiber-Bragg grating (FBG) sensor system. In this paper, we review our researches on the wide and fast wavelength-swept fiber lasers.
ISSN:1687-725X
1687-7268