多波长光纤激光器是未来波分复用光通信系统的理想光源,提出和展示了一个基于非线性偏振旋转效应的多波长光纤激光器,非线性偏振旋转诱导的强度相关非均匀损耗能有效地抑制均匀加宽增益介质掺铒光纤中的模式竞争,从而使光纤激光器在室温下产生稳定的多波长输出,实验实现了最多18个波长的多波长输出。另外,此激光器没有使用传统的滤波器,而是在激光腔内插入一段保偏光纤,保偏光纤与偏振相关隔离器构成一等效Lyot双折射光纤周期性滤波器。利用这种在线型的双折射光纤滤波器简化了光纤激光器的结构,使它更易于集成。还实验研究了多波长输出随抽运功率的演化,发现抽运功率对多波长的均匀性影响很大。

Multiwavelength fiber laser is a perfect light source for future wavelength-division-multiplexing optical communication systems. A multiwavelength fiber laser based on nonlinear polarization rotation with up to 18 wavelengths has been proposed and demonstrated. The intensity- and wavelength-dependent loss induced by nonlinear polarization rotation effect is used to alleviate the mode competition in the homogeneous broadening gain medium of erbium-doped fiber. Instead of traditional filters, a polarization-maintaining fiber is inserted into the laser cavity, with which the polarization-dependent isolator composes an equivalent Lyot birefringent fiber filter. The in-line birefringence fiber filter is used to simplify the laser configuration, which benefits systematic integration. The effect of the 980 nm pump power on the multiwavelength generation is investigated. It is shown that the pump power contributes a lot to the evenness of the multiwavelength spectra due to the intensity dependene of nonlinear polarization rotation effect.