Towards the short-wavelength limit lasing at 1450 nm over I-4(13/2)-> I-4(15/2) transition in silica-based erbium-doped fiber

Abstract

The transition rate of the stimulated emission at the higher energy levels of the excited states in a silica-based erbium-doped fiber can be enhanced by introducing fundamental-mode cutoff filtering mechanism. The electrons excited by optical pumping can more occupy the higher energy levels of the excited states when the transition rate for the lower energy levels (longer wavelengths) of the excited states is substantially suppressed. The achieved lasing wavelength can thus be moving toward the shorter wavelengths of the gain bandwidth. The laser transition between I-4(13/2) -> I-4(15/2) multiplets of the silica-based erbium-doped fiber is known to emit fluorescence with the shortest wavelength around 1450 nm. We, for the first time, experimentally demonstrate a widely tunable fiber laser at the wavelength very close to 1450 nm by using a standard silica-based C-band erbium-doped fiber. The tuning range covers 1451.9-1548.1 nm, with the best temperature tuning efficiency as high as 57.3 nm/degrees C, by discretely introducing tunable fundamental-mode cutoff tapered fiber filters along a 16-m-long erbium-doped fiber under a 980 nm pump power around 200 mW. The signal-ASE-ratio can be higher than 45 dB whereas the FWHM of the laser lasing lights can be reduced below 0.2 nm by using an additional Fabry-Perot filter. (c) 2007 Optical Society of America.