Switchable and tunable dual-wavelength single-longitudinal-mode erbium-doped fiber laser with special subring-cavity and superimposed fiber Bragg gratings

A switchable and tunable dual-wavelength single-longitudinal-mode (SLM) erbium-doped fiber laser (EDFL) has been proposed and demonstrated. Two superimposed fiber Bragg gratings (SI-FBG) have been used as one original wavelength selection component. A special subring-cavity was employed to select the SLM. By properly adjusting a polarization controller, single- and dual-wavelength switchable operations with high wavelength and power stability were realized experimentally. Regardless of which work mode, the signal to noise ratio was higher than 60 dB and the polarization extinction ratio was higher than 20 dB. The wavelength-spacing was 9.96 nm, indicating that it can be used to generate continuous-wave terahertz waves. The linewidth of each lasing wavelength measured by the delayed self-heterodyne method was approximately 1.25 kHz and 1 kHz, respectively. By stretching the SI-FBG, the EDFL had a wavelength-tunable range of 5.96 nm in both the single- and dual-wavelength operations.