A switchable fiber laser based on an all-fiber Fabry-Perot filter

In this experimental manuscript, a switchable Erbium-doped fiber ring laser based on an all-fiber Fabry-Perot filter was demonstrated. The filter is composed by several air micro-cavities formed into a section of a single-mode fiber splice joints with special hollow-core photonic crystal fiber. These micro-cavities are formed by air and silica, which produces several reflections generated at each silica-air-silica interfaces. Using this experimental setup we obtain a very high stable triple-laser emission at 1529.450nm, 1549.100nm and 1555.350nm with a linewidth of 0.2nm and a side-mode suppression ratio of 32dB, 37dB and 29dB respectively. These laser emission show a maximal peak power fluctuation around 0.4dB, 1.5dB and 2.6dB, with 0.025nm of wavelength oscillations. These results were observed after monitoring the laser cavity during an hour by recording the data each three minutes. By appropriately adjusting of transversal load applied over the Fabry-Perot filter between 0g and 550g, the ring laser cavity can be operated in double- wavelength, triple- wavelength, or quadruple- wavelength states. For this analysis, the all-fiber Fabry-Perot filter was set between a metal layer (below) and a thin glass layer (above) where transversal load was applied, here uniform load distribution over all the Fabry-Perot filter structure is achieved, as a result, the air intra-cavities that conform the filter are affected and the gain-losses profile is modified into the laser arrangement. The lasing emissions obtained in this work have a side-mode suppression ratio greater than 30dB. This ring laser cavity design offers a compact, simple and low-cost implementation and can be used in different applications where a very stable double, triple or quadruple laser lines are required.