Power-equalized C+L band multi-wavelength fiber laser based on cascaded semiconductor optical amplifier

In this paper, a multi-wavelength fiber laser based on cascaded semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) was proposed by using a high birefringence fiber loop mirror (Hi-Bi FLM) as wavelength filter. The 0.6nm homogeneous broadening line-width of the SOA enabled laser oscillation with WDM ITU-grid spacing possible. The output 16 wavelengths in C+L band spacing on 100GHz were obtained. By using passive single-pass optical feedback, the power-equalized oscillating spectrum is broadened so that simultaneous oscillation of 27 lines spaced on 100GHz was achieved. The lines were power-equalized to within ±3dB and the extinction was better than 25dB. An active single-pass optical feedback mechanism was also used to further equalize the output power. Then the 18 lines within ±1.5dB were obtained with extinction better than 30dB.