OSNR enhancement of Rayleigh-assisted Brillouin-Raman fiber laser via double pass configuration.

We propose and demonstrate a 10 GHz spacing multi-wavelength Brillouin-Raman fiber laser (MBRFL) with wide bandwidth and an outstanding optical signal-to-noise ratio (OSNR). This is achieved by utilizing loop mirror at one end of the laser cavity through a symmetrical bi-directional Raman pumping scheme. The setup is arranged in a double pass configuration by employing different lengths of dispersion compensating fibers (DCF). The attainment of MBRFL with outstanding performance necessitates the optimization of Raman pump power, Brillouin pump wavelength, and DCF length. By employing an 11 km DCF, when setting the Brillouin pump wavelength at 1531.4 nm, 504 Stoke lines are produced with a channel spacing of 0.08 nm. All the counted laser lines have less than a 1-dB peak amplitude variation and are spread across a 40.4 nm bandwidth that covers from 1531.4 to 1571.8 nm wavelength. In this case, the Raman pump power is fixed at 900 mW which results in average OSNR and Stokes peak amplitude level of 28 dB and -7 dBm respectively. To date, this is the simplest cavity design with the widest bandwidth and flattest spectrum together with outstanding OSNR attained in 10 GHz spacing multi-wavelength fiber lasers that incorporate a single low-power Raman pump unit.

Broadband multi-wavelength Brillouin-Raman fiber laser with frequency switching.

We purpose and demonstrate the switchable multi-wavelength Brillouin-Raman fiber laser (MBRFL) through a bi-directional Raman pumping scheme. The laser structure is arranged in a linear cavity by including a physical mirror at one side of the cavity. The switching operation for MBRFL with single- and double-wavelength spacing is implemented by optimizing the Raman power distribution through a variable optical coupler. This effect on feedback power of the physical mirror provides the difference between odd- and even-order Stoke lines' maximum power on different sides of the cavity with 10 GHz and 20 GHz spacing. A 90/10 coupler is found to be the optimal. Up to 460 flat-amplitude lines within only a 0.5-dB flatness range, average -5 dBm Stokes peak power (SPP), 10 GHz frequency spacing, and an average optical signal-to-noise ratio (OSNR) of 26 dB are observed. All the counted laser lines are spread across a 37 nm bandwidth. Simultaneously, 170 Stoke lines with overall -2 dBm SPP, 28 dB OSNR, and 20 GHz frequency spacing are attained on other side of the cavity. These are achieved when the Raman pump power is set only at 900 mW. To date, this is the simplest cavity design with the flattest spectrum and highest output power for both wavelength spacing and excellent OSNR achieved in multi-wavelength fiber lasers that incorporate a single low-power Raman pump unit.

Flatness enhancement of multi-wavelength Brillouin-Raman fiber laser with 10†GHz spacing utilizing Raman pump power distribution.

A simple high flat amplitude multi-wavelength Brillouin-Raman fibre laser (MBRFL) with 10 GHz spacing and excellent optical signal-to-noise ratio (OSNR) in C-Band spectral region is demonstrated. The laser consists of a linear cavity in which 12 km dispersion compensating fiber (DCF) in addition to 49 cm Bismuth-oxide Erbium doped fiber (Bi-EDF) are employed as a gain medium for amplification. The impact of Raman pump power distribution through changes in coupling ratio on amplitude flatness is carried out by comparing the peak power discrepancy between odd- and even-order Brillouin Stoke lines. This is the main property that allows the efficient controlling of gain propagation between lasing lines that is vital for Stokes flattening initiation and other output spectra characteristics. The attainment of MBRFL with outstanding OSNR necessitates the utilizing of Bi-EDF as a noise suppressor. By utilizing a 50/50 coupler, 354 identical channels together with uniform Brillouin Stokes linewidth within only 0.3-dB maximum power difference between adjacent channels is generated. The average OSNR and Stokes power are 28 dB and -5 dBm respectively when the RPP is set at 1300 mW. To date, this is the highest flatness 10 GHz spacing MBRFL with outstanding OSNR attained in MBRFL that incorporate only a single Raman pump unit.

Author Correction: Towards 5G: A Photonic Based Millimeter Wave Signal Generation for Applying in 5G Access Fronthaul.

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.

Towards 5G: A Photonic Based Millimeter Wave Signal Generation for Applying in 5G Access Fronthaul.

5G communications require a multi Gb/s data transmission in its small cells. For this purpose millimeter wave (mm-wave) RF signals are the best solutions to be utilized for high speed data transmission. Generation of these high frequency RF signals is challenging in electrical domain therefore photonic generation of these signals is more studied. In this work, a photonic based simple and robust method for generating millimeter waves applicable in 5G access fronthaul is presented. Besides generating of the mm-wave signal in the 60 GHz frequency band the radio over fiber (RoF) system for transmission of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) with 5 GHz bandwidth is presented. For the purpose of wireless transmission for 5G application the required antenna is designed and developed. The total system performance in one small cell was studied and the error vector magnitude (EVM) of the system was evaluated.

A Stable Dual-wavelength Thulium-doped Fiber Laser at 1.9 µm Using Photonic Crystal Fiber.

A stable dual-wavelength thulium-doped fiber laser operating at 1.9 µm using a short length of photonic crystal fiber (PCF) has been proposed and demonstrated. The photonics crystal fiber was 10 cm in length and effectively acted as a Mach-Zehnder interferometry element with a free spectral range of 0.2 nm. This dual-wavelength thulium-doped fiber laser operated steadily at room temperature with a 45 dB optical signal-to-noise-ratio.

Increment of Access Points in Integrated System of Wavelength Division Multiplexed Passive Optical Network Radio over Fiber.

This paper describes a novel technique to increase the numbers of access points (APs) in a wavelength division multiplexed-passive optical network (WDM-PON) integrated in a 100 GHz radio-over-fiber (RoF). Eight multi-carriers separated by 25 GHz intervals were generated in the range of 193.025 to 193.200 THz using a microring resonator (MRR) system incorporating an add-drop filter system. All optically generated multi-carriers were utilized in an integrated system of WDM-PON-RoF for transmission of four 43.6 Gb/sec orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) signals. Results showed that an acceptable BER variation for different path lengths up to 25 km was achievable for all four access points and thus the transmission of four OFDM channels is feasible for a 25 km standard single mode fiber (SSMF) path length.

Photonic crystal fiber based dual-wavelength Q-switched fiber laser using graphene oxide as a saturable absorber.

A Q-switched dual-wavelength fiber laser with narrow channel spacing is proposed and demonstrated. The fiber laser is built around a 3 m long erbium doped fiber as the gain medium and a 10 cm long photonic crystal fiber (PCF) as the element used to generate the dual-wavelength output. The PCF has a solid core approximately 4.37 µm in diameter and is surrounded by microscopic air-holes with a diameter of about 5.06 µm each as well as a zero-dispersion wavelength of about 980 nm. A graphene oxide based saturable absorber is used to generate the desired pulsed output. At the maximum pump power of 72 mW the laser is capable of generating pulses with a repetition rate and pulse-width of 31.0 kHz and 7.0 µs, respectively, as well as an average output power and pulse energy of 0.086 mW and 2.8 nJ, respectively. The proposed fiber laser has substantial potential for use in applications that require longer duration pulsed outputs such as in range finding and terahertz radiation generation.

Micro-bending based optical band-pass filter and its application in S-band Thulium-doped fiber amplifier.

A new approach for filtering an optical band-pass in optical amplifier is proposed using a macro bending. The proposed filter leverages the bending loss of higher order modes at shorter wavelengths. At longer wavelengths, the filter increases fiber's bending loss as the fundamental mode 'tail' is leak out from the cladding. The combination of wavelength dependent loss at longer and shorter wavelength gives rise to the optical band-pass filter characteristic inside the fiber. The simulated spectral response of the filter is found to be in good agreement with the experimental results. Subsequently, the proposed optical band-pass filter is applied in Thulium-doped fiber amplifiers (TDFA) system for gain and noise figure enhancements. The filter functions to suppress both the amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) at 800 nm and 1800 nm wavelength regions and thus improves both gain and noise figure performances in S-band region. By bending of the gain medium, gain and noise figure of the TDFA are improved by about 2 dB and 0.5 dB respectively, within a wavelength region from 1440 and 1500 nm when the 1050 nm pump power is fixed at 250 mW.