Abstract

Erbium-doped fiber lasers, with light emission around 1.55 µm, have attracted increasing interest in recent years.’ However, the output from these lasers is often affected by amplitude and frequency fluctuations. The fluctuations are mainly caused by random fluctuations of the polarization state in the laser. Wavelength fluctuations of the output signal may be stabilized by different combinations of broadband and narrow band filters.^2,3 Fluctuations in the polarization state can be overcome by using all polarization maintaining (PM) fiber configurations.⁴

© 1994 IEEE