Abstract

Laser sources with flexibility in operating wavelength have applications in a number of areas including: remote sensing and monitoring, spectroscopy and metrology. For many of these applications the requirements for wavelength flexibility and good beam quality are very often accompanied by the need for a relatively narrow bandwidth and, in some cases, also by the need for rapid wavelength scanning. Rare earth doped fiber lasers offer versatility in operating wavelength due to the broad linewidths associated with glass hosts, but simultaneously achieving wavelength agility and a narrow lasing bandwidth is rather challenging.

© 2017 IEEE