Short multiwavelength fiber laser made of a large-band distributed Fabry-Pe/spl acute/rot structure

Multiwavelength fiber lasers are obtained by writing two superimposed chirped fiber Bragg gratings in a photosensitive Er/sup 3+/--Yb/sup 3+/ codoped optical fiber. The chirped gratings create a distributed Fabry-Pe/spl acute/rot structure in which the resonating fields of the different laser lines are spatially separated, thus, reducing cross-gain modulation. We demonstrate multiwavelength lasers emitting simultaneously over 8 and 16 lines spaced by 50 GHz. The active structure is very compact having a total active length of 8 cm. We discuss how the properties of the device are governed by the parameters of the chirped gratings giving high flexibility in the laser design.