Stable single-mode compound-ring erbium-doped fiber laser

In this paper we report the fabrication of a robust, tunable single-longitudinal-mode compound-ring Er/sup 3+/-doped fiber laser. The laser is fundamentally structured on an all-fiber compound-ring resonator in which a dual-coupler fiber ring is inserted into the main cavity. When combined in tandem with a mode-restricting intracavity tunable bandpass filter, the compound-ring resonator ensures single-longitudinal-mode laser oscillation. The laser can provide up to 20 mW output power over much of its 1525 to 1570 nm wavelength tuning range. The short-term linewidth of the laser output measured is less than 5 kHz. The laser frequency is actively stabilized for a long time by exploiting the inherent filter nature of the compound-ring resonator. The reduction of an associated frequency modulation is also discussed in detail.