Tunable Laser Applications, 3rd Edition

Chapter 6

Tunable Fiber Lasers

T. M. Shay and F. J. Duarte

6.1 Introduction

Fiber lasers have become ubiquitous with the emergence of the telecommunications industry. Fiber lasers have been demonstrated spanning wavelengths from just below 400 nm to nearly 3 μm. Among fiber lasers, the most widely used rare earth–doped silica fibers are doped with Er+3, Nd+3, Yb+3, and Tm+3. These systems have the advantage of having pump bands that are compatible with highly efficient diode lasers as well as having quantum efficiencies that range from 0.63 to 0.95 depending on the rare earth ion being excited and the pump and emission wavelengths. All-fiber-based systems provide a tunable performance with minimal sensitivity to environmental disturbances as ...