Widely Wavelength-tunable Mode-locked Fiber Laser Based on a 45° Tilted Fiber Grating and Polarization Maintaining Fiber

Abstract

We present a passively mode-locked Erbium-doped fiber laser with tunable parameters including central wavelength, 3-dB bandwidth, and pulse duration. The mode-locking mechanism of the laser is realized by using single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) polyvinyl alcohol composite film as a saturable absorber. The tunable operation is implemented via a fiber birefringence filter consisting of a polarization maintaining (PM) fiber and a Brewster fiber grating. The laser achieves a maximum spectral tuning range of 36 nm with 8-cm PM fiber. The maximum spectral width variation of 5.19 nm is acquired when the PM fiber is 12 cm. Simultaneously, the spectral widths of pulses at different central wavelengths are also adjustable. Furthermore, the total cavity length is 8.28 m, which is the shortest cavity length to obtain such wide tuning range in an Erbium-doped fiber laser based on SWCNTs