Single frequency linearly polarized DFB fiber laser source

S. A. Babin, D. V. Churkin, S. I. Kablukov and M. A. Nikulin*

Institute of Automation and Electrometry SB RAS, 1 acad. Koptug ave., Novosibirsk, 630090 Russia
ABSTRACT
A distributed feedback fiber laser formed in non-polarization maintained ytterbium doped fiber has been studied, its parameters have been measured in dependence on pump power and pump wavelength. Laser performance has been compared for
two regimes of fiber heat sinking. Under conditions of sucient acoustical insulation no polarization mode competition
have been observed thus single polarization can be achieved with external polarizer.
Keywords: Single frequency, distributed feedback, ytterbium, fiber lasers, metrology

1. INTRODUCTION
Ultra-high resolution interferometry and metrology applications require stable narrow-line single frequency laser sources.
In the near-IR spectral region lasers based on optical fibers with rare-earth dopants can be successfully used in addition to
conventional types of lasers. Operating wavelength of fiber lasers (FLs) can be flexibly chosen within rather wide dopants
emission spectra. Fiber lasers are compact robust devices because of usage of fiber Bragg gratings (FBGs) as reflectors and
fiber coupled laser diodes as pump sources allows convenient all-fiber design. Operation at single transverse mode due to
properties of optical fiber provides excellent beam quality.
There is a number of approaches to obtain single frequency (SF) or single longitudinal mode operation with 10 kHz
line width. Ability of fiber lasers to operate in single frequency regime was firstly demonstrated in 1988 for two types of
cavities: Fox-Smith resonator1 and short Fabry-Perot resonator.2 SF ring35 and loop-type6 fiber lasers have been realized
later. Another method is using of a semiconductor laser diode for injection locking of a fiber laser.7 Evolution of linear
Fabry-Perot cavity diverges into several ways. To improve longitudinal mode selectivity cavity length can be shortened
to 1 cm or even less,8 but it remarkably reduces pump absorption eciency. Another way is to use a narrow bandpass
filter. Approaches of single longitudinal mode selection in relatively long cavities are quite the same for linear, ring and
loop types of laser. They are either usage of conventional bulk optics elements, e.g. diractional gratings,9 or saturable
absorber10, 11 preserving all-fiber design. The latter technique provides rather good suppression of mode hopping which
is dicult to avoid in the former one. Usually fiber lasers operate with two orthogonal polarization therefore special
techniques such as self-injection locking12 to obtain linear polarization should be applied. Spectral line width of the SF
FLs are spread in the range form MHz-order for cavities with filters based on diractional gratings1, 9 to 20 kHz for short
cavity Fabry-Perot lasers13 and 1.4 kHz for ring4 lasers.
The principles of distributed feedback fiber lasers14 have been derived from semiconductor15 and dye16 lasers where
generation in cavity formed by a periodical structure has been firstly demonstrated. Although in some experiments with
short-cavity Fabry-Perot fiber lasers Bragg grating were written in the active fiber to minimize intracavity losses the amplification region was separated from reflectors. For DFB lasers it can be said that two Bragg gratings are written very close to
each other in fiber with rare-earth dopants or one long FBG divided in two parts having relative phase shift. In the terms
of free spectral range the cavity length is 1 mm or less and it is limited by technology of grating writing. Specific to fiber
DFB-lasers higher modes have higher gain threshold so do not aect the lasers performance. Amplification region in DFB
lasers is determined by Bragg grating length which is usually 510 cm. Due to this fact fiber DFB lasers have significantly
narrower linewidth in comparison with semiconductor DFB lasers which have much shorter active region. 13 kHz line
width has been demonstrated already in the first experiments.17
Generation wavelength of a DFB FL is determined by the FBG period and can be flexibly chosen within dopant
emission spectrum. Erbium,17 erbium with ytterbium admixture14 operating around 1.55 m and ytterbium18 DFB FLs
have been demonstrated with generation wavelength of about 1.05 m.
*E-mail: nikulin@iae.nsk.su; phone +7(383) 330-68-32; fax +7(383) 339-94-66

ICONO 2007: Nonlinear Laser Spectroscopy and High-Precision Measurements; and Fundamentals of Laser Chemistry and
Biophotonics, edited by Sergey Tikhomirov, Thomas Udem, Valery Yudin, Maxim Pshenichnikov, Oleg Sarkisov,
Proc. of SPIE Vol. 6727, 672716, (2007) 0277-786X/07/$18 doi: 10.1117/12.752334
Proc. of SPIE Vol. 6727 672716-1

Port 1

Isolator

DFB 1093nm
A

WDM 1093/976 nm

Yb 3+doped fiber

Isolator

Port 2

TFBG 966976 nm
SM LD
976nm
Fig. 1. DFB fiber laser

Optical fiber has axial symmetry therefore fiber lasers including DFB-type lasers operate with two orthogonal polarizations17 exhibiting mode competition. Several techniques have been developed to achieve single polarization (SP) generation. One of them is exploiting birefringence induced by UV-light during Bragg grating formation, either polarizationdependent grating phase shift19, 20 or grating strength for orthogonal polarizations.21 Single polarization generation has
been observed for grating written not in the fiber core but in the special UV-sensibilized cladding ring.22 Twisting of fiber
containing the DFB-grating leads to diminishing of second polarization as well.23 Single polarization generation in a DFB
laser also has been obtained by using injection locking and self-injection locking approaches.24 Another way is to build SP
lasers on the base of special polarization maintaining (PM) fiber.25 Wei Fan et al. believe that the reliable way to get linear
polarization of DFB FL is applying pressure on the phase shift region.26
Another important point for laser applications is output power. Ordinary DFB-lasers have power in the milliwatt to
tens milliwatt range although 400 mW DFB fiber laser has been demonstrated,27 it is based on special jacketed air clad
fiber. If an application requires higher power than can be obtained from a fiber laser directly, usually fiber optical amplifier
is used as power booster. No spectrum degradation has been observed for more than 250 W single frequency output power
in Ref. 28.
In this paper an ytterbium DFB fiber laser developed for pumping of parametrical generator of optical frequency
standard is described. It is operating at the wavelength of 1093 nm with 5 mW output power. The next section contains
overview of the setup. Study of laser parameters in Sec. 3 are presented in comparison with our previous work Ref. 29.
Namely comparison of two regimes with dierent conditions of heat sinking and environmental insulation is presented.
Polarization states are discussed in the Sec. 4. The conclusion summarizes our results.

2. DISTRIBUTED FEEDBACK FIBER LASER

To obtain laser generation at the wavelength of 1093 nm, it is optimal to use single mode fiber doped with Yb3+ ions which
has wide emission spectrum from 970 to 1150 nm. With frequency doubled argon ion laser using phase mask technique a
4-cm long FBG has been written in the core of 12-cm long piece of active fiber. The FBG is divided into two parts with
relative phase shift equal to , that was formed by precise phase mask shift to obtain single frequency generation of the
DFB-structure. The grating phase shift located close to the grating center so generation is possible in both directions with
comparable power. The FBG is placed close to one end of the active fiber piece so other part of the fiber acts as a fiber
amplifier under pump conditions.
The experimental setup of the DFB fiber laser is presented in Fig. 1. The laser is pumped by a single-mode (SM)
semiconductor laser diode (LD) through a fiber wavelength division multiplexer (WDM) which protects the LD from
1093 nm laser radiation by directing it to another port. The LD maximal output power is about of 150 mW but the setup
has approximately 20 % losses for the pump wave. The DFB laser is sensitive to reflected radiation so outputs of the laser
protected by pigtailed Faraday isolators.
High ytterbium concentration in the core of active fiber leads to strong pump absorption of 550 dB/m at 976 nm that
corresponds to the LD peak wavelength. Due to this fact pump absorption length is less than the DFB grating length and
laser generation is impossible. A FBG written in passive optical fiber can serve as a filter with narrow (approximately
0.3 nm) reflection spectrum tunable by mechanical compression. Appending a tunable FBG with reflectivity of about
10 % to the LD allows detuning the LD generation wavelength up 10 nm from its original value. Variation of Yb3+
ions absorption cross-section is almost an order of magnitude other wavelength region 966976 nm, thus uniform pump
absorption along the DFB grating and pump absorption eciency can be eectively balanced by using combination of the

Proc. of SPIE Vol. 6727 672716-2

(a) Port 1

(b) Port 2

Fig. 2. DFB FL generation power vs. pump power.
experiment 1, pump wavelength 967 nm. experiment 2, pump
wavelength 973 nm; BA orientation of the active fiber

(a) Port 1

(b) Port 2

Fig. 3. DFB FL generation power vs. pump power.
experiment 1, pump wavelength 967.5 nm. experiment 2, pump
wavelength 970.5 nm; AB orientation of the active fiber

LD and the tunable FBG. Moreover spectrum of a grating stabilized LD is narrower in comparison with unstabilized one,
which is preferable for stable generation of the DFB FL.

3. OPTIMAL PUMP PARAMETERS

To obtain DFB FL maximal generation power careful study has been performed. Output power at both ports has been
measured in dependence of pump power and pump wavelength. The produced DFB grating is almost symmetrical and has
no keyed direction other than additional piece of active fiber to one side of the DFB grating, so all measurements have been
repeated for the opposite orientation of the active fiber with the DFB grating.
Let us denote left port in Fig. 1 as Port 1 and Port 2 the output close to the WDM. Letters A and B can be assigned
to the ends of active fiber with the DFB grating and another one accordingly. So active fiber orientation shown in Fig. 1
will be referenced as AB.
In the early experiments which is denoted as Experiment 1 below the fiber containing the DFB grating was fixed at
two points only. The results were published in Ref. 29. The DFB laser is very sensitive to all kinds of environmental disturbances: vibration, acoustical noises and air flows resulting in variation of DFB laser generation frequency. Acoustical and
vibrational insulation of the fiber changed thermal conditions of the laser and improved heat sinking as well. Measurements
of output laser power in dependence of pump power and pump wavelength have been repeated and the results is referenced
as Experiment 2.

Proc. of SPIE Vol. 6727 672716-3

Fig. 4. DFB FL generation wavelength in dependence of pump power.
experiment 1,

experiment 2

Fig. 5. DFB grating transmission spectra without

pump (solid) and at pump power 100 mW
(dashed)

DFB output power at the both ports in dependence of pump power and pump wavelength is shown in Fig. 2 and Fig. 3
for BA and AB orientation of active fiber respectively. The laser exhibits rather low generation threshold of a few mW. It
is necessary to make some remarks before explanation of DFB power behavior. Pump wave absorption leads to heating of
the active fiber and expansion of the Bragg grating. As it can be seen in Fig. 4 generation wavelength increases with pump
power due to increase of the DFB grating period. Obviously heat sinking improvement in the second experiment results in
smaller range of wavelength variation.
Pump induced fiber heating is not uniform along the grating length so grating period distortion (chirp) appears at
high pump powers. The DFB grating transmission spectra at pump power values of 0 and 100 mW which lie outside of
lasing interval (cf. Fig. 2(a)) are presented in Fig. 5. Central wavelength shift is accompanied by dramatic growth of the
spectral width. The grating transmission spectra have been measured with an optical spectrum analyzer (OSA). The OSA
resolution of about 0.02 nm does not allow to see narrow transmission peak close to the center corresponding to generation
wavelength for zero pump power.
DFB output power grows with pump power but in Fig. 2 (a) and (b) maxima of DFB FL power are present. Grating
distortion changes the grating reflectivity and at some pump power became the leading eect in comparison to pump power
increase. In the case of the AB active fiber orientation an additional piece of active fiber is placed in between of the LD
and the DFB grating. It absorbs some pump and available pump power is not enough to reach the region where the laser
power decreases. Similar output power drop with increase of pump power has been observed in Ref. 22.
Additional piece of active fiber acts as an optical amplifier so DFB FL power is greater at the port 1 for BA fiber
orientation (Fig. 2 (a) and (b)) and vice versa in Fig. 3 (a), (b) when that piece of fiber is closer to the port 2. Maximum
output power in Fig. 2 (a) and (b) corresponds to approximately 80 and 100 mW respectively. The dierence can be
explained by DFB laser asymmetry due to grating distortion induced by fiber heating.
Approaching of pump wavelength to the ytterbium absorption peak at 976 nm leads to increase of pump absorption
eciency so the DFB FL power increases as it can be seen in Fig. 6, 7. Pump absorption and temperature profiles along
the DFB grating are changed with increase of pump wavelength as well. It leads to enhancing of the grating distortion
and to the drop of output power at certain power. Described behavior is rather sensitive to thermal conditions of the fiber
and in the case of insucient heat sinking (Fig. 6, squares) no peaks were observed although they are prominent in the
experiment 2.
Summarizing results of the performed study of DFB FL power characteristics it can be noted that 5 mW output power
achievable at pump power of 120 mW at 970 nm. It is possible to achieve higher output power by improving heat sinking.

4. POLARIZATION MODES OF THE LASER

Usually DFB fiber lasers operate with two orthogonal polarization modes unless special approaches applied. The main goal
of eorts directed to study of polarized DFB lasers is suppression of polarization modes competition and thus obtaining

Proc. of SPIE Vol. 6727 672716-4

(a) Port 1

(b) Port 2

Fig. 6. DFB FL generation power vs. pump wavelength.
experiment 1, pump power 55 mW. experiment 2, pump
power 100 mW; BA orientation of the active fiber

(a) Port 1

(b) Port 2

Fig. 7. DFB FL generation power vs. pump wavelength. Experiment 2, pump power 100 mW. AB orientation of the active
fiber

Fig. 8. Polarization mode competitions. Scanning

Fabry-Perot interferometer with flat wideband mirrors

Fig. 9. DFB spectrum after acoustical insulation. Confocal Fabry-Perot interferometer

with dielectric mirrors

Proc. of SPIE Vol. 6727 672716-5

stable amplitude of the output power. Our DFB laser is written in non polarization maintained fiber so it generates two
linearly polarized modes with frequency shift of about 230 MHz that dier in amplitude by about two times (Fig. 8 and 9).
In the first experiments the fiber containing the DFB grating was fixed at two points and has not protected enough
against airflows. The spectra obtained with a scanning Fabry-Perot interferometer are shown in Fig. 8. Although lowfinesse cavity with wide-band flat mirrors was used some distortion of the line shape can be noticed. It caused by aection
of coolers in the equipment around the laser and others environmental instabilities. Severe polarization mode concurrence
has been observed close to the optimal pump power, but interesting phenomenon has been observed at higher pump powers.
With increasing of pump power the weaker mode started to diminish relatively to the main one. In the pump power region
from 75 to 90 mW the only polarization of stable amplitude mode was present in generation spectrum obtained with the
interferometer. Unfortunately in this regime the laser exhibited pulses with period dependent on pump power. Typical value
of pulses frequency was 200 kHz. It has been attributed to grating distortion due to non-uniform fiber heating discussed
in the previous section. This subtle regime has disappeared in the second series of experiments when the laser was better
insulated against vibrations, protected against airflows and better heat sinking was provided.
With improving of acoustical and other types of insulation amplitudes of polarization modes has been stabilized. An
example of DFB FL spectrum obtained in the second series of experiments is presented in Fig. 9. Another instrument with
high finesse confocal cavity was used. A small peaks in the spectrum are transverse modes of the interferometer. The
linewidth of 1.4 MHz is limited by the interferometer resolution.
Using a polarizer it has been proved that peaks in the DFB FL spectrum (Fig. 8, 9) correspond to orthogonal linear
polarizations. The 230 MHz frequency dierence can be explained by small birefringence of order n/n = 106 caused by
non-exact axial symmetry of the fiber, slightly bended fiber or it can be induced by polarized UV light during formation of
the grating.
The fact that the DFB FL under study does not exhibit polarization modes competition under conditions of sucient
vibrational, acoustical and thermal insulation allows using the laser as linearly polarized single frequency source by appending a polarization controller and a polarizer.

5. CONCLUSION
An ytterbium distributed feedback fiber laser has been developed to be incorporated into an optical frequency standard.
Varying pump wavelength and pump power optimal operating parameters has been found, 5 mW generation power at
1093 nm has been obtained for 110 mW pump power. Two experiments with dierent thermal conditions of the laser have
been performed, significant increase of output power has been observed with appropriate heat sinking. Studies oriented
to polarization modes of the DFB laser have shown that the laser operates at two orthogonal linearly polarized modes
with 230 MHz frequency shift and polarization mode competition is suppressed under conditions of sucient acoustical
insulation. As a result although the laser was built on the base on non-PM components it is possible to obtain linear
polarization appending a polarizer to the output.
Optical fiber amplifiers allow to get output power required in applications without degradation of spectral characteristics. Preliminary experiment have shown that with ytterbium fiber amplifier single frequency power can be boosted from
5 mW to more than 1 W.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This work is supported by integrational grants #31 and #3.11 of Siberian Branch of Russian Academy of Science. Authors
thank A. Dychkov and A. Lugovoy from the Institute of Laser Physics for valuable help in the part of our work connected
with vibrational and acoustical insulation of the laser.

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