Whispering-gallery-mode-resonator-stabilized narrow-linewidth fiber loop laser

Area of Science:

• Photonics and Laser Technology
• Optical Engineering
• Materials Science

Background:

• Fiber lasers offer advantages in beam quality and robustness.
• Narrow-linewidth lasers are crucial for applications like spectroscopy and sensing.
• Microspheres can act as high-finesse optical resonators for frequency selection.

Purpose of the Study:

• To demonstrate a narrow-linewidth fiber loop laser.
• To utilize a microsphere as a frequency selective element for laser stabilization.
• To investigate the laser's performance characteristics with varying pump power.

Main Methods:

• Constructed a fiber loop laser incorporating erbium-doped fiber as the gain medium.
• Employed a microsphere as a transmissive frequency selective element to stabilize the laser.
• Measured the laser's linewidth and output power as a function of pump power.

Main Results:

• Achieved stable lasing with a linewidth of 170 kHz, limited by experimental resolution.
• Observed a linear increase in output power with increasing pump power.
• Noted a redshift in the lasing mode frequency as pump power increased.

Conclusions:

• The microsphere-stabilized fiber loop laser demonstrates narrow-linewidth operation.
• The laser exhibits predictable power scaling and frequency tuning with pump power.
• This laser design holds potential for applications requiring stable, narrow-linewidth light sources.