Barnsleyet al. Vol. 5, No. 8/August 1988/J. Opt. Soc. Am.

A 1339

Fiber Fox-Smith resonators: application to

single-longitudinal-mode operation of fiber lasers

Peter Barnsley*
Department of Physics, University of St. Andrews, North Haugh, St. Andrews, Fife KY16 9SS Scotland, UK

Paul Urquhart, Colin Millar, and Michael Brierley

British Telecom Research Laboratories, Martlesham Heath, Ipswich, IP5 7RE England, UK

Received October 27, 1987; accepted March 18, 1988

An optical-fiber Fox-Smith resonator was demonstrated for the first time to our knowledge. It was applied to
obtain single-longitudinal-mode operation from an erbium-doped fiber laser. Both the passive performance and
the active performance of the device are studied in detail. Good agreement is found between theoretical and
experimental results.

1. INTRODUCTION our knowledge, the application of a Fox-Smith structure to

Single-transverse-mode optical-fiber-based resonators have
been demonstrated in various forms. These include fiber
Fabry-Perot resonators,' fiber rings,2 series arrangements of
loop reflectors,3 and transversely coupled fiber Fabry-Perot
resonators (of which there are two types).4 5 The waveguid-
ing action of the fiber gives high transverse power confine-
ment, while either mirrors on fiber ends or an appropriate
choice of geometry based on fiber directional couplers 6' 7
provides the necessary feedback for a standing wave. Each
of the resonators described in Refs. 1-5 consists of a single
optical cavity, as defined by the optical layout. Their out-
put intensity responses are periodic with wavelength and are
described by the Airy function. 8
In this paper we describe an experimental demonstration
of one example of a class of devices that use optical fiber and
directional-coupling technology to link together more than
one optical cavity. Such compound optical resonators, con-
sisting of coupled cavities, have intensity responses that
differ significantly from that predicted by the Airy func-
tion.9 More than one period is apparent from the output.
Some of the resonator modes are of high intensity, and some
are virtually absent. The important feature of compound
resonators is that they can be designed to suppress all but a
few spectral modes. Modal suppression is important
laser line narrowing but could also find applications in filter-
ing and spectral analysis.
The structure considered here is an optical-fiber version
of the Fox-Smith resonators and is shown in Fig. 1. The
light is confined to the core of a single-mode fiber and is
reflected by mirrors on the fiber ends. The beam splitter,
which is used in the equivalent bulk device, is replaced by a
fiber directional coupler. We demonstrate, for the first time
to our knowledge,a Fox-Smith resonator, constructed from
standard single-mode optical fiber, that showsa suppression
of spectral orders. Bulk Fox-Smith resonators were used
previously for longitudinal-mode selection in a variety of
4
laser types.11-1 We demonstrate, also for the first time to
obtain single-longitudinal-mode output from an erbium-
doped fiber laser.
In Section 2 the fiber Fox-Smith structure is discussed,
and the appropriate wavelength response functions are giv-
en. The passive response of the fiber Fox-Smith resonator,
in which no lasing takes place, was demonstrated experi-
mentally and is described in Sections 3 and 4. In Section 3
we discuss the situation in which light is both launched into
and monitored from arms with mirrors, and in Section 4 we
discuss the situation in which the launch is through the
mirrored arm and the output is monitored from one of the
unmirrored arms. In Sections 3 and 4 we provide direct
confirmation of the passive response of a fiber Fox-Smith
resonator, which was predicted in Ref. 9. We describe in
Section 5 the principles of single-mode operation from a
fiber Fox-Smith laser. Experimental details of a single-
longitudinal-mode erbium-doped fiber laser are given in
Section 6.
2. STRUCTURE AND THEORY OF THE
PASSIVE FIBER FOX-SMITH RESONATOR
The fiber Fox-Smith resonator, as shown in Fig. 1, is an
for example of a directional-coupler resonator.1 5 Three of the
output arms from a 2 X 2 fiber directional coupler are mir-
rored, and the fourth arm is unmirrored. The coupler may
be of any type, for example, fused 6 or polished, 7 although in
the experiments described in this paper fused couplers were
always used. The fiber ends may be mirrored by evapora-
tion or by butting against dielectric mirrors. The latter
method was always used in the experiments described here.
Light may be launched through and monitored from any of
the fiber ends, whether mirrored or unmirrored.
Two types of directional coupler fiber resonator, known as
the type I and type II transversely coupled fiber Fabry-
Perot (TCFFP) resonators, were described previously.4
These are devices in which either arms 1 and 4 or arms 1 and

0740-3232/88/081339-08$02.00 © 1988 Optical Society of America

1340 J. Opt. Soc. Am. A/Vol. 5, No. 8/August 1988 Barnsleyet al.

The effective reflectivity terms in Eq. (3) are expressed as

Port 2
Ri = ri(l - K) 112 (1 - y)1/2 exp(-2al,), (I

Rj- = rLK1 2 (1 - -y)1 /2 exp(-2a1), Il

where ri is the amplitude reflectivity of mirror i. The fiber

I propagation constant is A3,and it is assumed that the entire
K, device is composed of one type of fiber. The effective cavity
I lengths of the two individual cavities are
11 13
C1l= 'i + 14, (6)

17: II £2 = i + 13- (7)

Port 1 Port
ri ; t r 3 ; t3
1
II
L4
/7 7 Port 4 then hold:
r4 ; t4
Fig. 1. Fiber Fox-Smith resonator. The coupler used is a fused
coupler, and the mirrors are butted directly against the fiber ends.
3, as shown in Fig. 1, are mirrored. In both cases there is
only a single resonant cavity. The fiber Fox-Smith resona-
tor can be regarded as being a combination of both type I and
type II TCFFP cavities, in which arm 1 is common. The
intensity output response function for a fiber Fox-Smith
resonator can be derived from considerations
components propagating toward and away from the direc-
tional coupler. There are eight functional forms possible,
determined by which arms the light is launched into and
subsequently monitored from. The classes into which these
eight outputs are divided were discussed in Ref. 9. For
reciprocity to hold, launching from arm i and monitoring
from arm j must be the same as launching from arm j and
monitoring from arm i. Only two configurations
output arms are discussed in this paper: first, that in which
the input is from arm 1 and the output is from arm 4, and
second, that in which the input is from arm 1 and the output
is from arm 2.
The functional form of the first configuration is described
by
jout/jin = T 1 T 4 /D,
in which the effective transmission is given by
2
= t 2(1 - gI()2(1 _ ~)1/ exp(-ali), i = 1, 4,
where a is the fiber amplitude field loss; ti is the amplitude
transmissivity of mirror i; 1iis the length of arm i; and K and
-y are the intensity coupling ratio and the coupling loss,
respectively.
The denominator D is given by
D = (1 - RjR4 + R1 'R3 ')2 + 4RR 4 sin2(_L31 )
- 4R1 'R 3 ' sin 2 (W3L 2
2 ) + 4RjR 4 R1 'R 3' sin [3(_l
3 Equation (1) is composed of a frequency-independent nu-
merator and a frequency-dependent denominator. The de-
nominator, Eq. (3), consists of phase terms O131,/312, and
OV1 - £2), which are dictated by the two individual cavity
lengths. The frequency response of the fiber Fox-Smith
resonator is determined by these terms. There is a high
output at frequencies that simultaneously satisfy the reso-
nance conditions of both cavities. The followingequations
P-L, mar, m = 1, 2,. .. ' (8)
1/2)ir,
£L2=(n n1,2,..., (9)
On the other hand, the output is reduced significantly when
only one resonance condition is satisfied.4' 5 Modal suppres-
sion may be achieved by either of two methods: in the first
method the two cavity lengths are dissimilar, with one cavity
length being an integer multiple of the other; in the second
method the two cavity lengths are nearly but not exactly
of the field equal, and their lengths are the ratio of two integers that are
not multiples of each other. The second method is an exam-
ple of the Vernier effect. It is the basis for all the experi-
ments described in this paper.
The experimental details of the second configuration of
arms for launching and monitoring light is described in Sec-
tion 4. Here the input is through arm 1, which is mirrored,
and the output is from arm 2, which is unmirrored. The
of input- intensity response function is given by
pul/jin= (Tl)2 t(R3' + R4')2 - 4R31R4' sin2[0(£1 -L2)]}M
The denominator D, as given by Eq. (3), is common to both
configurations of input and output ports. It can be seen
(1) that the numerator in Eq. (10) is frequency dependent and
so gives rise to a different functional form.
(2)
3. EXPERIMENTAL PASSIVE RESPONSE:
INPUT AND OUTPUT THROUGH MIRRORED
ARMS
The experimental equipment used to test the first launch
configuration of the fiber Fox-Smith resonator is illustrated
in Fig. 2. In contrast to the recently reported experimental
results on TCFFP resonators,5 it was found to be convenient
to keep the cavity lengths fixed and to scan the input wave-
- £2)].
length. The source was a tunable narrow-linewidth exter-
nal-cavity semiconductor diode laser,16 which lased at 1.541
Barnsley et al. Vol. 5, No. 8/August 1988/J. Opt. Soc. Am. A 1341

Port 2 The mirror in the common arm had a transmission t12 =

0.054 + 0.001 and a reflection r1 2 = 0.918 + 0.015. The

4 Isolator Port 1
mirrors in the arms that were not common had transmis-
sions t 3 2 = t4 2 = 0.000384 0.00001and reflections r32 = r42=
0.964 + 0.026.
The purpose of the first experiment was to determine the
relative effective lengths of the constituent cavities. The
| > ~~~~~~~Coupler most accurate way was to set up consecutively a type I and a
type II TCFFP resonator and to measure their relative free
Semiconductor spectral ranges. Figures 3(a) and 3(b) show the two Airy-
Diode Laser
function responses, and the scan time for 10 free spectral
Port 4 ranges is marked on each. The ratio of the effective lengths
can be found from the ratio of the values marked At, which
are directly proportional to the frequency scan rate and are
therefore equivalent to phase. When the ratios of the values
At were taken from a number of plots such as those in Fig. 3,
the arithmetic mean was found to be £1/L2 = 0.95 + 0.01.
As can be seen from Fig. 3, there is a slight modulation in
Oscilloscope Low-Gain Photodiode the magnitudes of intensity peaks. The modulation can be
Amplitier accounted for by the Fresnel reflection from the unmirrored
Fig. 2. Experimental arrangement for the characterization of the fiber ends. In effect a low-quality compound resonance
passive fiber Fox-Smith resonator. The laser source is a 1.541-gm pattern is observed. The finesses of the response functions
external-cavity semiconductor diode laser. The variation of output shown in Fig. 3 are low, as the coupling coefficient is close to
with wavelength was displayed on a Le Croy 9400 oscilloscope.

At = 89.6 msec -4-- .0.004

0.048

0.003
.a
. _
C
0.002
N

CZ
0.001
0.000
0 5r 1Ow 15w 20r
(a) 0.000
0 5wr 1or 157;r
-10- NAt= 98.4 msec -4-
phase
0.043
(a)
0.004

C
0.000 0.002
0 5r 107r 157r
(b) CU

Fig. 3. Variation of output intensity with wavelength for (a) type I 0.001
and (b) type II TCFFP resonators. The specifications for the mir-
rors, the fiber, and the coupler are given in Section 3. Also, At is
defined in Section 3.
0.000
0 57r 107r 1 57r
gim. The grating tuning of the laser gave a 750-MHz scan- phase
ning range and a 20-kHz lasing linewidth. The output was (b)
displayed on a Le Croy 9400 digital storage oscilloscope. In
Fig. 4. Variation of output intensity with wavelength for a fiber
order to obtain an acceptable stability of the response it was Fox-Smith resonator: (a) theoretical results and (b) experimental
necessary to insulate thermally the fiber of the cavity arms. results. The input was through arm 1,and the output was from arm
The fused coupler had a coupling coefficient K = 0.5288 + 4, both of which are as labeled in Fig. 1. The coupler and the
0.001 and a loss -y = 0.0004. The fiber loss was 2a = 0.0001. mirrors are as described for Fig. 3.
1342 J. Opt. Soc. Am. A/Vol. 5, No. 8/August 1988 Barnsleyet al.

MA
e',0.00 .?Z~
C:
c, C
C: 0.950w C .C
la) 0-
0.02 - J I
.N c,
I.
E
0C: 107r 1 1 7r 12w
0C
(a) (b)

c 0.0037
C:
c,
._
+ At = 180 g sec

.N
-L 11
) _~~I-
C:
(d) I1 * -w

phase phase
(c) (d)
Fig. 5. Greater detail of the output response illustrated in Fig. 4: (a) theoretical and (c) experimental plots of one of the maximum peaks with
the two peaks on either side; (b) theoretical and (d) experimental plots of only the maximum peak.

50%, which is a value that is not optimal for either the type I
or the type II cavity. 5
All three mirrors were then positioned to give the Fox-
Smith structure, as shown in Fig. 2. The top curve in Fig. 4
is the theoretical response for the output, as given by Eq. (1),
with the appropriate values of the various constants. The
experimentally determined response is shown in the lower
curve of Fig. 4. There is good agreement between the ex-
perimental and the theoretical results. It can be seen that
there is substantial suppression of spectral orders.
An important feature arising from Figs. 3 and 4 is that,
when the coupling ratio K is about 0.5, the finesse is about 4
in the type I and type II TCFFP cavities. However, when
the two cavities are combined to form a Fox-Smith resona-
tor, there is a dramatic sharpening of the transmission
peaks. This observation is entirely consistent with the theo-
retical prediction of Eq. (1). Greater detail is given in Fig. 5
in order to investigate the linewidth of the Fox-Smith trans-
mission peaks. Figures 5(a) and 5(b) are theoretical plots of
the details of the three most prominent peaks and the cen-
tral prominent peaks, respectively. Figures 5(c) and 5(d)
are the equivalent experimental plots. The most prominent
peaks occur where both constituent cavities are simulta-
neously resonant [that is, when Eqs. (8) and (9) are both
satisfied]. Even with such high magnification, the correla-
tion between theoretical and experimental results is good.
We define the cavity finesse to be the ratio of the separa-
tion of the most prominent peak from its nearest neighbors
to the full width at half-maximum of the most prominent
peak. The values of the theoretical phase changes and the
corresponding oscilloscope scan times are marked on the
curves in Fig. 5. The cavity finesses, measured from the
theoretical and experimental plots, are 59 and 54, respec-
tively. The experimental value was lower, owing to the
limited bandwidth of the detecting system. A system fi-
nesse can also be defined as the ratio of the separation
between two of the prominent peaks to their full width at
half-maximum. The theoretical and experimental plots
give system finesses of 680 and 603, respectively. The
linewidth of the central maximum peak, as given by Fig.
5(d), is approximately 750 kHz.
In this section it is shown that there is good agreement
between theoretical and experimental results for the passive
response when light is launched into arm 1 and detected
from arm 4.
4. EXPERIMENTAL PASSIVE RESPONSE:
INPUT THROUGH MIRRORED ARM AND
OUTPUT FROM UNMIRRORED ARM
An alternative configuration to that described in Section 3 is
one in which light is launched into port 1 and is monitored at
port 2. The experimental arrangement used was an obvious
modification of that illustrated in Fig. 2. The values for the
various constants were the same as those reported in Section
3. The theoretical and experimental wavelength variations
are shown in Figs. 6(a) and 6(b). Figure 6(a) was plotted
from Eq. (10). The agreement is obviously rather good.
The slight discrepancies in the peak heights can be account-
ed for by thermal drift, and the slight discrepancies in the
wavelengths of the peaks are attributed to a small nonlinear
component in the wavelength scan.
The situation shown in Fig. 6 differs from that shown in
Fig. 4. Even modes that do not simultaneously satisfy both
of the resonance conditions [Eqs. (8) and (9)] can demon-
strate high output. The applications for a configuration of
the Fox-Smith resonator that gives the response function
shown in Fig. 6 are less obvious. However, Fig. 6 represents
additional evidence to support the theoretical formalism of
Ref. 9.
Barnsley et al. Vol. 5, No. 8/August 1988/J. Opt. Soc. Am. A 1343

5. ACTIVE RESPONSE: PRINCIPLES OF

MODE SELECTION
It was shown in Section 3 that the undoped fiber Fox-Smith gain profile
resonator can be designed so as to suppress all but a few of
the longitudinal cavity modes. The remaining intense
modes are the system resonances, and they satisfy the phase
relationships described by Eqs. (8) and (9). Gain can be
established when the fiber of which the cavity is composed \ loss profile
contains a suitable dopant and is pumped on an appropriate
absorption band. Oscillation takes place preferentially
when the phase conditions [Eqs. (11) and (12)] are both
satisfied1 7 :
(# + A/O)CL= m(r, m = 1, 2,.... (11)
l1 <
W, + tAAL2 = (n ± 1/2)7r, n = 1, 2... (12) I I1

A13is a shift in the fiber propagation constant caused by the - h1 < grating reflectivity
presence of inverted population. Equations (11) and (12) I I
thus describe a small degree of mode pulling in which the
system resonances of the active cavity are shifted toward the
I
111
I IIP
VI N1Il111Il Iresonance
system
s

Fig. 7. Schematic description of single-longitudinal-mode opera-

tion of an erbium fiber laser with a Fox-Smith resonator.

0. 7r
maximum of the gain profile typically by a few tens of mega-
0.6 hertz.' 8
.F 0.5 The Fox-Smith laser output consists of a series of lines
C that satisfy Eqs. (11) and (12). These are significantly far-
.'
0.4 ther apart than the resonances of the individual cavities of
which the fiber Fox-Smith resonator is composed. Single-
co 0.3 longitudinal-mode lasing can be produced by replacing one
0C 0.2 of the broadband dielectric mirrors with a reflection-dif-
fraction grating. Only a small number of system resonances
0.1 fall within the reflectivity envelope of the grating. The gain
Ku JIV A~ j
over the reflectivity envelope is essentially constant, and
lasing takes place on the one mode at which the grating
0 5w 107r 157r feedback is optimal.
phase The mechanism of mode selection is illustrated in Fig. 7.
(a) The fluorescence bandwidths of fiber lasers are broad' 9 and
are represented by the solid curve. The cavity loss per pass,
which is mainly due to the unmirrored arm, varies slowly
0.7r with wavelength and so is represented by the dashed hori-
0.6 l- zontal line. The grating reflectivity is represented by the
dashed curve. Lasing from all the system resonances, ex-
., 0.5 l- cept one that falls within the region of net gain, is frustrated.
C
._ 0.41-
.S 6. ACTIVE RESPONSE: SINGLE-
0.3 L
LONGITUDINAL-MODE OPERATION OF A
FIBER LASER
0C 0.21
A fused tapered coupler was fabricated from two lengths of
0.1 erbium-doped fiber. Erbium ions in a silica host form a
ILJ
w - \- Al f ._, w -
three-level lasing medium, which has a broad fluorescence
band with two peaks at 1.536and 1.550um.20 An absorption
-- - - --
-

0 57r 107 15w

exists that is close to the 0.5145-,4moutput from an argon-
phase
ion laser. The fiber used in the experiment had an LP0 1
(b)
transverse mode cut off at about 1.0 Atmand was a silica-
Fig. 6. Variation of output intensity with wavelength for a fiber based glass, doped at a level of about 300 parts in 106 with
Fox-Smith resonator: (a) theoretical and (b) experimental results.
The input was from arm 1, and the output was from arm 2, both of erbium.
which are as labeled in Fig. 1. The coupler and the mirrors are as The experimental arrangement of the fiber Fox-Smith
described for Fig. 4. laser is illustrated in Fig. 8. The coupler had a coupling

.1
1344 J. Opt. Soc. Am. A/Vol. 5, No. 8/August 1988 Barnsley et al.

linewidths of the Fabry-Perot interferometers were 43 and

A'laser A15 cm__ V 8.5 MHz, respectively. The laser output power was mea-
65cm sured by using a pyroelectric radiometer.
Pump power (200 mW) was launched into arm 1, and the
K = 0.5;X=1.55Am K(0.1;X=0.514gm grating was tuned to give lasing at X= 1.556Am. The output
splice 1200lines/mm
when the spectrum analyzer was used is shown in Fig. 9.
The lasing peak is more than 50 dB more intense than the
15 cm spontaneous background emission. Spontaneous output
15cm from the 1.536-pm transition can be seen. The variation in
output power with pump power is shown in Fig. 10. The
lasing threshold of 175 mW is high, owing to the loss associ-
ated with the diffraction-grating system. The slope effi-
[<~~~
//\ /\
spectrum
1 1
analyzer
ocloscope
ciency, as measured from Fig. 10, is 0.04%. When the losses
owingto launching into a single-mode fiber, the fiber-mirror
interface, and the fiber splice are accounted for, the slope
efficiencywith reference to the launched power is estimated
Fig. 8. Experimental equipment for producing and detecting sin- to be 0.3%,which is comparable with other recent reports of
gle-longitudinal-mode output from a Fox-Smith fiber laser. The 9
spectrum analyzer is an Anrizu model MS96A. Details of the con-
erbium-doped fiber laser efficiencies.' There is a large
stituent parts of the Fox-Smith laser are given in Section 6. FP1, potential for optimization to improve this figure.
FP2, Fabry-Perot interferometers. The results of further spectral analysis, using the scanning
Fabry-Perot interferometers, are shown in Figs. 11 and 12.
The separation of the prominent peaks in a passive Fox-
0 Smith resonator, with the dimensions of the device shown in
Fig. 8, would be 1 GHz, whereas the separation of a promi-
nent peak from its nearest neighbors would be about 130
MHz. The output from the Fabry-Perot interferometer
m
with the free spectral range of 7.5 GHz is shown in Fig.11. It
0
co
is obvious from Fig. 11 that the fiber Fox-Smith laser is
- 401 oscillating on one longitudinal mode. Single-longitudinal-
0. mode behavior was observed up to a pump power of 350mW.
0.
The laser linewidth indicated in Fig. 11 corresponds to the
0 resolution limit of the scanning Fabry-Perot interferometer.
Finer resolution was available from the Fabry-Perot inter-
ferometer with a free spectral range of 300 MHz, and the
-80 _ output is illustrated in Fig. 12, indicating a linewidth of 8.5
1.525 1.500 MHz.
1.556 The theoretical response of the passive (unpumped) reso-
wavelength (um)
Fig. 9. Output from the optical spectrum analyzer. The vertical 0.09 _
scale is logarithmic. Argon-ion laser output power is 350 mW.
E 0.08 -
Z0
CD
ratio of K = 0.50 at the lasing wavelength and K < 0.1 at the u? 0.07 -
pump wavelength. The optical-path-length ratio of the
constituent cavities was L 2 /L, = 1.13 + 0.02. Arms 1 and 4 i< 0.06 -
were butted against dielectric mirrors, and the mirror on
arm 3 was replaced with a collimating lens and a diffraction E 0.05 -
grating. The grating, which was blazed for 1.5-pimopera-
tion, had 1200 lines/mm and a minimum reflectivity band- 0B 0.04
width of 0.16 nm. The effective reflectivity of the optical 0.0
components on arm 3 was r3 . 0.6, and the two other
a 0.03_/
reflectivities were as described in Section 3. Pumping was ° 0.02-
through the mirror on arm 1, which was highly transmissive a)
at 0.514 pm. X 0.01 _
Four sets of detecting equipment were used to monitor the
lasing output from port 2. A spectrum analyzer with a 0 1 21@
0 100 200 300 400
resulution of 0.1 nm displayed both spontaneous and simu-
lated emission in the region of 1.5-1.6 pm. Two scanning 175 mW
Fabry-Perot spectrum analyzerswith free spectral ranges of pump power (mW) X = 514.5 nm
7.5 and 300 MHz, respectively, and both with finesses of 175 Fig. 10. Variation of fiber Fox-Smith laser output as a function of
were used for finer frequency analysis. The limiting the output power of the argon-ion laser.
Barnsley et al. Vol. 5, No. 8/August 1988/J. Opt. Soc. Am. A 1345

nents. The coupler was not single mode and did not have a
50:50 splitting ratio at the pump wavelength. The grating
and collimating optics caused significant insertion loss and
43 MHz
combined to reduce the reflectivity on arm 3 to about 60%.
The arm lengths of the Fox-Smith laser were not optimal for
lasing output or modal suppression. In order to satisfy
conditions of optimal performance, a number of potentially
conflicting conditions must be met. For example, the length
(a) dependence of output power from a three-level medium
must be considered simultaneously with the constraints on
7.5 GHz the cavity-length ratio in order to achieve suitable Vernier
suppression. Nevertheless, even with the components used,
single-longitudinal-mode lasing was achieved readily.

(b)
Fig. 11. (a) Spectral linewidth of a Fox-Smith fiber laser limited
by the resolution of the scanning Fabry-Perot interferometer. (b)
Response of a Fabry-Perot interferometer, showing a free spectral
range of 7.5 GHz.
8.5 MHz
(a)
300 MHz
(b)
Fig. 12. (a) Spectral linewidth of Fox-Smith fiber laser limited by
the passive linewidth. (b) Response of a Fabry-Perot interferome-
ter, showing a free spectral range of 300 MHz.
nant assembly illustrated in Fig. 8 was computed. Equation
(1), with the appropriate values of the constants, was used,
and the bandwidth of the most prominant peaks was found
to be 6.5 ± 1.0 MHz. When gain is experienced as a result of
pumping by the argon-ion laser, the peaks would be expect-
ed to narrow significantly. We believe therefore that a
bandwidth of 8.5 MHz, as illustrated in Fig. 12, is an upper
limit imposed by the resolution of the detecting instrumen-
tation.
We have demonstrated narrow spectral output from an
erbium-doped fiber laser. We believe that considerable im-
provements could be made in the choice of optical compo-
7. CONCLUSIONS
We have demonstrated for the first time to our knowledgea
fiber Fox-Smith resonator in which light is guided by the
waveguiding action of a single-transverse-mode optical fi-
ber. A fiber directional coupler was used for wave-front
division in place of the usual dielectric beam splitter. Both
passive and active performance of the device have been
studied.
The tunable output of a 1.5-pimexternal-cavity semicon-
ductor laser was used to examine the wavelength response of
the resonator when it was fabricated from undoped fiber.
Two output configurations were explored, in which light was
monitored from mirrored and unmirrored arms. Suppres-
sion of longitudinal modes in accordance with the theory of
Ref 9 was demonstrated.
An erbium-doped fiber Fox-Smith laser was set up. This
differs from previously reported Fox-Smith lasers in that it
is a three-level system incorporated in a guided-wave struc-
ture with gain in all arms. Single-longitudinal-mode opera-
tion was obtained when one of the mirrors was replaced with
a diffraction grating.
The fiber Fox-Smith resonator is shown to be suitable for
fiber laser mode selection. The resulting narrow-linewidth
output has applications in metrology, interferometry, and
coherent optical communications. When efforts are made
to optimize the resonator design, even narrower outputs
from fiber lasers in the useful 1.5-1.6-pm telecommunica-
tions window should be possible.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We wish to thank Richard Wyatt for the loan of an external-
cavity diode laser. We thank the Director of Research,
British Telecom Research Laboratories, for permission to
publish.
* Present address, British Telecom Research Laborato-
ries, Martlesham Heath, Ipswich IP5 7RE, England, UK.
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interferometers," IEEE J. Lightwave Technol. LT-4, 382-385
(1986).
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