Abstract:

A tunable laser that spans the entire C band is presented. The laser consists of an Er-doped fiber amplifier gain medium, a fiber ring resonator, and an electroholography-based tuning mechanism. The electrohologram used is in the g44 configuration where the Bragg condition can be electrically tuned for a specific wavelength. Two laser architectures are presented, one in which the diffracting beam and one in which the direct beam of the electrohologram is used as the laser output. Switching time between wavelengths is limited by the gain medium relaxation time, since the electrohologram switching time is less than 1 ns.