Patent ID: 6965620
Filing Date: 2005-11-15
Classification: H01S

Abstract:
1. A tunable fiber laser, comprising: a section of active fiber formed from a phosphate glass host having a core doped with erbium ions; a pump that illuminates the fiber to excite the erbium ions and provide gain; first and second broadband reflectors that define a laser cavity that includes the section of fiber, said cavity establishing an initial longitudinal mode structure with a longitudinal mode spacing of at least 0.3 GHz and a roundtrip unsaturated gain of at least 8 dB; and a tunable Fabry-Perot filter in said laser cavity having a filter function whose spectral width is at most ten times the longitudinal mode spacing to select a single longitudinal mode at which the erbium provides laser emission and having a free spectral range (FSR) of at least 35 nm.