Widely tunable multiwavelength Brillouin–erbium fiber laser by eliminating self-lasing cavity modes

A linear multiwavelength Brillouin/erbium fiber laser (MWBEFL) with 40 nm tuning range is presented.The characteristic of opposite transmission of Brillouin Stokes (BS) signals in stimulated Brillouin scattering is used as reflector in one end of the fiber laser. The influence of the self-lasing modes existing in conventional MWBEFLs is eliminated, because there is no physical mirror at one end of the linear cavity. The threshold power is reduced, and the generation of BS signals is enhanced owing to the double-pass preamplification for the Brillouin pump by the erbium-doped fiber amplifier before entering the single-mode fiber. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 54:612–614, 2012; View this article online at wileyonlinelibrary.com. DOI 10.1002/mop.26604