Effect of Polarization Adjustment towards the Performance of SOA-based Multiwavelength Fiber Laser

Abstract We investigate the performance of multiwavelength fiber laser (MWFL) at six simultaneous angle settings of half wave plate (HWP) and quarter wave plate (QWP) using two different types of semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOAs): a booster amplifier and an in-line amplifier. In order to generate multiwavelength, a Lyot filter is inserted into the cavity to serve as a comb filter. MWFL using the booster optical amplifier (BOA) shows superior performance in terms of spectrum range, number of lasing lines, and extinction ratio. The laser stability is excellent where all the output peaks experience a minor power fluctuation with maximum value of 0.28 dB withing 100 minutes of observation time.