Astro Ltd Laser Physics

Laser Phys. 27 (2017) 055104 (6pp) https://doi.org/10.1088/1555-6611/aa6587

Switchable multiwavelength
ytterbium-doped fiber laser using
a non-adiabatic microfiber interferometer
A S Zulkhairi1, Saaidal R Azzuhri1, R A Shaharuddin1, M F Jaddoa1,
M A M Salim1,2, A A Jasim1 and H Ahmad1
1
Photonics Research Centre, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
2
Laser Center, Ibnu Sina Institute for Scientific and Industrial Research, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia,
Johor Bahru, Malaysia

E-mail: saaidal@um.edu.my

Received 21 October 2016

Accepted for publication 6 March 2017
Published 6 April 2017

Abstract
In this paper, we have successfully demonstrated a stable dual, triple and quad-wavelength
generation of ytterbium-doped fiber by incorporating a non-adiabatic microfiber interferometer
(N-MI) into the laser ring cavity. Three sets of dual-wavelength, two sets of triple-wavelength
and one set of quad-wavelength with the same wavelength spacing of 4.24 nm for all sets of
multiwavelengths over the range of 1035 nm to 1050 nm are obtained by means of a nonlinear
polarization rotation mechanism. The side-mode suppression ratio (SMSR) is ~53 dBm while
the wavelength fluctuation and maximum power are 0.01 nm and less than 0.6 dB, respectively.
Such features offer flexibility in multiwavelength generation and a stable output, with addition
to a reliable system at an ambient temperature.

Keywords: multiple wavelength, microfiber interferometer, non-adiabatic microfiber,

ytterbium-doped fiber laser
(Some figures may appear in colour only in the online journal)

1. Introduction wavelength regions, are not under the conventional commu-

Multiwavelength fiber lasers (MWFLs) have played important
roles over the past few years due to their wide potential appli-
cations in wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) transmis-
sion, optical fiber sensor, fiber sensing and fiber spectroscopy
[1]. These are due to their simpler structure, strong resistance
to electromagnetic interference, stable output and constant free
spectral range (FSR) characteristic. One of the important cri-
teria in achieving these goals is to incorporate suitable gain
medium that possesses high stability in multiwavelength las-
ing. For the past two decades, erbium-doped fiber laser (EDFL)
based MWFLs have been reported intensively due to their sig-
nificant advantages such as low threshold, inexpensive setup
and high-power conversion efficiency [2]. However, when
compared to EDFLs, a ytterbium-doped fiber laser (YDFL)
has relatively less attraction under multiwavelength opera-
tion, due to the fact that YDFLs, which operate under 1-micron
nication band [3–8]. As there is a growing demand for the 1
µm band wavelength regions for the fiber lasers, it is desirable
to investigate the multiwavelength performance of YDFLs. In
2007, Guan and Marciante have demonstrated a generation of
dual single-mode YDFLs with a wavelength spacing of 0.3 nm
by using the birefringence effect of the polarization maintain-
ing fiber Bragg grating (FBG) [9]. Moghaddam et al demon-
strated a 1030 nm region of multiwavelength ytterbium-doped
fiber rings using a Sagnac loop mirror and a Mach–Zehnder
interferometer (MZI) [7]. The operation of a multiwavelength
laser can be simply explained by using the Mach–Zehnder
(MZ) interference mechanism. It is created by the laser system,
where the comb response generates a wavelength dependent
loss that restrains the mode hoping and mode competition [10].
By proposing a single mode cavity from a multimode medium,
the MZ effects can be emulated whereby the core and the clad-
ding play the MZ arms role [11].

1555-6611/17/055104+6$33.00 1 © 2017 Astro Ltd Printed in the UK

Laser Phys. 27 (2017) 055104
Figure 1. (a) Microscope image of waist diameter and
(b) schematic overview of the N-MI.
Figure 2. The transmission of ASE with and without N-MI at the
pump power of 108.1 mW.
Meanwhile, the interference arrangement is controlled and
this effect can be very efficient in order to achieve the desir-
able properties of the laser including narrow line-width, fine-
ness and power efficiency. Moreover, switchable MFLs have
been developed intensively over the last 12 years as it allows
a fast switching from single wavelength to dual and multiple
wavelength operations with a very high speed while main-
taining high stability and reliability [12, 13]. Furthermore,
in 2011, Ceballos-Herrera et  al reported a single- to three-
wavelength generation using a long-period holey fiber grating
based on intracavity-induced loss [14]. Before that, Shenggui
et al reported a simple switchable multiwavelength ytterbium-
doped clad fiber laser using a multimode fiber Bragg grating
(MMFG) as a wavelength selective component [15]. The
key of generation and switching MWFLs is the suppression
of mode competition of the gain medium. This can be done
by inducing the nonlinear polarization rotation (NPR) effect
in the fiber ring cavity to induce intensity-dependent loss
and suppress mode competition [5, 16]. On the other hand,
suppression of mode competition can be simply created by
implanting a non-adiabatic tapered microfiber in the fiber ring
cavity as an optical multichannel filter, in order to create a
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A S Zulkhairi et al
Figure 3. Experiment setup for multiwavelength ytterbium-doped
fiber laser incorporating N-MI.
Figure 4. Slope efficiency of lasing threshold for a nonlinear
microfiber MZI.
multimode guidance, from which the cladding mode couples
with the fundamental modes [17–19] to induce wavelength-
dependent loss. The requirements for tunable and switchable
MWFLs are very precise in the fields of sensor and instrument
testing applications [13]. It is also desirable to improve the
flexibility of an MWFL in some practical applications [20].
In this paper, we propose a switchable multiwavelength
YDFL over a range of 15 nm and centered at 1040 nm, which
was demonstrated by using a non-adiabatic microfiber inter-
ferometer (N-MI) based abrupt tapering angle as this device
allows coupling between core and cladding-air modes to serve
as a wavelength selective filter in the laser cavity [21]. From
the results presented, it can be shown that the laser can be
switched to generate three stable sets of dual-wavelength, two
sets of triple-wavelength and one set of quad-wavelength by
controlling the polarization controller (PC).
2. Fabrications and characterization of N-MI
The N-MI is constructed by tapering a single mode fiber
(SMF) in an abrupt angle using an optical fiber processing
workstation (Vytran GPX-3000 series). By using a Vytran
machine, the taper profile can be arranged according to
desired parameters. As a heating element, a graphite filament
Laser Phys. 27 (2017) 055104
Figure 5. Dual-wavelength lasing spectrum at (a) 1034.78 and
1039.02 nm, (b) 1038.8 and 1043.04 nm and (c) 1042.71 and
1046.92 nm.
is used since it is able to attain the intensified heat that can
be restrained specifically and varied from ambient temper-
ature up to 3000 °C stabily. The waist diameter of the taper
fiber (Wd) is fixed at 12 µm as shown in figure 1(a). Up and
down taper lengths (Lt) are equivalently set at 2 mm, which
is considered an abrupt slope while the length of the taper
waist (Lw) was 25 mm. The N-MI schematic overview is
shown in figure 1(b), with the light propagation from left to
right. Such structure allows the interference between the fun-
damental mode HE11 that propagates in the core of the waist
region with its closest higher order mode HE12. The power
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A S Zulkhairi et al
Figure 6. Triple-wavelength lasing spectrum at (a) 1034.63,
1038.87 and 1043.11 nm, and (b) 1038.56, 1042.81 and 1047.05 nm.
interfering can be expressed by I= I1 + I2 + 2 I1 I2 cos(ϕ ),
where I1 and I2 are the intensities of the modes propagating
in the core and cladding-air, respectively. ϕ is the phase dif-
ference of the mode interference, and can be approximated as
2 π (∆ n ) L
ϕ= λ
eff eff
, where ∆ neff = neff eff
c − ncl and is defined as
the difference of the effective refractive indices of the core and
the cladding-air modes. Leff and λ are the effective length of
the N-MI and optical wavelength respectively.
Figure 2 shows the transmission spectrum of the ampli-
fied spontaneous emission (ASE) source with and without the
N-MI at 108.1 mW. It can be clearly seen that the comb-like
spectrum from the N-MI wavelength filter has a wavelength
spacing (Δ λ) of 4.24 nm. The wavelength spacing or an aver-
age from one peak to another peak beating distance is the
main property of the N-MI. Different tapering structures in
diameter and length will produce various beating effects. The
wavelength spacing can be expressed as [19]:
λ2
∆λ= . (1)
∆ n eff Leff
Thus, a smaller diameter or a longer tapered region will result
in sharper and narrower peaks with a high extinction ratio.
It can also be seen from ASE, with an N-MI spectrum in
figure 2, where a loss of about 5 dB is induced, which can be
attributed mainly due to the abrupt tapered section.
Laser Phys. 27 (2017) 055104
Figure 7. (a) Quad wavelength spectrum with 1034.57, 1038.81, 1043.05 and 1047.29 nm, and peak powers of − 12.34, − 12, − 12.51 and − 12.77
dBm, (b) stability test scan for 20 min for (i) λ1 = 1034.57 nm, (ii) λ2 = 1038.81 nm, (iii) λ3 = 1043.05 nm, (iv) λ3 = 1047.29 nm, (c) power
fluctuation and (d) wavelength shifting.
3. Experimental setup
The experimental setup of the proposed multiple wave-
length generator lasers is shown in figure 3. For a 70 cm long
Fibercore DF1100 ytterbium-doped fiber (YDF) gain medium
is pumped by a 974 nm laser diode (Oclaro Model LC96A74P-
20R) through a 980/1060 nm WDM. To ensure a unidirectional
laser ring operation in a clockwise direction, the insulator is
incorporated into the laser cavity. A PC is used in the setup to
tune the cavity state of polarization before being connected to
the N-MI microfiber. By using a 90/10 optical coupler (OC),
90% of the signal is connected back into the cavity to sustain
the laser operation while 10% of the signal is tapped out to the
optical spectrum analyzer (OSA) (Yokogawa AQ6373) with
0.02 nm spectral resolution. The total laser cavity length is 5 m.
4. Results and discussion
Closure of the ring cavity laser, as illustrated in figure  3,
resulted in the generation of dual, triple and quadruple
wavelengths of YDFL over a range of 15 nm and cen-
tered at 1040 nm, where, in the experiment, the threshold
input pump power for the setup was 81.8 mW, as shown
in figure 4,with 5 m of total length cavity. The input pump
power is further increased up to 208.8 mW in order to
obtain better stability and lasing performance. It is noted
4
A S Zulkhairi et al
that when the pump power is increased, more lasing wave-
lengths can be excited at the peak of the N-MI interfer-
ence patterns, but the number of lasing wavelengths and
their position can be easily controlled by carefully tun-
ing the system polarization state using a PC. By control-
ling the PC, the lasing output was able to switch from one
wavelength to multiwavelength lasers. This is due to the
interference patterns or comb-like spectrum produced by
the N-MI device. In the setup, the N-MI device was placed
between a PC and an OC and since the N-MI was able to
produce a stable comb-like spectrum, a spatial mode beat-
ing arose and lead to a suppressed mode competition of the
homogenous broadening effect of the YDF, resulting in the
generation of a stable multiwavelength laser. The generated
wavelength lasers are directly dependent on comb-like pat-
terns of the N-MI, thus the laser enhanced by the system
polarization state can be switched at different wavelengths
based on wavelength-dependent loss function. PC rotation
will change the polarization states and cause a continuous
birefringence effect that balances the gain and loss of the
generated multiwavelength lasing [22].
Figure 5(a) shows dual-wavelength YDFL excited at
1034.78 and 1039.02 nm with nearly the same peak power
of − 10.38 and − 10.43 dBm, respectively. The spacing
between two wavelengths is measured to be 4.24 nm, which
is the same wavelength spacing of comb-like spectrum of the
Laser Phys. 27 (2017) 055104
N-MI. It can be seen from figure 5(a) that both of the dual-
wavelength peaks overlap with the peaks of the ASE comb-
like spectrum of the N-MI, meaning that the laser is generated
from the related peaks of the N-MI interference spectrum.
By finely adjusting the PC, another stable two sets of dual-
wavelength YDFL were achieved, as shown in figures 5(b) and
(c). For all sets of dual-wavelength, the side mode suppression
ratio (SMSR) is observed to be more than ~52 dBm. When
further adjusting the PC, the system was able to generate triple
wavelength YDFL at 1034.63, 1038.87 and 1043.11 nm with
the peak power of − 10.35, − 10.00 and − 10.77 dBm, respec-
tively, as shown in figure 6(a). Another set of triple wavelength
was achieved with the same wavelength spacing of 4.24 nm.
The SMSR is measured to be about ~51 dBm as depicted in
figures 6(a) and (b). Furthermore, figure 7(a) shows the quad-
ruple wavelength lasers, with a SMSR of ~48 dBm excited at
1034.57, 1038.81, 1043.05 and 1047.29 nm, having a peak
power of − 12.34, − 12, − 12.51 and − 12.77 dBm, respectively.
It is worth mentioning that all the dual-wavelength and
multiwavelength sets were stability tested over time. The quad
spectrum was scanned at every 2 min interval for a period of
20 min, as shown in figure 7(b). The maximum power fluc-
tuation is less than ~0.6 dBm, which is shown in figure 7(c)
and wavelength shifting is less than 0.01 nm as depicted in
figure 7(d). From the stability test, the quad wavelength laser
is highly stable at room temperature. This is due to the sup-
pression of the homogenous broadening effect of YDF to a
very low level, generating a highly stable lasing output. The
advantage of this setup is that the generation of highly sta-
ble switchable sets of dual, triple and quad wavelength were
obtained simultaneously with the same interval wavelength
spacing of 4.24 nm at room temperature. Moreover, N-MI
based MWFL generation retains the key advantage of sim-
plicity and high stability, showing a fixed wavelength spac-
ing with a large switching span compared to previous work,
e.g. tuning a PC to obtain dual-wavelength which cooperated
with microfiber [23], photonic crystal fiber [24], highly non-
linear fiber (HNLF) and multimode fiber (MMF).
5. Conclusion
In this paper we have demonstrated the generation of stable
switchable multiwavelength YDFL. The output consists of
three sets of dual-wavelength, two sets of triple-wavelength
and one set of quadruple-wavelength with the same wave-
length spacing of 4.24 nm over the range of 15 nm. The SMSR
was measured to be about ~53 dB and the maximum power
and wavelength fluctuation are less than 0.6 dB and 0.01 nm
respectively for 20 min of testing. Such results suggest the
possibility of further refinements, such as an increase in the
number of wavelengths.
Acknowledgment
This work supported by the University of Malaya and research
grant number LRGS (2015) NGOD/UM/KPT, GA010-2014
(ULUNG), RU007/2015 and BR002-2016.
5
A S Zulkhairi et al
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