%0 Journal Article
%T Wide and Fast Wavelength-Swept Fiber Laser Based on Dispersion Tuning for Dynamic Sensing
%A Shinji Yamashita
%A Yuichi Nakazaki
%A Ryosei Konishi
%A Osamu Kusakari
%J Journal of Sensors
%D 2009
%I Hindawi Publishing Corporation
%R 10.1155/2009/572835
%X We have developed a unique wide and fast wavelength-swept fiber laser for dynamic and accurate fiber sensing. The wavelength tuning is based on the dispersion tuning technique, which simply modulates the loss/gain in the dispersive laser cavity. By using wideband semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOAs), the sweep range could be as wide as กซ180 nm. Since the cavity contains no mechanical components, such as tunable filters, we could achieve very high sweep rate, as high as กซ200 kHz. We have realized the swept lasers at three wavelength bands, 1550 nm, 1300 nm, and 800 nm, using SOAs along with erbium-doped fiber amplifiers (EDFAs), and in two laser configurations, ring and linear ones. We also succeeded in applying the swept laser for a dynamic fiber-Bragg grating (FBG) sensor system. In this paper, we review our researches on the wide and fast wavelength-swept fiber lasers.
%U http://www.hindawi.com/journals/js/2009/572835/