%0 Journal Article
%T Semiconductor Optical Amplifier (SOA)-Fiber Ring Laser and Its Application to Stress Sensing
%A Yoshitaka Takahashi
%A Shinji Sekiya
%A Tatsuro Suemune
%J Optics and Photonics Journal
%P 167-171
%@ 2160-889X
%D 2011
%I Scientific Research Publishing
%R 10.4236/opj.2011.14027
%X We have developed a novel optical fiber ring laser using a semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) as the gain medium, and taking advantage of polarization anisotropy of its gain. The frequency difference of the bi-directional laser is controlled by birefringence which is introduced in the ring laser cavity. The beat frequency generated by combining two counter-propagating oscillations is proportional to the birefringence, the fiber ring laser of the present study is, therefore, applicable to the fiber sensor. The sensing signal is obtained in a frequency domain with the material which causes the retardation change by a physical phenomenon to be measured. For the application to stress sensing, the present laser was investigated with a photoelastic material.
%K Fiber Laser
%K Fiber Sensor
%K Ring Laser
%K Semiconductor Optical Amplifier
%K Optical Sensor
%U http://www.scirp.org/journal/PaperInformation.aspx?PaperID=8983