Versatile Swept Source With Adjustable Coherence Length
An electronically controlled optical swept source at 1550 nm using mode locking in a dispersive ring cavity is described. Active mode-locking was achieved by directly modulating the current of a semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) used as a gain medium. In the static regime, parameters such as linewidth, tuning bandwidth, and contrast were measured, whereas the axial range was determined dynamically. Two types of fiber, dispersion compensation and single mode, are employed in the laser ring cavity. It is demonstrated that the relative lengths of the two types of fiber have little effect on the linewidth, whereas more control on the ...
