An Opto-VLSI Based Tunable Fiber Ring Laser
Rong Zheng, Zhenglin Wang and Kamal Alameh
Centre of Excellence for MicroPhotonics Systems, Electron Science Research Institute
Edith Cowan University, 100 Joondalup Drive, Joondalup, WA 6027, AUSTRALIA
Email: r.zheng@ecu.edu.au
Abstract
We demonstrate a novel Opto-VLSI tunable fiber ring
laser structure in which an Opto-VLSI processor driven
by steering phase holograms dynamically selects the
lasing wavelengths. A proof-of-concept tunable fiber
ring laser which has a wavelength tuning range of more
than 4 nm around 1530 nm and a side-mode suppression
ratio more than 25 dB is demonstrated at room
temperature. The output power of the lasing wavelengths
can be controlled within 0.5 dB uniformity by
reconfiguring the phase hologram of the Opto-VLSI
processor. Dual-wavelength laser tuning is also
experimentally demonstrated.
Index Terms — Opto-VLSI processing, Erbium-doped
fiber (EDF), tunable fiber laser.
1 Introduction
Tunable fiber lasers operating in the 1550 nm window
have attracted great research interests recently because
of their applications in different areas such as optical
communications, gas sensors for pollution monitoring,
high resolution spectroscopy and photonic true-time-
delay (TTD) beamforming systems [1-3]. Various
techniques have been proposed to realize the single-
longitudinal-mode operation in erbium-doped fiber
(EDF) ring lasers. To realize single-frequency operation
and decrease mode hopping in erbium-doped fiber ring
lasers, fiber ring resonators with intra-cavity Fabry-Perot
(FFP) filter have been extensively investigated for
wavelength tuning in a fiber ring laser. However, an FFP
alone is insufficient to stabilize both the lasing
wavelength and power of a fiber ring laser. A passive
multiple-ring cavity or a compound ring resonator
composed of a dual-coupler fiber ring to guarantee
single-longitudinal-mode laser oscillation has been
proposed to realize single-frequency operation [4-6].
Other methods including integrating two cascaded FFP
filters of wide different free spectral ranges (FSRs) into
the cavity or adding an extra ITU-grid periodic filter in
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the optical loop[7-9] have also been demonstrated to
provide full tunability and single-longitudinal-mode
operation.
In this paper, we present a new tunable fiber ring
laser structure that employs an Opto-VLSI processor as
the wavelength-selection element. A proof-of-concept
tunable fiber ring laser is experimentally demonstrated
over a wavelength tuning range from 1528 nm to 1532
nm with a side-mode suppression ratio higher than 25
dB and output power uniformity better than 0.5 dB.
Tunable dual-wavelength laser operation is also
experimentally verified with the same configuration at
room temperature.
2 Opto-VLSI Tunable Ring Laser
Structure
The Opto-VLSI-based tunable ring laser structure is
shown in Fig.1. It consists of an Opto-VLSI processor
that realises wavelength division multiplexing (WDM)
equalization through adaptive optical beam steering, a
high dispersion blazed grating that diffracts the
wavelength components of the light onto the active area
of the Opto-VLSI processor and an EDF ring with
forward pumping.
The reconfigurable Opto-VLSI processor comprises
an array of liquid crystal (LC) cells driven by a Very-
Large-Scale-Integrated (VLSI) circuit can generate
digital holographic diffraction gratings that dynamically
steer, multicast, and/or shape optical beams. The use of
an Opto-VLSI processor in conjunction with an EDF
ring laser can achieve dynamic WDM equalization thus
generating multiple wavelengths without moving parts
[10]. In an optically-amplified cavity, this dynamic
WDM equalization feature enables independent control
of the loss at different wavelengths and allows
arbitrarily-selected wavelengths to lase at room
temperature.
 The optical isolator shown in Figure 1 is placed in
the ring cavity to realize a unidirectional oscillation that
prevents spatial hole burning in the erbium-doped fiber
laser gain medium and also to improve the laser output
power stability. The laser output power is obtained from
the zeroth order diffracted beam from the Opto-VLSI
processor.
Polarization
Controller Fiber
collimator
λ1
Isolator
Opto-VLSI
processor
Circulator
Erbium-doped
fiber
PC
WDM Coupler
980nm
Pump
Figure 1. Tunable Opto-VLSI fiber laser configuration
The broadband amplified spontaneous emission
(ASE) noise from the Er-doped fiber is routed through a
circulator and a polarization controller, and collimated to
about 1mm diameter by a fiber collimator and launched
to the dispersion grating, which diffracts the different
wavelength components of the ASE signal along
different incident angles onto the active area of the
Opto-VLSI processor. By driving the Opto-VLSI
processor with appropriate steering phase holograms,
one particular wavelength or several wavelength
components can be reflected back along their incidence
paths, thus locking the oscillating modes of interest and
preventing the lasing of other modes by keeping their
power levels below the lasing threshold. The wavelength
tuning range is mainly determined by two parameters,
namely, (i) the angular dispersion of the grating, which
determines the diffraction angle and the spacing between
the different wavelength components, and (ii) the
maximum steering angle and the working area of the
Opto-VLSI processor.
3 Experimental Results
The experimental setup of the tunable Opto-VLSI fiber
ring laser is shown in Fig.1. A 40-micron pixel size,
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128x128-pixel nematic LC Opto-VLSI processor, which
has a maximum steering angle of around ±1.0 degree at
1530 nm, was used in conjunction with a high-dispersion
grating to realize dynamic wavelength selection. The
high dispersion blazed grating (having 1200 lines/mm
and a blazed angle of 70º at 1530 nm) was used to
spread the EDF gain spectrum and diffract a specific
wavelength range onto the Opto-VLSI processor. The
Diffraction
Grating
laser gain medium was a 14m long EDF of core
diameter 4.9mm, Numerical Aperture (NA) 0.23 and
cutoff wavelength 800 nm. Its peak absorption near 1530
nm is around 5 dB/m. Forward 980nm laser pumping
λN was employed which provided an EDF small-signal gain
of more than 20 dB over the C-band. The 980nm pump
laser was coupled to the ring laser signal through a
wavelength division multiplexed (WDM) coupler of
insertion loss 0.5 dB at 1530 nm. An isolator was placed
in the ring to (i) maintain unidirectional oscillation,
which prevents spatial hole burning in the EDF laser
OSA gain medium, and (ii) improve the laser output power
stability. The measured total fiber-to-fiber coupling loss
was about 2 dB and the insertion loss of Opto-VLSI
processor was around 10 dB, which was mainly due to a
low mirror reflectivity and a low fill factor. The laser
output was obtained from the signal reflected off the
blazed grating and monitored by an optical spectrum
analyzer (OSA). The total length of the fiber ring cavity
was about 20 m.
Fig. 2 demonstrates the tuning capability of the
Opto-VLSI ring laser shown in Figure 1. The output
spectrum is shown for different phase holograms
uploaded onto the Opto-VLSI processor. A 20x40 pixel
block was driven by a phase hologram that
independently attenuates the wavelength component
falling on it through variable beam steering. By
reflecting the wavelength component back along,
around, or away from its incidence path, a low, medium,
or high loss, respectively, was achieved. By changing
the position as well as the phase hologram of the pixel
block, the lasing wavelength was dynamically tuned. In
all scenarios of Figure 2, the lasing wavelength was
reflected off the Opto-VLSI processor along its incident
path so that the attenuation was kept at a minimum level.
The output optical signal signal-to-noise ratio measured
by an OSA (with a resolution bandwidth of 0.06 nm)
was greater than 25 dB. The polarization controller was
used to optimize the diffraction efficiency of the Opto-
VLSI processor and to enforce single-polarization
lasing.
Fig 3 shows the output power of the Opto-VLSI fiber
ring laser at 1529.15 nm versus the pump power. It is
obvious that the ring cavity starts to lase at pump
threshold power of 15 mw.
 Figure 4 shows measured responses of the Opto-
VLSI ring laser for single passband operation over a
wavelength span of around 4 nm. Each response
corresponds to an optimised hologram that maximises
the peak of the response and minimises the skirt
rejection of the response. The measured uniformity of
the peak output power was less than 0.5 dB. By slightly
adjusting the phase hologram and size of a pixel block,
the ring cavity loss spectrum could also be equalized.

-10

-15

O u tp u t p o w e r(d B m )
-20

-25

-30

-35

-40
1520 1522 1524 1526 1528 1530 1532 1534 1536 1538 1540
Figure 2. Output laser spectra and corresponding Wavelength(nm)
holograms for lasing at: (a) 1529.94 nm, (b) 1529.80 nm, Figure 4. Measured responses of the Opto-VLSI ring
and (c) 1531.86 nm. laser for single passband operation over a wavelength
span of around 4 nm.
-10

-15 Fig 5(a) shows the optimised phase holograms

-20
driving two different pixel blocks as well as the
corresponding measured dual-wavelength laser response
Output P ower(dB m

-25
of the Opto-VLSI fiber ring laser. The optical losses of
-30 the cavity at the two lasing wavelengths were accurately
balanced by adjusting the diffraction efficiencies of the
-35
phase holograms, leading to a stable dual-wavelength
-40 laser operation at room temperature. By changing the
-45
positions of the pixel blocks and their steering angles
(phase holograms), the centre wavelengths were
-50
14 18 22 25 32 37 41 45 47 49 55 60 63 66 72 78
independently tuned.
Pump Power(mW)

Fig 3 Output power of the Opto-VLSI fiber ring laser at Fig. 5(b) shows measured spectra of the ring laser
1529.15 nm versus the pump power. operating in a dual-wavelength mode for different tuning
scenarios. The tunable Opto-VLSI ring laser structure
To achieve a stable laser operation, it was necessary was capable of achieving a high wavelength tuning
to suppress the cavity mode competition and minimise resolution of around 0.05 nm (defined by the pixel size
the laser polarization fluctuations. Since the Opto-VLSI and the available phase levels of the Opto-VLSI
processor is a polarization sensitive component with processor). The total wavelength tuning range was
polarization mode extinction ratio about 15 dB, it was limited to about 5 nm because of the small active area of
possible to distinguish between different polarization the Opto-VLSI processor (6 mm) and the maximum
modes, and a stable single polarization lasing was steering angle of the Opto-VLSI processor. By using a
achieved within the cavity without an additional large-area Opto-VLSI processor with a high steering
polarization controller. angle (such as 5-6 degrees), the tuning range can easily
expanded to more than 30 nm.

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-15
O u tp u t p o w e r(d B m )
-20
-25
-30
-35
-40
-45
-50
1525 1526 1527 1528
Wavelength(nm)
Figure 5. (a) Phase hologram and measured spectra of
the Opto-VLSI fiber ring laser when operated in dual-
wavelength mode, (b) measured spectra for different
tuning scenarios.
4 Conclusions
A novel tunable Opto-VLSI fiber ring laser that can
operate at room-temperature has been proposed and
demonstrated in this paper. The tunable fiber ring laser
used a reconfigurable Opto-VLSI processor as a WDM
equalizer to realize wavelength tuning and gain control.
Experimental results have shown that an output laser
signal tunable over a wavelength span of 4 nm with
signal-to-noise ratio better than 25 dB can be achieved.
The measured uniformity of the laser output power was
better than 0.5 dB and the stability was excellent at room
temperature. The tunable laser had a wavelength tuning
resolution as small as 0.05 nm and can be step-tuned at
50 GHz ITU grid spacing. A tunable dual-wavelength
laser output has also been demonstrated where two
output wavelengths were simultaneously selected to lase
within the fiber ring cavity.
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