Optical fiber lasers assisted by microdrilled optical fiber tapers

In this Letter, we present an analysis of the backscattering generated in a microdrilled tapered fiber within a short-linear-cavity fiber laser. We propose and experimentally demonstrate a fiber cavity laser based on a tapered optical fiber segment that generates artificially controlled backscattering. The 50-mu m-waist taper was fabricated from a standard single-mode fiber, and the taper was subsequently microdrilled using a femtosecond laser micromachining system. The laser generation properties conferred by the microdrilled optical fiber taper were experimentally investigated. A single-wavelength laser emission at 1562 nm with an output power of 10 dBm and an optical signal-to-noise ratio greater than 45 dB is demonstrated. (C) 2019 Optical Society of America