Dual-ring parity-time symmetric Brillouin fiber laser with an unbalanced polarization Mach-Zehnder interferometer

Abstract

A dual-ring parity-time (PT) symmetric Brillouin fiber laser (BFL) with an unbalanced polarization Mach-Zehnder interferometer (UP-MZI) is proposed and experimentally investigated. An UP-MZI consisting of optical coupler, polarization beam combiner (PBC) and two asymmetric length arms with 10 km and 100 m single-mode fiber, is used to achieve Vernier effect and PT symmetry. Due to the orthogonally polarized lights created in the PBC, the dual-ring PT symmetry BFL with an UP-MZI implements two unbalanced length feedback rings that are connected to one another, one long length ring with a Brillouin gain and the other short length ring with a loss of the same magnitude, to break a PT symmetric and maintain the Vernier effect. By contrast with existing PT symmetry BFL studies, this design does not require same lengths of the gain and loss loops, but can manipulate freely PT symmetry status in accordance with a rational scaling factor between them. Experimental results reveal that the 3-dB linewidth of dual-ring PT symmetry BFL with an UP-MZI is about 4.85 Hz with the threshold input power of 9.5 mW, in accordance with the 97 Hz measured linewidth at the -20 dB power point. Within 60 mins of the stability experiment, the power and frequency stability fluctuation are ±0.02 dB and ±0.137 kHz, respectively. Thanks to the two asymmetric ring lengths, the sidemode suppression ratio (SMSR) is optimized by 54 dB compared to that with the only long ring structure, 26 dB when using only the Vernier effect or 12 dB for existing PT symmetry BFL. This BFL design with single longitudinal mode and high SMSR output can be applied to high coherent communication and Brillouin-based microwave photonics systems with low phase noise.