Unidirectionality in Bidirectional Fiber Ring Lasers: An Instability Approach
in: Temporal Proceedings (2021)
Fiber ring laser schemes are very attractive as they allow a fully integrated system structure. Albeit having many benefits one major shortcoming of ring structures is the native power division due to bidirectional emission into two outputs. This severely limits efficiency and increases demands as the system has to be capable of handling twice the power than being finally used. Therefore inducing unidirectionality in fiber ring cavities is a long-cherished goal. Many schemes have been proposed to force uni-directionality in ring structures but all require the introduction of additional guiding or directional components, leading to higher roundtrip losses, wavelength selectivity and higher complexity [1-5]. Recently we observed a spontaneous transition from bidirectional to unidirectional emission, without any directional elements in a km-long fiber ring laser [6].
DOI: Array