Output-power controllable erbium-doped fibre laser via a high-birefringence fibre loop mirror with applied stress

In this paper, a novel output-power controllable erbium-doped fibre laser, based on a strain-applied high-birefringence fibre loop mirror (HBFLM), was proposed and demonstrated. The reflectivity of HBFLM could be changed from about 0.8% to 100% because the fibre length and birefringence of the high-birefringence fibre (HBF) were altered via bonding a part of HBF to the centric surface of an uniform-strength cantilever beam and applying different stress at end of the beam. As a result, the laser output power could be adjusted and controlled in a dynamic range of more than 33 dB. The laser is not only a controllable and adjustable output-power laser with simple configuration and low cost, but also can be used for optimizing the output characteristics of a linear cavity laser via easily finding out the optimized reflectivity of the reflectors.