Abstract

The erbium-doped fibre amplifier has effectively banished loss from the lexicon of the optical communications designer and has changed the course of telecommunications. Fibre lasers are beginning to have a similar impact, providing spectral coverage from 400 nm to beyond 3 μm, pulse widths of a few tens of fs and output powers up to 5W. Photorefractive fibre gratings have recently allowed the construction of DFB fibre lasers.

© 1994 IEEE