Broadband optical sources with short coherence length

low spectral ripples and high spectral intensity are desirable for various applications such as fiber-optic gyroscope (FOG)

optical noise sources in EDFA measurement systems

optical sensor systems

spectrum-sliced sources and component testing sources to sliced spectrum sources for lower-cost access networks. Such a source must be broadband in order to reduce errors due to coherent backscattering

polarization cross coupling and the Kerr effect. Sources based on the amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) from an erbium-doped fiber are promising than light emitting diode (LED) and superluminescent light emitting diode (SLED) because of the high output pump

broadband

and spectrum stability. The power produced by the superluminescent diode and LED is also difficult to couple into single-mode fibers. Superfluorescence sources(SFS) on the ASE from an erbium-doped fiber are attractive because of the intrinsic broad emission spectrum and the high output power can be generated easely using semiconductor LD pumps. The SFSdesigner can control the source spectrum

stability and power through a choice of source configuration

pump power

and fiber length. Various configurations have been considered for the SFS system

depending on the presence of reflections from the fiber ends as well as the propagation direction of the pump wave relative to the propagation direction of the utilized source output. SFSs with two nonreflecting ends are single-pass devices

while those with a reflector at one end are double-pass devices. The output from the pump end of the SFSis the backward signal

while the output from the opposite end is the forward signal. The experimental results using double-pass forward configuration on high erbium-doped fiber SFS pumped by 980 nm laser diode are reported. The maximum superfluorescent output power is 10.8 mW with the slope efficiency of 10.6%

while pump power is 380 mW. The power stability is 0.02 dB in 1553.1~1588.6 nm near 36 nm range

3 dB bandwidth is 84.2 nm.