Erbium fiber laser based on intracore femtosecond-written fiber Bragg grating

We report the inscription of fiber Bragg gratings (FBGs) into a nonphotosensitive Er-doped fiber by using a phase-mask scanning technique with near IR femtosecond laser pulses. A grating of 40 mm length with a period of 1.075 µm was realized. We measured transmission losses of -18.9 dB at Lambda=1554.5 nm with a FWHM bandwidth of 0.15 nm. By pumping the fiber containing the fabricated FBG, it was possible to realize a fiber laser with an output power of 38 mW, a slope efficiency of 21.1%, and low noise (SNR =60 dB).