Design and applications of a tunable multi-wavelength SFL

Multi-wavelength laser sources have attracted much interest in the last decade as new photonic technologies have enabled the realization of such sources with much improved characteristics. Tunable continuous-wave multi-wavelength fiber lasers may now offer, for example, the ability to tune the wavelength spacing between the lasing lines and, also at times, the possibility to control the individual output peak powers. The more flexible and low-cost solutions benefiting from higher optical spectrum bandwidths also attract the most interest for future applications. These lasers find clients in so many fields such as optical test and measurement, optical communications, sensing, and processing like microwave photonic filtering. The search for such a flexible, stable and affordable laser source has fueled the investigation presented in this thesis. We first analyze the different approaches taken in the past for the implementation of tunable continuous-wave multi-wavelength lasers and follow with the development of a novel, relatively low-cost, tunable multi-wavelength semiconductor fiber laser (SFL). All the design steps are clearly explained and characterized. The final SFL is then used for the demonstration of two applications: chromatic dispersion measurements in long fiber spools, and the new design of a photonic microwave filter