Electrical tuning of wavelength has been demonstrated in a harmonically mod
e-locked fiber laser using a compensated dispersion-tuning approach. The ca
vity consists of a standard single-mode fiber (SMF) and a dispersion-compen
sated fiber (DCF), providing equal and opposite group velocity dispersion t
o wavelength components around 1.55 mu m. Tuning is achieved by controlling
the delay time between electrical pulse signals applied to two modulators
connecting the SMF and the DCF. The tuning relation exhibits a linear chara
cteristic and matches with the calculated result. A 21.5 nm tuning range is
obtained with an extinction ratio as high as 47 dB at a constant operating
frequency of 1 GHz. (C) 1999 American Institute of Physics. [S0003-6951(99
)02733-3].