Erbium-doped fiber ring laser cavity in transient and steady states studied by a numerical approach

An erbium-doped fiber ring laser is modeled by use of the standard propagat ion and rate equations of a homogeneous, two-level medium. A numerical mode l is obtained by development of a spectral analysis of erbium-doped fiber a mplifiers. This approach is modified to account for the cyclical propagatio n of the field in the ring laser. Numerical simulations provide interesting information on the spectral behavior as well as important characteristics of the cavity, mainly the lasing wavelength and output power. The model als o permits the study of competing modes' gain and signal evolutions during t he transient state of the ring laser cavity. (C) 2000 Optical Society of Am erica [S0740-3224(00)01806-3].