Abstract:We describe a polarization-maintaining (PM) λ/4-shifted DFB Er-doped fiber laser (EDFL), in which optical pulsation effects caused by Er 3+ ion-pairs were successfully removed by co-doping erbium fiber with 12 wt% aluminum. Stable CW operation was realized at a pump power of 100 mW. The laser exhibited single longitudinalmode oscillation with a single polarization. The output power, linewidth of the longitudinal mode, and RIN at the relaxation oscillation frequency were 0.5 mW, 82 kHz, and −79 dB/Hz at a pump power of 100 mW, respectively. Stable operation was also obtained at a pump power of 140 mW, where the above values were improved to 0.8 mW, 43 kHz, and −92 dB/Hz, respectively. Keywords: distributed feedback lasers, erbium-doped fiber, optical fiber lasers Classification: Photonics devices, circuits, and systems [11] L. Luo and P. L. Chu, "Suppression of self-pulsing in an erbium-doped fiber laser," Opt. Lett., vol. 22, no. 15, pp. 1174-1176, Aug. 1997 Z. E. Harutjunian, W. H. Loh, R. I. Laming, and D. N. Payne, "Single polarisation twisted distributed feedback fibre laser," Electron. Lett., vol. 32, no. 4, pp. 346-348, Feb. 1996.