Fiber laser relaxation oscillation noise suppression through the use of self-biased intracavity loss modulator

We demonstrate a technique for suppressing the intensity noise of erbium doped fiber lasers. We show that by introducing negative feedback into the system through the use of a self-biased intracavity loss modulator, the relaxation oscillation noise of the fiber laser could be suppressed by as much as 20dB. To explain the observed noise reduction phenomenon, a simple theory based on the linearized rate equation has been developed and is supported by experimental measurements. We also derive a formula for estimating the maximum achievable intensity noise suppression ratio.