Polarized Superfluorescent Fiber Sources

We report the theoretical and experimental performance of new, linearly polarized superfluorescent fiber sources (SFS). Internal polarization is produced either by splicing a fiber polarizer at an optimum location along a standard Er-doped SFS or by using a single-polarization Er-doped fiber. Numerical simulations predict that when operated in the backward, forward, or double-pass configuration, these SFSs produce nearly twice the power in the desired linear polarization as a standard, unpolarized SFS. This efficiency figure depends weakly on the polarizer location and extinction ratio, but requires a low polarizer insertion loss (