Transversely coupled fiber Fabry-Perot resonators: performance characteristics.

The experimentally determined performance characteristics of the transversely coupled fiber Fabry-Perot (TCFFP) resonator are discussed. The frequency variation for two important input-output configurations agrees well with theory. Both channel passing and channel dropping outputs are demonstrated. We examine the variation of finesse and visibility with the coupling ratio. The visibility, as defined, is a measure of the filtering efficiency on-resonance. We show that with high quality optical components it is possible to obtain good finesse and visibility simultaneously. The TCFFP resonator, therefore, has potential application to demultiplexing and spectral analysis and as a resonant cavity for fiber lasers.