Mode-locked erbium-doped fiber lasers as source for optical sensor networks over C and L bands

•We develop mode-locked lasers based on commercial erbium-doped fiber amplifiers.•We simulate the experimental behavior of these sources in optical sensor networks.•The SNR and the peak power are improved with regard to other sources.•They offer a good response over C and L bands (spectral width of 83 nm).•SNR worsening due to undesired nonlinear effects is analyzed.

The performance of mode-locked erbium-doped fiber lasers in optical sensor networks is analyzed and compared with the results obtained by using commercial erbium-doped fiber amplifiers as source. Passive mode-locked lasers developed are based on nonlinear polarization rotation and they have been built using the same erbium-doped fiber amplifiers. To simulate a real sensor network, a tree structure with four fiber Bragg gratings was built employing 50/50 couplers. The mode-locked laser developed offers a reasonably good behavior at a very wide spectral range (83 nm, approximately) over C and L bands. The signal to noise ratio and the peak power are greatly improved with regard to the values obtained employing commercial amplifiers as source.