High-energy saturable absorber mode-locked fiber laser system

Abstract

We demonstrate a mode-locked erbium-doped fiber laser with a 1-microm InGaAs saturable absorber that produces 84-ps, 1-nJ transform-limited pulses. Measurements of the InGaAs multiple quantum well revealed a slow saturable absorber that is useful for passive mode locking. Optical fiber was added to extend the cavity and vary the repetition rate from 51 kHz to 5.4 MHz. The narrow spectral width of the laser output (<0.04 nm) permits amplification to 0.2 microJ/pulse with minimal pulse broadening. Pulse energies as large as 1.7 microJ can be achieved with pulse widths of <330 ps. Average powers of 0.5 W at megahertz repetition rates are demonstrated.

56-W Frequency-Doubled Source at 530 nm Pumped by a Single-Mode, Single-Polarization, Picosecond, Yb$^{3+}$-Doped Fiber MOPA

“…Mode-locking is by far the most popular means for generating ultrashort (ps/fs) pulses with relatively high pulse energies [5,6]. However the nature of mode-locking means that the pulse repetition rate is often defined by the cavity round trip time for stable long term operation.…”

Analytical solutions to rate equations including losses describing threshold pumped fiber lasers

“…Rare earth doped fiber lasers (RDFLs) have attracted much attention recently because of the compactness, ruggedness, high beam quality and efficiency, and their potential applications to telecommunications, industry, etc., and a rich variety of useful results have been reported on this type lasers [1][2][3][4][5]. At present, the rate equations (REs) are still the most widely used and powerful tool to theoretically predict the laser characteristics [6][7][8][9].…”