Femtosecond Similariton Pulse Generation from an All-Fiber Erbium Doped Fiber Laser

Abstract

Mode-locked fiber lasers with femtosecond pulse durations have become attractive for numerous applications in science and industry. Amplifier similariton shaped pulses typically have pulse energies of a few nanojoules and sub-100 fs pulse width. The work presented seeks to demonstrate the generation of femtosecond amplifier similariton pulses from an all-fiber erbium doped fiber laser cavity. Mode-locking in the erbium-doped fiber laser was achieved by nonlinear polarization evolution which produced pulses at a wavelength of 1572 nm with an average output power of 24 mW and a pulse energy of 0.46 nJ. These pulses at transform limit have a pulse duration of 73 fs.