Observation and optimization of 2 μm mode-locked pulses in all-fiber net anomalous dispersion laser cavity

Abstract

We integrally demonstrate 2 μm mode-locked pulses performances in all-fiber net anomalous dispersion cavity. Stable mode-locking operations with the center wavelength around 1950-1980 nm can be achieved by using the nonlinear polarization rotation structure and properly designing the dispersion management component. Conventional soliton is firstly obtained with a total anomalous dispersion cavity. Due to the contribution of commercial ultra-high numerical aperture fibers, net dispersion is reduced to -0.077 ps2. So that stretched pulse with 19.4 nm optical bandwidth is obtained and the de-chirped pulse-width can reach 312 fs using extra-cavity compression. Under pump power greater than 890 mW, stretched pulse can evolve into noise-like pulse with 41.3 nm bandwidth. The envelope and peak of such broadband pulse can be compressed with up to 2.2 ps and 145 fs, respectively. The single pulse energy of largely chirped stretched and noise-like pulse can reach 1.785 nJ and 1.53 nJ, respectively. Furthermore, extra-cavity compression can also contribute to a significant increase of peak power.

Keywords

• fiber lasers
• mode-locked lasers
• 2 μm fiber lasers