SOLITON FIBER LASER WITH A HYBRID SATURABLE ABSORBER

We present an experimental study of a picosecond fiber soliton laser i n which mode locking is achieved by the combined action of a multiple- quantum-well saturable absorber and a nonlinear amplifying loop mirror . In this configuration the multiple-quantum-well sample acts not only as a saturable absorber but also as a passive phase modulator, while the inclusion of a nonlinear amplifying loop mirror fixes the energy o f the generated pulses. The laser stably operates at a repetition rate of 250 MHz with a timing jitter below 10 ps. (C) 1996 Optical Society of America