CLADDING-PUMPED PASSIVELY MODE-LOCKED FIBER LASER GENERATING FEMTOSECOND AND PICOSECOND PULSES

Passively mode-locked fiber lasers cladding pumped by broad-area diode -laser arrays are described. With a dispersion-compenstated erbium-ytt erbium fiber oscillator, 200-fs pulses with pulse energies up to 100 p J are generated at a wavelength of 1560 min. In a highly dispersive ca vity, pulse widths of 3 ps with pulse energies up to 1 nJ are obtained . A saturable absorber is used for pulse startup, whereas nonlinear po larization evolution is exploited for steady-state pulse shaping. An e nvironmentally stable design is ensured by use of a compensation schem e for linear polarization drifts in the cavity. (C) 1996 Optical Socie ty.