Polarization-maintaining fiber Bragg gratings for wavelength selection in actively mode-locked Er-doped fiber lasers

Fiber Bragg gratings written,in polarization-maintaining fiber are proposed for wavelength selection in actively mode-locked Er-doped fiber lasers, Co mbined with single-polarization optical circulator, they form unidirectiona l transmission filters that can be incorporated in polarization-maintaining laser cavities, We have fabricated such a grating in hydrogen-loaded PANDA fiber and we have incorporated it in a polarization-maintaining actively m ode-locked Er-doped fiber laser designed to generate soliton-like pulses. D ependencies of pulse duration and spectral width on average intracavity pow er were measured. The power range over which soliton-like pulses were gener ated without pedestals was found to be ultimately limited by the grating's bandwidth.