High modulation depth SESAM for high power dissipative soliton in an erbium-doped fiber laser

We will report here on a passively mode-locked erbium-doped fiber (EDF) laser, with large net cavity dispersion. The laser cavity is mounted in a Fabry-Perot configuration. The EDF presents unpumped peak absorption of 80 dB/m at 1530 nm. The gain fiber is pumped through a multiplexer using standard fiber. A segment of dispersion compensated fiber (DCF) has been added in order to build a highly normal dispersion cavity. Its group velocity dispersion (GVD) has been estimated around +0.116 ps²/m. Rest of the cavity comprises a 50/50 coupler, coupling lenses and a high modulation depth saturable absorber mirror. In order to obtain more information of the intra-cavity pulse dynamics, we have numerically simulated our laser operation using Nonlinear Schrodinger Equations (NLSE). Numerical simulations accurately reflect experimental results and show that pulse-shaping in this laser could be interpreted as "dissipative solitons".