Title :
Mode-locked, long-cavity, erbium fiber lasers with subsequent soliton-like compression
Author :
Schlager, J.B. ; Yamabayashi, Y. ; Franzen, D.L. ; Juneau, R.I.
Author_Institution :
Nat. Inst. of Standards & Technol., Boulder, CO, USA
Abstract :
Erbium fiber lasers are described that have cavity lengths of 20-5000 m and are mode-locked at the fundamental cavity frequency using an integrated-optic intensity modulator driven by a novel pulse generator. Resulting optical pulses at 1536 nm were recorded with a synchroscan streak camera and show durations of 10-80 ps with peak powers over 6 W. The shorter cavities yield nearly transform-limited pulses, which are narrowed by solitonlike compression to approximately 5 ps after propagation through an external 14 km fiber.<>
Keywords :
erbium; fibre optics; high-speed optical techniques; laser cavity resonators; laser mode locking; optical modulation; solid lasers; solitons; streak photography; 10 to 80 ps; 14 km; 1536 nm; 20 to 5000 m; 5 ps; Er fiber lasers; cavity lengths; external fibre propagation; fundamental cavity frequency; integrated-optic intensity modulator; long-cavity; mode-locked; novel pulse generator; optical pulses; peak powers; shorter cavities; soliton-like compression; synchroscan streak camera; transform-limited pulses; Cameras; Erbium; Erbium-doped fiber lasers; Frequency; Intensity modulation; Laser mode locking; Optical pulses; Pulse compression methods; Pulse generation; Pulse modulation;
Journal_Title :
Photonics Technology Letters, IEEE
