Abstract

Passively mode-locked, erbium-doped fibre lasers have received considerable recent attention because of their ability to generate ultrashort, transform-limited soliton pulses. Figure-8 [1,2], ring [31 and linear [41 cavity configurations have been developed based on nonlinear Sagnac and polarisation switches respectively. Pulse durations ranging from several picoseconds down effectively to the limit defined by the erbium bandwidth (~ 100 fs) have now been demonstrated directly at the output of such lasers [5,6]. However, questions concerning the practical application of such lasers remain, particularly the question of environmental stability.

© 1993 Optical Society of America