Abstract

Erbium doped fiber lasers and distributed amplifiers are currently the subject of much interest.¹ The unique properties of a fiber waveguide with an embedded gain medium suggests the exploitation of the nonlinear (soliton) pulse shaping process within the fiber laser. Indeed a number of recent experiments^2,3 have reported the mode-locking of erbium-doped fiber lasers and the generation of short pulse structures, which are consistent with the idea that soliton dynamics, plays an important role. The results presented here form part of a theoretical study aimed at understanding the soliton dynamics of an experimentally mode-locked erbium fiber laser.³

© 1991 Optical Society of America