Abstract

We examine the impact of the recovery time of a semiconductor saturable absorber together with the value of its saturation fluence, total net gain, and cavity dispersion on femtosecond pulse generation by mode-locked fiber lasers resulting in a massive optimization of the system performance. Stable regimes of asymptotic single-pulse generation have been identified as zones in a parameter map. We demonstrate that a stable single-pulse regime leads to formation of pulses with chirp, width, and peak power strongly varying during one cavity round trip while slowly oscillating with a period that is much longer than a round trip.

© 2009 Optical Society of America

Self-starting stretched-pulse fiber laser mode locked and stabilized with slow and fast semiconductor saturable absorbers

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Properties and stability limits of an optimized mode-locked Yb-doped femtosecond fiber laser

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