Abstract

We report a study of a mode-locked thulium (Tm) fiber laser with varying normal dispersion. It is difficult to reach the high-energy dissipative-soliton regime due to the anomalous dispersion of most fibers at 2 μm. With large normal dispersion, the laser exhibits elements of self-similar pulse evolution, and is the first Tm fiber laser to achieve the performance benefits of normal-dispersion operation. The laser generates 7.6 nJ pulses, which can be dechirped to 130 fs duration. The resulting peak power is 4 times higher than that of previous Tm fiber lasers.

© 2015 Optical Society of America

High-energy dissipative solitons generation from a large normal dispersion Er-fiber laser

M. Tang, H. Wang, R. Becheker, J.-L. Oudar, D. Gaponov, T. Godin, and A. Hideur
Opt. Lett. 40(7) 1414-1417 (2015)

Generation of 50-fs, 5-nJ pulses at 1.03 μm from a wave-breaking-free fiber laser

F. . Ö Ilday, J. R. Buckley, H. Lim, F. W. Wise, and W. G. Clark
Opt. Lett. 28(15) 1365-1367 (2003)

Generation of 8 nJ pulses from a dissipative-soliton fiber laser with a nonlinear optical loop mirror

L. M. Zhao, A. C. Bartnik, Q. Q. Tai, and F. W. Wise
Opt. Lett. 38(11) 1942-1944 (2013)

All-normal-dispersion femtosecond fiber laser with pulse energy above 20nJ

Andy Chong, William H. Renninger, and Frank W. Wise
Opt. Lett. 32(16) 2408-2410 (2007)

Direct generation of 2  W average-power and 232  nJ picosecond pulses from an ultra-simple Yb-doped double-clad fiber laser

Yizhong Huang, Zhengqian Luo, Fengfu Xiong, Yingyue Li, Min Zhong, Zhiping Cai, Huiying Xu, and Hongyan Fu
Opt. Lett. 40(6) 1097-1100 (2015)