Abstract

We report a hybrid mode-locked fiber laser at 2.8 µm based on a large-mode-area Er:ZBLAN fiber. Reliable self-starting mode-locking is achieved via the combination of nonlinear polarization rotation and a semiconductor saturable absorber. Stable mode-locked pulses with a pulse energy of 9.4 nJ and a pulse duration of 325 fs are generated. To the best of our knowledge, this is the highest pulse energy directly generated from a femtosecond mode-locked fluoride fiber laser (MLFFL) to date. The measured M² factors are below 1.13, indicating a nearly diffraction-limited beam quality. Demonstration of this laser provides a feasible scheme for the pulse energy scaling of mid-infrared MLFFLs. Moreover, a peculiar multi-soliton mode-locking state is also observed, in which the time interval between the solitons varies irregularly from tens of picoseconds to several nanoseconds.

© 2023 Optica Publishing Group

Mid-infrared ultrashort pulses generated from a hybrid mode-locked Er:ZBLAN fiber laser

Linpeng Yu, Qinghui Zeng, Shuai Wang, Jinhui Liang, Jinzhang Wang, Jiachen Wang, Xing Luo, Peiguang Yan, Fanlong Dong, Xing Liu, Qitao Lue, Chunyu Guo, and Shuangchen Ruan
Opt. Express 31(2) 2261-2269 (2023)

Wavelength-tunable spatiotemporal mode-locking in a large-mode-area Er:ZBLAN fiber laser at 2.8 µm

Qinghui Zeng, Ziya Tang, Deqin Ouyang, Linpeng Yu, Jiachen Wang, Xing Luo, Wenjun Dong, Peiguang Yan, Jinzhang Wang, Pengfei Wang, Qitao Lue, Chunyu Guo, and Shuangchen Ruan
Opt. Lett. 49(5) 1117-1120 (2024)

High-power yellow DSR pulses generated from a mode-locked Dy:ZBLAN fiber laser

Saiyu Luo, Han Gu, Xiao Tang, Xiang Geng, Li Li, and Zhiping Cai
Opt. Lett. 47(5) 1157-1160 (2022)

All-polarization-maintaining NALM mode-locked Er/Yb-doped large-mode-area fiber oscillator

Kuilei Yang, Lei Feng, Kun Wei, Cuiling Liu, Huiye Zhu, Chunyu Guo, Peiguang Yan, Shuangchen Ruan, and Jinzhang Wang
Opt. Lett. 47(19) 4893-4896 (2022)

Demonstration of 0.67-mJ and 10-ns high-energy pulses at 2.72 µm from large core Er:ZBLAN fiber amplifiers

Weizhi Du, Xuan Xiao, Yifan Cui, John Nees, Igor Jovanovic, and Almantas Galvanauskas
Opt. Lett. 45(19) 5538-5541 (2020)