Open AccessHigh-energy femtosecond Yb-doped dispersion compensation free fiber laser
Author(s) -
Bülend Ortaç,
O. Schmidt,
Sabu Thomas,
Jens Limpert,
Andreas Tünnermann,
Ammar Hideur
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
optics express
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.394
H-Index - 271
ISSN - 1094-4087
DOI - 10.1364/oe.15.010725
Subject(s) - optics , materials science , fiber laser , femtosecond , photonic crystal fiber , laser , mode locking , dispersion (optics) , saturable absorption , optoelectronics , physics , wavelength
We report on a mode-locked high energy fiber laser operating in the dispersion compensation free regime. The sigma cavity is constructed with a saturable absorber mirror and short-length large-mode-area photonic crystal fiber. The laser generates positively-chirped pulses with an energy of 265 nJ at a repetition rate of 10.18 MHz in a stable and self-starting operation. The pulses are compressible down to 400 fs leading to a peak power of 500 kW. Numerical simulations accurately reflect the experimental results and reveal the mechanisms for self consistent intracavity pulse evolution. With this performance mode-locked fiber lasers can compete with state-of-the-art bulk femtosecond oscillators for the first time and pulse energy scaling beyond the muJ-level appears to be feasible.