Mode-Locked Ytterbium-Doped Fiber Lasers: New Perspectives

Abstract

In this article, we discuss recent advances in ultra-short pulse generation with ytterbium-doped fiber lasers. We discuss the fundamental properties and technical challenges of mode-locked single-mode fiber lasers operating in the 1-μm range, and the methods to achieve high peak-powers. We demonstrate a high-power passively mode-locked fiber laser based on a photonic crystal fiber featuring large-mode-core and short absorption length that greatly exceed the power limitation of single-mode fiber oscillators. Multi-watts average powers in sub-picosecond pulses are obtained. This open new avenue to new performance levels of ultra-short pulse solid-state lasers.

Keywords:

• fiber lasers
• pulse propagation
• solitons
• ultrafast lasers

Acknowledgment

We acknowledge helpful discussions with B. Ortaç. This work is supported by the National Agency of Research (ANR) under project OFFEMET. This work is part of the PhoNoMi2 GDR network.