Saturable absorber modelocked polarisation maintaining erbium-doped fibre laser

Abstract

Using a polarisation-maintaining erbium-doped fibre near the zero dispersion wavelength and a bulk InGaAsP saturable absorber, the authors passively modelock a fibre laser to generate nearly transform-limited 320 fs pulses with 40pJ energy. The laser produces a stable state of linear polarisation and the semiconductor, which acts both as a slow and fast saturable absorber, self-starts the laser.