Mode-locked 2 mum laser with highly thulium-doped silicate fiber.
We report self-starting passively mode-locked fiber lasers with a saturable absorber mirror using a piece of 30-cm-long newly developed highly thulium (Tm)-doped silicate glass fibers. The mode-locked pulses operate at 1980 nm with duration of 1.5 ps and energy of 0.76 nJ. This newly developed Tm-doped silicate fiber exhibits a slope efficiency of 68.3%, an amplified spontaneous emission spectrum bandwidth (FWHM) of 92 nm, and a gain per unit length of greater than 2 dB/cm. To the best of our knowledge, it is the first demonstration of mode-locked 2 mum fiber laser using shorter than 1-m-long active fiber, which paves the way for the demonstration of mode-locked fiber laser at 2 mum with gigahertz fundamental repetition rate.
Wang
Q
Q
AdValue Photonics Inc., 4585 South Palo Verde Road, Suite 405, Tucson, Arizona 85714, USA.
Geng
J
J
Luo
T
T
Jiang
S
S