Polarization-maintaining fiber Bragg gratings for wavelength selection in actively mode-locked Er-doped fiber lasers

Fiber Bragg gratings written in polarization-maintaining fiber are proposed for wavelength selection in actively mode-locked Er-doped fiber lasers. Combined with single-polarization optical circulator, they form unidirectional transmission filters that can be incorporated in polarization-maintaining laser cavities. We have fabricated such a grating in hydrogen-loaded PANDA fiber and we have incorporated it in a polarization-maintaining actively mode-locked Er-doped fiber laser designed to generate soliton-like pulses. Dependencies of pulse duration and spectral width on average intracavity power were measured. The power range over which soliton-like pulses were generated without pedestals was found to be ultimately limited by the grating's bandwidth.