Mode-locked Yb-doped large-mode-area photonic crystal fiber laser operating in the vicinity of zero cavity dispersion

A passively mode-locked ytterbium-doped large- mode-area photonic crystal fiber oscillator operating in the vicin- ity of zero cavity dispersion is demonstrated. The self-starting mode-locking operation is achieved by a high contrast saturable absorber mirror. Two mode-locking regimes with opposite signs of net cavity dispersion are investigated. At a net cavity disper- sion of -0.0035 ps 2 , the fiber laser directly generates 10-nJ laser pulses with an average power of 630 mW at 65.3 MHz repetition rate. The pulses can be dechirped to 78 fs by extracavity disper- sion compensation. The pulse energy is scaled up to 18 nJ, yield- ing an average power of 1.2 W, when the cavity dispersion is set at 0.0035 ps 2 . In this regime, the laser output can be extracavity- dechirped to 120 fs. Dynamics of pulse evolution in the fiber laser is illustrated by numerical simulation, which agrees well with ex- perimental results. -1.0 -0.5 0 0.5 1.0 Time, ps

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