Numerical study on the maximum small-signal gain coefficient in passively mode-locked fiber lasers

摘要

Ultrashort pulses have been found to have important applications in many fields, such as ultrafast diagnosis, biomedical engineering, and optical imaging. Passively mode-locked fiber lasers have become a tool for generating picosecond and femtosecond pulses. In this paper, the evolution of a picosecond laser pulse in different stable passively mode-locked fiber laser is analyzed using nonlinear Schroedinger equation. Firstly, different mode-locked regimes are calculated with different net cavity dispersion (from ～-0.3 ps~2 to ～+0.3 ps~2). Then we calculate the maximum small-signal gain on the different net cavity dispersion conditions, and estimate the pulse width, 3 dB bandwidth and time bandwidth product (TBP) when the small-signal gain coefficient is selected as the maximum value. The results show that the small signal gain coefficient is approximately proportional to the net cavity. Moreover, when the small signal gain coefficient reaches the maximum value, the pulse width of the output pulse and their corresponding TBP show a trend of increase gradually, and 3dB bandwidth shows a trend of increase firstly and then decrease. In addition, in the case that the net dispersion is positive, because of the pulse with quite large frequency chirp, the revolution to dechirp the pulse is researched and the output of the pulse is compressed and its compression ratio reached more than 10 times. The results provide a reference for the optimization of passively mode-locked fiber lasers.