Modelocked Fiber Ring Lasers

摘要

The MIT work on passively mode-locked erbium doped fiber ring lasers is reviewed. After a discussion of the polarization-additivie pulse modelocking principle, the characteristics of a laser using the "soliton" principle of operation are presented,followed by those of the "stretched pulse" laser. The timing jitter in lasers of both types is exceptionally small and can be attributed solely to the spontaneous emission noise. It is shown that the ring configuration is conducive to self-starting. Finally we describe the operation of an environmentally stabilized version of the stretched pulse laser.