Synchronously pumped mode-locked ultrafast ytterbium-doped fiber laser

Synchronously pumped mode-locking, which avoids the usage of saturable absorbers or intracavity modulators, is a promising technique to generate ultrashort pulses for industrial applications. However, because of the lack of all-fiber single-mode ultrafast pump sources, it is difficult to apply this technique in ytterbium-doped fiber lasers (YDFLs). To the best of our knowledge, this study has demonstrated a synchronously pumped mode-locked ul-trafast YDFL for the first time. Based on a home-built 976-nm pulsed fiber laser as the pump, it generates dissipative solitons with a pulse duration of 31.3 ps and a repetition frequency of similar to 27.95 MHz. The laser is developed with an all-polarization-maintaining architecture; therefore, it exhibits excellent environmental sta-bility and self-starting capacity. Furthermore, we have also conducted experimental work for investigating the mechanism of this mode-locking technique. The results indicate that instead of the gain modulation effect, the pulsed pump-induced cross-phase modulation effect plays a dominant role in pulse shaping. This study dem-onstrates a potential strategy for realizing high-performance ultrafast fiber sources in the spectral regions without efficient modulators or saturable absorbers.

Automated summary

This study demonstrates the successful realization of a synchronously pumped mode-locked ytterbium-doped fiber laser and investigates the mechanism of this mode-locking technique. The laser exhibits high performance and environmental stability, providing a potential strategy for achieving high-performance ultrafast fiber sources in spectral regions without efficient modulators or saturable absorbers.