High-power figure-of-eight fiber laser with passive sub-ring loops for repetition rate control

The operation of an erbium figure-of-eight all-fiber laser with a fundamental repetition rate of 5.68 MHz, peak power of 0.7 kW and pulse width of 420 fs is reported. Four times the fundamental repetition rate is achieved with two passive sub-ring loops at a repetition rate of 22.8 MHz. The sub-ring loop consists of only a single-mode fiber coupler with an input port and output port connected so as to make the time delay an odd multiple half-period of the input pulse period. This method is simple and inexpensive when compared with conventional methods employing sub-ring cavity or special fiber Bragg grating to control repetition rate. (c) 2006 Optical Society of America.