Synthesis of a single cycle of light with compact erbium-doped fibre technology

The advent of self-referenced optical frequency combs(1,2) has sparked the development of novel areas in ultrafast sciences such as attosecond technology(3,4) and the synthesis of arbitrary optical waveforms(5,6). Few-cycle light pulses are key to these time-domain applications, driving a quest for reliable, stable and cost-efficient mode-locked laser sources with ultrahigh spectral bandwidth. Here, we present a set-up based entirely on compact erbium-doped fibre technology, which produces single cycles of light. The pulse duration of 4.3 fs is close to the shortest possible value for a data bit of information transmitted in the near-infrared regime. These results demonstrate that fundamental limits for optical telecommunications are accessible with existing fibre technology and standard free-space components.