Sub-100-as timing jitter optical pulse trains from mode-locked Er-fiber lasers

We demonstrate sub-100-as timing jitter optical pulse trains generated from free-running, 77.6 MHz repetition-rate, mode-locked Er-fiber lasers. At -0.002(+/-0.001) ps(2) net cavity dispersion, the rms timing jitter is 70 as (224 as) integrated from 10 kHz (1 kHz) to 38: 8 MHz offset frequency, when measured by a 24 as resolution balanced optical cross correlator. To our knowledge, this result corresponds to the lowest rms timing jitter measured from any mode-locked fiber lasers so far. The measured result also agrees fairly well with the Namiki-Haus analytic model of quantum-limited timing jitter in stretched-pulse fiber lasers. (C) 2011 Optical Society of America