Generation of dark solitons in a self-mode-locked Tm-Ho doped fiber laser

We present the first experimental demonstration of self-mode-locked dark solitons in a Tm-Ho doped fiber laser at 1.93 mu m with an average power of 149.6 mW and repetition rate of 15.9 MHz. In our system, the dark solitons are generated by self-mode-locking via exploiting the reverse saturable excited-state absorption of a gain fiber, which achieves a higher damage threshold and accordingly laser power over conventional methods based on extra saturable absorber or nonlinear polarization rotation. In the experiments, we study the evolution from high-order to low-order dark solitons by adjusting the pump power, which is attributed to the excited-state absorption in Tm3+ between F-3(4) and H-3(4) energy level. Simulations have been performed to show dark soliton generation by the reverse-saturable absorption mechanism in Tm-Ho doped fiber laser based on the extended nonlinear Schrodinger equation. The results confirm our new approach can generate stable dark solitons of high average power, which may find important applications in laser sensing and laser communications.

Automated summary

This paper presents the first experimental demonstration of self-mode-locked dark solitons in a Tm-Ho doped fiber laser at 1.93 μm. The dark solitons are generated by exploiting the reverse saturable excited-state absorption of a gain fiber, achieving higher power and damage threshold compared to conventional methods. Simulation results confirm the generation of stable dark solitons with high average power using this approach.