Diverse mode of operation of an all-normal-dispersion mode-locked fiber laser employing two nonlinear loop mirrors.

Abstract

In this paper, we propose an all-normal-dispersion ytterbium-fiber laser with a novel ring cavity architecture having two nonlinear amplifying loop mirrors (NALM) as saturable absorbers, capable of delivering distinctly different pulses with adjustable features. By optimizing the loop lengths of the individual NALMs, the cavity can be operated to deliver Q-switched mode-locked (Q-ML) pulse bunches with adjustable repetition rates, mode-locked pulses in dissipative soliton resonance (DSR) regime or noise-like pulse (NLP) regime with tunable pulse width. The DSR pulses exhibit characteristic narrowband spectrum, while the NLPs exhibit large broadband spectrum. The operation regime of the laser can be controlled by adjusting the amplifier pump powers and the polarization controllers. To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first demonstration of a single mode-locked cavity where narrowband DSR pulses and broadband NLPs alongside Q-ML pulse bunches can be selectively generated by employing two NALMs.