Abstract
We demonstrate a fiber source with the best performance from an ultrafast fiber oscillator to date. The ring-cavity Mamyshev oscillator produces ~50-nJ and ~40-fs pulses. The peak power is an order of magnitude higher than that of previous lasers with similar fiber mode area. This performance is achieved by designing the oscillator to support parabolic pulse formation which enables the management of unprecedented nonlinear phase shifts. Experimental results are limited by available pump power. Numerical simulations reveal key aspects of the pulse evolution, and realistically suggest that (after external compression) peak powers that approach 10 MW are possible from ordinary single-mode fiber. The combination of practical features such as environmental stability, established previously, with the performance described here make the Mamyshev oscillator extremely attractive for applications.
Highlights
A consensus goal of research on ultrafast fiber lasers has been to develop an alternative to the solid-state mode-locked oscillator, with the purported benefits of the fiber platform: relatively low cost, simplicity, and robustness
The results presented here explore the system in connection and contrast to mode-locked fiber lasers
Many questions remain about the Mamyshev oscillator, and its unique features suggest a wide variety of uses and phenomena which, to date, have been under-explored compared to conventional mode-locked laser cavities and coherently-driven high-Q optical resonators
Summary
A consensus goal of research on ultrafast fiber lasers has been to develop an alternative to the solid-state mode-locked oscillator, with the purported benefits of the fiber platform: relatively low cost, simplicity, and robustness. Fiber ultrafast instruments could be transformative in enabling both widespread scientific and industrial applications of ultrafast pulses. For this they need to simultaneously reach sufficient performance and be amenable both to cost-effective manufacturing and use by non-experts. In laboratory prototypes that utilize nonlinear polarization evolution (NPE) as an effective saturable absorber, these sources rival solidstate oscillators. Their typical performance of ~20-nJ and sub-100 fs pulses from standard single-mode fiber (SMF) represent order-of-magnitude higher peak power than early soliton
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