Passively mode-locked waveguide laser with low residual jitter

Picosecond pulses at 1.53 μm with low residual jitter are generated from a passively mode-locked erbium/ytterbium codoped planar waveguide laser in an extended cavity configuration. The round-trip frequency of the laser cavity is actively referenced to the frequency of a stable electronic oscillator; this lowers the residual root-mean-square timing jitter to 83 fs over the frequency range of our phase-noise measurement system 100 Hz-10 MHz.