Low threshold tunable soliton source

An actively mode-locked erbium-fiber laser with continuous wavelength tuning over the range 1528-1565 nm has been demonstrated. A gain-saturated InGaAsP NTW semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) is used as the active mode locking element, functioning as an amplitude modulator which provides gain and has <1 dB polarization dependence. The fiber laser is diode pumped at 1480 nm with a threshold of 6 mW, and provides pulses of 25 ps (FWHM) with a transform product of 0.4 and >12 dBm peak power.<
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