Mode-locked all-fiber laser with active amplitude modulation

CUADRADO LABORDE, CHRISTIAN; DIEZ, ANTONIO; CRUZ, JOSE LUIS; ANDRES BOU, MIGUEL

Barcelona, Spain

Workshop; 18th International Laser Physics Workshop (LPHYS’09); 2009

ICFO

All-fiber lasers are robust and compact coherent light sources. However, all-fiber active modelocking is a challenging objective and very few all-fiber techniques have been published. Here, we present the development of a mode-locked fiber laser based on a low-insertion-loss all-fiber amplitude modulator that works in the MHz range. The modulation is based on the acousto-optic interaction of extensional waves with a fiber Bragg grating (FGB). While traveling extensional acoustic waves launched along a FBG produce stationary side bands and a frequency shift, we found that the generation of a standing extensional acoustic wave should produce no frequency shift, but the amplitude modulation of the side-bands at twice the frequency of the acoustic wave. This approach has demonstrated its suitability to perform active mode-locking of an all-fiber laser. Here we present a summary of the output characteristics of the laser under different cavity configurations.