Abstract

We demonstrate, for the first time to our knowledge, a self-starting passive harmonic mode-locked femtosecond ${\mathrm{Yb}}^{3+}$-doped fiber laser with a scalable repetition rate of up to 585 MHz and $>45 \mathrm{dB}$ of supermode suppression. Pulse-to-pulse jitter of $\sim 14 \mathrm{ps}$ is measured by optical cross correlation at the ninth harmonic, and radio-frequency (RF) spectrum measurements show that certain correlations exist between pulses in harmonic mode. Our results suggest that one of the proposed passive harmonic mode-locking mechanisms may be dominant for this laser.

© 2004 Optical Society of America

Colliding-pulse passive harmonic mode-locking in a femtosecond Yb-doped fiber laser with a semiconductor saturable absorber

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