Multiwavelength picosecond and single wavelength femtosecond pulses emission in a passively mode-locked fiber laser using a semiconductor saturable absorber mirror and a contrast ratio tunable comb filter

Appl Opt. 2011 Jun 20;50(18):2831-5. doi: 10.1364/AO.50.002831.

Abstract

We propose and demonstrate a highly flexible fiber laser capable of generating stable multiwavelength picosecond and single wavelength femtosecond pulses by using a semiconductor saturable absorber mirror and a contrast ratio tunable comb filter. In the multiwavelength lasing regime, up to 11-wavelength stable mode-locked pulses in 3 dB bandwidth with a channel spacing of 0.8 nm were obtained. While in the single wavelength with broadband spectrum lasing regime, the fiber laser emitted 576 fs soliton pulse. Through changing the contrast ratio of the comb filter, the conversion between the multiwavelength picosecond and single wavelength femtosecond pulsed operations could be efficiently achieved.