Polarized dissipative solitons in all-polarization-maintained fiber laser with long-term stable self-started mode-locking

We demonstrated a polarization-maintained dissipative soliton fiber laser. It was self-started and capable of outputting stable nanosecond mode-locked pulses through the nonlinear rotation inside fibers connected with a Faraday reflective mirror. The setup of the fiber laser ensured the output pulses with good polarization extinction, high pulse contrast, and quite good long-term stability against environmental disturbance. The mode-locked pulses were centered at 1030 nm with a narrow spectral bandwidth and had a pulse duration of 7 ns, while the pulse repetition rate could be varied from 1 to 8MHz by setting the fiber cavity length. The output pulse energy reached 20 nJ at the repetition rate of 1MHz. (C) 2014 AIP Publishing LLC.