GENERATION OF PULSES SHORTER THAN 200 FS FROM A PASSIVELY MODE-LOCKED ER FIBER LASER

The generation of stable bandwidth-limited pulses as short as 180 fs with pulse energies as high as 100 pJ is demonstrated with a passively mode-locked Er fiber laser. These are to our knowledge the shortest and most intense pulses directly produced from a mode-locked Er fiber laser to date. A wide stability regime is achieved by using a dispersion-compensated cavity and employing nonlinear polarization evolution for passive amplitude modulation.