All-PM Yb-doped mode-locked fiber laser with high single pulse energy and high repetition frequency

Abstract We demonstrate an all-polarization-maintaining (PM) ytterbium (Yb)-doped fiber laser with a figure-of-9 structure to generate mode-locked pulses with high single pulse energy and high repetition frequency. By exploiting the nonlinear amplifying loop mirror (NALM), a stably self-started mode-locking is achieved with a spectrum bandwidth of 13 nm and a pulse duration of 4.53 ps. The fundamental frequency is 97.966 MHz at the maximum output power of 143 mW in single pulse mode-locked operation, corresponding to the single pulse energy is 1.46 nJ. The output pulses maintain both high repetition frequency and high single-pulse energy. Moreover, the superior stability of the mode-locked operation was measured in 45 minutes. This laser oscillator can be an ideal seed source for applications such as high-energy amplifiers.