Environmentally Stable Mode-locked Fibre Lasers in the Near-Infrared

Abstract

This thesis is a study of environmentally stable, mode-locked fibre laser systems operating in the near-infrared. Such lasers can be characterised as all-fibre systems, producing pulses of picosecond or femtosecond duration. The thesis covers a range of regimes of operation, across three wavelength bands that span the entire near-infrared. These are the 1 µm, 1.55 µm, and 2 µm bands, using ytterbium-, erbium-, and thulium-doped fibre, respectively. From 1 –2 µm, the optical characteristics of silica optical fibre change considerably, giving us an ample landscape to investigate the behaviour high pulse energy (∼ nJ) laser sources in depth. In this thesis we present a novel implementation of an all-normal dispersion laser and amplifier at 1064 nm, an ultralow repetition rate laser at 1030 nm, a large net-normal dispersion laser at 1550 nm, and a soliton laser and a large net-normal dispersion laser at 1980 nm, amplified in a 2-stage amplifier system.