Stable 80-GHz short pulse generation using the cascaded polarization-maintaining fiber loop mirrors

In this work, an optical short pulse generator is designed consisting of a pulse compressor and cascaded notch filter type repetition rate doublers. The performance characteristics such as pulsewidth and peak power as a function of design parameters are studied. The pulse compressor is optimized based on the simulation results. The 6-ps-wide pulses at 20-GHz repetition rate directly generated from mode-locked fiber laser are compressed to 1.25-ps-wide pulses. Using a set of polarization-maintaining fiber loop mirrors, the repetition rate is quadrupled and stable 1.45-ps-wide pulses at 80 GHz are achieved.