Self-starting, passively mode-locked Fabry-Perot fiber solitonlaser using nonlinear polarization evolution

The authors demonstrate pure self-starting mode-locked operation in a fiber Fabry-Perot cavity. The laser produces 1.6 ps transform-limited soliton pulses by means of nonlinear polarization evolution in conjunction with an intracavity fiber polarizer. This laser system can be used for the generation and study of soliton pulses in the picosecond regime. With a careful choice of the fiber dispersion and fiber length, the system should also be able to operate in the femtosecond regime. The advantage of the system over existing self-starting fiber soliton lasers is that an optical isolator (an expensive component) is not required. The replacement of the two mirrors with fiber reflection gratings would make this configuration a truly all-fiber device