2.5 GHz harmonic mode locking from a femtosecond Yb-doped fiber laser with high fundamental repetition rate.

ABSTRACT

We experimentally demonstrated a high repetition rate harmonic mode-locked fiber laser with a high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and super mode suppression ratio. A novel approach using a laser with a high fundamental repetition rate and low harmonic order was presented. 2.5 GHz harmonic mode-locking from an Yb-doped fiber laser was realized with a short cavity length corresponding to a 167 MHz fundamental repetition rate. The laser operated at anomalous net dispersion regime and generated soliton-like pulses at 1050 nm. At the harmonic order of 15th, the laser had a stable output of 773 fs at 2.5 GHz with the average power of 48 mW under a subwatt pump power of 406 mW, and the time jitter was 2 ps. A high RF SNR over 70 dB was measured. A super mode suppression ratio was confirmed larger than 60 dB. This is, to the best of our knowledge, the highest SNR and super mode suppression ratio achieved in harmonic mode-locked fiber lasers with an over 2 GHz repetition rate.