A Novel Passively Mode-Locked Femtosecond Fiber Ring Laser of High Stability and Ultra Compactness

The proposed compact and highly efficient mode-locked fiber ring laser is well suited for broadband THz spectrometer based on asynchronous optical sampling time-domain spectroscopy (TDS). Our novel design overcomes the hurdle of environmental instability associated with previous mode-locked fiber lasers. Our design is a self-starting passively mode-locked fiber ring laser with a novel cavity configuration without using discrete fiber optical components. The special ring cavity design enables stable mode-locked operation over a large temperature range and mode maintaining without the need for polarization-adjusting devices. In Phase I, we will experimentally demonstrate the feasibility by constructing a bend-top mode-locked ring laser with a novel integrated optical component module. The success feasibility prototyping will form the base for the fabrication of a fully functional fiber laser with 100 mW output power and <100 fs pulses as well as 100 MHz repetition rate with high stability in Phase II.

The proposed laser source with femtosecond lasers with low volume, low mass and high stability are necessary for development on a compact broadband THz spectrometer based on asynchronous optical sampling time-domain spectroscopy (TDS).

Mode-locked fiber lasers have attracted interest for their use in next-generation optical communications, optical sensing, optical signal processing, optical metrology, and optical interconnects because this class of lasers can be used to generate femtosecond pulses with very low timing jitter.

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