A polarization maintaining, dispersion managed, femtosecond figure-eight fiber laser

We demonstrate a polarization maintaining, figure-eight erbium-doped fiber laser with a dispersion managed cavity. The laser was passively modelocked and produced pulses that were de-chirped to 427 fs pulses outside the laser cavity. An intra-cavity amplitude modulator was used to initiate the pulses, but the modulator was turned off during femtosecond pulse operation.