Tunable mode-locked erbium-doped fiber laser based on a digital micro-mirror device

A tunable mode-locked erbium-doped fiber laser with a digital micro-mirror device (DMD) as the wavelength tuner and nonlinear amplifying loop mirror as the mode-locked device is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. The mode-locked pulse with the center wavelength of 1538-1565 nm continuously tunable is achieved. The average power of the output pulse is 1.028 mW, the pulse repetition frequency is 1.7 MHz, the pulse duration is 616 fs, and the single pulse energy is 0.6 nJ. By controlling the DMD, the center wavelength can be fine-tuned with the tuning accuracy of 0.07 nm. With the increase of the pump power, the traditional soliton pulse is transformed into a noise-like pulse (NLP), and the power of the NLP can reach 34 mW. This mode-locked process can work for a long time and is almost unaffected by the external environment. These results are very useful for applications where pulsed lasers with different wavelengths are needed.