Obtaining more energetic modelocked pulses from a SESAM-based fiber laser

Area of Science:

• Laser physics
• Optical engineering
• Computational modeling

Background:

• Increasing output power of femtosecond fiber lasers is crucial.
• Maintaining low noise and broad bandwidth alongside higher power is challenging.
• Semiconductor saturable absorbing mirror (SESAM) passively modelocked lasers are widely used.

Purpose of the Study:

• To computationally optimize the cavity design of a SESAM-passively modelocked femtosecond fiber laser.
• To achieve higher output power without sacrificing noise levels or bandwidth.
• To explore the relationship between cavity parameters and laser performance.

Main Methods:

• Utilized dynamical computational methods, significantly faster than standard evolutionary approaches.
• Performed a computational study to optimize laser cavity design parameters.
• Investigated the effects of output coupling ratio, gain, and anomalous group delay dispersion.

Main Results:

• Identified optimal cavity parameters for increased pulse energy.
• Achieved output pulses with 5 to 15 times the energy of the current experimental design.
• Demonstrated that higher pulse energies can be obtained without increasing noise or narrowing bandwidth.

Conclusions:

• Cavity design optimization is effective for enhancing femtosecond fiber laser performance.
• Simultaneous adjustment of output coupling, gain, and group delay dispersion is key to higher pulse energies.
• The developed computational approach offers a significant speed advantage for laser design.