Mode-locked all-PM Nd-doped fiber laser near 910  nm

We present a compact passively mode-locked fiber laser emitting near 910 nm with an all-polarization-maintaining fiber laser architecture. The ring-cavity laser configuration includes a core-pumped neodymium-doped fiber as a gain medium and a semiconductor saturable absorber mirror as a passive mode-locking element. A bandpass filter is used to suppress parasitic emission near 1.06 µm and allows wavelength tuning between 903 and 912 nm. The laser operates in a highly stable and self-starting all-normal-dispersion regime with a minimum pulse duration of 8 ps at 28.2 MHz pulse repetition rate and 0.2 nJ maximum pulse energy. A single-pass amplifier stage increases the pulse energy up to 1.5 nJ, and pulse compression with a pair of gratings is demonstrated with nearly Fourier transform limited pulses.