Abstract

The soliton laser^1–3 consists of a synch-pumped mode-locked color center laser, tunable in the 1.5-μm region, coupled to a second cavity, containing a single-mode polarization preserving optical fiber (Fig. 1). Feedback from the fiber, where pulse compression and soliton formation take place, enables the color center laser to produce transform-limited pulses of ~sech² intensity profile and of any desired pulse width, down to ~100 fs, through choice of the control fiber length.

© 1986 Optical Society of America