Abstract

The erbium fiber soiiton laser¹ provides a simple source of picosecond soliton pulses. However, the bandwidth of erbium is capable of providing amplification for pulses in the 100-fs range.² Although linear systems have been shown to be capable of producing subpicosecond pulses,³ over the past year several investigators have reported on femtosecond pulse generation from erbium lasers using the figure-of-eight configuration,⁴ the first successful reported operation of which was by Duling.⁵

© 1992 Optical Society of America