Ultrashort pulse fiber lasers and their applications

Abstract

Fiber lasers, which consist of ideal waveguides of optical fibers, work as stable, practical, and maintenance-free lasers. A passively mode-locked ultrashort pulse fiber laser using the intensity-dependent absorption element has made great progress using a new type of saturable absorber with a nanocarbon material. The techniques of ultrashort pulse amplification and pulse compression were also developed. Using a combination of specialty fibers, ultrawideband pulse sources, such as wavelength tunable ultrashort pulses and supercontinuum, can be demonstrated. These new light sources are useful for laser applications, especially for optical metrology. In this paper, the progress of highly functional ultrashort pulse fiber laser sources and their applications are reviewed mainly on the basis of the works of this author.