Abstract

We demonstrate a compact, self-starting mode-locked thulium-doped fiber laser based on nonlinear polarization evolution (NPE), with a fundamental repetition rate of ${\sim}{{344}}\;{\rm{MHz}}$ and a pulse duration of ${\sim}{{160}}\;{\rm{fs}}$. The generated pulses centered at ${\sim}{{1975}}\;{\rm{nm}}$ have a maximum output power of ${\sim}{{560}}\;{\rm{mW}}$, corresponding to a pulse energy of ${\sim}{1.63}\;{\rm{nJ}}$. To the best of our knowledge, the achieved repetition rate represents the highest value of fundamentally NPE mode-locked fiber lasers at ${\sim}{{2}}\;{{\unicode{x00B5}{\rm m}}}$, while the average output power is also higher than the previously reported 2 µm ultrafast single-mode fiber oscillators. The timing jitter in the integrated range [5 kHz, 10 MHz] and the integrated relative intensity noise in the range [10 Hz, 10 MHz] reach ${\sim}{{35}}\;{\rm{fs}}$ and ${\sim}{0.009}\%$, respectively. Our high-performance laser is an ideal candidate for various applications, including mid-infrared frequency metrology and high-speed optical sampling.

© 2020 Optical Society of America

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