High-energy ultrashort-pulse all-fiber erbium-doped ring laser with improved free-running performance

We report on stable stretched-pulse generation with a pulse duration (at FWHM) ∼180  fs at a central wavelength of 1560 nm with an average output power of 30 mW at a repetition rate of ∼11.3  MHz (with the signal-to-noise ratio at a fundamental frequency ∼59  dB) with an Allan deviation of a pulse repetition frequency of ∼5.75·10−9 for a 1 s interval and a relative intensity noise of <−101  dBc/Hz<−101  dBc/Hz (30–1000 kHz). This corresponds to a <14.7  kW maximum peak power and a <2.6  nJ maximum available pulse energy obtained immediately from the highly nonlinear all-fiber laser resonator.