All-fiber all-normal dispersion laser with a fiber-based Lyot filter

We propose the use of a short section of polarization-maintaining fiber as a birefringent medium to construct an all-fiber Lyot filter inside the cavity of a fiber laser. This allows mode-locked operation of an all-fiber all-normal dispersion Yb-fiber oscillator without the use of a bulk bandpass filter and using standard components. Moreover, filter bandwidth and modulation depth is easily controlled by changing the length and splice angle of the polarization-maintaining-fiber section, leading to an adjustable filter. At mode-locked operation, the 30% output fiber port delivers 1 nJ pulses that are dechirped to 230 fs duration. (C) 2010 Optical Society of America