Generation of ultra-high repetition rate pulse trains in a quadruply resonant optical fiber parametric oscillator

Summary form only given. Modulational instability (MI) in an optical fiber leads to the spontaneous break-up of a continuous wave (cw) excitation into a periodic train of ultrashort pulses. Owing to the simplicity of this ultrashort pulse formation process, the exploitation of MI has been considered in many studies for the realization of laser sources adapted to ultrahigh bit-rate optical transmissions. However, despite its simplicity, the MI process is very difficult to control and has actually never been observed in the cw regime. In our communication, following recent theoretical investigations, we show that a high-finesse passive fiber resonator, despite its phase sensitivity, allows us to overcome all the difficulties inherent to the use of MI. In this way, we demonstrate experimentally, for the first time to our knowledge, the generation of cw pulse trains through MI.