40-GHz modulational instability erbium-doped fiber ring laser incorporating a sampled fiber Bragg grating

Summary form only given. We have successfully shown the generation of picosecond pulse trains at high repetition rates in an all-fiber ring configuration. The ring laser has a simple configuration utilizing a sampled fiber Bragg grating. The mode-locking mechanisms are the combined actions of lasing spectral line confinement and overall filtering in the sampled grating, modulational instability in the dispersion-shifted fiber, and polarization switching through the polarizing isolator. Transform-limited pulses with pulse widths as short as 4.4 ps have been achieved. This compact diode-pumped ring laser has a low threshold and is useful for future high-bit-rate light-wave communication.