An actively mode-locked, 10-GHz, single-polarization, picosecond erbium fiber laser

Summary form only given. We have developed an actively mode locked laser that utilizes intracavity nonlinear pulse compression to produce a completely filled pulse train with a pulse duration of 1.24 ps at repetition rates in excess of 10 GHz. The laser is driven by an external oscillator allowing it to be synchronized to a master clock in an optical-fiber communications system. The components of the laser are either polarization-maintaining (PM) or are birefringence-compensated, making the laser insensitive to environmentally induced birefringence variations.