10 GHz, 1 ps regeneratively modelocked fibre laser incorporating highly nonlinear and dispersive photonic crystal fibre for intracavity nonlinear pulse compression

A tunable polarisation maintaining regeneratively modelocked erbium fibre laser in which a photonic crystal fibre (PCF) was used for intracavity nonlinear pulse compression is demonstrated. The high nonlinearity and large anomalous dispersion of the PCF made pulse compression achievable in a length of only 10 m. Pulses with 1 ps width and 10 GHz repetition rate were obtained over a range of 1535-1560 nm.