Monolithic polarization-insensitive passively mode-locked fiber laser

Summary form only given. Fiber lasers have by now become popular sources for short optical pulses. Triggered by the need for compact sources for telecommunication: turn-key operation with somewhat complex packages has recently been achieved. The use of fiber lasers as true ´power supplies´ for short optical pulses, however, requires an extremely rugged, unsophisticated design. Indeed we demonstrate here for the first time such a package, by constructing a fully-integrated, completely polarization-insensitive Nd³⁺-doped fiber laser.