Timing-Jitter Reduction by Use of a Spectral Filter in a Broadband Femtosecond Fiber Laser

We demonstrate an experimental reduction of timing jitter in a nonlinear-polarization-evolution-based passively mode-locked fiber laser. This laser operates on the stretched pulse regime at 201 MHz repetition rate. By incorporating a proper bandpass filter (BPF) into the cavity, the effect of the BPF on pulse output characteristics is investigated. The timing jitter of the output pulse is reduced significantly from 29.9 to 17.4 fs (both integrated within 1 kHz-10 MHz) and the full-width at half-maximum is >60 nm. This high repetition rate, low timing jitter, broadband fiber laser could be an excellent candidate for high-speed, and high-resolution photonic analog-to-digital conversion system.