All-fiber passively mode-locked laser using nonlinear multimode interference of step-index multimode fiber

We experimentally demonstrate for the first time, to the best of our knowledge, an all-fiber passively mode-locked laser operation based on the nonlinear multimode interference of step-index multimode fiber. Such a structure couples the light in and out of the multimode fiber via single-mode fibers, and its physical mechanisms for saturable absorption have been analyzed theoretically based on the third-order nonlinear Kerr effect of multimode fiber. Using the nonlinear multimode interference structure with 48.8 mm length step-index multimode fiber, the modulation depth has been measured to be ∼5%. The passively mode-locked laser output pulses have a central wavelength of 1596.66 nm, bandwidth of 2.18 nm, pulsewidth of ∼625  fs, and fundamental repetition rate of 8.726 MHz. Furthermore, the influence of total cavity dispersion on the optical spectrum, pulse width, and output power is investigated systematically by adding different lengths of single-mode fiber and dispersion compensation fiber in the laser cavity.