Tm-doped mode-locked fiber lasers

Ultrashort pulse fiber lasers are increasingly used in various areas for scientific as well as industrial purposes. In contrast to ultrashort pulse lasers based on ytterbium- and erbium-doped fibers, the dispersion of silica fibers in the amplification band of thulium-doped fibers around 2 μm is typically anomalous, which has fundamental impact on the pulse propagation. In this paper, mode-locked thulium-doped fiber lasers operating in different pulse propagation schemes are presented. The transfer of various concepts into the 2 μm wavelength range, which have been successfully applied for pulse parameter scaling in the 1 and 1.5 μm spectral region, are discussed on the basis of experimental and numerical results.