Dissipative soliton resonances in all-fiber Er-Yb double clad figure-8 laser

First demonstration of exploiting Dissipative Soliton Resonance (DSR) effects for generating high energy square-shaped pulses in an all-fiber mode-locked Double Clad (DC) erbium-ytterbium (Er-Yb) figure-8 laser (F8L) is presented. The laser was capable of generating 170 ns pulses with an average power of 1.7 W at 800 kHz repetition rate, which corresponds to a record pulse energy of 2.13 μJ, achieved directly from the resonator, without Q-switching, cavity dumping or additional amplifiers. Unique circulator-based out-coupling of high energy pulses in the directional loop is proposed as a method of preventing damage to the all-fiber setup. Appropriate laser design allowed utilizing Peak Power Clamping (PPC) effect for linear pulse duration tuning via changing the pump power.