High pulse energy mode-locked multicore photonic crystal fiber laser

A high pulse energy passively mode-locked fiber laser operating in the all-normal dispersion regime is demonstrated. The gain material is an Yb-doped multicore photonic crystal fiber with 18 cores in array-type geometry. Robust and self-starting mode locking is achieved using a fast semiconductor saturable absorber mirror. The laser generates 180 nJ chirped pulses at a 14.48 MHz repetition rate for an average power of 2.6 W. The 1.15 ps output pulses are compressed to 690 fs outside the cavity.