Large-mode-area soliton fiber oscillator mode-locked using NPE in an all-PM self-stabilized interferometer

In this work, we investigate an approach to scale up the output pulse energy in an all-polarization-maintaining 17.3 MHz Yb-doped fiber oscillator via implementation of a 25 mu m core-diameter large-mode-area fiber. The artificial saturable absorber is based on a Kerr-type linear self-stabilized fiber interferometer, enabling non-linear polariza-tion rotation in polarization-maintaining fibers. Highly stable mode-locked steady states in the soliton-like oper-ation regime are demonstrated with 170 mW average output power and a total output pulse energy of similar to 10 nJ dis-tributed between two output ports. An experimental parameter comparison with a reference oscillator constructed with 5.5 mu m core-sized standard fiber components reveals an increase of pulse energy by a factor of 36 with simulta-neously reduced intensity noise in the high-frequency range >100 kHz.