All-polarization-maintaining Er-doped ultrashort-pulse fiber laser using carbon nanotube saturable absorber.

We present an all-polarization-maintaining Er-doped ultrashort-pulse fiber laser using a single-wall carbon nanotube polyimide nanocomposite saturable absorber. The maximum average power for single-pulse operation is 4.8 mW, and the repetition frequency is 41.3 MHz. Self-start and stable mode-locking operation is achieved. The RF amplitude noise is also examined and it is confirmed that the noise figure is as low as that of a solid-state laser. Using a polarization-maintaining anomalous dispersive fiber, a 314 fs output pulse is compressed to 107 fs via higher-order soliton compression. The peak power of the compressed pulse is up to 1.1 kW.