Unidirectional dissipative soliton operation in an-normal-dispersion bidirectional Yb-doped fiber laser without an isolator

Abstract

We demonstrate self-started unidirectional dissipative soliton operation and noise-like pulse operation in an all-normal-dispersion bidirectional Yb-doped fiber laser mode-locked by nonlinear polarization rotation. The laser works unidirectional once mode locking was achieved due to the cavity directional nonlinearity asymmetry along with the nonlinear polarization rotation mode locking mechanism.