Intrinsic Amplitude-Noise Suppression in Fiber Lasers Mode-locked with Nonlinear Amplifying Loop Mirrors

Abstract

In this work, we investigate the steady-states of a fiber lasers mode-locked with a nonlinear amplifying loop-mirror that has an inherent amplitude noise-suppression mechanism. Due to the interaction of the sinusoidal transmission function with the fluctuating intracavity pulse amplitude we show that this mechanism may lead to a detectable difference in relative intensity noise at the reflected and transmitted output port under specific preconditions. We present systematic intensity noise measurements with a nonlinear fiber-based system that replicates a single roundtrip in the laser cavity. Experimental results and simulations clearly show a reduction of the intracavity amplitude fluctuations up to 4 dB for certain steady-states.