Three types of pulses delivered from a nanotube-mode-locked fiber laser

Three types of pulses are experimentally investigated in a switchable normal-dispersion nanotube-mode-locked fiber laser by adjusting polarizer controller and pump power. They are a standard dissipative-soliton (DS), conventional soliton (CS)-like pulse, and noiselike pulse, which correspond to three mode-locking states. The standard DS with a rectangular spectrum possesses a Gaussian-shape pulse. The CS-like operation has a Lorenz shape, and the spectrum involves several sidebands similar to the CS case. For the noiselike pulse with a bell-shaped spectrum, a 317 fs peak rides upon the 132.5 ps pedestal in the autocorrelation trace. The spectra of these three pulse operations are centered at three close wavelengths. The generation of three such different types of pulses in one identical normal- dispersion laser cavity may find an important application for the future of mode-locked laser research. (paper)