Passively synchronized erbium (1550-nm) and ytterbium (1040-nm) mode-locked fiber lasers sharing a cavity

Erbium and ytterbium. fiber lasers were firmly synchronized by nonlinear interaction in active media placed in the same cavity. A two-color femtosecond-picosecond pulse train at largely separate wavelengths of 1.55 and 1.04 mum was generated. Optimizing the laser cavity to enhance the cross-phase modulation in the gain materials has yielded a large mismatch of 20 mum between the two laser cavities. (C) 2004 Optical Society of America.