Stable picosecond pulse generation at 1.3 µm in a Pr3+-doped all-fiber laser actively mode-locked using a novel fiber-optic phase modulator

Rare-earth doped fibers can be used to realize simple, compact sources of ultrashort pulses. To date, considerable effort has been developed to obtain short pulse generation in Er3+-doped fiber lasers at 1.55 µm. Contrary to this, little work has been done on Pr3+-doped fiber lasers emitting an important 1.3 µm. This report describes an all-fiber laser incorporating a Pr3+-doped active fiber, fiber Bragg gratings (FBGs) as cavity mirrors, and a novel piezoelectric fiber-optic phase modulator (PFOM) for active mode-locking.