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Opt Express. 2015;23(5):6738-46. Michel Olivier,1,2,* Marc-Daniel Gagnon,1,2 and Michel Piché1
Abstract
A strategy to align a mode-locked fiber laser with nonlinear polarization rotation is presented. This strategy is based on measurements of the output polarization state. It is shown that, as the angle of a motorized polarization controller inside the cavity is swept, the laser eventually reaches a mode-locked regime and the values of the Stokes parameters undergo an abrupt change. The sensing of this sudden variation is thus used to detect the mode-locking condition and a feedback mechanism drives the alignment of the polarization controller to force mode locking.
