The main objective of this project is to investigate nonlinear phenomena in short-wave IR ultrafast fibre lasers, including the study of the mechanisms underlying self-organisation and generation of ultrashort pulses from noise or uniform field distribution. Particular attention will be paid to the investigation of ultrashort pulse formation by proper designing of nonlinear laser cavities, omitting application of conventional material saturable absorbers and artificial modulators. In contrast to conventional mode-locked fibre lasers, the performance of the developed sources will be controlled by proper selection of special fibres and the interplay between nonlinear and dispersive effects. Such laser configuration is beneficial since it is exceptionally simple, applicable for any wavelength and not dependent on the light polarisation, which makes the laser setup remarkably environmentally stable, which is highly important for future potential application. The proposed project will study fundamental aspects of nonlinear science, the coherence properties of the regular and irregular patterns associated with the dissipative Faraday instabilities in laser cavities.

The project is funded by the DFG grant under the number CH 2600/1-1, AOBJ: 677282.