Figure-8: The Shape of Ultrafast Performance

Engineered for Performance. Designed for Simplicity.

At MPBC, we take pride in integrating the figure-8 architecture into our femtosecond lasers, delivering high-performance pulse generation in a compact, reliable, and highly customizable platform designed for industrial and scientific environments.

Ultrashort-pulse fiber lasers are essential tools across industries like medical imaging, semiconductor manufacturing, telecommunications, and precision materials processing. Their ability to deliver high-quality results without thermal damage comes from generating extremely short pulses that deposit energy faster than heat can spread. Achieving such performance requires not only cutting-edge mode-locking mechanisms but also robust designs that ensure environmental stability.

Figure-8 

The figure-8 laser stands out among ultrafast fiber lasers for its unique architecture and advantages. This configuration consists of two loops: a bi-directional nonlinear amplifying loop and a uni-directional loop with an optical isolator, joined by a fused fiber coupler. This design supports passive mode-locking through a nonlinear optical loop mirror (NOLM) or a nonlinear amplifying loop mirror (NALM), allowing self-starting, stable pulse formation without the need for active modulators or feedback systems.

MPBC’s implementation leverages these principles while simplifying the architecture, removing the need for gain in the uni-directional loop and reducing pump laser requirements. This results in lower system complexity, improved reliability, and cost-effectiveness.

Key benefits of MPBC’s figure-8 femtosecond lasers include:

• Stable, Self-Starting Operation: Achieves consistent, single-pulse generation from noise—no active control needed.‍
• Fine Control of Pulse Characteristics: Pulse energy, bandwidth, and duration are easily tunable via pump power adjustment in a single gain element.‍
• High Repetition Rates and Narrow Pulse Widths: Delivers >5 MHz repetition rates and <15 ps pulses with >1 mW output—ideal for demanding ultrafast applications.‍
• Dispersion Management: Incorporates both normal and anomalous dispersion fiber segments (and components like CFBGs) to enable stretched or compressed pulse operation with ultra-low noise.‍
• Industrial Readiness: With polarization-maintaining (PM) fibers and components, our lasers maintain stable output under varying environmental conditions, crucial for real-world deployment.