Wavelength-tunable spatiotemporal mode-locking in a large-mode-area Er:ZBLAN fiber laser at 2.8 µm

We report a tunable spatiotemporally mode-locked large-mode-area Er:ZBLAN fiber laser based on the nonlinear polarization rotation technique. A diffraction grating is introduced to select the operating wavelength. Under the spectral and spatial filtering effects provided by the grating and spatial coupling respectively, stable ps-level spatiotemporally mode-locked pulses around 2.8 µm with a repetition rate of 43.4 MHz are generated. Through a careful adjustment of the grating, a broad wavelength tuning range from 2747 to 2797 nm is realized. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first wavelength-tunable spatiotemporally mode-locked fiber laser in the mid-infrared region.