190-fs passively mode-locked thulium fiber laser with a low threshold

We report a self-starting passively mode-locked thulium-doped silica fiber laser capable of 190-fs pulses. This practical, compact package is driven by a single 50-mW passively cooled diode laser, has a launched pump-power threshold of 18 mW for mode locking, and produces a 50-MHz train of mode-locked 20-pJ pulses at a wavelength near 1.9 μm.