Monolithic polarization-insensitive passively mode-locked fiber laser

Summary form only given. Fiber lasers have by now become popular sources for short optical pulses. Triggered by the need for compact sources for telecommunication: turn-key operation with somewhat complex packages has recently been achieved. The use of fiber lasers as true 'power supplies' for short optical pulses, however, requires an extremely rugged, unsophisticated design. Indeed we demonstrate here for the first time such a package, by constructing a fully-integrated, completely polarization-insensitive Nd/sup 3+/-doped fiber laser.