Controllable multipulsing in a 1 μm dissipative soliton mode-locked laser

• Dissipative soliton mode-locking can be achieved in fiber lasers based on double-clad active fibers. • Proper cavity design allows achieving controllable multipulsing in the dissipative soliton regime. • Dissipative soliton multipulsing can be modelled using lumped-elements-based numerical model. We demonstrate a dissipative soliton mode-locked fiber laser with controllable multipulsing. The laser was constructed in a figure-8, nonlinear amplifying loop mirror, all-in fiber cavity configuration using polarization maintaining fibers and components and a 2-meter long PM double-clad active fiber as the gain medium. The self-starting configuration was capable of generating between 1 and 25 subnanosecond pulses in a single bunch, at a 4.05 MHz repetition rate. The number of pulses generated in a single bunch was controllable via the pump power delivered to the active fiber. We provide and discuss a theoretical model of the laser, along with an experimental investigation of the pulse splitting and the laser stability. The capability of utilizing the lasers as a seed source for further amplification was experimentally verified, reaching an output power of 2.63 W during the multipulse operation.