Master’s Thesis Defense Electro-Optics and Photonics Tuesday, November 21, 2017 3:15 PM SC 062 All are welcome to attend. SIMULATION OF OPTICAL LOOP MIRROR IN ULTRAFAST FIBER LASER SYSTEM Yimin Zang University of Dayton Abstract The ultrafast fiber laser system, which can generate the pulse with short duration and high peak power, has many technological applications. The mode-locking mechanism is widely applied to construct an ultrafast laser system. The saturable absorber action, which is characterized by higher transmittance at higher power input, is the key component to make a passive mode-locked laser. The thesis is focused on the simulation of the nonlinear optical loop mirror (NOLM) and the nonlinear amplifying loop mirror (NALM) inside the fiber laser cavity to create a fast saturable absorber action. Relationships between NOLM/NALM properties and output pulse’s peak power and energy are discussed in detail. In particular the transform limited pulse characteristics of both pulse duration and spectral width are examined. The generation of shorter pulses with higher peak power are explored.