Short-pulsed Raman fiber laser and its dynamics

We provide a perspective review over the recent development of short-pulsed Raman fiber lasers (RFLs), which can provide laser emissions with flexible wavelengths for a variety of applications as well as an excellent platform to investigate various nonlinear pulse dynamics behaviors that cannot be captured in conventional rare-earth (RE) doped counterparts. Various pulse generation techniques have been explored in RFLs. However, the output pulse performance in terms of the pulse energy, duration and stability from short-pulsed RFLs is still inferior to their RE-doped counterparts despite significant advances made over the past few decades. Therefore, more efforts are required to improve these targets. In this review, we present a detailed overview of the short-pulsed RFLs based on different mechanisms from the principle to the experiment, including the Q-switching, gain-switching, mode-locking, synchronous pumping and other innovative techniques. In addition, Raman-induced pulse dynamics in ultrafast RFLs and RE-doped mode-locked fiber lasers (MLFLs) are briefly reviewed. Finally, a perspective outlook for the future ultrafast RFLs is provided based on their potential applications in industrial and scientific research areas.