Reduction of excess intensity noise of picosecond Yb soliton fiber lasers in a >10-mW power regime.

We demonstrate that excess intensity noise of soliton fiber lasers in the average power regime exceeding 10 mW can be reduced by increasing the intracavity dispersion and reducing the pump power. Based on this strategy, we present a polarization-maintaining picosecond Yb fiber laser mode-locked by a nonlinear amplifying loop mirror whose excess noise is equal to the shot noise at an optical power of >10 mW.