We report a compact, tunable, self-starting, all-fiber laser-based asynchronous optical sampling (ASOPS) system. Two Er-doped fiber oscillators were used as the pulsed-laser source, whose repetition rate could be set at 100 MHz with a tuning range of 1.25 MHz through a fiber delay line. By employing phase-locked and temperature control loops, the repetition rate offset of the two lasers was stabilized with 7.13 × 10−11 fractional instability at an average time of 1 s. Its capabilities in the terahertz regime were demonstrated by terahertz time-domain spectroscopy, achieving a spectral bandwidth of 3 THz with a dynamic range of 30 dB. The large range of repetition rate adjustment in our ASOPS system has the potential to be a powerful tool in the terahertz regime.

Gain-parameter-dependent transfer functions and phase-noise performances in a mode-locked Yb-doped fiber laser are measured in this study. It is discovered that the corner frequency in the amplitude and phase domains is determined by the absorption coefficient of the gain fiber, when the total absorption and other cavity parameters are fixed. This shows that an oscillator using gain fiber with higher dopant concentration accumulates more phase noise. Furthermore, we present net cavity dispersion-dependent transfer functions to verify the effect of dispersion management on the frequency response. We derive a guideline for optimizing mode-locked fiber laser design to achieve low phase noise and timing jitter.