A fiber laser cavity that includes a laser gain medium for receiving an optical input projection from a laser pump. The fiber laser cavity further includes a positive dispersion fiber segment and a negative dispersion fiber segment for generating a net negative dispersion for balancing a self-phase modulation (SPM) and a dispersion induced pulse broadening/compression in the fiber laser cavity for generating an output laser with a transform-limited pulse shape. The fiber laser cavity further includes a polarization controller controlled and driven by an electronically tunable driver tapping a small portion of an output laser of the fiber laser cavity to process and filtering the small portion of the output laser to drive the polarization controller to adjust a polarization state of a laser transmission in the laser system whereby the laser cavity is an electronically-tuned self-starting polarization-shaping mode-locked fiber laser.