High-energy femtosecond pulses from an ytterbium-doped fiber laser with a new cavity design

• Published in: IEEE photonics technology letters Vol. 16; no. 2; pp. 416 - 418
• Main Authors: Albert, A., Couderc, V., Lefort, L., Barthelemy, A.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York IEEE 01-02-2004; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE); Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
• Subjects: Architecture; Chirp; Dispersions; Feedback; Fiber lasers; Fibers; Laser feedback; Laser mode locking; Lasers; Optical design; Optical fiber polarization; Optical pulses; Optics; Photonics; Physics; Pulse amplifiers; Pulse compression methods; Ytterbium
• ISSN: 1041-1135; 1941-0174
• DOI: 10.1109/LPT.2003.823103

A new architecture which is based on the chirped pulse amplification scheme is proposed to increase the pulse energy of the mode-locked fiber laser. The idea was applied to a passively mode-locked laser using an ytterbium (Yb/sup 3+/)-doped double-clad silica fiber. Mode-locking was achieved by nonlinear polarization evolution associated to frequency-shifted feedback technique for self-starting. A compressor and a stretcher, based on diffraction gratings, permitted us to manage the dispersion and to reduce the pulse power in the fiber. The laser delivered chirped pulses at 1050 nm with 11.8-nJ energy at a 9.3-MHz repetition rate (110-mW average power) which were subsequently compressed to 196-fs duration.