1 μJ, sub-500 fs chirped pulse amplification in a Tm-doped fiber system

Abstract

We demonstrate a Tm-doped fiber laser system producing ~300 fs pulses with 1 μJ energy, corresponding to peak powers greater than 3 MW. Pulses of 150 fs with 30 nm spectral bandwidth and 3 nJ pulse energy are generated in a Raman-soliton self-frequency shift amplifier, then stretched to ~160 ps using a chirped Bragg grating. The 60 MHz oscillator repetition rate is reduced to 100 kHz using an electro-optic modulator. After a single-mode fiber preamplifier and a large-mode-area fiber power amplifier, pulses were compressed using a folded Treacy grating setup to below 500 fs with up to 1 μJ pulse energy. To the best of our knowledge, this is the highest energy yet demonstrated as well as the first demonstration of peak powers exceeding 1 MW from a Tm:fiber laser system.