Chirped pulse amplification of ultrashort pulses using neodymium-and erbium-doped fiber amplifiers

Abstract

As an important step toward the realization of compact, optical fiber-based, femtosecond pulse systems of the highest possible energies, we demonstrate chirped pulse amplification (CPA) of ultrashort pulses using rare-earth doped fiber amplifiers for the first time. The technique of CPA [1] is well established to produce the highest energy ultrashort pulses in bulk systems. Rare-earth doped fibers are attractive as amplifiers due to the broad bandwidth available in glass hosts. This property has already been exploited in rare-earth doped fiber lasers which have produced pulses as short as 42 fs with Nd-doped fiber [2] and 77 fs with Er-doped fiber [3]. Thus, these fibers can support sub-100 fs pulses. Here, Nd-doped fiber is used to amplify 1.06 µm seed pulses and Er-doped fiber is used to amplify 1.55µm seed pulses in initial experiments toward reaching the saturation energy of several micro-Joules [4] attainable in rare-earth doped fiber amplifiers.