Compact, all-PM fiber-CPA system based on a chirped volume Bragg grating

Abstract

We demonstrate the chirped pulse amplification (CPA) of ultrashort pulses in a compact setup utilizing a chirped volume Bragg grating (CVBG) at 1560 nm wavelength. The system comprises a seed laser, dual-stage fiber amplifier and one CVBG, which is used as a stretcher and compressor simultaneously. The pulses from the low-power oscillator were amplified to 1 W of average power at a 50 MHz repetition rate with a pulse duration of 2.44 ps. The setup utilizes only polarization maintaining (PM) fibers and components, which ensures excellent stability and immunity to external disturbances. The output beam is linearly polarized with excellent geometrical quality (M2 parameter close to 1). The usage of CVBG instead of classical grating-based stretchers and compressors allows the reduction of the complexity of the CPA system and minimizes its footprint. Such a simple and compact setup might be used as a pump source for nonlinear frequency conversion or mid-infrared supercontinuum generation.