Abstract
We present a totally fiber integrated chirped-pulse amplification system using air-core photonic bandgap fiber and a conventional erbium-doped fiber amplifier. ~40-ps input pulses, generated in a Mach-Zehnder modulator, were stretched and spectrally broadened in a dispersion-shifted fiber before being amplified and subsequently compressed in 10 m of anomalously-dispersive photonic bandgap fiber to yield ~960 fs pulses. The system gives multi-kilowatt peak powers while the amplifier nonlinearity threshold is as low as ~150 W. Higher peak powers could be obtained by the use of an amplifier with higher nonlinearity threshold.
Highlights
Chirped-pulse amplification (CPA) is a powerful techinique for escalating the peak powers achievable with an optical pulse source when distortion caused by amplifier nonlinearity is the limiting factor
We present a CPA system that is totally fiber integrated and provides net pulse compression by a factor 40
The launched power into the dispersion-shifted fiber (DSF) was optimized by monitoring the photonic bandgap fibers (PBFs) output pulses with the autocorrelator
Summary
Chirped-pulse amplification (CPA) is a powerful techinique for escalating the peak powers achievable with an optical pulse source when distortion caused by amplifier nonlinearity is the limiting factor. In the recently-developed air-core photonic bandgap fibers (PBFs) [4,5,6] most of the light travels through air, allowing for much higher peak powers to be achieved before nonlinearity-led pulse distortion is observed In these fibers, guidance is obtained through diffraction off the several layers of holes present in the cladding rather than through Fresnel reflection. The high powers obtained resulted from the use of a specialty amplifier consisting of a photonic crystal large-mode-area Yb-doped fiber, which yielded ~30 kW peak powers even without the CPA system In this configuration a bulk-coupled, solid-state pulse source and bulk optical elements were used. Multikilowatt pulses are achieved at the PBF output despite an EDFA nonlinearity threshold of ~150 W
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