Mode-scalable fiber-based chirped pulse amplification systems

摘要

A new generation of compact and robust ultrashort pulse lasers isncurrently emerging based on rare-earth doped fiber gain media. Thisnpaper reviews the development of high-power fiber technology, whichnrecently has led to millijoule energies and ~10 W average powers fromnvarious femtosecond fiber systems. These results indicate that fiberntechnology has a significant potential to replace conventionalnsolid-state lasers and promises important advantages both for practicalnuse and for achieving high powers and energies. Chirped pulsenamplification and different mode-size scaling techniques compose thenfoundation of this ultrashort-pulse fiber technology. Mode-size scalingncan be achieved either by using multimode core fibers, which can producena diffraction-limited beam at the fiber amplifier output, or byn"mode-cleaning" of multimode core fiber output through saturated opticalnparametric amplification