Stretcher-free high energy nonlinear amplification of femtosecond pulses in rod-type fibers

Yoann Zaouter (1, 2) , Dimitris N. Papadopoulos (3) , Marc Hanna (3) , J. Boullet (1) , L. Huang (1) , C. Aguergaray (1) , Frédéric Druon (3) , Eric Mottay (2) , Patrick Georges (3) , Eric Cormier (1)

1 CELIA - Centre d'Etudes Lasers Intenses et Applications
2 Amplitude Systèmes
3 Laboratoire Charles Fabry de l'Institut d'Optique / Elsa

We report on the study of direct amplification of femtosecond pulses in an 80 microns core diameter microstruc-tured Yb-doped rod-type fiber amplifier in the nonlinear regime. The system includes a compact single grating compressor for the compensation of the small dispersion in the amplifier. With a 1250 line / mm (l/mm) grating-based compressor, pulses as short as 49 fs with 870 nJ pulse energy and 12 MW peak power are obtained. Alternatively, the use of a 1740 l / mm grating allows the production of higher quality pulses of 70 fs, 1.25 microjoule pulse energy, and 16 MW peak power.

Domaines: Optique [physics.optics]

Yoann Zaouter, Dimitris N. Papadopoulos, Marc Hanna, J. Boullet, L. Huang, et al.. Stretcher-free high energy nonlinear amplification of femtosecond pulses in rod-type fibers. Optics Letters, 2008, 33 (2), pp 107-109. ⟨hal-00531815⟩