HYBRID DIODE-LASER FIBER-AMPLIFIER SOURCE OF HIGH-ENERGY ULTRASHORT PULSES

We demonstrate what we believe is the first compact laser system for g enerating ultrashort microjoule-energy optical pulses. Linearly chirpe d pulses from monolithic tunable Bragg-reflection laser diodes were am plified in a diode-pumped two-stage erbium-doped fiber amplifier and c ompressed with a grating-pair compressor. The laser diodes had their e mission wavelengths at 1.538 and 1.562 mum. The highest pulse energies obtained were 2 muJ at the repetition frequencies of 1-10 kHz and wer e at the saturation energy level of the fiber amplifier. The shortest duration of compressed pulses is 1.8 ps.