A Raman-shifted and frequency-doubled high-power Er-fiber soliton laser for
seeding an Efficient high-power Yb fiber femtosecond amplifier is demonstr
ated. The Raman-shifted and frequency-doubled Er-soliton laser is tunable f
rom 1.00 to 1.070 mu m and produces bandwidth-limited 24-pJ pulses at a rep
etition rate of 50 MHz with a FWHM pulse width of 170 fs at 1.040 mu m. The
Yb3+ amplifier has a slope efficiency of 52% and generates 3-ps linearly c
hirped pulses with an average power of 0.8 W at 1.05 mu m. after pulse comp
ression, 74-fs bandwidth-limited pulses with an average power of 0.4 W and
a pulse energy of 8 nJ are generated. (C) 1999 Optical Society of America O
CIS codes: 060.7140, 060.4370, 060.2320, 320.7090, 320.7140, 140.3510.