All-fiber based amplification of 40 ps pulses from a gain-switched laser diode

Amplification of a gain-switched laser diode is demonstrated in an all-fiber based setup. The amplified spontaneous emission between two consecutive pulses was investigated quantitatively in the time domain. A maximum pulse energy of 13 µJ at a repetition rate of 1 MHz and a pulse duration of 40 ps was extracted, corresponding to a peak power of 270 KW. To the best of our knowledge, this is the highest extracted pulse energy from a laser system seeded by a gain-switched laser diode. Temporal pulse deformation due to intrapulse Raman scattering was observed in the reported system.